Don Bartolomé de las Casas

All Saints’ Day, the First of November, Anno Domini Fifteen Hundred and Fifteen

50 Leagues West of the Azores

Bartolomé sat hunched over his copy of the Sapiential Books, struggling to read the words of Ben Sira with only the scant rays of sun peaking through the boards of the ships deck above to aid him. He’d studied this chapter many times before, but now, with his meeting with the King on the horizon, he needed to make sure that he knew the words by heart. As the ship swayed with the heaving seas, he spoke aloud the words before him.

“Immolantis ex iniquo oblatio est maculata, et non sunt beneplacitæ subsannationes injustorum.”

The offering of he who sacrifices something wrongfully gained is tainted, and the mockeries of the unjust are unacceptable. The words moved something within his soul, that same part that had cried out when Friar Pedro gave his fiery sermon 4 years past. Bartolomé now knew, thanks to fervent study, that God could not accept a tithe provided by men who kill, torture, and rape their way to riches. Bartolomé felt deep shame that he was part of their number, and now was dedicated to putting an end to what atrocities such men committed in the name of their own enrichment. For just as God could not accept the tithe of the conquistador who acted in vainglory to destroy the peaceful, He neither could look favorably on a Kingdom that plundered in his name. For this reason, Bartolomé had left Cuba, the service of Diego Velázquez, and his encomienda and slaves, to sail for Sevilla, and then the Court of King Fernando. God-willing, he could petition the King to put an end to the injustices of the Spanish in the Indies…

Little did he know that Fernando already laid upon his deathbed. Soon, his only hope for the saving of the Indians would be the withdrawn Queen Juana, and her young heir Prince Carlos. Time will tell whether or not the Crown will listen to his ideas and bring about a new future for the Indies.

Cuba

Surprised by the departure of his able commander Bartolomé de las Casas, Diego Velázquez wastes little time setting up a colonial administration in the name of the Crown in Cuba, founding the town of Santiago de Cuba as the colonial capital. Colonists flood the port of Baracoa in search of new gold, and those not putting down Taíno “rebellions” continue the harsh exploitation of the native people under the Crown’s new “moral” guidelines of Burgos. Some areas are already seeing drastic population decline, similar to La Española, leading slavers to venture further from the island’s shores to find new labor for the encomiendas. Rumors have begun circulating of a great chain of islands to the west, where slaves can be captured in abundance. No one has yet proven these rumors as factual, yet, but Velázquez is intrigued.

Santiago

The year 1515 sees a turn-around in Spanish fortunes on Santiago. Juan Cerón, Diego Colón’s man on the island, finally makes a set of successful excursions from Santiago de la Vega into the land rules by the local caciques of the Yamaye. A few small outposts are established along the island’s southern shore, allowing for settlers to begin branching out from the main settlement. The hold is fragile, however, and it will take time before the island can fully be brought under Christian dominion.

Nueva Galicia

Where peace reigned in 1514, chaos has emerged the following year. Juaroanscua, returned from her campaign to unite the Eastern Algonquians, started the year off by demanding that Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón weds her as the late governor Sebastian de Ocampo had. Ayllón’s refusal was at first met with what seemed to be amicable understanding, but a night attack on the settlement of Santo Refugio has seen a state of open war break out in Nueva Galicia. Besieged on all sides by the Juaroanscua’s powerful Tsenacommacah confederation, the colony appears close to collapsing. In a last ditch effort, Ayllón and several of his captains managed to set sail in the dead of night to make for Spain, where they hope to gather a force to relieve Santo Refugio. That is, if there still is a colony to save by the time they return…

Castilla del Oro

Pedrarias Davila has taken up his sword to avenge the death of Francisco de Bobadilla at the hands of the Coclé, but 1515 does not seem to be his year. After months of traversing the countryside, an ambush sends the Expedition running home to regroup in the late days of the year. However, not all is lost. On their way back to Nombre de Dios, they encounter an odd group of traders. They speak a tongue dissimilar to that of any other Indians known to Pedrarias, though they also know the language of his auxiliary, Ninguané. Through him they relate that they are people from the far north. Pedrarias, his curiosity piqued, invites them to travel with him and asks if they know of Tolla.They claim to recognize this name, but have not been to it themselves. Sending a messenger back to their homeland, the traders travel to the colony with Pedrarias.

[Map to come in coming days]