n
secure this, who does not base his government on the principles of virtue
and justice. The Spanish king is therefore not only obliged to secure the
liberty of the Indians because justice exacts this of him, but also
because he is bound to prevent his Spanish subjects from acts of
usurpation of the rights of others. Christian kings have greater duties
than those which weigh upon heathen or heretical rulers, for they are
bound to protect religion, favour its ministers, and spread the faith for
the sanctification of the whole world. By securing liberty to the
Indians, their conversion would be assured and, all causes of enmity and
hatred against Spaniards being removed, the natives would eagerly welcome
the missionaries and receive their teaching.

The third article of his argument, dealing with the conduct of bishops in
America, rehearses their apostolic duties towards their flocks and
concludes by defining it as an episcopal obligation to represent the
sufferings and wrongs of their defenceless people to the King and the
India Council, and to insist on Justice being done them.

It is a noteworthy fact that such writings and speeches seem to have given
no offence to the Spanish monarch, at that time the most absolute
sovereign in Christendom, and that, not only before the members of the
India Council, but in the estimation of the impartial men of his times,
Las Casas succeeded in disproving the charge of disputing the rights of
the Spanish Crown to sovereignty in the Indies, which his enemies had
maliciously sought to fasten upon him.

Charles V. had already conceded much to the venerable Bishop's unceasing
and energetic representations. A royal decree had abolished slavery,
reduced very considerably the number of encomiendas, and had restricted
the authority of the holders of these concessions over their Indians; the
labours of the natives held in encomienda had been greatly lightened and
their rights had been placed on a sure basis, strict instructions having
been given to the civil authorities to correct abuses of power and to
protect the weak. Wise laws and humane instructions had, however, at no
time been wanting but the benevolent intentions of the Emperor were never
adequately fulfilled by the Spanish colonial officials. Nevertheless,
much had been accomplished and the condition of the Indians--those of them
who survived--was very different in 1550, from that which prevailed when
Las Casas took up their c