Island and full of people he was receiv'd by the Prince and the inhabitants thereof as if he had been an Angel sent from heaven But after that six months were past in which time the Spaniards had consum'd all their provision they then brought forth the corn which they had reserv'd against times of barrennesse for themselves their wives and children in places under the ground offering it to them with tears in their eyes desiring them to do what pleas'd them with it But they ill rewarded them in the end killing a very great number of them with their swords and lances and those whom they took alive they carri'd away into Captivity emptying and destroying the Country with many other cruelties From thence they went to the Island of Tumbala which is situated in the Continent where he kill'd all that fell into his power and because the people being astonished at their barbarism fled away from them they accus'd them of Rebellion against the King of Spain This Tyrant us'd also this kind of subtilty toward the Indians He commanded those whom he took and others which brought him presents still to bring him more till he saw that they were quite destitute telling them that he recev'd them now as Vassals and Subjects of the king of Spain flattering them also and telling them that he would neither take them nor do them any other injury As though it had been a thing lawful for him to rob spoile them and to terrifie them with such kinde of strange news before he had receiv'd them into the protection of the King of Spain or as if after he had so receiv'd them to protection he had never done any injury or laid any oppression upon them After this the King and Supreame Emperour of all these Regions Acaliba by name brought against the Spainards a great power of pittiful naked Creatures and arm'd with most ridiculous weapons not knowing the sharpnesse of the Spanish Swords and Lances nor the strength of their Horses to the place where they lay approach'd the Spaniards who certainly would rob the devils of Gold if they had it This King resolv'd to call the Spaniards to an account for the slaughters of his people the destruction of his Country the robberies which they committed upon his Treasures But the Spaniards met him kill'd an infinite number of his people and seiz'd upon his person which was carried in a kind of Litter Now they come to Capitulations about his redemption He promises ten millions of Crowns and numbers down fifteen they promis'd to release him but never stood to their words falsifying all the protestations which they made to the King telling him how that his Subjects were gathered together again by his command To whom the King made answer that there could not be a leafe of a tree moved without his will and authority but if they were now assembled anywhere together it was not by his power who was now their captive for they might take away his life if they pleas'd Notwithstanding all which they consulted whether they should burn him alive or no which sentence they afterwards passed but by the intreaty of some that sentence was mitigated and he was commanded to be strangled The King understanding that he was to dye spake to them in these words Why do you kill me Did you not promise to set me at liberty so I would give you Gold I gave it you and more then you requir'd yet if it be your will that I must dye send to your King of Spain But ere he could utter more the flames prevented him Consider here the equity of this war the Captivity of this Prince the sentence of his condemnation and the execution of that sentence the conscience of the Spaniards which nothing deterr'd them from consuming and taking away by violence the great Treasures of this great King and of his Nobles how they all concur to aggravate their devillish iniquity Concerning the foule and enormous cruelties wherewith they wholly extirpated the people of these Regions I will here relate a few seen by a Friar of the Order of St. Francis and confirm'd and committed to writing under his own hand and seale and disperc'd not onely in these Provinces but in the Kingdome of Castile A copy of which I can produce signed with his own hand wherein these things following are contain'd I Brother Mark of Cilicia of the Order of St. Francis cheif Governour of all the Brotherhood of that Order in the Provinces of Peru being one of the first religious persons that went into those parts speak this for a certain truth testifying those things which I have seen and which properly concern the inhabitants of these Countries First I am an eye-witnesse and do affirme upon my knowledge that the inhabitants of Perue were a Nation very courteous affable and loving to the Spaniards and I have seen Presents of Gold Silver and precious Stones given by those people to the Spaniards in great abundance besides many other offices of service which they daily did for them Neither did the Indians ever move war till they were forc'd to it by the contumelies and injuries of the Spaniards But on the contrary the Spaniards being received