destroyers and Abaddons of mankinde who are with him and to whom he gives the power to exercise these strange abominations are so many and so great that if his Majesty do not stop the deluge of evils which they bring along with them for the slaughters of the Indians are made onely through the desire of their Gold though it be all in their own hands already in a very short time the Kingdom will be ruin'd laid desolate and the land when all the Inhabitants are destroy'd must of necessity lie untill'd In this place we must noe passe by a most pernicious cruelty of these Tyrants which was so violent that in the space of two or three years for no longer time there was between the desolation and the discovery of this Kingdom which was the most populous Country in the whole World they totally ruin'd and depopulated the whole Country shewing themselves so void of compassion so empty of grace so regardlesse of the Kings honour that they had not left a person living had not his Majesty a little stopt the current of their cruelty which I the more easily believe because I have seen my selfe in a few dayes several great Kingdomes and Countries destroy'd and desolate There are some large Provinces adjoyning to the Kingdom of new Granata which are call'd Popagan and Cali and three or four others which stretch themselves in length above 500. miles which they destroy'd in the same manner as they did the other and by their foresaid Massacres brought down to the lowest degree of desolation and this some who return'd out of these Countries came to us relate But if there were ever any thing to be bewailed by man they were the stories which they told of large Cities ruin'd and buried in their own ashes scarce fifty houses remaining where before there were above a thousand or two thousand and the sad narrations which they brought of large Countries and Regions that lay desolate and spoil'd of their inhabitants At length there went out of the Kingdomes of Perne through the Country of Quitonia into the Regions of Granata and Popaganum many very cruel Tyrants who march'd through the Carthagenians and Vrabia to reach Calisium while others stay'd to assaile Quitonium it selfe But these at length joyn'd together depopulating above sixe hundred miles in length with an infinite waste of men to the remainder whereof they are at present no lesse cruel And thus what I set down as a rule still holds good that the violence and cruelty of the Spaniards by continuance still waxed more and more furious and bloody But among all these Crimes which are onely worthy of fire and sword that have been perpetrated in these Countries this which followes is worthy the taking notice of When the heate of Massacring and killing is over they carry captive away sometimes two hundred sometimes three hundred men apeice and when their master pleases he commands a hundred at a time to be brought before him to whom when they come like meek and patient lambs he commands thirty or forty of them to be put to death telling the rest that thus they shall all be us'd unlesse they prove diligent in his service Consider I beseech you all that read or shall read these few papers whether an act so horrible so detestable so inhumane do not exceed all the iniquities and cruelties that the imagination of man can comprehend and whether such Spaniards may not be deservedly called Devils or whether it be not a thing almost indifferent whether the Indians should be in the hands of Spaniards or of the Infernal spirits Neither will I forget to relate one barbarou's action which as I think doth exceed the cruelty of beasts The Spaniards which are among the Indians do breed up a sort of fierce dogs which they teach and instruct to fall upon the Indians and devour them Now let all men judge whether Christians or Turks in this it much imports not whether so much cruelty ever peirc'd their eares before These dogs they take along with them in all their expeditions carrying also divers Indians in chaines for the sustenance of those dogs And it was a common thing for them to say one to another Give me a quarter of your Indian for my dogs and too morrow when I bill one I will pay it you again As if they were no more to be accounted of then the offals of a hog or sheep Others were wont to go a hunting in the morning and being ask'd how they had sped Oh very well reply'd the other my dogs have kill'd fifteen or sixteen Indians this morning These have been all proved in the impeachments made by one Tyrant against another Could there be any thing more horrible or more cruel But I will here stay until there shall come news of greater impieties if greater there can be or till we shall return to behold these things which for the space of above forty years we have already seen And now I do protest according to my conscience and in the sight of God that the losses of the Indians were so great and so many their subverted Cities the cruelties and massacres so horrible the violences and iniquities so in human that though I have done my utmost to relate what I could and to paint them in their own lively colours yet have I not been able to rehearse one thing done among a thousand either as to the quantity or the quality of the Crimes And now that all true Christians may be mov'd with the greater compassion towards