other but this They put the greatest Indignity upon him imaginable in the Person of his Consort who was violated by a Spanish Captain altogether unworthy of the Name of Christian He might indeed probably expect to meet with a conveninent time and opportunity of revenging this Ignominy so injuriously thrown upon him by preparing Military Forces to attaque him but he rather chose to abscond in the Province De los Ciquayos wherein a Puissant Vassal and subject of his Ruled devested of his Estate and Kingdom and there live and dye an Exile But the Spaniards receiving certain information that he had absented himself connived no longer at his Concealment but raised War against him who had received them with so great humanity and kindness and having first laid waste and desolate the whole Region at last found and took him Prisoner who being bound in Fetters was convey'd on board of a ship in order to his transfretation to Castile as a Captive but the Vessel perished in the Voyage wherewith many Spaniards were also lost as well as a great weight of Gold among which there was a prodigious Ingot of Gold resembling a large Loaf of Bread weighing 3600 Crowns Thus it pleased God to revenge their enormous Impieties A Second Kingdom was named Marien where there is to this day a Haven upon the utmost Borders of the Plain or open Countrey toward the North more fertil and large then the Kingdom of Portugal and really deserving constant and frequent Inhabitants For it abounds with Mountains and is rich in Mines of Gold and Orichalcum a kind of Copper Mettal mixt with Gold The Kings name of this place was Guacanagari who had many powerful Lords some whereof were not unknown to me under his subjection The first that Landed in this Kingdum when he discovered America was an Admiral well stricken in years who had so hospitable and kind a reception from the aforesaid Guacanagari as well as all those Spaniards that accompanied him in that Voyage giving them all imaginable help and assistance for the Admirals Vessel was sunk on their Coasts that I heard it from his own mouth he could not possibly have been entertained with greater Caresses and Civilities from his own Parents in his own Native Country But this King being forced to fly to avoid the Spanish slaughter and Cruelty deprived of all he was Master of died in the Mountains and the rest of the Potentates and Nobles his subjects perished in that servitude and Vassalage as you shall find in this following Treatise The Third Kingdom was distinguished by the Appellation of Maquana another admirable healthful and fruitful Region where at present the most refined Sugar of the Island is made Caonabe then Reigned there who surmounted all the rest in Power State and the splendid Ceremonies of His Government This King beyond all expectation was surpriz'd in his own Palace by the great subtilty and industry of the Spaniards and after carried on board in order to his Transportation to Castile but there being at that time six Ships Riding in the Haven and ready to set Sail such an impetuous storm suddenly arose that they as well as the Passengers and Ships Riding in the Haven and ready to set Sail such an impetuous storm suddenly arose that they as well as the Passengers and Ships Crew were all lost together with King Canabao loaded with Irons by which judgment the Almighty declared that this was as unjust and impious an Act as any of the former This King had three or four Brothers then Living Men of strength and Valour who being highly incensed at the Captivity of their King and Brother to which he was injuriously reduc'd having also intelligence of the Devastations and Butcheries committed by the Spaniards in other Regions and not long after hearing of their Brothers death took up Arms to revenge themselves of the Enemy whom the Spaniards met with and certain party of Horse which proved very offensive to the Indians made such havock and slaughter among them that the half of this Kingdom was laid waste and depopulated Xaraqua is the Fourth Kingdom and as it were the Centre and middle of the whole Island and is not to be equalled for fluency of Speech and politeness of Idiom or Dialect by any Inhabitants of the other Kingdoms and in Policy and Morality transcends them all Herein the Lords and peers abounded and the very Populace exceled in stature and habit of Body Their King was Behechio by name who had a Sister called Anacaona and both the Brother as well as Sister had loaded the Spaniards with Benefits and singular acts of Civility and by delivering them from the evident and apparent danger of Death did signal services to the Castilian Kings Bebechio dying the supreme power of the Kingdom fell to Anacaona But it hapned one day that the Governour of an Island attended by 60 Horse and 30 Foot now the Cavalry was sufficiently able to unpeople not only the Isle but also the whole Continent he summoned about 300 Dynasta's or Noblemen to appear before him and commanded the most powerful of them being first crouded into a Thatcht Barn or Hovel to be exposed to the fury of the merciless Fire and the rest to be pierced with Lances and run through with the point of the Sword by a multitude of Men And Anacaona her self who as we said before sway'd the Imperial Scepter to her greater honour was hanged on a Gibbet And if it fell out that any person instigated by Compassion or Covetousness did entertain any Indian Boys and mount them on Horses to prevent their Murder another was appointed to follow them who ran them through the back or in the hinder parts and if they chanced to escape Death and fall to the ground they immediately cut off his Legs and when any of those Indians that survived these Barbarous Massacres betook themselves to an Isle eight miles distant to escape their Butcheries they were then committed to servitude during Life The Fifth Kingdom is Hiquey over whom Queen Hiquanama a superannuated Princess whom the Spaniards Crucified did preside and Govern. The number of those I saw here burnt dismembred and rackt with various Torments as well as others the poor Remnants of such matchless Villanies who surviving were enslaved is infinite But because so much might be said concerning the Assassinations and Depopulating of these people as cannot without great difficulty be published in Writing nor do I conceive that one single part of 1000 that is here contained can be fully displayed I will only add one remark more of the prementioned Wars in lieu of a Corollary or Conclusion and aver upon my Conscience that notwithstanding all the above-named Injustice profligate Enormities and other Crimes which I omit tho sufficiently known to me the Indians did not nor was it in their power to give any greater occasion for the Commission of them than Pious Religioso's Living in a well regulated Monastic Life did
