Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings Part 19

4.4. The fourth tyrant went there recently, in the year 1538, with his plans made and with great preparations. Since three years nothing has been seen or heard of him.

5.5. We are sure, that as soon as he landed he committed cruel deeds and at once disappeared: and that, if he be alive, he and his men have destroyed numbers of people in these three years, if he encountered any on his march, for he is one of the notorious, and experienced ones who, together with his other companions, has done the most harm and wickedness, and has destroyed many provinces, and kingdoms. But we rather believe that G.o.d has given him the same end as the others.

6.6. Three or four years after the above things were written, three of the other tyrants returned from the land called Florida; they had accompanied the chief tyrant whom they left dead, and we learned from them what cruelty and unheard of wickedness, these inhuman men committed there against those innocent and harmless Indians, princ.i.p.ally during the life of their commander and also after his unhappy death: therefore what I foretold above has not turned out wrong.

7.7. And so many things confirm the rule I laid down at the beginning: that the more they continue to discover, ruin, and destroy both peoples and countries, the more notorious are the cruelties and iniquities they commit against G.o.d and their fellow creatures.

8.8. It is already wearisome to us to relate so many, and such execrable, horrible, blood-thirsty operations, not by men, but by ferocious beasts, hence I will not stop to relate any but the following.

9.9. They found large towns full of people who were friendly, intelligent, politic, and orderly. They did great slaughter among them, according to their custom, in order to impregnate the hearts of those people with fear of them.

10.10. They tormented and killed them, loading them like animals. When one became tired, or fainted, they cut off his head at the neck, in order not to free those in front from the chain that bound them, and the body fell to one side and the head to the other, as we have told elsewhere above.

11.11. In one town where they went they were received with joy, and over-abundant food was given them, while more than six hundred Indians carried their loads, like beasts of burden, and cared for their horses; when the tyrants had left there, a captain who was a relative of the chief tyrant, turned back to rob the entire town whose people felt themselves safe; and with a lance, he killed the lord and king of the town, and did other cruel deeds.

12.12. Because the inhabitants of another large town seemed to them to be a little more on their guard, on account of the infamous and horrible deeds of which they had heard, they put to the sword large and small children and old people, subjects and lords, without sparing any one.

13.13. It is said that the chief tyrant had the faces of many Indians cut, so that they were shorn of nostrils and lips, down to the beard; and in particular of a group of two hundred whom he either summoned or who came voluntarily from a certain town. Thus he despatched these mutilated, suffering creatures dripping with blood to carry the news of the deeds and miracles done by those baptised Christians, preachers of the Holy Catholic faith.

14.14. It may be judged in what state those people must be, how they must love the Christians, and how they will believe that their G.o.d is good and just, and that the law and religion they profess and praise, is immaculate.

15.15. Most great and outlandish are the evils done here by those unhappy men, sons of perdition. And thus the wickedest of captains died miserably and without confession; and we doubt not that he is buried in h.e.l.l, unless by chance, G.o.d out of His divine mercy has mysteriously succoured him despite his guiltiness for such execrable wickedness.

Rio della Plata

1. Three or four times since the year 1522 some captains have visited Rio della Plata, (102) where there are large kingdoms and provinces, and very friendly and intelligent people.

2.2. We know, in general, that they have committed many homicides and much injury. In particular, as it is so distant from the Indies, we have nothing signal to tell.

3.3. We have no doubt at all, however, but that they have and do carry on the same practices as in other places; because they are the same Spaniards, and some among them have visited other regions, and because they go to get wealth and power just like the others; it is impossible for this to come about, except by destruction, ma.s.sacres, robbery, and the extermination of the Indians by the adoption of the perverse rule and system they have all alike followed.

4.4. After writing the above, we have learned, with ample proof, that they have destroyed and depopulated great provinces and kingdoms of that country, murdering, and cruelly treating those unfortunate people; they have thereby made themselves even more notorious than the others, because, being at a greater distance from Spain, they could do more as they pleased and consequently lived in greater disorder and with less justice. As for justice, however, there has never been any in all the Indies, as is seen from what has been related above.

5.5. Among infinite other cases, the three following have been read before the Council of the Indies. A tyrant governor commanded certain of his people, to go to some Indian town and, if food was not given them, to kill all the inhabitants. Thus authorised, they started and, because the Indians considered them their enemies and more out of fear and the desire to escape from them, than from a want of generosity, refused to supply them, the Spaniards put more than five thousand persons to the sword.