the poor creatures that their losses may appeare the more deplorable that they may with a greater indignation detest the ambition cruelty and covetousness of the Spaniards to those which I have abovesaid I will also adde this for a truth that from the time America was first discovered unto this present the Indians never were the men that ever shewed the least disaffection or offer'd the least injury to the Spaniards but rather ador'd them as Angels of immortality come to visit them from Heaven till their owne actions betrayd them to a far worse censure This I will also adde that from the beginning to this day the Spaniards were never any more mindful to spread the Gospel among them then as if they had been dogs but on the contrary forbid religious persons to exercise their dutie deterring them by many afflictions and persecutions from preaching and teaching among them for that they thought would have hindered them in getting their Gold and kept the people from their labours Neither had they any more knowledge of the God of Heaven as to say whether he were of wood brasse or iron then they had above a hundred years before New Spaine being onely excepted whither the Religious persons had most liberty to go So that they all dy'd without Faith or Sacraments to the willing destruction of their souls I Frier Bartholmew Casaus of the Order of St. Dominic who went to these parts through the mercy of God desiring the salvation of the Indians that so many precious soules redeemd with the blood of Christ might not perish but wishing with my whole heart that they might through the knowledge of their Creator live eternally Because of the care also and compassion which I beare to my Country which is Castile fearing lest God should destroy it in his anger for the sins which it hath committed against his divine Majesty the faith and the honour of divers great persons in the Court of Spaine zealously religious and who abominate these bloody and detestable actions after many hinderances of businesse did at length put an end to this brief Tractate at Valentia the eighth day of December 154â— when the Spaniards though they were in some places more cruel in some places lesse after the end of all their torments violences tyrannies desolations and oppressions were at length come to Mexico which enjoyes a gentler usage then other parts for there is an outside of Justice which doth something restrain their cruelty though not at all the immoderate tributes which they lay upon them And now I have a real hope that Charles the Fifth our Soveraign Lord and Prince Emperor King of Spaine to whose eares the wickednesses and impieties of these tyrants do daily come which are committed against the will of God in these Countries for they have hitherto conceal'd these things from him not lesse subtilly then maliciously will extirpate the causes of so many evils and apply fitting remedies to the calamities of this New World delivered by God to him as to a Lover of Justice and Mercy Which God we doe beseech to grant him happinesse in his life and in his Imperial dignity and to bless his Royal soule with eternal happiness Amen FINIS The Historical Relation of the Spanish Massacres in the West Indies
have among the Nations God still continuing the Management of his Iustice in the hands of our most Fortunate and Lawful Magistrate whom he hath rais'd up as his Great Instrument to revenge the Blood of that innocent People Consider this moreover That you are not uow to fight against your Country-men but against your Old and Constant Enemies the SPANIARDS a Proud Deceitful Cruel and Treacherous Nation whose chiefest Aim hath been the Conquest of this Land and to enslave the People of this Nation witness those Invasions in the days of Queen ELIZABETH whose Leagues of Amity we had more reason to repent of then to rejoyce at as being destructive to the Nation and made with those that onely sought the Advantages of Peace that they might be more safe to do us Mischief and so little they car'd for Peace with us that they never sought it but when meer Vrgencies of State requir'd and never kept their Articles when they had the least hope of Profit to themselves Of which we need not look for ancient Examples they are fresh in Memory and have been too sadly and undeservedly sustain'd both nearer home and of late years in the West-Indies also as appears by that Pious and Prudent DECLARATION set forth by his Highness the LORD PROTECTOR as if Providence had so ordain'd it that by the Wrongs of our Country-men in those Parts we should be interested in the Quarrel of those Innocent Nations Neither need we to fear the Vaunts of the Spanish Monarch whose Government stands not on those strong Foundations that some imagine Blood and Tyrannie being the chief Pillars of his Greatness or rather his Arcana Imperii his Empire being onely strong in this That the Weaknesses thereof have not yet been well look'd into Should we chase him from his Indian Treasures he would soon retire to his Shell like a Snail tapt upon the horns And perhaps it would not a little avail to the General Peace of Europe whereby we should be strengthened against the Common Enemy of Christianitie For doubtless it hath been the Satanical Scope of this Tyrant To set all the European Princes at Variance and to keep