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
afford for any Sacrilegious Villains to deprive them of their Goods and Life at the same time or why they who by flight avoided death should be detain'd in perpetual not to be ransom'd Captivity and Slavery I adde farther that I really beleive and am satisfied by certain undeniable conjectures that at the very juncture of time when all these outrages were commited in this Isle the Indians were not so much as guilty of one single mortal sin of Commission against the Spaniards that might deserve from any Man revenge or require satisfaction And as for those sins the punishment whereof God hath reserved to himself as the immoderate desire of Revenge Hatred Envy or inward rancor of Spirit to which they might be transported against such Capital Enemies as the Spaniards were I judge that very few of them can be justly accused of them for their impetuosity and vigor I speak experimentally was inferior to that of Children of ten or twelve years of age and this I can assure you that the Indians had ever a just cause of raising War against the Spaniards and the Spaniards on the contrary never waged a just War against them but what was more injurious and groundless then any undertaken by the worst of Tyrants All which I affirm of all their other Transactions and passages in America The Warlike Engagements being over and the Inhabitants all swept away they divided among themselves the Young Men Women and Children promiscuously reserved for that purpose one obtained thirty another forty to this Man one hundred were disposed to the other two hundred and the more any one was in favor with the domineering Tyrant whom they styled Governor the more he became Master of upon this pretence and with this Proviso that he should see them instructed in the Catholick Religion when as they themselves to whom they were committed to be taught and the care of their Souls intrusted to them were for the major part Idiots Cruel Avaritious infected and stained with all sorts of Vices And this was the great care they had of them they sent the Males to the Mines to dig and bring away the Gold which is an intollerable Labor but the Women they made use of to Manure and Till the ground which is a toil most irksom even to Men of the strongest and most robust constitutions allowing them no other food but Herbage and such kind of unsubstantial nutriment so that the Nursing Womens Milk was exsiccated and so dryed up that the young Infants lately brought forth all perished and Females being separated from and debarred cohabitation with Men there was no Prolification or raising up issue among them The Men died in Mines hunger starved and oppressed with labor and the Women perished in the Fields harassed and broken with the like Evils and Calamities Thus an infinite number of Inhabitants that formerly peopled this Island were exterminated and dwindled away to nothing by such Consumptions They were compelled to carry burthens of eighty or one hundred pound weight and that an hundred or two hundred miles compleat and the Spaniards were born by them on the Shoulders in a pensil Vehicle or Carriage or kind of Beds made of Net-work by the Indians for in Truth they made use of them as Beasts to carry the burthens and cumbersom luggage of their journeys insomuch that it frequently hapned that the Shoulders and Backs of these Indians were deeply marked with their scourges and stripes just as they use to serve a tired Jade accustomed to burthens And as to those slashes with whips blows with staves cuffs and boxes maledictions and curses with a Thousand of such kind of Torments they suffered during the fatigue of their laborious journeys it would require a long tract of time and many Reams of Paper to describe them and when all were done would only create Horror and Consternation in the Reader But here it is observable that the desolation of these Isles and Provinces took beginning since the decease of the most Serene Queen Isabella about the Year 1504. for before that time very few of the Provinces situated in that Island were oppressed or spoiled with unjust Wars or violated with general devastation as after they were and most if not all these things were concealed and masked from the Queens knowledge whom I hope God hath Crowned with Eternal Glory for she was transported with servent and wonderful zeal nay almost Divine desires for the Salvation and preservation of these people which things so exemplary as these we having seen with our eyes and felt with our hands cannot easily be forgotten Take this also for a general Rule that the Spaniards upon what American Coast soever they arrived exercised the same Cruelties Slaughters Tyrannies and detestable Oppressions on the most innocent Indian Nation and diverting themselves with delights in new sorts of Torments did in time improve in Barbarism and Cruelty wherewith the Omnipotent being incensed suffered them to fall by a more desperate and dangerous lapse into a reprobate sense Of the Isles of St. John and Jamaica IN the Year 1509. the Spaniards sailed to the Islands of St. John and Jamaica resembling Gardens and Bee hives with the same purpose and design they proposed to themselves in the Isle of Hispaniola perpetrating innumerable Robberies and Villanies as before whereunto they added unheard of Cruelties by Murdering Burning Roasting and Exposing Men to be torn in pieces by Dogs and Finally by afflicting and harassing them with un-exampled Oppressions and