Sacred Royal Catholic Majesty:
By one of your royal decrees, dated Madrid, May 18, 1572, your Majesty
commands me to send you an account of the slaves that exist in these
parts; and how, and with what justification, they are slaves. What
has been ascertained about them, to the present time, in this island
is as follows:
Some are slaves from their birth. Their origin is not known, because
their fathers, grandfathers, and ancestors were also slaves. But
although the reason for their slavery is not known, we may believe that
it was for some one of the causes here named. Some are captives in wars
that different villages wage against each other, for certain injuries
and acts of injustice, committed either recently or in ancient times.
Some are made captives in wars waged by villages that have
neither treaty or commerce with them, but go only to rob, without
any cause. This is because a chief of any village, when he dies,
imposes upon it a sort of mourning or grief; all his near relatives
promise to eat no bread (which is rice), millet, or borona, and to
wear no gold or any holiday dress, until they take some booty, or
kill or capture men. They would go to do this, wherever they could,
and where there were no friends or powerful towns who could easily
avenge themselves. Some, especially those who pride themselves on
valor, have a custom, after gathering their harvests, of going to
rob, without any cause, towns with which they have no commerce or
relationship; or whomsoever they meet on the sea, where--a thing that
causes wonder--they exempt not even their relatives, if the latter
are less powerful than they. Some are enslaved by those who rob them
for a very small matter--as, for instance, a knife, a few sugar-canes,
or a little rice. Some are slaves because they bore testimony, or made
statements about some one, which they could not prove. Some are thus
punished for committing some crime; or transgressing rules regarding
some of their rites or ceremonies, or things forbidden among them,
[100] or not coming quickly enough at the summons of some chief, or
any other like thing; and if they do not have the wherewithal to pay,
they are made slaves for it.
If any one is guilty of a grave crime--that is, has committed murder or
adultery, or given poison, or any other like serious matter--although
there may be no proof of it beyond the suspicion of the principal
person against whom the hurt was done, they take for their slaves, or
kill, not only the culprit but his sons, brothers, parents, relatives,
and slaves.
If any one who is left an orphan come to the house of another,
even of a kinsman (unless it be his uncle, paternal or maternal),
for food only, its inmates enslave him. Likewise in time of famine
and distress, during which they may have given relatives food only
a few times, they have sold the latter for their slaves.
Many also become slaves on account of loans, because these loans
continue to increase steadily every three or four months; and so,
however little may be the sum loaned them, at the end of little more
or less than two years they become slaves. And now, sacred Majesty,
if it be forbidden, in those places where the Spanish live, to acquire
slaves in any shape or manner--those who were made slaves and were
slaves before we came here and are slaves now, and whom the natives buy
and sell among each other, as merchandise or other profitable wares
that they possess--without them this land cannot be preserved. This,
your Majesty, is all known here of the slaves that I have been able
to find out, having diligently sought and made the acquaintance of
persons who know their language and customs.
_Guido de Lavezaris_