them busie at home that they might not have leasure to bend their Forces against his Golden Regions But he pretends a Right to them though upon very slender Grounds for that the English may better claim then himself it being first discovered as is well known and tendered to Henry the Seventh by Sebastian Cabot one of his own Captains Which brings to minde the Poor Spirits of our English Kings who would not regard such an Advantage so highly importing the Honour of the Nation so far as to be almost guilty of the Bloud shed in those parts through their neglect But for farther satisfaction concerning the Right of the English to the West-Indies I shall refer you to a further Treatise which I may ere long put forth And now honoured Country-men seeing that by Divine Providence the Cruelties and Barbarous Massacres of the Spaniards have been so apparently presented to you I cannot but be confident of your Endeavours as you tender the Good and Welfare of your Native Country to acquit your selves in so just a Cause which God hath put into the Heart and Hands of our Supreme Magistrate who is so Vigilant to embrace all Opportunities for the Good of the Nation Tears of the Indies or Inquisition for Bloud being the Relation of the Spanish Massacre there IN the year 1492. the West-Indies were discovered in the following year they were inhabited by the Spaniards a great company of the Spaniards going about 49. years agoe The first place they came to was Hispaniola being a most fertile Island and for the bignesse of it very famous it being no less then six hundred miles in compass Round about it lie an innumerable company of Islands so throng'd with Inhabitants that there is not to be found a greater multitude of people in any part of the world The Continent is distant from this about Two hundred miles stretching it self out in length upon the sea side for above Ten thousand miles in length This is already found out and more is daily discovered These Countreys are inhabited by such a number of people as if God had assembled and called together to this place the greatest part of Mankinde This infinite multitude of people was so created by God as that they were without fraud without subtilty or malice to their natural Governours most faithful and obedient Toward the Spaniards whom they serve patient meek and peaceful and who laying all contentious and tumultuous thoughts aside live without any hatred or desire of revenge the people are most delicate and tender enjoying such a feeble constitution of body as does not permit them to endure labour so that the Children of Princes and great persons here are not more nice and delicate then the Children of the meanest Countrey-man in that place The Nation is very poor and indigent possessing little and by reason that they gape not after temporal goods neither proud nor ambitious Their diet is such that the most holy Hermite cannot feed more sparingly in the wildernesse They go naked only hiding the undecencies of nature and a poor shag mantle about an ell or two long is their greatest and their warmest covering They lie upon mats only whose who have larger fortunes lye upon a kinde of net which is tied at the four corners and so fasten'd to the roof which the Indians in their natural language call Hamecks They are of a very apprehensive and docible wit and capable of all good learning and very apt to receive our Religion which when they have but once tasted they are carryed on with a very ardent and zealous desire to make a further progress in it so that I have heard divers Spaniards confesse that they had nothing else to hinder them from enjoying heaven but their ignorance of the true God To these quiet Lambs endued with such blessed qualities came the Spaniards like most cruel Tygres Wolves and Lions enrag'd with a sharp and tedious hunger for these forty years past minding nothing else but the slaughter of these unfortunate wretches whom with divers kinds of torments neither seen nor heard of before they have so cruelly and inhumanely butchered that of three millions of people which Hispaniola it self did contain there are left remaining alive scarce three hundred persons And for the Island of Cuba which contains as much ground in length as from Valladolid to Rome it lies wholly desert untill'd and ruin'd The Islands of St. Iohn and Iamaica lie waste and desolate The Lucayan Islands neighbouring toward the North upon Cuba and Hispaniola being above Sixty or thereabouts with those Islands that are vulgarly called the Islands of the Gyants of which that which is least fertile is more fruitful then the King of Spains Garden at Sevil being situated in a pure and temperate air are now totally unpeopled and
