Have availed to bring about their renunciation of the established
system. In the first sermons preached by his friars, the subject of
slavery was not mentioned, and Las Casas sought, more by private
conversation and argument
with individuals, to convince them of the grave infraction of morals
as well as the open violation
of the law, they committed in holding the Indians in slavery. His
arguments fell upon deaf ears, nor did a single
Spaniard accept his admonitions or entertain for a moment the idea of
liberating his slaves.
Nor did their resistance confine itself to a passive form, for within
a short time, the colonists openly refused him obedience and withheld
his lawful tithes, declaring that they would not receive him as their
Bishop, and occasioning him every
annoyance and discomfort they could invent. The refusal of his tithes
caused the Bishop serious embarrassment, as it left him without funds
to pay for the ship he had chartered in Hispaniola for his journey to
Campeche.
The priest of the town managed to raise about one hundred castellanos
for this purpose and Las Casas signed a note for the remainder.
The Governor
of those regions at
that time was Francisco de Montejo, who had played a conspicuous part
in the affairs of Mexico, whither he had gone with Fernando Cortes.
He was absent when Las
Casas landed at Campeche and became the object
of such general and determined hostility,
and his son was governing in his stead. In respon