CHAPTER XXI. - SAN GREGORIO DE VALLADOLID. LAST LABOURS. THE DEATH OF LAS

CASAS

Although the forensic encounter with Sepulveda was the most dramatic

incident in the latter years of the life of Las Casas after his return to

Spain, its conclusion was not followed either by his disappearance or by

any diminution of his activity as Protector of the Indians. His habitual

residence from that time on became the College of San Gregorio at

Valladolid, where he had the companionship of his devoted friend Ladrada

and the support of an important community of his Order. Fray Rodrigo, who

also acted as confessor to his old friend, would seem to have been

something of a wag, as it is related of him that when the Bishop had

become somewhat deaf, the confessor might be heard admonishing his

penitent: “Don’t you see, Bishop, that you will finish up in hell because

of your want of zeal in defending the Indians whom God has placed in your

charge?”(73)

The royal India Council likewise sat in Valladolid, and this fact may

possibly have influenced the indefatigable Bishop’s choice of that city

for his residence. He had made repeated efforts to obtain from the

Council some positive proclamation or declaration, affirming the freedom

of the Indians as a natural and inalienable right, and at this time, he

succeeded in moving that somewhat lethargic body to express a desire for

more explicit information on this subject, before reaching a decision. In

response to an order from the Council, Las Casas wrote his treatise

entitled, _The Liberty of the Enslaved Indians_ (_De la libertad de los

Indios que han sido reducidos à la esclavitud_) which, for greater

convenience, he divided into three parts. The first part treated of the

nullity of the title on which such slavery was based; the second dealt

with the duties of the Spanish sovereign towards the Indians, and the

third was devoted to the obligations of the bishops of the American

dioceses.

In none of his writings are the opinions of Las Casas on questions of the

rights of man and the functions of government more lucidly set forth, and

while many of the arguments on which he rested his propositions, and which

were consonant with the prevalent spirit of his times, would not secure

universal assent in our day, there is not one of the essential principles

of his thesis, that has not since been recognised as inherently and

indisputably just.

His treatise opened as follows:

“I propose in this article to demonstrate three propositions; first, that

all the Indians who have been enslaved since the discovery of the New

World, have been reduced to this sad condition without right or justice;

second that the majority of Spaniards who hold Indian slaves do so in bad

faith; and third, that this imputation is also applicable to such

Spaniards as have not acquired their slaves by right of repartimiento but

have obtained them from other Indians.”

He combated the almost universally accepted theory that justifiable

conquest conferred the right of enslaving the conquered, and he maintained

that the most that might be exacted from a conquered people, even from

those who had actively resisted, was recognition of the government

established by the victorious party; taxes were justifiable and must be

paid, and prisoners of war might be held until the close of hostilities,

while extra burdens might be laid upon the country during the period of

military occupation. Not one of these principles was at that time acted

upon by any Christian power engaged in war with uncivilised nations, yet

every one of them is now placed beyond dispute by the universally accepted

principles of international law.

Wars unjustly undertaken, according to Las Casas, could confer no rights,

because right is not founded upon injustice, and he defined war as unjust

when undertaken without the sanction of legitimate authority, or even when

ordered by legitimate authority, but without sufficient motive or

provocation. This touched the question of the Indians very closely, for

most of the Spanish invasions of the different islands and the countries

of the mainland were begun without any authority from, or even the

knowledge of the Spanish government. No Spanish sovereign ever authorised

the invasion or conquest of any of the countries, on which their distant

and self-styled representatives embarked, for motives of personal

aggrandisement or in a pure spirit of adventure. Both Velasquez in Cuba

and Cortes in Mexico were destitute of any royal authority for their

undertakings, and only the splendour of their successes sufficed to

condone their license, when they were able to confront the King with a

profitable fait accompli. The royal instructions to all governors and

representatives of the Spanish Crown were, on the contrary, filled with

injunctions to treat the Indians humanely, to provide for their conversion

and instruction by pacific means, and on no account to employ force save

for self-defence.

Las Casas arraigned the conduct of all the colonial governors and

officials, mercilessly attacking and exposing the various deceits and

subterfuges, by means of which they evaded or overstepped their

instructions, provoking the Indians by their inhuman cruelties to acts of

resistance, in order to enslave them as rebels against the royal

authority. He illustrated his accusations with numerous incidents of which

he had himself been a witness.

His denunciations of the judges described them as corrupt and venal, ready

to wink at the scandalous abuses and the violations of the Spanish laws,

which were daily perpetrated under their very eyes, consenting the while

to fill their own pockets with a share of the illicit profits.

Describing the horrors and ravages of the slave-trade, he declared that

the provinces of Guatemala and Nicaragua had been depopulated, while in

the provinces of Jalisco, Yucatan, and Panuco, similar outrages had been

perpetrated, adding that the Germans in Venezuela were even more adroit

than the Spaniards in the nefarious art of raiding Indian villages to

carry off the inhabitants into slavery. “Your Majesty will see that I do

not exaggerate when I affirm that more than four million men have been

reduced to slavery, all of which has been accomplished in defiance of your

Majesty’s royal instructions.”

Throughout this treatise, Las Casas supports his contentions on citations

from Scripture, and in the second article, dealing with the obligations of

the King towards his Indian subjects, he defines in very plain language

the sanctions on which the royal claims to obedience rest: “The law of God

imposes on the king the obligation to administer his kingdoms in such wise

that small and great, poor and rich, the weak and the powerful, shall all

be treated with equal justice”;—such is his Statement of the King’s duty

and he supports it with quotations from Deuteronomy, Leviticus, the

prophet Isaias, and St. Jerome, concluding with these words: “In fact,

history furnishes examples of God chastising the nations and kingdoms

which have refused justice to the poor and the orphan. Who shall venture

to say that such may not be the fate of Spain, if the King denies the poor

Indians their just dues and fails to give them the liberty, to which they

have an incontestable right?”

Nor does he limit the King’s responsibility to his personal acts in cases

which may come directly to his knowledge; he is obliged also to see that

his subjects observe one another’s rights and live according to the laws

of civil order and public morality. The object for which society and

rulers exist is to insure the common weal of all, and no sovereign can

secure this, who does not base his government on the principles of virtue

and justice. The Spanish king is therefore not only obliged to secure the

liberty of the Indians because justice exacts this of him, but also

because he is bound to prevent his Spanish subjects from acts of

usurpation of the rights of others. Christian kings have greater duties

than those which weigh upon heathen or heretical rulers, for they are

bound to protect religion, favour its ministers, and spread the faith for

the sanctification of the whole world. By securing liberty to the

Indians, their conversion would be assured and, all causes of enmity and

hatred against Spaniards being removed, the natives would eagerly welcome

the missionaries and receive their teaching.

The third article of his argument, dealing with the conduct of bishops in

America, rehearses their apostolic duties towards their flocks and

concludes by defining it as an episcopal obligation to represent the

sufferings and wrongs of their defenceless people to the King and the

India Council, and to insist on Justice being done them.

It is a noteworthy fact that such writings and speeches seem to have given

no offence to the Spanish monarch, at that time the most absolute

sovereign in Christendom, and that, not only before the members of the

India Council, but in the estimation of the impartial men of his times,

Las Casas succeeded in disproving the charge of disputing the rights of

the Spanish Crown to sovereignty in the Indies, which his enemies had

maliciously sought to fasten upon him.

Charles V. had already conceded much to the venerable Bishop’s unceasing

and energetic representations. A royal decree had abolished slavery,

reduced very considerably the number of encomiendas, and had restricted

the authority of the holders of these concessions over their Indians; the

labours of the natives held in encomienda had been greatly lightened and

their rights had been placed on a sure basis, strict instructions having

been given to the civil authorities to correct abuses of power and to

protect the weak. Wise laws and humane instructions had, however, at no

time been wanting but the benevolent intentions of the Emperor were never

adequately fulfilled by the Spanish colonial officials. Nevertheless,

much had been accomplished and the condition of the Indians—those of them

who survived—was very different in 1550, from that which prevailed when

Las Casas took up their cause in 1510. Spaniards and Indians were equal

before the common law of the land, the papal bull had defined, once for

all, the moral status of the latter as responsible beings, and it was

henceforth heresy to sustain the contrary. The supports on which those

who had contended in favour of tightening the hold of the Spanish

colonists on the natives had, one by one, been knocked from under them and

the way was open for the more complete and practical application of the

royal provisions for the protection of the oppressed peoples.

