offerings of the wicked: neither is He pacified for sin by the multitude of sacrifices. "Whoso bringeth an offering of the goods of the poor doeth as one who killeth the son before the father's eyes. "The bread of the needy is their life; he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood. "He that taketh away his neighbour's living slayeth him; and he that defraudeth the labourer of his hire is a blood shedder." Las Casas was startled. He suddenly recalled a dispute which he had formerly had with a certain friar who had refused to give him absolution because he possessed Indians. The arguments of the good Father now recurred to his memory with new force. He went to the root of the subject. With his characteristic energy he pursued the inquiry to its first principles; and at length, fully aroused to its true import, he did not shrink from the conclusion that the system of repartimientos was in itself a violation of natural justice, and that it was his bounden duty as a priest to expose its iniquitous character. He began at home. Personally he cared little for the pecuniary sacrifice; but as he held the repartimiento in common with his friend De Renteria, he felt it necessary to consult with him as to its surrender. Renteria was absent in Jamaica. Las Casas, although he lost no time in communicating to his friend the governor Velasquez the startling revolution which had taken place in his views as to the lawfulness of the repartimiento system, and his firm resolve to give up his own slaves, yet requested Valasquez to keep this determination secret till Renteria's return. Meanwhile, however, his own convictions being once settled, it was not in his ardent nature to remain inactive. On Assumption Day in the same year, his sermon opened up the whole question, and made public his own resolution, as well as his views regarding the unlawfulness of the system, and his conviction that no one could possess Indian slaves without peril to his immortal soul. His hearers were amazed. Some, he tells us, were struck with compunction; others "were as much surprised to hear it called a sin to make use of the Indians, as if they had been told it was sinful to make use of the beasts of the field." This public denunciation of the repartimientos he followed up by vigorous private remonstrances and representations. They had little effect, it will readily be believed, in abating an abuse now inveterate in the colo ny. Las Casas saw that the battle could only be successfully fought in the councils o the King himself; and although he was utterly penniless, he resolved to undertak the voyage to Spain for the purpose. He wrote at once to this effect to Renteria, and summoned him home without delay. him It is not the least remarkable incident in this curious story, that at the same moment in which the new light was breaking upon Las Casas, a similar revolution was taking place in the sentiments and convictions of his friend and partner Renteria. We learn from Las Casas's simple narrative, that the revolution in Renteria's sentiments regarding the Indians was due to the influence of one of those ascetic observances which abound in the system of the Roman Catholic Church-a so-called "spiritual retreat," which Renteria undertook in the Franciscan monastery of Jamaica during the Lent of 1514. His views in the first instance fell short in boldness and breadth of those of his impetuous friend. Renteria limited his plan to a provision for the Christian education of the children of the unhappy Indians; but so earnest was he in pushing it forward, that he had actually. formed an intention similar to that of Las Casas, of going in person to Spain to secure the royal sanction and support for the measure. On receipt of Las Casas's letter, he returned without delay to Cuba. A mutual explanation took place. Renteria eagerly transferred to his friend a mission for which he felt that he was himself infinitely less qualified. He sold off without delay the merchandise which he had just brought from Jamaica, together with the farm which he and Las Casas had held in common, and the proceeds were joyfully devoted to the expenses of Las Casas's mission. Las Casas's departure from Cuba, and probably also the effort which he had inaugurated for the amelioration of the condition of the Indians, led in the first instance to the very opposite result. It may be that the hopes which were raised in the minds of the natives by his interposition in their favour, excited them, as has often been the case in the later movements for abolition in the United States of America, to courses which their taskmasters made the occasion of fresh repression and of increased severity. Incidents such as the following, and others recorded by Mr. Helps, after Las Casas's own narrative, must have lent a powerful stimulus to the zeal with which he entered on his mission: "After their departure from the island, the cruelties of the Spaniards towards the Indians increased; and, as the Indians naturally enough sought for some refuge in flight, the Spaniards trained dogs to pursue them. The Indians then had recourse to suicide as a means of escape, for they believed in a future state of being, where ease and felicity, they thought, awaited them. Accordingly they put themselves to death, whole families doing so together, and villages inviting other villages to join them in their departure from a world that was no longer tolerable to them. Some hanged themselves; others drank the poisonous juice of the Yuca. "One pathetic and yet ludicrous occurrence is mentioned in connection with this practice of suicide amongst the Indians. A number of them belonging to one master had resolved to hang themselves, and so to escape from their made aware of their intention, came upon labours and their sufferings. The master being them just as they were about to carry it into effect. Go seek me a rope too,' he exclaimed, for I must hang myself with you.' He then gave them to understand that he could not live without them, as they were so useful to him; and that he must go where they were