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
The _Indians_ perceiving that this Barbarous and Hard-hearted People
would not be pacified with Humility, large Gifts, or unexampled
Patience, but that they were butcher'd without any Cause, upon serious
Consultation took up a Resolution of getting together in a Body, and
fighting for their Lives and Liberty; for they conceiv'd it was far
better, (since Death to them was a necessary Evil) with Sword in Hand to
be kill'd by taking Revenge of the Enemy, then be destroy'd by them
without satisfaction. But when they grew sensible of their wants of
Arms, Nakedness and Debility, and that they were altogether incapable
of the management of Horses, so as to prevail against such a furious
Adversary, recollecting themselves, they contriv'd this Strategm, to
dig Ditches and Holes in the High-way into which the Horses might fall
in their passage, and fixing therein purposely sharp and burnt Posts,
and covering them with loose Earth, so that they could not be discern'd
by their Riders, they might be transfixed or gored by them. The Horses
fell twice or thrice into those holes, but afterward the _Spaniards_
took this Course to prevent them for the future; and made this a Law,
that as many of the _Indians_ of what Age or Sex soever as were taken,
should be cast into these Ditches that they had made. Nay they threw
into them Women with Child, and as many Aged Men as they laid hold of,
till they were all fill'd up with Carkasses. It was a sight deserving
Commiseration, to behold Women and Children gauncht or run through with
these Posts, some were taken off by Spears and Swords, and the
remainder expos'd to hungry Dogs, kept short of food for that purpose,
to be devour'd by them and torn in pieces. They burnt a Potent
Nobleman in a very great Fire, saying, _That he was the more Honour'd
by this kind of Death_. All which Butcheries continued Seven Years,
from 1524, to 1531. I leave the Reader to judge how many might be
Massacred during that time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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