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
An Impious Wretch by his Fabulous Stories and Relations to the King of
_Spain_ was made praefect of the Kingdom of _Jucatan_, in the Year of
our Lord 1526; And the other Tyrants to this very day have taken the
same indirect Measures to obtain Offices, and screw or wheedle
themselves into publick Charges or Employments, for this praetext, and
Authority, they had the greater opportunity to commit Theft and Rapine.
This Kingdom was very well peopled, and both for Temperature of Air,
and the Plenty of Food and Fruits, in which respect it is more Fertile
than _Mexico_, but chiefly for Hony and Wax, it exceeds all the
_Indian_ Countries that hath hitherto bin discover'd. It is Three
Hundred Miles in Compass. The Inhabitants of this place do much excel
all other _Indians_, either in Politie or Prudence, or in leading a
Regular Life and Morality, truly deserving to be instructed in the
Knowledge of the true God. Here the _Spaniards_ might have Erected
many fair Cities, and liv'd as it were in a Garden of Delights, if they
had not, through Covetousness, Stupidity, and the weight of Enormous
Crimes rendred themselves unworthy of so great a Benefit. This Tyrant,
with Three Hundred Men began to make War with these Innocent People,
living peaceably at home, and doing injury to none, which was the ruine
of a great Number of them: Now because this Region affords no Gold; and
if it did the Inhabitants would soon have wrought away their lives by
hard working in the Mines, that so he might accumulate Gold by their
bodies and Souls, for which Christ was Crucified: For the generality he
made slaves of those whose lives he spared, and sent away such Ships as
were driven thither by the Wind of report, loaden with them, exchanging
them for Wine, Oyl, Vinegar, Salt Pork, Garments, Pack Horses and other
Commodities, which he thought most necessary and fit for his use. He
proposed to them the choice of Fifty Virgins, and she that was the
fairest or best complexioned he bartered for a small Cask of Wine, Oyl,
Vinegar or some inconsiderable quantity of salt Pork, the same exchange
he proferred of Two or Three Hundred well-disposed Young Boys, and one
of them who had the Mind or presence of a Princes Son, was given up to
them for a Cheese, and One Hundred more for a Horse. Thus he continued
his flagitious courses from 1526 to 1533, inclusively, till there was
news brought of the Wealth and Opulence of the Region of _Perusia_,
whither the _Spaniards_ marcht, and so for some time there was a
Cessation of this Tyranny; but in a few days after they returned and
acted enormous Crimes, robbed, and imprisoned them and committed higher
offences against the God of Heaven; nor have they ye done, so that now
these Three Hundred Miles of Land so populous (as I said before) lies
now uncultivated and almost deserted.
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