| 1. |
There
were five very large and principal kingdoms in this island
of Hispaniola, and five very mighty kings, whom all the
other numberless lords obeyed, although some of the lords
of certain separate provinces did not recognise any of them
as superior. One kingdom was called Maguá, with the last
syllable accented, which means the kingdom of the
plain.
This
plain is one of the most notable and marvellous things in
the world, for it stretches eighty leagues from the sea on
the south to that on the north. Its width is five leagues,
attaining to eight and ten, and it has very high mountains
on both sides.
|
|---|
| 2.2. | More than thirty thousand rivers,
and brooks water it among which there are twelve as large as
the Ebro, the Duero, and the Guadalquivir. And all the rivers
that flow from the western mountain, which number twenty or
twenty-five thousand, are very rich in gold. On that mountain
(or mountains) lies the province of Cibao, from which the
mines of Cibao are named, whence comes that famous gold,
superior in carat, which is held in great esteem here. |
| 3.3. | The king, and lord of this realm was
called Guarionex. He had such great lords as his vassals,
that one alone of them mustered sixteen thousand warriors to
serve Guarionex; and I knew some of them. This king Guarionex
was very obedient, virtuous and, by nature, peaceful and
devoted to the king of Castile. And in certain years, every
householder amongst his people gave by his orders, a bell
full of gold; and afterwards, because they could not fill
it, they cut it in two [pg 322] and gave that half full; because
the Indians had little or no ability to collect, or dig the
gold from the mines. |
| 4.4. | This prince offered to serve the
King of Castile, by having as much land cultivated as would
extend from Isabella, which was the first habitation of the
Christians to the town of San Domingo, which is a good fifty
leagues, in order that gold should not be asked of him;
because he said, and with truth, that his vassals knew not
how to collect it. I know he was able to do the cultivation
he proposed to undertake, most gladly; and it would have
rendered the King more than three million crowns yearly, and,
owing to this cultivation, there would have been at the
present time in this island fifty towns as large as
Seville. |
| 5.5. | The payment they awarded to this
great and good king and lord, was to dishonour him; a
captain, a bad Christian violating his wife. Although he
might have bided his time to assemble his people and revenge
himself, he determined to depart alone, and to hide himself
and die exiled from his kingdom and state, in a province
called Ciguay, of which the ruler was his vassal. |
| 6.6. | When the Christians became aware
that he was missing, he could not hide himself from them.
They made war on that ruler who sheltered him, where, after
great slaughter, they found and captured him. When he was
taken, they put him on a ship in chains, to bring him to
Castile in fetters. The ship was lost at sea, and many
Christians were drowned with him, besides a great quantity of
gold, including the great nugget, which was as big as a cake
and weighed three thousand and six hundred crowns, because
God was pleased to avenge such great injustice. |
| 7.7. | The second kingdom was called
Marien, where now is the royal port at the end of the plain
towards the north. It was larger than the kingdom of Portugal
and was [pg 323]
certainly much more prosperous, and worthy of being
populated; and it has many, and high mountains, and very rich
gold, and copper mines. Its king was named Guacanagari (with
the last letter accented) under whom there were many and very
great lords, many of whom I saw and knew. |
| 8.8. | In the country of this king, the old
Admiral[80]
who discovered the Indies, first went to stay. When he
discovered the island he, and all the Christians who
accompanied him, was received the first time by the said
Guacanagari with great humanity and charity. He met with such
a gentle and agreeable reception, and such help and guidance
when the ship in which the Admiral sailed was lost there,
that in his own country, and from his own father a better
would not have been possible. This I know from the recital
and words of the same Admiral. This king, flying from the
massacres and cruelty of the Christians, died a wanderer in
the mountains, ruined and deprived of his state. All the
other lords, his subjects, died under tyranny and servitude,
as will be told below. |
| 9.9. | The third kingdom and dominion was
Maguana, a country equally marvellous, most healthy and most
fertile; where now the best sugar of the island is made. Its
king was called Caonabò. In strength, and dignity, in
gravity, and pomp he surpassed all the others. They captured
this king with great cunning and malice, he being safe in his
own house. They put him on a ship to take him to Castile and,
as there were six ships in the port ready to leave, God, who
wished to show that this, together with the other things, was
a great iniquity and injustice, sent a tempest that night
that sank all the vessels, drowning all the Christians on
board of them. [pg
324] The said Caonabò perished, loaded with chains,
and fetters. |
| 10.10. | This lord had three or four very
