LAS CASAS, las kli'sas. BAwroLomt us ( 1474 1566). A Spanish monk of the Dominican Order. known as the 'Apostle of the Indies.' He was born in Seville of an old family which prob ably originated in France. He studied phi losoillty• theology. and jurisprudence at the old 1:11iVer,ity of Salamanca. and in 1502 went to Hispaniola, where he became a planter. At first he held Indian slaves. as did the rest of his coun trymen. Thomdi he was soon aroused by the powerful of a Dominican monk. named Montesino, to some sense of the injustice thus intiieted on the natives, it was not until 1514, four years after he had been ordained priest. the first ordained in America. that he realized the full enormity of the system. Ile then released his slaves and began his long-eontinned crusade against India n slavery. First he preached to the Spaniards about it, but his appeals fell on deaf ears. -0 in 1513 be returned to Spain to lay the case before the King. Soon after his arrival.
however, Ferdinand died; his successor, after wards the Emperor Charles V., was absent in Flanders. Repulsed by the powerful Fonseca, Las Casas was contemplating a journey to Flan ders when he was sympathetically received by the regents., Cardinal Xim•nes and Adrian, who con ferred ulion him the title 'Universal Protector of the Indians.' He then returned to the Indies; but his zeal and plain speaking soon stirred up against him active and powerful enemies not only in the New World, but also in Spain. Among the most formidable were Oviedo (q.v.) and Sepalveda, an intimate of the King. Scarcely kss trouhlesome thin the openly declared enmity of powerful courtiers was the more secret op position of the Jeronymite Order, several mem bers of which were sent out with him in 1516 to aid in ameliorating the condition of the natives. Their efforts nullified his to such an extent that after only a few' mouths Las Casas sailed again for Spain, where lie gathered fifty picked men with whom he planned to found a new col ony on the shores of the Caribbean Sea. It was during this visit to Spain that he made his un happy concession to negro slavery. Believing that an increase in the numbers of negro slaves might result in the freeing of Indian captives, he ad vised that each colonist be allowed to import twelve negroes. It was not long, however, before he realized the terrible mistake he had made.
In 1520 he established his little colony at Cu manCt, on the Pearl Coast, the modern Venezuela; but soon afterwards, during his absence in Hi• paniola, it was destroyed by the Indians. Las
Casas then retired to the Dominican convent in Hispaniola. where he remained for eight years, receiving the tonsure in 1522. It was here that he began to write his Histo•ia general de las India& In 1531 he was in Mexico, and three years later in Nicaragua, where he did much to save the na tives from the ferocity of the conquerors. and where he succeeded in converting the warlike people of Tuzulutlan. who had thrice defeated the Spanish forces. From 1539 to 1344 he was in Spain as adviser to the Council of the Indies. During this period he wrote his tract, re/aeion de la destruyrithz de las Indies. the first and most important of the series published at Seville in 1552-53, to which we owe most of our knowledge of Spanish misrule in the New World. He obtained from the Emperor, Charles V., the 'New Laws,' which absolutely forbade the enslave ment of So were these new that their promulgation led to an insurrection in Peru under the leadership of Gonzalo Pizarro, which might have resulted in the setting up of an independent kingdom. had not the Emperor modi fied them, besides choosing as his representative the able Pedro de in Gasca. However, much per manent good was accomplished, the system of encomiendas gave place again to the milder sys tem of repartimientos, and abject slavery to something like European villeinage. In 1344 Its Casas was conseerated Bishop of Chia pa. a little see in Mexico. after having refused other and wealthier bishoprics. Three years later he re turned to Spain, where lie passed most of the re mainder of his life in the quiet of the Dominican College of San nreLrorio at Valladolid. engaged in the preparation of those works which filially opened the eyes of his countrymen to the enor mity of their conduct toward the Indians. His Ilistoria general dc las biding, a great source of information on the Spanish discoveries and con quests in the New \\ orld. was not printed until 1675 (Madrid, 5 vols.). Consult: Sabin, Works )4 !'anus (New York. 1670) ; helps, The ,Npanish Conquest of America (London, 1861) ; id.. Life of Las Cases (Philadelphia, 1SCS); I're-eott. Conquest of Mexico: and \Vinsor, Nar rative and Critical History of America, vol. ii. (Boston and New York. 1889).