by them with all the shews of respect and freindship were continually furnish't both with men and women for their service I am also a witnesse that upon no occasion given them by the Indians the Spaniards did enter their Country and burnt to death their great Emperour call'd Ataliba after they had receiv'd from him as a ransome from his captivity above two millions of Gold His whole Kingdome having submitted themselves to him without any resistance With the same cruelty was Cochilimacha his Captain General put to death who came with other Noble men of the Country to the Spaniards in peace The same Fate also follow'd another potent Lord of the Province of Quitonia whom they also burnt without any occasion given or injury done them As unjustly did they burne also Schapera Prince of the Canaries They also burnt the feet for Aloides the most potent Lord in all the Provinces of Quitonia afflicting him with many other torments to make him confesse where the Gold of Ataliba lay though as afterwards it appear'd he knew nothing of it They also kill'd Quitonius Cocopagauga Governour of all the Provinces of Quitonia who at the importunities of Sebastian Barnaclacanus Captain of the Governour came in peace to the Spaniards because he could not give them the sum which they demanded thus they put to death divers other of the Noblemen of the Country and as I understand it is the intention of the Spaniards not to leave one of the Lords and Noblemen of that place alive I do also affirme that I have seen the Spaniards for no other cause but to satisfie their own wills dismember the Indians both men and women cutting off their eares noses and hands and that in so many places and regions that
Teares of ye Indians or inquisition for Bloud Being a Relation of ye Spannish Massacres in those part R Gaywood fecit 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 Iamaica 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 I. P. DEUT. 29.15 Therefore thine eye shall have no compassion but life for life tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot LONDON Printed by I. C. for Nath. Brook at the Angel in Cornhil 1656. TO His Highness OLIVER LORD PROTECTOR of the Commonwealth of England Scotland Ireland With the Dominions thereto belonging May it please your Highness I Have here laid prostate before the Throne of Your Justice above Twenty Millions of the Souls of the slaughter'd Indians whose forc'd departure from their Bodies Cruelty it self compassionates Yet me-thinks I hear a sudden stillness among them the cry of Blood ceasing at the noise of Your great transactions while You arm for their Revenge By which it is apparent how well your Highness doth observe the will of the most High using Your vast Power and Dignity onely to the advancement of his Glory among the Nations while the Divine Deitie bequeathes You back again immediate Recompences crowning You like his holy Warriour David with the highest degree of earthly Fame Therefore hath he inspired your Highness with a Prowess like that of Ioshua to lead his Armies forth to Battel and a Zeal more devoutly fervent than that of Iehu to cut off the Idolater from the earth Which Divine vertues appear so eminent in You that there is no man who opposes not himself against Heaven but doth extol Your just Anger against the Bloudy and Popish Nation of the Spaniards whose Superstitions have exceeded those of Canaan and whose Abominations have excell'd those of Ahab who spilt the Blood of innocent Naboth to obtain his Vineyard And now may it please your Highness God having given You a full Victory over Your Enemies in this Land and a fix'd Establishment by the prosperous and total quelling of those pertinacious Spirits certainly there is no true English-man who doth not lift up his eyes to heaven with Thanks to Almighty God that You have made the Land so happie as to be the Admiration of other Nations who have laid themselvs at Your feet for Alliances as knowing Your wonderful Successes both by Sea and Land Pardon me Great Sir if next my zeal to Heaven the loud Cry of so many bloudy Massacres far surpassing the Popish Cruelties in Ireland the Honour of my Country of which You are as tender as of the Apple of Your own eye hath induced me out of a constant Affection to your Highness Service to publish this Relation of the Spanish Cruelties whereby all good men may see and applaud the Justness of Your Proceedings Being confident that God who hath put this Great Designe into Your Hands will also be pleased to give it a signal Blessing which is the Prayer of Your HIGHNESS most faithful and most obedient Servant I. Phillips To all true English-men NEver had we so just cause to exclaim in the words of the Prophet Jeremiah O that our heads were waters and our eyes fountains of tears that we might weep for the Effusion of so much Innocent Blood which provok'd these sad Relations of devout CASAUS by reason of the cruel Slaughters and Butcheries of the Iesuitical Spaniards perpetrated upon so many Millions of poor innocent