Prince Philip, to whom the Emperor had granted the sovereignty of Naples,

Sicily, and Sardinia and who was already styled Philip II., left Spain on

July 12, 1554, to celebrate his marriage with the English Queen, Mary

Tudor. He took in his suite several renowned theologians, amongst whom

was Carranza de Miranda, at that time his confessor and later raised to

the primatial See of Toledo. The relations between Las Casas and this

important ecclesiastic had been most cordial and the latter had given the

weight of his approval on more than one occasion to the Bishop in his

furious controversies; notably during his contest with Sepulveda and by

defending his _Confesionario_. Carranza, in his quality of confessor,

exercised a great influence over the mind of Philip II.

[Illustration: Philip II.]

Philip II.

From a photograph of the original portrait by Pantoja in the Prado Museum.

(by permission of J. Laurent & Co., Madrid)

At this time a movement was set on foot by the Spanish colonists in

America to obtain from the Crown the establishment of the encomienda

system in perpetuity. The movement was opportune, for Spanish finances

were at a low ebb and the King, being hard pressed for ready money, might

be tempted to yield his consent to this simple means tor raising the

considerable sum the petitioners would gladly pay. This important

question seemed likely to be submitted to Philip during his stay in

England, where an agent of the colonists in Peru, Don Antonio Ribera, was

ready to open negotiations. Las Casas, who was sleepless where the

interests of his protégés were concerned, perceived how vitally their

welfare was threatened by this nefarious scheme and vividly realised that

Philip must be prevented, at all costs, from giving his decision during

his absence from Spain.

It would seem from his letter to Carranza, begging him to use his

influence with the King to defer judgment until his return, that the

latter had applied to him for an opinion on the subject. The

correspondence between the two extended over the several years of the

King’s absence, but of the letters of Las Casas to Carranza, only the

first one, written in 1555, has been preserved. Its language is no less

vigorous than that which the Protector was accustomed to use when roused

to the duties of his position.

After reviewing the history of the colonists’ relations with the Indians

and recalling the solemn pledge given by Charles V. that his Indian

subjects should never be enslaved, he vehemently threatens the King and

his ministers with the eternal pains of hell if they break that royal

engagement. In enumerating the obstacles opposed by the Spaniards to the

conversion of the Indians, he writes:

“The third difficulty opposed to the conversion of the Indians is, that

the system of oppression and cruelty followed in dealing with them, makes

them curse the name of God and our holy religion: as the friars in Chiapa

write me, nothing short of a miracle can make the Indians believe in Jesus

Christ, when they see the execrable and manifest contradiction that exists

between His gentle and beneficent doctrines and the conduct of the

Christians, their enemies. What a scandal is it for them to see the faith

preached by fifteen or twenty monks who are poor, despised, miserably

clad, and reduced to begging their bread, while the crowd of so-called

Christians living in opulence, arrayed in silks, mounted on their horses,

inspires respect, submission, and fear everywhere, and acts in defiance of

the law of God and the teachings of His ministers!”

The Bishop expresses the hope that Carranza will read any passage of his

letter, or indeed the entire composition to the King, if he judges it

wise. An analogous letter on the same subject, written shortly afterwards

by Las Casas and Fray Domingo de Santo Tomas jointly, was addressed to

Philip II. Victory crowned the Bishop’s efforts, for the royal decision,

given after King Philip’s return to Spain, was adverse to making the

encomiendas hereditary or perpetual.

Although he had chosen San Gregorio as his residence, Las Casas must have

been frequently and for lengthy periods absent from Valladolid. A royal

order dated from Toledo on the fourteenth of December, 1562, and signed by

Philip II. directs that the Bishop of Chiapa, on account of his services

to the late Emperor and of those he continues to render to the King, shall

always be provided with lodgings suitable to his rank, in Toledo or

wherever else in the Spanish realm the court may happen to reside. The

attendance of Las Casas at court would seem, from this document, to have

been frequent.

In 1563, the annual life pension of 200,000 maravedis granted him by

Charles V. in 1555, was increased by Philip II. to the sum of 350,000

maravedis.

In the early months of 1564 Las Casas was in Madrid, lodged in the Convent

of Our Lady of Atocha just outside the city walls. It was on the

seventeenth of March of that year that he there formally delivered a

sealed document, which he declared to be his signed will, in the presence

of a notary, Gaspar Testa, and seven other witnesses.(74)

At the age of ninety he wrote his treatise in defence of the Peruvians,

the last of his known compositions, and which was written, as is stated in

its text, in 1564.(75) The style and arguments of this work are identical

with those that characterised all his writings. The last negotiation in

behalf of American interests that Las Casas undertook and saw to a

successful finish, was to obtain the restoration of the Audiencia of the

Confines, to Gracias á Dios, whence it had been recently transferred to

Panama, thus leaving the whole of the former province with no superior

tribunal for the administration of justice. This business called him from

Valladolid to Madrid in the spring of 1566.

The life of the great Bishop was nearing its end. He had long outlived

all his early contemporaries, he had enjoyed the confidence and respect of

three of the most remarkable sovereigns, Ferdinand of Aragon, Charles V.

and Philip II., all of whom had received his fearless admonitions, not

only with docility, but had responded with cordial admiration. Cardinal

Ximenez, Pope Adrian VI., the powerful Flemish favourites, the discoverers

and conquerors from Columbus to Cortes and Pizarro, were all long since

dead, and he had seen numbers of his most powerful enemies in disgrace and

in their graves. The Spain on which he closed his aged eyes was a

different country from that on which he had first, opened them; the

colonial development in America, the Reformation in Germany, the rise of

England—all these and a hundred events of minor but far-reaching

importance, had changed the face of the world.

The illness which proved fatal to Las Casas overtook him in the convent of

the Atocha in Madrid, and in the latter days of July, 1566, he died.(76)

Only a few days before he breathed his last he wrote the following

sentences, which were probably the last his prolific pen ever traced.

They portray the character and aspirations of this great man more fully,

perhaps, than any other of his multitudinous compositions.

“For the goodness and mercy of God chose to elect me as His minister,

despite my want of merit, to strive and labour for the infinite peoples,

the possessors and owners of those kingdoms of the countries we call the

Indies, against the burdens, evils, and injuries such as were never seen

or heard of, which we Spaniards brought upon them, contrary to all right

and justice; and to restore them to their pristine liberty, of which they

were unjustly despoiled; and to save them from the violent death which

they still suffer, just as for the same cause, thousands of leagues of

country have been depopulated, many in my own presence. I have laboured

at the Court of the Castilian sovereigns, coming and going between the

Indies and Spain many times during the fifty years since 1514, animated

only by God and by compassion at beholding the destruction of such

multitudes of rational, humble, most kind, and most simple men, all well

adapted to accept our Holy Catholic Faith and moral doctrine, and to live

honestly. God is witness that I have advanced no other reason. Hence I

state my positive belief, for I believe the Holy Roman Church, which is

the rule and measure of our faith, must and does hold that the Spaniards’

conduct towards those peoples, their robberies, murders, usurpations of

the territories of the rightful kings and nobles and other infinite

properties, which they accomplished with such accursed cruelties—has been

contrary to the most strictly immaculate law of Jesus Christ and contrary

to natural right. It has brought great infamy on the name of Jesus Christ

and of the Christian religion, entirely hindering the spread of the faith

and irreparably injuring the souls and bodies of those innocent peoples.

I believe that because of these impious and ignominious acts, perpetrated

unjustly, tyrannously, and barbarously upon them, God will visit His wrath

and ire upon Spain for her share, great or small, in the blood-stained

riches, obtained by theft and usurpation, accompanied by such slaughter

and annihilation of those peoples, unless she does much penance.”

This last profession of the faith he had kept unfalteringly for more than

half a century, was his own supreme vindication and a warning to his

countrymen.

