Note 1024 — Chapter V · (continued 2)

[Helps (Spanish Conquest) says: “Las Casas may be thoroughly trusted whenever he is speaking of things of which he had competent knowledge.” Ticknor (Spanish literature, ii. 31) calls him “a prejudiced witness, but on a point of fact within his own knowledge one to be believed.” H. H. Bancroft (Early American Chroniclers, p. 20; also Central America, i. 274, 309; ii. 337) speaks of the exaggeration which the zeal of Las Casas leads him into; but with due abatement therefor, he considers him “a keen and valuable observer, guided by practical sagacity, and endowed with a certain genius.”—Ed.]