Las Cases, unable to obtain the deliverance of the Indiana through his oral remonstrances, resorted to his pen. He wrote—lst, Tratado sobre la materia de los Indios qua se lean hecho esclaves por los Castel lanos;' 2nd, Brevissima relacion de la destruycion de las Indies Occi dentales per los Castellanos,' in which he gives a frightful account of the acts of oppression and barbarity committed by the conquerors; 3rd, 'Remedios por la reformacion de las Indies ;' 4th, Treynta pro posiciones pertenecientes al deracho qua la Yglesia y los principes Criatianos tienen sobre los Melee, y el titulo que los Reyes de Castilla tienen a las Indies Occidentales.' (Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viagea y Descubrimientos qua hicieron por mar los Espanoles, 2 vols. 4to, Madrid, 1825, in which the author treats at length of Las Cases.) Las Cases, despairing of effecting any good for the Indians in the Spanish settlements, formed the project of a new colony to be estab lished on the recently-discovered tierra firma, or mainland, and to be managed according to his own views, which were afterwards realised in a great by the Jesuits in their settlements of Paraguay. Accordingly be obtained from Charles V. a grant of 300 miles along the coast of Cumana. But before he set out he had to sustain a public disputation, in the presence of the king and council, against Quevedo, bishop of Darien, who had lately returned from the West Indies, and whose opinions concerning the Indians were diametrically opposed to those of Las Casa.a As usual in such cases, the centre versy did not clear up the matter, and Charles, uncertain what to do, confirmed his grant to Las Cases for the sake of experiment. But before Las Cases could reach his destination, an expedition had sailed from Puerto Rico under Diego Ocampo, for the purpose of invading and plundering that very coast of Cumana which was intended by Las Cams for his pacific settlement. The consequence was, that the remaining natives conceived such a horror against the Spaniards that when Las Cases came to settle on the coast they attacked his settle ment and killed or drove away the settlers. Las Cases, crossed in all his benevolent endeavours, and attacked by the sneers and reproaches of the colonists, went back to Hispaniola, where he took refuge in tho convent of the Dominicans, Whose order he entered in 1522. Some
years after he returned to Spain, and mado a fresh appeal to Charles V. in favour of the oppressed Indians. He then met an antagonist in Doctor Gilles de Sepulveda, who had written a book in defence of the slavery and destruction of the Indians, taking for his argument the treatment of the Canaanites by the Hebrews. Las Cases replied to him, and an account of the whole controversy is contained in the work which was published in 1552, styled 'Dispute entre el Obispo Fray Bartholom6 de Las Cases y al Doctor Clines de Sepulveda sobro la justicia de las conquistas de las Indies.' Las Cams had meantime bean appointed Bishop of Chiapa, in the newly-conquered empire of Mexico. After remaining for many years iu his diocese, ever intent on mitigating the sufferings which the natives endured from the con querors, Las Cases returned to Spain in 1551, having resigned his bishopric, and died in a convent of his order at Madrid in 1566. He bore among both natives and Spaniards in the New World the names of Father and Protector of the Indians.
lie left in manuscript 'Ilittoria General de lax Indies,' in 3 parts or volumes, is which he treats of the discovery, conquest, and subsequent esecurronces in the New World, as far as the year 1520. This work has never been published. The first two volumes, in his own hand writint, are preserved in the library of the Royal Academy of History, and the third in the royal library at Madrid. " In this work," says Navarrate, " Leas Cases has displayed a rest erudition, mixed however with a diaregaral for temperance and discrimination. He had access to many original documents, which he has carefully copied or ex tracted, and for this he is entitled to the highest confidence. lie was also present at several of the early expeditions and conquests, and for them his authority has been followed by Herrera and others. Ile does not however deserre the same credit when he speaks from hear say, as he confesses that be wrote both what he had seen and whet he had not peen but heard during sixty years of his life, which he passed chiefly in the New World, and it is no wonder that his memory should fail him at times, so aa to confound events and elates."