Part 14 (1/2)
In the early ed in the Convent of Our Lady of Atocha just outside the city walls It was on the seventeenth of March of that year that he there formally delivered a sealed docuned will, in the presence of a notary, Gaspar Testa, and seven other witnesses(74)
At the age of ninety he wrote his treatise in defence of the Peruvians, the last of his known compositions, and which ritten, as is stated in its text, in 1564(75) The style and arguments of this work are identical with those that characterised all his writings The last negotiation in behalf of American interests that Las Casas undertook and saw to a successful finish, was to obtain the restoration of the Audiencia of the Confines, to Gracias a Dios, whence it had been recently transferred to Pana the whole of the former province with no superior tribunal for the administration of justice This business called hi of 1566
The life of the great Bishop was nearing its end He had long outlived all his early contemporaries, he had enjoyed the confidence and respect of three of the on, Charles V
and Philip II, all of whom had received his fearless admonitions, not only with docility, but had responded with cordial admiration Cardinal Ximenez, Pope Adrian VI, the powerful Flemish favourites, the discoverers and conquerors fro since dead, and he had seen nuraves The Spain on which he closed his aged eyes was a different country from that on which he had first, opened them; the colonial developland-all these and a hundred events of ed the face of the world
The illness which proved fatal to Las Casas overtook him in the convent of the Atocha in Madrid, and in the latter days of July, 1566, he died(76) Only a few days before he breathed his last he wrote the following sentences, which were probably the last his prolific pen ever traced
They portray the character and aspirations of this great man more fully, perhaps, than any other of his oodness and mercy of God chose to elect me as His minister, despite my want of merit, to strive and labour for the infinite peoples, the possessors and owners of those kingdoainst the burdens, evils, and injuries such as were never seen or heard of, which we Spaniards brought upon theht and justice; and to restore them to their pristine liberty, of which they were unjustly despoiled; and to save them from the violent death which they still suffer, just as for the saues of country have been depopulated, many in my own presence I have laboured at the Court of the Castilian sovereigns, co the fifty years since 1514, ani the destruction of such multitudes of rational, humble, most kind, and most simple men, all well adapted to accept our Holy Catholic Faith and moral doctrine, and to live honestly God is witness that I have advanced no other reason Hence I state my positive belief, for I believe the Holy Roman Church, which is the rule and measure of our faith, must and does hold that the Spaniards'
conduct towards those peoples, their robberies, s and nobles and other infinite properties, which they accomplished with such accursed cruelties-has been contrary to the most strictly iht It has brought great infaion, entirely hindering the spread of the faith and irreparably injuring the souls and bodies of those innocent peoples
I believe that because of these inominious acts, perpetrated unjustly, tyrannously, and barbarously upon them, God will visit His wrath and ire upon Spain for her share, great or small, in the blood-stained riches, obtained by theft and usurpation, accohter and annihilation of those peoples, unless she does much penance”
This last profession of the faith he had kept unfalteringly for more than half a century, was his own suprereat concourse of people assembled for the obsequies of the venerable Bishop, which were celebrated by the Superior of the Monastery, Fray Doo de la Para, and his mortal remains, clothed in modest episcopal vestments, with a wooden crozier in his hand, were laid to rest in the Capilla Mayor of the church of Atocha (77)
The re place anywhere, and the frequent translations of their bodies not unco a raves are disturbed, witnesses are untrustworthy, and it finally becoreat personage, whose whereabouts during almost every hour of his life were a matter of public interest and notoriety Thus it has happened with the remains of this illustrious Spaniard and holy Bishop According to a stateos in his manuscript history of the city of Valladolid, (78) the bones of Las Casas were afterwards ree buildings were in part alienated, thus necessitating another removal of the body, which was then buried in the cloister where the remains of the monks commonly found sepulture In 1670, Fray Gabriel de Cepedo dedicated a work entitled _Historia de la in de Atocha_ to Charles II, in which he contradicts the state that Las Casas rested at that ti to a commonly known and undisputed fact and his published statement has never been contradicted The old church of Atocha no longer exists, having been demolished to make way for a new edifice, still in process of construction
