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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35552	Popery truly display'd in its bloody colours, or, A faithful narrative of the horrid and unexampled massacres, butcheries, and all manner of cruelties, that hell and malice could invent, committed by the popish Spanish party on the inhabitants of West-India together with the devastations of several kingdoms in America by fire and sword, for the space of forty and two years, from the time of its first discovery by them / composed first in Spanish by Bartholomew de las Casas, a bishop there, and an eyewitness of most of these barbarous cruelties ; afterward translated by him into Latin, then by other hands, into High-Dutch, Low-Dutch, French, and now taught to speak modern English.; Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias. English. Selections	Casas, Bartolomé de las, 1474-1566.	1689 (1689)	Wing C798; ESTC R8882	62,150	91

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 e●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

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

Provisions and others their Wives and Children in lurking holes but some to avoid the obdurate and dreadful temper of such a Nation sought their Refuge on the craggy tops of Mountains for the Spaniards did not only entertain them with Cuffs Blows and wicked Cudgelling but laid violent hands also on the Governours of Cities and this arriv'd at length to that height of Temerity and Impudence that a certain Captain was so audacious as to abuse the Confort of the most puissant king of the whole Isle From which time they began to consider by what wayes and means they might expel the Spaniards out of their Countrey and immediately took up Arms. But good God what Arms do you imagin Namely such both Offensive and Defensive as resemble Reeds wherewith Boys sport with one another more than Manly Arms and Weapons Which the Spaniards no sooner perceived but they mounted on generous Steeds well weapon'd with Lances and Swords began to exercise their bloody Butcheries and Stratagems and over-running their Cities and Towns spar'd no Age or Sex nay not so much as Women with Child but ripping up their Bellies tore them alive in pieces They laid Wagers among themselves who should with a Sword at one blow cut or divide a Man in two or which of them should decollate or behead a Man with the greatest dexterity nay farther which should sheath his Sword in the Bowels of a Man with the quickest dispatch and expedition They snatcht young Babes from the Mothers Breasts and then dasht out the Brains of those Innocents against the Rocks others they cast into Rivers scoffing and jeering them and call'd upon the Bodies when falling with derision the true testimony of their Cruelty to come to them and inhumanely exposing others to their Merciless Swords together with the Mothers that gave them Life They erected certain Gibbets large but low made so that their Feet almost reacht the ground every one of which was so order'd as to bear Thirteen Persons in Honour and Reverence as they said blasphemously of our Redeemer and his Twelve Apostles under which they made a Fire to burn them to Ashes whilst hanging on them But those they intended to preserve alive they dismiss'd their Hands half cut and still hanging by the Skin to carry their Letters missive to those that fly from us and ly sculking on the Mountains as an exprobration of their flight The Lords and Persons of Noble Extract were usually expos'd to this kind of Death they order'd Gridirons to be placed and supported with wooden Forks and putting a small Fire under them these miserable Wretches by degrees with loud Shreiks and exquisite Torments at last Expird I once saw Four or Five of their most Powerful Lords laid on these Gridirons and thereon roasted and not far off Two or Three more over-spread with the same Commodity Man's Flesh but the shril Clamours which were heard there being offensive