eville by his friend Fray Reginaldo,
containing a full account of the ruthless cruelties of one of the captains
of Pedro Arias, named Espinosa, which cost the lives of forty thousand
Indians. This ghastly chronicle, which was supplied by a Franciscan, Fray
Francisco Roman, who wrote as an eye-witness of the atrocities, was
immediately laid before the Chancellor by Las Casas; the former was much
impressed by the report and directed Las Casas to go to the Bishop on his
behalf and read him the letter.

The Bishop took the news coolly enough and merely observed that he had
long since advised the recall of Pedro Arias.(37)

With the recovery of the Bishop, everything seemed ready for the
resumption of business, when fate dealt Las Casas one of the hardest blows
he had had to sustain. The Grand Chancellor, who owned to feeling
indisposed on a Friday, became worse on Saturday, so that he had to keep
his room; his illness persisted on Sunday with signs of fever and, as Las
Casas tersely puts it, "they buried him on Wednesday."

With the death of the Fleming died all hope of any immediate action in
behalf of the Indians; in the absence of any other as familiar with the
business of the Indian department as himself, the Bishop of Burgos found
himself once more omnipotent, or as Las Casas puts it, "he seemed to rise
to the heavens while the cleric [himself] sank to the depths." The
Chancellor's successor, named by the King pro tempore, was the Dean of
Bisancio, a heavy, phlegmatic man who slept peacefully all through the
sessions of the Council and only had sufficient perception to commend Las
Casas for the zeal with which he pestered him day and night, remarking on
one occasion with a dull smile: Commendamus in Domino, domine Bartholomeo,
vestram diligentiam. Two such ill-assorted characters as this bovine dean
and the fiery Las Casas only succeeded in tormenting one another to no
purpose, though, as the latter observes, in this case "it did not kill the
Dean for all that."

The India Council, over which the Bishop of Burgos presided, was composed
at that time of Hernando de la Vega, Grand Commander of Castile, Don
Garcia de Padilla, the licentiate Zapata, Pedro Martyr de Angleria, and
Francisco de los Cobos who was then just rising into prominence. Las Casas
was excluded, and though he was as busy as ever in laying petitions and
memorials before the Council, he had no friends or protectors inside and
consequently obtained not