6.6. Another time a certain number of people presented themselves peaceably for their service, or perhaps they had been summoned by the Spaniards; and because they did not come quickly enough, or because, as is their habit and common usage, they wished to inspire them with fear and horrible fright, the Governor commanded that they should all be consigned into the hands of their Indian enemies.

7.7. They wept and cried, praying that the Spaniards would kill them, rather than deliver them to their enemies. (103) And as they would not leave the house where they were, they were cut to pieces there, weeping, and crying out: "We came peaceably to serve you and you kill us? May our blood, remain on these walls as testimony of our unjust death and of your cruelty!" This was, in truth, a notorious action, and worthy of consideration, but much more of being lamented.

The Vast Kingdoms and Great Provinces of Peru

1. In the year 1531 another great tyrant went with certain people to the kingdoms of Peru,(104) which he invaded by virtue of the same t.i.tle, intentions, and principles as all the former ones, because he was one of the most experienced, and since a long time had taken part in all the cruelties and ma.s.sacres that had been committed on the continent since the year 1510; he was devoid of faith and honour, and he did more cruelty and slaughter, destroying towns, killing and exterminating the people of them and causing such great mischief in these countries that, I am certain, it would be impossible for any one to recount and describe them till we shall see and know them clearly in the day of judgment. I could not, nor should I know how to describe the deformity, the character, and the circ.u.mstances of some incidents that I would relate, and which greatly aggravate their hideousness.

2.2. From his unhappy landing, he killed and destroyed some peoples and robbed them of a large quant.i.ty of gold. In an island near the same province called Pugna which is very populous and pleasing, they were received by the lord and people like angels from heaven and, after having eaten all their provisions in six months, the Indians again uncovered the store of corn they had laid up for themselves and their families in time of drought and barrenness, tearfully offering it for their consumption. The payment that was finally awarded the natives, was to put them to the sword, for they killed great numbers with lances, and those whom they captured alive, they made slaves; in consequence of this and the other great notorious cruelties done there, they left this island almost deserted.

3.3. From there the Spaniards went to the province of Tumbala, which is on the continent, where they killed and destroyed everything they could. And because all the people fled from their fearful and horrible operations, they declared they had revolted and were in rebellion against the king.

4.4. This tyrant employed the following artifice. He demanded still more from all who either offered or whom he asked to present him with gold, silver, and their other possessions, until he saw that they either had no more, or brought no more: he then declared that he received them as va.s.sals of the king of Spain and embraced them; he caused two trumpets to be sounded, giving them to understand that for the future he would take nothing more from them, nor do them any harm; he esteemed it permissible to rob them or to take all they gave, out of fear inspired by the abominable reports they heard of him, before he received them under the shelter and protection of the king, as though after they were received under the royal protection he would no more oppress, rob, desolate, and destroy them.

5.5. A few days later came the universal king and emperor of those kingdoms, who was called Atabaliba with many naked people armed with ridiculous weapons and ignorant of how swords cut, and lances wound, and horses run; nor did they know the Spaniards, who would a.s.sault the very devils if they had gold, to rob them of it. He arrived at the place where they were, and said: "Where are these Spaniards? let them come forward, for I shall not stir from here till satisfaction is rendered me for my va.s.sals whom they have killed, for the town they have desolated, and for the riches they have stolen from me."

6.6. The Spaniards attacked him-killing infinite numbers of his people; they took him prisoner from the litter in which he was carried and after they had captured him, they negotiated with him for his ransom: he promised to give four million crowns, and paid them fifteen, after which they promised to set him free.

7.7. They ended by keeping no faith nor truth, for they have never been kept by the Spaniards in their dealings with the Indians: they calumniated him, saying that by his orders the people were a.s.sembling, and he replied that not a leaf moved in all the country save by his will and that if the people were a.s.sembling, they might believe that he was the cause of it: as he was their prisoner, they might therefore kill him.

8.8. In spite of all this they condemned him to be burned alive, although later, some of them begged the captain, to have him strangled and to burn him afterwards. When he learned this he said: "Why do you wish to burn me? What have I done to you? Have you not promised to free me, after my ransom was paid? Have I not given you more than what I promised you? Send me, as thus you wish it, to your King of Spain."

