as slaves, to be sent back
and set free. What would she think could she but witness the
present state of things? The present sovereign has been kept in
ignorance of the true condition, and his long journeys and absences
have prevented him from informing himself.
30. It follows, therefore, from these propositions that all the
conquests, acquisitions of territory, invasions, and usurpations,
whether by the Crown officials or by the colonists and individuals,
are illegal, because all have been accomplished contrary to the
orders of the Spanish sovereigns and in defiance of their authority.
(68)

Without pausing to examine the origin or trace the development of the
papal claim to dispose of the western hemisphere, which Las Casas admits
in these Thirty Propositions, it should be borne in mind that Alexander
VI. made no unusual exercise of his prerogative in so doing, nor was there
anybody, whether philosopher, jurist, or statesman, who, at that time,
contested his pretension; arguments which Las Casas presented as almost
axiomatic are now obsolete, and of interest merely as illustrating the
political doctrines of his times. He was, perhaps, the first to limit the
exercise of the papal power by describing it as conditional, and in
denying that the bull gave the sovereigns of Castile any property rights
in the New World. According to his doctrines, the Pope was exercising his
purely spiritual power. Charged by the Founder of Christianity with the
obligation to cause the Gospel to be preached to every creature, he might
delegate to the sovereign of his choice the right, or rather the duty of
sending his subjects to convert the heathen within a prescribed portion of
the Indies--but for no other purpose. Equally clear is the limitation he
places to the action of the prince. The latter receives no authorisation
from the Pope to invade, occupy, or govern territory in America. His
mission is exclusively religious, and any advantage accruing to himself
must be merely incidental. Since he may not rightfully use force to
establish his rule over the Indians, the rights of sovereignty conferred
by the Bull, only become effective in cases where the native rulers, after
their conversion, voluntarily acknowledge them.

In these definitions, Las Casas had gone far, but his adversaries despite
their subtlety were impotent either to force or inveigle him into a
position, where