ominicans came to meet the Bishop
and his companions and escorted them to the monastery, and the _Te Deum_
was sung in the church, in thanksgiving for their escape from so many
perils.

Hardly any in San Domingo, except the Dominicans, were glad to see the
protector of the Indians. The new laws were regarded as the ruin of the
colonies. Indignation meetings were held, and it was determined to
boycott the monks. This was a very serious calamity to the Dominicans,
for as they, like the Franciscans, belonged to what were known as the
mendicant orders, and depended for their daily bread upon what they
could beg, they were reduced to extremity.

Prayer was offered in the church night and day, and very soon the
Franciscans began secretly to send the Dominicans food from what they
themselves received, and an old negro woman offered to make a round
every day of the houses where there were people that did not share the
evil spirit of the rest of the town, and so their necessity was
relieved.

In spite of this condition of things, Las Casas went before the
_Audiencia_, and in the name of the King, summoned them to set free the
Indians. But Spanish subjects had a right to protest against any new
laws if they so desired, and when this was done, the laws were not
enforced until the protest had been either accepted or rejected.

Meanwhile, Las Casas himself wrote to the Emperor, and both he and
others of the Dominicans preached constantly against slavery and the
wrongs done the Indians. Naturally, these sermons increased the hatred
against them. In the midst of these troubles, however, the friars were
astonished and delighted to receive a visit one day from a rich widow,
said to be the richest person in the colony, who came to tell them that
their sermons had convinced her that it was a sin to hold the Indians in
bondage, and she had resolved to free hers (she had more than two
hundred); and because she now felt that her money had been made wrongly,
she was about to make over her plantation to the order. This caused a
great sensation in the town. Then, too, seeing the Dominicans holding to
their convictions, directly against their own interests, after a time
made many people rather ashamed of themselves, and little by little the
hostility died away, so that when the time came for Las Casas and his
monks to leave, some of the Spaniards even expressed regret.

They sailed early in December, and this voyage also proved a trying one