A great concourse of people assembled for the obsequies of the venerable

Bishop, which were celebrated by the Superior of the Monastery, Fray

Domingo de la Para, and his mortal remains, clothed in modest episcopal

vestments, with a wooden crozier in his hand, were laid to rest in the

Capilla Mayor of the church of Atocha. (77)

The remains of great men are frequently denied a permanent resting place

anywhere, and the frequent translations of their bodies not uncommonly end

in their final whereabouts becoming a matter of dispute. Records are

lost, graves are disturbed, witnesses are untrustworthy, and it finally

becomes impossible to ascertain the last resting place of some great

personage, whose whereabouts during almost every hour of his life were a

matter of public interest and notoriety. Thus it has happened with the

remains of this illustrious Spaniard and holy Bishop. According to a

statement made by Juan Antolines de Burgos in his manuscript history of

the city of Valladolid, (78) the bones of Las Casas were afterwards

removed from the Atocha and buried in San Gregorio. The college buildings

were in part alienated, thus necessitating another removal of the body,

which was then buried in the cloister where the remains of the monks

commonly found sepulture. In 1670, Fray Gabriel de Cepedo dedicated a

work entitled _Historia de la milagrosa y Venerable Virgin de Atocha_ to

Charles II., in which he contradicts the statement of Juan Antolines by

affirming that Las Casas rested at that time in the church of Atocha. He

does this as one referring to a commonly known and undisputed fact and his

published statement has never been contradicted. The old church of Atocha

no longer exists, having been demolished to make way for a new edifice,

still in process of construction.

The will of Las Casas was opened on July 31, 1566, at the instance of Fray

Juan Bautiste, Procurator of the College of San Gregorio in Valladolid, he

being the executor. It was found that Las Casas had left all his

manuscripts to the college.(79) He requested the rector to have his vast

correspondence, consisting of letters and reports sent to him by friars,

missionaries, and others throughout all America and covering a period of

many years, chronologically arranged and collected in the form of a book,

as these documents would illustrate and confirm the truth of all he had

alleged against the Spaniards and in favour of the Indians. “Let them be

placed,” he wrote, “in the college library ad perpetuam rei memoriam, for

should God decree the destruction of Spain, it may be seen that it is

because of our destruction of the Indies, and His justice may be made

apparent.”

APPENDIX I. - THE BREVISSIMA RELACION

PROLOGUE OF THE BISHOP DON FRAY BARTHOLOMEW DE LAS CASAS OR CASAUS

TO THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTY LORD, THE PRINCE OF THE SPANISH STATES.

Don Philip our Lord.

Most High, and Mighty Lord.

1. As divine Providence has ordained that in his world, for its

government, and for the common utility of the human race, Kingdoms

and Countries should be constituted in which are Kings almost

fathers and pastors, (as Homer calls them) they being consequently

the most noble, and most generous members of the Republics, there

neither is nor can be reasonable doubt as to the rectitude of their

royal hearts. If any defect, wrong, and evil is suffered, there can

be no other cause than that the Kings are ignorant of it; for if

such were manifested to them, they would extirpate them with supreme

industry and watchful diligence.

2.2. It is seemingly this that the divine Scriptures mean in the Proverbs

of Solomon, qui sedet in solio iudicii, dissipat omne malum intuitu

suo: because it is thus assumed from the innate and peculiar virtue

of the King namely, that the knowledge alone of evil in his Kingdom

is absolutely sufficient that he should destroy it; and that not for

one moment, as far as in him lies, can he tolerate it.

3.3. As I have fifty, or more, years of experience in those countries, I

have therefore been considering the evils, I have seen committed,

the injuries, losses, and misfortunes, such as it would not have

been thought could be done by man; such kingdoms, so many, and so

large, or to speak better, that most vast and new world of the

Indies, conceded and confided by God and his Church to the Kings of

Castile, that they should rule and govern it; that they should

convert it, and should prosper it temporally, and spiritually.

4.4. When some of their particular actions are made known to Your

Highness, it will not be possible to forbear supplicating His

Majesty with importunate insistence, that he should not concede nor

permit that which the tyrants have invented, pursued, and put into

execution, calling it Conquests; which if permitted, will be

repeated; because these acts in themselves, done against those

pacific, humble, and mild Indian people, who offend none, are

iniquitous, tyrannous, condemned and cursed by every natural,

divine, and human law.

5.5. So as not to keep criminal silence concerning the ruin of numberless

souls and bodies that these persons cause, I have decided to print

some, though very few, of the innumerable instances I have collected

in the past and can relate with truth, in order that Your Highness

may read them with greater facility.

6.6. Although the Archbishop of Toledo, Your Highness’ Preceptor, when

Bishop of Cartagena, asked me for them and presented them to Your

Highness, nevertheless, because of the long journeys by sea and land

Your Highness has made, and of the continual royal occupations, it

may be that Your Highness either has not read them or has already

forgotten them.

7.7. The daring and unreasonable cupidity of those who count it as

nothing to unjustly shed such an immense quantity of human blood,

and to deprive those enormous countries of their natural inhabitants

and possessors, by slaying millions of people and stealing

incomparable treasures, increase every day; and they insist by

various means and under various feigned pretexts, that the said

Conquests are permitted, without violation of the natural and divine

law, and, in consequence, without most grievous mortal sin, worthy

of terrible and eternal punishment. I therefore esteemed it right

to furnish Your Highness with this very brief summary of a very long

history that could and ought to be composed, of the massacres and

devastation that have taken place.

8.8. I supplicate Your Highness to receive and read it with the clemency,

and royal benignity he usually shows to his creatures, and servants,

who desire to serve solely for the public good and for the

prosperity of the State.

9.9. Having seen and understood the monstrous injustice done to these

innocent people in destroying and outraging them, without cause or

just motive, but out of avarice alone, and the ambition of those who

design such villainous operations, may Your Highness be pleased to

supplicate and efficaciously persuade His Majesty to forbid such

harmful and detestable practices to those who seek license for them:

may he silence this infernal demand for ever, with so much terror,

that from this time forward there shall be no one so audacious as to

dare but to name it.

10.10. This—Most High Lord—is most fitting and necessary to do, that God

may prosper, preserve and render blessed, both temporally and

spiritually, all the State of the royal crown of Castile. Amen.

BREVISSIMA RELACION OR SHORT REPORT OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIES

1. The Indies were discovered in the year fourteen hundred and

ninety-two. The year following, Spanish Christians went to inhabit

them, so that it is since forty-nine years that numbers of Spaniards

have gone there: and the first land, that they invaded to inhabit

was the large and most delightful Isle of Hispaniola which has a

circumference of six hundred leagues.

2.2. There are numberless other islands, and very large ones, all around

on every side, that were all—and we have seen it—as inhabited and

full of their native Indian peoples as any country in the world.

3.3. Of the continent, the nearest part of which is more than two hundred

and fifty leagues distant from this Island, more than ten thousand

leagues of maritime coast have been discovered, and more is

discovered every day; all that has been discovered up to the year

forty-nine is full of people, like a hive of bees, so that it seems

as though God had placed all, or the greater part of the entire

human race in these countries.

4.4. God has created all these numberless people to be quite the

simplest, without malice or duplicity, most obedient, most faithful

to their natural Lords, and to the Christians, whom they serve; the

most humble, most patient, most peaceful, and calm, without strife

nor tumults; not wrangling, nor querulous, as free from uproar, hate

and desire of revenge, as any in the world.

5.5. They are likewise the most delicate people, weak and of feeble

constitution, and less than any other can they bear fatigue, and

they very easily die of whatsoever infirmity; so much so, that not

even the sons of our Princes and of nobles, brought up in royal and

gentle life, are more delicate than they; although there are among

them such as are of the peasant class. They are also a very poor

people, who of worldly goods possess little, nor wish to possess:

and they are therefore neither proud, nor ambitious, nor avaricious.

6.6. Their food is so poor, that it would seem that of the Holy Fathers

in the desert was not scantier nor less pleasing. Their way of

dressing is usually to go naked, covering the private parts; and at

most they cover themselves with a cotton cover, which would be about

equal to one and a half or two ells square of cloth. Their beds are

of matting, and they mostly sleep in certain things like hanging

nets, called in the language of Hispaniola hamacas.

7.7. They are likewise of a clean, unspoiled, and vivacious intellect,

very capable, and receptive to every good doctrine; most prompt to

accept our Holy Catholic Faith, to be endowed with virtuous customs;

and they have as little difficulty with such things as any people

created by God in the world.

