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
This is a most tender and effeminate people, and so imbecile and
unequal-balanced temper, that they are altogether incapable of hard
labour, and in few years, by one Distemper or other soon expire, so
that the very issue of Lords and Princes, who among us live with great
affluence, and fard deliciously, are not more effminate and tender than
the Children of their Husbandmen or Labourers: This Nation is very
Necessitous and Indigent, Masters of very slender Possessions, and
consequently, neither Haughty, nor Ambitious. They are parsimonious in
their Diet, as the Holy Fathers were in their frugal life in the
Desert, known by the name of _Eremites_. They go naked, having no
other Covering but what conceals their Pudends from publick sight. An
hairy Plad, or loose Coat, about an Ell, or a coarse woven Cloth at
most Two Ells long serves them for the warmest Winter Garment. They
lye on a coarse Rug or Matt, and those that have the most plentiful
Estate or Fortunes, the better sort, use Net-work, knotted at the four
corners in lieu of Beds, which the Inhabitants of the Island of
_Hispaniola_, in their own proper Idiom, term _Hammacks_. The Men are
pregnant and docible. The natives tractable, and capable of Morality or
Goodness, very apt to receive the instill'd principles of Catholick
Religion; nor are they averse to Civility and good Manners, being not
so much discompos'd by variety of Obstructions, as the rest of Mankind;
insomuch, that having suckt in (if I may so express my self) the the
very first Rudiments of the Christian Faith, they are so transported
with Zeal and Furvor in the exercise of Ecclesiastical Sacraments, and
Divine Service, that the very Religioso's themselves, stand in need of
the greatest and most signal patience to undergo such extream
Transports. And to conclude, I my self have heard the _Spaniards_
themselves (who dare not assume the Confidence to deny the good Nature
praedominant in them) declare, that there was nothing wanting in them
for the acquisition of Eternal Beatitude, but the sole Knowledge and
Understanding of the Deity.
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