The King and the Council of the Indies, in granting lands to Spaniards establishing themselves in America, and distributing Indians among them to become labourers on these lands, had as one of their purposes an end not greatly different from the object of the missionary’s striving. They hoped that by gathering the Indians on these estates to make them immediately subject to Christians who would be required to provide opportunities and facilities for the Indians to acquire a knowledge of Christian doctrine. Thus one of the features of the colonial organization against which Las Casas directed his vehement eloquence was in some part the product of a design formed to further the conversion of the Indians. If it did not attain its high aim or respond to the exalted purpose of Las Casas, it failed for the same reason that some of Las Casas’ plans had failed: it was conceived in imperfect knowledge of American conditions, and was entrusted for execution to selfish, in other words, human agents. II [Sidenote: Oviedo’s early life] An attempt less radical than that of Las Casas to improve Spain’s colonial administration was made by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, author of the _Historia general y natural de las Indias_. Although Oviedo’s posthumous fame rests almost exclusively on his writings, his reputation during his lifetime was based chiefly on his practical activity. A contemporary of Las Casas, he was born in Madrid in 1478, and very early entered the service of Don Alfonso de Aragón, the second duke of Villahermosa, a nephew of King Ferdinand. Here his early years were spent under the influence of persons interested in literary cultivation, and where the circumstances tended to stimulate his natural intelligence. At the age of thirteen he became attached to the court of the Catholic Kings as a page. Two years later the sovereigns entered upon the campaign against Granada, and Gonzalo followed the Court to Santa Fe. There as a youth he saw some of Spain’s most distinguished men of the time. He saw Columbus, whose distinction was yet to be won, and who appeared asking assistance to enable him to find a new world. [Sidenote: Oviedo in Italy] [Sidenote: Joins Pedrarias’ expedition]