8.8. Once they have begun to learn of matters pertaining to faith, they

are so importunate to know them, and in frequenting the sacraments

and divine service of the Church, that to tell the truth, the clergy

have need to be endowed of God with the gift of pre-eminent patience

to bear with them: and finally, I have heard many lay Spaniards

frequently say many years ago, (unable to deny the goodness of those

they saw) certainly these people were the most blessed of the earth,

had they only knowledge of God.

9.9. Among these gentle sheep, gifted by their Maker with the above

qualities, the Spaniards entered as soon as they knew them, like

wolves, tigers, and lions which had been starving for many days, and

since forty years they have done nothing else; nor do they otherwise

at the present day, than outrage, slay, afflict, torment, and

destroy them with strange and new, and divers kinds of cruelty,

never before seen, nor heard of, nor read of, of which some few will

be told below: to such extremes has this gone that, whereas there

were more than three million souls, whom we saw in Hispaniola, there

are to-day, not two hundred of the native population left.

10.10. The island of Cuba is almost as long as the distance from

Valladolid to Rome; it is now almost entirely deserted. The islands

of San Juan [Porto Rico], and Jamaica, very large and happy and

pleasing islands, are both desolate. The Lucaya Isles lie near

Hispaniola and Cuba to the north and number more than sixty, includ‐

ing those that are called the Giants, and other large and small

Islands; the poorest of these, which is more fertile, and pleasing

than the King’s garden in Seville, is the healthiest country in the

world, and contained more than five hundred thousand souls, but

to-day there remains not even a single creature. All were killed in

transporting them, to Hispaniola, because it was seen that the

native population there was disappearing.

11.11. A ship went three years later to look for the people that had been

left after the gathering in, because a good Christian was moved by

compassion to convert and win those that were found to Christ; only

eleven persons, whom I saw, were found.

12.12. More than thirty other islands, about the Isle of San Juan, are

destroyed and depopulated, for the same reason. All these islands

cover more than two thousand leagues of land, entirely depopulated

and deserted.

13.13. We are assured that our Spaniards, with their cruelty and execrable

works, have depopulated and made desolate the great continent, and

that more than ten Kingdoms, larger than all Spain, counting Aragon

and Portugal, and twice as much territory as from Seville to

Jerusalem (which is more than two thousand leagues), although

formerly full of people, are now deserted.

14.14. We give as a real and true reckoning, that in the said forty years,

more than twelve million persons, men, and women, and children, have

perished unjustly and through tyranny, by the infernal deeds and

tyranny of the Christians; and I truly believe, nor think I am

deceived, that it is more than fifteen.

15.15. Two ordinary and principal methods have the self-styled Christians,

who have gone there, employed in extirpating these miserable nations

and removing them from the face of the earth. The one, by unjust,

cruel and tyrannous wars. The other, by slaying all those, who

might aspire to, or sigh for, or think of liberty, or to escape from

the torments that they suffer, such as all the native Lords, and

adult men; for generally, they leave none alive in the wars, except

the young men and the women, whom they oppress with the hardest,

most horrible, and roughest servitude, to which either man or beast,

can ever be put. To these two ways of infernal tyranny, all the

many and divers other ways, which are numberless, of exterminating

these people, are reduced, resolved, or sub-ordered according to

kind.

16.16. The reason why the Christians have killed and destroyed such

infinite numbers of souls, is solely because they have made gold

their ultimate aim, seeking to load themselves with riches in the

shortest time and to mount by high steps, disproportioned to their

condition: namely by their insatiable avarice and ambition, the

greatest, that could be on the earth. These lands, being so happy

and so rich, and the people so humble, so patient, and so easily

subjugated, they have had no more respect, nor consideration nor

have they taken more account of them (I speak with truth of what I

have seen during all the aforementioned time) than,—I will not say

of animals, for would to God they had considered and treated them as

animals,—but as even less than the dung in the streets.

17.17. In this way have they cared for their lives—and for their souls:

and therefore, all the millions above mentioned have died without

faith, and without sacraments. And it is a publicly known truth,

admitted, and confessed by all, even by the tyrants and homicides

themselves, that the Indians throughout the Indies never did any

harm to the Christians: they even esteemed them as coming from

heaven, until they and their neighbours had suffered the same many

evils, thefts, deaths, violence and visitations at their hands.

Of Hispaniola

1. In the island of Hispaniola—which was the first, as we have said, to

be invaded by the Christians—the immense massacres and destruction

of these people began. It was the first to be destroyed and made

into a desert. The Christians began by taking the women and

children, to use and to abuse them, and to eat of the substance of

their toil and labour, instead of contenting themselves with what

the Indians gave them spontaneously, according to the means of each.

Such stores are always small; because they keep no more than they

ordinarily need, which they acquire with little labour; but what is

enough for three households, of ten persons each, for a month, a

Christian eats and destroys in one day. From their using force,

violence and other kinds of vexations, the Indians began to perceive

that these men could not have come from heaven.

2.2. Some hid their provisions, others, their wives and children: others

fled to the mountains to escape from people of such harsh and

terrible intercourse. The Christians gave them blows in the face,

beatings and cudgellings, even laying hands on the lords of the

land. They reached such recklessness and effrontery, that a

Christian captain violated the lawful wife of the chief king and

lord of all the island.

3.3. After this deed, the Indians consulted to devise means of driving

the Christians from their country. They took up their weapons,

which are poor enough and little fitted for attack, being of little

force and not even good for defence; For this reason, all their wars

are little more than games with sticks, such as children play in our

countries.

4.4. The Christians, with their horses and swords and lances, began to

slaughter and practise strange cruelty among them. They penetrated

into the country and spared neither children nor the aged, nor

pregnant women, nor those in child labour, all of whom they ran

through the body and lacerated, as though they were assaulting so

many lambs herded in their sheepfold.

5.5. They made bets as to who would slit a man in two, or cut off his

head at one blow: or they opened up his bowels. They tore the babes

from their mothers’ breast by the feet, and dashed their heads

against the rocks. Others they seized by the shoulders and threw

into the rivers, laughing and joking, and when they fell into the

water they exclaimed: “boil body of so and so!” They spitted the

bodies of other babes, together with their mothers and all who were

before them, on their swords.

6.6. They made a gallows just high enough for the feet to nearly touch

the ground, and by thirteens, in honour and reverence of our

Redeemer and the twelve Apostles, they put wood underneath and, with

fire, they burned the Indians alive.

7.7. They wrapped the bodies of others entirely in dry straw, binding

them in it and setting fire to it; and so they burned them. They

cut off the hands of all they wished to take alive, made them carry

them fastened on to them, and said: “Go and carry letters”: that is;

take the news to those who have fled to the mountains.

8.8. They generally killed the lords and nobles in the following way.

They made wooden gridirons of stakes, bound them upon them, and made

a slow fire beneath: thus the victims gave up the spirit by degrees,

emitting cries of despair in their torture.

9.9. I once saw that they had four or five of the chief lords stretched

on the gridirons to burn them, and I think also there were two or

three pairs of gridirons, where they were burning others; and

because they cried aloud and annoyed the captain or prevented him

sleeping, he commanded that they should strangle them: the officer

who was burning them was worse than a hangman and did not wish to

suffocate them, but with his own hands he gagged them, so that they

should not make themselves heard, and he stirred up the fire, until

they roasted slowly, according to his pleasure. I know his name,

and knew also his relations in Seville. I saw all the above things

and numberless others.

9.10. And because all the people who could flee, hid among the mountains

and climbed the crags to escape from men so deprived of humanity, so

wicked, such wild beasts, exterminators and capital enemies of all

the human race, the Spaniards taught and trained the fiercest

boar-hounds to tear an Indian to pieces as soon as they saw him, so

that they more willingly attacked and ate one, than if he had been a

boar. These hounds made great havoc and slaughter.

10.11. And because sometimes, though rarely, the Indians killed a few

Christians for just cause, they made a law among themselves, that

for one Christian whom the Indians killed, the Christians should

kill a hundred Indians.