Torments in the Mines they spoiled and unpeopled this Countrey of these Innocents These two Isles containing six hundred thousand at least though at this day there are scarce two hundred men to be found in either of them the remainder perishing without the knowledge of Christian Faith or Sacrament Of the Isle of Cuba IN the Year of our Lord 1511. They passed over to Cuba which contains as much ground in length as there is distance between Valledolid and Rome well furnished with large and stately Provinces and very populous against whom they proceeded with no more humanity and Clemency or indeed to speak truth with greater Savageness and Brutality Several memorable Transactions worthy observation passed in this Island A certain Cacic a potent Peer named Hathney who not long before fled from Hispaniola to Cuba for Refuge from Death or Captivity during Life and understanding by certain Indians that the Spaniards intended to steer their course thither made this Oration to all his People Assembled together You are not ignorant that there is a rumor spread abroad among us of the Spaniards Arrival and are sensible by woful experience how such and such naming them and Hayti so they term Hispaniola in their own Language with their Inhabitants have been treated by them that they design to visit us with equal intentions of committing such acts as they have hitherto been guilty of But do you not know the cause and reason of their coming We are altogether ignorant
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
Humility large Gifts or unexampled Patience but that they were butcher'd without any Cause upon serious Consultation took up a Resolution of getting together in a Body and fighting for their Lives and Liberty for they conceiv'd it was far better since Death to them was a necessary Evil with Sword in Hand to be kill'd by taking Revenge of the Enemy then be destroy'd by them without satisfaction But when they grew sensible of their want of Arms Nakedness and Debility and that they were altogether incapable of the management of Horses so as to prevail against such a furious Adversary recollecting themselves they contriv'd this Stratagem to dig Ditches and Holes in the High-way into which the Horses might fall in their passage and fixing therein purposely sharp and burnt Posts and covering them with loose Earth so that they could not be discern'd by their Riders they might be transfixed gored by them The Horses fell twice or thrice into those holes but afterward the Spaniards took this Course to prevent them for the future and made this a Law that as many of the Indians of what Age or Sex soever as were taken should be cast into these Ditches that they had made Nay they threw into them Women with Child and as many Aged Men as they laid hold of till they were all fill'd up with Carkasses It was a sight deserving Commiseration to behold Women and Children gauncht or run through with these Posts some were taken off by Spears and Swords and the remainder expos'd to hungry Dogs kept short of Food for that purpose to be devour'd by them and torn in pieces They burnt a Potent Nobleman in a very great Fire saying That he was the more Honour'd by this kind of Death All which Butcheries continued Seven Years from 1524 to 1531. I leave the Reader to judge how many might be Massacred during that time Among the Innumerable Flagitious Acts done by this Tyrant and his Co-partners for they were as Barbarous as their Principal in this Kingdom this also occurs worthy of an Asterism in the Margin In the Province of Cuzcatan in which S. Saviour's City is seated which Country with the Neighbouring Sea-Coasts extends in Length Forty or Fifty Miles as also in the very City of Cuzcatan the Metropolis of the whole Province he was entertain'd with great Applause For about Twenty or Thirty Thousand Indians brought with them Hens and other necessary Provisions expecting his coming He accepting their Gifts commanded every single Spaniara to make choice of as many of these People as he had a mind to that during their stay there they might use them as Servants and forced to undergo the most servile Offices they should impose on them Every one cull'd out a Hundred or Fifty according as he thought convenient for his peculiar service and these wretched Indians did serve the Spaniards with their utmost strength and endeavour so that there could be nothing wanting in them but Adoration In the mean time this Captain requird a great Sum of Gold from their Lords for that was the Load-stone attracted him thither who answered they were content to deliver him up all the Gold they had in possession and in order thereunto the Indians gathered together a great Number of Spears gilded with Orichalcum which had the appearance of Gold and in truth some Gold in them intermixt and they were prefented to him The Captain ordered them to be toucht and when he found them to be Orichalcum or mixt Metal he spake to the Spaniards as followeth Let that Nation that is without Gold be accursed to the Pit of Hell. Let every Man detain those Servants he Elected let them be clapt in Irons and stigmatiz'd with the Brand of Slavery which was accordingly done for they were all burnt who did not escape with the King 's Mark. I my self saw the Impression made on the Son of the Chiefest Person in the City Those that escap'd with other Indians engaged the Spaniards by Force of Arms but with such ill success that abundance of them lost their Lives in the Attempt After this they