e by the warm personal
support of his Governor, Velasquez. Some thirty leagues from Bayamo, and
before entering the province of Camaguey, the expedition arrived at a town
called Cueyba, where they were well received by the Indians and where they
found, in a sort of chapel, a statue of the Blessed Virgin which had been
presented to the cacique some time before by Alonso de Ojeda who, after
shipwreck and untold hardships, had reached that place and been cared for
by the natives. Ojeda had carried this image for many weary days,
confiding in its protection to rescue him from the dangerous plight in
which he found himself, and some of his companions who were now with the
Narvaez party praised its beauty so highly to Las Casas that he conceived
the idea of offering to trade for it a very good Flemish statue of his
own. His proposal, however, was not agreeable to the cacique, who had, on
his part, become much attached to his own image, and the next morning when
Las Casas went to the little chapel, which the Indians kept nicely adorned
with cotton hangings and flowers, he was surprised to see that the statue
was missing from its customary place above the altar. Upon inquiry he was
told by the Indians that their chief, fearing that he would be forced to
accept Las Casas's offer to exchange, had taken his statue and fled into
the forests to save it. There was even a fear that a general uprising
might result to defend the cherished statue, so Las Casas at once sent
messengers to the cacique to assure him that he not only no longer wished
to make the exchange but had decided to make him a present of his own
Flemish statue as well.

Twenty leagues beyond Cueyba the expedition entered the province of
Camaguey, and, at the entrance of the various towns, the Indians came out
to welcome the Spaniards, offering them provisions of fish, game, and
cassava. Las Casas called together the children everywhere and baptised
them, concerning which he afterwards said that many were thus destined for
glory in good time, for shortly afterwards there was hardly one of those
children left alive.

Nothing inspired more wonder in the Indians than the transmission of news
from one place to another by means of writing, and the letters the
Spaniards sent to one another excited the greatest awe amongst them. So
great had the influence of Las Casas amongst them become, that he had only
to send any piece of paper fastened to the end of a stick, carrie