The Kingdoms that were in Hispaniola

1. There were five very large and principal kingdoms in this island of

Hispaniola, and five very mighty kings, whom all the other

numberless lords obeyed, although some of the lords of certain

separate provinces did not recognise any of them as superior. One

kingdom was called Maguá, with the last syllable accented, which

means the kingdom of the plain.

This plain is one of the most notable and marvellous things in the

world, for it stretches eighty leagues from the sea on the south to

that on the north. Its width is five leagues, attaining to eight

and ten, and it has very high mountains on both sides.

2.2. More than thirty thousand rivers, and brooks water it among which

there are twelve as large as the Ebro, the Duero, and the

Guadalquivir. And all the rivers that flow from the western

mountain, which number twenty or twenty-five thousand, are very rich

in gold. On that mountain (or mountains) lies the province of

Cibao, from which the mines of Cibao are named, whence comes that

famous gold, superior in carat, which is held in great esteem here.

3.3. The king, and lord of this realm was called Guarionex. He had such

great lords as his vassals, that one alone of them mustered sixteen

thousand warriors to serve Guarionex; and I knew some of them. This

king Guarionex was very obedient, virtuous and, by nature, peaceful

and devoted to the king of Castile. And in certain years, every

householder amongst his people gave by his orders, a bell full of

gold; and afterwards, because they could not fill it, they cut it in

two and gave that half full; because the Indians had little or no

ability to collect, or dig the gold from the mines.

4.4. This prince offered to serve the King of Castile, by having as much

land cultivated as would extend from Isabella, which was the first

habitation of the Christians to the town of San Domingo, which is a

good fifty leagues, in order that gold should not be asked of him;

because he said, and with truth, that his vassals knew not how to

collect it. I know he was able to do the cultivation he proposed to

undertake, most gladly; and it would have rendered the King more

than three million crowns yearly, and, owing to this cultivation,

there would have been at the present time in this island fifty towns

as large as Seville.

5.5. The payment they awarded to this great and good king and lord, was

to dishonour him; a captain, a bad Christian violating his wife.

Although he might have bided his time to assemble his people and

revenge himself, he determined to depart alone, and to hide himself

and die exiled from his kingdom and state, in a province called

Ciguay, of which the ruler was his vassal.

6.6. When the Christians became aware that he was missing, he could not

hide himself from them. They made war on that ruler who sheltered

him, where, after great slaughter, they found and captured him.

When he was taken, they put him on a ship in chains, to bring him to

Castile in fetters. The ship was lost at sea, and many Christians

were drowned with him, besides a great quantity of gold, including

the great nugget, which was as big as a cake and weighed three

thousand and six hundred crowns, because God was pleased to avenge

such great injustice.

7.7. The second kingdom was called Marien, where now is the royal port at

the end of the plain towards the north. It was larger than the

kingdom of Portugal and was certainly much more prosperous, and

worthy of being populated; and it has many, and high mountains, and

very rich gold, and copper mines. Its king was named Guacanagari

(with the last letter accented) under whom there were many and very

great lords, many of whom I saw and knew.

8.8. In the country of this king, the old Admiral(80) who discovered the

Indies, first went to stay. When he discovered the island he, and

all the Christians who accompanied him, was received the first time

by the said Guacanagari with great humanity and charity. He met

with such a gentle and agreeable reception, and such help and

guidance when the ship in which the Admiral sailed was lost there,

that in his own country, and from his own father a better would not

have been possible. This I know from the recital and words of the

same Admiral. This king, flying from the massacres and cruelty of

the Christians, died a wanderer in the mountains, ruined and

deprived of his state. All the other lords, his subjects, died

under tyranny and servitude, as will be told below.

9.9. The third kingdom and dominion was Maguana, a country equally

marvellous, most healthy and most fertile; where now the best sugar

of the island is made. Its king was called Caonabò. In strength,

and dignity, in gravity, and pomp he surpassed all the others. They

captured this king with great cunning and malice, he being safe in

his own house. They put him on a ship to take him to Castile and,

as there were six ships in the port ready to leave, God, who wished

to show that this, together with the other things, was a great

iniquity and injustice, sent a tempest that night that sank all the

vessels, drowning all the Christians on board of them. The said

Caonabò perished, loaded with chains, and fetters.

10.10. This lord had three or four very brave brothers as powerful and

valiant as himself. They, seeing the unjust imprisonment of their

brother and lord, and witnessing the destruction and slaughter the

Christians perpetrated in the other kingdoms, (particularly after

they knew that the king their brother was dead) armed themselves to

attack the Christians and avenge themselves. The Christians went

against them with some horsemen. Horses are the most deadly arm

possible among the Indians. They worked such havoc and slaughter,

that they desolated, and depopulated half the kingdom.

11.11. The fourth kingdom is that which is called Xaragua. This was as

the marrow, or the Court of all this island. It surpassed all the

other kingdoms in the politeness of its more ornate speech as well

as in more cultured good breeding, and in the multitude and

generosity of the nobles. For there were lords and nobles in great

numbers. In their costumes and beauty, the people were superior to

all others.

12.12. The king and lord of it was called Behechio and he had a sister

called Anacaona. Both rendered great services to the King of

Castile, and immense kindnesses to the Christians, delivering them

from many mortal dangers: and when the King Behechio died, Anacaona

was left mistress of the kingdom.

13.13. The governor(81) who ruled this island arrived there once, with

sixty horsemen and more than three hundred foot. The horsemen alone

were sufficient to ruin the whole island and the terra firma. More

than three hundred lords were assembled, whom he had summoned and

reassured. He lured the principal ones by fraud, into a

straw-house, and setting fire to it, he burnt them alive.

14.14. All the others, together with numberless people, were put to the

sword, and lance. And to do honour to the Lady Anacaona, they

hanged her. It happened that some Christians, either out of

compassion or avarice, took some children to save them, placing them

behind them on their horses, and another Spaniard approached from

behind and ran his lance through them. Another, if a child was on

the ground, cut off its legs with his sword. Some, who could flee

from this inhuman cruelty, crossed to a little island lying eight

leagues distant in the sea; and the said governor condemned all such

to be slaves, because they had fled from the carnage.

15.15. The fifth kingdom was called Higuey: and an old queen called

Higuanama ruled it, whom they hanged. And I saw numberless people

being burnt alive, torn, and tortured in divers, and new ways, while

all whom they took alive were enslaved.

16.16. And because so many particulars happened in this slaughter and

destruction of people, that they could not be contained in a lengthy

description—for in truth I believe that however many I told, I could

not express the thousandth part of the whole—I will simply conclude

the above mentioned wars by saying and affirming, before God and my

conscience, that the Indians gave no more cause, nor were more to

blame for all this injustice done unto them, and for the other said

wickedness I could tell, but omit, than a monastery of good and well

ordered monks would have given that they should be robbed and

killed, and that those who escaped death, should be placed in

perpetual captivity and servitude, as slaves.

17.17. And furthermore, I attest, that in all the space of time during

which the multitudes of the population of this island were being

killed and destroyed, as far as I can believe or conjecture, they

did not commit a single mortal sin against the Christians that

merited punishment by man. And of those which are reserved to God

alone, such as the desire of vengeance, hatred and rancour, that

these people might harbour against such mortal enemies as were the

Christians, I believe very few of the Indians committed any such.

They were little more impetuous and harsh, judging from the great

experience I have of them, than children or youths of ten or twelve

years.

18.18. I have certain and infallible knowledge, that the Indians always

made most just war on the Christians while the Christians never had

a single just one with the Indians; on the contrary, they were all

diabolical and most unjust, and much worse than can be said of any

tyrant in the world; and I affirm the same of what they have done

throughout the Indies.

19.19. When the wars were finished, and with them the murder, they divided

among them all the men, (youths, women, and children being usually

spared) giving to one, thirty, to another forty, and to another a

hundred and two hundred, according to the favour each enjoyed with

the chief tyrant, whom they called governor. Having thus

distributed them, they assigned them to each Christian, under the

pretence that the latter should train them in the catholic faith;

thus to men who are generally all idiots, and very cruel, avaricious

and vicious, they gave the care of souls.

20.20. The care and thought these Spaniards took, was to send the men to

the mines to dig gold, which is an intolerable labour; and they put

the women into dwellings, which are huts, to dig and cultivate the

land; a strong and robust man’s work. They gave food neither to the

one, nor the other, except grass, and things that have no substance.

