and as he was a priest and of a noble family and could
therefore more easily get a hearing at court, he should be the one to
go. They sold everything that Renteria had brought from Jamaica,--even
the farm itself being disposed of,--in order to raise money for the
journey.

Now, while the two friends had been occupied with these thoughts and
plans, the Dominicans had been coming to the conclusion that they could
do no good in Cuba, since they could not help the Indians and the
Spaniards would not listen to them, and they decided to send one of
their number with Las Casas to San Domingo,--from which port he was to
sail for Spain,--for the purpose of asking for instructions from their
superior, Pedro de Cordova. A young deacon went also, and all three soon
started on their journey. The Dominican, however, was taken ill and died
before the party reached San Domingo.

Pedro de Cordova sympathized heartily with Las Casas, though warning him
that he would meet with many difficulties; but the man who is afraid to
undertake a thing because of the difficulties in the way is not much of
a man, and Las Casas was only the more determined to keep on. The
Dominicans were very poor and had never been able to finish their humble
monastery building, so they sent Father Montesino, who had preached the
famous sermon against slavery the year after their coming to Hispaniola,
with Las Casas to Spain, that he might try to raise the money needed;
and in 1515 they sailed.

As soon as they arrived in Seville, Montesino introduced Las Casas to
the good bishop of Seville, who did all he could to help him, giving him
a letter to the King and to others of the court that might in all
probability be interested.

It would be too long a story to tell,--the chronicle of all that Las
Casas went through in his struggles to right the wrongs of the Indians.

Queen Isabella was now dead, and while he was in Spain King Ferdinand
died also. Charles V, grandson of Ferdinand, was the heir to the throne,
and during his minority the great Cardinal Ximenes acted as regent,
while Charles' tutor Adrian was associated with the cardinal in the
government. The man who had most to do with the affairs of the Indians
was the Bishop of Burgos, Fonseca. As he himself had hundreds of slaves
working for him in the gold mines of the islands, he was naturally not
at all in favor of freeing them, and there were many like him who were
striving as hard to prevent the liberation