Order in favor of the Indians.

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not take so much ground for his church, his convent, and the convent garden as the portion of land allotted to a single horse-soldier.* The ornaments for the church were provided by the inhabitants of the town; and the good father maintained himself in popularity with them, notwithstanding he did not fear to insist perpetually upon the claims of the Indians to liberty, a subject which was most offensive to his hearers. It was in vain, however, that Father Domingo preached with fervor against the cruel practices of the Spanish colonists. They held that his doctrines in this matter were no better than private opinions. They fortified themselves with royal cédulas, opinions of learned men, and the customs of the country; and, in fine, threw up such intrenchments to defend their position, that, to use the quaint expression of the old chronicler, "there was no theology which could get into them" (no avia teología que les entrasse). Soon after the commencement of his ministrations, however, the good father was strengthened by a public document which came very opportunely from the prelate of his order at Mexico, or perhaps directly from Spain, and which distinctly proclaimed the freedom of the Indians, and ordered that they should no longer be given in encomienda.† There was, however, one fatal ad

* "Y el Padre fray Domingo tomó la possession dél algo desuiado de las casas, á la parte del Oriente, con bastante capacidad para Yglesia, casa, y huerta, y todo no llegava á una cavallería de tierra, porque el espíritu del Padre fray Domingo de Betanzos era muy recogido, y mostróle entonces en no recebir mas suelo de la Ciudad de Santiago, de lo que era menester para una Yglesia pequeña, casa estrecha, y huerta muy moderada."-REMESAL, Historia de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. ii., cap. 4.

† On reference to the chapter on encomiendas, it will be seen that this document was the result of the deliberations of a General Council of the Indies and of Finance, which was ordered by the Emperor to

292

Betanzos recalled to Mexico.

junct to this document, namely, that it was not final; that, to use the phrase of the day, it was by way of instruction, and not by precept (por via de instruccion, y no por precepto)—a prudent practice in cases where the home government is at a great distance from the colony, and where the matters to be attended to are of a judicial character; but a mere throwing of the bridle on the neck of the horse, when the matter in question is one where self-interest and cruelty have to be restrained. An exception, it is said, was made as regarded the power of the governor, or president, to vary any part of these instructions which touched the liberty of the Indians. That part was to be considered final. The idea, however, being once given in any part of the document that it was not an edict, but a body of variable instructions, tended, no doubt, by degrees, to invalidate the whole force of the royal order. Unfortunately for Guatemala, Father Betanzos had not much time to try what aid these instructions might have given to his sermons, for, in fifteen days after receiving it, a messenger came to him from the prelate of his order in Mexico, summoning him immediately to a council there, the main object of which was to make their convent independent of the Dominican convent in Hispaniola.

It has been seen how much Father Betanzos held to the virtue of obedience; and, in this case, he did not hesitate to obey his prelate, though it was at the sacrifice of deferring the foundation of his order in Guatemala. He had but one monk with him, a young man of little experience, who could not be left in charge of the convent, even if it had been permitted to break address itself to this subject when he was quitting Spain for Italy in the year 1529.

Betanzos quits Guatemala.

293

through the rule, then kept most strictly, that no monk should travel without a companion. Nothing remained, therefore, for Father Domingo but to aban-. don his enterprise for the present. Accordingly, he shut up the convent, but left the keys with the curate* of Santiago, that the church might be cleaned from time to time, and thrown open for the sake of those who might feel a desire to go and pray there. As the good father fully intended to send other monks in his place, he begged one of the neighbors to finish making the hedge round the little garden which had already been commenced, while to another neighbor he gave the charge of building, out of a heap of unburnt bricks (adobes) that had been collected, some small cells for the brethren who were hereafter to be sent.

