PROTECTOR OF THE INDIANS

The biography of Bartolome Las Casas is a chronicle of a life dedicated, for nearly a century, to the welfare of the native West Indians and to the opposition of slavery. Born into the late fifteenth century, a period in which Spain clutched greedily at the land of the Indies, in her lust totally indifferent to the life or well being of the native population, Bishop Las Casas was the self appointed deliverer of the oppressed people, often facing the scorn, not only of the power-hungry, but of his own church and state. Only the Indians, whose history he brilliantly recorded, trusted him, and in the end, his efforts did much to safeguard their rights. An engrossing history of a black page of European history and of a man's singlehearted efforts to bring light.