destroyed the inhabitants thereof amounting to above 500000. souls partly killed and partly forced away to work in other places so that there going a ship to visit those parts and to glean the remainder of those distressed wretches there could be found no more then eleven men Other Islands there were near the Island of St. Iohn more then thirty in number which were totally made desert All which Islands though they amount to such a number containing in length of ground the space of above Two thousand miles lie now altogether solitary without any people or Inhabitant Now to come to the Continent we are confident and dare affirm upon our own knowledge that there were ten Kingdomes of as large an extent as the Kingdome of Spain joyning to it both Arragon and Portugal containing above a thousand miles every one of them in compass which the unhumane and abominable villanies of the Spaniards have made a wilderness of being now as it were stript of all their people and made bare of all their inhabitants though it were a place formerly possessed by vast and infinite numbers of men And we dare confidently aver that for those Forty years wherin the Spaniards exercised their abominable cruelties and detestable tyrannies in those parts that there have innocently perish'd above Twelve millions of souls women and children being numbred in this sad and fatall list moreover I do verily believe that I should speak within compass should I say that above Fifty millions were consumed in this Massacre As for those that came out of Spain boasting themselves to be Christians they took two several waies to extirpate this Nation from the face of the Earth the first whereof was a bloudy unjust and cruel war which they made upon them a second by cutting off all that so much as sought to recover their liberty as some of the stouter sort did intend And as for the Women and Children that were lest alive they laid so heavy and grievous a yoke of servitude upon them that the condition of beasts was much more tolerable Unto these two heads all the other several torments and inhumanities which they used to the ruine of these poor Nations may be reduced That which led the Spaniards to these unsanctified impieties was the desire of Gold to make themselves suddenly rich for the obtaining of dignities honours which were no way fit for them In a word their covetousness their ambition which could not be more in any people under heaven the riches of the Countrey and the patience of the people gave occasion to this their devillish barbarism For the Spaniards so contemned them I now speak what I have seen without the least untruth that they used them not like beasts for that would have been tolerable but looked upon them as if they had been but the dung and filth of the earth and so little they regarded the health of their souls that they suffered this great multitude to die without the least light of Religion neither is this lesse true then what I have said before and that which those tyrants and hangmen themselves dare not deny without speaking a notorious falshood that the Indians neevr gave them the least cause to offer them violence but received them as Angels sent from heaven till their excessive cruelties the torments and slaughters of their Country-men mov'd them to take Armes against the Spaniards Of Hispaniola They erected certain Gallowses that were broad but so low that the tormented creatures might touch the ground with their feet upon every one of which they would hang thirteen persons blasphemously affirming that they did it in honour of our Redeemer and his Apostles and then putting fire under them they burnt the poor wretches alive Those whom their pity did think fit to spare they would send away with their hands half cut off and so hanging by the skin Thus upbraiding their flight Go carry letters to those who lye hid in the mountains and are fled from us This Death they found out also for the Lords and Nobles of the Land they stuck up forked sticks in the ground and then laid certain perches upon them and so laying them upon those perches they put a gentle fire under causing the fire to melt them away by degrees to their unspeakable torment One time above the rest I saw four of the Nobles laid upon these perches and two or three other of these kinde of hurdles furnished after the same manner the clamours and cries of which persons being troublesome to the Captain he gave order that they should be hang'd but the Executioner whose name I know and whose parents are not obscure hindred their Calamity from so quick a conclusion stopping their mouthes that they should not disturb the Captain and still laying on more wood till being roasted according to his pleasure they yeelded up the ghost Of these and other things innumerable I have been an eye-witnesse Now because there were some that shun'd like so many rocks the cruelty of a Nation so inhumane so void of piety and love to mankinde and therefore fled from them to the mountains therefore they hunted them with their Hounds whom they bred up and taught to pull down and tear the Indians like beasts by these Dogs much humane bloud was shed and because the Indians did now and then kill a Spaniard taking him at an advantage as justly they might therefore the Spaniards made a Law among themselves that for one Spaniard so slaine they should kill a hundred Indians Of the Kingdomes which the Island of Hispaniola did contain THE Island of Hispaniola had in it five very great Kingdomes and five very potent Kings to whom the other Lords of which there was a very great number were for the most part subject for there were some few Lords of peculiar Countries that did not acknowledge the jurisdiction of these Kings one of these Kingdomes is called Maqua which signifies a plain This Plain if there be any thing in the world worth taking notice claims a very nice observation For from the South to