uarters was increased by this state of things,
though his success in recruiting emigrants enabled him to triumph over the
Bishop, who had foretold that he would never get together the necessary
people. He was able to say on his return to Zaragoza that not only three
thousand but ten thousand people would willingly go if the Bishop would
provide the means.

Cardinal Adrian listened sympathetically to the report of what had been
done and addressed to Las Casas the observation in Latin, Vere vos
tribuitis aliud regnum regi.

The King and his Court left the kingdom of Aragon at this time to visit
the principality of Cataluna, making his formal entry into Barcelona on
the fifteenth of February, 1519. The Jeronymite fathers had arranged for
the sale of the royal haciendas in Hispaniola, and Las Casas, ever on the
alert to secure advantages for his colonists, presented a petition asking
that they should be maintained for one year at the royal expense. The
vexation of the Bishop of Burgos augmented visibly at this fresh claim for
assistance, and he roundly declared such a concession would cost the Crown
more than an armada of twenty thousand men, which provoked the pertinent
retort from Las Casas: "Does it appear to your lordship that after you
have killed off the Indians, I should now lead Christians to death? Well,
I shall not." As the Bishop, according to Las Casas, was no fool, he hoped
that he understood this plain answer.

Without the assistance which he was convinced was indispensable to the
success of his undertaking, Las Casas refused to move, though every effort
was made to start him off; an attempt was even made to secure another
leader for the undertaking, but the news of this design was not slow in
reaching him, and he promptly published far and wide, in the district
where his recruits were waiting his orders to start, that they should on
no account accept the leadership of another, who would only conduct them
to failure and starvation in the colonies.

Events of great importance were occurring at this time which absorbed the
attention of the King and his counsellors to the exclusion of American
affairs. By the death of his grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian, the
succession was open, though both Francis I. of France and Henry VIII. of
England aspired to the imperial dignity. The royal interest therefore
centred in Germany and the coming election, and Las Casas and his Indian
schemes were put to one side.