He obtained the cordial sanction of the Spanish King to this end.  Nevertheless, when put into practice, the scheme failed utterly.  The reasons for this were to be sought for in the poorness of the soil chosen and in the intrigues of the white settlers rather than in any fundamental fault of the plan itself.  For all that, its failure came as a severe blow to Las Casas.  After experiences such as these, the majority of men would probably have given up the attempt in despair.  Las Casas, it is true, sought the refuge of a monastery for a while in order to recover his health and spirits, which had suffered from the shock.  Once again in possession of these, he returned to the field, and, undaunted, continued to carry on his work.

This campaign of Las Casas is famous for a curious anomaly.  That his work of mercy should have resulted in the introduction into the Continent of a greater number of dusky labourers than before appears on the face of it paradoxical.  Yet so it was.  For Las Casas, determined that the mortality among the Indians should cease, advocated the importation of African slaves into Central and South America.  His idea was that the labours spread over so many more thousands of human bodies would prove by comparison bearable, and would thus end in fewer fatalities.  It is certain enough that this introduction of the sturdy negro tended considerably to this end, and that many thousands of lives were prolonged, if nothing more, by this plan.  For all that, it must be admitted that the venture was a daring one to emanate from the mind of a preacher who was fighting against the slave trade.  But Las Casas, urged by his own experience, took a broad view, and none even of his contemporaries were able for one moment to impugn his motives.

Las Casas was as much a product of the period and place as were the wild and daring conquistadores themselves.  The new Continent undoubtedly exerted a curious influence over its visitors from the Old World.  It seemed to possess the knack of bringing out the virtues as well as the defects with an amazing and frequently disconcerting prodigality.  Several of Las Casas’ biographers have wondered at the reason why the Apostle of the Indies was never made a saint.  Certainly hundreds of lesser heads have been kept warm by a halo which has never graced that of Las Casas.

CHAPTER VII

THE COLONIZATION OF THE SOUTH

It was natural that after the first occupation of the New World the tendency of the explorers should have been to turn their attention to the south and to the still undiscovered lands.  At the first glimpse the aspect of the Atlantic coast to the south of Brazil gave little promise of the wealth—­that is to say, of the gold—­sought by the pioneers, since its shores were low, marshy, and alluvial.

In 1515 Juan de Solis sailed to the mouth of the River Plate, and landed on the coast of Uruguay.  His party were immediately attacked by Charrua Indians, and the bodies of De Solis himself and of a number of his crew were stretched dead on the sands.  This ended the expedition, for the survivors left the place in haste and returned to Spain.