THE Spanish Colonie, OR Briefe Chronicle of the Acts and gestes of the Spaniardes in the West In­dies, called the newe World, for the space of xl. yeeres: written in the Ca­stilian tongue by the reuerend Bi­shop Bartholomew de las Casas or Casaus, a Friar of the or­der of S. Dominicke.

And nowe first translated into english, by M. M. S.

¶Imprinted at London for William Brome. 1583.

To the Reader.
Spanish cruelties and tyrannies, perpe­trated in the West Indies, commonly termed The newe found worlde.
Briefly described in the Castilian language, by the Bishop Tryer Bartholomew de las Casas or Casaus, a Spaniarde of the order of Saint Dominick, faith­fully translated by Iames Aliggrodo, to serue as a President and warning, to the xij. Prouinces of the lowe Countries.

‘Happie is hee whome other mens harmes doe make to beware.’

GOds iudgementes are so pro­found as mans wisdome, no not the power of Angels is able to enter into their depth. Thou shalt (frendly Reader) in this dis­course beholde so many milli­ons of mē put to death, as hard­ly there haue been so many spa­niardes procreated into this worlde since their firste fathers the Gothes inhabited their Countries, either since their second progenitors the Sarazens expelled and murdered the most part of the Gothes, as it seemeth that the Spaniardes haue murdered and put to death in the Westerne Indies by all such meanes as barbarousnesse it selfe coulde imagine or forge vpon the anueld of crueltie. They haue destroyed thrise so much lande as chri­stendome [Page] doth comprehende: such torments haue they inuen­ted, yea so great and excessiue haue their trecherie been, that the posteritie shall hardly thinke that euer so barbarous or cruell a nation haue bin in the worlde, if as you woulde say we had not with our eyes seene it, and with our hands felt it. I confesse that I neuer loued that nation generally, by reason of their intollera­ble pride, notwithstanding I can not but cōmend & loue sundry excellent persons that are among thē. Howbeit, God is my wit­nes, hatred procureth me not to write those things, as also the au­thour of the booke is by nation a Spaniard, and besides writeth farre more bitterly then my selfe.

But two reasons haue moued me to publishe this preface, which I do dedicate to all the prouinces of the Lowe countreys: The one, to the end, awaking thēselus out of their sleep, may be­gin to thinke vpon Gods iudgements: and refraine from their wickednes and vice. The other, that they may also consider with what enemie they are to deale, and so to beholde as it were in a picture or table, what stay they are like to bee at, when through their rechlesnesse, quarrels, controuersies, and partialities them­selues haue opened the way to such an enemie: and what they may looke for. Most mē do ground their opinion vpon the good­nesse of their cause, concluding, that in as much as God is iust, he will graunt victorie to the right, and will ouerthrowe the wicked. This was Iobes friendes disputation, where they con­cluded that for that Iob was afflicted, vndoubtedly he was wic­ked. Which reason is drawen out of a certaine rule, which it see­meth that nature hath printed in our hartes, that is, that God punisheth the euill, and in mercie rewardeth the good deedes. There vpon did the inhabitants of Malta report that Gods ven­geance would not permit S. Paul to liue, when after he had esca­ped so dangerous shipwracke, the Viper leaped vpon his hande. Howebeit notwithstanding this rule be certaine and true, yet do manie therein diuersely deceiue them selues, concluding thereby that GOD sendeth no affliction but to the wicked, as if hee laide not his crosse also vpon the good: As Iob, the Prophetes, and Martyres: yea, his owne sonne Iesus Christ, and that for the mortifiyng of the fleshe, and more and more to quicken man in good liuing: and for his sonne, to the ende in him to punish our sinne which hee tooke vpon him. Others doe [Page] beleeue that God wil neuer suffer sinne to bee long vnpunished, notwithstāding yt hauing long waited patiētly for our repentāce, his clemencie is at length conuerted into iustice. Some againe, that it is vnpossible for the wicked to gette the vpper hande in an euill cause, notwithstanding wee dayly see it fall out contra­ry: vndoubtedly the Turkes victories & conquestes in Christen­dome haue no foundation, but consist vpon meere tyrannie and vsurpation. For although Christians sinnes, especially the great a­buse in Gods seruice, haue bin the causes of our punishment, yet must we confesse that the christians, what errors soeuer some of them do in their doctrine maintain, are not neuertheles so farre deuoid of the truth, as are the Turkes, and yet do we see howe mightily in few yeres they haue cōquered & encroched vpō christendom. Also before the comming of the Turkes, namely soone after the time of Mahamet, there came such a flock of Sarazins, that they deuoured first Egypt, then all Affrick, & rooting out Christianitie out of the said countries seazed vpon al Spaine: yea proceeding forward, they camped in Aquitain vpon the riuer of Toyre: insomuch that it was to be doubted yt they might soone haue caught hold vpon France, & so vpon the rest of christēdom, had not God raised vp that mightie Duke of Brubant, Charles Martel, who defeating them, driue them beyond the Pirenean mountaines. But if we list to consider the examples contained in the holy Bible, whose reasons are more exactly expounded by the prophets, we do find that in the time of K. Hezechias, al­though the head citie, namely Hierusalem, was not forced, yet the lesser townes being taken by the enemie, the flatte countrey spoyled, the K. and the princes of Iuda had no more left them but the bare walles of Hierusalem. Also, albeit God did maruei­lously strike the armie of Senacherib, and that his own children flew him in his gods temples: yet were not gods people free from suffering much, and from seeing the enemie enioy the most part of their law: their cōmons did beare that which nowe we know, & more then we would, that is what an enemy entring by force of armes into a land is able to do. But Nabuchadnezers victories were far others, whē he tooke, burned, & sacked euē the head ci­tie, together with ye very temple of Hierusalē, & took their K. P. & hie P. prisoners, & [...]lu pulled out ye eies, & fettered some of thē forcing the cōmons during the siege to eate their own dong & [Page] Who is hee therefore that dare accuse God of wrong, sith such tyrants be called the Axe in the Lordes hands, as the executio­ners of his iustice? Further wee see, that those that haue the most right are by the wicked robbed, slaine, & murdered, which is ne­uerthelesse Gods doing. For it is said: Cursed be he that doth the Lordes worke negligently, in which place the holy scriptures do speake of such ministers and instruments of God. In this dis­course of Don Bartholomew de las Casas, wee do finde a mani­fest example. For I pray you what right had the Spaniards ouer the Indians: sauing that the Pope had giuen them the said land, and I leaue to your iudgemente what right hee had therein: for it is doubtfull whether his power doe stretch to the distribu­ting of worldly kingdomes. But admit hee had that authority, was there therefore any reason that hee should for crying in the night, There is a God, a Pope, & a King of Castile who is Lord of these Countries, murder 12. 15. or 20. millions of poore rea­sonable creatures, created (as our selues) after the image of the li­uing God: Heere doe I, as in the beginning I said, see a bottom­lesse depth of Gods iudgements. For it is a small matter to say that the wicked doe molest better men then themselues, for the causes aforesaide: but to see a whole nation, yea, infinite nations perish so miserablie, and as it semeth, without any cause, is it that maketh most men to wander, yea euen astonisheth such as do ex­amine these effects by the rule of their owne reasons. Howebeit we haue two examples in the Bible, though not altogether like, yet very neere. It is saide in the ouerthrowe of Sehon: In those dayes wee tooke all his townes, and destroyed men women and childen in the same, neither left we any thing remaining. The like sentence is there also of Og king of Basan, yea, Moses sone after alloweth all that was done, commaundeth Iosua to doe as much to all the other kinges in his iourney as was done to those two. If wee seeke the cause of such executions, man will bee as it were at his wits ende and stande mute. A­gaine, if men should consider the example of king Saule whom God reiected, because he did not wholy discomfit Amelec, but saued their king, and reserued the fattest of their cattell for the sacrifices, their vnderstanding woulde giue sentence cleane [Page] contrarie to gods. What will they say, was it not a comēndable, yea, a noble minde, for a king to spare his brother, either for an Israelite to spare the cattell to the ende to sacrifice them to the God of Israel: yet was Gods sentence pronounced by Samuel cleane repugnant thereto, God loueth obedience better then sacrifice. And not long before God had commaunded both, namely, that the Cananites and Amalekites shoulde bee rooted out: and therefore hee was to bee obeyed, and for their diso­bedience the Cananites remained thornes in the eyes of Israel, and the king of Amalec whome Samuel neuerthelesse hewed in peeces, was the subuersion of Saule and his royall familie, But here may expresse reasons be alleadged for such iudgements of God, which seeming seuere to man are neuerthelesse, in that they proceeded from God, meere iustice. Moses saith, when the Lord thy God hath reiected them before thy face, think not in thine hearte, saying: The Lorde for my righteousnesse hath caused mee to enter possession of this lande, seeing hee hath for their wickednesse rooted out these nations before thy face. For thou art not through thy righteousnes and vprightnesse of heart come to inherite their land, but it is for the abhominatiōs of these people, whom the Lord thy god hath expelled before thy face.

True it is, that as in a cleeare sunnie light we may more easily discerne all that is obiect to our sight, euen so of things contei­ned in the holy Scriptures commonly the causes are to bee founde: but for other matters, as the destruction of diuers na­tions among the Heathen: and finally for this so cruell and horrible example, conteined in this booke, there can bee alleadged no particuler reason, other then that gods iudgemēts are bottō ­lesse pits: also that sith he hath done it, it is iustly done. And yet are not the Spaniardes beeing the executors of this vengeance, more excusable then Pilate for condēning our sauiour, or An­nas or Caiphas for procuring his death notwithstanding gods counsaile and hand wrought those things. For behold gods sen­tence pronounced against the wicked, whom he vseth in chaste­ning the good, whom by those meanes he doth trie, and puni­sheth the wicked according to their desarts:

[Page] Oh Asshur, the rod of my wrath: and the staffe in their hands is my indignation. I will sende him to a dissembling nation, & I wil giue him a charge against the people of my wrath, to take the spoyle, and to take the pray, & to treade them vnder foote like the mire in the streete. But he thinketh not so, neither doth his heart esteeme it so, but he imagineth to destroy and to cut off not a few nations. For he saith, Are not my princes altoge­ther kings? Is not Calno as Charchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus▪ Like as my hande hath found the kingdomes of Idols, seeing their idols were aboue Ie­rusalem & aboue Samaria: Shall not I, as I haue done to Samaria and to the Idols thereof, so do to Hierusalē & to the idols thereof? But when the Lord hath accōplished al his worke vpō mount Siō & Ierusalē, I wil visit the frute of the proude hart of the K. of Ashur, & his glorious & proud lookes, because he said, by the power of my own hand haue I done it, & by my wisdom, because I am wise. Therfore I haue remoued the bor­ders of the people, & haue spoiled their treasures, and haue pul­led downe the inbabitants like a valiant man. And my hand hath found as a nest, &c. So that although the wicked for a time doe triumph, yet doth not God leaue their abhominable cruelties vnpunished. But Gods iudgements being in the mean time such, that by the wicked he punisheth those that be wic­ked: notwithstanding their wickednes be somewhat lesse, as al­so the good bee chastised by the cruell and bloodthirstie: it is certaine that wee are not thereby to iudge that our selues shall haue the victorie ouer our enemies, because our cause is the better, for we are replenished with vice enough, whereby to leaue vnto god sufficient matter to punishe vs. And there­fore as I saide two thinges mee thought, and yet mee seemeth in these Countries worthie admiration: One is, that wee trusting that the defence of our libertie is vnto vs a iuste occa­sion doe not in the meane time consider that wee commit no lesse faults, then those which Ezech, cast in the Sodomites teeth, Beholde the iniquitie of thy sister Sodom was pride, fulnesse of bread, and the ease of Idlenes: these were in her & in her daugh­ters▪ [Page] and [...] as if we had made attonement with death, we fear not gods iudgemēts. If we looke vpon the [...] may see a great abuse in gods seruice: but so far are we from indeuoring to correct it, that contrariwise some would that the remembrance of God, at the least for this time, might be buried in obliuion: therein re­sembling [...] on, or the children which would that during their infancie there might grow no twigge [...] in the wood [...]. Others [...] reformed, being neuer the lesse reformed but in mou [...] [...]. For the wine and the harpe as the prophet saith, are as common in their bankets as afore time, neither are they sory for the con­trition of Ioseph. The other is, that in maner euery man gene­rally hath an eye to his owne priuat affaires, no [...] the common, vnlesse it bee to reproove, but not to help▪ [...]atr [...] possesseth many of their heartes, and which is more strange, although there bee many in these Countries that haue here­tofore felt the manifest iniuries of the spaniards: yet as if their memo [...]y wholy failed them, they be redy to compound with the [...] they suppose, to the destruction of their confederates, [...] in [...] to the generall subuersion of the whole countrie. To the end therfore they may at the least [...] in a [...]able behold the nature of their enimie, his purpose & intent: here [...]asueth a true history written by one of their owne nation, wherein they may learne not that which is yet fully executed in these low countries, but which (had not god stopped their course) they had long since put in execution: and hereby I hope al good men wil [...] to be re­solute, and [...]mending their liues [...] ioy [...] [...], not in wordes only, but in deedes also, to repell so arrogant and [...] an enemie. But there needeth no other admonitiō then the same which the authour hath set down, and therefore I pray you reade him as diligently as he [...] graue and worthy [...] himselfe to his owne so cruell and barbarous nation: and let vs render thanks to god for sending vs so good maisters to instructe vs in our dueties in this so miserable and wretched time, in hope [...]hat we not quailing in our office, he will also final­ly graunt vs happie deliuerance.

The Argument of this present Summarie.

THe state of thinges happened in the Indies, euen from the time they were most won­derfully discouered also since the Spaniards for a while began to enhabite those places, and afterward successiuely vnto these daies, haue in all degrees bin so maruailous & in­credible vnto such as haue not seen thē, that they may seeme sufficient to darken and burie in obliuion and si­lence whatsoeuer els haue passed in all former ages throughout the world, howe great so euer is hath been, amongst which the slaughters and murders of these innocent people, together with the spoiles of townes, prouinces, & kingdomes, which in those parts haue bin perpretated, as also diuers others no lesse terrible matters are not the least. These things whē dō Bart [...]w de las Casa [...]s, being made of a monke a bishop at his comming to the court, there to enforme our [...]. & M. the Emperor, as hauing [...] an eiewitnes of the same, had rehearsed to sundry persons, who as yet were ignorant thereof, & thereby hauing driuen the hea­rers into a kind of extasie & maze, he was importunately reque­sted briefly to set down in writing some of them [...] of ye last, which he did. But afterward seeing sundry persons who deuoyd of remorse and compassion, being through auarice & ambition, degenerate frō all humanitie, and who by their execrable deedes were grown into a reprobate sence, not being satisfied with such fellonies & mischiefs as they had committed in destroying such a part of ye world by all strāge kinds of cruelties, were now again importunate vppon the King, to the ende vnder his authoritie [Page] and consent, they might once more returne to committe the like, or worse, if worse might be, he determined to exhibite the saide Summarie which he had in writing and record vnto our Lorde the prince, to the ende his highnesse might finde meanes that they shoulde be deni­ed, which he thought best to put in print, to the ende, his highnesse might with more ease reade the same. This therefore was the cause of this present Summarie, or briefe informa­tion.

The Prologue of the Bishop Frier Bartholomewe de las Casas or Casaus, to the most high and mightie prince, Our Lord Don Philip Prince of Spaine.

MOst high and mightie Lorde, as god by his prouidente hath for the gui­ding and commoditie of mankinde in this world, in Realmes and Pro­uinces, appointed kings to bee as fa­thers, and as Homer nameth them shepheardes, and so consequently the most noble & principall mēbers of cōmon weales▪ so can we not iustly doubt by reason of the good willes that kings and princes haue to minister iustice, but that if there be any thinges amisse, either any violences or in­iuries committed, the only cause that they are not re­dressed, is, for yt princes haue no notice of the same. For certainely if they knew of them, they would imploy all diligence and indeuour in the remedie thereof. Whereof it seemeth that mention is made in the holy Scripture in the Prouerbes of Salomon, where it is said, Rex qui sedet in solio Iudicii dissipat omne malum intuitu suo. For it is sufficiently to be presup­posed euen of the kindly and natural vertue of a king, that the only notice that he taketh of any mischiefe tormenting his kingdome, is sufficient to procure him, if it bee possible, to roote out the same as being a thing that hee cannot tollerate euen one only mo­ment of time.

Considering therefore with my selfe most migh­tie [Page] Lord the great mischiefes, dammages and losses, (the like wherof it is not to be thoght, were euer cō ­mitted by mankind) of so large and great kingdoms, or to speake more truely, of this so large new world of the Indies, which God and holy Churche haue cōmitted & cōmēded vnto the K. of castile, to the end they might gouern, cōuert, & procure their prosperi­tie as well temporally as spiritually. I therefore (I say) being a man of experience, and filtie yeeres of age or more, considering these euils, as hauing seene them committed, at my being in those countreys: Also that your highnes hauing information of some notable particularities, might be mooued most ear­nestly to desire his Maiestie, not to graunt or permit to those tyrantes such conquestes as they haue found out, and which they do so name, (whereinto if they might be suffered they would returne) seeing that of themselues, & being made against this Indian, peace­able, lowly & milde nation which offendeth none, they be wicked, tyrannous, and by all lawes either naturall, humaine or diuine, vtterly condemned, de­tested and accursed: I thought it best, least my selfe might become also guiltie, by concealing the losse of an infinite number both of soules & bodies whi­che are so cōmitted, to cause a few of their dealinges which of late I had selected, frō amōg infinit others, and that might truely bee reported to bee printed, to the ende your highnes might with more ease peruse and reade them ouer. Also whereas your highnes maister the Archbishop of Toleto, when hee was bishop of Carthagena required them at my handes, and then presented them to your highnes: peraduen­ture [Page] by reason of such great voiages as your highnes tooke vpon you, both by sea and by land for matters of estate wherein you haue bin busied, it may be you haue not perused, either haue forgotten them, and in the meane time the rash and disordinate desire of those which thinke it nothing to do wrong, to shed such aboundance of mans blood, to make deso­late these so large countries of their naturall inhabi­tants and owners, by slaying infinite persons, either to purloyne such incredible treasures, doe dayly augment, these tyraunts proceeding vnder all coun­terfet titles and colours in their instante and impor­tunate sute, namely, to haue the said cōquests permit­ted and graunted vnto them: Which in truth can­not be graunted without transgressing the lawe both of nature and of God, and so consequently not with­out in curring mortall sinne, worthie most terrible and euerlasting torments: I thought it expedient to doe your highnesse seruice in this briefe Summarie of a most large historie, that might and ought to bee written of such slaughters and spoyles as they haue made and perpetrated. VVhich I beseeche your highnesse to receiue and reade ouer, with that royall clemencie and courtesie, wherewith you vse to ac­cept and peruse the workes of such your seruants, as no other desire, but faithfully to employ thēselues to the common cōmoditie, and to procure the pro­speritie of the royall estate.

