Las Casas: "The Apostle of the Indies"

								

Ovando, would provide the funds. And off the gentleman would have to go
from the dinner table to the ship.
But although Ovando ruled the white men well, he was neither just nor
kind to the Indians. He gave them out in lots of fifty, or a hundred, or
five hundred, to those who wanted them, and the poor creatures were
worked to death and abused without mercy. When, in desperation, they
would rise against their tyrants, they were punished savagely, being
burned alive, torn to pieces by bloodhounds, and drowned in the ocean or
the rivers, even helpless little children often being treated in this
way.
In 1510 four Dominican friars came over to Hispaniola and settled in San
Domingo. The Sunday after their arrival one of them preached a sermon on
the glories of heaven,--a discourse that Las Casas heard, and one that
made a great impression on him. In the afternoon the Prior asked to have
the Indians sent to the church to be taught; so they came,--men, women,
and children; and this custom the Dominicans continued every Sunday
afterward.
Some time in this same year Las Casas was ordained priest. We should
like to know how he came to take this step, but he tells us nothing
about it. He threw himself into his new duties with the same energy that
he had used in his business, and began at once to teach the Indians, as
the Dominicans were doing. Whatever he did, all his life long, he did
with all his might, and very soon he became famous all over the island
for his learning and goodness.
The little settlement of four Dominicans had increased by the end of the
next year to twelve; nor had they been there many months before they
began to have their eyes opened to the wrongs the Indians were suffering
at the hands of the white men.
A Spaniard who had killed his wife in a fit of jealousy and had been
hiding for two or three years, repenting of his crime and tired of
living in concealment and fear, came to the Dominicans by night and
begged them to take him in and let him stay with them as a lay brother.
When they were convinced that the man was truly repentant they received
him. He told them of the dreadful cruelties of which he and others had
been guilty toward the natives, and the good fathers soon felt that
they must look into the matter. This they did, and were not long in
coming to the conclusion that it was a great evil to make slaves of the
Indians and that they must do something to put a stop to it. So they
fasted and prayed, and conferred together, and finally decided that one
of their number, Father Antonio Montesino, should preach a sermon on the
subject.
The week before the sermon was to be preached all the Dominicans went
throughout the town and invited every one, from the governor down to the
humblest citizen, to come to the church on the following Sunday, which
was the First Sunday in Advent, to hear the sermon, which, they said,
would be upon a new subject, interesting to all of them.