f
Seville, and when he died his body was buried in one of the chapels of the
cathedral. His son, Alfonso, is stated in the chronicles of Don Juan II.
(1409) to have been appointed by the Infante, Don Fernando, to the
lieutenancy of Castillo de Priego, "because he was a valiant man who could
hold it well." The names of Guillen and Bartolome are of frequent
recurrence in the annals of the family, whose members constantly occupied
the honourable offices of judge, alcalde mayor, and captain, using the
title of Don and intermarrying with the most illustrious families of
Andalusia.

According to indications equivalent to proofs in the absence of any
positive record, from such respectable forebears descended Fray Bartolome
de Las Casas, who was born in Seville, in 1474. He himself speaks of
Seville as his native city, and the popular tradition, which fixes the
ancient suburb of Triana as his birthplace, was recognised in 1859 by the
municipality of Seville assigning the name of Calle del Procurador to one
of the streets of Triana, in honour of the Bishop, whose proudest title
was Protector (or Procurador) General of the Indians.

In his voluminous writings, which teem with information about the men and
events of his times, the references to his own family history are
infrequent and imperfect, so that from his own records of his life, very
little is to be gleaned concerning it. His father's name is variously
given by different writers as Alonso, Antonio, and Francisco, while he
himself states(1) that he was named Pedro, thus contradicting all his
biographers from Remesal, who was the first, down to Don Antonio Fabie,
whose admirable _Vida y Escritos_, published in 1879, was the last
important contribution on this interesting subject. Zuniga, in his
_Discurso de Ortices_, assumed that Alonso de las Casas and Beatriz
Maraver y Cegarra of Triana were the parents of Fray Bartholomew, but in
the _Anales de Sevilla_, a later work, Francisco is given as the father's
name. Neither Llorente nor Gutierrez, who has followed him, gives any
authority for his affirmation that the father's name was Antonio, while
Quintana and Fabie accept Remesal(2) and name the father Francisco.

The genealogy of the family furnished me by the dean of the Royal College
of Heralds in Madrid shows the descent of Fray Bartholomew through his
frather, named Francisco, from Alonso de Las Casas, "Senor de Gomez
Cardena, Veinticuatro de Seville, la Villa de