return'd to Guatimala where they built a City which God in his just Judgments with Three Deluges the First of Water the Second of Earth the Third of Stones as big as half a score Oxen all concurring at one and the same time laid Level with its own Ashes Now all being slain who were capable of bearing Arms against them the rest were enslav'd paying so much per Head for Men and Women as a Ransom for they use no other servitude here and then they were sent into Pecusium to be sold by which means together with their slaughters committed upon the Inhabitants they destroy'd and made a Desert of this Kingdom which in Breadth as well as Length contains One Hundred Miles and with his Associates and Brethren in Iniquity Four Millions at least in Fifteen or Sixteen Years that is from 1524 to 1540 were murdered and dayly continues destroying the small residue of that People with his Cruelties and Brutishness It was the usual Custom of this Tyrant when he made War with any City or Province to take along with him as many of those Indians he had subjugated as he could that they might fight with their Country-men and when he had in his Army Twenty or sometimes Thirty Thousand of them and could not afford them sustenance he permitted them to feed on the Flesh of other Indians taken Prisoners in War and so kept a Shambles of Man's Flesh in his Army suffered Children to be kill'd and roasted before his Face They butcher'd the Men for their Feet and Hands only for these Members were accounted by them Dainties most delicious Food He was the Death of many by the intolerable Labour of carrying Ships by Land causing them to Transport those Vessels with Anchors of a vast weight from the Septentrional to the Mediterranean Sea which are One Hundred and Thirty Miles distant as also abundance of great Guns of the largest sort which they carried on their bare naked shoulders so that opprest with many great and ponderous Burthens I say no more than what I saw they dyed by the way He separated and divided Families forcing Married Men from their Wives and Maids from their Parents which he bestow'd upon his Marriners and Soldiers to gratifie their burning Lust All his Ships he freighted with Indians where Hunger and Thirst discharg'd them of their Servitude and his Cruelty by a welcome Death He had two Companies of Soldiers who hackt and tore them in pieces like Thunder from Heaven speedily O how many Parents has he robb'd of their Children how many Wives of their Husbands and Children of their Parents How many Adulteries Rapes and what Libidinous Acts hath he been guilty of How many hath he enslav'd and opprest with insufferable Anguish and unspeakable Calamities How many Tears Sighs and Groans hath he occasion'd To how many has he bin the Author of Desolation during their
like Infernal Fiends contended who should obtain the Palm by out-staining the Sword of his Predecessor in Innocent Blood insomuch that from the Year 1529 to this very day they have wasted and spoiled as much good ground as extended Five Hundred Miles and unpeopled the Countrey If I design'd to enumerate all the Impieties Butcheries Desolations Iniquities Violences Destructions and other the Piacula and black Enormities committed and perpetrated by the Spaniards in this Province against God the King and these harmless Nations I might compile a Voluminous History and that shall be compleated if God permit my Glass to run longer in his good time It may suffice for the present to relate some passages written in a Letter to our King and Lord by a Reverend Bishop of these Provinces Dated the 20th of May. An. Dom. 1541. wherein among other matters he thus words it I must acquaint your Sacred Majesty that the only way to succour and support this tottering Region is to free it from the Power of a Father in Law and marry it to a Husband who will treat her as she ought to be and lovingly entertain her and that must be done with all possible Expedition too if not I am certain that she will suddenly decay and come to nothing by the covetous and fordid Deportment of the Governours c. And a little after he writes thus By this Means your Majesty will plainly know and understand how to depose the Prefects or Governours of of those Regions from their Office if they deserve it that so they may be alleviated and eas'd of such Burthens which if not perform'd in my Opinion the Body Politick will never recover its Health And this I will make appear to your Majesty that they are not Christians but Devils not Servants of God and the King but Traitors to the King and Laws who are Conversant in those Regions And in reality nothing can be more obstructive to the preservation of peace and the Conversion of those that live peaceably then Inhumane and Barbarous Usage which they who lead a quiet and peaceable Life too frequently undergo and this is so fastidious and nauseous to them that there can be nothing in the World so odious and detestable among them as the Name of a Christian For they term the Christians in their Language Yares that is Devils and in truth not without reason for the Actions of those that reside in these Regions are not such as speak them to be Christians or Men gifted with Reason but absolute Devils hence it is that the Indians perceiving these Actions committed by the Heads as well as Members who are void of all Compassion and Humanity do judge the Christian Laws to be of the same strain and temper and that their God and King are the Authors of such Enormities Now to endeavour to