Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writingsMacNutt, Francis Augustus
History
Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings
MacNutt, Francis Augustus
Casas, Bartolomé de las, 1474-1566
them, the Spaniards would not do anything wicked; because otherwise
they would not have trusted them. Once the Indians were on the
ship, the traitors set sail and were off to Hispaniola, where they
sold them for slaves.
16.16. On seeing their lord and his wife carried off, all the Indians came
to the friars intending to kill them. The friars were like to die
for sorrow on beholding such great villany, and it may be believed
they would have rather given their lives than that such injustice
should have been done; especially as it impeded those souls from
ever hearing or believing the word of God.
17.17. They called the Indians as best they could and told them that by
the first ship that passed there, they would write to Hispaniola and
bring about the restoration of their lord and of the others who were
with him. For the greater confirmation of the damnation of those who
were governing, God caused a ship to come at once to hand. The
monks wrote to their brethren in Hispaniola lamenting and protesting
repeatedly. The auditors never would do justice, because they
themselves had divided a share of the Indians so barbarously and
unjustly carried off by the tyrants.
18.18. The two monks who had promised the Indians that their lord, Don
Alonso, together with the others, should return in four months’
time, seeing that they did not come, neither in four, nor in eight
months prepared for death, and to give their lives to those to whom
they had consecrated them before they left. And so the Indians took
vengeance upon them, killing them justly, although they were
innocent: because it was believed that the monks had been the cause
of that treachery, and because they saw that what had been
faithfully promised them within four months was not fulfilled; and
also because up to that time and up to the present day they neither
knew, nor know, that there is a difference between the friars and
the Spanish tyrants, bandits, and assassins of all that country.
19.19. The blessed friars suffered unjustly, and by that injustice there
is no doubt that, according to our holy faith, they are true
martyrs, and reign blissfully to-day with God in the heavens; for
they were sent to that land under obedience, and their intention was
to preach and spread the holy faith, to save all those souls and to
suffer every kind of affliction and death that might be offered them
for Jesus Christ crucified.
20.20. Another time, through the great tyranny and execrable works of the
wicked Spaniards, the Indians killed two monks of St. Dominic and
one of St. Francis, of which I myself am a witness, for I escaped
the same death by divine miracle; so serious and horrible was the
case I might have much to say that would amaze mankind, but on
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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