of it they replied but sufficiently satisfied that they are cruelly and wickedly inclined Then thus said he it is they adore a certain Covetous Deity whose cravings are not to be satisfyed by a few moderate offerings but they may answer his Adoration and Worship demand many unreasonable things of us and use their utmost endeavours to subjugate and after that murder us Then taking up a Cask or Cabinet near at hand full of Gold and Gems he proceeded in this manner This is the Spaniard's God and in honour of him if you think well of it let us celebrate our Arcytos which are certain kinds of Dances and caprings used among them and by this means his Deity being appeas'd he will impose his Commands on the Spaniards that they shall not for the future molest or injure us who all unanimously with one consent in a loud tone made this reply Well said Well said and thus they continued skipping and dancing before this Cabinet without the least intermission till they were quite tired and grown weary Then the Noble Hathney re-assuming his discourse said if we Worship this Deity till ye be ravished from us we shall be destroyed therefore I judge it convenient upon mature deliberation that we cast it into the River which advice was approved of by all without opposition and the Cabinet thrown into the next River When the Spaniards first touched on this Island this Cacic who was thoroughly acquainted with them did avoid and shun them as much as in him lay and defended himself by force of Arms wherever he met with them but at length being taken he was burnt alive for flying from so unjust and cruel a Nation and endeavouring to secure his Life against them who only thirsted after the blood of himself and his own People Now being bound to the post in order to his Execution a certain Holy Monk of the Franciscan Order discours'd with him concerning God and the Articles of our Faith which he never heard of before and which might be satisfactory and advantagious to him considering the small time allow'd him by the Executioner promising him Eternal Glory and Repose if he truly believ'd them or otherwise Everlasting Torments After that 〈◊〉 had been silently pensive sometime he askt the Monk 〈…〉 Spaniards also were admitted into Heaven and he answâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 the Gates of Heaven were open to all that were Good 〈…〉 the Cacic replyed without farther Consideration that he would rather go to Hell than Heaven for fear he should cohabit in the same Mansion with so Saguinary and Bloody a Nation And thus God and the Holy Catholick Faith are Praised and Reverenced by the Practices of the Spaniards in America Once it so hapned that the Citizens of a Famous City distant Ten Miles from the place where we then resided came to meet us with a splendid Retinue to render their Visit more Honourable bringing with them delicious Viands and such kind of Dainties with as great a quantity of Fish as they could possibly procure and distributing them among us but behold on a sudden some wicked Devil possessing the Minds of the Spaniards agitated them with so great fury that I being present and without the least Pretence or Occasion offered they cut off in cold Blood above Three Thousand Men Women and Children promiscuously such Inhumanities and Barbarisms were committed in my sight as no Age can parallel Some time after I dispatch Messengers to all the Rulers of the Province of Havana that they would by no means be terrified or seek their refuge by absence and flight but to meet us and that I would engage for they understood my Authority that they should not receive the least of Injuries for the whole Country was extremely afflicted at the Evils and Mischiefs already perpetrated and this I did with the advice of their Captain As soon as we approacht the Province Two and Twenty of their Noblemen came forth to meet us whom the Captain contrary to his Faith given would have expos'd to the Flames alledging that it was expedient they should be put to Death who were at any time capacitated to use any Stratagem against us but with great difficulty and much adoe I snatcht them out of the fire These Islanders of Cuba being reduc'd to the same Vassalage and Misery as the Inhabitants of Hispaniola seeing themselves perish and dy without any redress fled to the Mountains for shelter but other Desperado's put a period to their days with a Halter and the Husband together with his Wife and Children hanging himself put an end to these Calamities By the ferocity of one Spanish Tyrant whom I knew above Two Hundred Indians hang'd themselves of their own accord and a multitude of People perished by this kind of Death A certain Person here in the same Isle constituted to exercise a kind of Royal Power hapned to have Three Hundred Indians fall to his share of which in Three Months through excessive labour One Hundred and Sixty were destroy'd insomuch that in a short space there remained but a tenth part alive namely Thirty but when the Number was doubled they all perisht at the same rate and all that were bestow'd upon him lost their lives till at length he paid his last Debt to Nature and the Devil In Three or Four Months time I being there present Six Thousand Children and upward were murder'd because they had lost their Parents who labour'd in the Mines nay I was a Witness of many other stupendous Villanies But afterward they consulted how to persecute those that lay hid in Mountains who were miserably massacred and consequently this Isle made de solate which I saw not long after and certainly it is a dreadful and deplorable sight to behold it thus unpeopled and laid waste like a Desert Of the CONTINENT IN the Year 1514 a certain unhappy Governour Landed on the firm Land or Continent a most bloody Tyrant destitute of all Mercy and Prudence the Instrument of God's Wrath with a Resolution to people these parts with Spaniards and although some Tyrants had touched here before him and Cruelty hurried them into the other World by several wayes of Slaughter yet they came no farther than to the Sea Coast where they committed prodigious Thefts and Robberies but this Person exceeded all that ever dwelt in other Islands though execrable and profligate Villains for he did not only ravage and depopulate the Sea-Coast but buried the largest Regions and most ample Kingdoms in their own Ruins sending Thousands to Hell by his Butcheries He made Incursions for many Miles continuance that is to say in those Countries that are included in the Territories of Darien and the Provinces of Nicaraqua which are near Five Hundred Miles of the most Fertil Land in the World very well peopled abounding with Villages Cities and Towns and the most opulent for Gold of all the Regions hitherto discover'd And although Spain has bin sufficiently furnished with the purest God yet it was dig'd
out of the Powels and Mines of the said Countries by the Indians where as we have said they perished This Ruler with his Complices found out new inventions to rack torment force and extort Gold from the Indians One of his Captains in a certain Excursion undertaken by the Command of his Governour to make Depraedations destroy'd Forty Thousand Persons and better exposing them to the edge of the Sword Fire Dogs and veriety of Torments of all which a Religious Man of the Order of St Francis Franciscus de S. Romano who was then present was an Eye-Witness Great and Injurious was the blindness of those praesided over the Indians as to the Conversion and Salvation of this People for they denyed in Effect what they in their flourishing Discourse pretended to and declar'd with their Tongue what they contradicted in their Heart for it came to this pass that the Indians should be commanded on the penalty of a bloody War Death and perpetual Bondage to embrace the Christian Faith and submit to the Obedience of the Spanish King as if the Son of God who suffered Death for the Redemption of all Mankind had enacted a Law when he pronounced these words Go and teach all Nations that Infidels living peaceably and quietly in their Haereditary Native Country should be impos'd upon pain of Confiscation of all their Chattels Lands Liberty Wives Children and Death it self without any praecedent instruction to Confess and Acknowledge the true God and subject themselves to a King whom they never saw or heard mention'd before and whose Messengers behav'd themselves toward them with such Inhumanity and Cruelty as they had done hitherto Which is certainly a most foppish