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
And here is to be noted, how pestilential and inhumane the cruelty of
these Tyrants hath been, and how violently exercised, when as in two or
three years space, they were all slain, and the Country wholly desolate
and deserted, as those that have been Eye-witnesses can testifie; they
having acted like Merciless Men, not having the fear of God and the
King before their Eyes, but by the instigation of the Devil; so that it
may well be said and affirmed, not one Person will be left alive,
unless his Majesty does retard, and put a stop to the full career of
their Cruelties, which I am very apt to believe, for I have seen with
these very eyes of mine, many Kingdoms laid waste and depopulated in a
small time. There are other stately Provinces on the Confines of the
New Kindgom of _Granada_, as _Popayan_ and _Cali_, together with three
or four more above five hundred miles in length, which they destroyed,
in the same manner, as they have done other places, and laid them
absolutely waste by the prementioned Slaughters, who were very
Populous, and the Soil very Fruitful. They who came among us from
those Regions report, that nothing can be more deplorable or worthy of
pity and commiseration, then to behold such large and great Cities
totally ruinated, and intombed in their own Ashes, and that in a City
adorn'd with 1000 or 2000 Fabricks, there are hardly now to be seen 50
standing, the rest being utterly demolished, or consum'd and levelled
to the ground by Fire and in some parts Regions of 100 miles in length,
(containing spacious Cities) are found absolutely destroyed and
consumed by Fire.
Finally many great Tyrants who came out of the _Perusian_ Kingdoms by
the _Quitonians_ Travelled to the said new Kindgom of _Granada_ and
_Popayan_, and by _Carthagena_ and the _Urabae_, they directed their
course to _Calisium_, and several other Tyrants of _Carthagena_ assault
_Quito_, who joyn'd themselves in an intire Body and wholly depopulated
and laid waste that Region for the space of 600 miles and upward, with
the loss of a prodigious number of poor Souls; nor as yet do they treat
the small remnant of so great and innocent a people with more humanity
then formerly.
I desire therefore that the Readers who have or shall peruse these
passages, would please seriously to consider whether or no, such
Barbarous, Cruel and Inhumane Acts as these do not transcend and exceed
all the impiety and tyrrany, which can enter into the thoughts or
imagination of Man, and whether these _Spaniards_ deserve not the name
of Devils. For which of these two things is more eligible or desirable
whether the _Indians_ should be delivered up to the Devils themselves
to be tormented or the _Spaniards_? That is still a question.
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