a, of the several governors of the islands, Rodrigo de
Figueroa being sent to Hispaniola, Doctor de la Gama to Puerto Rico and
Cuba, and Lope de Sosa to Darien, where he was also to succeed the actual
Governor, Pedro Arias de Avila. The Council, acting upon reports which
described the natives of Trinidad as cannibals, ordered that war should be
made upon them, but Las Casas denied this charge, and contrived that
Figueroa should be authorised to first investigate and report on this
matter before hostilities began; Figueroa's report was entirely favourable
to the natives, amongst whom he found no cannibalism.

As the Dominicans in Hispaniola were ignorant of the progress of events at
court and the loss sustained by Las Casas through the death of the
Chancellor, they still conceived him to enjoy great influence. The
Prior, Pedro de Cordoba, wrote him a detailed description of some recent
atrocities perpetrated by the Spaniards in Trinidad where they had gone to
fish for pearls; manifesting also dissatisfaction with the conduct of the
Jeronymites. He therefore begged Las Casas to obtain from the King a
grant for the Franciscan and Dominican monks of one hundred leagues of
coast on the mainland about Cumana, from which laymen should be excluded;
should one hundred leagues be thought excessive, then he begged for ten,
and failing this he would accept the small islands known as the Alonso
group, which lay some fifteen leagues from the coast. His intention was
to establish a place of refuge, or sanctuary, to which the persecuted
Indians might repair, sure of finding kind treatment, and, through
instruction, be converted to Christianity. The Prior declared that unless
some one of these concessions was made, he would have to recall all the
monks of his Order from those countries, where it was idle for them to
attempt to teach Christian doctrines, as long as the Indians saw those who
called themselves Christians acting in open violation of them. The
contents of this letter vexed and alarmed Las Casas not a little, for he
feared that if the Prior were driven to make good his threat of recalling
his monks, the Indians would be abandoned, without defence, to the
cruelties of the Spaniards and would soon be exterminated. His one hope of
support in his own plans lay in the Dominicans, without whose aid his
efforts were foredoomed to failure. He spoke to the Bishop and the members
of the Council, reading them the letter and addressi