Heathens who having onely the light of Nature not knowing their Saviour Iesus Christ were sacrificed to the Politick Interest and Avarice of the wicked Spaniards The blood of Ireland spilt by the same Faction in comparison of these Massacres was but as a Drop to the Ocean It was the Saying of Christ himself the Son of Mercy and Redeemer of the World That we ought not to cast the Childrens Bread to dogs But what would he have judg'd of those that not onely cast the Bread but the Blood and not onely the Blood but the Innocent Blood of men women and children to satisfie the contemptible hunger of their Hounds The intention of these men was Murder and they kill'd up the poor Indians not as if they had been their Fellow-Mortals but like Death it self and invaded their Land not like Men but like the Pestilence whose destruction is Epidemical When our own Case had a small Resemblance of this how sensible the People were and how they mourned at the burning of a poor Village the usual Accidents or rather things to be expected in a tedious and necessitated War but had you been Eye-witnesses of the transcending Massacres here related had you been one of those that lately saw a pleasant Country now swarming with multitudes of People but immediately all depopulated and drown'd in a Deluge of Bloud had you been one of those that saw great Cities of Nations and Countries in this moment flourishing with Inhabitants but in the next totally ruin'd with such a general Desolation as left neither Person living nor House remaining had you seen the poor innocent Heathens shaming and upbraiding with the ghastliness of their Wounds the devilish Cruelties of those that called themselves Christians had you seen the poor creatures torn from the peace and quiet of their own Habitations where God had planted them to labour in a Tormenting Captivity by many degrees worse then that of Algier or the Turkish Galleys your Compassion must of necessity have turn'd into Astonishment the tears of Men can hardly suffice these are Enormities to make the Angels mourn and bewail the loss of so many departed souls as might have been converted and redeemed to their eternal Mansions We read of old of the Ten Persecutions wherein the Primitive Christians were destroy'd by the Cruelties of the Heathen Emperours but we now read of Christians the Professors of a Religion grounded upon Love and Charity massacring where there was no cause of Antipathy but their own obstinate Barbarism as if because their Wickedness had so far transform'd them into Devils they were resolved to deface the image of God so innocently conversing among them The Turks and Scythians shall be now no more the Adagies of Cruelty among us for here is a Christian Nation which hath taken off that Envie from them and entayl'd it upon themselves And now O men of England let me ask you but this Question Whether you that for these many years have had the Honour to be the Patrons of Religion whose Charity hath still relieved and whose Power hath still defended the Cause of the Oppressed at home and abroad whether you can withdraw your Assistance from this Great Work and deprive your selves of that Birth-right which you seem to
this King was not meanly vertuous by nature peaceful and much devoted to the King of Castile This King commanded his subjects that they should present to the Spaniards a bell full of Gold which when they were not able to do by reason that the people had but little skill how to dig out the Gold he thereupon commanded them to present the Spaniards with as much as they could fill Here a Cacicus or Governour offer'd himself to the service of the King of Castile upon condition that he would take care that all the Countrey from Isabella to St. Domingo being five hundred miles in length might be till'd which promises I am very confident he would cheerfully have performed and then might the King of Castile have had a revenue of above Three millions of Castilian Crowns and there had been still remaining in the Island above fifty Cities as large all of them as Sevill But what was the recompence which they afforded to this milde and bountiful Prince they suffered one of the Spanish Captains unworthy of the name of a Christian to vitiate his Wife He might have raised an army and endevoured a revenge but he rather chose to leave his Kingdome and his dignity and to live a banished person in the Province of Coquaios where a potent vassal and subject of his inhabited But the Spaniards hearing of his flght resolved not to let him lurk anywhere but immediately making war upon him that had received them so liberally they never rested till they had wasted all the Kingdome to finde him out at length he fell into their hands and no sooner had they taken him but they fettered him immediately putting him into a ship that was bound for Spain but the ship was wrackt by the way many Spaniards perishing and a great treasure of Gold being lost God so taking revenge upon their enormities Another Kingdome was called Marien where there is a port at