This Summarie beeing perused, and the vildenes of the iniquity committed against these poore inno­cent people, in that they are slaine and hewed in pee­ces without desart, only through the auarice and [Page] ambition of those that pretend to the doing of such execrable deedes, being considered, It may please your highnesse to desire, and effectually to persuade his Maiestie to denie any whosoeuer shall demaund or require so hurtfull and detestable enterprises: yea, euen to bury any suche suite or petition in the infer­nall pit of perpetuall silence, thereby shewing suche terror & dislike as hereafter no man may be so bold, as once to name or speake thereof. And this (most mightie Lord) is very expediēt & necessarie, to the ende God may prosper, preserue and make the estate of the royall crowne of Castile for euer to florishe both spiritually and temporally.

A briefe Narration of the destruction of the Indes, by the Spanyardes.

THe Indes were discouered the yeere one thousande, foure hundred, nientie two, and inhabited by the Spanish the yeere next after ensuing: so as it is about fourtie niene yeeres sithens that the Spaniards some of them wēt into those partes. And the first land that they entered to inhabite, was the great and most fertile Isle of Hispani­ola, which contayneth sixe hundreth leagues in compasse. There are other great and infinite Iles rounde about and in the con­fines on all sides: which wee haue seen the most peopled, and the fullest of their owne natiue people, as any other countrey in the worlde may be. The firme lande lying off from this Ilande two hundreth and fiftie leagues, and some what ouer at the most, con­tayneth in length on the seacoast more then tenne thousande leagues: which are alreadie discouered, and dayly be discouered more and more, all ful of people, as an Emmote hill of Emmots. Insomuch, as by that which since, vnto the yere the fourtieth and one hath beene discouered: It seemeth that God hath bestowed in that same countrey, the gulphe or the greatest portion of man­kinde.

GOD created all these innumerable multitudes in euery sorte, very simple, without sutteltie, or craft, without malice, ve­ry obedient, and very faithfull to their naturall liege Lordes, and to the Spaniardes, whom they serue, very humble, very pa­tient, very desirous of peace making, and peacefull, without brawles and struglings, without quarrelles, without strife, with­out rancour or hatred, by no meanes desirous of reuengement.

They are also people very gentle, and very tender, and of an complexion, and which can sustayne no trauell, and [...] die [Page] very soone of any disease whatsoeuer, in suche sorte as the very children of Princes and Noble men brought vp amongst vs, in all commodities, ease, and delicatenesse, are not more soft then those of that countrey: yea, although they bee the children of la­bourers. They are also very poore folke, which possesse litle, neither yet do so much as desire to haue much worldly goodes, & therefore neither are they proud, ambitious, nor couetous. Their diet is such (as it seemeth) yt of the holy fathers in the desert hath not been more scarse, nor more streight, nor lesse daintie, nor lesse sumptuous. Their appareling is commonly to goe naked: all saue their shamefast partes alone couered. And when they be clo­thed, at the most, it is but of a mantell of bombacie of an elle and a halfe, or a two elles of linnen square. Their lodging is vpon a matte, and those which haue the best: sleepe as it were vppon a net fastened at the foure corners, which they call in the language of the Ile of Hispaniola, Hamasas. They haue their vnderstan­ding very pure and quicke, being teachable and capable of all good learning, verye apt to receiue our holy Catholique faith, and to be instructed in good and vertuous maners, hauing lesse encombrances and disturbances to the atteyning there vnto, then al the folke of the world besids, and are so enflamed, ardent, and importune to knowe and vnderstand the matters of the faith after they haue but begunne once to taste them, as likewise the exercise of the Sacraments of the Church, & the diuine seruice: that in truth, the religious men haue need of a singuler patience to support them. And to make an ende, I haue heard many Spa­niardes many times holde this as assured, and that whiche they could not deny, concerning the good nature which they sawe in them. Vndoubtedly these folkes shoulde be the happiest in the worlde, if onely they knewe God.

Vpon these lambes so mecke, so qualified & endewed of their maker and creator, as hath bin said, entred the Spanish inconti­nent as they knewe them, as wolues, as lions, & as tigres most cruel of long time famished: and haue not done in those quarters these 40. yeres be past, neither yet doe at this present, ought els saue teare them in peeces, kill them, martyre them, afflict them, torment them, & destroy them by straunge sortes of cruelties ne­uer [Page] neither seene, nor reade, nor hearde of the like (of the which some shall bee set downe hereafter) so farre foorth that of aboue three Millions of soules that were in the Ile of Hispaniola, and that we haue seene, there are not nowe two hundreth natiues of the countrey. The Isle of Cuba, the which is in length as farre as frō Vallodolyd vntil Rome, is at this day as it were al wast. S. Iohns ile, and that of Iamayca both of them very great, very fertil, and very fayre: are desolate. Likewise the iles of Lucayos, neere to the ile of Hispaniola, and of the north side vnto that of Cuba, in number being aboue threescore Ilandes, together with those which they cal the iles of Geante, one with another, great and litle, whereof the very wurst is fertiler then the kings gardē at Seuill, and the countrey the healthsomest in the world: there were in these same iles more then fiue hundreth thousand soules, and at this day there is not one only creature. For they haue bin all of them slayne, after that they had drawen thē out from thence to labour in their minerals in the ile of Hispaniola, where there were no more left of the inbornes natiues of that iland. A ship ri­ding for the space of three yeeres betwixt all these ilands, to the ende, after the inning of this kinde of vintage, to gleane and cull the remainder of these folke (for there was a good Christian mo­ued with pitie and compassion, to conuert & win vnto Christ such as might be found) there were not found but eleuē persons whi­che I saw: other iles more then thirtie nere to the ile of S. Iohn haue likewise bin dispeopled and marred. All these iles contayn aboue two thousand leagues of lande, and are all dispeopled and laide waste.

As touching the maine firme lande, wee are certaine that our Spaniardes, by their cruelties & cursed doings haue dispeopled & made desolate more then ten realmes greater then all Spaine, comprising also therewith Aragon and Portugall, and twise as much or more land then there is from Seuill to Ierusalem whi­che are aboue a thousand leagues: whiche realmes as yet vnto this present day remaine in a wildernes and vtter desolation, ha­uing bin befor time as well peopled as was possible.

We are able to yeeld a good and certaine accompt, that there is wtin ye space of ye said 40. yeeres, by those said tyrānies & diulish [Page] doings of the Spaniards [...]n to death vniustly and tyrannously more then twelue Millions of soules, men, women, and children▪ And I verilie do beleeue, and thinke not to mistake therein, that there are dead more then fifteene Millions of soules.

Those whiche haue goe them out of Spaine into that coun­trey, bearing them selues as Christians, haue kept two generall and principall wayes to eradicate and abolishe from off the face of the earth those miserable nations: The one is their vniust, cruell, bloodie and tyrannicall warre. That other maner is, that they haue slayne all those which coulde any kinde of wayes so muche as gaspe, breath, or thinke to set them selues at libertie, or but to withdrawe them selues from the tormentes whiche they endure, as are all the naturall Lordes, and the men of valour and courage. For commonly they suffer not in the warres to liue any, saue children and women: oppressing also afterwardes those very same with the most cruel, dreadful, and hainous thral­dome that euer hath been layde vpon men or beastes. Vnto these two kindes of tyranie diabolicall, may be reduced and sorted as it were the issues one vnder another to their head, all other their di­uerse and infinite maners of dooing which they keept to lay de­solate, and roote out those folke without number.

The cause why the Spanishe haue destroyed suche an inst­nite of soules, hath been onely, that they haue helde it for their last scope and marke to gette golde, and to enriche them selues in a short tyme, and to mount at one leape to very high estates, in no wise agreeable to their persons: or, for to say in a word, the cause hereof hath been their auarice and ambition, whiche hath seased them the exceedingest in the worlde in consideration of those landes so happie and rich, and the people so humble, so patient, and so easie to be subdued. Whom they haue neuer had any re­spect, or made any more accompt of (I speake the trueth of that whiche I haue seene all the tyme that I was there conuersant) I say not then of beastes (for woulde to GOD that they had en­treated and esteemed them but as beastes:) but lesse then of the myre of the streetes, and euen as muche care is it that they haue had of their liues and of their soules. And by this meanes haue died so many Millions without faith and without sacramentes.

[Page] It is a certaine veritie, and that which also the tyrants them selues knowe right well and confesse, that the Indiens through­out all the Indes neuer wrought any displeasure vnto the Spa­niardes: but rather that they reputed them as come from hea­uen, vntill suche tyme as they, or their neighbours had receiued the first, sundrie wronges, being robbed, killed, forced, and tor­mented by them.

Of the Ile of hispaniola.

IN the Ile Hispaniola, which was the first (as we haue said) where the Spaniardes arriued, beganne the great slaughters and spoyles of people: the Spaniardes hauing begunne to take their wiues and children of the Indies, for to serue their turne and to vse them ill, and hauing begunne to eate their vic­tualles, gotten by their sweate and erauell: not contenting them selues with that which the Indians gaue them of their owne good will, euery one after their habilitie, the which is algates very small, forasmuch as they are accustomed to haue no more store, then they haue ordinarily neede of, and that such as they get with litle trauell: And that which might suffice for three house­holdes, reconing tenne persons for eche housholde for a moneths space, one spaniarde woulde eate and destroy in a day.

Nowe after sundry other forces, violences, and tormentes, which they wrought against them: the Indians beganne to per­ceiue, that those were not men discended from heauen. Some of them therefore hid their victuals: others hid their wiues and children: some others fledde into the mountaynes, to separate them selues a farre off from a nation of so harde natured and ghastly conuersation. The Spaniardes buffeted them with their fistes and bastouades: pressing also to lay handes vpon the Lordes of the Townes. And these cases ended in so great an hazarde and desperatenes, that a Spanishe Captaine durst ad­uenture to rauish forcibly the wife of the greatest king and Lord of this Ile. Since whiche time the Indians began to searche meanes to cast the Spaniardes out of their landes, and set them [Page] selues in armes: but what kind of armes? very feeble and weake to withstand or resist, and of lesse defence (wherfore all their wars are no more warres then the playings of children, when as they play at Iogo di Canne or Reedes.) The Spaniardes with their Horses, their speares and launces, beganne to commit murders, and straunge cruelties: they entred into Townes, Borowes, and Villages, sparing neyther children, nor old men, neither wo­men with childe, neyther them that lay In, but that they ripped their bellies, and cut them in pieces, as if they had been opening of Lambes shut vp in their folde. They layed wagers with such as with one thrust of a sworde woulde paunche or bowell a man in the middest, or with one blowe of a sworde woulde most redi­ly and most deliuerly cut off his head, or that woulde best pearce his entrals at one stroke. They tooke the little soules by the heeles, ramping them from the mothers dugges, and crushed their heades against the clifces. Others they cast into the riuers laughing and mocking, and when they tombled into the water, they sayde, nowe shift for thy selfe such a ones corpes. They put others, together with their mothers and all that they met, to the edge of the sword. They made certayne Gibbets long and low, in such sort, that the feete of the hanged on, touched in a maner the ground, euery one enough for thirteene, in the honour and worship of our Sauiour and his twelue Apostles (as they vsed to speake) and setting to fire, burned them all quicke that were fastened. Vnto all others, whom they vsed to take and reserue a­liue, cutting off their two handes as neere as might bee, and so letting them hang, they sayd: Get you with these letters, to carry tydinges to those which are fled by the mountaines. They mur­dered commonly the Lordes and nobilitie on this fashion: They made certayne gra [...]es of perches layed on pickforkes, and made a litle fire vnderneath, to the intent, that by litle and litle yelling and despeiring in these tormentes, they might giue vp the ghost.

One time I sawe foure or fiue of the principall Lordes roasted and broyled vppon these gradeirons. Also I thinke that there were two or three of these gredirons, garm­shed with the lyke furniture, and for that they cryed out [Page] pitioussy, which thing troubled the Captayne that hee could not then sleepe: hee commaunded to strangle them. The Sergeant, which was worse then the hangman that burned them (I knowe his name and friendes in Seuill) woulde not haue them stran­gled, but him se [...]fe putting boulets in their mouthes, to the ende yt they should not crie, put to the fire, vntil they were softly rosted after his desire. I haue seene all the aforesayd things and others infinite. And forasmuch, as all the people which coulde flee, hid themselues in the mountaynes, and mounted on the toppes of them, fled from the men so without all manhood, emptie of all pitie, behauing them as sauage beastes, the slaughterers and deadly enemies of mankinde: they taught their houndes, fierce dogs, to teare them in peeces at the first viewe, and in the space that one might say a Credo, assayled and deuoured an Indian as if it had been a swine. These dogges wrought great destructions and slaughters. And forasmuche as sometimes, although seldom, when the indians put to death some Spaniards vpon good right and lawe of due Iustice: they made a Lawe betweene them, that for one Spaniarde, they had to stay an hundreth Indi­ans.

The realmes which were in this Ile of Hispaniola.

THere were in this Ile Hispaniola, fiue greate principall realmes, and fiue very mightie Kinges, vnto whome al­most all the other Lordes obeyed, whiche were without number. There were also certaine Lordes of other seue­rall Prouinces, which did not acknowledge for soueraigne any of these Kinges: One realme was named Magua, which is as much to say, as the kingdome of the playne. This plaine is one of the most famous and most admirable thinges of all that is in the worlde. For it contayneth fourescore leagues of grounde, from the South sea vnto the North sea: hauing in breadth fiue leagues, and eight vnto tenne.

[Page] It hath in one side and other exceeding high mountaynes. There entreth into it aboue thirtie thousande riuers and lakes, of the which twelue are as great as Ebro, and Duero, and Gua­dalqueuir. And all the riuers which issue out of a Mountayne which is towardes the West, in number about fiue and twentie thousande, are very rich of golde. In the which mountayne or mountaynes, is contayned the prouince of Cibao, from whence the mines of Cibao take their names, and from whence commeth the same exquisite golde and fiue of 24. karrets, which is so renowined in these partes. The King and Lorde of this realme was called Guarionex, which had vnder him his Vassals and Lieges so great and mightie, that euery one of them was a­ble to set forth threescore thousande men of armes for the seruice of the king Guarionex. Of the which Lordes I haue knowen some certayne. This Guarionex was very obedient and ver­tuous, naturally desirous of peace, and well affectioned to the deuotion of the kings of Castile, and his people gaue by his com­maundement, euery housekeeper a certayne kinde of Dromme full of golde: but afterwardes being not able to fill the Dromme cutte it off by the middest, and gaue the halfe thereof full. For the Indians of that Ile had litle or none industrie or practise to gather or drawe golde out of the mines. This Caceque presen­ted vnto the king of Castile his seruice, in causing to be manured all the landes from the Isavella, where the Spanish first sited, vnto the Towne of Saint Domingo, which are fittie leagues large, on condition that hee shoulde exact of them no golde: for he sayd, (and hee sayde the trueth) that his subiectes had not the skill to drawe it out. As for the manuring which he sayde hee woulde procure to bee done: I knowe that hee coulde haue done it very easely, and with great readinesse, and that it woulde haue been worth vnto the king euery yeere more then three Millions of Castillans, besids that it would haue caused, that, at this houre there had bin aboue fiftie Cities greater then Seuille.

The payment that they made to this good king and Lord, so gracious and so redowbted, was to dishonour him in the per­son of his wife, an euill Christian, a Captayne rauishing her. This king coulde haue attended the tune and opportunitie to a­uenge [Page] him selfe in leuying [...] drawe him selfe rather, and onely [...] thus being banished from his real [...]e [...] of the Cignaios, where there was a great Lorde his [...]. After that the Spaniardes were [...] of his [...] ▪ and [...]ee coulde [...] himselfe [...] against the Lorde whiche had [...] and make great [...]l [...]gh­ters through the coun [...]y [...] they goe, [...] they found and tooke [...] a Shippe, to carrie him to C [...]stile: which shippe was lost uppon the sea, and there were wi [...]h him drowned many Spaniardes, and a great quantitie of Golde, amongst the whiche also [...] the great [...] of Golde, [...] weying three thousande▪ [...] GOD to wreake [...].

The other rea [...]tie was called of Mar [...], where [...] at this day the port at one of the [...]oundes of the play [...], [...] the North: and it is farre greater then the rea [...]e of Portugall, [...] [...] of golde, and copper [...]. The king was called [...], which had [...] many great Lordes▪ of the which I have knowen and seene sundrie▪ [...] first the [...] admyrall, when he [...]co [...]ered the I [...] ­dies, whom at that time that he discouered the Ile, the said [...] so graciously, bountifully, & [...] with­all the Spaniardes who were with him, in [...] him [...] [...] (which the Admirall was carried in) that he [...]ulde not haue [...] [...] made off in his owne countrey of his owne father. This did I [...]nderstand of the Admyrals owne mouth. This king died, in [...] the slaughters and cruelties of the Spaniards through [...], [...]yng destroyed and [...]epri [...]ed of his [...] ▪ And in the [...] Lordes his subi [...]ctes died in the tyrannie, and [...] that shall be declared hereafter.

The thirde Realme and dominion was M [...]gu [...], a coun­trey also admirable, very healthsome, and very fertile, where the [Page] best [...]

The [...] was named [...] [...] m [...]es of his serui [...] ▪ The Spaniardes [...]ooke this king with great subtiltie▪ and malice, e [...]en as hee was in his owne house▪ [...]ou [...]ng him of nothing▪ They [...] [...]a shippe to [...] other shippe in the porte [...] vpsayle: Beholde howe God by his i [...]st [...]u [...]g [...]ment, woulde decla [...]e that i [...] with o­ther thinge [...], was an exceeding [...] ini [...]u [...]tie and [...]iust, by sending the same night a [...], which sunke, and drenched that [...] with the Spaniardes that were within. There died also with them the [...] with [...]oltes and irons. This Prince [...] three or foure brothers [...], and coura­gious [...] Lorde and brother so against all equitie, together with the w [...]s and slaughters which the Spaniardes made in other realmes, and specially after that they had hearde that the king their bro­ther was dead▪ they put themselues in armes to [...]ounter the Spaniardes and to auenge the [...] who [...] the other side [...]eeting with them [...]n [...]orsebacke ( [...] aboue all that may bee to [...] the India [...] with) so they rage in discomfitures and massacres▪ that the one [...] of this Realme hath beene thereby desolate and dispeo­pled.

