tself, sufficient to explain his treachery.
Berrio was to act as herald, publishing in the different cities, with
sound of trumpet, the object of Las Casas's visit, the high powers he held
from the King, and the favourable conditions he offered. To give his
assistant more dignity in the eyes of the people Las Casas procured for
him the designation of Captain in the royal service, with a salary of four
hundred and five maravedis per day.

Berrio sold himself to the Bishop of Burgos before the recruiting
expedition even began, and his signed instructions, which he had engaged
to obey, were fraudulently altered by the latter so as to free him from
all control. Thus provided, he soon detached himself from his rightful
superior and went to Andalusia, where he assembled on his own account two
hundred men, vagabonds, loafers, and tapsters, of whom few were labourers
and none fit for colonists. These unpromising recruits were gathered in
Seville, where the officials of India House were at a loss to know what to
do with them; they finally sailed, but, as the colonial authorities had
received no notice concerning them, they landed, destitute and worthless,
in Hispaniola, where their arrival was unwelcome. Many of them died and
the others scattered in various parts. It fell to Las Casas to interest
himself in their behalf and to relieve their miseries, but the meal and
wine he obtained for them arrived in Hispaniola too late, as the intended
beneficiaries were either dead or widely dispersed.

It appears, according to Las Casas's own account, that emigrants were
attracted to his scheme, not so much by the liberal conditions, or because
their circumstances were not prosperous, but by their desire to escape
onerous feudal conditions still prevailing in Spain. It was chiefly,
therefore, from amongst the dwellers on great estates that his emigrants
were recruited, for many such said they desired to leave their children
free in a free country under the King's protection. The great nobles were
ill-pleased at this desertion of their feudatories, and Las Casas soon
found himself at loggerheads with the Constable of Castile, whose
villagers at Berlanga were inscribing themselves in great numbers; the
Constable ordered him to quit his estates. On an estate called Rello,
belonging to the Count of Coruna, out of thirty householders twenty-nine
put down their names as emigrants. As may be supposed the number of the
clerigo's enemies in high q