one end of the plain that looks toward the North being larger and more fertile then the Kingdome of Portugal and which very well deserves to be better peopled for it abounds with Mountains wherein are great store of Gold Mines The name of the King that there ruled was Guacanagari under whom there were many other potent Lords some of whom I knew To this place came the old sea Captain that first discovered America who was received with so much courtesie and friendship by Guacanagari who gave him and his associates all the help and assistance that might be for his ship was there sunk that upon his return into Spain he would often affirm that his own parents in his own Countrey were never so friendly to him This King flying from the cruelty and enormous murders of the Spaniards being depriv'd of his Kingdome died poorly in the mountains The rest of his Nobles ended their lives in that servitude and slavery which shall be hereafter related The third Kingdome was Maquana a Countrey very temperate and fertile where the best Sugar in that Island is made In this Countrey at that time Canabao did reign who for power dignity gravity and the ceremonies which were used towards him far exceeded the rest This King suspecting nothing lesse was by the craft and subtlety of the Spaniards taken in his own house whom when they had taken they put a shipboard to send him to Castile but there being six ships in the Port ready to set sayle the sea began to swell so high and to be so unruly that all the six ships with the Spaniards in them together with King Canabao who was laden with chains all perished in the waves The great God shewing the Judgements of his wrath upon these unjust and wicked wretches as he had done upon the others This King had three or four brothers stout and valiant men who being offended at the Captivity of their Lord and King hearing of the devastations and rapines daily committed by the Spaniards in these Countries and understanding that their brother was dead resolved to take armes for the reliefe of their Countrey but the Spaniards meeting them with a certain number of horse which are a very great terror to the Indians made such a slaughter among them that they depopulated the greatest part of this Countrey The Fourth Kingdome was called Xaraqua being in the centre and middle of the whole Island for eloquence of language as also for good government and gentile customes it excels all the rest there was in it a great company of Lords and noble men and for the people themselves they were the most comely in the whole Island The King of this Countrey was called Behechio who had a sister who was called Anacaona Both the Brother and the Sister were very bountifull to the Spaniards for they had freed them from the dangers of imminent death shewing great kindnesses to the Kings of Castile Behechio being dead the Kingdome was solely govern'd by his Sister Now it happened one day that the Governour of the Island with sixty Horse and three hundred Foot though the Horsemen were sufficient not only to wast the Island but also the whole Continent cal'd to him about three hundred of the Peers and Lords of the Nation the greatest part whereof who were the more powerful having by craft got them together in a straw Cottage he cause to be burnt alive together with the house the rest with an infinite sight of people he caused to be put to death by the Souldiers who murdred the poor people like dogs with their Swords and Launces As for Anacaona the Queen that he might seem to be more courteous to her he caused her to hang her self And if it happened that any who were either moved with compassion or covetousnesse thinking to make lacqueys or servants of the Children had set them behinde their horses another would come behinde them and either run them through or cut off their legs if they hung down upon the horse sides And when certain of the Indians who escaped this furious massacre fled into an Island distant from them about some eight miles they were by the Governour condemned to perpetual servitude The wars being now at an end and the inhabitants all killed up the women and children being only reserved they divided them among themselves giving to one thirty to another forty to one a hundred to another two hundred and those that had most received them on this condition that they should instruct them in the Catholick Faith though commonly their Masters were a company of stupid ignorant and covetous fellowes and defiled with all manner of vices But the main care was to send the men to work in the Gold Mines which is an intolerable labour and to send the women to manure and till the ground an exercise fit only for the stoutest men These they fed with nothing but roots and hearbs so that the milk of women with childe being dried up by that reason the poor little infants died And the men being