the North it is stretcht forward fourscore miles in length in breadth it takes up sometimes eight sometimes five and sometimes ten miles on all sides it is shut up with very high mountains it is watered by thirty thousand Rivers and Rivolets whereof twelve are not lesse then either Duerus Ebrus or Guadalgevir and all the Rivers which run from the Mountains on the West side whose number is twenty thousand do all of them abound with gold With which Mountain the Province of Cibao is bounded where are the Mines of Cibao that afford the most exquisite and pure Gold which is so much valued among us This Kingdome was govern'd by Guarionex who had under his jurisdiction as his vassals Lords and Governors so potent that every one of them was able to bring into the field for the service of Guarionex above Sixteen thousand men apiece Some of which Lords I very well knew
permitting them to discern that no man can be called a Rebell who is not before a Subject This cruel Tyrant leaning upon this pretence sent two other Captains excelling himself in fury and impiety to Guatimala the most fertile and most flourishing Kingdome both for men and fruit of any that were situated southward They had also received commands to visit the Kingdomes of Naco Honduras and Guaimara looking toward the north and being distant from Mexico above three hundred miles the one was sent by land the other by sea being both of them well furnished with men and ammunition for Horse and Foot And this I dare affirm that the enormities committed by these two Captains and by him especially that was sent to Guatimala for the other dyed an evill death in good time are enough to fill a particular volume so many were the slaughters violences injuries butcheries and beastly desolations which they perpetrated as do not only amaze the present but must of necessity strike a horror into future ages for in this place their abominations and devastations were more fatal then in any place before As for him that went by sea he vex'd all the shore with his incursions and cruelties to whom there came certain out of the Kingdome of Yucatan which lies in the way to the Kingdomes of Naco and Naymura whither he was then marching and brought him many presents yet he was no sooner come into the Countrey but he sent the souldiers to depopulate and waste the same who ceased not to commit many abominable outrages Among the rest a certain seditious rebel entring into a region bordering upon Guatemala burnt up their City killing the Inhabitants and laying waste all the Countrey which he did on purpose that if he should be pursued by his enemies they might be liable to the revenge of the Indians as they passed along which happened accordingly for there the chief Commander from whose power the foresaid Captain had rebell'd was slain but he was succeeded by many other fell tyrants who with their wonted cruelties and captivity destroyed the people selling them to those that brought garments and other provision and by that kinde of servitude which they practised from the year 1524. to the year 1535. they depopulated and made desert the provinces of Naco and Honduras which seemed to be the Elysium and Paradise of the world in every respect And I have lately seen them so destroyed that it would move the most stony heart to compassion In these eleven years there prrished in this Countrey above two millions scarce two thousand now remaining who daily diminish through the hardnesse of their servitude But as for that abominable tyrant that exceeded all that were before in tyranny and is equall to all that remains behinde let us now finde him out in Guatimala He going through the Provinces adjoyning to Mexico toward Guatimala which are above four hundred miles in length minded nothing else all the way he went but slaughters rapines burnings depopulations compelling all upon the foresaid pretence to submit themselves to their cruelties in the name of the King of Spain whom they had never seen nor heard of and whom they could not but think more unjust and cruel then his Ministers and Officers yet giving them no time to deliberate they wasted all before them with fire and sword Of the Kingdome and Province of Guatimala AT their first entrance into this Kingdome they committed a very great outrage But for all that their chief Lord and Governor carried in a Litter came forth to meet him with Drums and Trumpets and great joy attended by many of the Nobles of the City of Vtlacan the greatest Mart Town of that Kingdome where they gave him provisions in abundance with all that he could desire That night the Spaniards lodg'd without the City not thinking themselves safe in a Town so well fortified as that was The next day he called to him the chief Lord with a great number of the Nobles demanding of them a very great quantity of Gold They returning him answer that they could not satisfie his request by reason that their Countrey afforded not Gold were immediately by his command without any cause or form of proceeding all burnt alive The rest of the Nobles of these Provinces seeing that all the chiefest of them who had the power and government of the Kingdome in their hands were for no cause put to death but because they were not able to give them gold fled to the mountains for safety charging their subjects