Not only were the Spaniards under his own control in little harmony with the spirit of his intentions and as refractory as they dared be to his orders, but the pearl fishers on the island of Cubagua, who were a typical lot of godless ruffians, frequently came to the mainland, with the valid excuse that the absence of sweet water on their island obliged them to fetch their supply from the Cumaná River. These expeditions for water were usually accompanied by some disturbances with the Indians, some of whom were frequently captured and carried off to work in the pearl fisheries. To put a stop to these incursions into his territory, Las Casas contracted with a mason, for eight dollars in gold per month, to build him a fort at the mouth of the river; but the people at Cubagua, hearing of this project which would interrupt and control their movements, contrived to so influence the mason that he threw up his contract and abandoned the work, thus leaving the country defenceless. The Cubaguans seduced and ruined the Indians, chiefly by offering them liquors and spirits, which have always proved the white man’s most attractive and destructive products to the savage and have ever gone in the vanguard of civilisation. The Indians gave everything they possessed for alcohol even selling their fellows as slaves, in exchange for wines; these they drank to inordinate excess, and in the fury of their debauch quarrels broke out amongst them which ended in murders and a state of the most riotous disorder, against which Las Casas and the monks struggled in vain. The strongest representations and protests were made to the alcalde of Cubagua, whither Las Casas went in person, but, far from producing the desired result, his efforts to protect his own territory only served to excite increased resentment on the part of his lawless neighbours, and neither his own life nor that of the Franciscans was any longer safe from the threatened reprisals of their hostile countrymen. The situation was one of the greatest gravity and even peril; instead of showing promise of improvement, it grew daily worse; for, though the men at Cubagua were somewhat restrained from venturing upon open acts of hostility directed against him since they had seen what powers the royal cedulas gave him, their ingenuity in devising vexations, inventing contrarieties, and creating obstacles which effectually nullified all his efforts, was extraordinarily fertile. Fray Juan Garceto was of the opinion that Las Casas should return to Hispaniola to complain to the Audiencia and demand that some effective restraint be exercised upon the Spaniards at Cubagua or, failing of success there, that he should even go to the King himself to obtain redress and the punishment of the offenders. This advice did not accord with Las Casas’s own view, for he had reason to know how difficult it was to obtain anything from the Audiencia and how easy it was