The fourth Realme i [...] the s [...]me whiche is [...] of X [...]a­gua. This Realme [...] or to speake of, [...] the other REalmes i [...] language and polished speech, in [...] and good maners, the be [...] co [...]posed and ordered▪ For as much as there were many noble Lordes and Gentlemen, the people also beeing the best made and [...] be [...]ifull. The King [...] to name [...] which had [...] called An [...]ona. [...] two, the brother and sister▪ had [...] great seruices to the kings of Castile, and great [...] to the Spaniardes, deliu [...]ring them from sundrie daungers of death.

[Page] After the [...] of Beh [...]mo, An [...]na [...] So [...]raigne of the Realme. [...] the G [...]nour of this Ile with threescore Horses, and more then three hundre [...] footemen (the horsemen alone had beene e­nough to spoyle and ouerrunne not this Ile alone, but all the firme lande withal.) And so [...] beeing called, more then three hundre [...] Lordes [...], of whome the chiefest, [...] caused to be [...] conueyed into a house of thatch, and [...]. [...]owe on this wise were these Lordes [...]: all the rest of the Lordes, with other folk infinite, were smitten to [...]each with their speares and swordes.

But the Soueraigne L [...]die Anac [...]ona, to doe her honour they hanged▪ It happened that certaine Spaniardes, eyther of [...] or of co [...]ousnesse, [...] detayned certayne young [...]: because they woulde not [...] them slayne, and [...] them behinde them on their horse backes: another Spaniarde came behinde, whi­ [...]he stabbed them through with a speare. If so bee any child [...] [...] boy tombled downe to the grounde▪ [...] Spaniarde [...] and [...]utte off his legges.

Some certayne of these [...] which coulde escape this [...], passed [...] Ile neere unto the [...], within [...] eyght leagues. The gouenour condem­ned all those which had passed the [...] be­cause they had [...].

[...] was called [...]igney, ouer the whiche raigne [...] [...], whome the Spaniardes hanged vp. The people were in [...]nite whome I sa [...] [...] aliue, [...] rent [...] p [...]es, and tormented [...] and [...]raung [...]y, and whome I sawe made slaues, euen so many as they [...].

And [...] for as muche as there are so manye [...] [Page] those peoples, that they can not conueniently be [...] in writing (yea I doe verily beleeue that of a [...] of thinges to be spoken of there can not be disciphered of [...] thousande [...]tes one:) I wil only in that which [...] the warres [...] me [...] ­tioned conclude, auerre, and iustifie in conscience, and as before God, that of all others, which I ouerpasse to speake of, or shall bee able to speake of, the Indians neuer gaue no more occa­sion, or cause, then might a conuent of good religious per­sons well ordered, why they shoulde bee robbed and slayne, and why those that escaped the death, shoulde be retayned in a perpe­tuall captiuitie and bondage.

I affirme yet moreouer, for ought that I can beleeue or coniecture, that, during all the time that all this huge number of these Islanders haue been murdered and made away vtterly, they neuer committed against the Spaniardes any one mortall offence, punishable by the l [...] of m [...]n▪ And concerning offences, of the which the punishment is reserued vnto God, as are desire of reuengement, [...], and rancour, which these people might beare against enemies so capitall as were the Spaniardes, that very fewe persons haue been attached with the blemishe, and lesse violent and forcible did I finde them, by the good experi­ence I had of them, then [...] twelue yeeres of age. And I knowe for certayne and infallible, that the Indi­ans had euermore most [...]ust cause of warre against the Spani­ardes: but the Spaniardes ne [...]er had any iust cause of warre a­gaynst the Indians, but they were all [...] and most [...]n­righteous, more then can bee spoken of any tyrant that is on the whole earth. And I affirme the [...]other actes and gestes by them [...].

The warres [...], and all the men [...] to death there­by reserued [...] the young [...], women, and children▪ (the which they departed among them, in giuing [...], to another fourtie, and to another an hundreth, or tow hun­dreth, according as [...]uery one had the [...] of the [...] Tyrant, whom they called the [...]) they [...] Spani­ardes vppon that condition and colour, that they woulde teache them the Catholike faith, they themselues who took vppon [Page] them this charge of soules, commōly all idiots, or vtterly igno­rant persons, barbarous men, extreemely couetous and vitious.

Nowe the carke and care that these had of them, was to send the men vnto the mines, to make them drein them out golde, which is an intollerable trauell: and the women they bestowed into the countrey to their farmes, to manure and till the ground, which is asore trauell, euen for the very men, the ablest and mightiest. They gaue to eate neither to one nor other, nought saue grasses and such like thinges of no substance: in suche sorte as the milke of the brestes of the wiues newe deliuered of their childbyrth dryed vp: and thus dyed in a small season, all the litle creatures their young children. Further, by reason of the se­paration and not cohabiting of the men with their wiues, the ge­neration ceased betweene them. The men died with toyle and famine in the mineralles: these the women died of the same in the fieldes. By these meanes were consumed and brought to their endes so huge a number of the folke of this Islande. By the like might be abolished and exterpate, all the inhabitantes of the worlde.

As touching loding, they layde vpon them fourescore or an hundreth poundes waight, which they shoulde carrie an hun­dreth or two hundreth leagues: The Spanish also causing them selues to be carried in lytres vppon men armes, or beddes made by the Indians, in fashion of nettes. For they serued their turnes with them to transporte their carriages and bagage as beastes, wherby they had vpon their backes & shoulders, w [...]i [...]es and galles as poore galled beasts. Also as touching whippings, bastonading, buffeting, blowes with the fist, cursing, and a thou­sande other kindes of torments, which they practised vpon them during the tune that they trauayled, of a trueth, they can not bee recounted in a long season, nor written in a great deale of paper, and they shoulde bee euen to affright men withall.

It is to be noted, that the destruction of these iles and lands, beganne after the decease of the most gracious Queene, da [...]e Isabell, which was the yeere, a thousande, fiue hundreth, and foure. For before there were layed waste in this ile, but cer­tayne Prouinces by vniust warre, and that not wholly altoge­ther▪ [Page] & these for ye more part, or in a maner al were cōcealed frō the knowledge of ye Q. (vnto whō it may please god to giue his holy glory) forasmuch as she had a great desire, & a zeale admira­ble, yt those people might be saued & prosper, as we do know good examples, the wc we haue seen wt our eies, & felt with our hands.

Further note here, yt in what part of ye Indies ye Spanishe haue come, they haue euermore exercised against ye Indiās, these inno­cēt peoples, ye cruelties aforesaid, & oppressiōs abominable, & in­uēted day by day new tormēts, huger & monstrouser, becōming e­uery day more cruel. wherfore god also gaue thē ouer to fal head­long down with a more extreme downfal into a reprobate sense.

Of the two Iles S. Iohn. and Iamayca.

THe Spanish passed ouer to ye Ile of S. Iohn, & to yt of Iamayca (wc were like gardens for bees) 1509. setting before­thē ye same end which they had in the Ile Hispaniola, & commit­ting the robberies & crimes aforesaid, adioyning therunto many great & notable cruelties, killing, burning, rosting & casting thē to ye dogs: farthermore, afterwards oppressing, & vexing them in their minerals & other trauel, vnto ye rotting out of those pore in­nocēts wc were in these two Iles, by supputatiō 6. C. M. soules: yea I beleue, yt they were more thē a miliō, although there be not at this day in either Ile. 200. persons, and all perished without faith and without Sacramentes.

Of the Ile of Cuba.

IN the year 1511 they passed to ye Ile of Cuba, which is (as I haue said) as long as there is distāce frō Vall [...]d [...]l [...] to Rome▪ (where were great prouinces, & great multitudes of people) they both begā [...] in thē after ye [...] far more cruelly. There came to passe in this Ilād mat­ters worth ye noting: A C [...]cique named Hathuey, which had co [...] ­ [...]eyed himselfe frō ye Ile Hispaniola to Cuba wt many of his peo­ple, to auoid the calamities & [...] so vnnatural of ye spanish: when [...] certain Indians had told him [...] the Spaniards were cōming towards Cuba, he [...]: Nowe you know that the Spaniards [...] this [...] ye knowe also by experience how they [...] such & the people of [...] (meaning [...]) [...] they come to do ye like here. Wot ye why they do it? they answe­red [Page] no, vnlesse [...] they are by nature void of humanitie. He replied: They do it not onely for yt ▪ but because they haue a god whom they hono [...] & do demand very much & to yt end to haue frō vs as wel as others to honor him wtall they do their vttermost to subdue vs. He had thē by him a litle chestful of gold & Iewels, & said, Behold here the God of the Spaniards, let vs do to him▪ if it so seeme you good, A [...]os (which are windlesse [...] & daunces) thus doing, we shall please him & he wil command ye Spaniards yt they shal do vs no harme: They answerd all with a loud voyce: Wel said sir, wel said. Thus then they daūsed before it, vntil they were wery, thē quoth the L. Hathuey, Take we heed howeuer y• world go, if we keep him, to ye end yt he be takē away frō vs in the end they wil kill vs: wherfore let vs cast him into ye riuer: wher­vnto they all agreed, and so they cast it into a great riuer there.

This L. & [...] wēt alwaies fleeing ye spanish, incontinent as they were arriued at ye ile of Cuba, as he wc knew thē but too wel▪ & defēded himself, whē as he met thē. In ye end he was takē & on­ly for because that he fled frō a nation so vniust & e [...]uel, & that▪ he defended himself frō such as would kil him, & oppresse him euen vnto ye death, wt all his folk, he was burned aliue. Now as he was fastned to the stake, a religious mā of S. Frācis order, a deuout persō, spoke to him somwhat of God & of our faith which thin [...] this said L. had neuer heard of, yet might be sufficiēt for the time which ye hutchers gaue him, that if he would beleue those things which were spokē to him he should go to heauen, where is glory & rest euerlasting, yt if he did not beleue, he should go to hel, there to be tormēted perpetually. The L. after hauing a litle paused to think of ye matter, demanded of the religious man, whether yt the spaniards went to heauen? who answered, yea: such of them that were good. The Cacik answered againe immediatly wtout any further deliberation, that he would not go to heauen, but that hee would go to hell, to the ende, not to come in the place where such people should be, and to the end not so see a nation so cruell. L [...] here the praises and honour, which God and our faith haue recei­ued of the Spaniardes, which haue gone to the Iudes.

One tyme the Indians came to meete vs, and to receiue vs with victualles, and delicate cheere, and with [Page] all entertaynmene ten leagues of a great city, and beeing come at the place, they presented vs with a great quantitie of [...], and of bread, and other meate, together with all that they coulde doe for vs to the vttermost.

See incontinent the diuell, whiche put him selfe into the Spaniardes, to put them all to the edge of the sworde in my pre­sence, without any cause whatsoeuer, more then three thousande soules, which were set before vs, men, women, and children. I saw there so great cruelties, that neuer my man liuing eyther haue or shall see the like.

Another tyme, but a fewe dayes after the premisses, I sente messengers vnto all the Lordes of the prouince of Hauana, assuring them, that they shoulde not neede to see are (for they had hearde of my credite) and that without withdrawing themselues, they shoulde come to receiue vs, and that there shoulde bee done vnto them no displeasure: for all the countrey was afraide, by reason of the mischiefes and murderings passed, and this did I by the aduice of the Captayne him selfe. After that wee were come into the Prouince, one and twentie Lordes and Cacikes came to receiue vs, whome the Captayne apprehended inconti­nent, breaking the safe conduite whiche I had made them, and intended the day next following to burne them aliue, saying that it was expedient so to doe, for that otherwise those Lordes one day, woulde doe vs a shrewde turne. I founde me [...] selfe in a great deale of trouble to saue them from the fire: howbeit in the ende they escaped.

After that the Indians of this Islande were thus brought into bondage and calamitie, like vnto those of the Ile of Hispa­niola, and that they sawe that they dyed and perished all without remedie: some of them began to flie into the mountaynes, others quite desperate hanged them selues, and there hung together hu [...]sbandes with their wiues, hanging with them their litle chil­dren. And through the crueltie of one onely Spaniarde, whi­che was a great tyraunt, and one whom I knowe, there hunge them selues more then two hundred Indians: and of this fashion died an infinitie of people.

There was in this Ile an officer of the kinges, [...] whome [Page] they gaue for his share three hundred Indians, of whome at the ende of three monethes there died by him in the trauayle of the mynes, two hundred and sixtie: in suche sorte, that there remai­ned nowe but thirtie, which was the tenth part. Afterwardes they gaue him as many more, and more, and those also be made hauocke of in like maner, and still as many as they gaue him, so many hee flewe vntill hee dyed him selfe, and that the diuell car­ried him away.

In three or foure monethes (mee selfe beeing present) there died more then sixe thousande children, by reason that they had plucked away from them their fathers and mothers whiche they sent into the mines. I behelde also other things frightfull.

Shortly after they resolued to climbe after those whiche were in the mountaynes, where they wrought also ghastly slaughters, and thus laide waste all this Ile: which wee behelde not long after, and it is great pitie to see it so dispeopled and de­solate as it is.

Of the firme lande.

IN the yeere one thousand fiue hundred, and foureteene, there landed in the maine a mischieuous gouernour, a most cruell tyraunt, which had neyther pitie nor prudencie in him, being as an instrumēt of the wrath of God, fully resolued to set into this land agreat nūber of Spaniards. And howbeit yt aforetime certayne other tyrauntes had entred the lande, and had spoyled, murdered, and cruelly entreated very many folke: yet was it not but on the sea coast that they spoyled, and robbed, and did the worst that they could. But this surpassed all the others whiche came before him, and all those of all the Ilandes, howe cursed and abhominable soeuer they were in all their doings. He not onely wasted or dispeopled the sea coast, but sacked also great realmes and countreys, making hauockes by slaying and mur­dering of peoples, infinite to bee numbred, and sending them to hell. He ouer ranne and herried most of the places in the land, from Darien vpwarde, vnto the Realme and Prouinces of Ni­caragua [Page] within being, which are more then fiue hūdred leagues of the best and most fertile grounde in the whole worlde, where there were a good number of great Lordes, with a number of townes, borrowes, and villages, and store of gold in more abun­daunce then was to bee founde on the earth vntyll that present. For albeit that Spaine was as it were replenished with gold, of the finest that came from the Ile Hispaniola: the same had been only drawen out of the entrals of the earth by the Indians, of ye mines, aforesaid, wher they died as hath been sayde.

This gouernour with his men, found out newe sorts of cruel­ties and torments, to cause them to discouer and giue him golde. There was a captayne of his, which flue in one walke and course which was made by his commaundement, to robbe and roote out more then fourtie thousand soules, putting them to ye edge of the sword, burning thē, & giuing thē to ye dogs, & tormēting them di­uersly: wc also a religious man of the order of S. Francis, who went wt him, beheld wt his eies, and had to name frier Francis of S. Romaine.

The most pernicious blindnes, wc hath alwaies possessed those who haue gouerned the Indians in stead of the care wc they shold haue for the conuersion & saluation of those people, (wc they haue alwaies neglected, their mouth wt painted fables speaking one thing, but their heart thinking another) came to ye passe, as to cō ­mand orders to be set down vnto ye Indians to receiue the faith, & render thēselues vnto ye obediēce of the K. of Castile, or otherwise to bid thē battel wt fire & sworde, & to slay thē or make thē slaues: As if ye sonne of God which died for euery one of thē had cōman­ded in his law, wher he saith, Go teach al nations, yt there should be ordināces set down vnto infidels, being peacefull & quiet, & in possession of their proper lande, if so be they receiued it not foorth with, wtout any preaching or teaching first had: & if yt they submit­ted not thēselues to ye dominiō of a king, whō they neuer sawe & whom they neuer heard speake of, & namely such a one as whose messengers & mē were so cruel, & so debarred frō all pitie, & such horrible tyrāts, yt they should for ye lose their goods & lands, their liberty, their wiues & childrē, wt their liues. Which is a thing too absurd & fond, worthy of al reproch & mockery, yea worthy of hel fire, in such sort as whē this wicked and wretched gouernour had [Page] accepted the charge, to put in execution the sayde ordinances, to the end to make them seeme ye more iust in appearance. For they were of thēselues impertinent, against all reason & law, he com­manded (or peraduenture ye thieues, whom he dispatched to doe ye executiō, did it of their own heads) whē they were purposed to go a rouing & robbing of any place, where they knewe yt there was any gold, ye Indians being in their towns & dwelling houses, wt ­out mistrusting any thing, ye wicked Spaniards would go after ye guise of thieues, vnto within halfe a league neere some town, bo­rowe, or village, and there by themselues alone, & by night make a reading, publication, or proclamation of ye said ordinances, say­ing thus, Oyes Caciques & Indians of this firme land of such a place: Be it knowen vnto you, that there is one God, one Pope, one king of Castile, which is L. of these landes: make your ap­pearance, al delay set aside, here to do him homage, &c. Which if you shall not accomplish: Be it knowen vnto you, yt we wil make war vpō you, and we wil kil you, & make you slaues. Hereupon at the fourth watch in ye morning, the poore innocents, sleeping yet with their wiues and children: these tyrantes set vppon the place, casting fire on the houses which commonly were thatched, & so burn vp all quick men, womē & children, more sodainely thē that they could of a great many be perceiued. They massacred at the instant those that seemed thē good, & those whō they took pri­sonners, they caused thē cruelly to die vpō ye rack, to make thē to tell in what places there were any more golde thē they found wt them: and others which remayned aliue, they made them slaues, marking them with a hot iron, so after the fire being out & quen­ched, they go seeke the golde in their houses. This is then the de­portement in these affayres of this mischieuous person, with all the bond of his vngodly Christians, which hee trayned from the fourteenth yeere, vnto the one and twentie, or two and twen­tieth yeere, sending in these exploytes sixe or moe of his seruants or souldiers, by whom he receiued as many shares, ouer and bee­sides his Captaynes Generalles part, which he leuied of all the golde, of all the pearles, and of all the iewels which they tooke of those whom they made their slaues. The selfsame did ye kings officers, euery one sending forth as many seruants as he coulde.

[Page] The Byshoppe also, which was the chiefe in the Realme, hee sent his seruauntes to haue his share in the bootie: They spoyled more golde within the tyme, and in this realme, as farre foorth as I am able to recken, then woulde amount to a million of Ducates, yea, I beleeue, that I make my reckoning with the least. Yet will it bee founde, that of all this great thieuing, they neuer sent to the king ought saue three thousande Castillans, hauing there about killed and destroyed aboue eyght hundred thousande soules.

