a, begging him to use his
influence with the King to defer judgment until his return, that the
latter had applied to him for an opinion on the subject. The
correspondence between the two extended over the several years of the
King's absence, but of the letters of Las Casas to Carranza, only the
first one, written in 1555, has been preserved. Its language is no less
vigorous than that which the Protector was accustomed to use when roused
to the duties of his position.

After reviewing the history of the colonists' relations with the Indians
and recalling the solemn pledge given by Charles V. that his Indian
subjects should never be enslaved, he vehemently threatens the King and
his ministers with the eternal pains of hell if they break that royal
engagement. In enumerating the obstacles opposed by the Spaniards to the
conversion of the Indians, he writes:

"The third difficulty opposed to the conversion of the Indians is, that
the system of oppression and cruelty followed in dealing with them, makes
them curse the name of God and our holy religion: as the friars in Chiapa
write me, nothing short of a miracle can make the Indians believe in Jesus
Christ, when they see the execrable and manifest contradiction that exists
between His gentle and beneficent doctrines and the conduct of the
Christians, their enemies. What a scandal is it for them to see the faith
preached by fifteen or twenty monks who are poor, despised, miserably
clad, and reduced to begging their bread, while the crowd of so-called
Christians living in opulence, arrayed in silks, mounted on their horses,
inspires respect, submission, and fear everywhere, and acts in defiance of
the law of God and the teachings of His ministers!"

The Bishop expresses the hope that Carranza will read any passage of his
letter, or indeed the entire composition to the King, if he judges it
wise. An analogous letter on the same subject, written shortly afterwards
by Las Casas and Fray Domingo de Santo Tomas jointly, was addressed to
Philip II. Victory crowned the Bishop's efforts, for the royal decision,
given after King Philip's return to Spain, was adverse to making the
encomiendas hereditary or perpetual.

Although he had chosen San Gregorio as his residence, Las Casas must have
been frequently and for lengthy periods absent from Valladolid. A royal
order dated from Toledo on the fourteenth of December, 1562, and signed by
Philip II. directs that the Bishop of Chi