separated from the women there was no more issue to be expected from them The men perished in the Gold Mines with hunger and labour the women perished in the fields being tired out with the same calamities and thus was a vast number of the inhabitants of this Island wholly extirpated Besides all this they caused them to carry great burdens of a hundred and fourscore pound and to travell with it a hundred or two hundred miles They were also forc'd to carry the Spaniards up and down in their Hamechs using them in manner of beasts to carry their burthens and the necessaries of their journeys And as for the blows which they gave them with whips cudgels and their fists wherewith they continually tormented them in their labour I could be hardly able to finde either time or paper to make a narration large enough of those things Now it is here to be noted that the desolation of these Islands and Provinces happened after the death of Queen Isabel who deceased in the year 1504 for before that time few of the Provinces were intrenched upon by any unjust war or over-flowed with this deluge of devastation or if any thing was before that time done it was conceal'd from the knowledge of the Queen for she was alwayes zealous and solicitous for the safety and prosperity of this poor people And this may be also a generall rule that the Spaniards to what ever part of the Indies they did come to after that time ceased not to exercise their abominable slaughters tyrannies and execrable oppressions upon the poor people and being delighted with new kindes of torments daily encreased their cruelty and rage Of the Islands St. John and Jamaica IN the year 1509. the Islands of St. Iohn and Iamaica that look'd like fruitful gardens were possessed by the Spaniards with the same bloudy intentions as the other were for there they also exercised their accustomed cruelties killing burning roasting men and throwing them to the dogs as also by oppressing them with sundry and various torments in the Gold Mines as if they had come to rid the earth of these innocent and harmelesse creatures of whom above six hundred thousand were murthered in these two Islands so lavish were the Spanish swords of the bloud of these poor souls scarce two hundred more remaining the rest perished without the least knowledge of God Of the Island of Cuba IN the year 1511. they went over into the Island of Cuba which extends as far in length as it is from Valladolid to Rome in which there were many fair Provinces inhabited with an infinite number of people where the humanity and clemency of the Spaniards was not only as little as it had been in other places but their cruelty and rage much greater In this Island many things were done worthy observation A certain Lord of great power among them by name Hathvey who had fled over to Cuba that he might avoid either death or perpetual captivity hearing by some of the Indians that the Spaniards were also come into this Island having assembled the Indians together he began as followeth Countrymen and Friends you are not ignorant of the rumour by which we understand that the Spaniards are come among us neither am I now to tell you how they have used the inhabitants of Hapti so the call Hispaniola in the Indian language you know it by a sad experience nor can we hope to finde them more merciful then they did Then quoth he Countreymen do you know the Errand which brings them hither To whom they replyed that was unknown to them yet they further replyed that that they were well assured of the cruel nature of the Spaniard Then quoth he I le tell ye the cause of their coming They do worship some covetous and unsatisfied Deity and to content the greedy worship of that Celestial Power they require many things from us using all their endevour to murther and enslave us Which having said taking up a little Chest filled with Gold he proceeded in these words Behold here the God of the Spaniards and therefore if you think fitting let us daunce and sing before this their God Perhaps we may thereby appease his rage and he well then command the Spaniards to let us alone Who with an unanimous shout cryed out all Well said well said and so they went to dauncing round this box not ceasing till they had sufficiently wearied themselves Then the Lord Hathvey going on with his speech quoth he If we do keep this God till he be taken from us we shall be surely slain and therefore I think it expedient for us to cast it into the River so his counsell being followed the Chest was cast into the River When the Spaniards had landed in this Island this noble man that had sufficient tryal of their manner avoided them as much as he could still flying from them and defending himself by force of armes upon all occasions But at length being taken for no other reason but because he fled from those that sought his life and defended himself that he might not be tormented to death he was by the Spaniards burnt alive While he was tyed to the stake there came to him a Monk of the Order of St. Francis who began to talk to him of God and of the Articles of our Faith telling him that the small respite which the Executioner gave him was sufficient for him to make sure his salvation if he believed