brave brothers as powerful and valiant as himself. They,
seeing the unjust imprisonment of their brother and lord, and
witnessing the destruction and slaughter the Christians
perpetrated in the other kingdoms, (particularly after they
knew that the king their brother was dead) armed themselves
to attack the Christians and avenge themselves. The
Christians went against them with some horsemen. Horses are
the most deadly arm possible among the Indians. They worked
such havoc and slaughter, that they desolated, and
depopulated half the kingdom. |
| 11.11. | The fourth kingdom is that which is
called Xaragua. This was as the marrow, or the Court of all
this island. It surpassed all the other kingdoms in the
politeness of its more ornate speech as well as in more
cultured good breeding, and in the multitude and generosity
of the nobles. For there were lords and nobles in great
numbers. In their costumes and beauty, the people were
superior to all others. |
| 12.12. | The king and lord of it was called
Behechio and he had a sister called Anacaona. Both rendered
great services to the King of Castile, and immense kindnesses
to the Christians, delivering them from many mortal dangers:
and when the King Behechio died, Anacaona was left mistress
of the kingdom. |
| 13.13. | The governor[81]
who ruled this island arrived there once, with sixty horsemen
and more than three hundred foot. The horsemen alone were
sufficient to ruin the whole island and the terra firma.
More than three hundred lords were assembled, whom he had
summoned [pg
325] and reassured. He lured the principal ones by
fraud, into a straw-house, and setting fire to it, he burnt
them alive. |
| 14.14. | All the others, together with
numberless people, were put to the sword, and lance. And to
do honour to the Lady Anacaona, they hanged her. It happened
that some Christians, either out of compassion or avarice,
took some children to save them, placing them behind them on
their horses, and another Spaniard approached from behind and
ran his lance through them. Another, if a child was on the
ground, cut off its legs with his sword. Some, who could flee
from this inhuman cruelty, crossed to a little island lying
eight leagues distant in the sea; and the said governor
condemned all such to be slaves, because they had fled from
the carnage. |
| 15.15. | The fifth kingdom was called Higuey:
and an old queen called Higuanama ruled it, whom they hanged.
And I saw numberless people being burnt alive, torn, and
tortured in divers, and new ways, while all whom they took
alive were enslaved. |
| 16.16. | And because so many particulars
happened in this slaughter and destruction of people, that
they could not be contained in a lengthy description—for in
truth I believe that however many I told, I could not express
the thousandth part of the whole—I will simply conclude the
above mentioned wars by saying and affirming, before God and
my conscience, that the Indians gave no more cause, nor were
more to blame for all this injustice done unto them, and for
the other said wickedness I could tell, but omit, than a
monastery of good and well ordered monks would have given
that they should be robbed and killed, and that those who
escaped death, should be placed in perpetual captivity and
servitude, as slaves. |
| 17.17. | And furthermore, I attest, that in
all the space of time during which the multitudes of the
population of this island were being killed and destroyed, as
far as I can believe or conjecture, they did not commit a
single mortal sin against the Christians that merited
punishment by man. And of those which are reserved to God
alone, such as the desire of vengeance, hatred and rancour,
that these people might harbour against such mortal enemies
as were the Christians, I believe very few of the Indians
committed any such. They were little more impetuous and
harsh, judging from the great experience I have of them, than
children or youths of ten or twelve years. |
| 18.18. | I have certain and infallible
knowledge, that the Indians always made most just war on the
Christians while the Christians never had a single just one
with the Indians; on the contrary, they were all diabolical
and most unjust, and much worse than can be said of any
tyrant in the world; and I affirm the same of what they have
done throughout the Indies. |
| 19.19. | When the wars were finished, and
with them the murder, they divided among them all the men,
(youths, women, and children being usually spared) giving to
one, thirty, to another forty, and to another a hundred and
two hundred, according to the favour each enjoyed with the
chief tyrant, whom they called governor. Having thus
distributed them, they assigned them to each Christian,
under the pretence that the latter should train them in the
catholic faith; thus to men who are generally all idiots, and
very cruel, avaricious and vicious, they gave the care of
souls. |
| 20.20. | The care and thought these Spaniards
took, was to send the men to the mines to dig gold, which is
an intolerable labour; and they put the women into
dwellings, which are huts, to dig and cultivate the land; a
[pg 327] strong
and robust man's work. They gave food neither to the one, nor
the other, except grass, and things that have no substance.
