ellious people; lying children,
children that will not hear the law of God. Who say to the seers, see
not; and to the prophets, prophesy not right things unto us; speak unto us
smooth things, prophesy deceits."

The sermon was not without the intended effect, and the Viceroy began to
regret the exclusion of the subject of slavery from the council: as a
compromise, he consented that separate meetings should be held in the
convent of San Domingo to consider this subject, offering to transmit to
the Emperor the conclusions adopted. Las Casas was ably seconded in the
proceedings of these meetings, by Fray Luis Cancer, and a declaration was
drawn up declaring that the Indians--with few exceptions--had been unjustly
enslaved and that those who held them were bound to set them free:
slave-holders were described as tyrants and all personal services exacted
from the defenceless natives were condemned. Those who took part in these
meetings and signed the decisions, were destitute of any means to give
effect to them, but they adopted measures to publish and distribute copies
of them throughout the colonies, in the hope that they might influence
public opinion in the right direction.

Las Casas named the Canon, Juan Perera, as his Vicar-General in the
diocese of Chiapa, on the ninth of November, 1546, and at the same time
appointed as confessors the friars Tomas Casillas, Tomas de la Torre,
Domingo de Arana, and Alonso de Villabra, to whom he furnished copies of
the instructions approved by the council of Mexico, in which were
comprised the twelve rules. The colonists appealed to the Emperor against
the instructions, which they held to be unduly severe and onerous for
them, and, in reply to their petition, a royal order dated in Valladolid
on the twenty-eighth of November, 1542, was received by the Audiencia of
Mexico ordering a copy of the disputed regulations to be sent to Spain for
examination.

In the early part of the year 1547, Las Casas arrived in Vera Cruz to
embark for Spain, and after some delay there, until a ship could be found
for the voyage, left the shores of America for the last time(65)

CHAPTER XX. - LAS CASAS ARRIVES AT VALLADOLID. THE THIRTY PROPOSITIONS.
DEBATE WITH GINES DE SEPULVEDA

Rejected by his flock in Chiapa, abused and denounced by the Spanish
colonists in America, the venerable Bishop's arrival in his native country
was preceded by accusations intended to prejudice the young Prince