and absured way of Proceeding and merits nothing but Scandal Derision nay Hell it self Now suppose this Notorious and Profligate Governour had bin impower'd to see the Execution of these Edicts perform'd to the end they might appear more Just and Equitable thereby for of themselves they were repugnant both to Law and Equity yet he commanded or they who were to see the Execution thereof did it of their own Heads without Authority that when they phansied or proposed to themselves any place that was well stor'd with Gold to rob and feloniously steal it away from the Indians living in their Cities and Houses without the least suspicion of any ill Act. These wicked Spaniards like Thieves came to any place by stealth half a Mile off of any City Town or Village and there in the Night published and proclaim'd the Edict among themselves after this manner You Cacies and Indians of this Continent the Inhabitants of such a Place Which they named We declare or be it known to you all that there is but one God one Pope and one King of Castile who is Lord of these Countries appear forth without delay and take the Oath of Allegiance to the Spanish King as his Vassals So about the Fourth Watch of the Night or Three in the Morning these poor Innocents overwhelm'd with heavy Sleep ran violently on that place they named set Fire to their Hovels which were all thatcht and so without Notice burnt Men Women and Children kill'd whom they pleas'd upon the Spot but those they reserv'd as Captives were compell'd through Torments to confess where they had hid the Gold when they found little or none at their Houses but they who liv'd being first stigmatized were made Slaves yet after the Fire was extinguisht they came hastily in quest of the Gold. Thus did this Wicked Man devoted to all the Infernal Furies behave himself with the Assistance of Profligate Christians whom he had listed in his Service from the 14th to the 21. or 22. Year together with his Domestick Servants and Followers from whom he received as many Portions besides what he had from his Salves in Gold Pearls and Jewels as the Chief Governour would have taken and all that were constituted to execute any kind of Kingly Office followed in the same Footsteps every one sending as many of his Servants as he could spare to share in the spoil Nay he that came hither as Bishop first of all did the same also And at the vory time as I conjecture the Spaniards did depraedate or rob this Kingdom of above Ten Hundred Thousand Crowns of Gold Yet all these their Thefts and Felonies we scarce find upon Record that Three Hundred Thousand Castilian Crowns ever came into the Spanish King's Coffers yet there were above Eight Hundred Thousand Men slain The other Tyrants who governed this Kingdom afterward to the Three and Thirtieth year depriv'd all them of Life that remain'd among the Inhabitants Among all those flagitious Acts committed by this Governour while he rul'd this Kingdom or by his Consent and Permission this must by no means be omitted A certain Cacic bestowing on him a Gift voluntarily or which is more probable induced thereunto by Fear about the weight of Nine Thousand Crowns but the Spaniards not satisfied with so vast a Sum of Money sieze him fix him to a Pole extended his Feet which being mov'd near the Fire they demanded a larger Sum the Cacic overcome with Torments sending home procur'd Three Thousand more to be brought and presented to them But the Spaniards adding new Torments to new Rage and Fury when they found he would confer no more upon them which was because he could not or otherwise because he would not they expos'd him so long to that Torture till by degrees of heat the Marrow gusht out of the Soles of his Feet and so he dyed Thus they often murder'd the Lords and Nobles with such Torments to Extort the Gold from them One time it hapned that a Century or Party of One Hundred Spaniards making Excursions came to a Mountain where many People shunning so horrid and pernicious an Enemy conceal'd themselves who immediately rushing on them putting all to the Sword they could meet with and then secur'd Seventy or Eighty Married Women as well as Virgins Captives but a great Number of Indians with a fervent desire of recovering their Wives and Daughters appear'd in Arms against the Spaniards and when they drew near the Enemy they unwilling to lose the Prey run the Wives and Maidens through with their Swords The Indians through Grief and Trouble smiting their Breasts brake out into these Exclamations O perverse Generation of Men O Cruel Spaniards What do you Murder las Iras In their Language they call Women by the Name of las Iras as if they had said To slay Women is an Act of bloody minded Men worse than Brutes and Wild Beasts There was the House of a Puissant Potentate scituated about Ten or Fifteen Miles from Panama whose Name was Paris very Rich in Gold and the Spaniards gave him a visit who were entertained with Fraternal Kindness and Courteously received and of his own accord presented the Captain with a Gift of Fifteen Thousand Crowns who was of opinion as well as the rest of the Spaniards that
means there have been taken out of this Province Five Hundred Thousand Inhabitants and upward who before were Freemen and made Slaves and in the Wars made on them and the horrid Bondage they were reduc'd unto Fifty or Sixty Thousand more have perished and to this day very many still are destroy'd Now all these Slaughters have been committed within the space of Fourteen years inclusively possibly in this Province of Nicaraqua there remains Four or Five Thousand Men who are put to Death by ordinary and personal Oppressions whereas according to what is said already it did exceed the other Countries of the World in multitude of People Of New SPAIN NEW Spain was discovered Anno Dom. 1517. and in the detection there was no first or second Attempt but all were exposed to slaughter The year ensuing those Spaniards who style themselves Christians came thither to rob kill and slay though they pretend they undertook this Voyage to people the Countrey From this year to the present viz. 1542. the Injustice Violence and Tyranny of the Spaniards came to the highest degree of extremity for they had shook hands with and bid adieu to all fear of God and the King unmindful of themselves in this sad and deplorable condition for the Destructions Cruelties Butcheries Devastations the Demolishing of Cities Depredations c. which they perpetrated in so many and such ample Kingdoms are such and so great and strike the minds of Men with so great horror that all we have related before are inconsiderable comparatively to those which have been acted from the year 1518 to 1542 and to this very month of September that we now live to see the most heavy grievous and detestable things are committed that the Rule we laid down before as a Maxim might be indisputably verified to wit that from the beginning they ran headlong from bad to worse and were overcome in their Diabolical acts and wickedness only by themselves Thus from the first entrance of the Spaniards into New Spain which hapned on the 18th day of April in the said month of the year 1518 to 1530 the space of ten whole years there was no end or period put to the Destruction and Slaughters committed by ther merciless hands of the Sanguinary and Blood-thirsty Spaniard in the Continent or space of 450 Miles round about Mexico and the adjacent or neighbouring parts which might contain four or five spatious Kingdoms that neither for magnitude or fertility would give Spain her self the pre-eminence This intire Region was more populous then Toledo Sevil Valedolid Saragoza and Faventia and there