The milk dried up in the breasts of nursing women and thus,
within a short time, all the infants died. |
| 21.21. | And as the husbands were separated
and never saw their wives, generation diminished among them;
the men died of fatigue and hunger in the mines and others
perished in dwellings or huts, for the same reason. It was in
this way that such multitudes of people were destroyed in
this island, as indeed all those in the world might be
destroyed by like means. |
| 22.22. | It is impossible to recount the
burdens with which their owners loaded them, more than three
and four arobas[82]
weight, making them walk a hundred and two hundred leagues.
The same Christians had themselves carried by Indians in
hamacas, which are like
nets; for they always used them as beasts of burden. They had
wounds on their shoulders and backs, like animals, all
wither-wrung. To tell likewise of the whip-lashings, the
beatings, the cuffs, the blows, the curses, and a thousand
other kinds of torments to which their masters treated them,
while, in truth, they were working hard, would take much time
and much paper; and would be something to amaze mankind. |
| 23.23. | It must be noted, that the
destruction of this island and of these lands was begun when
the death of the most Serene Queen, Doña Isabella was known
here, which was in the year 1504. For up to that time, only
some provinces in the island had been ruined by unjust wars,
but not entirely: and these were nearly all kept hidden from
the Queen. Because the Queen, who is in blessed glory, used
great solicitude and marvellous [pg 328] zeal for the health and prosperity
of these people, as we ourselves, who have seen the examples
of it with our eyes and touched them with our hands, well
know. |
| 24.24. | Another rule to be noted is this;
that in all parts of the Indies where the Christians have
gone and have passed, they ever did the same murder among the
Indians, and used tyranny and abominable oppression against
these innocent people; and they added many more and greater
and newer ways of torment. They became ever crueller, because
God let them precipitate themselves the more swiftly into
reprobate judgments and sentiments. |
| 1. | In the year 1511 the Spaniards
passed over to the [pg
329] island of Cuba, [84]
which as I said, is as long as from Valladolid to Rome, and
where there were great and populous provinces. They began and
ended in the above manner, only with incomparably greater
cruelty. Here many notable things occurred. |
|---|
| 2.2. | A very high prince and lord, named
Hatuey, who had fled with many of his people from Hispaniola
to Cuba, to escape the calamity and inhuman operations of the
Christians, having received news from some Indians that the
Christians were crossing over, assembled many or all of his
people, and addressed them thus. |
| 3.3. | “You already
know that it is said the Christians are coming here; and you
have experience of how they have treated the lords so and so
and those people of Hayti (which is Hispaniola); they come to
do the same here. Do you know perhaps why they do it?”