He said many other things showing condemnation and detestation of the great injustice of the Spaniards: and at last they burnt him.

9.9. Let the justice of these deeds be considered: the reason of this war: the imprisonment, death sentence, and execution of this monarch; and how conscientiously these tyrants hold the great treasures they steal in those kingdoms from such a great king and from numberless other lords and private people.

10.10. Of the countless notoriously wicked and cruel acts committed in the extirpation of these people by those who call themselves Christians, I will relate some few that a friar of St. Francis witnessed in the beginning; and he signed depositions with his name, sending some of the copies to those regions and others to the kingdoms of Castile: and I have one of the copies in my possession with his own signature, in which he makes the following statements.

11.11. "I, Fray Marcus de Nizza of the Order of St. Francis, commissary of the friars of the same Order in the provinces of Peru, who were among the first monks who entered the said provinces with the first Christians, speak to render truthful testimony of some of the things that I saw with my own eyes in that country; chiefly concerning the treatment of the Indians and the acquisition of property taken from the natives."

12.12. "First of all I am eye-witness, and from actual experience know, that these Indians of Peru are the most affable people that have been seen among the Indians, and were very well inclined and friendly towards the Christians."

13.13. "And I saw that they gave gold abundantly to the Spaniards, and silver and precious stones and all that was asked of them, and that they rendered them every good service; and the Indians never went forth in war fas.h.i.+on, but always peaceably, as long as no cruelty and ill-treatment provoked them; on the contrary, they received the Spaniards with all benevolence and honour in their towns, giving them provisions and as many male and female slaves for their service, as they asked."

14.14. "I am also witness, and I testify, that without the Indians giving them any cause or occasion, the Spaniards, as soon as they entered their country, and after the chief lord Atabaliba had paid them more than two millions of gold and had left all the country in their power, without resistance, immediately burnt the said Atabaliba, who was ruler of all the country: and after him, they burnt alive his captain-general Cochilimaca who had come peaceably to the governor, accompanied by other high personages."

15.15. "Within a few days after these executions they likewise burned Chamba another very high lord of the province of Quito, without him giving them any cause."

16.16. "Thus too they burnt unjustly Chapera lord of the Canaries."

17.17. "Likewise they burnt the feet of Luis who was one of the great lords in Quito, and tortured him in many other ways, to force him to reveal the hiding place of Atabaliba's gold, of which treasure it was known that he knew nothing whatever."

18.18. "They likewise burnt in Quito, Cozzopanga, who was governor of all the provinces of Quito and who had responded to the intimations of Sebastian de Benalcazza, the governor's captain, by coming peaceably; but because he did not give them as much gold as they asked, they burnt him, with many other lords and princ.i.p.al persons.

As far as I could understand, it was the intention of the Spaniards that no lord should survive in all the country."

19.19. "The Spaniards a.s.sembled a large number of Indians, and shut up as many as could enter, in three large houses which they then set on fire and burnt them all, although they had never done the slightest thing against any Spaniard, nor given the least cause."

20.20. "It once happened, that when a priest called Ocana, pulled a child out of the fire in which it was burning, another Spaniard s.n.a.t.c.hed it out of his hands and threw it back in the middle of the flames, where it became ashes together with the others; while the aforesaid Spaniard, who had thus thrown the Indian into the fire was returning to his dwelling the same day, he suddenly fell dead in the road; and it was my opinion, that they should not give him [Christian]

burial."

21.21. "Moreover I affirm, that I myself saw the Spaniards cut off the hands, noses, and ears of the Indian men and women, for no purpose whatever but just because the fancy struck them; and in so many places and regions did this occur that it would be a long story to tell."

22.22. "I also saw the Spaniards setting dogs onto the Indians, to tear them to pieces; and thus I saw many of them torn to pieces."

23.23. "I likewise saw so many houses and towns burned that I could not tell the number, so great was their mult.i.tude."

24.24. "It is likewise true that they took nursing children by the arms and hurled them in the air as high as they could; and their other injustice and aimless cruelties terrified me, besides innumerable other things that I saw, and which it would take long to tell."

25.25. "I saw moreover that they called the Indian lords and chiefs, to come peaceably, promising them safety, but as soon as they arrived they burnt them. And in my presence they burnt two, one from Andon and the other in Tumbala, nor was I able for all I preached to them, to prevent them burning them."