is not at this day in all of them so many people nor when they flourisht in their greatest height and splendor was there such a number as inhabited that Region which embraceth in its Circumference four hundred and eighty Miles Within these twelve years the Spaniards have destroyed in the said Continent by Spears Fire and Sword computing Men Women Youth and Children above four Millions of people in these their Acquests or Conquests for under that word they mask their Cruel Actions or rather those of the Turk himself which are reported of them tending to the ruin of the Catholick Cause together with their Invasions and Unjust Wars contrary to and condemned by Divine as well as Human Laws nor are they reckoned in this number who perished by their more then Egyptian Bondage and usual Oppressions There is no Tongue Art or Human knowledge can recite the horrid Impieties which these Capital Enemies to Government and all Mankind have been guilty of at several times and in several Nations nor can the circumstantial Aggravations of some of their wicked Acts be unfolded or display'd by any manner of Industry time or writing but yet I will say somewhat of every individual particular thing with this protestation and Oath that I conceive I am not able to comprehend one of a Thousand Of New Spain in Particular AMong other Slaughters this also they perpetrated in the most spatious City of Cholula which consisted of Thirty Thousand Families all the Chief Rulers of that Region and Neighbouring places but first the Priests with their High Priest going to meet the Spaniards in Pomp and State and to the end they might give them a more reverential and honourable reception appointed them to be in the middle of the Solemnity that so being entertained in the Appartments of the most powerful and principal Noblemen they might be lodged in the City The Spaniards presently consult about their slaughter or castigation as they term it that they might fill every corner of this Region by their Cruelties and wicked Deeds with terror and consternation for in all the Countries that they came they took this course that immediately at their first arrival they committed some notorious â—utcheries which made those Innocent Sheep tremble for fear To this purpose therefore they sent to the Governours and Nobles of the Cities and all Places subject unto them together with their supream Lord that they should appear before them and no sooner did they attend in expectation of some Capitulation or discourse with the Spanish Commander but they were presently seized upon and detained Prisoners before any one could advertise or give them notice of their Captivity They demanded of them six thousand Indians to drudge for them in the carriage of their bag and baggage and as soon as they came the Spaniards clapt them into the Yards belonging to their Houses and there inclosed them all It was a thing worthy of pity and compassion to behold this wretched people in what a condition they were when they prepared themselves to receive the burthens laid on them by the Spaniards They came to them naked their Privities only vail'd their Shoulders loaden with food only covered with a Net they laid themselves quietly on the ground and shrinking in their Bodies like poor Wretches exposed themselves to their Swords Thus being all gathered together in their Yards some of the Spaniards Armed held the doors to drive them away if attempting to approach and others with Lances and Swords Butcher these Innocents so that not one of them escaped but two or three days after some of them who hid themselves among the dead bodies being all over besprinkled with blood and gore presented themselves to the Spaniards imploring their mercy and the prolongation of their Lives with tears in their Eyes and all imaginable submission yet they not in the least moved with pity or compassion tore them impieces but all the Chief Governours who were above one hundred in number were kept bound whom the Captain commanded to be affixed to posts and burnt yet the King of the whole Countrey escaped and betook himself with a Train of thirty or forty Gentlemen to a Temple called in their Tongue Quu which he made use of as a Castle or Place of Defence and there defended himself a great part of the day but the Spaniards who suffer none to escape out of
their clutches especially Souldiers setting fire to the Temple burnt all those that were there inclosed who brake out into these dying words and exclamations O profligate Men what injury have we done you to occasion our death Go go to Mexico where our supream Lord Montencuma will revenge our cause upon your persons And 't is reported while the Spaniards were engaged in this Tragedy destroying six or seven thousand Men that their Commander with great rejoycing sang this following Ayre Mira Nero de Tarpeia Roma como se ardia Gritos de Ninos y Vieyot y el de nadase dolia From the Tarpeian still Nero espies Rome all in Flames with unrelenting Eyes And hears of young and old the dreadful Cries They also committed a very great Butchery in the City Tepeara which was larger and better stored with Houses then the former and here they Massacred an incredible number with the point of the Sword Setting sail from Cholula they steer'd their course to Mexico whose King sent his Nobles and Peers with abundance of Presents to meet them by the way testifying by divers sorts of Recreations how grateful their arrival was and acceptable to him but when they came to a steep Hill his brother went forward to meet them accompanied with many Noblemen who brought them many gifts in Gold Silver and Robes Embroidered with Gold and at their entrance into the City the King himself carried in a golden Litter together with the whole Court attended them to the Palace prepared for their reception and that very day as I was informed by some persons then and there present by a grand piece of Treachery they took the great King Motencuma never so much as dreaming of any such surprize and put him into the custody of eighty Soldiers and afterward loaded his Legs with irons but all these things being passed over with a light pencil of which much might be said one thing I will discover acted by them that may merit your observation When the Captain arrived at the Haven to fight with a Spanish Officer who made War against him and left another with an hundred Soldiers more or less as a Guard to King Motencuma it came into their heads that to act somewhat worth remembrance that the dread of their Cruelty might be more and more apprehended and greatly increased In the interim all the Nobility and Commonalty of the City thought of nothing else but how to exhilarate the Spirit of their Captive King and solace him during his Confinement with variety of diversions and Recreations and among the rest this was one viz. Revellings and Dances which they celebrated in all Streets and Highways by night and they in their Idiom term Mirotes as the Islanders do Arcytos to these Masques and nocturnal Jigs they usually go with all their Riches Costly Vestments and Robes together with any thing that is pretious and glorious being wholly addicted to this humor nor is there any greater token among them then this of their extraordinary exultation and rejoycing The Nobles in like manner and Princes of the Blood Royal every one according to his degree exercise these Masques and Dances in some place adjoyning to the House where their King and Lord is detained Prisoner Now there were not far from the Palace about 2000 Young Noblemen who were the issue of the greatest Potentates of the Kingdom and indeed the flower of the whole Nobility of King Motencuma and a