Fray Miguel was deputed to draw up in writing their conclusions, which he did in the somewhat lengthy form common at that time, the substance of the decision being that repartimientos and encomiendas were condemned absolutely, as the principal and direct cause of the destruction of the Indians; and second, that the only means for correcting the existing abuses and to civilise and convert the Indians was to form towns of at most twelve hundred householders. Las Casas was opposed to the remedy, which he perceived to be not only without efficacy, but positively hurtful to the Indians, who would only deteriorate under such unfamiliar conditions. This divergence of opinion between Las Casas and the preachers introduced disunion where unity was the sole source of strength, and the inability to fix upon a remedy for the evils, which all were agreed cried out for one, destroyed the force of the representations in favour of the Indians. All were agreed that the actual state of things was intolerable, but they could not agree upon the remedy to be adopted. In reality no laws could cope with the situation. A weak, retrograde race of ignorant people was suddenly brought into contact with the strong, active Spaniards, who carried with them a civilisation to which the former were inertly refractory. There was but the one possible outcome, which has repeated itself throughout the world’s history—the weaker race had to go under. Neither the Utopia of Las Casas nor the laws proposed 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.