work upon them a contrary perswasion is to no purpose for this would afford them a greater Latitude and Liberty to deride Jesus Christ and his Laws Now the Indians who protect and defend themselves by force of Arms think it more eligible and far better to dye once than suffer several and many Deaths under the Spanish Power This I know experimentally Most Invincible Caesar c. And he adds farther Your Majesty is more Powerful in Subjects and Servants who frequent these Kingdoms then you can imagin Nor is there one Soldier among them all who does not publickly and openly profess if he robs steals spoils kills burns His Majesties Subjects 't is to purchase Gold He will not say that he therein does your Majesty great Service for they affirm they do it to obtain their own Share and Dividend Wherefore Most Invincible Caesar it would be a very prudential Act for Your Majesty to testifie by a rigid Correction and severe Punishment of some Malefactors that it is disservice to you for your Subjects to commit such Evil Acts as tend to the Disobedience and Dishonour of the Almighty What you have read hitherto is the Relation of the said Bishop of St. Martha Epitomized and Extracted from his Letters whereby it is manifest how Savagely they handle these mild and affable People They term them Warlike Indians who betake themselves to the Mountains to secure themselves from Spanish Cruelty and call them Country Indians or Inhabitants who by a dreadful Massacre are delivered up to a Tyrannical and Horrible Servitude whereby at length they are become depopulated made desolate and utterly destroy'd as appears by the Epistle of the praemention'd Bishop who only gives us a slight Account or Essay of their Persecutions and Sufferings The Indians of this Country use to break out into such Words as these when they are driven loaded like Brutes through the uncouth wayes in their Journeys over the Mountains if they happen to faint through Weakness and miscarry through extremity of Labour for then they are kicked and cudgel'd their Teeth dasht out with the Pummels of their Swords to raise them up again when tired and fallen under weighty Burthens and force them to go on without Respiration or Time to take Breath and all this with the following increpation or upbraiding and taunting words O what a wicked Villain art thou I say they burst out into these Expressions I am absolutely tir'd kill me I desire to dye being weary of my Life as well as my Burthen and Journey And this not without deep Heart-breaking Sighs they being scarce able to draw or breathe out their words which are the Characteristical Notes and infallible of the Mind drowned in Anguish and Sorrow May it please our Merciful God to order the discovery of these Crimes to be manifested to those Persons who are able and oblig'd to redress them Of the Province of CARTHAGENA THIS Province is distant Fifty Miles from the Isle of St. Martha Westward and scituated on the Confines of the Country of Cenusia from whence it extends One Hundred Miles to the Bay of Vraba and contains a very long Tract of Land Southward These Provinces from the Year 1498 to this present time were most barbarously us'd and made desert by Murder and Slaughter but that I may the sooner conclude this brief summary I will not handle the particulars to the end I may the better give an Account of the detestable Villanies that ruin'd other Regions Of the Pearl-Coast PARIA and TRINITY-ISLE THE Spaniards made great Spoils and Havock from the Parian coast to the Bay of Venecuola exclusively which is about Two Hundred Miles It can hardly be exprest by Tongue or Pen how many and how great Injuries and Injustices the Inhabitants of this Sea-shore have endur'd from the year 1510 to this day I will only relate Two or Three Piacular and Criminal Acts of the First Magnitude capable of comprehending all other Enormities that deserve the sharpest Torments Wit and Malice can invent and so make way for a deserved Judgment upon them A Nameless Pirate in the Year 1510 accompanied with a parcel of
Sixty or Seventy arriv'd at Trinity-Island which exceeds Sicile both in Amplitude and Fertility and is contiguous to the Continent on that side where it toucheth upon Paria whose Inhabitants according to their Quality are more addicted to Probity and Vertue than the rest of the Indians who immediately published an Edict that all the Inhabitants should come and cohabit with them The Indian Lords and Subjects gave them a Debonair and Brotherly Reception serving them with wonderful Alacrity furnishing them with dayly Provisions in so plentiful a manner that they might have sufficed a more numerous Company For it is the Mode among Indians of this New World to supply the Spaniards very bountifully with all manner of Necessaries A short time after the Spaniards built a stately House which was an Appartment for the Indians that they might accomplish their praemeditated Designs which was thus effected When they were to thatch it and had rais'd it two Mens height they inclos'd several of them there to expedite the Work as they pretended but in truth that they who were within might not see those without thus part of them surrounded the House with Sword in Hand that no one should stir out and part of them entred it and bound the Indians menacing them with Death if they offered to move a Foot and if any one endeavoured to escape he was presently hackt in pieces but some of them partly wounded and partly unwounded getting away with others who went