The will of Las Casas was opened on July 31, 1566, at the instance of Fray Juan Bautiste, Procurator of the College of San Gregorio in Valladolid, he being the executor It was found that Las Casas had left all his e(79) He requested the rector to have his vast correspondence, consisting of letters and reports sent to hihout all Aically arranged and collected in the form of a book, as these documents would illustrate and confirainst the Spaniards and in favour of the Indians ”Let thee library ad perpetuam rei memoriam, for should God decree the destruction of Spain, it may be seen that it is because of our destruction of the Indies, and His justice may be made apparent”
APPENDIX I - THE BREVISSIMA RELACION
PROLOGUE OF THE BISHOP DON FRAY BARTHOLOMEW DE LAS CASAS OR CASAUS
TO THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTY LORD, THE PRINCE OF THE SPANISH STATES
Don Philip our Lord
Most High, and Mighty Lord
1 As divine Providence has ordained that in his world, for its governdos al consequently the enerous members of the Republics, there neither is nor can be reasonable doubt as to the rectitude of their royal hearts If any defect, wrong, and evil is suffered, there can be no other cause than that the Kings are ignorant of it; for if such were manifested to them, they would extirpate theence
22 It is seely this that the divine Scriptures mean in the Proverbs of Solomon, qui sedet in solio iudicii, dissipat omne malum intuitu suo: because it is thus assu nadom is absolutely sufficient that he should destroy it; and that not for one moment, as far as in him lies, can he tolerate it
33 As I have fifty, or more, years of experience in those countries, I have therefore been considering the evils, I have seen committed, the injuries, losses, and ht could be done by e, or to speak better, that most vast and neorld of the Indies, conceded and confided by God and his Church to the Kings of Castile, that they should rule and govern it; that they should convert it, and should prosper it temporally, and spiritually
44 When sohness, it will not be possible to forbear supplicating His Majesty with importunate insistence, that he should not concede nor permit that which the tyrants have invented, pursued, and put into execution, calling it Conquests; which if permitted, will be repeated; because these acts in theainst those pacific, humble, and mild Indian people, who offend none, are iniquitous, tyrannous, condemned and cursed by every natural, divine, and human law
55 So as not to keep cri the ruin of numberless souls and bodies that these persons cause, I have decided to print soh very few, of the innumerable instances I have collected in the past and can relate with truth, in order that Your Highness h the Archbishop of Toledo, Your Highness' Preceptor, when Bishop of Cartagena, asked hness, nevertheless, because of the long journeys by sea and land Your Highness has made, and of the continual royal occupations, it hness either has not read the and unreasonable cupidity of those who count it as nothing to unjustly shed such an immense quantity of human blood, and to deprive those enormous countries of their natural inhabitants and possessors, by slayingincomparable treasures, increase every day; and they insist by various ned pretexts, that the said Conquests are permitted, without violation of the natural and divine law, and, in consequence, without rievous mortal sin, worthy of terrible and eternal punishhness with this very brief suht to be composed, of the massacres and devastation that have taken place
88 I supplicate Your Highness to receive and read it with the clenity he usually shows to his creatures, and servants, who desire to serve solely for the public good and for the prosperity of the State
99 Having seen and understood the monstrous injustice done to these innocent people in destroying and outraging them, without cause or just motive, but out of avarice alone, and the an such villainous operations, hness be pleased to supplicate and efficaciously persuade His Majesty to forbid such harmful and detestable practices to those who seek license for them: may he silence this infernal demand for ever, with so much terror, that from this time forward there shall be no one so audacious as to dare but to na and necessary to do, that God may prosper, preserve and render blessed, both temporally and spiritually, all the State of the royal crown of Castile Amen
BREVISSIMA RELACION OR SHORT REPORT OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIES
1 The Indies were discovered in the year fourteen hundred and ninety-two The year following, Spanish Christians went to inhabit them, so that it is since forty-nine years that nuone there: and the first land, that they invaded to inhabit was the large and htful Isle of Hispaniola which has a circuues
22 There are nue ones, all around on every side, that were all-and we have seen it-as inhabited and full of their native Indian peoples as any country in the world
33 Of the continent, the nearest part of which is ues distant froues of maritime coast have been discovered, and more is discovered every day; all that has been discovered up to the year forty-nine is full of people, like a hive of bees, so that it seereater part of the entire human race in these countries