The people answered no; except that they were by nature cruel
and wicked. “They do it,” said
he, “not alone for this, but because
they have a God whom they greatly adore and love; and to make
us adore Him they strive to subjugate us and take our
lives.” He had near him a basket full of gold and
jewels and he said. “Behold here is
the God of the Christians, let us perform Areytos before Him, if you will
(these are dances in concert and singly); and perhaps we
shall please Him, and He will command that they do us no
harm.” |
| 4.4. | All exclaimed; it is well! it is
well! They danced before it, till they were all tired, after
which the lord Hatuey said; “Note
well that in any event if we preserve the gold, they will
finally have to kill us, to take it from us: let us throw it
into this river.” They all agreed to [pg 330] this proposal, and
they threw the gold into a great river in that place. |
| 5.5. | This prince and lord continued
retreating before the Christians when they arrived at the
island of Cuba, because he knew them, but when he encountered
them he defended himself; and at last they took him. And
merely because he fled from such iniquitous and cruel people,
and defended himself against those who wished to kill and
oppress him, with all his people and offspring until death,
they burnt him alive. |
| 6.6. | When he was tied to the stake, a
Franciscan monk, a holy man, who was there, spoke as much as
he could to him, in the little time that the executioner
granted them, about God and some of the teachings of our
faith, of which he had never before heard; he told him that
if he would believe what was told him, he would go to heaven
where there was glory and eternal rest; and if not, that he
would go to hell, to suffer perpetual torments and
punishment. After thinking a little, Hatuey asked the monk
whether the Christians went to heaven; the monk answered that
those who were good went there. The prince at once said,
without any more thought, that he did not wish to go there,
but rather to hell so as not to be where Spaniards were, nor
to see such cruel people. This is the renown and honour, that
God and our faith have acquired by means of the Christians
who have gone to the Indies. |
| 7.7. | On one occasion they came out ten
leagues from a great settlement to meet us, bringing
provisions and gifts, and when we met them, they gave us a
great quantity of fish and bread and other victuals, with
everything they could supply. All of a sudden the devil
entered into the bodies of the Christians, and in my presence
they put to the sword, without any motive or cause
whatsoever, more than three thousand persons, [pg 331] men, women, and
children, who were seated before us. Here I beheld such great
cruelty as living man has never seen nor thought to see. |
| 8.8. | Once I sent messengers to all the
lords of the province of Havana, assuring them that if they
would not absent themselves but come to receive us, no harm
should be done them; all the country was terrorized because
of the past slaughter, and I did this by the captain's
advice. When we arrived in the province, twenty-one princes
and lords came to receive us; and at once the captain
violated the safe conduct I had given them and took them
prisoners. The following day he wished to burn them alive,
saying it was better so because those lords would some time
or other do us harm. I had the greatest difficulty to deliver
them from the flames but finally I saved them. |
| 9.9. | After all the Indians of this island
were reduced to servitude and misfortune like those of
Hispaniola, and when they saw they were all perishing
inevitably, some began to flee to the mountains; others to
hang themselves in despair; husbands and wives hanged
themselves, together with their children, and through the
cruelty of one very tyrannical Spaniard whom I knew, more
than two hundred Indians hanged themselves. In this way
numberless people perished. |
| 10.10. | There was an officer of the King in
this island, to whose share three hundred Indians fell; and
by the end of three months he had, through labour in the
mines, caused the death of two hundred and seventy; so that
he had only thirty left, which was the tenth part. The
authorities afterwards gave him as many again, and again he
killed them: and they continued to give, and he to kill,
until he came to die, and the devil carried away his
soul. |
| 11.11. | In three or four months, I being
present, more [pg
332] than seven thousand children died of hunger,
their fathers and mothers having been taken to the mines.
