years.

CHAPTER IX

THE LAND OF WAR

The first thing these four missionaries,--Las Casas, Luis Cancer, Pedro
de Angula, and Rodrigo de Larada,--had to do was to learn the language
of the country, which was called the Quichi. It was no easy task, for
none of them were young,--Las Casas, their prior, being now sixty-one
years of age. The Bishop of Guatemala, a great scholar, was their
teacher, and day after day this little company of monks might have been
seen, sitting with the Bishop, like boys at school, learning
conjugations and declensions.

Las Casas was also busy writing a book,--which, however, was never
published,--in which he tried to show that the only way to convert men
was to convince the mind by reasoning and win the heart by gentleness.
The authorities of the province laughed at him and challenged him to try
it, by declaring that if he succeeded in subduing any tribe by these
methods, they would at once set free their slaves. Las Casas boldly took
up the challenge and selected for the trial a part of the country
called "The Land of War."[1]

Alvarado had carried on a terrible war in Guatemala. Thousands of
Indians had been killed, tortured, and made slaves. The people of the
district where Las Casas intended to try his experiment were a hardy,
warlike race, and their country was a land of steep mountains, deep
ravines, and many furious mountain torrents. They had fought desperately
for their liberty. Three times the Spaniards had attempted to conquer
them, and each time had been driven back. They were a terror to the
white men, and not a Spaniard dared to go near them. It was rightly
named The Land of War. Yet it was these turbulent, unconquerable people
whom Las Casas now declared he would Christianize and make subject to
Spanish rule. He would take no soldiers with him and would accept no aid
of any kind. All that he asked was that when his work should be
accomplished, they might be left free, only paying tribute, as all
subjects did, to the crown. To this the governor of Guatemala agreed.

By this time the fathers could both write and speak the Quichi language
well, and they went to work to compose in verse an account of the
creation, the fall of man, the birth, life, and miracles of our Lord,
and His death upon the cross. These verses they set to music, for the
Indians were fond of songs.

There were certain Christian Indians that traded with the people in the
Land of War, going to them