LAS CASAS. The father of Las Casas was a companion of Columbus on his second voyage in 1493. He returned to Spain, taking with him a young Indian slave whom he gave to his son. This youth became greatly interested in the race to which his young slave belonged. In 1502 he went to Espanola to take possession of his father's estate. The planter's life did not long satisfy him and finally he became a priest. He moved from Espanola to Cuba, the newer colony. Las Casas became convinced that Indian slavery was wrong, and gave his own slaves their freedom. In his sermons he attacked the abuses of slavery. He visited Spain in order to help the slaves, and secured many reforms which lessened the hardships of their lot. Since the planters demanded more laborers and Las Casas thought the negro would be hardier than the Indian, he advocated negro slavery in place of Indian slavery as the less of two evils. Finally, in 1542, Las Casas persuaded his king, Charles V, to put an end to Indian slavery of every form. His success came too late to benefit the natives of the West Indies. They had decreased until almost none were left. It is said that there were two hundred thousand Indians in Espanola in 1492, and that in 1548 there were barely five hundred survivors. The same decrease had taken place in the other islands. But the work of Las Casas came in time to save the Indians on the mainland from the fate of the luckless islanders. NEGRO SLAVERY. Las Casas later regretted that he had advised the planters to obtain negroes to take the place of the Indians. Some negroes had been captured by the Portuguese on the coast of Africa during their explorations and taken to Europe as slaves. Columbus carried a few of these to the West Indies with him, and others had followed his example, but negro slavery had grown very slowly until after Las Casas stopped Indian slavery, when it increased rapidly in Spanish America. [Illustration: LAS CASAS After the picture by Felix Parra in the Academy, Mexico. Las Casas is supposed to be imploring Providence to shield the natives from Spanish cruelty] THE MISSIONS OF THE MAINLAND. Las Casas became at one time a missionary to a tribe of the most desperate warriors located on the southern border of Mexico, in a region called by the Spaniards the "Land of War." Three times a Spanish army had invaded the country, and three times it had been driven back by the native defenders. Las Casas wished to show the Spaniards that more could be accomplished by treating the Indians kindly than by bloody warfare and conquest.