ceived a valuable repartimiento of land and Indians in recognition
of the services he had rendered during the expeditions, for, though he was
the enemy of all cruel treatment and the protector of the natives against
his callous-hearted countrymen, his conscience on the subject of
repartimientos was not yet fully awakened.

During his residence in the island of Hispaniola, Las Casas had been close
friends with a man named Renteria, whom he describes as a most virtuous,
prudent, charitable, and devout Christian, given entirely to the things of
God and religion and little versed in the things of this world, to which
he paid small attention; he was so open-handed by instinct that his
generosity was almost the vice of carelessness rather than a virtue. He
was pure and humble in his life and was a man of some learning, devoted to
the study of the Scriptures and commentaries to the Latin tongue, and was
a skilful penman. Pedro de la Renteria, to whom Diego Velasquez had given
the office of alcalde in the island of Cuba was a Biscayan, son of a
native of Guipuzcoa, and such was the intimacy between him and Las Casas
in Hispaniola that they shared their possessions in common, though in the
management of their affairs, it was the latter who took the direction
entirely, as being the more capable and practical of the two. (26)

Upon Pedro de la Renteria, the Governor conferred a repartimiento of lands
and Indians adjoining the one given to Las Casas and the two had their
business interests in common. Las Casas owns, with compunction, that he
became so absorbed at that time in developing his new estates and working
his mines that what should have been his principal care, the instruction
of the Indians, fell into the second place, though despite his temporary
blindness to his higher duties, he protests that, as far as their temporal
wants were concerned, he was humane and kind, both from his naturally
benevolent instincts and from his understanding of the law of God. This
we may easily believe to be the case and, though his zealous soul may
afterwards, when all his energies of body and mind were exclusively
dedicated to his apostolate, have found grounds for self-reproach for
neglecting the spiritual wants of his Indians at that time, it is more
than probable that, even so, his care of them might well have served as a
pattern to his fellow-colonists and more than satisfied the natives, who
adored him.

CHAPTER V. - THE SE