A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies: 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.Casas, Bartolomé de las
History
A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies: 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.
Casas, Bartolomé de las
Indians, Treatment of -- Latin America; Spain -- Colonies -- America
So about the Fourth Watch of the Night, or Three in the Morning these
poor Innocents overwhelm'd with heavy Sleep, ran violently on that place
they named, set Fire to their Hovels, which were all thatcht, and so,
without Notice, burnt Men, Women and Children; kill'd whom they pleas'd
upon the Spot; but those they preserv'd as Captives, were compell'd
throughTorments to confess where they had hid the Gold, when they found
little or none at their Houses; but they who liv'd being first
stigmatized, were made Slaves; yet after the Fire was extinguisht, they
came hastily in quest of the Gold. Thus did this Wicked Man, devoted to
all the Infernal Furies, behave himself with the Assistance of Profligate
Christians, whom he had lifted in his Service from the 14th to the 21. or
22. Year, together with his Domestick Servants and Followers, from whom he
received as many Portions, besides what he had from his Slaves in Gold,
Pearls, and Jewels, as the Chief Governor would have taken, and all
that were constituted to execute any kind of Kingly Office followed in
the same Footsteps; every one sending as many of his Servants as he
could spare, to share in the spoil. Nay he that came hither as Biship
first of all did the same also, And at the vory time (as I conjecture)
the _Spaniards_ did depraedate or rob this Kingdom of above Ten Hundred
Thousand Crowns of Gold: Yet all these their Thefts and Felonies, we
scarce find upon Record that Three Hundred Thousand _Castilian_ Crowns
ever came into the _Spanish_ King's Coffers; yet there were above Eight
Hundred Thousand Men slain: The other Tyrants who governed this Kingdom
afterward to the Three and Thirtieth year, depriv'd all of them of Life
that remain'd among the Inhabitants.
Among all those flagitious Acts committed by this Governour while he
rul'd this Kindom, or by his Consent and Permission this must by no
means be omitted: A certain _Casic_, bestowing on him a Gift,
voluntarily, or (which is more probably) induced thereunto by Fear,
about the weight of Nine Thousand Crowns, but the _Spaniards_ not
satisfied with so fast a Sum of Money, sieze him, fix him to a Pole;
extended his Feet, which being mov'd near the Fire, they demanded a
larger Sum; the _Casic_ overcome with Torments, sending home, procur'd
Three Thousand more to be brought and presented to them: But the
_Spaniards_, adding new Torments to new Rage and Fury, when they found
he would confer no more upon them, which was because he could not, or
otherwize because he would not, they expos'd him for so long to that
Torture, till by degrees of heat the Marrow gusht out of the Soles of
his Feet, and so he dyed; Thus they often murder'd the Lords and Nobles
which such Torments to Extort the Gold from them.
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