226 THE OCEAN RIVER 



face to face. A mutual liking sprang up between the warriors, 

 and the peaceful conquest of the Land of War by Las Casas 

 and the Dominican fathers was sealed. 



Although this famous pacification in Guatemala might be 

 considered the greatest thing of its kind in the field of prac- 

 tical affairs, this man of many parts and abilities now took 

 a new phase of endeavor. In Spain on business with the King, 

 he composed in 1541 his famous defense of the Indians and 

 attack on colonial malpractice called The Destruction of the 

 Indies. It was submitted to the King, but was not published 

 for another twelve years. It was a bold and daring attack on 

 the tyranny and cruelty of the civilian Spanish in the Indies 

 and on Terra Ferma, as the mainland was called. So moving 

 was this work that its direct effect in Spain was the writing of 

 new laws against slave labor and injustice to the Indians. This 

 made Las Casas probably the most generally hated man in 

 the New World, as far as the Spanish proprietors were con- 

 cerned. Before we close this account of a vigorous and saintly 

 life we should note that this same book. The Destruction of 

 the Indies, when published later in the century elsewhere in 

 Europe, was used by Hawkins, Drake, and others as justifica- 

 tion for their indiscriminate attacks on the wealth of the 

 West Indies. 



Las Casas in Mexico continued a dangerous life in trying 

 to strike a nice balance of existence between the murderous 

 hostility of the merchants and landowners on the one hand 

 and the devout love of his half-savage parishioners on the 

 other. In 1550 he went back to Spain and joined in a great 

 debate on colonial church policy with Sepulveda. The two 

 antagonists were probably the most learned and able men of 

 their time in Spain. The debate was without practical con- 

 clusion. It was the old battle between Christian ethics and 

 the imperial theory that stronger and superior people could 

 rightfully employ force to civilize the so-called heathen. 



