The Life of Las Casas

Born in Seville in 1474, Bartholomew de Las Casas, eventually a Dominican & called "Protector of the Indians," was 28 years old when he made his first voyage to the Indies with his father and under Columbus. He was 92 when he contended before Philip in favor of "the Guatemalans having Courts of Justice of their own." In his life he fulfilled several vocations, and wrote the History of the Indies. Sir Arthur Helps was a close friend of Queen Victoria, who very soon learned to greatly appreciate his powers of mind, his intuition and discernment, his skill in the analysis of character, and his masterful grasp of business exigencies.