Part 10 (1/2)
VERY HIGH AND POTENT LORDS: To-day, Pa.s.sion Sunday our Lord graciously bestowed on me the glory of consecration-very different from the ignominies He suffered that day, according to the representations of His church. I do not know why His Majesty ordered it to be so done, as it could not be done before-nor was there time to expect it could be done afterwards-on account of the haste of the fleet to sail: but however that may be, to him be all glory and thanks, for he deserves them. The Cardinal has shown me great kindness in favouring me wherever possible. It was his nephew or relative, the Bishop Loaysa, who consecrated me, a.s.sisted by the Bishop of Honduras and the Bishop Torres. The Bishop of Honduras was about setting out, but at my request he waited to a.s.sist at my consecration, and in great poverty he has delayed his journey seven or eight days, the expenses of which I would have willingly paid if I had had the wherewithal. I humbly beg Your Highness to recompense him for what I owe him: I shall esteem it a favour to myself. Although no occasion should offer, I was thinking to ask Your Highness to graciously grant him some relief, so that that church, dest.i.tute of pastor and spiritual ministrations, may not suffer such abandonment and poverty, for I greatly doubt that he would solicit anything. I humbly and affectionately beseech Your Highness that this be one of the first things attended to, as it is most important. Whatever way that Your Highness may adopt to supply that need, will be acceptable to him. One day shortly after I arrived at this city, I wrote begging Your Highness to do me the favour to order the officials of this house [India House] to pay me the two hundred and fifty ducats which His Majesty granted me from the funds of the dead, because there are no others, and therefore I have found myself in want. Knowing this the officials of this house did me a great service in getting a certain banker to lend it me, against my promise to repay within thirty days. I beseech Your Highness to do me the favour of ordering a cedula covering it to be issued, because the fleet is in a great hurry to sail and were the cedula delayed I would suffer great want and much annoyance, for if I could not repay what the creditor has lent me, it would be a very bad thing for him. I likewise beseech Your Highness to order the necessary cedulas for the friars to be sent, that the officials of Hispaniola may pay their pa.s.sage to Puerto de Caballos, for I have one only to Quacaqualco, where we shall not be able to land on account of the bad harbour. The other princ.i.p.al cedula authorises the officials of India House to pay the pa.s.sage to Puerto de Caballos, but this cannot be done for lack of s.h.i.+ps, so the friars first disembarked at the port of San Domingo in Hispaniola and from there, they have to reembark to Puerto de Caballos. The officials of San Domingo have no authority for this, and if the friars had to remain there long they would suffer great danger.
Everyone here is quite well and receiving shelter and charity from the monasteries. The Provincial and the Prior of this convent of San Pablo and the others have well carried out Your Highness's orders in this respect. All kiss the hands of Your Highness and pray G.o.d to prolong the life and Royal state of Your Highness, especially Fray Rodrigo-our companion. I beseech Your Highness, for the service of G.o.d, to provide that the relief and freedom which His Majesty granted to the Indians in the island of Cuba may be made effective, before those who hold them have finished destroying and killing them, for they are and have been most shamefully oppressed, afflicted, and reduced in number in all those parts of the Indies.
Likewise, that, since the Archdeacon Alvaro de Castro, whom Your Highness charged with the care of the Indians in Hispaniola, is dead, Your Highness will order that duty a.s.signed to some devout friar or ecclesiastic so that those who survive, few as they are, may not be deprived of the enjoyment of the relief and favour His Majesty granted them. It seems to me it would be well, should Your Highness so please, to bestow it on Canon Albaro de Leon who is a Canon of La Vega, or on Gregorio de Viguera, Dean of the same church of La Vega.
