aded beyond endurance, taunted their conquerors and told them
to search at the bottom of the lake, where they would find gold. They
had no idea that the Spaniards would actually attempt this, but this the
_conquistadores_ did, and were digging in order, apparently, to drain
the water off when the sides fell in and put an end to the attempt. It
is said that even then they procured a large amount of gold and some
magnificent emeralds.

[Illustration: DEATH OF ATAHUALPA.

The final tragedy as shown in a seventeenth-century engraving.]

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 r