In 1547 Fray Cancer and Las Casas returned to Spain, and by their representations induced the emperor to consent to an expedition to Florida to be conducted by the former on the system by which the pacification of Vera Paz was accomplished. His Majesty extended every facility to the friar, supplying him with funds and issuing an order which would enable him to obtain every encouragement and aid from the authorities in Mexico.[XX‑55] The friar made his preparations with great enthusiasm; yet he met with considerable delay, caused by the unfavorable light in which his dangerous enterprise was regarded in Spain. He had great difficulty in obtaining a pilot, and indeed, although he had hoped to procure the assistance of four or six colleagues, two only were found ready to risk their lives in the cause. "All Seville," he wrote, "is surprised at this undertaking; those who most fear God approve of it; others think that we are going to the slaughter-house."[XX‑56] [Sidenote: MARTYRDOM.] Writing these prophetic and ill-omened words on the very day of his departure Fray Luis sailed on his last voyage from Spain. Few particulars of his expedition are known, except the manner of his death. On his arrival in Mexico he obtained the assistance which the king ordered to be extended to him, and about the middle of 1549 set sail from Vera Cruz, accompanied by Frailes Gregorio de Beteta, Juan García, Diego de Tolosa, and a lay brother named Fuentes. Contrary to his express desire the captain of the vessel landed him at a part of the Florida coast where Spaniards had previously committed depredations and thus exasperated the natives. Unconscious of this act of carelessness,[XX‑57] Fray Cancer, accompanied by Tolosa and the lay brother, proceeded on his mission, but the ill-fated ecclesiastics had not advanced far from the shore when they were assailed by Indians, and immediately beaten to death with clubs.[XX‑58] This disastrous termination of an enterprise from which Las Casas and his advocates had expected so much was a bitter cup which his opponents did not fail to hold out to him. Yet this stout combatant for the system of bloodless pacification yielded not an iota in his principles, and ably defended himself against Sepúlveda by maintaining that the previous cruel conduct of the Spaniards on the coast was the cause of the tragedy in Florida.[XX‑59] The career of Las Casas in Chiapas and the appointment of Cerrato as governor of Guatemala have already been mentioned. CHAPTER XXI. GUATEMALA AND CHIAPAS. 1551-1600.