May the Lord increase and prosper the fortunate life and very high estate of Your Highness in His holy service, Amen. Seville 31st March 1544 Your servant who kisses your Royal hands-
FRAY BARTHOLOMEW DE LAS CASAS, _Bishop._
In spite of all the anti-slavery legislation enacted, there were actually at that time a number of Indians held as slaves in Seville itself, and before starting for his distant diocese, Las Casas undertook as his first duty to secure their liberation. His action aroused much of the ancient enmity against him, but to that he was indifferent: the text of the New Laws was explicit, leaving no opening for false construction. Success crowned his efforts and enabled him to leave, fully satisfied, for San Lucar de Barrameda where his friars were waiting for him to embark. He there celebrated the feast of Corpus Domini with great pomp, and during the time occupied in his final preparations, he and his friars received many donations of necessaries. The fleet of twenty-seven s.h.i.+ps, amongst large and small only awaited the arrival of Dona Maria de Toledo widow of the Admiral Don Diego Columbus, who was to sail for Hispaniola to safeguard the rights of her children in some disputed questions of inheritance and upon her arrival, it immediately put to sea on July l0th.
The new Bishop, with his faithful companion Ladrada and forty-five Dominican friars, embarked on the _San Salvador_. On that same date he entered into possession of his meagre episcopal revenues, for an ordinance that had been pa.s.sed to oblige the bishops of American dioceses to stay in them, established that their incomes should begin from the date of their sailing. (56)
This proving insufficient, as there were some who were satisfied with their episcopal dignity and preferred to remain in Spain, it was afterwards provided that their consecration must take place in America.
CHAPTER XVI. - LETTER TO PHILIP II. VOYAGE TO AMERICA. FEELING IN THE COLONIES. ARRIVAL IN CHIAPA
Before sailing to take possession of his diocese, Las Casas addressed the following letter of farewell to Prince Philip (afterwards Philip II.), then governing in the name of the Emperor, his father:
VERY HIGH AND VERY POTENT LORD: I received two letters simultaneously from Your Highness: the date of the last was April 1st and accompanying it was the Royal cedula concerning the pa.s.sage from Hispaniola to Honduras for the monks whom Your Highness is sending to those provinces. For all of which I kiss your Royal hands and for your kindness in granting that the bulls should be sent so promptly as to reach me in time to serve at my consecration, which, by divine grace, took place here in San Pablo on Pa.s.sion Sunday as I already wrote Your Highness the day after. I trust to G.o.d our Lord that this dignity, to which, by divine Providence, our lord and sovereign the Emperor has elevated me, despite any unworthiness and inability to support it, may prove a sufficient instrument for better fulfilling my old desires to do the will of G.o.d, of which G.o.d has deigned to make use in those countries. It is His will that His Holy Faith should be preached and that the beings he has created and redeemed should know Him and that His predestined ones should be saved and His Majesty and Your Highness receive great services. Concerning the two hundred and fifty ducats which Your Highness granted me, the officials of this house have not yet obtained them, but I hope they will seek them and supply them in the end, though it may be with difficulty, because everybody is aware that His Majesty has no money in this house and that so many demands daily arise that there is not a man who will lend a maravedi to His Majesty. In truth, this is very injurious to His Majesty's service and to the greatness of his imperial State, because, according as his enemies learn that this house is rich or is in want of money-so will they either fear him or presume to cause him annoyances. In order that this house should always enjoy confidence to guarantee the above mentioned, it seems that Your Highness ought to command that, just as they keep account of what is spent in keeping an army and in feeding those who are actually in attendance, night and day, on the royal and imperial person of His Majesty and on Your Highness, so also should it be provided that when this house has a surplus of twenty or thirty thousand ducats, it should be reported to have one or two hundred thousand. Such sums should never, on account of any other necessity, be lacking here, for they would be useful for many things and by the credit they would give, the greatest wants could be met.
I shall report, as Your Highness ordered, the number and names of the friars now sailing, as soon as we are all united, G.o.d willing, at San Lucar.