The other tyraunt gouernours which succeeded after, vn­to the yeere thirtie and three, slue, or at least wise consented, for all those which remayned to slay them in that tyrannicall slaue­rie.

Amongst an infinite sorte of mischiefes, which this gouer­noure did, or consented vnto the doing during the time of his gouernment, this was one: To witte, that a Cacike or Lorde giuing him, eyther of his good will, or whiche is rather to bee thought for feare, the weight of niene thousande Ducates: the Spaniardes not content withall, tooke the saide Lorde, and tyed him to a stake, setting him on the earth, his feete stretched vp, a­gainst the which they set fire to cause him to giue thē some more golde, The Lorde sent to his house, whence there were brought yet moreouer three thousand Castillans. They goe a freshe to giue him newe tormentes. And when the Lorde gaue them no more, eyther because he had it not, or because hee woulde giue them no more, they bent his feete agaynst the fyre, vntill that the very marrowe sprang out and trylled downe the sowles of his feete: so as hee therewith died. They haue oftentimes exer­cised these kinde of tormentes towardes the Lordes, to make them giue them golde, wherewith they haue also slayne them.

An other tyme, a certayne companie of Spaniardes, vsing their theftes and robberies, came to a mountayne, where were assembled and hid a number of people, hauing shunned those men so pernicious and horrible: whom incontinent entring vp­on, they tooke a three or fourescore, as well women as mayds, ha­uing killed as many as they could kill.

The morrowe after, there assembled a great companie of [Page] Indians, to pursue the Spaniardes, warring against them for the great desire they had to recouer their wiues and daughters.

The Spaniards perceiuing the Indians to approche so neere vpon them, would not so forgo their pray, but stabd their swords thorowe the bellies of the wiues and wenches, leauing but one alone aliue of all the fourescore. The Indians felt their hearts to burst for sorrowe and griefe which they suffered, yelling out in cries and speaking suche woordes: O wicked men, O yee the cruell Spaniardes: doe yee kill Las Iras? They terme I­ras in that countrey the women: as if they woulde say, To kyll women, those be actes of abhominable men, and cruell as beastes.

There was a tenne or fifteene leagues from Ioanama, a great Lorde named Paris, which was very riche of golde: The Spaniardes went thither, whome this Lorde receiued as if they had been his own brethen, and made a present vnto the Captaine of fiftie thousand Castillans of his own voluntarie accord. It se­med vnto the Captaine and the other Spaniardes, that he which gaue such a great summe of his owne will, shoulde haue a great treasure, which shoulde be the ende and easing of their traueyles. They make wise, and pretende in wordes to depart: but they re­turne at the fourth watch of the morning, setting vpon the towne which mistrusted nothing, set it on fire, whereby was burnt and slayne a great number of people, & by this meanes they brought away in the spoyle fiftie, or threescore thousand Castillans moe.

The Cacik or Lorde escaped without being slayne or taken, and leuied incontinent as many of his as he coulde. And at the ende of three or foure dayes, ouertaketh the Spaniardes whiche had taken from him an hundreth and thirtie, or fourtie thousande Castillans, and set vppon them valiantly, killing fiftie Spani­ardes, and recouering all the golde whiche they had taken from him. The others saued them selues by running away, beyng well charged with blowes and wounded.

Not long after, diuers of the Spanishe returne against the saide Cacik, and discomfite him with an infinite number of his people. Those which were not slayne, they put them to the or­diuarie bondage: in such sort, as that there is not at this day, ney­ther [Page] track nor token, that there hath bin liuing there eyther peo­ple, or so much as one man alone borne of woman within thirtie leagues of the lande, which was before notably peopled and go­uerned by diuers Lordes. There is no reconing able to be made of the murders which this caitiffe with his companie committed in these realmes which he so dispeopled.

Of the prouince of Nica­ragua.

THe yeere a thousande, fiue hundred, twentie and two, or twentie three, this tyraunt went farder into the lande: to bring vnder his yoke the most fertile prouince of Nicaragua, & so in thither hee entred in an euill houre. There is no man which is able worthely and sufficiently to speake of the fertiltie, health­somenesse, prosperitie, and frequencie, of those nations that there were.

It was a thing wonderfull to beholde, howe well it was peo­pled, hauing townes of three or foure leagues in length, full of maruilous fruites, which fruites were also the cause of the fre­quencie of the people. These people, for as muche as the coun­trey was flatte and leuell, hauing no hilles where any might hide them, and for that it was so pleasant and delectable, that the natiue inhabitauntes coulde not abandon it but with great heart griefe and difficultie, for which cause they the rather endured and suffered grieuons persecutions, supporting as muche as they coulde, the tyrannies and seruitudes, inflicted by the Spanishe. Also for that by their nature they were verye softe natured and peaceable people, these (I say) this tyraunt with his mates made to endure (that which hee had vsed also to doe to destroy likewise other realmes) so many dammages, so many murders, so many cruelties, so many slaueries and iniquities, that there is no humane tongue is able to discipher them. He sent fiftie horse­men, and caused to slay all the people of this prouince, (which is greater then the countye of Rossillon) with the swoorde: in such sort, as that he left aliue, nor man, nor woman, nor olde, nor [Page] young for the least cause in the world: as if they came not incon­tinent at his commaunde: or if they did not bring him so many load of Mahis, which signifieth in that country bread corne: or if they did not bring him so many Indians to serue him and others of his company: for the countrey lay leuell, as was sayde, and no creature coulde escape his horses and diuelishe rage.

He sent Spaniardes to make out rodes, that is to say, to go a thieuing into other prouinces: and gaue leaue to those rouers, to carrie with them as many Indians of this peaceable people as they listed, and that they shoulde serue them, whome they put to the chayne, to the ende they shoulde not giue ouer the bur­dens of three or fourescore poundes weight, wherewith they lo­ded them, whereof it came to passe oftentimes that of foure thou­sand Indians, there returned not home to their housen sixe on liue: but euen fell downe starke dead in the high way: and when any were so wearie that they coulde march no farther for the lieaft of their burdens, or that some of them fell sicke, or fainted for hunger or thyrst, because it should not neede to stande so long as to vnlocke the chaine, and to make the speedier dispatch, hee cut off the head from ye shoulders, and so the head tumbled downe one way, and the bodie another. Now consider with your selues, what the other pore soules might thinke the whiles, Certainely whē as he vsed to speede out such voiages, ye Indians knowing yt none in a maner euer returned home again, at parting one frō a­nother they would weep and sigh, saying: such waies are ye same where as we were wont to serue ye christians, & howbeit we tra­ueiled sore there: yet that notwithstanding we came home again to our housen, our wiues and our children: but nowe wee goe without hope euer to returne againe to see thē, & to liue together with them.

At a time when he woulde make a newe sharing forth of the Indians, because his pleasure was such, yea men say that it was in deede to ridde the Indians, as those to whome hee meant no good at all, but to giue them away to whome he sawe good: hee was the cause that the Indians sowed not their groundes one whole yeeres continuance.

[Page] So as nowe, when they wanted bread, the Spaniards tooke away from the Indians their Mahis, which they had in store for prouision, to nourishe them and their children: whereby there dyed of famine, more then twentie or thirtie thousande soules. And it came to passe, that a woman fallen madde with the famin, slue her sonne to eate him.

Forasmuch as euery towneshippe, and all other places in­habited that the Spaniardes had in their subiection, was none other then a very garden of pleasure (as hath bin sayd) they kept them selues euery one forsooth in the place escheated to him in partition (or as they vse to speake) giuen him in commaund, and did their affayres, nourishing themselues with the goods and prouisions of the poore Indians. In this wise did they take the landes and inheritaunces perticuler wherewith they sustayned themselues, so as the Spaniardes kept in their owne houses, all the Indians, Lords, old men, women, and children, causing them to serue them day and night without rest, euen to the infantes as soone as they coulde but goe, to put them to the greatest thing they were able to doe: yea and to greater thinges then they were able to doe. And thus haue they cousumed and abolished, and doe yet euery day vnto this present, consume and abolish the few remayning behind, not permitting thē to retayn house nor ought els that is their owne. Wherein they may vaunt to haue sur­mounted them selues, in their owne iniquities and vnrighteous­nesses by them wrought in Hispaniola.

They haue discomfited and oppressed in this prouince a great number of people, and hastened their death in cawsing them to beare boordes and tymber vnto the hauen thirtie leagues di­stance, to make shippes with: and sent them to goe seeke honnie and waxe amiddest the mountaines, where the Tigres deuoured them: Yea they haue laden women with childe, and women new deliuered or lying in, with burdens enough for beasts.

The greatest plague whiche hath most dispeopled this pro­uince, hath beene the licence which the gouernour gaue to the Spaniardes, to demaunde or exact of the Cacikes and Lordes of the countrey slaues. They did giue them euery foure or fiue moneths, or as often times as euery one coulde obtayne licence [Page] of the gouernour fiftie slaues: with threatninges, that if they gaue them not, they woulde burne them aliue, or cause them to bee eaten with dogges.

Nowe ordinarily the Indians doe not keepe slaues, and it is muche if one Cacike doe keepe two, three, or foure: Wherefore to serue this turne, they went to theyr subiectes, and tooke first all the Orphelius, and after wards they exacted of him that had two children one, and of him that had three, two: and in this maner was the Carike, fayne to furnishe still to the number that the tyrane imposed, with the great weeping and crying of the people: for they are people that doe loue (as it seemeth) ten­derly their children. And for because that this was done con­tinually, they dispeopled from the yeere 23. vnto the yeere 33. all this realme. For there went for sixe or seuen yeeres space, fiue or sixe shippes at a time, carrying foorth great numbers of those Indians, for to sell them for slaues at Ioanama and Peru: where they all dyed not long after. For it is a thing prooued and experimented a thousande times, that when the Indians are transported from their naturall countrey, they soone ende their liues: besides that these giue them not their sustenance, neyther yet dimmish they of their toyle, as neyther doe they buy them, for ought else but to toyle. They haue by this maner of doing drawen out of this prouince of the Indies, whome they haue made slaues, being as free borne as I am, more then siue hundreth thousande soules. And by the diuelishe warres which the Spanishe haue made on them, and the hidious thraledome that they haue laid vpon them, they haue brought to their deaths, other fiftie or threescore thousande persons, and doe yet dayly make hauocke of them at this present. Al these slaughters haue been accomplished within the space of fourteene yeeres. There may be left at this day in all this prouinces of Nicaragua, the number of a foure or fiue thousande persons, whiche they also cause to die as yet euery day, through bondages and oppressions ordinarily and personall, hauing bin the countrey the most peo­pled in the worlde, as I haue already saide.

Of newe Spayne.

IN the yeere one thousande, fiue hundred and seuenteene, was newe Spaine discouered: at the discouerie whereof were committed great disorders and slaughters of the Indians, by those which had the doing of that exployit. The yeere a thou­sande, fiue hundred, and eyghteene, there went Spanish Chri­stians (as they terme them selues,) to rob and slay, notwithstan­ding that they sayde they went to people the countrey. Sithence that yere, a thousande, fiue hundred, & eyghteen, vnto this present the yeere a thousande, fiue hundreth, fourtie two, the vniust dea­lings, the violencie, and the tyrannies which the Spaniardes haue wrought against the Indians, are mounted to the highest degree of extremitie: those selfe same Spaniardes, hauing tho­rowly lost the feare of God, and of the king, and forgotten them­selues. For the discomfitures, cruelties, slaughters, spoyles, the destructions of Cities, pillages, violences, and tyrannies which they haue made in so many realms, and so great, hath bin such & so horrible, that all ye things which we haue spokē of are nothing in comparison of those which haue bin done and executed frō the yere 1518. vnto the yere 1542. & as yet at this time, this mo­neth current of Septēber, are in doing & cōmitting ye most grie­uousest, & the most abominablest of al: in such sort yt the rule whi­che we set down before is verified: That is, that from the begin­ning they haue alwaies proceeded frō euil to worse, & haue gone beyond thēselues in ye most greatest disorders & diuelish doings.

In such wise, as that since the first entring into new Spaine, wc was on the eight day of April, in ye 18. yeere, vnto ye 13. yeere, which make 12. yeeres complete: the slaughters & the destruc­tions haue neuer ceased, which the bloodie and cruel handes of ye Spaniardes haue continually executed in 400. and 50. leagues of land or there about in cōpasse, roūd about Mexico, & the neigh­bour regions round about, such as the which might contaynt 4. or 5. great realmes, as great & a great deale farre fertiler then is Spain. All this countrey was more peopled with inhabitantes, [Page] then Toledo, and Seuill, and Valadolyd, and Sauagoce, with Barcelona. For that there hath not beene commonly in those cities, nor neuer were such a worlde of people, when they haue beene peopled with the most, as there was then in the sayde countrey, which contayneth in the whole compasse more then one thousande eyght hundred leagues: during the time of the aboue mentioned twelue yeeres, the Spaniardes haue slaine & done to death in the sayd hundred & fiftie leagues of land what men, what women, what young and litle children, more then foure millions of soules, with the dint of the sworde and speare, & by fire, during (I say) the conquests (as they call them) but ra­ther in deede during the routes of barbarous tyrantes, suche as are condemned not onely by the law of God, but also by alllaws of man, and are worser then those which are done by the Turke to destroy the church of Christ. Neyther yet doe I here comprise those, whom they haue slayne, and do slay as yet euery day, in the aforesaid slauerie and oppression ordinary.

There is no tongue, skill, knowledge, nor industrie of man, which is able to recount the particularities of the dreadfull doo­ings, which these arrand enemies, yea deadly enemies of man­kinde haue put in vre generally throughout and in diuers parts, and at diuers times within the saide compasse of grounde, speci­ally some of the deedes done, because of their circumstances whi­che make them become the more haynous, can not be well as it ought to be disciphred by any diligence, leasure, or quoting what soeuer that may be thereto employed. Howebeit I will rehearse some things of certayne parties, but vnder protestation, & as if I were sworne solemnly to tell the trueth, that is, that I doe be­leeue that I shal not when I haue all done, touch one only point of a thousande.

Of newe Spaine in particular.

Amongst other murderers & massacres they committed this one which I am now to speak of, in a great citie more thē of a thirtie [Page] thousande householdes, which is called Cholula: that is, that, comming before them the Lords of the countrey and places nere adioyning, and first and formost the Priestes with their chiefe high priest in procession, to receiue the Spaniardes with great solemnitie and reuerence, so conducting them in the middest of them, towardes their lodgings in the citie, in the housen and place of the Lorde, or other principall Lordes of the Citie: the Spaniardes aduised with themselues to make a massarre, or a chastise (as they speake) to the ende, to raise and plant a dread of their cruelties in euery corner of all that countrey.

Nowe this hath been alwayes their customary maner of doyng, in euery the regions which they haue entred into, to exe­cute incontinent vpon their first arriuall, some notable cruell butcherie, to the ende, that those poore and innocent lambes should tremble for feare whiche they should haue of them: in this wise they sent first to sommon all the Lordes and Noble men of the citie, and of all the places subiect vnto the same citie: who so soone as they came to speake with the captyne of the Spa­niardes, were incontinent apprehended before that anye bodye might perceiue the matter, to bee able therevppon to beare ty­dinges thereof vnto others. Then were demaunded of them fiue or sixe thousande Indians, to carry the loadings and carria­ges of the Spaniardes: which Indians came forth with, and were bestowed into the base courtes of the Housen. It was a pitifull case to see these poore folke, what time they made them redy to beare the carriages of the Spaniarde. They come all naked, onely their secrete partes couered, hauing euery one vp­on their shoulder a nette with a small deale of victuall: they howe them selues euery one, and hold their backes cowred down like a sort of silly lambes, presenting them selues to the swords, and thus being all assembled in the base court together with o­thers, one part of the Spanishe all armed, bestowe them selues at the gates to hemme them in, whiles the rest put these poore sheepe to the edge of the sworde and the speares, in such sort, that there coulde not scape away one onely person, but that hee was cruelly put to death: sauing that after a two or three dayes, you might haue seene come forth sundry all couerred with blood whi­che [Page] had [...] and saued them selues vnder the dead bodies of their fellowes, and nowe presenting themselues before the Spani­ardes, asking them mercy and the faiung of their liues; they founde in them no parte, nor compassion any whit at all but were all hewed in peeces.

All the Lordes whiche were aboue and vnderneath were all bounde, the Captayne commaunding there to hee brent quicke being bounde vnto stakes pitched into the grounde. Howe be it one Lorde, which might bee peraduenture the principall and king of the countrey saued him selfe, and cast him selfe with thir­tie or fourtie other menne into a temple thereby, which was as good vnto them as a forte, whiche they call in their language, qewe: and there be defended him selfe a good part of the day. But the Spaniards, whose handes nothing can escape special­ly armed for the warre, cast fire on the temple, and burned all those which were within. Who cast out these voyces and cries, O yee euill men! O ye euill men! What displeasure haue wee done you? why doe yee slay vs? Goe. Goe you shall come at Mexico: where our Soueraigne Lorde Mortensuma shall take vengeance of you. It is reported that as the Spaniardes played this gay play in the base court, putting to the edge of the sword a fiue or sixe thousand men, their captaine hauing his heart all in a Iollitie sang.

Mira Nero de Tarpeya à Roma como seardias
Gritos, dan ninos, y vie [...]os: y el de nada se dolia:

That is to say,

Fro Tarpey top, dan Nero gan see Roome all flaming brenne,
Both young and old cry out, the whiles his heart did neuer yerne.

THey made also another great butcherie in the Citie of Ta­peaca; whiche was greater and of more number of house­holdes, [Page] and more people inhabiting then in the citie afore sor [...]e. They siue here with the sharpe of the sword, an infinite number of people, with great circūstances & particularties of cruelties.

From Cholula they went to Mexico. The king Motensuma sent to meete them a thousande of presentes, and Lordes, and people, making ioy and mirth by the way.

And at the entry of the cawsie of Mexico, whiche reacheth two leagues in length, he sent also his brother; accompanied with a great number of honorable Lordes, bearing with them rich pre­sents, gold, siluer, & apparell: & at the barres of the citie, the king in person with all his great court, came to receiue them, beeing carried in a lighter of golde, and them accompanied vnto the palace which hee had caused to bee made ready for them.