Spanish Captain went to visit them with some Soldiers and sent others to the rest of the places in the City where these Revellings were kept under pretence only of being spectators of the solemnity Now the Captain had commanded that at a certain hour appointed they should fall upon these Revellers and he himself approaching the Indians very busie at their Dancing said San Jago that is St. James it seems that was the Word Let us rush in upon them which was no sooner heard but they all began with their naked Swords in hand to pierce their tender and naked Bodies and spil their generous and Noble blood till not one of them was left alive on the place and the rest following his example in other parts to their inexpressible stupefaction and grief seized on all these Provinces Nor will the Inhabitants till the General conflagration ever discontinue the Celebration of these Festivals and the Lamentation and Singing with certain kind of Rhythmes in their Arcytos the doleful ditty of the Calamity and Ruin of this Seminary of the antient Nobility of the whole Kingdom which was their frequent Pride and Glory The Indians seeing this not to be exampled cruelty and iniquity executed against such a number of guiltless persons and also bearing with incredible patience the unjust Imprisonment of their King from whom they had an absolute Command not to take up Arms against the Spaniard the whole City was suddenly up in Arms fell on the Spaniards and wounded many of them the rest hardly escaping but they presenting the point of a Sword to the Kings Breast threatned him with death unless he out of the Window commanded them to desist but the Indians for the present disobeying the Kings Mandate proceeded to the Election of a Generalissimo or Commander in Chief over all their Forces and because that the Captain who went to the Port returned Victor and brought away a far greater number of Spaniards then he took along with him there was a Cessation of Arms for three or four days till he re-entred the City and then the Indians having gathered together and made up a great Army fought so long and so strenuously that the Spaniards despairing of their safety called a Council of War and therein resolv'd to retreat in the dead time of night and so draw off their Forces from the City which coming to the knowledge of the Indians they destroyed a great number Retreating on the Bridges made over their Lakes in this just and Holy War for the causes above-mentioned deserving the approbation of every upright Judge But afterward the Spaniards having recruited and got together in a Body they resolved to take the City and carried it at last wherein most detestable Butcheries were acted a vast number of the people slain and their Rulers perished in the Flames All these horrid Murders being commited in Mexico and other Cities ten fifteen and twenty miles distant This same Tyranny and Plague in the abstract proceeded to infest and lay desolate Panuco A Region abounding with Inhabitants even to admiration nor were the slaughters therein perpetrated less stupendious and wonderful In the same manner they utterly laid waste the Provinces of Futepeca Ipilcingonium and Columa every one of them being as large as the Kingdoms of Leon and Castile It would be very difficult or rather impossible to relate the Cruelties and Destruction there made and committed and prove very nauseous and offensive to the Reader 'T is observable that they entred upon these Dominions and laid waste the
Indian Territories so populous that it would have rejoyced the hearts of all true Christians to see their number upon no other title or pretence but only to enslave them for at their first arrival they compel'd them to swear the Oath of Obedience and Fealty to the King of Spain and if they did not condescend to it they menaced them with death and Vassalage and they who did not forthwith appear to satisfie the unequitable Mandates and submit to the will and pleasure of such unjust and Cruel Men were declared Rebels and accus'd of that Crime before our Lord the King the blindness or ignorance of those who were set over the Indians as Rulers did so darken their understanding that they did not apprehend that known and incontrovertible Maxim in Law That no Man can be called a Rebel who is not first proved to be a subject I omit the injuries and prejudice they do to the King himself when they spoil and ravage his Kingdoms and as much as in them lies diminish and impair all his Right and Title to the Indies nay in plain English invalidate and make it null and void And these are the worthy Services which the Spaniards do for our Kings in those Countries by the injust and colourable pretences aforesaid This Tyrant upon the same pretext sent two other Captains who exceeded him in impiety and cruelty if possible to the most flourishing and Fertil in Fruits and Men Kingdoms of Guatimala Situate toward the South who had also received Orders to go to the Kingdoms of Naco Honderae and Guaymura verging upon the North and are Borderers on Mexico three hundred miles together The one was sent by Land the other by Sea and both well furnished with Horse and Foot. This I declare for a Truth that the outrages committed by these two particularly by him that went to Guatimala for the other not long after his departure died a violent Death would afford matter sufficient for an entire Volume and when completed be so crouded with slaughters injuries butcheries and inhuman Desolations so horrid and detestable as would Ague-shake the present as well as future ages with terror He that put out to Sea vexed all the Maritime Coasts with his cruel Incursions now some Inhabitants of the Kingdom of Jucatan which is seated in the way to the Kingdoms of Naco and Naymura to which places he steered his course came to meet him with burthens of Presents and Gifts and as soon as he approacht them sent his Captians with a party of Soldiers to depopulate their Land who committed great spoils and made cruel slaughters among them and in particular a Seditious and Rebellious Officer who with three hundred Soldiers entred a Neighbouring Country to Guatimala and there firing the Cities and Murdering all the Inhabitants violently deprived them of all their Goods which he did designedly for the space of an hundred and twenty miles to the eâ—d that if his Companions should follow them they might find the Countrey laid wast and so be destroyed by the Indians in revenge for the dammage they had received by him and his Forces which hapned accordingly for the Chief Commander whose order the abovesaid Captain had disobey'd and so became a Rebel to him was there slain But many other bloody Tyrants succeeded him who from the year 1524 to 1535. did unpeople and make a Desert of the Provinces of Naco and Hondurae as well as other places which were lookt upon as the Paradise of delights and better peopled then other Regions insomuch that within the Term of these eleven years there fell in those Countries above two Millions of Men and now there are hardly remaining Two Thousand who dayly dye by the severity of their Slavery But to return to that great Tyrant who outdid the former in cruelty as is hinted above and is equal to those that Tyrannize there at present who travelled to Guatimala he from the Provinces adjoyning to Mexico which according to his prosecuted journey as he himself Writes and testifies with his own hand in Letters to the Prince of Tyrants are distant from Guatimala four hundred miles did make it his urgent and dayly business to procure Ruin and Destruction by slaughter Fire and Depopulations compelling all to submit to the Spanish King whom they lookt upon to