Born in Spain in 1474, Bartolome de Las Casas was a historian and 
missionary who came to Hispaniola in 1502, shortly after Christopher 
Columbus discovered the New World.  He was ordained in 1510, at 
which time he began speaking out against cruel treatment of Indians  
at the hands of Spanish settlers.  He opposed slavery of Indians and 
even petitioned the Spanish government to put an end to the 
practice.  He tried unsuccessfully to establish an Indian colony in 
1520, and afterward went south to Peru and Guatemala to work 
among the natives, both converting them to Christianity and 
protecting them against slavery.  Las Casas helped formulate the New 
Laws which were designed to protect the Indians within the Spanish 
colonies from abuses.  He was one of the first Europeans to recognize 
what damages the discovery of the New World would cause to its 
native population.