Having given these commissions, he took his departure from Santiago, to the great grief, it is said, of all the inhabitants; and in after days the monkish historians, when recording the life of this remarkable man, were wont to speak of the sweet odor of sanctity which was left by Father Domingo in his brief visit to Guatemala. On his way back he met the governor, Alvarado, coming with much pomp and with his numerous retinue to Guatemala, affording thus a curious contrast to the two barefooted monks. Knowing what manner of man Alvarado was, the thought that naturally occurs to us is, whether the departure of Betanzos or the arrival of Alvarado was likely to be of most injury to the unfortunate Indians in Central America.

* In the Spanish Church the curate is the chief parochial clergy

man.

CHAPTER V.

REAPPEARANCE OF LAS CASAS.-HIS MISSION TO PERU.-HIS STAY IN NICARAGUA.-DISPUTES WITH THE GOVERNOR. COMES TO GUATEMALA, AND OCCUPIES THE CONVENT THAT HAD BEEN FOUNDED BY DOMINGO DE BETANZOS.-ALVARADO'S EXPEDITION TO PERU.-LAS CASAS AND HIS BRETHREN STUDY THE UTLATECAN LANGUAGE.

IT

T is probable that the thoughts of many a humane man at this period were occasionally turned to the cell in the Dominican monastery of Hispaniola where the great Protector of the Indians was buried, as it were, after the failure of his memorable attempt to found a Christian colony on the coast of Cumaná. It was in the year 1522 that Las Casas, sunk in dejection and despair, had been persuaded by Father Domingo de Betanzos to take the monastic vows. Eight years had elapsed from the time of Las Casas becoming a monk to the time when Father Betanzos quitted his newly-built monastery at Guatemala, as recorded in the last chapter. In these eight years, during the greater part of which Las Casas had lived a life of extreme seclusion, the bounds of the Indian empire had been immensely enlarged. Cortez had completed his conquest of New Spain, Alvarado had conquered Guatemala, Pizarro had commenced the conquest of Peru, and the captains or the rivals of Pedrarias, exceeding all other Spaniards in cruelty, had devastated the fertile regions of Nicaragua.* Las Casas must have heard

* See LAS CASAS, Brevíssima Relacion de la destruycion de las Indias, "De la Provincia de Nicaragua,” p. 14.

Las Casas in his Monastery.

295

about all these transactions, and we can well imagine what he must have thought of them. For five years of his life, namely, from 1522 to 1527, there is but one fact known about him, but that one is very significant. It is, that he was not allowed to preach; doubtless because the monastery wished to stand well with the town, and feared to allow Las Casas to enter the pulpit, knowing what terrible truths he would utter. We learn this fact in a very curious and authentic manner from a witness in a legal process which, in after days, was instituted against Las Casas by the Governor of Nicaragua. The witness says that, having remained in San Domingo two years, he does not know that in the whole of that time Brother Bartholomew preached; and the witness further deposes that the Auditors of San Domingo had charged Las Casas not to preach.* It may be doubted, however, whether any secular command would have been sufficient to restrain him.

In 1527, it is said, he commenced his history,† the most valuable groundwork for the history of America that exists.

* "Vicio añejo por el cual cuando estuvo en Santo Domingo de la Española los oidores le mandaron no predicase, y le habian querido echar de la isla para España. De resulta desto que habiendo permanecido en Santo Domingo dos años el testigo que lo depone, no supo que en todo aquel tiempo predicase fray Bartolomé."-QUINTANA, Vidas de Españoles Célebres. Apéndices á la vida de Las Casas, Núm. 10.

+ I have before (vol. ii., p. 195, note) thrown doubts upon this statement; but I am content to take the evidence of REMESAL, referring as it does to Las Casas himself: "Lo que no la (duda) tiene, porque el mismo lo afirma, es, que el año de 1527, començó á escrivir la historia general de las Indias, coligida de los escritos mas ciertos y verdaderos de aquel tiempo, particularmente de los originales del Almirante don Cristoval Colon."-REMESAL, Hist. de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. iii., cap. 1.