o held the encomienda of Chiapa was an astute person, in
reality quite as vicious as any of the others but more adroit in
concealing his evil doings; he found small difficulty in deceiving the
simple friars and, by showing them hospitality and professing great
respect for the New Laws, he succeeded in persuading them that he was
their friend and protector. The harmony of their relations could not
however remain long undisturbed; from professing friendship he passed to
more or less open acts of hostility, and from flattery he resorted to
calumny. An incident which occurred may serve admirably to illustrate the
deceptions practised by the colonists on the ignorant Indians. One of the
more intelligent of the natives came one day to the Dominicans and spoke
as follows:

"Fathers, behold we are becoming bewildered. Our master told us when you
came, that he had written a letter to the Emperor _his brother_ [sic]
asking that you be sent to say Mass for us and that it was by his order
that you came to live amongst us. Since then, he tells us that you are
poverty-stricken people, who come here to be supported by our labour,
because you have not enough to eat in your own country. He has forbidden
us to give you the ground for your convent and to allow the church to be
altered. You, on the other hand, tell us we should not call him our
master, for no man other than God whom you preach, is that; you tell us,
also, that this man is a mortal like ourselves, subject to the Emperor,
King of Castile, and that the Alcaldes at Ciudad Real may punish him. He
tells us that he is next to God and has no master in the world. I don't
understand you; you speak ill of our master; he speaks ill of you, and
with all this we see you going about together good friends, neither of you
daring to speak in the other's presence of what each tells us in the
other's absence. If you are honest, speak clearly, for we are in a cloud
of smoke from your manner of proceeding." (58)

CHAPTER XVIII. - LAS CASAS REVISITS THE LAND OF WAR. AUDIENCIA OF THE
CONFINES. EVENTS AT CIUDAD REAL. LAS CASAS RETURNS

Everywhere throughout the province of Chiapa, the heart of Las Casas was
wrung by a repetition of the same tales of violence and rapacity; women
stolen, property wrested from the defenceless Indians, and the people
bought and sold like cattle, to be mercilessly overworked until more
merciful death released them from bondage. The Bishop was hel