Other dreadful things did I see. |
| 12.12. | Afterwards the Spaniards resolved to
go and hunt the Indians who were in the mountains, where they
perpetrated marvellous massacres. Thus they ruined and
depopulated all this island which we beheld not long ago; and
it excites pity, and great anguish to see it deserted, and
reduced to a solitude. |
| 1. | In the year 1514 there passed over
to the continent an unhappy Governor[85]
who was the cruellest of tyrants, destitute of compassion or
prudence, almost an instrument of divine fury. His intention
was to settle large numbers of Spaniards in that country. And
although several tyrants had visited the continent, and had
robbed and scandalised many people, their stealing and
ravaging had been confined to the sea-coast; but this man
surpassed all the others who had gone before him, and those
of all the Islands; and his villainous operations outdid all
the past abominations. |
|---|
| 2.2. | Not only did he depopulate the
sea-coast, but also countries and large kingdoms where he
killed numberless people, sending them to hell. This man
devastated many leagues of country extending above Deldarien
to the kingdom and provinces of Nicaragua inclusive, which is
more than five hundred leagues; it was the best, the
happiest, and the most populous land in the world. There were
very many great lords and numberless settlements, and very
great wealth of gold: for until that time, never had there
been so much seen [pg
333] above ground. For although Spain had been almost
filled with gold from Hispaniola, and that of the finest, it
had been dug by the labour of the Indians from the bowels of
the earth, out of the aforesaid mines, where, as has been
said, they perished. |
| 3.3. | This governor and his people
invented new means of cruelty and of torturing the Indians,
to force them to show, and give them gold. There was a
captain of his who, in an incursion, ordered by him to rob
and extirpate the people, killed more than forty thousand
persons, putting them to the sword, burning them alive,
throwing them to fierce dogs, and torturing them with various
kind of tortures: these acts were witnessed by a Franciscan
friar with his own eyes, for he went with the captain, and he
was called Fray Francisco de San Roman. |
| 4.4. | The most pernicious blindness of
those who have governed the Indies up to the present day, in
providing for the conversion and salvation of these people,
which (to tell the truth) they have always postponed,
although with words they have represented and pretended
otherwise, reached such depths that they have commanded
notice to be given the Indians to accept the Holy faith and
render obedience to the kings of Castile; otherwise war would
be made on them with fire and blood, and they would be killed
and made slaves etc. |
| 5.5. | As though the Son of God, who died
for each of them, had commanded in his law, when he said
Euntes,
docete omnes gentes that intimation should be sent to
peaceful and quiet infidels, in their own countries, that, if
they did not receive it at once, without other teaching or
doctrine, and that if they did not subject themselves to the
dominion of a king, of whom they had never heard, nor seen,
and particularly whose messengers are so cruel, so wicked,
and such horrible tyrants, they should therefore, lose their
rights, their lands and liberty, [pg 334] their wives and children, with all
their lives; such a blunder is stupid and worthy of infamy,
obloquy, and hell. |
| 6.6. | This wretched and unhappy governor,
in giving instructions as to the said intimations, the better
to justify them—they being of themselves unseemly,
unreasonable and most unjust—commanded these thieves sent by
him, to act as follows: when they had determined to invade
and plunder some province, where they had heard that gold was
to be found, they should go when the Indians were in their
towns, and safe in their houses; these wretched Spanish
assassins went by night and, halting at midnight half a
league from the town, they published or read the said
intimation among themselves saying: Princes and Indians of
such a place in this continent, we make known unto you, that
there is one God, one Pope, and one King of Castile, who is
Lord of this country; come at once to render him obedience
etc. otherwise know that we shall make war on you, kill you,
and put you into slavery etc. And towards sunrise, the
innocent natives being still asleep with their wives and
children, they attacked the town, setting fire to the houses
that were usually of straw, burning the children, the women
and many others alive, before they awoke. They killed whom
they would, and those whom they took alive, they afterwards
killed with tortures, to force them to indicate other towns
where there was gold, or more than was to be found there; and
the others that survived, they put into chains as slaves.
