der to visit again "The Land of
War," now a land of peace. It was a wonderful encouragement to him to
find the Indians living peaceful, orderly, Christian lives, unmolested
and happy. Great numbers of them came to greet him with tears of joy,
and if he had needed any proof of the wisdom of his method of
Christianizing the Indians, he found it in the transformation that had
taken place all through the district.

To all who came, Las Casas spoke in their own language, giving to them
the royal command, signed by the Emperor, that they should never be
anything but a free people.

The Bishop of Guatemala went with Las Casas to visit The Land of War,
and had intended to go with him to Gracias a Dios, where they were both
to assist in the consecration of a new bishop of Nicaragua. Learning,
however, that the Protector of the Indians was going principally to
insist upon the enforcement of the new laws, and that a letter had been
written to Prince Philip, heir to the throne, informing him that he, the
Bishop of Guatemala, had many slaves and did not uphold these laws
either in practice or in teaching, he turned back and returned to his
own diocese, and from a warm friend he became one of the Bishop's
enemies.

The journey to Gracias a Dios was a difficult and dangerous one at that
season of the year. All such journeys were of course made on foot, and
the streams that had to be crossed were swollen and turbulent from the
violent rains, which had also in some cases destroyed the roads; but we
never hear that Las Casas in all his life ever once gave up or delayed a
trip either because of ill health or dangers in the way. Now, at
seventy-one, he had all the endurance and energy of youth.

Immediately upon his arrival he went before the council, but met with
nothing but insults. One day as he came in, an officer cried out:

"Put out that fool!"

On another occasion, having been commanded to withdraw, Las Casas
refused to do so, and the president ordered him to be removed by force.
The Bishop solemnly summoned the judges, in the name of God, to relieve
the Indians from oppression and remove the stumbling blocks their
tyranny was putting in the way of Christianizing them. At this the chief
justice lost his temper and shouted:

"You are a bad man, a cheat, a bad bishop, a shameful fellow, and
deserve to be punished!"

Such language used by a Spanish official toward a bishop in those days,
when the Roman Catholic Church had so