going. They, believing that they would not get rid of him even in a future state of f existence, agreed to remain where they were; and with sorrow laid aside their ropes to resume their labours." In St. Domingo Las Casas saw the superior of the Dominican missions in the Indies, the excellent monk Pedro da Cordova, who warmly approved his design. But Da Cordova warned his friend that he would have little chance of success during the life of King Ferdinand, who was entirely under the influence of two determined supporters of the repartimiento system, and moreover themselves possessors of Indians-Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos, and Lope de Conchillos, the King's Secretary. Las Casas, however, was not a man to be dismayed by the prospect of difficulty. It may even be doubted whether the very difficulty did not constitute for him one of the charms of the enterprise. If it was so, he had abundant cause afterwards to recall the prediction of Pedro da Cordova. His first appeal upon his arrival in Spain was to the King in person. Influenced probably by the representations of Pedro da Cordova, he determined to avoid the ministers, the Bishop of Burgos and Lope de Conchillos; and having been furnished with letters to the King by the Archbishop of Seville, he addressed himself directly, and in very energetic terms, to Ferdinand, first enlisting on his side the influence of his con fessor, Tomas de Matienzo. But he soon saw that the age and infirmity of Ferdinand left little room for hope of independent action on his part; and although Ferdinand received his representation with much interest, and promised to give him a further audience and to provide a remedy for the evils which he described, it became evident that the matter would ultimately come into the hands of the Bishop of Burgos and the During their sojourn in Madrid the code of instructions by which they were to be guided was drawn up under the immediate direction of Ximenes himself. Mr. Helps does not enter into its details, and it would carry us quite beyond the space at our disposal to enumerate them.* It will be be enough to say that while they appear to have aimed at a complete redress of the sufferings of the native population; and that while they firmly insist upon immunity from personal servitude as the birthright of Indians as well as Castilians, they yet attempt a compromise between these principles and the long-established and widespread institution of compulsory labour at the mines. It was represented to Ximenes by almost all the returned Spaniards that this could not be suddenly abandoned without He a remedy for its evils. Within the four islands in which It excess, it was provided that the masterminers and inspectors themselves should in all cases be Indians. Mr. Helps Such were the leading features of the plan of administration with which the Hieronymite commissaries were intrusted. It is due to Las Casas to say that both the permission to make slaves of the Carib Indians and the compulsory labour of the miners were introduced against his remonstrance, and were regarded by him as opening the way, at least in principle, to a revival of the atrocious system against which he was contending. But it was difficult for a minister at a distance from the scene, and beyond the immediate presence of the evil, to realize its full extent, or to understand, as did Las Casas, the subtle influences by which it would be enabled to resist every measure devised for its abatement, short of complete and absolute abolition; and Ximenes believed that in the which plan embodied, together with the further discretionary powers in its execution which he intrusted to the Hieronymite Fathers, would afford a more safe, as well as a more easy remedy, than could be hoped from the measure proposed by Las Casas, more complete in theory, but in practice difficult, if not impossible. triede utter ruin of the colony. therefore to devist mines existed villages were to be formed, in precautions believed that in the the immediate neighbourhood of the mines, each under its own cacique, each provided with a sufficient number of houses, a church, and a hospital, and each having a portion of land allotted, which was to be distributed according to the rank and requirements of the community. As a security against the absolute compulsion of slave-labour, a provision was introduced that no Indian could be compelled to join any of those communities. The villages moreover were placed directly under the rule of their respective chiefs, and to each was assigned a priest, secular or 1 But besides, as a further security for the effectiveness of his plan, the Cardinal invested Las Casas himself, under the title of "Protector of the Indians," with independent authority, not only as adviser and consulter of the commission, but also as regular, who was to be not alone the in- direct organ of communication so structor of the Indians, but was also to be associated with the cacique in the exercise of his authority, and especially in administering punishments, in which respect his power was limited to the infliction of flogging. With the same view many restrictions were placed upon the amount and duration of labour which might be exacted; and rules were laid down as to the mode of conducting the operations and apportioning the products. The superintendents or administrators were to be bound by oath not to impose excessive labour on the natives; and further, as some protection against such They will be found fully explained in Herrera, Historia de Las Indias Occidentales, dic. ii. lib. ii. c. 3, pp. 27-32. An excellent summary is given by Hefele in his admirable biography of Ximenes, Der Cardinal Ximenes und die Kirchliche Zustände Spaniens am Ende des XV. und Anfange des XVI. Jahrhunderts, p. 484-92. An exception is recognised for the case of the Caribs, who were represented by the colonists as Cannibals, although Las Casas consistently denied the allegation. It was permitted to make captives of the Caribs, and to retain them as slaves. the home Government, with a very wide and |