The milk dried up in the breasts of nursing women and thus, within a

short time, all the infants died.

21.21. And as the husbands were separated and never saw their wives,

generation diminished among them; the men died of fatigue and hunger

in the mines and others perished in dwellings or huts, for the same

reason. It was in this way that such multitudes of people were

destroyed in this island, as indeed all those in the world might be

destroyed by like means.

22.22. It is impossible to recount the burdens with which their owners

loaded them, more than three and four arobas(82) weight, making them

walk a hundred and two hundred leagues. The same Christians had

themselves carried by Indians in hamacas, which are like nets; for

they always used them as beasts of burden. They had wounds on their

shoulders and backs, like animals, all wither-wrung. To tell

likewise of the whip-lashings, the beatings, the cuffs, the blows,

the curses, and a thousand other kinds of torments to which their

masters treated them, while, in truth, they were working hard, would

take much time and much paper; and would be something to amaze

mankind.

23.23. It must be noted, that the destruction of this island and of these

lands was begun when the death of the most Serene Queen, Doña

Isabella was known here, which was in the year 1504. For up to that

time, only some provinces in the island had been ruined by unjust

wars, but not entirely: and these were nearly all kept hidden from

the Queen. Because the Queen, who is in blessed glory, used great

solicitude and marvellous zeal for the health and prosperity of

these people, as we ourselves, who have seen the examples of it with

our eyes and touched them with our hands, well know.

24.24. Another rule to be noted is this; that in all parts of the Indies

where the Christians have gone and have passed, they ever did the

same murder among the Indians, and used tyranny and abominable

oppression against these innocent people; and they added many more

and greater and newer ways of torment. They became ever crueller,

because God let them precipitate themselves the more swiftly into

reprobate judgments and sentiments.

The Two Islands of San Juan and Jamaica

In 1509 the Spaniards passed over to the islands of San Juan and Jamaica,

(83) which were so many gardens and hives of bees, with the same object

and design they had accomplished in Hispaniola, where they committed the

great outrages and iniquities narrated above. They even added to them

more notorious ones, and the greatest cruelty; slaying, burning, roasting,

and, throwing the Indians to fierce dogs. They oppressed, tormented, and

afflicted all those unhappy innocents in the mines, and with other

labours, until they were consumed and destroyed, because there were in the

said isles more than a million souls, and to-day there are not two hundred

in each. All have perished without faith and without sacraments.

The Island of Cuba

1. In the year 1511 the Spaniards passed over to the island of Cuba,

(84) which as I said, is as long as from Valladolid to Rome, and

where there were great and populous provinces. They began and ended

in the above manner, only with incomparably greater cruelty. Here

many notable things occurred.

2.2. A very high prince and lord, named Hatuey, who had fled with many of

his people from Hispaniola to Cuba, to escape the calamity and

inhuman operations of the Christians, having received news from some

Indians that the Christians were crossing over, assembled many or

all of his people, and addressed them thus.

3.3. “You already know that it is said the Christians are coming here;

and you have experience of how they have treated the lords so and so

and those people of Hayti (which is Hispaniola); they come to do the

same here. Do you know perhaps why they do it?” The people

answered no; except that they were by nature cruel and wicked.

“They do it,” said he, “not alone for this, but because they have a

God whom they greatly adore and love; and to make us adore Him they

strive to subjugate us and take our lives.” He had near him a

basket full of gold and jewels and he said. “Behold here is the God

of the Christians, let us perform Areytos before Him, if you will

(these are dances in concert and singly); and perhaps we shall

please Him, and He will command that they do us no harm.”

4.4. All exclaimed; it is well! it is well! They danced before it, till

they were all tired, after which the lord Hatuey said; “Note well

that in any event if we preserve the gold, they will finally have to

kill us, to take it from us: let us throw it into this river.” They

all agreed to this proposal, and they threw the gold into a great

river in that place.

5.5. This prince and lord continued retreating before the Christians when

they arrived at the island of Cuba, because he knew them, but when

he encountered them he defended himself; and at last they took him.

And merely because he fled from such iniquitous and cruel people,

and defended himself against those who wished to kill and oppress

him, with all his people and offspring until death, they burnt him

alive.

6.6. When he was tied to the stake, a Franciscan monk, a holy man, who

was there, spoke as much as he could to him, in the little time that

the executioner granted them, about God and some of the teachings of

our faith, of which he had never before heard; he told him that if

he would believe what was told him, he would go to heaven where

there was glory and eternal rest; and if not, that he would go to

hell, to suffer perpetual torments and punishment. After thinking a

little, Hatuey asked the monk whether the Christians went to heaven;

the monk answered that those who were good went there. The prince

at once said, without any more thought, that he did not wish to go

there, but rather to hell so as not to be where Spaniards were, nor

to see such cruel people. This is the renown and honour, that God

and our faith have acquired by means of the Christians who have gone

to the Indies.

7.7. On one occasion they came out ten leagues from a great settlement to

meet us, bringing provisions and gifts, and when we met them, they

gave us a great quantity of fish and bread and other victuals, with

everything they could supply. All of a sudden the devil entered

into the bodies of the Christians, and in my presence they put to

the sword, without any motive or cause whatsoever, more than three

thousand persons, men, women, and children, who were seated before

us. Here I beheld such great cruelty as living man has never seen

nor thought to see.

8.8. Once I sent messengers to all the lords of the province of Havana,

assuring them that if they would not absent themselves but come to

receive us, no harm should be done them; all the country was

terrorized because of the past slaughter, and I did this by the

captain’s advice. When we arrived in the province, twenty-one

princes and lords came to receive us; and at once the captain

violated the safe conduct I had given them and took them prisoners.

The following day he wished to burn them alive, saying it was better

so because those lords would some time or other do us harm. I had

the greatest difficulty to deliver them from the flames but finally

I saved them.

9.9. After all the Indians of this island were reduced to servitude and

misfortune like those of Hispaniola, and when they saw they were all

perishing inevitably, some began to flee to the mountains; others to

hang themselves in despair; husbands and wives hanged themselves,

together with their children, and through the cruelty of one very

tyrannical Spaniard whom I knew, more than two hundred Indians

hanged themselves. In this way numberless people perished.

10.10. There was an officer of the King in this island, to whose share

three hundred Indians fell; and by the end of three months he had,

through labour in the mines, caused the death of two hundred and

seventy; so that he had only thirty left, which was the tenth part.

The authorities afterwards gave him as many again, and again he

killed them: and they continued to give, and he to kill, until he

came to die, and the devil carried away his soul.

11.11. In three or four months, I being present, more than seven thousand

children died of hunger, their fathers and mothers having been taken

to the mines. Other dreadful things did I see.

12.12. Afterwards the Spaniards resolved to go and hunt the Indians who

were in the mountains, where they perpetrated marvellous massacres.

Thus they ruined and depopulated all this island which we beheld not

long ago; and it excites pity, and great anguish to see it deserted,

and reduced to a solitude.

The Mainland

1. In the year 1514 there passed over to the continent an unhappy

Governor(85) who was the cruellest of tyrants, destitute of

compassion or prudence, almost an instrument of divine fury. His

intention was to settle large numbers of Spaniards in that country.

And although several tyrants had visited the continent, and had

robbed and scandalised many people, their stealing and ravaging had

been confined to the sea-coast; but this man surpassed all the

others who had gone before him, and those of all the Islands; and

his villainous operations outdid all the past abominations.

2.2. Not only did he depopulate the sea-coast, but also countries and

large kingdoms where he killed numberless people, sending them to

hell. This man devastated many leagues of country extending above

Deldarien to the kingdom and provinces of Nicaragua inclusive, which

is more than five hundred leagues; it was the best, the happiest,

and the most populous land in the world. There were very many great

lords and numberless settlements, and very great wealth of gold: for

until that time, never had there been so much seen above ground. For

although Spain had been almost filled with gold from Hispaniola, and

that of the finest, it had been dug by the labour of the Indians

from the bowels of the earth, out of the aforesaid mines, where, as

has been said, they perished.

3.3. This governor and his people invented new means of cruelty and of

torturing the Indians, to force them to show, and give them gold.

