orders. The campaign in Cuba was signalised by the
same massacres and cruelties which marked the advance of Spanish
civilisation throughout the Indies; the natives were pursued and torn to
pieces by fierce dogs, burned alive, their hands and feet cut off, and the
miserable, terrified remnant speedily reduced to a condition of hopeless
slavery. The so-called war ended with the execution of the Cacique
Hatuey, and in the early part of 1512, Diego Velasquez sent for Las Casas
to join him from Hispaniola. At that juncture there arrived in the port
of Baracoa a vessel commanded by Cristobal de Cuellas, who brought with
him his daughter, the promised bride of Velasquez. The Governor absented
himself for the celebration of his marriage, leaving his kinsman Juan de
Grijalva in command of fifty men during his absence, and charging Las
Casas to act as assistant and counsellor to Grijalva, who was a beardless
youth and, though of excellent disposition, was without experience. The
news of Las Casas's presence quickly spread amongst the Indians of Bayamo,
who had fled in terror before the horses of Narvaez into the province of
Camaguey, and, feeling reassured and confident of protection, they now
began to return little by little, asking pardon for the opposition they
had made to the Spanish force and offering to assist and serve the
invaders. The veneration of the natives for Las Casas, their only friend,
was a most touching thing to see, for they trusted him without reserve,
believing him to be omnipotent and knowing him to be good; they called him
by the same title, Behique, which they gave to their own magicians and
both reverenced and feared him as being almost divine. As the tribes came
in, bringing gifts to the Spanish commander, they also brought offerings
to Las Casas and when assured by him that the past was pardoned and
forgotten, their confidence was completely restored.

Peace being thus established in the province of Bayamo, Velasquez sent
orders to Narvaez that he should advance into the province of Camague with
all the force he had, which, united to that of Grijalva, amounted to about
one hundred men, and that Las Casas should accompany the expedition.

The spiritual and martial forces seemed to work in harmony; Grijalva was
obedient to the counsels of Las Casas, and Narvaez, although a hardened
campaigner and a man of violent temperament, was not indifferent to the
priest's influence, backed as he knew it to b