Upon which words after Hathvey had a little while paus'd he asked the Monk if the door of heaven was open to the Spaniards who answering Yes to the good Spaniards Then replyed the other Let me go to Hell that I may not come where they are It happened once that the Citizens of a very fair City distant about twelve miles from the place where we were came forth of the City to do us honour and to submit themselves to the King of Castile but they being returned home the Governour of the Spaniards about the middle of the night as they were sleeping in their bed and least suspecting any such thing sent a company who came suddenly upon them and set fire upon their houses burning up both men women and children here some they murthered others whom they spared they tormented to make them tell where they had hid their Gold after which they made them their slaves having first marked them in the body and immediately as soon as the fire was spent they ran to finde out the Gold At that time the Spaniards got above ten hundred thousand Crowns of Gold out of which the King scarce had three hundred thousand sent him there were slain in this place eight hundred thousand people and those other Tyrants that came afterwards emptied the Island of those that remained Among all the notorious enormities committed by the foresaid Governour there is one not to be omitted a certain noble Indian presenting him perhaps more for fear then love a present
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
destroyers and Abaddons of mankinde who are with him and to whom he gives the power to exercise these strange abominations are so many and so great that if his Majesty do not stop the deluge of evils which they bring along with them for the slaughters of the Indians are made onely through the desire of their Gold though it be all in their own hands already in a very short time the Kingdom will be ruin'd laid desolate and the land when all the Inhabitants are destroy'd must of necessity lie untill'd In this place we must noe passe by a most pernicious cruelty of these Tyrants which was so violent that in the space of two or three years for no longer time there was between the desolation and the discovery of this Kingdom which was the most populous Country in the whole World they totally ruin'd and depopulated the whole Country shewing themselves so void of compassion so empty of grace so regardlesse of the Kings honour that they had not left a person living had not his Majesty a little stopt the current of their cruelty which I the more easily believe because I have seen my selfe in a few dayes several great Kingdomes and Countries destroy'd and desolate There are some large Provinces adjoyning to the Kingdom of new Granata which are call'd Popagan and Cali and three or four others which stretch themselves in length above 500. miles which they destroy'd in the same manner as they did the other and by their foresaid Massacres brought down to the lowest degree of desolation and this some who return'd out of these Countries came to us relate But if there were ever any thing to be bewailed by man they were the stories which they told of large Cities ruin'd and buried in their own ashes scarce fifty houses remaining where before there were above a thousand or two thousand and the sad narrations which they brought of large Countries and Regions that lay desolate and spoil'd of their inhabitants At length there went out of the Kingdomes of Perne through the Country of Quitonia into the Regions of Granata and Popaganum many very cruel Tyrants who march'd through the Carthagenians and Vrabia to reach Calisium while others stay'd to assaile Quitonium it selfe But these at length joyn'd together depopulating above sixe hundred miles in length with an infinite waste of men to the remainder whereof they are at present no lesse cruel And thus what I set down as a rule still holds good that the violence and cruelty of the Spaniards by continuance still waxed more and more furious and bloody But among all these Crimes which are onely worthy of fire and sword that have been perpetrated in these Countries this which followes is worthy the taking notice of When the heate of Massacring and killing is over they carry captive away sometimes two hundred sometimes three hundred men apeice and when their master pleases he commands a hundred at a time to be brought before him to whom when they come like meek and patient lambs he commands thirty or forty of them to be put to death telling the rest that thus they shall all be us'd unlesse they prove diligent in his service Consider I beseech you all that read or shall read these few papers whether an act so horrible so detestable so inhumane do not exceed all the iniquities and cruelties that the imagination of man can comprehend and whether such Spaniards may not be deservedly called Devils or whether it be not a thing almost indifferent whether the Indians should be in the hands of Spaniards or of the Infernal spirits Neither will I forget to relate one