he Crown, six to Las Casas and his fifty
knights of the Golden Spur, three to Admiral Diego Columbus, one to each
of the four auditors of the Audiencia, and the remaining five to the
treasurer Pasamonte and the other officials of the Audiencia.

This scheme was submitted to Las Casas, who must by that time have been
well-nigh in despair, and, although it very materially changed his
original plan, it offered the only possible means for carrying out his
intentions, so he agreed to the formation of the company. The agreement
upon which the company was based gave to Las Casas Ocampo's armada with
several brigantines and barques and all their contents, and he was to
choose amongst the three hundred followers of Ocampo one hundred and
twenty, who should constitute the armed force of the new colony, under the
latter's command. This arrangement, so it was pretended, would leave Las
Casas free to dedicate all his efforts to the conversion of the Indians.
The last article of the agreement was almost comical. It provided that
when Las Casas himself should denounce any Indians as cannibals, the
Spaniards should be bound to declare war against them and make slaves of
them.

He afterwards wrote concerning the articles of agreement as follows:

"Great was the blindness or ignorance--if indeed it was not malice--of those
gentlemen to believe that the clerigo would ever fulfil those horrible and
absurd conditions, knowing him to be a good Christian, not covetous, and
ready to die to liberate and help in saving those people from the
condition in which they were held."

With his armada well equipped, and a plentiful supply of provisions and
merchandise for trading purposes on board, Las Casas finally sailed from
Hispaniola in July, 1521, directing his course first to the island of
Mona, where a quantity of cassava bread was to be taken on board, and from
thence to Puerto Rico, where he expected to collect his original
colonists. On his arrival there, not one however, was found to join the
expedition, as they had long since dispersed throughout the island or had
joined marauding expeditions to capture Indians. This defection must have
caused Las Casas great disappointment, for he had assembled these men with
great care in Spain, choosing only such as he thought from their good
character to be adapted for his ideal colony. The change which their new
and strange surroundings had operated in these peaceful, simple folk was
not unnatur