not into the House about One Hundred or Two Hundred betook themselves to another House with Bows and Arrows and when they were all there the Spaniards secur'd the Doors throwing in Fire at another place and so they all perished From hence they set Sail to the Island of St. John with near upon One Hundred and Eighty Slaves whom they had bound where they sold one half of them and thence to Hispaniola where they dispos'd of the rest Now when I taxed this Captain with Wickedness and Treachery in the very Isle of St. John he dismist me with this Answer Forbear good Sir. I had this in commission from those who sent me hither that I should surprize them by the spetious pretense of Peace whom I could not sieze by open Force and in truth this same Captain told me with his own Mouth that in Trinity-Isle alone he had met with a Father and Mother in Civil usage which he uttered to his greater Confusion and the aggravation of his Sins The Monks of our Order of St. Dominic on a certain time held a Consult about sending one of their Fraternity into this Island that by their Preaching they might instruct them in the Christian Faith and teach them the way to be sav'd of which they were wholly Ignorant And to this end they sent thither a Religious and Licentiate in Theolgie or Doctor in Divinity as we term it among us a Man Famous for his Vertue and Holiness with a Laic his Associate to visit the Country converse with the Inhabitants and find out the most convenient places for the Erection of Monasteries As soon as they were arriv'd according to custom they were entertain'd like Coelestial Messengers with great Affection Joy and Respect as well as they could for they were ignorant of their Tongue and so made use of signs for the present It hapned that after the departure of that Vessel that brought these Religious Men another came into the Port whose Crew according to their Hellish Custom fraudulently and unknown to the Religious brought away a Prince of that Province as Captive who was call'd Alsonsus for they are ambitious of a Christian Name and forthwith desire without farther Information that he would Baptize him But the said Lord Alphonsus was deceitfully overperswaded to go on board of them with his Wife and about Seventeen more pretending that they would give him a Collation which the Prince and they did for he was confident that the Religious would by no means suffer him to be abus'd for he had no so much Confidence in the Spaniards but as soon as they were upon Deck the perfidious Rogues set Sail for Hispaniola where they were sold as Slaves The whole Country being extreamly discompos'd and understanding that their Prince and Princess were violently carried away addressed themselves to these Religioso's who were in great danger of losing their Lives But they being made to understand this unjust Action were extraordinarily afflicted and 't is probable would have suffered Death rather than permit the Indians to be so injuriously dealt with which might prove an Obstruction to their receiving of and believing in God's Word Yet the Indians were sedated by the promises of the Religious for they told them they would send Letters by the first Ship that was bound for Hispaniola whereby they would procure the Restitution and Return of their Lord and his Retinue It pleased God to send a Ship thither forthwith to the greater confirming of the Governours Damnation where in the Letters they sent to the Religious of Hispaniola Letters containing repeated Exclamations and Protestations and protest against such Actions but those that received them denyed them Justice for that they were partakers of that Prey made of those Indians so injustly and impiously captivated But when the Religious who had engag'd to the Inhabitants that their Lord Alphonsus should be restor'd within Four Moneths and found that neither in Four nor Eight Moneths he was return'd they prepar'd themselves for Death and to deliver up their Life to Christ to whom they had offer'd it before their departure from Spain Thus the Innocent Indians were revenged on the Innocent Priests for they were of Opinion that the Religious had a hand in the Plot partly because they found their Promises that their Lord should return within Four Moneths ineffectual and partly because the Inhabitants make no difference between a Religious Frier and a Spanish Rogue At another time it fell out likewise through the Rampant Tyranny and Cruel Deeds of evil-minded Christians that the Indians put to Death two Dominican Friers of which I am a faithful Witness escaping my self not without a very great Miracle which Transaction I resolve silently to pass over lest I should terrifie the Reader with the Horror of the Fact. In these Provinces there was a City seated on the Bay of Codera whose Lord was call'd Higueroto a Name either proper to Persons or common to the Rulers of that Place A Cacic of such signal Clemency and his Subjects of such noted Vertue that the Spaniards who came thither were extraordinary welcom furnished with Provisions enjoying Peace and Comfort and no Refreshment wanting But a perfidious Wretch got many of them on board and sold them to the Islanders of St. John. At the same time I landed upon that Island where I obtained a sight of this Tyrant and heard the Relation of his Actions He utterly destroy'd that Land which the rest of the Spaniards took very unkindly at his
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
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