I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. In order to
make your sins known to you I have mounted this pulpit, I who
am the voice of Christ crying in the wilderness of this island;
and therefore it behooves you to listen to me, not with indifference
but with all your heart and senses; for this voice will be the
strangest, the harshest and hardest, the most terrifying that
you ever heard or expected to hear….
This
voice declares that you are in mortal sin, and live and die
therein by reason of the cruelty and tyranny that you practice
on these innocent people. Tell me, by what right or justice
do you hold these Indians in such cruel and horrible slavery?
By what right do you wage such detestable wars on these people
who lived mildly and peacefully in their own lands, where you
have consumed infinite numbers of them with unheard of murders
and desolations? Why do you so greatly oppress and fatigue them,
not giving them enough to eat or caring for them when they fall
ill from excessive labors, so that they die or rather are slain
by you, so that you may extract and acquire gold every day?
And what care do you take that they receive religious instruction
and come to know their God and creator, or that they be baptized,
hear mass, or observe holidays and Sundays? Are they not men?
Do they not have rational souls? Are you not bound to love them
as you love yourselves? How can you lie in such profound and
lethargic slumber? Be sure that in your present state you can
no more be saved than the Moors or Turks who do not have and
do not want the faith of Jesus Christ.