barbarou's action which as I think doth exceed the cruelty of beasts The Spaniards which are among the Indians do breed up a sort of fierce dogs which they teach and instruct to fall upon the Indians and devour them Now let all men judge whether Christians or Turks in this it much imports not whether so much cruelty ever peirc'd their eares before These dogs they take along with them in all their expeditions carrying also divers Indians in chaines for the sustenance of those dogs And it was a common thing for them to say one to another Give me a quarter of your Indian for my dogs and too morrow when I bill one I will pay it you again As if they were no more to be accounted of then the offals of a hog or sheep Others were wont to go a hunting in the morning and being ask'd how they had sped Oh very well reply'd the other my dogs have kill'd fifteen or sixteen Indians this morning These have been all proved in the impeachments made by one Tyrant against another Could there be any thing more horrible or more cruel But I will here stay until there shall come news of greater impieties if greater there can be or till we shall return to behold these things which for the space of above forty years we have already seen And now I do protest according to my conscience and in the sight of God that the losses of the Indians were so great and so many their subverted Cities the cruelties and massacres so horrible the violences and iniquities so in human that though I have done my utmost to relate what I could and to paint them in their own lively colours yet have I not been able to rehearse one thing done among a thousand either as to the quantity or the quality of the Crimes And now that all true Christians may be mov'd with the greater compassion towards the poor creatures that their losses may appeare the more deplorable that they may with a greater indignation detest the ambition cruelty and covetousness of the Spaniards to those which I have abovesaid I will also adde this for a truth that from the time America was first discovered unto this present the Indians never were the men that ever shewed the least disaffection or offer'd the least injury to the Spaniards but rather ador'd them as Angels of immortality come to visit them from Heaven till their owne actions betrayd them to a far worse censure This I will also adde that from the beginning to this day the Spaniards were never any more mindful to spread the Gospel among them then as if they had been dogs but on the contrary forbid religious persons to exercise their dutie deterring them by many afflictions and persecutions from preaching and teaching among them for that they thought would have hindered them in getting their Gold and kept the people from their labours Neither had they any more knowledge of the God of Heaven as to say whether he were of wood brasse or iron then they had above a hundred years before New Spaine being onely excepted whither the Religious persons had most liberty to go So that they all dy'd without Faith or Sacraments to the willing destruction of their souls I Frier Bartholmew Casaus of the Order of St. Dominic who went to these parts through the mercy of God desiring the salvation of the Indians that so many precious soules redeemd with the blood of Christ might not perish but wishing with my whole heart that they might through the knowledge of their Creator live eternally Because of the care also and compassion which I beare to my Country which is Castile fearing lest God should destroy it in his anger for the sins which it hath committed against his divine Majesty the faith and the honour of divers great persons in the Court of Spaine zealously religious and who abominate these bloody and detestable actions after many hinderances of businesse did at length put an end to this brief Tractate at Valentia the eighth day of December 154â— when the Spaniards though they were in some places more cruel in some places lesse after the end of all their torments violences tyrannies desolations and oppressions were at length come to Mexico which enjoyes a gentler usage then other parts for there is an outside of Justice which doth something restrain their cruelty though not at all the immoderate tributes which they lay upon them And now I have a real hope that Charles the Fifth our Soveraign Lord and Prince Emperor King of Spaine to whose eares the wickednesses and impieties of these tyrants do daily come which are committed against the will of God in these Countries for they have hitherto conceal'd these things from him not lesse subtilly then maliciously will extirpate the causes of so many evils and apply fitting remedies to the calamities of this New World delivered by God to him as to a Lover of Justice and Mercy Which God we doe beseech to grant him happinesse in his life and in his Imperial dignity and to bless his Royal soule with eternal happiness Amen FINIS The Historical Relation of the Spanish Massacres in the West Indies
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