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
The tyrant said that he should be tried by process of law, so they
prosecuted him, accusing the said king of the country. The tyrant
gave sentence, condemning him to tortures, if he did not give the
house of gold.
8.8. They tortured him with the cord: they threw burning fat on his
belly; they put his feet in irons fastened to a stake, tied his neck
to another, while two men held his hands; and in this position they
put fire to his feet.
9.9. Every now and then, the tyrant entered and told him, that they would
kill him by inches with tortures if he did not give the gold. And
thus they did, and killed this lord with tortures. While they were
tormenting him, God gave a sign of destestation of that cruelty, by
causing all that town, where it was committed to be burnt.
10.10. The other Spaniards imitated their good captain and, since they
only know how to rend these people, they did the same; torturing the
lord of the town or towns, that had been confided to them, with
divers and fierce tortures while those lords and their people felt
themselves safe, and were giving them all the gold and emeralds they
could: the Spaniards tortured them only to extort more gold and
jewels. And in this way they burnt and cut to pieces all the lords
of that country.
11.11. Terror-stricken by the excessive cruelty practised upon the Indians
by one of those particular tyrants a great lord called Daytama fled,
with many of his people from such inhumanity, and retreated to the
mountains. This, if it did but avail, they conceive to be the
remedy and refuge, and this is what the Spaniards call revolt and
rebellion.
12.12. The principal tyrant captain hearing this, sent a force to that
cruel man, whose ferocity and wickedness towards the peaceful and
submissive Indians had driven them to the mountains; the latter went
in pursuit of the natives, and because it sufficed not to hide in
the bowels of the earth, they found a large number of people whom
they killed, cutting to pieces more than five hundred men, women,
and children, and sparing no one.
13.13. The witnesses also say that before his death, the same Prince
Daytama had been to see that cruel man and had taken him four or
five thousand crowns, but notwithstanding this, he committed the
said slaughter.
14.14. Another time a great number of people having come to serve the
Spaniards, and feeling themselves safe, serving with their humility
and simplicity, the captain entered the town one night where the
Indians were and commanded that all those Indians should be put to
the sword while some of them were sleeping, and some supping and
resting from the labours of the day.
15.15. He perpetrated this massacre because it seemed good to him to make
himself feared by all the people of the country.
16.16.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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