26.26. "I call G.o.d and my own conscience to witness that, as far as I can understand, the Indians only revolted on account of this ill treatment which sufficiently justified their action as may be clearly seen by everybody."

27.27. "The Spaniards have never dealt honestly with them nor kept their word but, contrary to all reason and justice, they have tyrannically ruined them and all their country, doing such things against them, that they [the Indians] have resolved sooner to die, than suffer such deeds."

28.28. "I say moreover, that the Indians are right in affirming that there is more gold hidden, than has been discovered, for they have refused to disclose it because of the injustice and cruelty shown them by the Spaniards; nor will they disclose it as long as such treatment continues, but rather will they die like the others."

29.29. "G.o.d our Lord has been much offended by these deeds, and His Majesty very badly served and defrauded, for they have made him lose countries that could very well provide food for the whole of Castile, and in my opinion, it will be very difficult and expensive to recover them."

30.30. All these are the formal words of the said monk; and bear the signature also of the Bishop of Mexico, testifying that everything was affirmed by the said Father, Fray Marcus.

31.31. What this Father says he has seen, should be considered here: because this happened throughout fifty or a hundred leagues of country and during nine or ten years, at the beginning, when there were very few Spaniards: afterwards the sound of gold drew thither four or five thousand Spaniards, who spread through many large kingdoms and provinces, covering more than five hundred or seven hundred leagues, all of which they have destroyed by practising the same deeds and others still more ferocious and cruel.

32.32. Truly, from that time to the present day, a thousand times more people have been destroyed and dispersed than he was told of; being devoid of mercy and the fear of G.o.d and the King, the Spaniards have destroyed a very large part of the human race.

33.33. Within the s.p.a.ce of ten years they have killed, up to the present day, more than four millions of persons; and they are still killing.

34.34. A short time since they pursued and killed a great queen, wife of Elingue, he who was left king of those kingdoms which the Christians had tyrannically seized and provoked to rise in the present rebellion. They captured the queen, his wife who, it is said, was pregnant and, contrary to all justice, they killed her, only to grieve her husband.

35.35. If the cruelties and different murders committed by the Christians, and their daily deeds in those kingdoms of Peru were to be told, they would doubtless be so horrible and so numerous that what we have recounted of the other countries would fade, and seem little, compared with their number and their gravity.

Of the New Kingdom of Granada

1. In the year 1539 many tyrants joined together and started from Venezuela, Santa Marta, and Cartagena for Peru: and others came back from the same Peru to explore those countries. Three hundred leagues inland behind Santa Marta and Cartagena, they found some very delightful and marvellous provinces, full of numberless people, as mild and kind as the others, and very rich in gold, and in those precious stones called emeralds.

2.2. To these provinces they gave the name of the new kingdom of Granada; because those tyrants who first came to these countries were natives of the kingdom of Granada in Spain.

3.3. As many iniquitous and cruel men among those who gathered from all parts, were notorious butchers and shedders of human blood who were very inured to, and experienced in the great sins that we have said were committed in many parts of the Indies, it follows that their fiendish operations, and the circ.u.mstances and qualities that blackened and aggravated them, were such that they have surpa.s.sed very many, or indeed all, that the others and they themselves have committed elsewhere in the Indies.

4.4. Of the mult.i.tude they have committed in these three years, and continue without ceasing to commit, I will briefly relate a few. As a man who was robbing and murdering in the said kingdom would not allow a governor to also rob and kill, the latter brought a suit against him, calling many witnesses to prove the slaughter, injustice, and ma.s.sacres he had done, and is doing; this evidence was read, and is to be found in the Council of the Indies.

5.5. The witnesses in the said law-suit affirm that all the kingdom was quiet, and subject to the Spaniards; the Indians continually laboured to furnish them provisions, and to acc.u.mulate property for them; they brought them all the gold and precious emeralds they possessed or could obtain: the lords and inhabitants of the towns had been divided among the Spaniards, who lay claim to them as the means for obtaining their final object, which is gold. Having thus reduced everybody to the usual tyranny and slavery, the princ.i.p.al tyrant captain commanding them, captured the sovereign of all that country, without any cause or reason, and kept him for six or seven months, demanding gold and emeralds of him.

