d or man."

Las Casas, who loved sinners as much as he loathed sin, observed this
motley population with a more tolerant eye and affirmed that even amongst
those who had lost their ears, he still found sufficiently honest men; it
was not difficult to lose one's ears in those days. The voice of Fray
Antonio cried indeed in a moral wilderness! But however far these men had
strayed from the true spirit of their religion, they had no intention of
foregoing the ministrations of the church, and they clung tenaciously to
the outward observance of forms and ceremonies as an offset against their
lax conformity to its moral precepts.

To be thus placed between the ban of excommunication and the renunciation
of their illegally held slaves, was an intolerable prospect. Appeal or
protest to the Prior being useless, they despatched complaint to the King
and chose for the bearer of it a Franciscan friar, Alonso de Espinal, who
was instructed to unite his efforts to those of two other agents, who had
already been sent to obtain an extension of the encomienda privileges.
The Dominicans sent as their representative to contest the case, the
offending preacher himself, some generous sympathisers having been found
in the colony to furnish the money for the expenses of his journey.

The advocate for the colonists found all doors open to him and his way
made easy, for there were not a few of the courtiers and other great
personages in Spain who derived large profits from the abusive traffic in
the Indies, but the Dominican was friendless and met with obstacles on
every hand which barred his access to the King. He managed after some
exercise of patience to outwit the gentlemen in attendance, and, forcing
his way into the King's presence, begged to be heard. Upon receiving the
royal permission to speak, the monk unfolded such a tale that the King sat
stupefied with horror at his ghastly recital. "Did your Highness order
such deeds to be done?" asked the monk. "No, by God, never on my life,"
replied the King. The immediate result of King Ferdinand's aroused
conscience was, that a commission was formed to inquire into the case and
to take information on which to base a report to his Majesty. The sense
of this report was that the Indians were freemen, but must be instructed
in the Christian religion; that they might be made to labour, but not in
such wise as to hinder their conversion nor in excess of their strength;
that they should have