ment as an act of religious humility in a matter
concerning his own spiritual welfare would have been laudable, but Las
Casas was far more qualified to judge on a question of policy affecting
the welfare of his enterprise than was Fray Juan Garceto, and the
responsibility for repeating the blunder he had made in Puerto Rico of
abandoning his colony while he went off to protest to the Audiencia, must
rest where it belongs--on his own shoulders--and not where he sought to put
it--on those of the humble Franciscan. If somebody had to go--and it seems
that the necessity was urgent--then Fray Juan had better have taken the
letters and gone himself before the Audiencia, leaving Las Casas to
withstand his enemies and keep his colony together as best he could, until
the Audiencia despatched some authority to effectively restrain the
Cubaguans. His resolution taken, in accordance with the friar's
inspiration, Las Casas appointed Francisco de Soto, a native of Olmedo, as
captain during his absence and gave him full instructions for his
guidance. It was especially impressed upon the captain that on no account
should he permit the two vessels which the colony possessed to leave the
harbour; he was to be on the alert and in case of open hostilities he was
to load the merchandise on board if possible, but if not, then to save all
his people and take refuge at Cubagua. Much preoccupied as to the fate of
those he left behind and uncertain as to the wisdom of his course, Las
Casas set out for Hispaniola, leaving all he possessed in the convent,
save one box of his clothing and another containing some books.

It is illustrative of the capricious and light-hearted spirit of
disobedience to all authority, save what force imposed, which
characterised Spanish officials in America, that the first thing De Soto
did, before the ship bearing Las Casas was barely out of sight, was to
send away his two vessels, one in one direction and the other in the
opposite, to fish for pearls and, if possible, to capture Indians. The
natives were in a state of unrest owing to the continual vexations of the
people of Cubagua and also of Las Casas's men who, as soon as he was gone,
became almost as bad as the others. The beautiful speeches in which peace
and justice and friendship were promised for the future, under the
powerful protection of the new King of Spain, had resulted in nothing, and
the last illusion of the Indians vanished with the disappearanc