Up to now I think we have forty-three. I am in hopes of more going from this province, from which we have seven or eight. But all those who are going, do not want to separate from those who come from Castile or to go to any other part of the Indies except where the latter do: the men from here are very virtuous and religious people. The number I have said we have here would have been greater, had not some six or eight of those whom we brought from Castile stayed behind. I think that some were afraid and others were detained by reasonable obstacles: the latter, we hope will follow us when the causes are removed. I beg Your Highness to order the Provincial, who is now appointed to this province and who was formerly Prior of San Pablo in Valladolid, a true servant of G.o.d, and very zealous for G.o.d's honour and for the salvation of the Indians, to be induced to continually send monks to those parts, as I firmly believe he will amply comply.
This house of San Pablo in Seville being very necessary for the religious Your Highness will be sending to the Indies, and having great expenses on account of the poverty and want of this city, where everything costs a third more than in Valladolid-which is frightful-I humbly beseech Your Highness always to remember it by gifts and by such alms as it may be possible to bestow on it: especially out of the funds of the dead. For I hold it to be as necessary to give alms to the house, and just as beneficial to the souls of the dead-to whom the fund belongs-as it is to give for the maintenance of the friars who go to preach the gospel in those parts where the deceased unrighteously ama.s.sed the riches they left behind them. Your Highness may believe that the protection and good treatment shown here to the friars, tend to dispel their fears of the labours which friars in the Indies usually sustain. Without such encouragement everything would be just the contrary, and some would be frightened and discouraged, as has heretofore happened. Certainly, up to the present, great have been the care and comfort that our companions, servants of G.o.d, have received here from the provincial and the prior.
Twenty or twenty-two have been given shelter here. I therefore beg Your Highness to bear this in mind, should there be an occasion in the future to grant them any favour or alms. In this city and throughout Andalusia there is a large number of Indians held unjustly as slaves; and when the licentiate Gregorio Lopez was here by order of His Majesty, they kept many Indians imprisoned after the order was given for their release, some being hidden and others taken into the country and elsewhere. I have even been told by a man who knows-to clear his conscience-that there was a great deal of bribery and corruption among wicked people, who used three or four or ten ducats to outrage G.o.d, stealing the liberty of the Indians and thus leaving many in perpetual slavery: they also hid the truth by threatening the Indians who showed themselves and by other means, such as withholding facts from the licentiate Gregorio Lopez which he could not divine, but which should have been told him. The only remedy for such injustices, according to the officials of this house who are very good people as far as I can see and who have consciences, is that Your Highness should order to be proclaimed throughout Andalusia that all those who have Indians must bring or send them to this house within a certain time, otherwise they shall all be considered as free; adding other penalties for noncompliance.
According to the provision made by His Majesty, there should be an immediate settlement of the pretensions of those who allege a t.i.tle by purchase, which allows them to hold an Indian as a slave until it is ascertained from whom he was first acquired; for they stole them all and sold them when they arrived here. Any such Indian should not remain in their possession but should be placed where he could earn enough to clothe himself and save sufficient to return to his country-because they subject him to a thousand oppressions and cruelties. I have seen things of that sort daily since my arrival. San Pablo is crowded with Indians who think that I can take them or can relieve their captivity and the torments they suffer. And their masters, discovering this by their absence promptly beat them and put them in irons, even those whom the licentiate Gregorio Lopez left neither in slavery nor free. Not to prolong this letter, I do not relate many other things to Your Highness.