to submit themselves to the Spaniards but not to tell them where their sculking places were nor to give them notice of their flight Whereupon an infinite number of the Indians came to the Spaniards requesting that they might be their subjects and that they might serve them The Captain made answer that he would not receive them and that moreover he would kill them all unlesse they would declare whither their Lords were fled the Indians replyed That they knew nothing of it but their Wives and Children they said were ready to serve them adding that they were at home in their houses whither they might goe and either kill them or use them as they pleas'd which offers they made to them again and again But strange to tell the Spaniards demanded their Cities and Towns killing these poor creatures who as they thought were secure at their work They came to a very large Town which being confident of their own innocence thought themselves safer then the rest but in two hours space they brought such a desolation upon it killing all ages and sexes that there was not a person left alive but what saved themselves by flight The Indians perceiving that with all their humility their patience and their presents that they were not able to asswage the fury of these inhumane creatures and that they were daily killed up like dogs began to think of taking armes for they thought it better since an evill death could not be avoided rather to die fighting and taking revenge upon their enemies then to be killed like beasts by them But when they saw their want of armes their feeblenesse their nakednesse and that they were utterly unskilfull in the management of horses that they might have some way of prevailing upon their enemies it came in their minds to dig certain ditches in the waies that so the horses as they went along might fall into them at the bottome of these pits they had driven in stakes sharpned at the top and they had covered them over with clods of earth that they might not be discovered twice or thrice the Spaniards fell into these ditches but afterwards by their care they easily avoided them And therefore they made a Law among themselves that all the Indians which they took of what ever sex or degree should be thrown into those pits which they had made Into these pits they threw women big with childe and all the aged persons that they could
me to bury him why do you give me this sick man to be his keeper And thus let us consider in what estimation the Indians are among the Spaniards and how the precept of Charity on which the Law and the Prophets depends is observed among them There is nothing more detestable or more cruel then the tyranny which the Spaniards use toward the Indians for the getting of pearl Surely the infernall torments cannot much exceed the anguish that they indure by reason of that way of cruelty for they put them under water some four or five ells deep where they are forced without any liberty of respiration to gather up the shels wherein the Pearls are sometimes they come up again with nets full of shels to take breath but if they stay any while to rest themselves immediately comes a hangman row'd in a little boat who as soon as he hath well beaten them drags them again to their labour Their food is nothing but fish and the very same that contains the Pearl with a small portion of that bread which that Countrey affords in the first whereof there is little nourishment and as for the latter it is made with great difficulty besides that they have not enough of that neither for sustenance they lye upon the ground in fetters lest they should run away and many times they are drown'd in this labour and are never seen again till they swim upon the top of the waves oftentimes they also are devoured by certain sea monsters that are frequent in those seas Consider whether this hard usage of the poor creatures be consistent with the precepts which God commands concerning charity to our neighbour by those that cast them so undeservedly into the dangers of a cruel death causing them to perish without any remorse or pity or allowing them the benefit of the Sacraments or the knowledge of Religion it being impossible for them to live any time under the water and this death is so much the more painful by reason that by the coarctation of the brest while the lungs strive to do their office the vitall parts are so afflicted that they dye vomiting the bloud out of their mouthes Their hair also which is by nature black is hereby chang'd and made of the same colour with that of the sea Wolves their bodies are also so besprinkled with the froth of the sea that they appear rather like monsters then men By this intolerable labour or rather diabolical exercise they have consumed all the Lucayans for their particular gain out of every Indians labour gaining above fifty or a hundred Crowns They sold them also against all justice only because Lucayans were most skilfull swimmers There perished also many of the Inhabitants of other Provinces in this place Of the River of Yuya Pari. THrough this Province runs the River of Yuya Pari which rises in other Countreys about two huudred miles distant Into this River entred a perfidious Tyrant wasting many miles of Land committing many slaughters consuming many by fire and putting an infinite number