to the Captain by hindring his Repose he commanded them to be strangled with a Halter The Executiouer whose Name and Parents at Sevil are not unknown to me prohibited the doing of it but stopt Gags into their Mouths to prevent the hearing of the noise he himself making the Fire till that they dyed when they had been roasted as long as he thought convenient I was an Eye-Witness of these and an innumerable Number of other Cruelties And because all Men who could lay hold of the opportunity sought out lurking holes in the Mountains to avoid as dangerous Rocks so Brutish and Barbarous a People Strangers to all Goodness and the Extirpaters and Adversaries of Men they bred up such fierce hunting Dogs as would devour an Indian like a Hog at first sight in less than a moment Now such kind of Slaughters and Cruelties as these were committed by the Curs and if at any time it hapned which was rarely that the Indians irritated upon a just account destroy'd or took away the Life of any Spaniard they promulgated and proclaim'd this Law among them that One Hundred Indians should dye for every individual Spaniard that should be slain Of the Kingdoms contained in Hispaniola This Isle of Hispaniola was made up of Six of their greatest Kingdoms and as many most Puissant Kings to whose Empire almost all the other Lords whose Number was infinite did pay their Allegiance One of these Kingdoms was called Magua signifying a Campaign or open Country which is very observable if any place in the Universe deserves taking notice of and memorable for the pleasantness of its Soituation for it is extended from South to North Eighty Miles in breadth Five Eight and in some parts Ten Miles in length and is on all sides inclosed with the highest Mountains above Thirty Thousand Rivers and Rivulets water her Coasts Twelve of which prodigious Number do not yield at all in magnitude to those famous Rivers the Eber Duer and Guadalquivir and all those Rivers which have their Sourse or Spring from the Mountain lying Westerly the Number whereof is Twenty Thousand are very rich in Mines of Gold on which Mountain lies the Province of rich Mines whence that exquisite pure Gold of Twenty Four Carracts weight takes denomination The King and Lord of this Kingdom was named Guarionex who governed within the Compass of his Dominions so many Vassals and Potent Lords that every one of them was able to bring into the Field Sixteen Thousand Soldiers for the service of Guarionex their Supream Lord and Soverain when summoned thereunto Some of which I was acquainted with This was a most Obedient Prince endued with great Courage and Morality Naturally of a Pacifick Temper and most devoted to the Service of the Castilian Kings This King commanded and ordered his Subjects that every one of those Lords under his Jurisdiction should present him with a Bell full of Gold but in succeeding times being unable to perform it they were commanded to cut it in two and fill one part therewith for the Inhabitants of this Isle were altogether unexperienced and unskilful in Mine-works and the digging Gold out of them This Cain proffer'd his Service to the King of Castile on this Condition that he would take care that those Lands should be cultivated and manur'd wherein during the Reign of Isabella Queen of Castile the Spaniards first set footing and fixed their Residence extending in length even to Santo Domingo the space of Fifty Miles For he declar'd nor was it a Fallacie but an absolute Truth that his Subjects understood not the practical use of digging in Golden Mines To which promises he had readily and voluntarily condescended to my own certain knowledge and so by this means the king would have received the Annual Revenue of Three Millions of Spanish Crowns and upward there being at that very time in that Island Fifty Cities more ample and spacious than Sevil it self in Spain But what returns by way of Remuneration and Reward did they make this so Clement and Benign Monarch can you imagine no

