posed by the
preachers nor any other conceivable arrangement could have saved them.
The laws enacted were already more than sufficient to protect the natives
from oppression and undue suffering, had their application been carried
out in the spirit in which they were framed. Even the system of
encomiendas might have been worked more rationally, and under it the
condition of the Indians need not have been a particularly bad one.
Paternal laws, paternally administered in the humane and religious spirit
preached by the Dominicans and Las Casas, might have furnished a remedy,
but the character of the Spanish colonists, the prevalent greed for
wealth, taken together with the indolent habits and temperament of the
Indians, opposed unsurmountable obstacles.

The zeal of Las Casas closed his eyes to these existing conditions, which
foredoomed his efforts to failure and the Indians to destruction.
Fortunately it was so, for he was thus enabled to continue his struggle
unflaggingly and to keep the Public conscience in Spain awake to the work
of justice to be accomplished. In this struggle lay the only hope of
protecting the defenceless natives from undue excesses, of opposing some
check to the injustice of the colonists, and of discharging the moral duty
that Christian Spain had assumed towards her humble subjects in the New
World.

Seeing the uselessness of further dealings with the preachers, Las Casas
dropped that learned body, of which nothing further was ever heard in
connection with Indian affairs.

He next adopted the bold policy of formally accusing the whole Council of
unfairness and partiality--a truly amazing act of courage on the part of a
simple priest, even though he felt himself supported by the sympathy of
the Chancellor and several of the King's Flemish favourites. More
astonishing must it have been to the members of that august body, that the
sovereign should have ordered the impeachment to be taken into
consideration. This decision was procured through the influence of the
Chancellor, Gattinara, and bore with it the authorisation for Las Casas to
designate such persons as he deemed suitable, to sit in the Council with
those he had accused, and to thus ensure his affairs an impartial hearing.
At the same time M. de Laxao made known to him that the King desired such
persons to be selected from among the members of other royal councils.
His choice fell upon Don Juan Manuel, Alonso Tellez, the Marquis de
Aguila