Indian affairs, much to the clerico's grief. Fonseca
refused to do anything at all for the colonists, and as Las Casas would
not allow them to go under such conditions of neglect, the plan fell
through. But no sooner was he defeated in one scheme than he immediately
began to devise another. There was no such thing as discouraging Las
Casas.

CHAPTER VI

THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN SPUR

There had been for some time both Franciscan monks and Dominican fathers
on the mainland of South America, working among the natives. Pedro de
Cordova, the head of the Dominicans in the Indies, wrote to Las Casas at
about this time, asking him to get the King to grant a certain territory
on the mainland, where no white men except the Dominicans and
Franciscans should be allowed to go; or, if he could not get it on the
mainland, to try to secure some small nearby islands, saying that if the
King would not do this it would be necessary to recall all the brethren
of the Dominican order, as it was of no use for them to preach to the
Indians when they saw all about them the Christians behaving as they
did. Now when the clerico had spoken to Fonseca about this, the reply
had been that there was no money in it for the King, so that Las Casas
saw that if he was to get the grant, he must find a way to make it
profitable to the King and his ministers.

The Good Book says that "the love of money is the root of all evil,"
and certainly Las Casas was inclined to believe this as he thought of
what wickedness it had led the Spaniards into in the New World. No
wonder the Indians thought that gold was the white man's god. The
clerico tells us of a certain Indian chief, who had fled before the
Spaniards from Hispaniola to Cuba, and who, hearing that the Christians
were coming there also, called his people together and told them that
the reason why the Spaniards treated them so cruelly was because they
had a god whom they greatly loved and adored, and it was to make them
also love and serve him that they killed and enslaved them. He had a
basket of jewels and gold near him. Holding it up, he said that _this_
was the god of the Christians and called upon his people to dance before
this god and worship him, and perhaps he would not allow the Spaniards
to harm them.

Poor old chief! Driven from one hiding place to another, he was taken at
last; and because he had tried to escape his oppressors and defend his
people, he was condemned to be burned a