Then when the fire was extinguished or low they went to look
for the gold that was in the houses. |
| 7.7. | In this way and with such
operations, were this wretched man and all the bad Christians
he took with him occupied during the year 1514, till the year
1521 or 1522, sending on these raids six or more servants,
who [pg 335]
collected for him a certain portion of all the gold and
pearls and jewels the Spaniards stole, and of the slaves they
captured, besides the share that belonged to him as Captain
General. The officers of the king did the same, each sending
as many boys or servants as he could. And also the first
bishop of that kingdom sent his servants to obtain part of
this profit. |
| 9.8. | As far as I can judge they stole,
during that time in the said kingdom, more gold than a
million crowns; and I believe I understate it; and it will
not be found that, of all they stole, they sent the King more
than three thousand crowns. And they destroyed more than
eight hundred thousand souls. The other tyrant governors who
succeeded them till the year 1533 killed, and allowed to be
killed the survivors with the tyrannical servitude that
followed the war. |
| 10.9. | Among the other numberless knaveries
he committed and permitted during the time he governed, was
this one; a prince, or lord, having of his own will, or more
likely out of fear, given him nine thousand crowns, he was
not satisfied with this sum so he took the said lord, bound
him seated to a stake, with his feet distended and exposed
to fire, to force him to give them a larger quantity of gold;
and he [the chief] sent to his house and brought other three
thousand crowns; they tortured him again, and as he gave no
more gold, either because he had none or did not wish to give
it, they kept him thus, till the marrow oozed out from the
soles of his feet; and thus he died. Numberless times they
killed and tortured lords in this way to get gold from
them. |
| 11.10. | Another time a company of Spaniards,
while going to assassinate, came to a mountain where a great
number of people were sheltered and in hiding, to escape from
the pestilential and horrible operations of the Christians;
[pg 336]
assaulting it unexpectedly they captured seventy or eighty
young girls and women; and left many dead whom they had
killed. |
| 12.11. | The next day many Indians assembled
and pursued the Christians, driven by their anxiety for their
wives and daughters to fight; and the Christians finding
themselves at close quarters, and not wishing to disorder
their company of horse, drove their swords into the bodies of
the young girls and women, and of all the eighty they left
not even one alive. The Indians writhing with grief cried
out, and said: “O wretched men, cruel
Christians, you kill Iras!” (the women in that country
are called Iras). They meant that to kill women is a sign of
abominable, cruel and bestial men. |
| 13.12. | Ten or fifteen leagues from Panama
there was a great lord called Paris, who had great wealth of
gold. The Christians went thither and he received them as
though they were his brothers: he willingly presented the
captain with fifty thousand castellanos. It seemed
to the captain and to the Christians that one who
spontaneously gave that quantity, must have a great treasure;
which was the aim and recompense of their effort. They
dissimulated, saying they wished to depart: towards sunrise
they returned and attacked the unsuspecting town; and they
set fire to it and burnt it. They killed and burnt many
people, and stole other fifty or sixty thousand castellanos, and the prince, or lord fled to
escape death or capture. |
| 14.13. | He quickly assembled all the people
he could, and in two or three days came upon the Christians,
who were carrying away his hundred and thirty or forty [86]
thousand castellanos, and fell upon them manfully, killing
[pg 337] fifty
Christians, recapturing all the gold while the others escaped
badly wounded. |
| 15.14. | Afterwards, many Christians turned
on the said lord and destroyed him and many of his people;
they killed the rest with the usual servitude, so that to-day
there is neither sign nor any vestige whatsoever that there
was ever a town or born man where formerly was thirty leagues
of dominion well populated. The murders and destruction done
by that miserable man and his company in that kingdom which
he devastated, are without number. |
| 1. | In the year 1522 or 1523 this same
tyrant invaded the most delightful province of Nicaragua to
subjugate it; it was an unlucky hour when he entered it. Who
could adequately set forth the happiness, healthfulness,
agreeableness, prosperity, and the number of dwellings and
concourse of the people that were there? it was truly a
marvellous thing to see how full it was of towns, stretching
for a length of nearly three or four leagues, thickly planted
with the most marvellous fruit trees; which was the reason
that there was such an immense population. |
|---|
| 2.2. | So much injury and assassination, so
much cruelty, wickedness and injustice, was done to those
people by that tyrant, together with the others, his
companions, that human language would not suffice to relate
it; for he was accompanied by all those who had helped to
destroy all the other kingdom. The land being flat and open,
the natives could not hide in the mountains, and their
country was so delightful, that it was with difficulty and
great grief that they brought themselves to abandon it; for
this reason they suffered, [pg 338] and will suffer great persecutions,
and they tolerated the tyranny and the slavery of the
Christians to the extent of their endurance, and because they
are naturally a very humble and pacific people. |