There was a captain of his who, in an incursion, ordered by him to

rob and extirpate the people, killed more than forty thousand

persons, putting them to the sword, burning them alive, throwing

them to fierce dogs, and torturing them with various kind of

tortures: these acts were witnessed by a Franciscan friar with his

own eyes, for he went with the captain, and he was called Fray

Francisco de San Roman.

4.4. The most pernicious blindness of those who have governed the Indies

up to the present day, in providing for the conversion and salvation

of these people, which (to tell the truth) they have always

postponed, although with words they have represented and pretended

otherwise, reached such depths that they have commanded notice to be

given the Indians to accept the Holy faith and render obedience to

the kings of Castile; otherwise war would be made on them with fire

and blood, and they would be killed and made slaves etc.

5.5. As though the Son of God, who died for each of them, had commanded

in his law, when he said Euntes, docete omnes gentes that intimation

should be sent to peaceful and quiet infidels, in their own

countries, that, if they did not receive it at once, without other

teaching or doctrine, and that if they did not subject themselves to

the dominion of a king, of whom they had never heard, nor seen, and

particularly whose messengers are so cruel, so wicked, and such

horrible tyrants, they should therefore, lose their rights, their

lands and liberty, their wives and children, with all their lives;

such a blunder is stupid and worthy of infamy, obloquy, and hell.

6.6. This wretched and unhappy governor, in giving instructions as to the

said intimations, the better to justify them—they being of

themselves unseemly, unreasonable and most unjust—commanded these

thieves sent by him, to act as follows: when they had determined to

invade and plunder some province, where they had heard that gold was

to be found, they should go when the Indians were in their towns,

and safe in their houses; these wretched Spanish assassins went by

night and, halting at midnight half a league from the town, they

published or read the said intimation among themselves saying:

Princes and Indians of such a place in this continent, we make known

unto you, that there is one God, one Pope, and one King of Castile,

who is Lord of this country; come at once to render him obedience

etc. otherwise know that we shall make war on you, kill you, and put

you into slavery etc. And towards sunrise, the innocent natives

being still asleep with their wives and children, they attacked the

town, setting fire to the houses that were usually of straw, burning

the children, the women and many others alive, before they awoke.

They killed whom they would, and those whom they took alive, they

afterwards killed with tortures, to force them to indicate other

towns where there was gold, or more than was to be found there; and

the others that survived, they put into chains as slaves. Then when

the fire was extinguished or low they went to look for the gold that

was in the houses.

7.7. In this way and with such operations, were this wretched man and all

the bad Christians he took with him occupied during the year 1514,

till the year 1521 or 1522, sending on these raids six or more

servants, who collected for him a certain portion of all the gold

and pearls and jewels the Spaniards stole, and of the slaves they

captured, besides the share that belonged to him as Captain General.

The officers of the king did the same, each sending as many boys or

servants as he could. And also the first bishop of that kingdom

sent his servants to obtain part of this profit.

9.8. As far as I can judge they stole, during that time in the said

kingdom, more gold than a million crowns; and I believe I understate

it; and it will not be found that, of all they stole, they sent the

King more than three thousand crowns. And they destroyed more than

eight hundred thousand souls. The other tyrant governors who

succeeded them till the year 1533 killed, and allowed to be killed

the survivors with the tyrannical servitude that followed the war.

10.9. Among the other numberless knaveries he committed and permitted

during the time he governed, was this one; a prince, or lord, having

of his own will, or more likely out of fear, given him nine thousand

crowns, he was not satisfied with this sum so he took the said lord,

bound him seated to a stake, with his feet distended and exposed to

fire, to force him to give them a larger quantity of gold; and he

[the chief] sent to his house and brought other three thousand

crowns; they tortured him again, and as he gave no more gold, either

because he had none or did not wish to give it, they kept him thus,

till the marrow oozed out from the soles of his feet; and thus he

died. Numberless times they killed and tortured lords in this way

to get gold from them.

11.10. Another time a company of Spaniards, while going to assassinate,

came to a mountain where a great number of people were sheltered and

in hiding, to escape from the pestilential and horrible operations

of the Christians; assaulting it unexpectedly they captured seventy

or eighty young girls and women; and left many dead whom they had

killed.

12.11. The next day many Indians assembled and pursued the Christians,

driven by their anxiety for their wives and daughters to fight; and

the Christians finding themselves at close quarters, and not wishing

to disorder their company of horse, drove their swords into the

bodies of the young girls and women, and of all the eighty they left

not even one alive. The Indians writhing with grief cried out, and

said: “O wretched men, cruel Christians, you kill Iras!” (the women

in that country are called Iras). They meant that to kill women is

a sign of abominable, cruel and bestial men.

13.12. Ten or fifteen leagues from Panama there was a great lord called

Paris, who had great wealth of gold. The Christians went thither

and he received them as though they were his brothers: he willingly

presented the captain with fifty thousand castellanos. It seemed to

the captain and to the Christians that one who spontaneously gave

that quantity, must have a great treasure; which was the aim and

recompense of their effort. They dissimulated, saying they wished

to depart: towards sunrise they returned and attacked the

unsuspecting town; and they set fire to it and burnt it. They

killed and burnt many people, and stole other fifty or sixty

thousand castellanos, and the prince, or lord fled to escape death

or capture.

14.13. He quickly assembled all the people he could, and in two or three

days came upon the Christians, who were carrying away his hundred

and thirty or forty (86) thousand castellanos, and fell upon them

manfully, killing fifty Christians, recapturing all the gold while

the others escaped badly wounded.

15.14. Afterwards, many Christians turned on the said lord and destroyed

him and many of his people; they killed the rest with the usual

servitude, so that to-day there is neither sign nor any vestige

whatsoever that there was ever a town or born man where formerly was

thirty leagues of dominion well populated. The murders and

destruction done by that miserable man and his company in that

kingdom which he devastated, are without number.

The Province of Nicaragua

1. In the year 1522 or 1523 this same tyrant invaded the most

delightful province of Nicaragua to subjugate it; it was an unlucky

hour when he entered it. Who could adequately set forth the

happiness, healthfulness, agreeableness, prosperity, and the number

of dwellings and concourse of the people that were there? it was

truly a marvellous thing to see how full it was of towns, stretching

for a length of nearly three or four leagues, thickly planted with

the most marvellous fruit trees; which was the reason that there was

such an immense population.

2.2. So much injury and assassination, so much cruelty, wickedness and

injustice, was done to those people by that tyrant, together with

the others, his companions, that human language would not suffice to

relate it; for he was accompanied by all those who had helped to

destroy all the other kingdom. The land being flat and open, the

natives could not hide in the mountains, and their country was so

delightful, that it was with difficulty and great grief that they

brought themselves to abandon it; for this reason they suffered, and

will suffer great persecutions, and they tolerated the tyranny and

the slavery of the Christians to the extent of their endurance, and

because they are naturally a very humble and pacific people.

3.3. He sent fifty mounted soldiers, and had the inhabitants of a whole

province, larger than the country of Rusenon(87) killed with lances,

without leaving man nor woman, old nor young alive. He did this for

a very trifling reason; such as because they did not come as soon as

he called them, or because they did not bring him enough loads of

maize, (which is the grain of that country) or enough Indians to

serve him or some other of his company: the land being flat, no one

could escape from their horses and from their infernal wrath.

4.4. He sent some Spaniards to invade other provinces, which means to go

and murder the Indians; and he let the assassins bring away as many

Indians as they pleased from the peaceful settlements, to serve

them; they put these Indians in chains so that they should not set

down the loads weighing three arobas that they bound on their backs.

And it happened sometimes out of the many times he did it, that out

of four thousand Indians, not six individuals returned alive to

their homes, because they were left dead by the way.

5.5. And when some became tired, or lame on account of the great weights,

or fell ill through hunger, fatigue and weakness, they cut off their

heads at the neck so as not to loosen them from their chains, and

the head fell to one side, and the body to the other. It may be

imagined how their companions would feel. When orders were given

for similar expeditions, the Indians, knowing from experience that

none who started ever returned, went weeping, and sighing, and

saying: “Those are the roads, we trod to serve the Christians; and

although we laboured hard, we finally returned after some time to

our own homes and to our wives and children; but now we go without

hope of ever returning, nor of seeing them again, or of having life

any more.”