The selfe same very day, as some haue tolde me the which were then and there present, they tooke by a certayne dissimulation the great king Moteusuma, as he mistrusted nothing, and ordai­ned fourescore men to keepe him. Afterwardes, they put giues on his feete. But letting all this passe, in the which there were notable poyntes to speake of, I will onely rehearse one which was singuler wrought by th [...]se tirantes. The Captaine general of the Spanishe was gone to thē sea porte to take another Spa­nishe Captayne, which came against in warre: and hauing lefte another vnder captayne in his roome, with a fewe more then an hundreth men to keepe the sayde king Motensuma: these same aduised with them selues to doe another thing woorthy the note, to the ende, to encrease and augment more and more in all those regions, the awe which they had of them: a practise and strata­geme which (as I sayde before) they haue often vsed. All this meane while the Indians, the common people, and the Lordes of the whole Citie sought none other thing, saue onely to shewe pleasure and pastime to their Lorde which was deteyned priso­ner. And amongest other sportes which they made him: were their friskes and daunces whiche they made in the euening tho­rowe out all the high streetes and markette places, which daun­ces, they call Mitotes, as in the iles they call them Areytos.

The do weare in these friskes all their riche furniture, their best gorgious attyre, and their iewels, despising them selues to [Page] liking in all thinges, for these are the greatest signes of ioy and festiuitie that they doe vse. Nowe at this time, the nobilitis also, and princes of the blood royall, eche one after his degree kept their reuels and feastes at the neerest vnto the house where was deceyned prisoner their soueraigne. Ioyning vnto the walles of the saide palace, were there more then two thousande youthes, Lordes children, which were the flower of the nobilitie of all the state of Morensuma. Against those made out the captayne of the Spaniardes with a troupe of souldiers, sending the others vnto other places of the citie where the frisks and daunces were kept, and all making wise onely to go see them. The captayne had gi­uen in charge, that at a certayne appointed houre, they should all cast them vpon those dauncers, and hee himselfe for his own part, casting himselfe into the thronge, the Indians mistrusting no­thing, but onely intending their disport, hee saith: Saynttiago, let vs amongst, them, & vpon thē sirs. And thus their arming swords in their fistes, they began to rip these bodies naked and delicate, and to shed that blood gentle and noble, in such sort, as that they left not a man aliue. The others performed the like in other pla­ces, a thing which set all those realmes and nations in a fright & extreme desperation, and whereof as long as the world shall last, they will neuer lin (if themselues do not decay) to lament, and re­corde in their Areytos & solemne meetings, as in rime these ca­lamities, and the spoile of the spring of their ancient nobilitie, of the which they are wont to vaunt thēselues & glory very much.

The Indians seeing so great an iniquitie, and a crueltie ne­uer heard of the like, made against so many innocentes without any cause: specially hauing put vp quietly the imprisonment & that no lesse wrongfull of their soueraigne Lorde, who also had commaunded them not to make warre vpon the Spaniardes: all the citie put them selues in armes, whervpon the Spaniards be­ing assaulted and many of them hurt, with much a do might they escape, but set a dagger on the chest of the brest of the prisoner Motensuma to kill him, if he laied not him selfe out at a gallery or winddowe, to cōmand the Indians that they should not beset the house, & they should keepe thē quiet. The Indians taking no care as then of obeying, aduised thē to chuse a L. & captayn from [Page] amongst them selues to conduct their battals. And for as much as the Captayn which was gone to the hauen, was returned vic­torious, leading with him more Spaniardes then he had carried foorth, and for that hee was nowe neere at hande, the combate ceased about a three or foure dayes, vntill such time as hee was entred the towne.

Then the Indians assembled an infinite number of people out of all the countrey, and skirmished in such wise, and so long a season, that the Spanish thought they should al die on the place, wherefore they deliberated to abandon the citie for one night. That which their disseighu being knowen to the Indians, they slewe of them a great number vppon the bridges of the Marshes in a warre most rightfull, and most lawfull for the causes most righteous which they had as hath been saide: the whiche euery reasonable and true dealing man will mayneteyne for good. Soone after, the Spanishe hauing realied themselues, the combat with the Citie renewed, where the Spaniardes made an horrible and ghastly butcherie of the Indians, and slue an infi­nite of people, and brent aliue the great Lords.

After these great and abhominable tyrannies committed in the Citie of Mexico, and in other cities, and the countrey renne, fifteene, and twentie leagues compasse of Mexico: this tyrannie and pestilence aduaunced it selfe forwarde, to waste al­so, infect, and lay desolate the prouince of Panuco. It was a thing to bee wondered at of the worlde, of people that there were, and the spoyles and slaughters there done. Afterwarde they wasted also after the selfe maner, all the prouince of Tutte­peke, and the prouince of Ipelingo, and the prouince of Columa: eche prouince conteyning more grounde then the realme of Le­on & of Castile. It shoulde bee a thing very difficulte, yea, impos­sible to speake or recount the discomfitures, the slaughters, and the cruelties, which they there committed: and woulde cause a great remorse vnto the hearers.

Here is to be noted, that the title wherewith they entred, and beganne to make hauocke of all these harmelesse and silly Indians, and haue dispeopled that countrey, which shoulde haue caused a great reioycing to all those which shoulde bee in trueth [Page] Christians, beyng so peopled as they were: was to say that they shoulde come and put them selues in subiection, to serue the king of Spain, otherwise that they woulde kill them, or make them slaues. And those which came not incontinent to satisfie their demaundes so vniust, and did not put them selues into the handes of men so vniust, cruell, and beastly, they called them rebelles, as those which had lift vp them selues agaynst the kinges Maiestie, and for such they accused them to the king our soueraigne Lorde: the blinde vnderstandings of those which go­uerned the Indians, beeing not able to comprehende nor per­ceyue this much, which in their lawes is more cleerely taught then any other principle of Lawe, that is, that none can bee re­puted a rebell, if first hee be not a subiect. Nowe let Christi­ans, and those which haue any perceyuerance consider with them selues, if suche cases can prepare and informe the mindes of any nations whatsoeuer liuing in their countrey in assurance, and not thinking to owe any thing to any person, hauing their owne naturall liege Lordes whom they serue and obey, sudden­ly to come and tell them tydings:

Put you vnder the obeysance of a king a stranger, whom ye neuer sawe, nor neuer hearde of before: otherwise knowe yee that wee will rent yee incontinent all to peeces, specially when it is knowen by experience that they doe it in deede as soone as it is but sayde. And that which is farre more frightfull, they take those, which doe yeelde them selues to obey, to put them into a moste grieuous bondage, in the whiche there are toyles incredible, and tormentes greater and of longer continu­ance then those same of them which are excuted by the swoorde, for in the ende they perishe, they, their wiues, their children, and their whole generation.

And put the case, that through the threates and frightes a­foresaide, those peoples, or any others whosoeuer doe come to obey and acknowledge the dominion of a straunger king: doe not these blunderers see, being altogether benummed with am­bition and deuelish couetousnes, that they winne not a mite of right, forasmuche as so it is, that it is caused vpon frightes and terrours which might bee able to slake men the constantest and [Page] the best aduised: and that by the lawes of nature, man, and God, it hath no more force then a handfull of winde, to make any thing auaylable to any purpose whatsoeuer, sauing the punish­ment and obligation which abideth them in the bottom of hel. I passe ouer the losses and dammages which they doe to the king, when as they spoyle his realmes, and bring to nought (as much as in them lyeth) all the right which they haue in the Indies.

These are nowe the seruices, whiche the Spaniardes haue done, and as yet doe at this houre vnto the aforesaide kinges, and soueraigne Lords, vnder the colour of this gallant title, so right­full, and so smoothly garnished.

This Captayne tyraunt, with this gorgeous and pretended title, dispatched two other Captaynes, as very tyrauntes and farre more cruell, and lesse pitifull then him selfe, into greate realmes most flourishing, and most fertile, and full of people, to witte, the realme of Guatimala, which lieth to the seawarde on the South side, and the same of Naco, and Honduras, otherwise called Guaymura, which coasteth on the sea on the North side, confronting and confining the one with the other, three hun­dred leagues distaunce from Mexico. Hee sent the one by land, and the other by sea: both the one and the other carried with them a maynie of trowpes to serue on horse backe and a foote.

I say the trueth, that of the mischieues which these two haue wrought, and principally hee whiche went to Guati­mala (for that other dyed soone after of an euill death,) there might be made a great booke, of so many villanies, of so manie slaughters, so many desolations, and of so many outrages and brutishe vniustices, as were able to affright the age present and to come.

For certayne this man surpassed all the others, present, and gone before, in quantitie and in number, as well for the abomi­nations whiche hee committed, as for the peoples and countreys whiche he layde waste and desert. All the which thinges were infinite.

Hee which went by sea committed exceeding pillinges, cruel­ties, & disorders amongst the people on the sea coast: before whō some comming with presents from the realme of Yucatane whi­che [Page] is the high way to ye aforesaid realme of Naro & Guaimura, towards the which they went: when he came vnto them he sente captaynes, & a many of men of armes through all that land, whi­che went sacking, slaughtering, & destroying as many people as there were to be foūd, & principally one, who with three hundred more, hauing mutined and rebelled, and setting himselfe into the countrey towardes Guatimala, went spoyling and burning all the towns that he found, in killing and robbing the people inha­bitants of them. That which he did of a set purpose, in more then an hundred and twentie leagues of the land, to the end, that if any had sent after him, those which should come, shoulde finde the countrey dispeopled and debelled, and that they were so slain of the Indians, in reuenge of the dammages and spoiles by them made. After whome haue succeeded sundry others most cruell tyrantes, the which with their slaughters and dreadful cruelties, and by bringing the Indians into thraldrome, whom afterwards they soulde vnto those who carried them with their shippings of wine, garments, and other things, and by reason of the tyranni­call seruitude ordinary, since the yeere a thousande, fiue hundred, twentie foure, vntill the yeere 1535. haue layd waste those same prouinces and realmes of Naro and Honduras, the which resē ­bled a paradise of pleasures: and were more peopled, frequented, and inhabited, then any countrey of the worlde: and nowe of late we comming a long thereby, haue seene them so dispeopled and destroied, that who so should see them, his heart would cleaue for sorrowe, ware he neuer so flintie.

They haue slaine within these eleuen yeeres, more then two Millions of soules, hauing not left in more then an hundreth leagues of the countrey square, but two thousande persons, whome they slay as yet dayly in the sayde ordinarie bondage.

Nowe let vs returne to write of the great tyraunt and Cap­tayne, which went to Guatimala, (who, as hath been sayde, ex­ceeded all the aforepassed, and is comparable to all those, which are at this day) from the prouinces neere to Mexico, (according as him selfe wrote in a letter to the principall tyraunt whiche had sente him) distaunte from the realme of Guatimala 400. leagues, (keeping ye way by him traced) & as he went, slu, robbed, [Page] burned and destroyed all the countrey, wheresoeuer he be came, vnder the shadow of title aboue mantioned, saying: yt they should submit themselues vnto thē, that is to say, vnto men so vnnatural, so wicked, and so cruell: in the name of the king of Spaine, who was vnto them vnknowen, and of whom they had neuer hearde speake: and the which those nations there esteemed more vniust and more cruell then they his men were. And the tyrauntes gi­uing vnto them no respect of time to deliberace, they fling vpon the poore folke, in a maner as soone as the message was done, putting all to fire and blood.

Of the Prouince and realme of Guatimala.

NO sooner arriued hee into this saide realme: but that he beganne with great slaughter of the inhabitaunces. This notwithstanding the chiefe Lorde came to receiue him, being ca­ried in a lighter, with trumpettes and tabours, reioycinges, and disportes, accompanied with a great number of the Lordes of the citie of Vitlatan, head citie of the whole realme, dooing them also seruice with all they had, but specially in giuing them foode abundantly, & whatsoeuer they demaunded besids. The Spanish lodged this night without the citie, forasmuche as the same see­med vnto them strong, and there might bee thereby daunger.

This Captayne called to him the next morrowe the chiefe Lorde, with other great Lordes, who beeing come as meeke sheepe, hee apprehended them al, & commaunded thē to giue him certayne summes of golde. They answering that they had none, forasmuch as the countrey yeelded none: hee commaundeth in­continent to burne them aliue, without hauing committed any crime whatsoeuer, and without any other forme of proces or sen­tence.

As the Lordes of all these prouinces perceiued, that they had burned their soueraigne Lordes, onely because they gaue them no golde, they fledde all to the mountaynes, commaunding [Page] their subiectes to goe to the Spaniardes, and to serue them as their Lords, but that they should not discouer them, nor giue thē intelligence where they were.

With this, loe all the people of the countrey, presenting them, and protesting to bee theirs, and to serue them as their Lordes: The Captayne made answere that hee woulde not accept of them, but that hee woulde kill them if they tolde not where were their Lordes. The Indians answered, they could not tell ought: but as touching them selues they were content, that they shoulde employ them to their seruice, with their wiues and children: and that they should vse their housen, and that there they might kill, or doe what so euer them pleased.

It is a wonderfull thing, that the Spaniardes went to their villages and borrowes, and finding there these silly people at their worke, with their wiues and children, neyther misdoubting any thing they pearsed them with their Borespeares, and hack­led them to peeces. They came to one borrowe great & migh­tie, which helde it selfe more assured then any other, because of their innocencie: whome the Spanishe layde desolate in a ma­ner all whole, in the space of two houres, putting to the edge of the sword, children, with women, and aged persons, and all those which could not escape by flying.

The Indians seeing that by their humilitie, by their pre­sentes and patience, they could not pacifie nor mitigate the mad­moode, and enraged heartes of their enemies, and that without any reason, or shewe of reason, they were hackt in peeces: and seeing likewise that they were sure to die ere long: they deui­sed to assemble and realye themselues to die all in warre, and a­uenge themselues the best that they could vpon, enemies so cru­el and diuelishe: knowing also well enough them selues with­out weapons, starke naked, weake, and on foote, and suche as coulde by no meanes preuayle or carrie away the victory, but that in the ende they shoulde be destroyed: they aduised between them to digge certayne ditches in the middest of the wayes, to make their horses tomble into, and pearcing their bellies with pikes sharpned and brent at one ende, there bestowed of purpose, and couered ouer so orderly with greene turfe, that it seemed [Page] there was no such matter.

There fell in horses once or twise: for the Spaniardes af­terwardes coulde beware of them. But nowe to auenge them, they made a law, that as many Indians as might be taken aliue, shoulde bee flong into the same pittes. Hereuppon they cast in women with child, and women newe deliuered of childbirth, and olde folke as many as they coulde come by, vntyll that the dit­ches were filled vp. It was a lamentable thing to beholde the women with their children stabbed with these pickes. All be­sides, they slue with thrust of speares, and edge of swoorde. They cast of them also to fleshe fraunching dogges, which tare them and deuoured them. They brent a Lord at a great fire of quicke flames: saying, they woulde herein doe him honour. And they persisted in these butcheries so vnnaturall, about seuen yeeres, from the yeere 24. vntill the yeere 31. Let any esteeme, what may bee the number of people: whome they might haue slayne.

Amongst an infinite of horrible actes which this cursed tyraunt did in this realme with his bandes of souldiers, (for his vnder captaynes were no lesse mischieuous and insensate then himselfe, and withall likewise those that were vnder them again to serue their turne,) this one was notable: That where as in the prouince of Cuzcatan, where is at this houre, or neere there a­boutes the citie of Saint Sauiour, a countrey very fertile with all the sea coaste on the Southe, contayning fourtie or fiftie leagues: and likewise in the Citie of Cuscatan the mother Ci­tie of the prouince, there had been made him a very great enter­taynement, of more then twentie or thirtie thousande Indians attending him, all laden with poultrie and other victuals: this Captayne arriuing, and hauing receiued the presentes, hee com­maunded that euery one of the Spaniardes shoulde take of this great number of people, such as shoulde please him, to serue him all the time that they shoulde make their abode there, and that they shoulde constrayne them to beare for them, of their carriage all that should bee needefull.

Euery man tooke vnto him other an hundred, or fiftie, or as [Page] many as it seemed suffised him to bee well serued. These poore lambelike innocentes serued the Spaniards with all their po­wer, that there wanted nothing, vnlesse they shoulde doe vnto them godly honour. Meane while this captayne demaunded of the Lordes very much golde: for they were principally commen for that purpose.

The Indians answered that they were ready to giue them all the golde they had: and layed together a great furniture of batchets of copper and gylt, where with they seruè their owne turnes, the same resembling golde, as in deede it hath in it some litle deale. The Captayne causeth to put to the touch: and as he sawe it was copper, hee sayde to the Spaniardes, nowe the diuell take such a countrey: let vs bee gone hence, seeing here is no golde heere: and euery man put the Indians whiche hee hath retayned to serue him, to the hotte irons, and so to marke them for slaues.

That which they did, branding with the kinges marke all that they might. I sawe the sonne him selfe of the principall Lorde of this citie, to bee so branded. The Indians which esca­ped, with all other of the Countrey seeing all the mischiefes of the Spanishe, beganne to assemble, and put them selues in armes: wherevppon the Spaniardes woorke great discom fi­tures and slaughters, returning to Guatimala where they buil­ded a citie, the which God of a iust iudgement hath renuersed with three ouer whelmings falling all three together: the one was with water, the other with earth, and the thirde with stones, of the bignesse of tenne or twentie oxen. By suche like meanes all the Lordes and the men that were able to beare armes being slayne: those which remayned, were reduced into the diaboli­call seruitude afore saide, being made tributaryslaues or villayns regardant, but giuing for their tribute sonnes and daughters, for they will haue none other kind of bondimen. And so the Spa­niards sending whole ships laden with them to Peru to sell thē, wt their other slaughters, haue destroyed & laide desert an whole [Page] Realme of an hundred leagues square or about, a countrey the most blesseful, and peopled the most that might be in the worlde.

For the tyraunt him selfe wrote hereof, that it was more peo­pled then Mexico: and herein hee sayde the trueth. Hee hath done to death, with his consortes and confrayryes, more then foure or fiue Millions of soules in fifteen or sixteen yeeres space, from the yeere twentie foure, vnto the fourtieth yeere: and yet at this houre they slay and destroy those that remayne.

This tyraunt had a custome, when as hee went to make warre vpon any Citie or Prouince: to carrie thither of the In­dians alreadie vnder yoked, as many as hee coulde, to make warre vpon the other Indians: and as hee gaue vnto a ten or twentie thousande men which he ledde along no sustenaunce, he allowed them to eate the Indians whiche they tooke: And so by this meanes hee had in his campe an ordinarie shambles of mans fleshe, where, in his presence they killed and roasted chil­dren. They killed men, onely to haue off from them their handes and their feete, which partes they helde to be the dayntiest mor­cels. When the nations of other countreys vnderstoode of all those vnnaturall doings, they could not tel what to do for fright­fulnesse.

He was the death of an infinite sorte of the Indians in ma­king of shippes, the which hee carried from the North sea vnto the South, which are an hundred and thirtie leagues. He trans­ported after this rate great store of artillerie, which he loded vp­on the shoulders of these poore folke going naked: whereby I haue seene very many fall downe in the high way, by reason of their great burdens.

