Columbus Sails From Spain On First Voyage, August 3, 1492

Today is the day that Bartolome de las Casas said that Cristobal Colon left Spain for 'the Indies', in 1492. Colon of course, known to the world as Columbus would find something other than what he went looking for. This was not the fault of de las Casas. His name is associated with the conquest of the Americas as Columbus' has been over the centuries, but instead as remaining in the column of conquereors or discoverers the name de las Casas sits in the column of apologists.
His story is interesting in its own right and has been championed and villified as Columbus' was. Las Casas was called Marxist and Socialist centuries aterward, though he lived centuries before those terms came into being, as well as called traitor and 'voice of the people'. His adaptation of the log-book of Columbus' first voyage has become the closest account reamaining since Columbus' own work disappeared long ago. But las Casas other works include The Devestation Of The Indies as well as being the first residing bishop of Chiapas in Mexico.
There is much to this Dominican Friar's life and much of that intertwines with the mesoamerican world as Europeans began to learn of it, both despite and through his efforts.