up against his brethren, whose
only offence lay in giving him hospitality, he did not allow his regrets
on this score to arrest or modify the steps he intended to take to enforce
obedience to the New Laws. Shortly after his arrival, he presented copies
of the laws and of the other royal ordinances which he carried, to the
Audiencia, asking that, in accordance with their provisions, all Indians
then held in slavery should be liberated. Although the President,
Cerrato, supported him, the other members of the Audiencia were one and
all opposed. According to the current phrase, they agreed to _obey_ the
law, but declared they could not _comply_ with it. They all held slaves
themselves and the only result of the action of Las Casas was, that they
sent their representatives to Spain to procure some reform in the more
obnoxious articles of the code.

The presence of Las Casas in Hispaniola infused new courage into the
Dominicans, who had been discouraged in recent years by the difficulty and
hopelessness of contending against public opinion on the subject of the
Indians and had consequently ceased to preach and agitate in their favour:
some members of the community had even been affected by the prevalent
opinion that the Indians were really a race of a different order, servile
by nature, and destined by Providence to a life of subjection to their
superiors. Learned arguments were found to sustain this opinion. The
well-known chapters of Aristotle's _Politics_ were quoted, the Scriptures
were drawn upon, and, as not infrequently happens, many good men adopted
the easier line of not contending with the views of the rich and powerful.

There now ensued a sort of revival of the old enthusiasm in the defence of
the natives; sermons were preached which stirred up great wrath and
provoked protest from the authorities. It was easy to adopt reprisals on
the friars, and the colonists did not hesitate to do so, refusing alms and
supplies to the convents. Threats of violence, even of shooting Fray
Tomas Casillas, whose sermons had been particularly offensive, were not
wanting, though fortunately they were not executed. The friars were
reduced to the last extremity and, but for the charity of some few
sympathisers and the generous aid of the Franciscan monks who fed them,
they would have found themselves in want of the absolute necessaries of
life in the midst of a hostile populace. At this juncture a notable
conversion was effecte