be more unjust and cruel then his inhumane and blood-thirsty Ministers Of the Kingdom and Province of GUATIMALA THIS Tyrant at his first entrance here acted and commanded prodigious Slaughters to be perpetrated Notwithstanding which The Chief Lord in his Chair or Sedan attended by many Nobles of the City of Vltlatana the Emporium of the whole Kingdom together with Trumpets Drums and great Exultation went out to meet him and brought with them all sorts of Food in great abundance with such things as he stood in most need of That Night the Spaniards spent without the City for they did not judge themselves secure in such a well-fortified place The next day he commanded the said Lord with many of his Peers to come before him from whom they imperiously challenged a certain quantity of Gold to whom the Indians return'd this modest Answer that they could not satisfie his Demands and indeed this Region yielded no Golden Mines but they all by his command without any other Crime laid to their Charge or any Legal Form of Proceeding were burnt alive The rest of the Nobles belonging to other Provinces when they found their Chief Lords who had the Supreme Power were expos'd to the Merciless Element of Fire Kindled by a more merciless Enemy for this Reafon only because they bestow'd not what they could not upon them viz. Gold they fled to the Mountains their usual Refuge for shelter commanding their Subjects to obey the Spaniards as Lords but withal strictly and expresly prohibiting and forbidding them to inform the Spaniards of their Flight or the Places of their Concealment And behold a great many of the Indians addrest themselves to them earnestly requesting they would admit them as Subjects being very willing and ready to serve them The Captain replyed that he would not entertain them in such a Capacity but instead of so doing would put every individual Person to Death if they would not discover the Receptacles of their Fugitive Governours The Indians made answer that they were wholly ignorant of the matter yet that they themselves their Wives and Children should serve them that they were at home they might come to them and put them to Death or deal with them as they pleas'd But the Spaniards O wonderful went to the Towns and Villages and destroy'd with their Lances these poor Men their Wives and Children intent upon their Labour and as they thought themselves secure and free from danger Another large Village they made desolate in the space of two hours sparing neither Age nor Sex putting all to the Sword without Mercy The Indians perceiving that this Barbarous and Hard-hearted People would not be pacified with
practical part of heaping up Wealth and robbing the Inhabitants of their Gold and Silver surpassing all their Predecessors in those indirect ways rejecting wholly both the fear of their God and King nay forgetting that they were born men with reasonable Faculties These incarnate Devils laid waste and desolate Four Hundred miles of most Fertile Land containing vast and wonderful Provinces most spatious and large Valleys surrounded with Hills forty Miles in length and many Towns richly abounding in Gold and Silver They destroy'd so many and such considerable Regions that there is not one supernumerary witness left to relate the Story unless perchance some that lurkt in the Caverns and Womb of the Earth to evade death by their inhumane Swords embrew'd in Innocent Indian blood escaped I judge that they by new invented and unusual Torments ruinated four or five Millions of Souls and sent them all to Hell. I will give a taste of two or three of their Transactions that hereby you may guess at the rest They made the supream Lord of the Province a Slave to squeeze his Gold from him racking him to extort his confession who escaping fled into the Mountains their common Sanctuary and his Subjects lying absconded in the Thickets of the Woods were stir'd up to Sedition and Tumult or Mutiny The Spaniards follow and destroy many of them but those that were taken alive and in their power were all publickly sold for Slaves by the Common Crier They were in all Provinces they came into entertained and welcomed by the Indians with Songs Dances and Rich Presents but Rewarded very ungratefully with bloodshed and Slaughter The German Captain and Tyrant caused several of them to be clapt into a Thatcht House and there cut in pieces but some of them to avoid falling by their bloody and merciless Swords climb'd up to the beams and Rafters of the House and the Governour hearing it O cruel Brute commanded Fire to be put to it and burnt them all alive leaving the Region desert and desolate They also came to another stately Province bordering on St. Martha whose inhabitants did them many egregious and notable services bestowing on them innumerable quantities of Gold besides many other gifts but when they were upon departure in retribution of their Civil Treating and Deportment the German Tyrant commanded that all the Indians with their Wives and Children if possible should be taken into Custody inclosed in some large capacious place and that there it should be signified unto them whosoever desired to be set at Liberty should redeem himself at the Will and Pleasure as to price of the unjust Governour or at a certain rate imposed upon himself his wife and every Childs head and to expedite the business prohibited the administration or allowance of any food to them till the Gold required for Redemption was paid down to the utmost grain Several of them sent home to discharge the demanded price of their Redemption and procur'd their Freedom as well as they could by one means or other that so they might return to their Livelihood and profession but not long after he sent other Rogues and Robbers among them to re-enslave those that were Redeemed To the same Gaol they are brought a second time being instigated or rather constrained to a speedy Redemption by hunger and thirst Thus many of them were twice or thrice taken captiv'd and Redeemed but some who were not capable of Depositing such a sum perished there Farthermore this Tyrant was big with an itching desire after the discovery of the Perusian Mines which he did accomplish Nay should I enumerate the particular Cruelties Slaughters c. committed by him though my discourse would not in the least be contrarint to the Truth yet it would not be beleived and only stupifie and amaze the Reader This course the other Tyrants took who set sail from Venecuela and St. Martha with the same Resolution of detecting the Perusian Golden Consecrated Houses as them they esteemed who found the fruitful Region so desolate deserted and wasted by Fire and Sword that those Cruel Tyrants themselves were smitten with wonder and astonishment at the traces and ruins of such prodigious Devastations All these things and many more were prov'd by Witnesses in the Indian Exchequer and the Records of their Testimony were entred in that Court though these execrable Tyrants burnt many of them that there might be little or nothing prov'd as a cause of those great Devastations and Evils perpetrated by them For the Minister of Justice who have hitherto lived in India through their obscure and damnable blindness were not much sollicitous about the punishment of the Crimes and Butcheries which have been and are still committed by these Tyrants only they may say possibly because such a one and such a one hath wickedly and barbarously dealt with the Indians that is the reason so great a summ of Crowns in Money is diminished already or retrenched from His Majesties Annual Revenue and this general and confused proof is sufficient as they worthily conceive to purge or