to be tolerated by common
acquiescence, until something--an event without or a stirring of his soul
within--startles his better self into a realisation of his surroundings,
the scales fall from his eyes which, having, he saw not, and in a flash,
the iniquity of proceedings to which he has assented, in which he has
shared, and by which he has profited, becomes manifest.

In the Indies a premium was placed on rebellion; the oftener the Indians
could be goaded into open revolt, the more slaves could be acquired
according to due process of law, and everybody's profits increased. To
such profitable encouragement the colonists were not slow to respond and
they were fertile in devices for rendering the lives of the Indians
intolerable.

No champion was forthcoming to defend the helpless native or even to make
his woes known; the tender-hearted Queen, who loved justice and hated
iniquity, was remote and her beneficent intentions towards her humble
subjects in the islands were inoperative. "The heavens are high and the
Tzar is far" say the long-suffering mujiks, whose road to their "little
father's" throne is barred by an army of interested bureaucrats. Tyranny
is of divers sorts and one tyranny differs from another other in infamy,
but the worst tyranny of all is the dual tyranny over both body and soul
exercised collectively by irresponsible men over their fellows, and this
was the tyranny of such slavery as prevailed in the Spanish colonies. The
specious argument that the only way to convert the Indians was to keep
them among the Spaniards, was constantly insisted upon in pious phrases
meant to delude the Queen by a display of zeal in carrying out her plan
for their conversion. Ovando wrote complaining of the desertion of the
Indians, who escaped whenever they could from contact with the Spaniards
and fled in numbers to the remotest recesses of the forests, facing
starvation rather than endure their life in the settlements. And what
wonder! for would any rational Indian voluntarily live amidst such
surroundings and submit to such labour for the sole benefit of his
tyrants? Nothing that the afflicted natives saw of the religion or the
civilisation of the Spaniards could possibly attract them to either.

CHAPTER IV. - THE DOMINICANS IN HISPANIOLA. THE ORDINATION OF LAS CASAS.
THE CONQUEST OF CUBA.

In the month of September of the year 1510, the first Dominican friars,
four in number, arrived in Hispaniola