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

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

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

and Carthagena hastening to the Conquest of Perusia Anno Dom. 1539. and they accompanied with many more going farther from this Region endeavoured to penetrate into the Heart of this Countrey where they found about Three Hundred Miles from Carthagena and St. Martha many admirable Provinces and most fruitful Land furnished with an even-tempered or meek-spirited People as they are in other parts of India very rich in Gold and those sorts of precious Stones known by the name of Emralds To which Province they gave the Name of Granada upon this Account because the Tyrant who first arrived in these Regions was born in the Kingdom of Granada belonging to these parts now they that spoiled these Provinces with their rapine being wicked cruel infamous Butchers and delighting in the essusion of Humane Hood having practically experimented the piacular and grand Enormities perpetrated among the Indians and upon this account their Diabolical Actions are so great so many in number and represented so grievously horrid by circumstantial aggravations that they exceed all the villanies committed by others nay by themselves in other Regions I will only select and cull out a few out of so great a number which have been transacted by them within these three years for my present purpose A certain Governour because he that went to commit depredations and spoils in the Kingdom of Granada would not admit him as a Companion in his Robberies and Cruelties set up an Inquisition and produced proofs confirmed by great evidence whereby he palpably lays open and proves the Slaughters and Homicides he committed and persists in to this very day which were read in the Indian Courts of Judicature and are there now Recorded In this Inquisition the Witnesses depose that when all these Kingdoms enjoy'd Peace and Tranquillity the Indians serv'd the Spaniards and got their living by constant day-labour in Tilling and Manuring the Ground bringing them much Gold and many Gems particularly Emeralds and what other Commodities they could and possessed their Cities and Dominions being divided among the Spaniards to procure which is the chiefest of their care and pains and these are the proper measures they take to obtain their proposed ends to wit heaping and treasuring up of Gold and Riches Now when all the Indians were under their accustomed Tyranny A certain Tyrant and Chief Commander took the King and Lord of the whole Country and detain'd him Captive for six or seven moneths demanding of him without any reason store of Gold and Emeralds The said King whose name was Bogota through fear promised him a House of Gold hoping in time to escape out of his clutches who thus plagu'd him and sent some Indians for Gold who frequently and at several times brought him a great quantity of Gold and many Jewels but because the King did not according to promise bestow upon him an Appartment made of pure Gold he must therefore forfeit his Life The Tyrant commanded him to be brought to Tryal before himself and so they cite and summon to a Tryal the greatest King in the whole Region and the Tyrant pronounced this Sentence that unless he did perform his Golden Promise he should be exposed to severe Torments They rackt him poured boiling Soap into his Bowels chain'd his Legs to one post and fastened his Neck to another two men holding his Hands and so applyed the scorching heat of the Fire to his Feet the Tyrant himself often casting his Eye upon him and threatning him with death if he did not give him the promised Gold and thus with these kind of horrid torments the said Lord was destroy'd which while they were doing God being willing to manifest how displeasing these Cruelties are to His Divine Majesty the whole City that was the Stage on which they were acted was consumed by Fire and the rest of the Captains following his example destroy'd all the Lords of that Region by Fire and Faggot Once it fell out that many Indians addressed themselves to the Spaniards with all Humility and Simplicity as they use to do who thinking themselves safe and secure behold the Captain comes into the City where they were to do their work and commands all these Indians sleeping and taking their rest after Supper being wearied with the heavy drudgery of the day to be slain by the Sword And this stratagem he put in practice to make a greater impression of fear on all the minds of the Inhabitants and another time a certain Captain commanded the Spaniards to declare upon Oath how many Cacics and Indians every individual person had in his Family at home who were presently lead to a publick place and lost their Heads so there perisht that bout four or five hundred Men. The Witnesses depose this of a particular Tyrant that by beating cutting off the Hands and Noses of many Women as well as Men and destroying several persons in great numbers he exercised horrid Cruelties Then one of the Captains sent this bloody Tyrant into the Province of Bogota to inquire who succeeded that Prince there whom he so barbarously and inhumanely Murder'd who traveling many miles in this Country took as many Indians as he could get some of which because they did not tell him who was Successor of this Deceased Prince had their Hands cut off and others were exposed to hunger-starv'd Currs to be devour'd by them and thus many of them perished miserably Another time about the fourth Watch early in the morning he fell upon several Cacics Noblemen and other Indians who lookt upon themselves to be safe enough for they had their faith and security given that none of them should receive any damage or injury relying upon this they left the Mountains their lurking places without any suspition or fear and returned to their Cities but he seized on them all and commanding them to extend their hands on the ground cut them off with his own Sword saying that he punished them after this manner because they would not inform him what Lord it was that succeeded in that Kingdom The Inhabitants of one of these Provinces perceiving that four or five of their Governours were sent to the other World in a fiery Vehicle or Chariot being terrified therewith took to the Mountains for Sanctuary there being four or five thousand in number as appears by good Evidence and the aforesaid Captain sends a Tyrant more cruel than any of the rest after them The Spaniards ascend the Mountain by force for the Indians were naked and unarm'd Proclaiming Peace if they would desist and lay down their Arms which the Indians no sooner heard but quitted their Childish Weapons and this was no sooner done but this Sanguinary Spaniard sent some to possess themselves of the Fortifications and they being secur'd to attaque the Indians Thus they like Wolves and Lyons did rush upon this flock of Sheep and were so tired with slaughter that they were forced to desist for a while and take breath which done the Captain commands