While Las Casas emerged from his cocoon at Puerto Plata, conquistadors continued to sweep across across Mexico and Central America and began the conquest of Peru. Hernán Cortés (1485–1547) consolidated and expanded the range of his conquests in central Mexico and pushed into lands both to the north and south, while much further south Francisco Pizarro (1471–1541) invaded Peru in 1532 and in a swift campaign reduced the Inca Empire to obedience by 1534. Lingering Inca resistance and internecine warfare among Pizarro’s Spanish competitors turned the Peruvian theater into a chaotic frontier. But the inevitable consequences of expeditions such as those led by Cortés and Pizarro and their lieutenants were the expansion of the growing Spanish Empire in the New World.

The Enriquillo Episode

Las Casas’s departure from Puerto Plata began with a dramatic life-changing event that represented a second epiphany of sorts for Las Casas. And, as usual, his role in this episode was controversial. The bare bones of the episode that all can agree on are as follows.