I likewise beg Your Highness to order some relief that is final and not indefinite, for the men who were thus left neither slaves nor free: because I do not know what relief it can be considered, to leave them neither free nor slaves until they die; for meanwhile, they are daily treated worse and worse by those who call them slaves and dogs, because they consider that the licentiate Gregorio Lopez approved of their captivity, etc., tying their hands the more tightly. I have seen what I state ever since I came here. Your Highness would both laugh at and abominate the spice dealers of this city, who barter spices for Indians and for gold (as it is they who mostly own them), and their fierceness in making war on the Indians, that makes them to seem like dummy lions, painted. What I wish Your Highness would do to protect all such Indians as are left neither slaves or freemen and all who are bound in any way, would be to oblige their owners to exhibit a receipt of the sale: because it is clear to every one, save to those whose perceptions G.o.d has allowed to be weakened by their malice, audacity, and ambition, that there has never been a war in all the Indies for which there was any real authority given by His Majesty or by his royal predecessors. The royal instructions on this point have never been heeded, as I have seen and on my conscience affirm, and as all those violaters admit. Consequently, as there was never just cause, it follows that all the wars were unjust and that no Indians could have been justly enslaved: all the more so since the Spaniards attacked them in time of peace and captured millions of them.
This being the real truth, Your Highness should order that all such owners be obliged to prove the t.i.tle of him who sold any such Indian, and so on back till the first one who stole or treacherously captured him is unearthed. In the meantime the Indians should be taken from them and placed as above indicated, all of which should be done within a limited time, so that the legal proceedings would not last eternally; and when they are finished the said Indian should be declared free.
But what I would take on my conscience and would answer for to G.o.d on my deathbed is, that Your Highness should proclaim throughout this kingdom that all the Indians here must be free-because in truth they are just as free as I am. In this Casa de Contractacion, outside its judges and officials such as the treasurer, accountant, and agents, who seem to me to be those I have mentioned above, and some few minor officials, I see there is little zeal or kindness for the Indians, and I observe such disinclination to accomplish anything in their favour, that however small may be the pendulum, they work it with as much effort as though it were a tower they had to move.
Truly I think Your Highness must order everything to be done gratis and willingly;-or if not, then pay somebody who will do it. There is very great need here for somebody to help these poor Indians, being as they are, in great want and more than miserable, because they do not know how to ask for justice. They have been so intimidated and thrust down into the very abyss that they dare not complain. I do not find a single man who will take pity on them: but on the contrary, every on persecutes, terrorizes, and despises them. And I am sure G.o.d will execute justice and exact vengeance for all this. It would be well if Your Highness would order a salary to be paid some man who would act as their lawyer in the House, commanding all necessary authority to be attached to his office, and that the officials should help him in it. If it is necessary to consult His Majesty for this, do not let these poor wretches suffer for want of protection as they have always done. There is a porter in this House, a good man who, according to what I have seen and the officials told me, has repeatedly taken pity on them, and I beseech Your Highness to grant me and all the Indians the favour of ordering him to be appointed as protector of all the Indians in this Kingdom and of their affairs in this House, authorising him to report all the happenings of any importance to Your Highness and to the Royal Council of the Indies. Let this power be given to Diego Collantes, porter of the said House; and to ensure his using it the more faithfully until Your Highness pleases to grant him a salary, I will pay him twenty ducats yearly, so that he may do his duty in the said office. The truth is, that although he is a good man, the position needs a man with much more authority but for the present he would suffice. Juan de la Quadra, who was secretary to the licentiate Gregorio Lopez while he was here, spoke to me about these matters. He seems to me an honest, upright person and one who feels deeply the crimes committed in this city against the Indians. He is writing to Your Highness on the subject and I beseech Your Highness to order some remedy provided for the actual necessities. He informs me that he is writing in the sense of what I said above.
The licentiate Bartolome Ortiz did not bring his Indians to be registered within the period intimated to him and says that he protested against the sentence before this Royal Council, also with regard to other Indians whom he held as slaves, despite the fact that they were free. Amongst these was an Indian woman who was beyond question free, and had been declared free by Gregorio Lopez, who left orders for her to be sent at the licentiate's expense to the island of Cuba from whence he brought her.
Ortiz also appealed from this decision. As I asked that she might now be given the letter and order of Your Highness permitting her to return with this fleet, Ortiz presented a statement showing that his case was at present in appeal before this Royal Council.