repress such great and hainous Crimes And though they are but few are not verified as they ought to be nor do they attribute and lay upon them that stress and weight as they ought to do for if they did perform their Duty to God and the King it could not be made apparent as it may be that these German Tyrants have cheated and rob'd the King of Three Millions of Gold and upward and thus these Enemies to God and the King began to depopulate these Regions and destroy them cheating his Majesty of Two Millions of Gold per Annum nor can it be expected that the Detriment done to his Majesty can possibly be retriev'd as long as the Sun and Moon endures unless God by a Miracle should raise as many Thousands from Death to Life as have bin destroy'd And these are the Temporal Dammages the King suffers It would be also a Work worthy the inquiry into to consider how many cursed Sacriledges and Indignities God himself hath been affronted with to the dishonour of his Name And what Recompence can be made for the loss of so many Souls as are now tormented in Hell by the Cruelty and Covetousness of these Brutish German Tyrants But I will conclude all their Impiety and Barbarisme with one Example viz. That from the time they entred upon this Country to this very day that is Seventeen Years they have remitted many Ships fraighted with Indians to be sold as Slaves to the Isles of St. Martha Hispaniola Jamaica and St. John selling a Million of Persons at the least I speak modestly and still do expose to Sale to this very Year of our Lord 1542 the King's Council in this Island seeing and knowing it yet what they find to be manifest and apparent they connive at permit and countenance and wink at the horrid Impieties and Devastations innumerable which are committed on the Coasts of this Continent extending Four Hundred
the Enemy yet being resolute they would not depart out of the House wherein they were so the Spaniards hackt them in pieces Limb by Limb who exclaim'd and cryed aloud We came to visit and serve you peaceably and quietly and you Murder us our Blood with which these Walls are moistned and sprinkled will remain as an Everlasting Testimony of our Unjust Slaughter and your Barbarous Cruelty And really this Piaculum or horrid Crime deserves a Commemoration or rather speak more properly the Commiseration of all Persons Of the vast Kingdoms and spatious Provinces of PERUSIA A Notorious Tyrant in the Year 1531 entred the Kingdoms of Perusia with his Complices upon the same Account and with the same pretences and beginning at the same Rate as others did he indeed being one of those who were exercised and highly concern'd in the Slaughters and Cruelties committed on the Continent ever since the Year 1510 he increased and heightned the Cruelties Butcheries and Rapine destroying and laying waste being a False-hearted Faithless Person the Towns and Villages and Murdering the Inhabitants which occasion'd all those Evils that succeeded in those Regions afterward Now to undertake the Writing of a Narrative of them and represent them lively and Naturally to the Readers view and perusal is a work altogether impossible but must lie concealed and unknown until they shall more openly and clearly appear and be made visible to every Eye at the day of Judgment As for my part if I should presume to unravel in some measure the Deformity Quality and Circumstances of those Enormities I must ingenuously confess I could by no means perform so burthensom a Task and render it compleat and as it ought to be At his first admission into these parts he had laid waste some Towns and rob'd them of a great quantity of Gold this he did in the Infancy of his Tyrannical Attempts when he arriv'd at Pugna a Neighbouring Isle so called he had the Reception of an Angel but about Six Moneths after when the Spaniards had spent all their Provisions they discover'd and opened the Indians Stores and Granaries which were laid up for the sustenance of themselves Wives and Children against a time of Death and Scarcity brought them forth with Tears and Weeping to dispose of at pleasure But they rewarded them with Slaughter Slavery and Depopulation as formerly Thence they betook themselves to the Isle Tumbala scituate on the firm Land where they put to Death all they met with And because the People terrified with their abominable Sins of Commission fled from their Cruelty they were accused of Rebellion against the Spanish King This Tyrant made use of this Artifice he commanded all that he took or that had bestowed Gold Silver and other rich Gifts on him still to load him with other Presents till he found they had exhausted their Treasures and were grown naked and incapable of affording him farther supplies and then he declared them to be the Vassals and Subjects of the King of Spain â—â—attening them and proclaiming twice by sound of Trumpet that for the future he would not captivate or molest them any more looking upon it as lawful to rob and terrifie them with such Messages as he had done before he admitted them under the King's protection as if from that very time he had never rob'd destroy'd or opprest them with Tyrannical Usage Not long after Atuâ—â—ba the King and Supreme Emperour of all these Kingdoms leading a great Number of Naked Men he himself being at the Head of them armed with ridiculous Weapons and wholly ignorant of the goodness of the Spaniards Bilbo-Blades the Mortal Dartings of their Lances and the Strength of their Horse whose Use and Service was to him altogether unknown and never so much as heard of before and that the Spaniards were sufficiently weapon'd to rob the Devils themselves of Gold if they had any came to the place where they then were saying Where are these Spaniards Let them appear I will not stir a foot from hence till they give me satisfaction for my Subjects whom they have slain my Towns they have reduc'd to Ashes and my Riches they have stoln from me The Spaniards meet him make a great Slaughter of his Men and seize on the Person of the King Himself who was carried in a Chair or Sedan on Mens Shoulders There was a Treaty had about his Redemption the King engaged to lay down Four Millions of Crowns as the purchase of his Freedom but Fifteen were paid down upon the Nail They promise to set him at Liberty but contrary to all Faith and Truth according to their common Custom for they always violated their promises with the Indians they falsly imposed this upon him that his People were got together in a Body by his Command but the King made answer That throughout his Dominions not so much as a Leaf upon a Tree durst move without his Authority and Pleasure and if any were assembled together they must of necessity believe that it was done without his Order he being a Captive it being in their power to deprive him of his Life if any such thing should be ordered by him Notwithstanding which they entred into a Consultation to have him burnt alive and a little while after the Sentence was agreed upon but the Captain at the intreaty of some Persons commanded him first to be strangled and afterward thrown into the fire The King understanding the sentence of Death past upon him said Why do you burn me What Fact have I committed deserving Death Did you not promise to set me free for a Sum of Gold. And did I not give you a far larger quantity than I promised But if it is your pleasure so to do send me to your King of Spain and thus using many words to the fame purpose tending to the Confusion and Detestation of the Spanish Injustice he was burnt to Death And here let us take into serious Consideration the Right and Title they had to make this War the Captivity Sentence and Execution of this Prince and the Conscience wherewith these Tyrants have possessed themselves of vast Treasures which they have surreptitiously and fraudulently taken away from this King and a great many more of the Rulers of these Kingdoms But as to the great number of their Enormities committed by those who stile themselves Christians in order to the Extirpation of this People I will here repeat some of them which in the very beginning were seen by a Franciscan confirm'd by his own Letters and signed with his Hand and Seal sending some of them to the Perusian Provinces and others to the Kingdom of Castile A Copy whereof I have in my Custody Signed with his Hand as I said before the Contents whereof follow I Frier Marcus de Xlicia of the Franciscan Order and Praefect of the whole Fraternity residing in the Perusian Provinces one of the first among the Religious who arriv'd with the Spaniards in these parts I
