Las Casas 'The Apostle of the Indies'   By: Alice J. Knight

"THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIES"

[Illustration: BARTHOLOMÉ DE LAS CASAS Frontispiece ]

LAS CASAS

" The APOSTLE of the INDIES"

BY

ALICE J. KNIGHT

DEACONESS IN THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF AMERICA

[Illustration]

THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 440 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY

TO MY FRIEND AND BISHOP,

THE RIGHT REVEREND ROBERT LEWIS PADDOCK, D.D.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE FOREWORD 7

CHAPTER I BARTOLOMÉ THE YOUTH 9

II A BIT OF HISTORY 14

III A NEW WORLD 18

IV A NEW LIFE 28

V DISAPPOINTMENTS 36

VI THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN SPUR 42

VII THE PEARL COAST 48

VIII THE CLOISTER 59

IX THE LAND OF WAR 64

X BISHOP OF CHIAPA 72

XI REVOLT IN CHIAPA 83

XII AT COURT 95

FOREWORD

Early American history is full of interest and romance. Great figures move across the scene. Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Cortez, Alvarado, Pizarro, every schoolboy is familiar with their names and deeds. But one man there is that stands out conspicuously among these heroes of discovery and conquest, one not bent on fame and glory, not possessed of that greed for gold that led to so much ruthless cruelty toward the natives of the New World, a man consumed with one burning desire: to spend himself in the service of others, to protect and save the weak and helpless. What he himself might suffer in the performance of this work mattered not at all.

Strange that to so many even the name of this man is unknown! Yet for more than fifty years no one either in all the New World or in Spain was more prominently before the eyes of all than was Las Casas, the great "Apostle of the Indies." Not only as a missionary, but as an historian, a philanthropist, a man of business, a ruler in the Church, he towers above even the notable men of that most remarkable time. His noble, self denying, heroic life, spent in untiring service to God and man, is an inspiration and an example much needed in this materialistic, money getting, ease loving age. ALICE J. KNIGHT. HOOD RIVER, OREGON. June, 1917.

LAS CASAS

CHAPTER I

BARTOLOMÉ THE YOUTH

Whenever we hear of a famous man, whether he be artist, author, statesman, soldier, scientist, great traveler, or missionary, we like to know what sort of a boy he was. We are curious about his home, his school, his parents, his friends, and all the various influences that helped to make him the man he was. Such knowledge gives us a better understanding of his after life, and a fuller sympathy with his aims and achievements.

Although I have headed this chapter "Bartolomé the Youth," we know comparatively little of Las Casas until he was about twenty eight years old. In later life we find him impetuous, loving, tireless in energy, with a fiery temper that blazed out in quick wrath against all injustice and cruelty toward the weak and helpless, possessing a brilliant mind and great talents, never giving up striving against the wrong, and never knowing when he was beaten. These qualities he must have possessed in some measure as a boy, but, unfortunately, no historian has opened up for us those early pages.