Hee vndid whole housholdes, by taking from the men their wiues and daughters: the which afterwardes hee dispersed in gyftes to his marriners and souldiers to please them withall, who led them along with them in their nauies. He stuffed all the shippes with Indians, where they dyed for thryst and hun­gar. Certaynely if I shoulde stande to tell the particularities of these cruelties: I shoulde make a great booke thereof, whiche shoulde astonishe the worlde. Hee made two nauies, eyther of [Page] a great number of shippes, with the which hee consumed as with fire and lightning flashing from heauen all those peoples: O howe many poore children hath hee made fatherlesse Orphans. howe many men and women widowers and widowes, beree­uing thē also of their childrē! How many adulteries, whoredoms and rapes, hath he been the cause of! How many hath he of free made villanyes: Howe many anguishes and calamities by him haue nombers suffered: Howe many hath hee caused to shedde teares, sighes and groninges: Of how many desolations hath he been the occasion in this life, and the meanes for others to sall into euerlasting damnation in the life to come, not onely of the Indians which are innumerable, but of the miserable Spani­ardes, with whose ayde he hath serued himselfe in villanies so excessiue, and sinues so enormous, and abominations so execra­ble: I wishe in God that hee had taken pitie of him: and that hee had been pleased in so euill an ende as he sent him.

Of newe Spaine, and Panuco, and Xalisco.

AFter the exceeding cruelties and slaughters aforesayd, and the others whiche I haue omitted, whiche haue been execu­ted in the prouinces of newe Spayne and Panuco: there came to Panuco an other tyraunt, cruell, and vnbrideled, in the yeere 1525. Who in committing very many cruelties, and in bran­ding many for slaues, after the maner aforesayde which were all free, and in sending very many shippes laden to Cuba, and Hi­spaniola, where they might best make Marchandise of them, hee archieued the desolation of this prouince.

And it hath come to passe in his tyme, that there hath been giuen for one Mare, eyght hundred Indians soules partakers of reason. And this man from this roome was promoted to bee president of Mexico, and of all the prouince of new Spaine, and there were promoted with him other tyrauntes, to the offices of Auditorshippes: in the which dignities they committed so many [Page] vngracious turnes, so manie sinnes, so many cruelties, robbe­ries, and abhominations, that a man can not beleeue them to be such. And they set forwarde also this countrey into so extreme a desolation, that if God had not kept them by meanes of the re­sistance of the religious men of Saint Francis order, and if that there had not been prouided with all speede a court of audience, and the kings counsayle in those partes friende to all vertue, they had laide wast all newe Spayne, as they haue done the Ile of Hispaniola.

There was a man, amongst those of the company of this captayne, who to the end to enclose a gardē of his, wt a wal: kept in his workes eight thousande Indians, without paying them ought, nor giuing them to eate, in maner that they dyed, falling down suddēly, & he neuer tooke the more thought for the matter.

After that the chiefe Captayne which I spake of, had fini­shed the laying waste of Panuco, and that hee vnderstoode the newes of the comming of the kinges court of Audience: hee aduised with him selfe to proceede farther into the innermoste partes of the realme, to search where hee might tyrannize at his ease, and drewe by force out of the prouince of Mexico 15. or 20. Millions of men, to the ende, that they shoulde carrie the loades and carriages of the Spaniardes whiche went with him, of whom there neuer returned agayne two hundred, the others be­ing dead on the high wayes.

Hee came at the prouince of Mechuacam, which is distant from Mexico fourtie leagues, a region as blissefull and full of inhabitauntes, as is that of Mexico. The king and Lorde of the countrey went to receiue him with an infinite companie of people, which did vnto them a thousande seruices and curtisies.

Hee apprehended him by and by, for that hee had the brute to be very rich of gold and siluer: and to the ende, that hee shoulde giue him great treasures, hee beganne to giue him the torments, and put him in a payre of stockes by the feete, his body stretched out, and his handes bounde to a stake, hee maketh a flashing fire against his feete, and there a boy with a basting sprinkle loked in oyle in his hande stoode and basted them a litle and a litle, to the ende to well roaste the skynne. There was in one side of him a cruell man, the whiche with a crossebowe bente, aymed [Page] ryght at his heart, on the other side an other which helde a dogge snarling, and leaping vp as to renne vppon him, which in lesse then the tyme of a Credo, had beene able to haue torne him in pieces: and thus they tormented him, to the ende hee shoulde discouer the treasures which they desired, vntyll suche tyme as a religious man of Saint Frauncis order tooke him away from them, notwithstanding that hee dyed of the same tormentes.

They tormented and slue of this fashion very many of the Lordes and Cacikes in these Prouinces: to the ende that they shoulde giue them gold and siluer.

At the same time a certayne tyrant going in visitation to visite the powches, and to robbe the godes of the Indians, more then for any care hee had of theyr soules, founde, that certayne Indians had hid their Idolles, as those which had neuer been better instructed by ye cursed Spaniards of any better god, he ap­prehended and detayned prisoners the Lordes, vntyll suche time as that they woulde giue them their Idolles: Supposing all this while they had beene of golde or of siluer: Howebeit they were not so, wherefore hee chastised them cruelly and vniustly.

But to the ende hee woulde not remayne frustrate of his intent, which was to spoyle, hee constrayned the Cacikes to redeeme their sayde Idolles, and they redeemed them for such gold & siluer as they coulde find, to the ende, to worship them for Gods, as they had bin wont to do aforetime. These be the exam­ples & deedes which these cursed Spaniardes do: and this is the honour which they purchase to God, amongst the Indians.

This great tyraunt and Captayne passed farther from Me­chuacham to the Prouince of Lalisco, the which was all whole most full of people, and most happie. For it is one of the moste fertillest and most admirable countrey of the Indies, whiche had borrowes coutaining in a maner seuē leagues. As he entred this coūtrey the L. with ye inhabitants, according as al ye Indians are accustomed to do, wēt to receiue him wt presēts & ioyfulnes. Hee begā to cōmit his cruelties & mischieuousnes, wc he had learned & all the rest had bin accustomed to practise, wc is to heap vp gold wc is their god. He burned townes, he tooke ye Cacikes prisonners. and gaue them torments. Hee made slaues all that hee tooke.

[Page] Whereof there died an infinite number tyed in chaynes. The women newe deliuered of childe byrth, going laden with the s [...]uffe of euill Christian [...], and being not abie to beare their owne children because of trauell and hunger, were fayne to cast them from them in the wayes, whereof there dyed an infinite.

An euill Christian taking by force a young Damsell to a­buse her, the mother withstoode him: and as shee woulde haue taken her away, the Spaniarde drawing his dagger or rapier, cutte off her hande, and slue the young gyrle with flashes of his weapon: because shee woulde not consent to his appetite.

Amongst manye other thinges, hee caused vniustly to bee marked for slaues, foure thousande, fiue hundred soules as free as they, men, women, and sucking babes, from of a yere and a halfe olde, vnto three or foure yeeres olde: which notwithstan­ding had gone before them in peace to receiue them, with an infi­nite number of other thinges that haue not beene set downe in writing.

Hauing atchieued the diuelishe warres innumerable, and hauing in the same committed very many slaughters, hee redu­ced all that countrey into the ordinary seruitude, pestilential and tyrannicall, into the which all the tyrant Spaniardes whiche are in the Indies, are accustomed, or pretende to cast those people▪ In the which countrey, hee consented also, and permitted his Ste­wardes and all others to execute tormentes neuer hearde of be­fore, to the ende, to drawe from the Indians golde and tribute. His Stewardes slewe very many of the Indians, hanging them and burning them aliue, and casting some vnto the dogges, cut­ting off their feete, handes, head, and tongue, they being in peace, onely to bring them into a feare, to the ende they shoulde serue him, and giue him golde and tributes: all this knowing, and see­ing this gentle tyrant, euen to come to the whippes, bast o­nads, blowes, with other sorts of cruelties wherewith hee vexed and oppressed them dayly.

It is sayde of him, that hee hath destroyed and burned in this realme of Xalisco, eyght hundred borroughes, whiche was the cause that the Indians being fallen desperate, and seeing those which remayned, howe they perished thus cruelly: they lift vp [Page] themselues, and went into the mountaynes, slaying certayne Spaniardes: howe be it by good right. And afterwardes be­cause of the wickednesses and outrages of other tyrauntes now being, which passed by that way to destroy other prouinces (that which they call discouering) many of the Indians assembled, for­tifying them selues vpon certayne rockes. Vpon the whiche rockes the Spanishe haue made, and yet at this present, and a freshe doe make so many cruelties, that they almost made an end of laying desolate all this great countrey, slaying an infinite, number of people.

And the wretched blinderers forsaken of God, and giuen ouer into a reprodate sense, not seeing the causes most iust which the Indians haue by the lawes of nature, man, and God, to hewe them in peeces, if they had strength and munimentes, and so to cast them out of their countrey: and not seeing the wickednes of their owne cause, ouer and besids so many violents and tyran­nies which they haue committed in that sort, to mooue: warre a newe: they thinke, speake, and write of the victories which they haue ouer the poore Indians, leauing them in desolation, that it is GOD which giueth the same vnto them, as though their warres were atchieued rightfully: thus they reioyce, vaune themselues, and giue thankes vnto God for their tyrannies, as did those tyrantes and the eues of whom speaketh the Prophete Zacharie, in the eleuenth chapter: verse 4. saying:

Feede the sheepe of the slaughter, they that possesse them slay them, and are not grieued, and they that sell them, say, blessed be the Lorde, for we are become rich.

Of the realme of Yuca­tan.

THe yeere one thousande, fiue hundred, twentie and sixe, was deputed ouer the Realme of Yucatan an other caytise go­uernour, and that through the lies and false reports which him­selfe had made vnto the king: in like maner as hath the other ti­rants [Page] vntill this present, to the end there might bee committed vnto theē offices & charges, by means wherof they might rob at their pleasures. This realme of Yucatan was full of inha­bitants: for that it was a countrie in euery respect holsome, and abounding in plentie of victuals, and of fruites more then Mex­ico: and singulerly exceeded for the aboundance of honnie and waxe there to bee founde, more then in any quarter of the In­dies, which hath beene seene vnto this present. It conteyneth about three hundred leagues compasse. The people of that coun­trie, were the most notable of all the Indies, aswell in considera­tion of their policie and prudencie, as for the vprightnes of their life, verily worthie the training to the knowledge of God: a­mongest whome there might haue beene builded great Cities, by the Spanishe, in which they might haue liued as in an earth­ly Paradise, if so bee they had not made themselues vnworthie, because of their exceeding couetousnesse, harde heartednes, and heynous offences: as also vnworthie they were of other moe blessings a great many, which God had set open in these Indies. This tyrant bean with three hundred men to make warre vpon these poore innocent people, which were in their houses without hurting any body: where he slue and ransacked infinite numbers. And for because the Countrie yeeldeth no golde, for if it had yeelded any, hee woulde haue consumed those same Indians, in making them to toyle in the mynes: to the ende hee might make golde of the bodies and soules of those for whome Iesus Christe suffered death, hee generally made slaues of all those whome hee slue not, and returned the ships that were come thither, vpon the blowing abrode and noyse of the selling of slaues, ful of people bartered for wine, oyle, vine­gar, powdred Bacons fleshe, garments, horses, and that, that e­uery man had neede of, according to the Captaines estimate and iudgement. Hee woulde let choose amongest an hundred or fiftie young Damosels: bartering some one of the fayrest, & of the best complexion, for a caske of wine, oyle, vinegar, or for a yorke powdred. And in like maner hee woulde let choose out a young handsome stripling amongst two or three hundreth for [Page] the aforesaide merchandize. And it hath beene seene, that a youth seeming to be ye sonne of some prince, hath been bartered for a Cheese, and an hundreth persons for an horse. Hee con­tinued in these voinges from the yeere twentie sixe, vntill the yeere thirtie three, which are seuen yeeres, desolating and dis­peopling those Countries, and killing the people there without pitie or mercie, vntill the time that the newes came of the riches of Peru, and that thereupon the Spaniardes hyed them thither, by occasion whereof this Diuelish tyrannie ceased for a season. A few dayes after, his men returned, to doe and commit other haynous enormities, as robberies, & wrongful imprisonments, with offences great against God: neither doe they cease as yet at this day to doe them, but haue laide desart and dispeopled all those three hundred leagues, the which were as well replenished and peopled, as hath been saide.

There is no man that can beleeue, or rehearse the cases par­ticuler of the cruelties, which were of them committed. I wyll onely rehearse two or three, comming to my remembraunce at this instant. As these cursed Spaniards, went with their mad dogges a foraging by the tracke, and hunting out the Indian men and women: An Indian woman beeing sicke, and see­ing shee coulde not escape their dogges, that they shoulde not rent her as they did others: shee tooke a corde and hanged her­selfe at a beame, hauing fastened at her foote a childe shee had of a yeere olde, and shee had no sooner done: beholde these Curres, whiche come and dispatche this infaute, howe be­it that before it dyed, a Religious man a Fryar baptized it.

When the Spanishe parted out of this Realme, one amon­gest others saide, to a sonne of a Lorde of some Citie of Pro­uince, that hee shoulde goe with him: the boy aunswered, and sayde, hee woulde not forsake his Countrie. The Spaniarde replyed: Goe with mee, or els I will cutte off thine eares. The young Indian persisted in his first say­ing, that hee woulde not forsake his Countrie. The Spaniarde drawing out his dagger, cut off first one, & then his other eare.

[Page] The young man abyding by it still that hee woulde not leaue his countrey: hee mangled off also his nose, with the vppermost of his lippes: making no more scrupulositie of the matter, then if hee had giuen him but a phillip.

This damnable wretch magnified him selfe, and vaunted him of his doynges villauously vnto a reuerende religious per­son, saying: that hee tooke as much paynes as hee coulde, to be­gette the Indian women in great numbers with childe, to the ende, hee might receiue the more money for them in selling them great with childe for slaues.

In this realme, or in one of the prouinces of newe Spaine, a certayne Spaniard went one day with his dogs on hunting of veuison, or els conies, and not finding game, hee minded his dogs that they should be hungrie, and tooke a little sweet Babie which hee bereaued the mother of, and cutting off from him the armes, and the legges, chopped them in small gobbettes, giuing to euery dog his liuery or part there of, by & by after these morsels thus dispatched, hee cast also the rest of the body or the carkase to all the kenell together.

By this ye may see how great the dull heartednes of the Spani­ardes is in that countrey, and howe God hath deliuered them vp into a reprobate sense; and what accoumpt they make of those same nations which are created after the image of God, and re­deemed with the blood of his Christ. We shal see here after more notable matter.

Leauing nowe the cruelties infinite, and neuer hearde of the like, which in this realme were done by those which call thē selues Christians, and such as no iudgement of man can suffici­ently imagine them: I will conclude with this same: That is, that being nowe departed the realme all the diuelish tyrantes, blynded with the couerousnes of the riches of Peru, yt reuerend father, fryer Iames, with foure other religious of S. Frauncis, was moued in spirite to goe into this realme to pacifie them, and for to preach to them, and to win vnto Iesus Christ those which might bee remayning of the butcheries and tyranuous murders, which the Spanish had bin perpetrating seuen continuall yeres.

And I beleeue that these same were those religious persons, [Page] the which in the yeere 34. certaine Indians of the Prouince of Mexico, sending before them messengers in their behalf, reque­sted them that they woulde come into their countrie, to giue thē knowledge of that one onely God, who is God, and very Lorde of all the worlde: and for whose occasion the Indians helde a councel sundrie times, parlementing and informing themselues in their folke motes: to wit, what kinde of men those might be, which were called by the speciall name of fathers and brethren, and what it was that they pretended, and wherein they differed from the Spaniardes, of whom they had receiued so many out­rages and iniuries: according in the ende to admit them with condition, that they should enter themselues alone, and not the Spaniardes with them, that which the religious promised thē. For it was permitted them, yea, commaunded them so to doe, by the Viceroy of new Spaine, and that there shoulde no kinde of displeasure bee done vnto them by the Spaniardes. The Re­ligious men preached vnto them the Gospell of Christe, as they are accustomed to doe, and as had been the holy intention of the kinges of Castile, that shoulde haue been done. Howbeit, that the Spaniardes in all the seuen yeres space past, had neuer giuen thē any such notice of the truth of the Gospel, or so much as that there was any other king sauing himselfe, yt so tyrannised ouer them, and destroyed them. By these meanes of the reli­gious, after the ende of fortie dayes that they had preached vnto them, the Lordes of the countrie brought vnto them, and put into their handes their idols, to the end that they shoult burne them. After also, they brought vnto them their young children, that they should catechise them, whom they loue as the apple of their eye. They made for them also Churches, and Temples, and houses. Moreouer, some other prouinces sent, and inuited them, to the ende that they might come to them also, to preache, and giue them the vnderstanding of God, and of him whom they saide to be the great king of Castile. And beeing perswaded and induced by the religious, they did a thing which neuer yet before hath been done in the Indies. (For whatsoeuer the ty­rants, some of those which haue spoyled those Realmes, & great Countries, haue contriued to blemishe and defame the poore In­dians [Page] withall, they are mockeries and leasings:) twelue or fif­teene Lordes, which had very many subiecets and great domi­nion, assembling euery one for his owne part his people, and ta­king their aduise and consent, of their owne voluntarie motion, yeelded themselues to the subiection, and to bee vnder the do­mination of the kinges of Castile: admitting the Emperour as king of Spain, for their liege Soueraigne. Wherof also they made certaine instrumentes, by them consigned, which I keepe in my charge, together with the testimonies thereunto of the said religious.

The Indians being thus onwarde in the way of the faith, with the great ioy, and good hope of the Religious brethren, that they shoulde bee able to winne vnto Iesus Christe all the people of the Realme that were the residue, beeing but a smal number of the slaughters, and wicked warres passed: There en­tred at a certaine coaste, eighteene Spaniarde tyrantes on horse backe, and twelue on foote, driuing with them great loades of Idols, which they had taken in the other Prouinces of the In­dians. The Captaine of those thirtie Spaniards, called vnto him a Lorde of the countrie there aboutes as they were entred, and commaundeth him to take those idols, and to disperse them throughout al his countrie, selling euery idol for an Indian mā, or an Indian woman, to make slaues of them, with threatening them, that if hee did not doe it, hee woulde bidde them battaile. That saide Lorde beeing forced by feare, distributed those Idols throughout all the countrie, and commaunded all his subiectes, that they should take them to adore them, and that they shoulde returne in exchaunge of that ware Indies and Indisses to make slaues of. The Indians beeing affeard, those which had two children, gaue him one, and he that had three gaue him two. This was the ende of this sacrilegious trafficke: and thus was this Lord or Cacick, faine to content these Spa­niards: I say not Christians.