of these poor Indians to the sword that liv'd peaceably in their own houses without any suspicion of making disturbance At length he dy'd an evill death and all his forces came to ruine though he were succeeded by many others not inferiour to him in impiety who daily destroy the souls of the poor Indians for whom the bloud of Christ was spilt Of the Kingdome of Venecuela IN the yeare 1526. our Soveraigne Lord the King through the false perswasions of some evil Counsellours made over to certaine Dutch Merchants the Kingdome of Venecuela being more large and long then Spain giving to the Governour a full and plenary jurisdiction over the said People upon certain conditions They entered this Region with about 30. men where they found the people affable and courteous as they were in other Countries of India before they were killed up by the Spaniards They by many degrees crueller then the rest of whom we have spoken shewed themselves more fierce and greedy then Tygers Wolves or Lyons for having a jurisdiction over the Land and therefore possessing it more freely they bestirred themselves with greater fury and covetousnesse in the heaping up of Gold and Silver then any of their Predecessors had done before them laying aside all feare of God or of the King and forgetting all humanity These incarnate devils laid waste and spoiled above 400. miles of most fertile land containing very great Provinces fruitful Vallies forty miles in length and an infinite number of Villages abounding with Gold and Silver So many and so many several regions they so utterly depopulated that they hardly left a Messenger of these sad tydings but those which hiding themselves in the Caverns and Bowels of the Earth escaped the thirst of their enraged swords With new and unusual sorts of torments they destroyed above four or five millions of people Neither do they yet put an end to their abominable crimes and enormities Three or four of their mad actions I will rehearse whereby the reader may judge of the rest The chiefe Lord of the Province they took captive putting him to several torments to squeeze his Gold from him but he escaping fled to the Mountaines and thereupon his Subjects that lay hid among the Woods and Bushes began to raise a tumult The Spainards followed destroying abundance of the people and as for those who were taken alive they were publickly sold for slaves In many Provinces and indeed in most Provinces where they came before the captivity of the chief Lord they were still welcom'd by the Indians with Songs and Dances and great Presents of Gold though the thanks which they gave them was alwayes with the points of their swords still recompensing them with Massacres One day when they came forth to meet the Spaniards the German Tyrant and Captaine caus'd an infinite number of them to be shut up in a house made up with straw where he commanded that they should be all cut in pieces Now by reason that there were beames in the house whither the Indians got up to avoid the fury of the German swords therefore O cruel beasts the Governour sent certaine men to set fire upon the house and so burnt them alive So that now the whole Region lay waste and desolate the inhabitants being all fled to the Mountaines for safety They came afterwards to another large Province neere to that of St. Martha where they found the Indians in their houses and Cities very peaceably employed about their occasions where they liv'd a good while at the charges of the inhabitants the Indians serving them like men in whose power their lives and safeties were induring beyond imagination their continual importunities and daily oppressions which were almost intolerable This being added which I said before that one Spainard consumes in one day as much as would suffice to serve an Indian family consisting commonly of ten persons for a whole month At that
that he should be brought before him and thus they presum'd to call to judgement one of the greatest Kings of the Land Whereupon sentence was given that hee should be tormented because he had not given the gold'n house Whereupon they tortur'd him dropping hot sope upon his belly then they fetterd his two feet to two posts or stakes and bound his neck to another then two men holding his hands they set fire to his feet the Tyrant comming now and then to him and threatning death to him unlesse that he would tell them where his treasure lay But that could not be done for with torments they soon ended his life Which things while they were doing the displeasure of Heaven fell upon the City for their sakes whereby it was immediately consum'd with fire The other Captaines of the Spaniards resolving to walk in their Leaders footsteps because they knew no Art but that of dismembring the poor people were not less guilty of the same crimes with divers and most horrible torments afflicting both the Nobles and the Commonaly which submitted themselves unto them though they would faine have bought their peace with great presents both of Gold and Precious Stones They tormented them onely that they might obtaine from them the greater Sums of Gold and Silver and thus all the Noble Blood of that Country was spilt in a most barbarous and shameful manner One time it happend that a certain number of the Indians full of innocence and simplicity