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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35553	The tears of the Indians being an historical and true account of the cruel massacres and slaughters of above twenty millions of innocent people, committed by the Spaniards in the islands of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, &c. : as also in the continent of Mexico, Peru, & other places of the West-Indies, to the total destruction of those countries / written in Spanish by Casaus, an eye-witness of those things ; and made English by J.P.; Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias. English	Casas, Bartolomé de las, 1474-1566.; Phillips, John, 1631-1706.	1656 (1656)	Wing C799; ESTC R19416	54,176	156

permitting them to discern that no man can be called a Rebell who is not before a Subject This cruel Tyrant leaning upon this pretence sent two other Captains excelling himself in fury and impiety to Guatimala the most fertile and most flourishing Kingdome both for men and fruit of any that were situated southward They had also received commands to visit the Kingdomes of Naco Honduras and Guaimara looking toward the north and being distant from Mexico above three hundred miles the one was sent by land the other by sea being both of them well furnished with men and ammunition for Horse and Foot And this I dare affirm that the enormities committed by these two Captains and by him especially that was sent to Guatimala for the other dyed an evill death in good time are enough to fill a particular volume so many were the slaughters violences injuries butcheries and beastly desolations which they perpetrated as do not only amaze the present but must of necessity strike a horror into future ages for in this place their abominations and devastations were more fatal then in any place before As for him that went by sea he vex'd all the shore with his incursions and cruelties to whom there came certain out of the Kingdome of Yucatan which lies in the way to the Kingdomes of Naco and Naymura whither he was then marching and brought him many presents yet he was no sooner come into the Countrey but he sent the souldiers to depopulate and waste the same who ceased not to commit many abominable outrages Among the rest a certain seditious rebel entring into a region bordering upon Guatemala burnt up their City killing the Inhabitants and laying waste all the Countrey which he did on purpose that if he should be pursued by his enemies they might be liable to the revenge of the Indians as they passed along which happened accordingly for there the chief Commander from whose power the foresaid Captain had rebell'd was slain but he was succeeded by many other fell tyrants who with their wonted cruelties and captivity destroyed the people selling them to those that brought garments and other provision and by that kinde of servitude which they practised from the year 1524. to the year 1535. they depopulated and made desert the provinces of Naco and Honduras which seemed to be the Elysium and Paradise of the world in every respect And I have lately seen them so destroyed that it would move the most stony heart to compassion In these eleven years there prrished in this Countrey above two millions scarce two thousand now remaining who daily diminish through the hardnesse of their servitude But as for that abominable tyrant that exceeded all that were before in tyranny and is equall to all that remains behinde let us now finde him out in Guatimala He going through the Provinces adjoyning to Mexico toward Guatimala which are above four hundred miles in length minded nothing else all the way he went but slaughters rapines burnings depopulations compelling all upon the foresaid pretence to submit themselves to their cruelties in the name of the King of Spain whom they had never seen nor heard of and whom they could not but think more unjust and cruel then his Ministers and Officers yet giving them no time to deliberate they wasted all before them with fire and sword Of the Kingdome and Province of Guatimala AT their first entrance into this Kingdome they committed a very great outrage But for all that their chief Lord and Governor carried in a Litter came forth to meet him with Drums and Trumpets and great joy attended by many of the Nobles of the City of Vtlacan the greatest Mart Town of that Kingdome where they gave him provisions in abundance with all that he could desire That night the Spaniards lodg'd without the City not thinking themselves safe in a Town so well fortified as that was The next day he called to him the chief Lord with a great number of the Nobles demanding of them a very great quantity of Gold They returning him answer that they could not satisfie his request by reason that their Countrey afforded not Gold were immediately by his command without any cause or form of proceeding all burnt alive The rest of the Nobles of these Provinces seeing that all the chiefest of them who had the power and government of the Kingdome in their hands were for no cause put to death but because they were not able to give them gold fled to the mountains for safety charging their subjects to submit themselves to the Spaniards but not to tell them where their sculking places were nor to give them notice of their flight Whereupon an infinite number of the Indians came to the Spaniards requesting that they might be their subjects and that they might serve them The Captain made answer that he would not receive them and that moreover he would kill them all unlesse they would declare whither their Lords were fled the Indians replyed That they knew nothing of it but their Wives and Children they said were ready to serve them adding that they were at home in their houses whither they might goe and either kill them or use them as they pleas'd which offers they made to them again and again But strange to tell the Spaniards demanded their Cities and Towns killing these poor creatures who as they thought were secure at their work They came to a very large Town which being confident of their own innocence thought themselves safer then the rest but in two hours space they brought such a desolation upon it killing all ages and sexes that there was not a person left alive but what saved themselves by flight The Indians perceiving that with all their humility their patience and their presents that they were not able to asswage the fury of these inhumane creatures and that they were daily killed up like dogs began to think of taking armes for they thought it better since an evill death could not be avoided rather to die fighting and taking revenge upon their enemies then to be killed like beasts by them But when they saw their want of armes their feeblenesse their nakednesse and that they were utterly unskilfull in the management of horses that they might have some way of prevailing upon their enemies it came in their minds to dig certain ditches in the waies that so the horses as they went along might fall into them at the bottome of these pits they had driven in stakes sharpned at the top and they had covered them over with clods of earth that they might not be discovered twice or thrice the Spaniards fell into these ditches but afterwards by their care they easily avoided them And therefore they made a Law among themselves that all the Indians which they took of what ever sex or degree should be thrown into those pits which they had made Into these pits they threw women big with childe and all the aged persons that they could