One of these abhominable chafferers, named Iohn Garcia, beeing sicke, and neere his death, had vnder his bed two packs of Idols, and commaunded his Indish maide that serued him, [Page] to looke to it that she made not away his idols, that there were for Murlimeus, for they were good stuffe: and that making bent of them, she should not take lesse then a slaue for a peece one of them with another: and in fine, with this his Testa­ment and last will thus deuised, the caytife dyed, busied with this deep goodly care, and who doubteth but that he is lodged in the bottome of hell▪

Let it nowe bee considered, and well weyed, what kinde of aduancement of religion it is, and what are the good examples of Christianitie of the behalfe of the Spanishe, that sayle to the Indies? What honour they doe vnto God, how they paine themselues to haue him knowen and adored of those nations: what carke and care the haue of the doing of it, that by their meanes the rather the sacred faith shoulde bee dispersed, en­creased, and enlarged in the free passage thereof, amongest those silly creatures? And let it with all bee discerned, if the sinne of these men be any whit lesse then the same of Ieroboam, Which made Israel to sinne, by making two golden Calues for the people, to fall downe before, and worshippe: or otherwise if it bee not like to the treason of Iudas, and which hath caused more offence.

These bee the iestes of the Spaniardes, whiche goe to the Indies, whiche of a truth very many times, yea, an infinit sort of times, for couetyse, and to scratche golde, haue solde and do sell: haue reneaged, and do reneage as yet hitherto, and at this present day: Christ Iesus.

The Indians perceiuing that, that, which the religious had promised them, was as good as nothing: namely, that the Spaniardes shoulde not enter those Prouinces: and see­ing the Spaniards whiche had laded thither idols from other places, there to make vent of them, they hauing put al their idols afore into the handes of the Fryars, to the ende they shoulde bee burned, and to the ende the true God shoulde bee by them ado­red, all the Countrie was in a mutinie, and a rage a­gainst the religious Fryars, and the Indians comming vnto them, say:

[Page] Why haue you lyed vnto vs, in promising vs by deceites that there should not enter any Spaniardes into these Countries? And why haue you burnt our gods, seeing the Spaniards doe bring vs other gods from other nations? Were not our gods as good, as the gods of other prouinces? The fryars pacified them in the best maner that they could, not knowing what to an­swere them: and went to seeke out those thirtie Spaniards, to whom they declared the euill which they had done, praying thē to get them thence. That which the Spaniards would not doe, but saide to the Indians, that those religious men had caused them to come thither themselues of their owne accorde, whiche was rightly an extreeme maliciousnesse. In the end the In­dians deliberated to kill the religious men: By occasion where­of, the Fryars fled away in a night, hauing aduertisement of the case by some of the Indians. But after that they were gone, the Indians better infourmed of the innocencie of the religious mē, and of the vngraciousnesse of the Spaniardes, the sent messen­gers after them, neere hand fiftie leagues of, beseeching them to come againe, and crauing pardon of them. The religious, as the seruants of God, and zealous for the winning of their soules, beleeuing them, returned to them, and were receiued as it had been Angels. And the Indians doyng them a thousand serui­ces, abode with them foure or fiue monethes. And for because the Spaniards would neuer departe that Countrie, and that namely the Viceroy with all that he could doe, could not draw them thence, newe Spaine beeing farre of, howbeit, hee had caused them to bee proclaimed traitours: And for as muche as they neuer ceased to commit their outrages, and griefes accusto­med amongst the Indians, the religious perceiuing that sooner or later they should smell of the smoke, and peraduenture the e­uill light vpon their heades: and specially that they coulde not preach vnto the Indians with quiet, and assurance of the Indiās, & of themselues, by reason of the continuall assaultes and lewde deportments of the Spanish, they deliberated to leaue ye realme: which in this maner was destitute of the light and the doctrine: and those soules, abode vnder the darknesse of ignorance, and in the miserie they were in, the remedie, and the watering of the [Page] knowledge of God being bereaued them, alreadie euen at their best, and when as they began to receiue it with exceeding wil­lingnes: altogether like as if one should withdraw the watring from tender plants, and new set into a drie ground, at a hot time of the yeere: and this by the cursed vngraciousnesse of the Spa­nish.

Of the Prouince of Saint Martha.

THe prouince of Saint Martha, was a countrie where the Spaniardes gathered golde in all plentie: the land bee­ing with the regions adiacent very rich, and the people industri­ous to drawe out the golde. Wherefore also from the yeere one thousand, fiue hundred, fortie two, infinite tyrants haue made thither continually with their ships, ouerrunning, and raunging along the countrie, killing and spoyling those the inhabitants, and ramping from them that gold that they had, with speedie re­turn euer to their ships, which went and came oftentimes. And so wrought they in those prouinces great wasts, and slaughters, and cruelties horrible, & that most commonly on the Sea coast, and certaine leagues within the countrie, vntill the yeere one thousand, fiue hundred, and three. At what time there wente Spanish tyrants to inhabite there. And for as much as the coun­trie was exceeding riche as hath been said, there euer succeeded Captaines one in anothers roome, euerie one more cruell then other: in such sort that it seemed that euerie one inforced him­selfe, for the masterie in doing of euilles and cruelties more haynous then had been done by his predecessour. Wherefore herein is the rule verified that we haue giuen before. The yeere one thousande, fiue hundred, twentie and nine, there went a great tyrant, very resolute, with great troupes: but with­out any feare of God, or compassion of the nature of man, who wrought suche wastes, and slaughters so greate, that hee excee­ded all others that had gone before him, himselfe robbing for [Page] the space of sixe or seuen yeares that he lyued, great treasures: saue after beeing deceased without confession, and fledde from the place of his residence: there succeeded him other murdering tyrantes, and theeues, which made an ende of the rest of the peo­ple, whome the embrewed handes with blood, and the caruing swoordes of the tyruntes his forerunners, coulde not extyrp.

They set themselues so forwarde in the countrey, in inua­ding and laying desolate very manye prouinces, with killing, and taking prisoners those people, after the fashion before prac­tised in other Prouinces, causing the Lordes together with their Subiectes to suffer grieuous torments, both to make them discouer the golde, and the places where golde might bee had: surmounting as is sayde euery way in number of mischieuous doinges, and in the maner of dooing, all that had passed before: that from the yeere one thousande, fiue hundred, twentie and niene, vnto this day, they haue reduced into a wildernesse in those same quarters more then foure hundred leagues of lande, which was no lesse peopled then the other countreys which wee haue spoken of.

Verily if I had to make a bedrolle of the vngraciousnesses, of the slaughters, of the desolations, of the iniquities, of the vio­lencies, of the massacres, and other greate insolencies whiche the Spaniardes haue done, and committed in those Prouinces of Saint Martha agaynst God, the king, and agaynst those innocent nations: I shoulde write an historie very ample. But that maye bee done if God spare mee lyfe, hereafter in his good tyme: onely I will sette downe a fewe woordes of that which was written in a letter by a Byshoppe of this Prouince to the king our Soueraigne: and the letter beareth date the twentieth of May, 1541. The whiche Byshoppe amongst other woordes, speaketh thus: I say, sacred Maiestie, that the way to redresse this countrey, is that his Maiestie deliuer her out of the power of Stepfathers, and giue vnto her an husbande whiche may intreate her as is reason, and according as shee de­serueth: otherwise, I am sure hereafter as the tyrauntes whiche nowe haue the gouernment, doe torment and tormoyle her, shee will soone take an ende, &c.

[Page] And a little belowe hee sayeth: Whereby, your Ma­iestie shall knowe clearely, howe those whiche gouerne in those quarters doe deserue to bee disamounted, and deposed from their gouernment, to the ende, that the common weales maye bee relieued. That if that be not done, in mine aduise, they can neuer be cured of their diseases. His maiestie shal vnderstand moreouer, that in those regions, there are not any Christians but diuels, that there are no seruantes of God and the king, but trai­tors to the state, and their king. And in truth the greatest encom­braunce that I finde in reducing the Indians, that are in warre, and to set them at peace, and to lead those which are at peace to ye knowledge of our faith, is vnnaturall & cruell entreaty, wc they yt are in peace do receiue of ye spanish, being so deeply altered, & laū ­ [...]ed, yt they haue nothing in more hatred & horror, thē the name of christiās, ye which in al these countreys they cal in their lāguage, yares, yt is to say, diuels. For ye acts which they cōmitted here, are neither of christians, nor of mē which haue the vse of reasō: but of diuels. Whereof it commeth to passe, yt the Indies which doe see these behauiors to be generally so far estrāged frō all humanity, & wtout and mercy, aswell in ye heads as in ye mēbers: they esteem, yt the christians do hold these things for a law, & that their God, & their K. are ye authors thereof. And to endeuor to perswad thē o­therwise, were to endeuor in vaine, & to minister vnto thē ye more ample matter, to deride and scorne Iesus Christ & his law. The Indians that are in warre, seeing the intreatie vsed toward the Indians that are in peace: woulde chuse rather to die once for all, then to endure sundrie deathes, beyng vnder the command of the Spanish. I knowe this by experience, most victorous Ce­sar. &c.

He sayth for a surcharge in a chapter a lttle lower, His M. hath in these parts more seruants then it supposeth. For here is not one souldier of so many as are of them, that dare not say o­penly & publikly, yt if he roue, rob, wast, stay, or burne the subiects of his M. to the ende yt they giue him some gold, he serueth there in your M. wt this title, yt he saith, therof redoundeth to his M. his part. Wherfore, most christiā Cesar, it should be good, that youre M. gaue them to vnderstand, by chastising some seuerely, that it [Page] receiueth no seruice in ought, whereby God is disobeyed and dishonoured. All the abouesayde are the formall woordes of the saide Bishoppe of Saint Martha: by the which may bee seene clearly, what is done at this day amongest these poore innocent peoples in those countreys.

He calleth the Indians in warre, those which saued them selues by flying into the mountaines from the slaughters of the mischieuous Spaniardes. And hee calleth the Indians in peace, those which after hauing lost an infinite of their people, by the massacres, haue been thralled into the tyrannicall and horrible seruitude aforesayde, and whereof in the ende they haue been fi­ned out, desolated, and slayne, as appeareth by that which hath been saide by the Bishoppe, which notwithstanding speaketh but litle, in comparison of that which they haue suffered.

The Indians in that countrey haue accustomed to say, if when they are trauayled and dryuen vp the mountaynes loden, they happen to fall downe, and to fainte for feeblenesse, and for payne: for at that tyme they lay on vpon them blowes with their feete and with their statues, and they breake theyr teethe with the pomelles of their swordes, to make them rise, and march on without taking of breath, with these wordes, out vpon thee, what a villanie art thou? they (I say) the Indians, for their partes are wont to say, I can no more: kill mee heere right. I doe desire to die heere: and this they say with great sighes, and beeing scarce able to speake, for hauing their heart drawen toge­ther, declaring a great anguishe and dolour. But who were able to giue to vnderstande the hundreth parte of the afflicti­ons and calamities, that these innocent people doe suffer of the cursed Spaniardes? God make them to take knowledge of it, that are able and bounde to redresse it.

Of the Prouince of Cartha­gene.

THis Prouince of Carthagene is situate vnder, and a fiftie leagues distant from the same of Saint Martha, towardes the West, confining with the prouince of Ceu, vnto the gulph [Page] of Araba: which are a hundred leagues all along the Sea side, and is a great countrie within land towardes the South. These Prouinces since the yeere 1498. or 99. vntill nowe haue beene euill entreated, martyred, massacred, desolated like vnto that of Saint Martha: and there hath beene in these same done by the Spaniardes such cruelties, ransackinges, and pillagings enor­mous: as the which to make an ende the rather of this briefe Summarie, as also to make way to the rehearsall of their euill doinges in other Prouinces, I will not stande to touch in par­ticuler.

Of the Coaste of Perles, and of Paria, and of the Isle of the Trinitie.

FRom the coast of Paria, vnto the goulph of Venesuela, with­out foorth, which are two hundred leagues: the Spanishe haue wrought great and straunge destructions, rioting vppon that people, and taking aliue as many as they coulde, to the ende they might sell them for slaues: and oftentimes making them prisoners against the assurance and the promise of friendshippe made vnto them, neither keeping with them their faith pligh­ted vnto them, ye friendly entertainement which they had recei­of those good people notwithstanding: hauing beene entertai­ned and entreated in their houses, as parents and children, vsing them to serue their turn withall, and inioying all that they had, and that that they were able to doe for them. It cannot bee well told, nor particularly exprest, the sundrie kindes and greeuous vexations, wronges, hurtes, and spoyles, which those people endured at the Spaniardes handes, from the yeere 1510. vntill this present. I will onely rehearse two or three actes, by the whiche it may bee iudged of the rest, innumerable and excessiue, and worthy all tormentes and fire.

In the Ile of the Trinitie, whiche is farre greater and more fertile then the Isle of Scicile, and ioyneth with the firme lande of the coaste of Paria, and where the people are the dest disposed, and moste enclined to vertue in their kinde, of all [Page] the Indians, as they went, there a captaine Rouer in the yeere, 1510. accompanied with 60. or 70. other p [...]t [...] theeues well ap­pointed: they published among the Indians by proclamations, and other publike sonmōs, that they should come and dwell and liue with them in that Ile. The Indians receiued them as their owne bowels and babes: and as well the Lordes as subiectes serued them with exceeding readines, bringing them to eate frō day to day, as much as might suffice to feede, as manie moe peo­ple. For this is the liberality of all these Indians of the new world, to bestow on the Spaniards of al that they haue in great abundance. The Spanish build a great house of timber, in the which the Indians should dwell all together: for the Spanishe would haue it so, that there should be one only house for all, and no more, to compasse that, which they had alreadie premeditate to do, & did it. When they laid the thetch vpon the binding slaues or sparres, and had alreadie couered to the height of two mens length, to the end that those that were within might not see those that were without, vnder colour to hasten forward the woorke, yt it might be the sooner dispatched, they set a great number of people within, the Spaniards deuiding themselues, the one part of them being bestowed without, compassing the house round a­bout with their weapons, because of those that might get forth, the other part of them presse into the house: Thus laying hands on their swordes, they began to threaten the Indians naked as they were, to kill them if they did stirre, and then bound them. And those which fled they hewed them in peeces: Howbeit som of the Indies which fled, both of the hurt & not hurt, with others that had not come within the house, toke their bowes & arrowes and assembled themselues in another house, about an hundred or two hundred persons: And as they kept the gate, the Spaniards set fire on the house, & burned them aliue. After with their pur­chase, which might bee of an hundred or fourescore persons of them which they had bounde: they get them to the Ile of saint Iohn, where they solde the one moitie, and thence to the Ile of Hispaniola: where they solde the other moity. As I reprehended the captaine for this notable treason, at the same time, and at the same Ile of Saint Iohn, hee made an answere: Syr, quiet your [Page] selfe for that matter. So haue they commanded me to doe, and giuen me instruction which sent mee: that if I coulde not take them by warre, I shoulde take them vnder countenance and co­lour of peace. And in truth the Captaine tolde mee that in all his life, he neuer had founde father nor mother, but in this Isle of the Trinitie, in respect of the friendly courtesies the Indi­ans had shewed him. And this hee spake to his owne greater cō ­fusion and aggrauating for the surcharge of his owne offences. They haue done other things semblable vnto these infinite, in this firme lande: apprehending the poore people contrary to the safe conduct promised. Let it now be weighed, what maner of doings these are, and whether the Indians in this wise taken, might iustly be made slaues.

At another time, the religious Fryars of saint Dominicks order, being determined to goe preache, and to conuert those na­tions, who had not the light of the doctrine for to saue their souls, as is the case at this day of the Indians: they sent a religi­ous man licentiate in diuinitie, a mā vertuous & holy, with a laie man of his order his companion, to the ende hee shoulde take a viewe of the Countrie, to trauerse acquaintance with that peo­ple, and search out a place commodious to builde monasteries. The religious being arriued: they receiued them as Angelles commen from heauen: and hearde with great affection, atten­tion, and willingnesse such wordes as the religious at that time were able to giue them to vnderstand, more by signes thē other­wise, for they knew not the tongue. It came to passe that there arriued there another ship, after that the ship in whiche the reli­gious men came was departed thence, and the Spanish in this vessell, keeping their diuelish custome, by suttelty without the knowledge of the religious, carried away the Lord of the coun­trie called Alfonso: were it y• Friars had giuē him this name, or els others. For the Indians loue & desire to beare the name of ye Christiās, desiring incōtinēt yt it may be giuen them euen before they know any thing, yt they may be baptized. They induced fraudilētly this Don Alfonso to come aboord their ship with the lady his wife, & other persōs, making sēblāce to go about to feast thē. In the end there entred seuenteene persons, together wt the [Page] Lord and his Lady: the Lord trusting that the religious persons being entred into his Countrie, woulde keepe the Spani­ardes from doyng any wrong: for otherwise hee woulde neuer haue put himselfe in the handes of the Spanish. The Indians therfore thus being in the ship, the traiterous Spaniards hoysed sayles, and away they went to Hispaniola with them, there sel­ling them for slaues. All the Countrie seeing that their Lorde & soueraigne Lady were carried away, they run to the religious men, purposing to kill them. The poore men seeing so great a villany, were of themselues at apoint to dye for sorrowe: and it is well to be beleeued of them, that they woulde rather haue gy­uen their lyues in the quarrell, then to haue accorded that anye such iniury should haue been committed: specially considering that was enough to hinder the course begun, so as those poore Heathens should neuer, neither heare, nor hearing beleeue the worde of God. Howbeit, they appeased the Indians in the best maner they could, saying that they woulde write to them at Hi­spaniola by the first ship that went, & would take suche care and order in the matter, that their soueraigne should be restored them againe with those that were in his companie. God sent imme­diately vpon a ship thither, no doubt for the greater confirmati­on of the damnation of those which there gouerned, and they wrote to the Spanishe religious men that were in the Isle of Hispaniola. They cry out, and call heauen and earth to witnesse against them, both first, & sundrie times after: But the Iudges of the audience, would neuer giue them audience to do thē iustice, for because thēselues had part in the bootie of the Indiās, which the tyrants had so against all right & reason takē, The two reli­gious men, which had promised the Indians of the countrie, that their Lord Don Alfonso, with others shold come home▪ with the rest within foure moneths, seeing yt they came not neither in 4. nor 8. made thēselues redy to the death, & to giue their life, whi­che they had gaged before they came out of Spaine, if neede shoulde bee, and in that sort the Indians tooke vengeance on thē in killing them iustly, notwithstanding that they were innocent: for because that they thought that the religious men had beene the occasion of this treason, and for because they sawe that, that whiche they had certified and promised them, tooke not effect: to witte, that within foure monethes they shoulde haue [Page] home their Lorde: and for that, at that time they knewe not, and nowe as yet they knowe not in that countrey, that there is any difference betweene the religious well disposed: and the tyrants, theeues, and robbers the Spaniardes. Those religious men therefore right happie, suffered vniustly, and for the wrong so suffered, there is no doubt but they are very martyres, and doe raigne at this day with God in the kingdome of heauen in blisse, who woulde that by their obedience they shoulde be sent thither, and should haue an entent, to preache and spredde the holy faith, and saue all those soules, and suffer those afflictions, and death it selfe when it shoulde be presented vnto them for Iesus Christe his sake crucified.

