Nowe because these moste outeragious and infinite massacres are put downe by Don Bartholmewe de las Casas, the bisshoppe above mentioned, and dedicated to Kinge Phillippe that nowe ys, which author testifieth that to his inspeakable grefe he was an eye witnesse of many of them, therefore it seemeth best unto me [pg 216] to bringe him in, which in his firste chapiter describeth the same in manner followinge:—
Upon these lambes (meaninge the Indians), so meke, so qualified and endewed of their Maker and Creator, as hath bene said, entred the Spanishe, incontinent as they knew them, as wolves, as lyons, and as tigres moste cruell, of longe tyme famished; and have not don in those quarters these forty yeres be paste, neither yet doe at this presente, oughte els then teare them in peces, kill them, martir them, afflicte them, tormente them, and destroye them by straunge sortes of cruelties, never either seene or reade or hearde of the like (of the which some shalbe sett downe hereafter); so farr forthe as of above three millions of soules that were in the Ile of Hispaniola, and that wee have seene there, there are not nowe twoo hundreth natives of the contrie. The Ile of Cuba, which is as farr in lengthe as from Valladolid untill Rome, ys at this day, as it were, all waste. St John's Ile, and that of Jammaica, bothe of them very greate, very fertile, and very faire, are desolate. Likewise the Iles of Lucayos nere to the Ile of Hispaniola, and of the north side unto that of Cuba, in nomber beinge above three score ilandes, together with those which they call the Iles of Geant, one with another greate and little, whereof the very worste is fertiler then the kinges garden at Civill, and the contrie the helthsomest in the worlde. There were in some of these isles more then five hundred thousande soules, and at this day there is not one only creature; for they have bene all of them slaine, after that they had drawen them oute to labor in their myneralls in the Ile of Hispaniola, where there were no more lefte of the inborne natives of that iland. A shippe ridinge for the space of three yeres betwixte these ilandes, to the ende that after the wyninge of this kinde of vintage to gleane and cull the remainder of these folke (for there was a goodd Christian moved with pitie and compassion to converte and wynne unto Christe suche as mighte be founde), there were not founde but eleven persons, which I sawe. Other iles, more than thirtie, nere to the Ile of St. John, have likewise bene dispeopled and massacred. All those iles conteyne above twoo thousande leagues of lande, and are all dispeopled and laid waste.
As touchinge the mayne firme lande, wee are certaine that our Spaniardes, by their cruelties and cursed doinges, have dispeopled and made desolate more then tenne realmes greater then [pg 217] all Spaine, comprisinge therein also Arragon and Portingale; and twise as moche or more lande than there is from Civill to Jerusalem, which are above a thousand leagues; which realmes yet, up to this presente day, remain in a wildernes and utter desolation, havinge bene before time as well peopled as was possible.
We are able to yelde a goodd and perfecte accompte, that here is, within the space of forty yeres, by these said tyranies and devilishe doinges of the Spaniardes, don to deathe unjustly and tyranously more then twelve million soules, men, women, and children. And I verely doe believe, and thinke I doe not mistake therein, there are deade more then fiftene millions of soules.
Thus havinge hearde of the multitudes of soules slayne, you shall heare the manner of their slaughter.
In the chapiter of Hispaniola it thus followeth:
Nowe after sondry other forces, violences, and tormentes which they wroughte againste them, the Indians perceaved that those were no men descended from heaven. Some of them, therefore, hidd their victualls, others hidd their wives and their children. Some other fledd into the mountaines to seperate themselves afarr of from a nation of so harde natured and ghastly conversation. The Spaniardes buffeted them with their fistes and bastianadoes, pressinge also to lay their handes on the lordes of the townes. And these cases ended in so greate an hazarde and desperatnes, that a Spanishe capitaine durste adventure to ravishe forcibly the wife of the greatest kinge and lorde of this ile. Since which time the Indians began to searche meanes to caste the Spaniardes oute of their landes, and sett themselves in arms. But what kinde of armes! Very weake and feble to withstande or resiste, and of lesse defence. Wherefore all their warres are no more warres, then the playenge of children when as they playe at jogo de cane or reedes. The Spaniardes with their horses, speares, and launces, began to comitt murders and straunge cruelties. They entred into townes, burroughes, and villages, sparinge neither children nor olde men, neyther women with childe, neither them that laye in; but they ripped their bellies and cutt them in peces, as if they had bene openinge of lambes shutt upp in their folde. They laied wagers with suche as with one thruste of a sworde, woulde paunche or bowell a man in the middest, or with one blowe of a sworde most readily and moste deliverly cut of his heade, or that woulde best perce [pg 218] his entralls at one stroke. They tooke the little soules by the heeles, rampinge them from their mothers brestes, and crusshed their heades against the cliftes. Others they caste into the rivers, laughinge and mockinge; and when they tombled into the water, they saied: Nowe shifte for thy selfe suche a one's corps. They put others, together with their mothers, and all that they mett, to the edge of the sworde. They made certaine gibbetts longe and loughe, in such sorte that the feete of the hanged one touched in a manner the grounde; every one enoughe for thirtene, in the honour and worshippe of our Saviour and his twelve apostles (as they used to speake), and setting to fire, burned them all quicke that were fastened. Unto all others, whome they used to take and reserve alive, cuttinge of their twoo handes as nere as mighte be, and so lettinge them hange, they saied: Go you with those letters to cary tydinges to those which are fled by the mountaines. They murdred commonly the lordes and nobilitie on this fashion: they made certen grates of perches laid on pitchforkes, and made a little fire underneathe, to the intente that by little and little, yellinge and despairinge in these tormentes, they mighte give up the ghoste. One time I sawe foure or five of the principall lordes roasted and broyled upon these gredyrons; also I thinke that there were twoo or three of the said gredyrons garnished with the like furniture. And for that they cried oute piteously, whiche thinge troubled the capitaine that he coulde not then slepe, he comaunded to strangle them. The serjeant, which was worse then the hangman, that burned them, (I knowe his name and frendes in Civill,) woulde not have them strangled, but hymselfe puttinge bulletts in their mouthes, to the ende they shoulde not crye, put to the fire, until they were softly roasted after his desire. I have seene all the aforesaide thinges and others infinite. And forasmuche as all the people that coulde flee, hidd themselves in the mountaines and, mounted on the toppes of them, fledd from the men, so, withoute all manhodde, emptie of all pietie, behavinge themselves as savage beastes, the slaughterers and murderers of mankinde, they taughte their houndes, fierce doggs, to tear them in peces at the first viewe; and, in the space that one might say a credo, assailed and devoured an Indian as if it had bene a swine. These doggs wroughte greate destructions and slaughters. And forasmoche as somtymes (thougbe seldome) the Indian put to death some Spaniardes upon goodd righte and lawe of due [pg 219] justice, they made a lawe betwene them, that for one Spaniarde they had to slaye an hundred Indians.
Bishop Bartholomewe de las Casas an eye wytnes of these cruelties.
And thus farr oute of the large volume of Don Bartholomewe de las Casas, bisshoppe of the citie of Chiape in the West Indies, where he lyved many yeres.[75]
Johannes Metellus Sequanus.