d by their preaching; a widow named Solano, who was
reputed the richest person in the colony, came one day to the convent and
declared that she was convinced of the truth of all the preachers had
expounded concerning the iniquity of slavery and that she had in
consequence resolved, not only to liberate her two hundred and more
slaves, but to make restitution of her tainted wealth in as far as she
could, by transferring her plantations to the Order, as her awakened
conscience forbade her enjoyment of it. This event stirred the entire
colony profoundly, and as the action of the friars was so clearly contrary
to their own temporal interests as to place the sincerity of their
convictions and the purity of their motive beyond question, a certain
revulsion in public sentiment began to manifest itself. It is not recorded
that anybody else followed the widow's example, but such a change was
operated in the disposition of the better class of people that when the
time for Las Casas and his friars to leave arrived, regret for their
departure was expressed on all sides. On December 14th they embarked on
what proved to be a long and tempestuous voyage, attended by many and
great dangers; owing to the ignorance of the pilot, the Bishop himself had
to take the wheel. Christmas was celebrated at sea, and it was not until
the fifth of January that they finally landed at the port of Lazaro on the
coast of Campeche. The first episcopal function performed by the Bishop
in his new diocese was the pontifical celebration of the vigil and mass of
the Epiphany, during which he delivered an earnest discourse on the one
theme that furnished material for all his sermons and writings--the
injustice and sin of slavery and the obligation resting on all Christian
Spaniards to liberate their slaves in conformity with the laws of the
Emperor, and to provide for their humane treatment and conversion,
according to the law of God.

CHAPTER XVII. - RECEPTION OF LAS CASAS IN HIS DIOCESE. EVENTS IN CIUDAD
REAL. THE INDIANS OF CHIAPA

Although the Bishop of Chiapa, upon landing in his diocese, determined to
follow the dictates of prudence rather than the promptings of zeal in
bringing his spiritual subjects into submission to the New Laws, the
question of Indian slavery was one so closely bound up with their temporal
interests that no moderation or persuasion on his part could have availed
to bring about their renunciation of the established sy