ject from his brother Franciscans, he replied
that all that Las Casas stated was true and that there was even more
besides. He signified to Las Casas that his proposed journey to Flanders
was unnecessary as he would himself provide means in Madrid for correcting
the abuses in the colonies. There began at once a series of conferences
to which Cardinal Ximenez summoned his colleague in the regency, the
licentiate Zapata, Dr. Carbajal, and the distinguished jurist Dr. Palacios
Rubios; in the course of these debates Las Casas fully exposed the evils
of the colonial administration and proposed the measures which, in his
judgment, were necessary to remedy them. The Cardinal-regent always had
by him as a consultor the Bishop of Avila, who was also of his Order, but
he rigorously excluded the obnoxious Bishop of Burgos from all
participation in Indian affairs, to the no small perturbation of that
prelate. Las Casas relates a significant incident that happened during
one of these conferences, illustrating the means employed by his opponents
to confute his statements. Cardinal Ximenez ordered the Laws of Burgos,
which, since 1512, were supposed to be in full force in the Indies for the
protection of the natives, to be read aloud; upon reaching one of the
articles, the reader falsified the text; Las Casas, who knew every line of
those acts by heart, objected and the Cardinal ordered the reader to
repeat; he did so in the same language, whereupon Las Casas once more
objected, saying, "The law does not say that." The Cardinal, rendered
impatient by the repeated interruption, turned to Las Casas and remarked
with severity, "Either be silent or look well to what you say." "Your
Eminence may take my head off if what this clerk is reading be truly found
in that law," replied Las Casas promptly. Taking the articles from the
hands of the reader he showed his Eminence that the sense had not been
correctly read. The confusion of the clerk, whom Las Casas refuses to
dishonour by naming him in his history, was complete. The outcome of
these discussions was that Las Casas, Dr. Palacios Rubios, and Fray
Antonio de Montesinos (who had meanwhile arrived in Madrid) were deputed
by the Cardinal-regent to draft a project of laws which would sufficiently
protect the Indians and secure fair government in the colonies. By common
consent of his collaborators, the task of framing these laws was left
exclusively to Las Casas. His propositions were: