As may well be imagined, it was people such as these who suffered most of all from the violence of the strange, pale beings who had descended into their midst to subdue them, first of all by means of the sword, and then by the ceaseless wielding of the more intimate and degrading thong.  Since, notwithstanding all that has been urged to the contrary, the average Spaniard of those days—­even those of his number who had to do with the Americas—­was provided with the ordinary sentiments and passions of humanity, it was inevitable that in the course of the oppression and warfare waged against the natives some devoted being should sooner or later rise up to espouse the cause of the Indians.

This intermediary, of course, was Bartolome de las Casas, so widely known as the Apostle of the Indies.  There are many who fling themselves heart and soul into a cause of which they know nothing, and who, from the sheer impetus of good-hearted ignorance, cause infinite mischief.  The case of Las Casas was different.  Before he took up his spiritual labours he had lived for years at the theatre of his future work, and understood the conditions of the colonial and native life.

As a matter of fact, Las Casas’ mission did not dawn upon him until he had enjoyed a very considerable practical experience in the industrial affairs of the New World.  His connection with this latter did not begin with his own generation.  He was the son of a shipmate of Columbus, who had sailed with the great explorer in his first voyage, and who had accompanied Ovando when that knight sailed out from Spain to take up his Governorship of the Indies.

It was in Hispaniola, it appears, that Las Casas was ordained priest.  In the first place he lived the ordinary life of the Spanish settler in the island.  In common with everyone else, he accepted a repartimiento—­that is to say, a supply of Indian labourers—­and was undoubtedly on the road to riches when, little by little, the inhumanity of slave-owning became clear to him.  To one of his enthusiastic temperament no half measures were possible.  He gave up his Indians forthwith, allowed his estate to revert to Nature, and began his strenuous campaign, that had as its object the freedom of the native races.

By 1517 he had succeeded in attracting a wide attention to his efforts.  Journeying to Spain, he persisted in his cause, and gave the high authorities of that country little peace until they lent an ear to the grievances of his dusky proteges.  Las Casas was endowed to an unusual extent with both eloquence and fervour, and both these attributes he employed to the utmost of his powers in the service of the American aborigines.  Thus he painted the sufferings and the terrible mortality of these unfortunate people with a fire and a force that left very few unmoved.  Nevertheless, as was only to be expected, he met with considerable opposition from various quarters where the financial interests dependent on the New World outweighed all other considerations.  In the end, rendered desperate by this opposition and by the active hostility which he encountered in these quarters, he determined to lead the way by the foundation of a model colony of his own in South America.