6.6. The said king, who was called Bogota, being overcome by fear said that he would give a house of the gold they demanded, hoping to free himself from the hands of his tormenters: he sent some Indians to bring him the treasure, and several times they brought a large quant.i.ty of gold and stones: because he did not give the house of gold, the Spaniards declared that he should be killed, because he did not fulfil his promise.

7.7. The tyrant said that he should be tried by process of law, so they prosecuted him, accusing the said king of the country. The tyrant gave sentence, condemning him to tortures, if he did not give the house of gold.

8.8. They tortured him with the cord: they threw burning fat on his belly; they put his feet in irons fastened to a stake, tied his neck to another, while two men held his hands; and in this position they put fire to his feet.

9.9. Every now and then, the tyrant entered and told him, that they would kill him by inches with tortures if he did not give the gold. And thus they did, and killed this lord with tortures. While they were tormenting him, G.o.d gave a sign of destestation of that cruelty, by causing all that town, where it was committed to be burnt.

10.10. The other Spaniards imitated their good captain and, since they only know how to rend these people, they did the same; torturing the lord of the town or towns, that had been confided to them, with divers and fierce tortures while those lords and their people felt themselves safe, and were giving them all the gold and emeralds they could: the Spaniards tortured them only to extort more gold and jewels. And in this way they burnt and cut to pieces all the lords of that country.

11.11. Terror-stricken by the excessive cruelty practised upon the Indians by one of those particular tyrants a great lord called Daytama fled, with many of his people from such inhumanity, and retreated to the mountains. This, if it did but avail, they conceive to be the remedy and refuge, and this is what the Spaniards call revolt and rebellion.

12.12. The princ.i.p.al tyrant captain hearing this, sent a force to that cruel man, whose ferocity and wickedness towards the peaceful and submissive Indians had driven them to the mountains; the latter went in pursuit of the natives, and because it sufficed not to hide in the bowels of the earth, they found a large number of people whom they killed, cutting to pieces more than five hundred men, women, and children, and sparing no one.

13.13. The witnesses also say that before his death, the same Prince Daytama had been to see that cruel man and had taken him four or five thousand crowns, but notwithstanding this, he committed the said slaughter.

14.14. Another time a great number of people having come to serve the Spaniards, and feeling themselves safe, serving with their humility and simplicity, the captain entered the town one night where the Indians were and commanded that all those Indians should be put to the sword while some of them were sleeping, and some supping and resting from the labours of the day.

15.15. He perpetrated this ma.s.sacre because it seemed good to him to make himself feared by all the people of the country.

16.16. Another time the captain put all the Spaniards on oath, to lead at once as many lords and chiefs and common people as each had in his household service, to the square, where he had all their heads cut off, thus killing four or five hundred people. And the witnesses say that he thought in this way to pacify the country.

17.17. The witnesses depose that one particular tyrant did great cruelty, killing, and cutting off the hands and noses of many men and women, and destroying many people.

18.18. Another time the captain sent the afore-named cruel man, with certain Spaniards to the province of Bogota, to make inquiry as to who had succeeded to that dominion since they had tortured the universal lord to death: he marched through many leagues of country, capturing as many Indians as he could.

19.19. And because the people did not show him the lord who had succeeded, he cut off the hands of some and gave others to ferocious dogs, which tore them to pieces both men, and women; and in this way he killed, and destroyed many Indian men and women.

20.20. One day, near sunrise, he went to attack some lords, or captains and many Indians who felt tranquil and secure, because he had a.s.sured them and given them his word that they should receive no hurt or harm; confiding in this a.s.surance they had come down from the mountains, where they were hidden, to dwell in this town on the plain; thus he captured a great many of these unsuspecting and confiding people, women and men, and making them put their hands flat on the ground he himself cut them off with a scimitar, saying that he punished them because they would not tell where the new lord, who had succeeded to that kingdom, was hidden.

21.21. Another time, because the Indians did not give a coffer full of gold that this cruel captain demanded, he sent people to make war on them, in which they killed numberless persons, and cut off the hands and noses of so many women and men that they could not be counted: they gave others to fierce dogs that tore them to pieces and ate them.

22.22. Another time, the Indians of a province of that kingdom, seeing that the Spaniards had burnt three or four princ.i.p.al lords, retreated in fear to a strong rock to defend themselves from enemies so devoid of humanity; and according to the witnesses, there may have been four or five thousand Indians on the rock.