42
LIFE A N D VOYAGES OF
[BOOK
VIII.
he served. Las, Casas, the zealous and enthusiastic advocate of the Indians, who suffers no opportunity to escape him of exclaim足 ing in vehement terms against their slavery, speaks with indul足 gence of Columbus on this head. If those pious and learned men, he observes, whom the sovereigns took for guides and instructors, were so ignorant of the injustice of this practice, it is no wonder that the unlettered admiral should not be conscious of its impropriety.* * Las Casas, Hist. Ind., torn. i. cap. 122, MS.