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.

Of course every one was curious to hear what would be said, and when
Sunday came the church was crowded. There was the governor, Diego
Columbus, in his pew, with his wife,--a grand-niece of King
Ferdinand,--and there were the officers of the colony, all the prominent
citizens, in fact, everybody in the town. Father Montesino preached from
the text: I am "the voice of one crying in the wilderness."

He told the congregation that they were living in mortal sin because of
their cruelty and their tyranny over the innocent natives. He told them
plainly that by their oppression, their cruel tortures, and the forced
labor in the mines to which they subjected these helpless people, they
were killing the whole race, and he declared that they had no chance of
salvation while they continued in such sin.

You may be sure that Father Montesino's hearers were both frightened and
angry at this bold sermon. All honor to the brave man who dared to
preach it and to the little company of his brethren who stood with him!
It was the first voice raised in the new world against slavery.

That afternoon the citizens had a meeting at the governor's house and
appointed a committee to visit and rebuke the preacher. However, this
accomplished nothing, as neither Father Montesino, the Prior of the
little community, nor any of the brotherhood was at all moved by their
threats, and all they