| 3.3. | He sent fifty mounted soldiers, and
had the inhabitants of a whole province, larger than the
country of Rusenon[87]
killed with lances, without leaving man nor woman, old nor
young alive. He did this for a very trifling reason; such as
because they did not come as soon as he called them, or
because they did not bring him enough loads of maize, (which
is the grain of that country) or enough Indians to serve him
or some other of his company: the land being flat, no one
could escape from their horses and from their infernal
wrath. |
| 4.4. | He sent some Spaniards to invade
other provinces, which means to go and murder the Indians;
and he let the assassins bring away as many Indians as they
pleased from the peaceful settlements, to serve them; they
put these Indians in chains so that they should not set down
the loads weighing three arobas that they bound
on their backs. And it happened sometimes out of the many
times he did it, that out of four thousand Indians, not six
individuals returned alive to their homes, because they were
left dead by the way. |
| 5.5. | And when some became tired, or lame
on account of the great weights, or fell ill through hunger,
fatigue and weakness, they cut off their heads at the neck so
as not to loosen them from their chains, and the head fell to
one side, and the body to the other. It may be imagined how
their companions would feel. When orders were given for
similar expeditions, the Indians, knowing from experience
that none who started ever returned, went weeping, and
sighing, and saying: [pg 339] “Those are
the roads, we trod to serve the Christians; and although we
laboured hard, we finally returned after some time to our own
homes and to our wives and children; but now we go without
hope of ever returning, nor of seeing them again, or of
having life any more.” |
| 6.6. | Once, because it suited his
inclination to make a new distribution of Indians, and also,
they say, to take them from his enemies and give them to his
friends, the Indians were unable to plant their crops; and as
bread ran short, the Christians took from the Indians all the
maize they had to maintain themselves and their children; in
consequence more than twenty or thirty thousand souls died of
hunger; and it happened, that a certain woman was driven by
hunger to kill her own son for food. |
| 7.7. | As each of the towns was a very
pleasing garden, as has been said, the Christians settled in
them; each one in the place that fell to his share or, (as
they say,) was committed to his charge; each one carried on
his own cultivation, supporting himself with the meagre
provisions of the Indians, thus robbing them of their private
lands and inheritances, by which they maintained
themselves. |
| 8.8. | In this wise the Spaniards kept
within their own houses all the Indian lords, the aged, the
women, and the lads, all of whom they compelled to serve them
day and night, without rest. They employed even the children,
as soon as they could stand, in excess of their powers. And
in this way they have wasted, and to-day still waste those
few that are left, not allowing them to have either a home or
anything of their own. In this they even surpassed the
similar injustice they perpetrated in Hispaniola. |
| 9.9. | They have exhausted and oppressed,
and caused the premature death of many people in this
Province, [pg
340] making them carry planks and timber to build
vessels in the port, thirty leagues distant; also by sending
them to seek for honey and wax in the mountains, where they
are devoured by tigers; and they have loaded and do still
load pregnant and confined women, like animals. |
| 10.10. | The most horrible pestilence that
has principally destroyed this Province, was the license
which that governor gave to the Spaniards, to ask slaves from
the princes and lords of the towns. Every four or five
months, or whenever one obtained the favour or license from
the said governor, he asked the lord for fifty slaves
threatening, if he did not give them, to burn him alive or to
deliver him to fierce dogs. |
| 11.11. | As the Indians usually do not keep
slaves and, at most a lord has two or three or four, the
lords went through their towns and took, first all the
orphans; next, of those who had two children they asked one,
and of those who had three, two: and in this way the lord
completed the number demanded by the tyrant, amidst great
wailing and weeping in the town, for they seem, more than any
other people, to love their children. |
| 12.12. | By such conduct from the year 1523
to 1533, they ruined all this kingdom. During six or seven
years, five or six vessels carried on this traffic, taking
all this multitude of Indians to sell them as slaves in
Panama and Peru, where they all died. It has been verified
and experienced a thousand times that, by taking the Indians
away from their native country, they at once die more easily:
because the Spaniards habitually give them little to eat and
never relieve them from labour, for they are only sold by
some and bought by others, to make them work. In this way
they have carried off more than five hundred thousand souls
from this province making slaves of people who were as free
as I am. |
| 13.13. | In their infernal wars and the
horrible captivity into which they put the Indians up to the
present time, the Spaniards have killed more than another
five or six hundred thousand persons, and they still
continue. All these massacres have occurred in the space of
fourteen years. At present they kill daily in the said
province of Nicaragua, from four to five thousand persons,
with servitude and continual oppression; it being, as was
said, one of the most populous in the world. |