6.6. Once, because it suited his inclination to make a new distribution

of Indians, and also, they say, to take them from his enemies and

give them to his friends, the Indians were unable to plant their

crops; and as bread ran short, the Christians took from the Indians

all the maize they had to maintain themselves and their children; in

consequence more than twenty or thirty thousand souls died of

hunger; and it happened, that a certain woman was driven by hunger

to kill her own son for food.

7.7. As each of the towns was a very pleasing garden, as has been said,

the Christians settled in them; each one in the place that fell to

his share or, (as they say,) was committed to his charge; each one

carried on his own cultivation, supporting himself with the meagre

provisions of the Indians, thus robbing them of their private lands

and inheritances, by which they maintained themselves.

8.8. In this wise the Spaniards kept within their own houses all the

Indian lords, the aged, the women, and the lads, all of whom they

compelled to serve them day and night, without rest. They employed

even the children, as soon as they could stand, in excess of their

powers. And in this way they have wasted, and to-day still waste

those few that are left, not allowing them to have either a home or

anything of their own. In this they even surpassed the similar

injustice they perpetrated in Hispaniola.

9.9. They have exhausted and oppressed, and caused the premature death of

many people in this Province, making them carry planks and timber to

build vessels in the port, thirty leagues distant; also by sending

them to seek for honey and wax in the mountains, where they are

devoured by tigers; and they have loaded and do still load pregnant

and confined women, like animals.

10.10. The most horrible pestilence that has principally destroyed this

Province, was the license which that governor gave to the Spaniards,

to ask slaves from the princes and lords of the towns. Every four

or five months, or whenever one obtained the favour or license from

the said governor, he asked the lord for fifty slaves threatening,

if he did not give them, to burn him alive or to deliver him to

fierce dogs.

11.11. As the Indians usually do not keep slaves and, at most a lord has

two or three or four, the lords went through their towns and took,

first all the orphans; next, of those who had two children they

asked one, and of those who had three, two: and in this way the lord

completed the number demanded by the tyrant, amidst great wailing

and weeping in the town, for they seem, more than any other people,

to love their children.

12.12. By such conduct from the year 1523 to 1533, they ruined all this

kingdom. During six or seven years, five or six vessels carried on

this traffic, taking all this multitude of Indians to sell them as

slaves in Panama and Peru, where they all died. It has been

verified and experienced a thousand times that, by taking the

Indians away from their native country, they at once die more

easily: because the Spaniards habitually give them little to eat and

never relieve them from labour, for they are only sold by some and

bought by others, to make them work. In this way they have carried

off more than five hundred thousand souls from this province making

slaves of people who were as free as I am.

13.13. In their infernal wars and the horrible captivity into which they

put the Indians up to the present time, the Spaniards have killed

more than another five or six hundred thousand persons, and they

still continue. All these massacres have occurred in the space of

fourteen years. At present they kill daily in the said province of

Nicaragua, from four to five thousand persons, with servitude and

continual oppression; it being, as was said, one of the most

populous in the world.

New Spain

1. New Spain was discovered in the year 1517. (88) And the discoverers

gave serious offence to the Indians in that discovery, and committed

several homicides. In the year 1518 men calling themselves

Christians went there to ravage and to kill; although they say that

they go to populate. And from the said year 1518, till the present

day (and we are in 1542) all the iniquity, all the injustice, all

the violence and tyranny that the Christians have practised in the

Indies have reached the limit and overflowed: because they have

entirely lost all fear of God and the King, they have forgotten

themselves as well. So many and such are the massacres and cruelty,

the murder and destruction, the pillage and theft, the violence and

tyranny throughout the numerous kingdoms of the great continent,

that everything told by me till now is nothing compared to what was

practised here.

2.2. Yet, even had we related everything, including what we have omitted,

it would not be comparable, either in number or magnitude, to the

acts which, from the said year 1518 till the present day of this

year 1542 have been committed. In this day of the month of

September the gravest and most abominable acts are done and

committed; because the rule we have mentioned above verifies itself,

that from the commencement onwards they have ever been increasing in

greater wickedness and infernal works.

3.3. Consequently, from the invasion of New Spain which was on April 18th

of the said year 1518 till the year 1530, which was twelve entire

years, the murders and the massacres lasted. With bloody hands and

cruel swords the Spaniards continually wrought in nearly four

hundred and fifty leagues of country belonging to the City of Mexico

and its surroundings, which numbers four or five great kingdoms, as

large and much more delightful than Spain.

4.4. All these countries were more populous than Toledo, Seville,

Valladolid, and Zaragoza, together with Barcelona; because these

cities have not, nor did they ever have so many inhabitants when

they were at their fullest, as God placed, and as are to be found in

all the said leagues; to go around which, one must walk more than a

thousand and eight hundred leagues.

5.5. In the said twelve years more than four million souls have been

killed by the Spaniards with swords and lances, and by burning alive

women and children, young and old in the said extent of 450 leagues,

during the time what they call “conquests” lasted. In fact, they

were violent invasions by cruel tyrants, condemned not only by the

divine law, but by all human laws; they were much worse than those

of the Turks to destroy the Christian Church. Besides all this,

there are the deaths they have caused, and cause every day by the

tyrannical servitude, the daily afflictions and oppressions above

described.

6.6. Neither language, nor knowledge, nor human industry could suffice to

relate in detail the dreadful operations of those public and mortal

enemies of the human race, acting in concert in some places and

singly in others, within the aforesaid circuit. In truth,

respecting the circumstances and conditions that rendered certain

deeds more grievous, no exercise of diligence and time and writing

could hardly explain them sufficiently. However I will recount

something of some of the countries, protesting on my oath, that I

believe I am not telling the thousandth part.

1. Among other massacres there was one took place in a town of more

than thirty thousand inhabitants called Cholula; all the lords of

the land, and its surroundings, and above all the priests, with the

high priest came out in procession to meet the Christians, with

great submission and reverence, and conducted them in their midst to

lodge in the town in the dwelling houses of the prince, or principal

lords; the Spaniards determined on a massacre here or, as they say,

a chastisement to sow terror and the fame of their valour throughout

that country, because in all the lands the Spaniards have invaded,

their aim has always been to make themselves feared of those meek

lambs, by a cruel and signal slaughter.

2.2. To accomplish this, they first sent to summon all the lords and

nobles of the town and of all its dependencies, together with the

principal lord; and when they came, and began to speak to the

captain of the Spaniards, they were promptly captured, without any

one who could give the alarm, noticing it.

3.3. They had asked for five or six thousand Indians to carry their

baggage, all of whom immediately came and were confined in the

courtyards of the houses. To see these Indians when they prepared

themselves to carry the loads of the Spaniards, was a thing to

excite great compassion for they come naked, with only the private

parts covered, and with some little nets on their shoulders

containing their meagre food; they all sit down on their heels, like

so many meek lambs.

4.4. Being all collected and assembled in the courtyard, with other

people who were there, some armed Spaniards were stationed at the

gates of the courtyard to guard them: thereupon all the others

seized their swords and lances, and butchered all those lambs, not

even one escaping.

5.5. Two or three days later, many Indians who had hidden, and saved

themselves under the dead bodies (so many were they) came out alive

covered with blood, and they went before the Spaniards, weeping and

asking for mercy, that they should not kill them: no mercy nor any

compassion was shown them; on the contrary, as they came out, the

Spaniards cut them to pieces.

6.6. More than one hundred of the lords whom they had bound, the captain

commanded to be burned, and impaled alive on stakes stuck in the

ground. One lord however, perhaps the chief and king of that

country, managed to free himself, and with twenty or thirty or forty

other men, he escaped to the great temple, which was like a fortress

and was called Quu, where they defended themselves during a great

part of the day.

7.7. But the Spaniards, from whom nothing is safe, especially among these

people destitute of weapons, set fire to the temple and burned them,

they crying out: “wretched men! what have we done unto you? why do

you kill us? go then! in Mexico you will find our universal lord

Montezuma who will take vengeance upon you for us.” It is said,

that while those five, or six thousand men were being put to the

sword in the courtyard, the captain of the Spaniards stood singing.

Mira Nero de Tarpeya

A Roma como se ardia.

Gritos dan niños y viejos,

Y el de nada se dolia.