very
foundations of Christendom; that a few thousands of pagans, more or less,
suffered and perished, was of small importance, compared with the
maintenance of this elemental principal. First conquer and then convert,
was his maxim. His thesis constitutes the very negation of Christianity.

[Illustration: Juan Gines de Sepulveda]

Juan Gines de Sepulveda

From the engraving by J. Barcelon, after the drawing of J. Maca.

Las Casas repeatedly challenged his opponents to refute his allegations or
to contradict his facts and, in a letter to Carranza de Miranda in 1556,
he wrote:

"It is moreover deplorable that, after having denounced this destruction
of peoples to our sovereigns and their councils a thousand times during
forty years, nobody has yet dreamed of proving the contrary and, after
having done so, of punishing me by the shame of a retraction. The royal
archives are filled with records of trials, reports, denunciations, and a
quantity of other proofs of the assassinations{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}There exists also positive
evidence of the immense population of Hispaniola--greater than that of all
Spain--and of the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, and more than forty other
islands, where neither animals nor vegetation survive. These countries
are larger than the space that separates us from Persia, and the
terra-firma is twice as considerable{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}I defy any living man, if he be not a
fool, to dare deny what I allege, and to prove the contrary."

His enemies were devoid of scruples, and unsparingly used every means to
nullify his influence and destroy his credit. He was ridiculed as a
madman--a monomaniac on the subject of Indians and their rights; his
plainly stated facts were branded as exaggerations, though nobody accepted
his challenge to contradict them. Such tactics alternated with others,
for he was also described as a heretic, as disloyal and unpatriotic,
seeking to impeach the validity of Spanish sovereignty in the Indies and
to bring ruin on the national interests.

The missionary period of the life of Las Casas in America ended with his
return to Spain in 1549 and the resignation of his episcopal see that
followed in 1552. From that time may be dated the third and last period
of his life, which was marked by his literary activity, for, though he
never again visited America, his vigilance and energy in defending the
interests of the Indi