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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: call the dark-skinned heathen their brothers; and asserted in terms
which astonish us, when we recollect the age in which they were
spoken, the inherent freedom of every being who wore the flesh and
blood which their Lord wore; true martyrs, they bore witness of
Christ, and received too often the rewards of such, in slander and
contempt. Such an one was Fray Gerundio; a poor, mean, clumsy-
tongued peasant's son, who never could put three sentences
together, save when he waxed eloquent, crucifix in hand, amid some
group of Indians or negroes. He was accustomed to such rebuffs as
the bishop's; he took them for what they were worth, and sipped his
wine in silence; while the talk went on.
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