came to proffer their service to the Spanish Captain But while they thought themselves safe under the protection of their own humility a Captain at that instant came to the City where they serv'd their Masters who after he had sup'd commanded all the Indians who were sleeping and resting from the hardnesse of their labours to be all put to the sword Which slaughter he made with intention to make himselfe the more dreadful to all the Country Once the Captain commanded all the Spaniards that they should bring forth as many of the Indian Lords or common people as they had in their houses into a publick place and there kill them and thus they slew above four or five hundred men This the witnesses affirme of a certain particular Tyrant that he exercis'd very great cruelties by cutting off the hands noses and feet both of men and women Another time it happend that the chief Captain sent an Officer into the Province of Bogata to enquire who had succeeded the Prince that was so cruelly murdered who riding many miles into the Country took the Indians captive cutting off the hands and ears of many of them onely because they would not tell who was their Kings Successor others they threw to their dogs to be torn to pieces and thus they kill'd and destroy'd great numbers of the Indians in these parts Upon a certain day about the fourth watch of the night they fell upon many Princes Peers and other men who thought themselves in safety for the Spaniards had made promise to them that they should not receive any injury upon which promise they came out of their lurking holes in the mountaines returning without any fear or suspition to their houses all these this Tyrant took and causing them to lay their hands upon the ground with his own sword cut them off telling them that he would chastise them for not declaring where their King was Another time because the Indians did not bring a chest of Gold to the Captain which he required he therefore sent forces to make war upon them in which war so many were slain so many dismembred that the number was hardly to be reckond besides others that they cast to their dogs bred up and fed with humane flesh who were immediately devoured by them Another time the Inhabitants of another Province seeing that they had murderd about four or five of their chief Princes and Rulers fled in fear to a certain mountain for shelter against their inhumane enemies where there were got together above foure or five thousand Indians as hath been proved by witnesses But the Captain or Governour of the Spaniards sent a notorious Tyrant with a company of Souldiers to reduce as he said those rebellious Indians that had fled from their slaughters and cruelties and to chastise them for it as if they had done an unlawful action or as if punishment had been due to the Indians and not rather more deserved by themselves to have bin us'd without all pity who had shewd themselves so mercilesse to others The Spaniards scale this Mountain by force for the Indians were weak and unarmed telling them that they desired peace if they would lay down their Armes whereupon they all immediately threw away their weapons which when the chief Tyrant beheld he sent to certain of the Spaniards to possesse themselves of the cheife places of strength in the Mountaine and then commanded them to fall upon the Indians Whereupon they fall upon them as Wolves or Lyons fall upon a flock of sheep till they were wearied with murdering but they had no sooner taken breath but he commanded them again to renew their fury and caus'd them to precipitate the rest which were remaining from the top of the Rock which was very high and steep And the witnesses affirm that they have seen a cloud of Indians falling down from the Mountain which were all bruis'd to peices And to finish his cruel enterprise he caus'd the Indians that had hid themselves among the thickets to be searched out and put to the sword and then thrown down from the tops of the high mountaines And not satiated with these cruelties that their horrible abominations might be the more notorious he gave command that all the Indians that were reserv'd alive should be kept by his particular souldiers as their slaves a custome which they constantly observed as for the women those excepted whom they thought most fit for their service they were all thrust together into a house made of straw and there burnt to death to the number of above four or five hundred The same Tyrant came to the City of Cota where he took an infinite sight of people and cast fifteen or sixteen of the Nobles and Lords of the Kingdom to his dogs cutting of the hands of many of the Indians both men and women which he hung upon a perch for the Indians to behold in this manner were seen hung together above seventy paire of hands This is also to be added that they cut off the noses both of Infants and their Mothers No man can rehearse the cruelties committed by this man the enemy of God They are innumerable neither heard of nor seen before especially those committed in Guatimala which were their chiefe masterpeices in this art of destruction which they have been so long practising The witnesses do moreover adde this that the cruelties and slaughters committed in the said new Kingdome of Granata by the said Captain and his accomplices the