declare with incontrovertible and undeniable Testimony those Transactions which I saw with my own Eyes and particularly such as relate to the usage of the Inhabitants of this Region In the first place I was an Eye-Witness and am certainly assur'd that these Perusians are a People who transcend all other Indians in Meekness Clemency and Love to Spaniards and I have seen the Indians bestow very liberally on them Gold Silver and Jewels being very serviceable to them many other wayes Nor did the Indians ever betake themselves to their Arms in an Hostile manner till by infinite Injuries and Cruelties they were compell'd thereunto For on the contrary they gave the Spaniards an amicable and honourable Reception in all their Towns and furnished them with Provisions and as many Male and Female Servants as they required I can also farther testifie that the Spaniards without the least provocation on their part as soon as they entred upon these Territories did burn at the Stake their most Potent Cacic Ataliba Prince of the whole Country after they had extorted from him above Two Millions of Gold and possessed themselves of his Province without the least Opposition and Cochilimaca his Captain General who with other Rulers came peaceably into them follow'd him by the same fiery Tryal and Death As also some few days after the Ruler of the Province of Quitonia who was burnt without any Cause given or Crime laid to his Charge They likewise put Schapera Prince of the Canaries to the same Death and in like manner burnt the Feet of Alvidis the greatest of all the Quitonian Lords and rackt him with other Torments to Extract from him a discovery of Ataliba's Treasure whereof as appear'd after he was totally ignorant Thus they treated Cocopaganga Governour of all the Provinces of Quitonia who being overcome with the Intreaties of Sebastian Bernalcarus the Governours Captain went peaceably to pay them a Visit but because he could not give them as much Gold as they demanded they burnt him with many other Cacics and Chief Persons of Quality And as I understand did it with this evil Intention that they might not leave one surviving Lord or Peer in the whole Countrey I also affirm that I saw with these Eyes of mine the Spaniards for no other reason but only to gratifie their bloody mindedness cut off the Hands Noses and Ears both of Indians and Indianesses and that in so many places and parts that it would be too prolix and tedious to relate them Nay I have seen the Spaniards let loose their Dogs upon the Indians to bair and tear them in pieces and such a Number of Villages burnt by them as cannot well be discover'd Farther this is a certain Truth that they snatched Babes from the Mothers Embraces and taking hold of their Arms threw them away as far as they would from them a pretty kind of barr-tossing Recreation They committed many other Cruelties which strook me with Terror at the very sight of them and would take up too much time in the Relation I likewise aver That the Spaniards gathered together as many Indians as fill'd Three Houses to which for no cause or a very inconsiderable one they set fire and burnt every one of them But a Presbyter Ocana by Name chanced to snatch a little Boy out of the Fire which being observ'd by a Spaniard he tore him out of his Arms and threw him into the midst of the Flames where he was with the rest soon burnt to Ashes which Spaniard the same day he committed that Fact returning to his Quarters dyed suddenly by the way and I advised them not to give him Christian Burial Farthermore I saw them send to several Cacics and Principal Indians promising them a protecting Passeport to travel peaceably and securely to them who no sooner came but they were burnt Two of them before my Face one at Andonia and the other at Tnmbala nor could I with all my perswasions and preaching to them prevail so far as to save them from the Fire And this I do maintain according to God and my own Conscience as far as I could possibly learn that the Inhabitants of Perusia never promoted or raised any Commotion or Rebellion though as it is manifest to all Men they were afflicted with Evil Dealings and Cruel Torments And they not without Cause the Spaniards breaking their Faith and Word betraying the Truth and Tyrannically contrary to all Law and Justice destroying them and the whole Country inflicting on them great Injuries and Losses were more ready to prepare themselves for Death than still to fall at once into such great and irrecoverable Miseries Nay I do declare according to Information from the Indians themselves that there are to this day far greater Quantities of Gold kept hid and concealed than ever were yet detected or brought to light which by means of the Spanish Injustice and Cruelty they would not then nor ever will discover so long as they are so barbarously treated but will rather chose to dye with the Herd Whereat the Lord God is highly offended and the King hath very ill Offices done him for he is hereby defrauded of this Region which was sufficiently able to furnish all Castile with Necessaries the Recovery whereof can never be expected without great difficulty and vast expenses Thus far I have acquainted you with the very words of this Religious Franciscan ratified by the Bishop of Mexico who testifieth that the srid Ftier Marc did affirm and maintain what is above-mentioned Here is to be observ'd what this said Frier was an Eye-Witness of for he travelled up in this Countrey Fifty or a Hundred Miles for the space of Nine or Ten Years when as yet few Spaniards had got footing there but afterward at the noise of Gold to be had there in great plenty Four or Five Thousand came thither who spread themselves through those Kingdoms and Provinces the space of Five or Six Hundred Miles which they made wholly desolate committing the same or greater Cruelties than are before recited for in reality they destroyed from that time to these very days above an Hundred Thousand poor Souls more than he gives an Account of and with less fear of God and the King nay with less Mercy have they destroyed the greatest part of Mankind in these Kingdoms above Four Millions suffering by violent Death A few days after they darted to Death with Arrows made of Reeds a Puissant Queen the Wife of a Potentate who still sways the Imperial Scepter of that Kingdom whom the Spaniards had a design to take which instigated him to raise a Rebellion and he still continues a Rebel They seized the Queen his Consort and contrary to all Law and Equity murdered her as is said before who was then as reported big with Child only for this Reason that they might and fresh Affliction and Grief to her Husband Of the New Kingdom of Granda MANY Tyrants there were who set Sail from Venecuela St. Martha