d to be obeyed. When any
gentleman became troublesome, Ovando would invite him to dine with him,
talk so pleasantly and flatteringly to his guest that he would think the
governor must mean to do something very grand for him, and then,
suddenly pointing down the harbor, would ask in which of the ships lying
at anchor the gentleman would like to take passage for Spain. The poor
man, confused and alarmed, yet afraid to protest, would very likely say
that he had no money to pay his fare. Whereupon the very polite little
governor would at once tell him not to let that trouble him, as he,
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