it would be a tedious thing to relate them I have also seen the Spaniards set their dogs upon the Indians to devour them and such a number of houses and villages burnt by them that it would be over long to rehearse them This is also a truth that they would snatch young Infants out of their mothers bellies and cast them as far as they could throw them besides many other cruelties which they committed which did not a little amaze me though they are too many to be numbred I do also affirme that the Spaniards got together as many of the Indians as possibly they could croud into three houses and there upon no occasion given burnt them to death At that time it chanc'd that a certain Presbyter by name Ocaena snatch'd an Infant out of the fire which one of the Spaniards beholding immediately took the child out of his hands and threw it into the fire which Spaniard the same day that he did this vile act as he returned to his Quarters fell down dead by the way whom I perswaded the rest to leave unburied I have also seen them send to the Noblemen and chief Rulers of the Indians to come to them engaging to secure them and to let them return in peace but when they came they caused them to be immediately burnt Two they burnt while I was present one being the Lord of Andonia the other of Tumbala neither could I by any perswasions prevail with them to take them out of the fire and this I speak in the presence of God and according to my own conscience that I never knew of any commotion or rebellion raised by the Indians of Peru against them though it was apparent to all how they did torment and massacre them Which had they done considering how the Spaniards broke their faith and promises to them how against all Law and Right they practis'd nothing else but their desolation and destruction certainly they had done well chusing rather noble a death then to endure such tedious miseries I doe also affirme out of the mouths of the Indians themselves that greater quantities of Gold lie hid then are yet discovered which because of the cruelties and injustice of the Spaniards they are loath to reveale nor will reveale till the tyrannical hand of the Spaniards shall be taken off them rather chusing to dye as others have done Whereby God is offended and the Affaires of the King many times impeded For he hath been defrauded of more then would serve to maintain Castile the recovery of which cannot be performed without much difficulty and large expences And thus far I have related the very words of this religious person confirm'd by the Bishop of Mexico before whom he justified all that is here written Here we must consider these things to be such as this Religious person was an eye-witnesse of having traveld long in those parts for the space of above nine or ten yeares and had compassed above fifty or a hundred miles of that Country when there were but few Spaniards that liv'd in those parts though afterwards to the noise of the Gold there flockt thither above five thousand who scattered themselves through those large Provinces that contain'd in length above five or 600 miles which they totally laid waste committing rather more and greater cruelties then they had done in any other Countries and to say truth from that time until this present year they destroy'd a thousand times more persons then he makes mention of and with lesse feare either of God or of the King and with lesse pity they massacred the greatest part of mankind of those that inhabited those Regions killing above four millions of people A few dayes after with darts made of reeds they shot at the most potent Queen who was the Wife of Elinguus in whose hands the whole Administration of the Government of these Kingdomes remain'd which occasioned him to rebel against them and to this day he holds out against them At length they took his Queen and contrary to all right and equity they put her to death though it was reported that she was great with child for no other cause but that they might afflict her husband But if I should goe to particularize the murders and slaughters committed in that Region the Reader would finde them so horrid and so numerous that in both respects they would far exceed what hath been said touching the other parts of India Of the New Kingdome of GRANATA IN the yeare 1539. many of these Tyrants departing from Venecuela Santa Martha and Carthagena met together to make a Conquest of Peru. And many others comming out of the same Regions having a desire to make a further Progress they found many pleasant Countries about some 300. miles from Carthagena divers gallant Provinces well stored with courteous and affable Inhabitants like to other places in India abounding also in Gold and Precious Stones which are called Emraulds which Provinces by a new name they called New Granata because that the Tyrant that first came into these parts was borne in the Kingdome of Granata And because those that robb'd and spoil'd these Countries were cruel men and perverse Stewards famous butchers and spillers of humane blood therefore are their diabolical actions so great and so many that they farre surpassed those which were done before them in other Countries of which some of the most select ones I will rehearse A certain Governour because he that destroy'd those parts would not admit him to share with him in his gettings made certain Inquisitions and proofes which he got prov'd by many witnesses by which are apparent the murders and homicides which the other committed in the committing whereof he perseveres unto this day There were read in the Councel and stand these recorded In the said Examinations the witnesses depose that when all these Kingdomes were peaceful the Indians serv'd the Spaniards getting their living by painful labours in the tillage of the Earth bringing them what quantity of Gold or Gems they had or could get having also divided their houses and their habitations among them of which they are not a little covetous as being a means for them to obtain their Gold the more easily But when all the Indians were labouring under their accustomed tyranny the Chief Captain and Tyrant of the Spaniards took the King and Lord of the Country and kept him a prisoner for the space of six or seven moneths for no other reason then to squeez from him what Gold and precious Stones he could The said King whose name was Bogata through fear promised him that he would give him a golden house hoping by that meanes to be set at liberty and so he sent his Indians who brought back great sums of Gold and Precious Stones But because the King gave them not a golden house therefore they told him that he must be put to death because he did not stand to his word Whereupon the Tyrant commanded