rable character, and much personal
charm. He was, however, too much inclined toward fighting, was sometimes
reckless in his leadership, and was no more scrupulous in his conduct
toward the natives than were many other conquerors of various lands in
those days of adventure and violence. At the head of a force of more
than a hundred and fifty men, including a score of horsemen, he led the
way in the conquest, first of Bayamo and finally of all the rest of the
island. In his campaign he enjoyed immense advantage from the awe and
terror which were caused among the natives by the appearance of the
horses, which were the first ever seen in Cuba.

[Illustration: BARTHOLOMEW DE LAS CASAS]

The other and more famous of these two men was Bartholomew de Las Casas,
known to the world as the "Protector of the Indians" and as the "Apostle
to the Indies." As a youth he had accompanied his father on Columbus's
third voyage to America, and he had come to the Antilles a second time
and permanently with Ovando, the Governor of Hispaniola, in 1502. In
1510 he was ordained to be a priest, and it was in that clerical
capacity that he was sent over to Cuba to assist Velasquez in the
conquest, pacification and settlement of the island. He appears at first
to have had no important religious scruples against oppression of the
natives, but joined with Velasquez and Narvaez in their sometimes
ruthless policy. When the island was divided among the conquerors under
the system of repartimientos, or allotments of natives as practical
slaves of the Spaniards, he received and accepted without demur his
encomienda or commandery, and held it for some time in partnership with
his friend Pedro de Renteria. But a little later, realizing the
injustice and cruelties which the natives suffered under this system, he
became, as he himself described it, "converted," and thereafter was an
earnest, zealous and almost fanatical champion of their rights. He
visited Spain several times, to secure commissions of inquiry and other
measures for their relief. Also, thinking thus to redeem them from
enforced servitude, he secured royal sanction for the introduction of
Negro slavery and the importation of Negro slaves into Cuba; a policy
which he afterward deeply regretted.

After a brief campaign in Bayamo, which was not particularly successful,
beyond the killing of Caguax and the final dispersion of the force which
Hatuey had organized, Narvaez formed an expedition of p