An other time, by reason of the great tyrannies and execra­ble actes of the cursed ones, bearing the name of Christians, the Indians slewe other two religious men of Saint Dominickes order, and one of Saint Frauncis. Whereof I ran be a good witnesse for that I escaped at the time miraculously from the same death, of the which it shoulde be a harde matter to entreat, and woulde bee to amase men, by reason of the grieuousnes and horiblenesse of the case. Wherefore I will not lay it abroad (for being too tedious) vntil his tyme, and at the day of iudgement it shall bee more euident, when God shall take vengeance of the theeueries so horrible and so abhominable as are doone by those which beare the name of Christians against the Indians.

An other tyme in those Prouinces at the Cape of the Co­dera (as they call it) there was a towne, the Lorde whereof was named Higueroto, a name eyther proper to the person, or it may bee common to the Lordes of the place. This Lorde was so bounteous, and his people so vertuous and seruiceable, that as many Spaniardes as came thither by shippe, they founde there good entertaynement, meate, lodging, all cheering, and refreshing. This saide Lorde had also deliuered many from death of those which were fledde thither out of other Prouinces, where they had ryoted and tyrannised, and come thither sicke, and halfe dead for hunger: whom they refreshed, and afterward sent them away safe, to the Ile of Perles, where there were Spaniardes, and might haue slayne them if hee had woulde, [Page] without that euer any shoulde haue knowen it. And shortely to say the Spanish did call the Subiectes of Higurroto, the house and harbour of euery bodie. A caytife tyraunt aduised him selfe to outrage that people also, when as they thought them selues sure enough: and getting him to a shippe, hee had there inuited a greate number of people to come a boorde her as they were accustomed to doe, and to trust the Spaniardes.

A great nūber of people being entred into her, men women, and children, hee hoysed sayles, and went to the Ile of Saint Iohn, where hee soulde them all for slaues.

I came at the same instant to the Ile of Saint Iohn, and I sawe the tyrant, and vnderstood what he had done. Hee had de­stroyed all that towneship: whereby he did great harme to all o­ther his fellow tyrants, wonted to rob, and roue all along those coasts, insomuch as they had in abomination this act so hydeous, being bereft thereby of their harbour, and house of retire, as ordi­narie & familiar vnto them as it had bin their own home & house.

I deport me to recount the mischieues infinite, and cases a­bominable, which haue bin vsed in that countrey, and are vsed as yet.

They haue singled out at times from all this coaste, the which was very wel peopled, vnto the Iles of S. Iohn & Hispaniola, aboue two millions of soules, seased vpon by their purchases in thieuing and robbing: which also euery one of them they haue slaine not long after, by thrusting them into the minerals and o­ther tormoyls, besides the great numbers there were there alrea­die before time, as we haue aboue said. And it is a pitifull thing, and able to make any heart to cleaue, were it neuer so harde, to see all this coast of a countrey most fertile, to bee lefte all naked and emptie of people.

It is a tried case, that they neuer conuey away their shippings of Indians so robbed & purchased, as I haue said, but that they cast the third part into the sea, besides those which they slay, whē they will sort thē to thēselues for their chafer. The cause is, that when as they will by all meanes atteine to the ende which they haue proposed to them selues: they haue need of a great number of people, for to draw a great deale of money, according to the [Page] quantitie of the slaues: & they prepare but a very small deale of sustenance and water, to serue but a few persons: to the ende that those tyrants whom they call purueyghours of the ships should not spend them much. And there is but euen scarse enough, saue to serue the Spaniardes turne which go a rouing and robbing: and there is alwayes wanting for the poore Indians. Where­fore also they die for hunger and thirst: and then there is none o­ther remedie but to cast them ouer the boord into the sea. And ve­rily a man among them did tell me, that frō the Ile of Lucayos, where had been wrought great slaughters in this maner, vnto the Ile of Hispaniola, which are a threescore, or seuentie leages, there trended a ship all alongst, without that it had either com­passe or mariners carde, being guided onely by the tracke of dead Indians carkasses, flotting vppon the seas, of them whiche had been cast in.

And after they be landed in the Ile, whither they bring them to make sale of them: it is to make an heart to yearne of whosoe­uer, haue he neuer so litle compassion, to behold them naked and famished, fall downe and faint for hunger and thirst, women, and aged men, and children.

Afterwardes they soone after they separate them, as it were Lambes, the fathers from the children, and the wiues from the husbandes, in making troupes of them of tenne or twentie per­sons, and so cast lottes on them, to the ende, those cursed pur­nueighours should take their share, which are those who do equipe or rig, and furnish two or three ships for the nauy of those tirants, pirates, and rouers, robbing by sea & land, seasing vpon all they come by, and pulling the poore men out of their owne housen. And looke when the lot falleth vpon the flock where there were amōg thē any old or sick persō, ye tyrant to whō ye same escheated, would say: That the diuell take the olde graybeard, why doest thou giue him mee, to the ende I shoulde goe burie him? And this sicke rascall, what haue I to doe that hee shoulde fall out to my lotte: to the ende, I shoulde bee his Phisition to cure him? Hereby a man may see, in what estimation the Spaniardes haue the Indians, and howe they accomplishe the commaunde­ment of God, touching the loue of their neighbour, of the which [Page] dependeth the lawe and the Prophetes. The tyrannie whiche the Spanishe exercise ouer the Indians, to fishe for Pearles, is one of the cruellest and cursedest thynges that is in the worlde.

There is no hell in this life, nor other desperate state in this worlde, that may be compared vnto it: although that the trade of golde finding, be in his kinde, very grieuous, and very mise­rable. They let them into the sea, three, or foure, or fiue fa­dome forth downe right vnder water, from the morning vntyll sunnesette, where they are continually flitting without stint, to plucke oysters, in the which are engendred the pearles. They surge vp aboue the waters, with a nette full of oysters to take breath: where standeth readie a Spanishe tormentor, in a little cocke boate, or a brigantine, and if the poore wretches stay neuer so litle while, to rest them selues: they all to bee buffet them with their fistes, and draw them by the haire into the water to returne to their fishing. Their sustenaunce is fishe, and the same very fish which contayneth the pearles, and the bread Cacabi, or some Mahis, which are the kindes of bread of that countrey: the one of very slender nourishment, the other is not easie to bee made into breade, of the which also, they neuer giue them their belly full.

The beddes that they lodge them in a nights, is to set them by the heeles, their bodies requoyling on the coulde grounde, in a payre of stockes for feare of running away. Sometymes they are drowned in the sea, and at their fishing and trauayle of piking of pearles, and neuer rise vp agayne aboue the water: because the Bunches and Whirlepooles (they call them Tube­rones and Maroxos) two kinde of monsters of the sea most cru­ell, which deuour a man all whole, and those doe kill them and eate them.

Let it nowe here be considered, whither in this purchase of Pearles, the commaundements of God, touching the loue of God, and our neyghbours be kept, or not: when they throwe those people into daunger of bodyes and soules. For they slay their neighbours by their couetousnesse, without that they receiue, or fayth, or sacramentes, or els they prolonge [Page] them in a state of life so horrible, that they bring them to their ende, and consume them in a few dayes. For it is impossible, that men should be able to liue any long seasō vnder the water with­out taking breath, the continuall cold percing them: & so they die commōly, parbraking of blood at ye mouth: because of the kitting together of their chestes, or bulke of the breast arising thereof, that they are so continually without breathing vnder the water, and of the blooddy fluxe, caused by the cold. Theyr haires, which by nature are cole blacke, alter and become after a branded rus­sette, like to the haires of the seawolues. The salt peeter breaketh out of their shouldiers, in such sort, that they seeme to bee a kind of monsters in the shape of men, or els some other kinde of men. They dispatched in ridding about this insupportable trauayle, or rather to speake rightly, this diuelish torment, all ye Lucayan In­dians which were in the Iles, hauing sauoured this gaynes, and euery Indian was worth vnto them a fiftie, or an hundred Castillans. They made an open marte of them, notwithstau­ding it were inhibited them, by the magistrate otherwise vnmer­cifull: for the Lucayens were good swimmers. They also, a­bout these thinges haue slayne a number of the people of other prouinces.

Of the riuer Yuia Pari.

THere runneth through the prouince of Paria, a riuer na­med Yuia Pari, more then two hundred leagues within land from the head. There entred the same riuer, an vnluckie tyraunt, a great manie leagues vpwarde, in the yeere, one thousande, fiue hundred, twentie and niene with a foure hun­dred menne or more: whiche there wroght greate slaughters, burning aliue, and putting to the edge of the swoorde, an infi­nite sorte of Indians, whiche were in their landes and house [...] doing hurt to no creature, and therefore secure, and mistrusting nothing.

In the ende hee dyed an euill death, and his Nauie was disperaged: albeic that other tyraunts there were which succee­ded [Page] him in his mischieuousnesses and tyrannies: and yet at this day thither they goe, destroying, and staying, and plunging into hell the soules for whom the sonne of God shed his blood.

Of the realme of Ʋenes­uela.

THe yeere 1526. the king our Soueraigne, being iuduced by sinister informations and perswasions dammageable to the state, as the Spaniardes haue alwayes payned them selues to conceale from his Maiestie the dammages and dishonours which GOD and the soules of men, and his state doeth receiue in the Indies: graunted and committed a great realme, grea­ter then all Spayne, that Venesuela, with the gouernement and entier iurisdiction, vnto certayne Dutch Marchaunts, with certayne capitulations and conuentions accorded beetweene them.

These same entring the countrey with three hundred men: they found the people very amiable, & meeke as lambes, as they are all in those parties of the Indies, vntill the Spanish do out­rage them. These see vpon them wtout comparison a great deale more cruelly, then any of the other tyrauntes, of the whiche wee haue spoken before: shewing them selues more vnnaturall and fierce, then raging tygars, or wolues, or ramping Lions. For they had the iurisdiction of the whole countrey, possessing it with more freedom, and vsing it with a greater care, and starker blinde madnes of couetyse, seruing their owne turnes with all practises and cheuisaunees, to get and gather golde and siluer, more then all they of whom hath bin spoken heretofore: hauing wholly shaken off all feare of God, and of the king: yea, hauing forgotten themselues to bee men.

These diuels incarnate haue saide desolate and destroyed, more then foure hundred leagues of most fertill lande, and there­in, of prouinces exceeding and wonderfull, fayre vayles, to the breadth of fourtie leagues, and hournes verye great, full of [Page] people, and of golde. They haue slayne, and wholly discomfited great and diuers nations, so farre foorth as to abolishe the lan­guages wonted to bee spoken, not leauing aliue that could skill of them: vnlesse some one or other, who had hid them selues in the caues and bowels of the earth,, flying the dint of the sworde, so raging and plaging. They haue slayne, destroyed, and sent to hell by diuers and strange maners of cruelties and vngodly­nesses, moe (I supposse) then foure or fiue millions of soules: and yet at this present, they cease not to doe the same, by infinite out­rages, spoyles, add slaughters, which they haue committed, and doe commit dayly vnto this present. I will onely touch three or foure, by the which it may bee iudged of others, which they vsed to accomplish their destructions, and disolations aboue mentio­ned.

They tooke the Lord soueraigne of all the prouince without all cause, onely to bereeue him of his golde, giuing him also the tor­ture: which Lorde vnbounde himselfe, and escaped from them into the mountaynes, wherefore also the subiectes rose and were in a mutinie, hiding thē selues vpō the mountaynes, amongst the hedges and bushes. The Spaniardes make after to chase them, and hauing founde them, commit cruell massacres, and as many as they take aliue, they sell them in port sale for slaues.

In diuers prouinces, yea in all where they became before that they tooke the Soueraigne Lorde, the Indies went to re­ceyue them with songes, and daunces, and with presents of gold in great quantitie.

The payment made them, was, to bee put to the edge of the sworde, and hewen in peeces. One time, as they went to receyue the Spanishe in the fashion abouesayde: the Dutche Captayne tyraunt, caused to bee put in a thatched house a greate number of people, and hackled in peeces.

And beeing on high, neere the top of the house certayne beames which diuers had got vpon, auoyding the blooddy handes and swordes of those people (O mercilesse beastes) the diuelishe man, sent to put to fire, wherby as many as there were, were burned a­liue. By this meanes the coūtrey remained very desert, ye people flying into the mountaines, where they hoped to saue thēselues.

[Page] They came into another great prouince, in the confines of the prouince and realme or Saint Martha, where they found the Indians peaceable in their boroghs, & in th [...]ir housē, doing their busines, they continued a long time with them, eating their store, and the Indians serued them, as if they had to receiue of them their life and safegarde, supporting their continuall oppressions, and vsuall outragiousnesses, which are intollerable: besides that one Spanishe glutton, eateth more in one day, then woulde suf­fice an whole housholde of more then ten Indians. They gaue them at that time, a great quantitie of golde, of their owne good will, ouer & besides, other seruices innumerable, which they did vnto them. At the ende as these tyrants would depart the place, they aduised to pay them for their lodging, in this manner.

The Almain tyrant gouernour, commaunded to take suche Indians as they could, with their wiues and children, and that they should shut them vp within an inclosure, wounded in of pur­pose, letting them know, that who so would come forth, and bee let go free, that he should redeeme himselfe at the pleasure of the vniust gouernour: in giuing so much golde for himselfe, so much for his wife, and so much for euery polle of his children. And yet to presse them the more, he commanded to giue them nothing to eate, vntil such time as they had perfourmed the quantity of gold inflicted them for their raunsome. Many sent to their housen for golde, and bought out themselues as they were able, and those same were deliuered, and went abroad about their busines to get their liuing. The tyrant sent certain Spanish thieues & robbers, to go take them againe the second time, after they had bin redeemed. They are carried to the perclose, and there wrung with hunger and thirst, to the ende, that they shoulde yet once a­gayn pay for their freedom. And there were many amōgst them, which were taken and ransommed two or three sundry times. Others which had not to giue, for because they had all they had, he let them within the toyse dye for hunger.

And in this maner hath bin destroyed a prouince very riche of people and golde, the which hath a vale or bourne of fourtie leagues, where hath beene brent a borough of the receite of a thousande housholdes.

[Page] This Tyrant resolued with himselfe to pearce farther into the countrie, with a great desire to discouer on that side, ye same hill of Peru. By occasion of which accursed voyage both hee and others carried foorth with them, Indians infinite, loden with two or three quintalles weight, and beeing enchained. If any were weake or wearie, fainting for hunger, or trauelling, they cut incontinent his head off euen with the coller of the chaine that yoked them: because they shoulde not neede to vn­hamper the others that went with the same collers aboute their neckes, and so tombled the head on the one side, and the bodie on the other. And the load of him that had so failed was distributed and bestowed vpon others. To tel of the Prouinces, whiche hee hath layed desart, and the townes and places which hee hath brent, for all the houses are thetched, and to number the nations which hee hath slaine, and the cruelties, and murders particuler, which hee hath committed by the may, it would be a thing scarce credible: howbeit very true and wonderfull. In this same ve­ry course and steppes marched sithence the other tyrants, who came from the said Venesuela, and others of the Prouince of S. Martha, with the selfe same holy intention to discouer the same sacred golden palace of Peru: and founde the whole countrie in length more then two hundred leagues so burned, dispeopled, & spoyled, hauing been before most notablie peopled and most fer­till, as hath been said, that themselues as very tyrantes and sa­uage beastes as they were, wondered and stood astonished to see the trackes of the destructions so lamentable, wheresouer he had passed.

All these thinges haue been giuen in euidence with the de­positions of many witnesses by the Atturney of the councel of the Indies, and the euidences are kept amongst the Recordes of the same councell: and yet haue they neuer burnt aliue, any of those execrable tyrants. And this is nothing of all that whiche hath beene proued, of the great outrages and mischieues which these haue committed. For as much as the ministers of iustice, which vntill this time haue him in the Indies, by reason of their great wilfull and damnable blyndnesse, haue neuer troubled themselues to examine the offences, spoyles, and murders, which [Page] haue beene wrought, and yet presently are wrought by the ty­rants in the Indies: saue only they will say, because suche hath cruelly intreated the Indies, the king hath lost of his reuenews so many thousande Castilians in rent, and this little verdict o­uer general and confused, must suffice for the disclaime of so ma­ny villanies. And yet that litle which they take vpon them, they doe not auerr, nor deuiur vpon, as they ought to do. For if they had regarde of their dutie to God and the king, it woulde bee founde, that those Almaine tyrants haue robbed the king of a­boue three thousand Castillans of gold. For those prouinces of Venesuela with the others which they haue laid waste, and dis­peopled more then four hundred leagues forthright, as hath bin saide, is a region the most blisfull, and the richest of golde, and was the best peopled of any in the worlde: in such sort, that they haue disturned from the kinges cofers, and occasioned the losse in this Realm of aboue two millions of rent, within seuenteene yeeres sithence by past, that these enemies of God and the king haue begunne to destroy it: neither is there any hope that euer those losses will be repayred as long as the worlde shall indure: vnlesse it be, that God shold myraculously rayse as many milli­ons of soules as are deceased. It shall not bee out of the way to consider, of what sortes and howe excessiue haue beene the da­mages, dishonours, blasphemies, & infamies, which God & his lawe hath receiued: And wherewithall may bee recouered & recompensed the losse of so many soules as burne in hell fire through the auarice and crueltie of those tyrants Almains, shall I say, or All [...]uains?

Onely I will conclude the discourse of their vngracious­nesse and crueltie heerewith. That is, that sithence they entred the country vnto this present, that is to say, these seuēteene yeres they haue sent by Sea a great number of ships loaden & stuffed with Indians, to make sale of them as slaues at S. Martha, at the Isles of Hispaniola, and of Iamayca, and at Saint Iohns Isle, moe then one million: and doe sende dayly, as nowe this yeere one thousand, fiue hundred, fortie two: the Court of the Audience royall notwithstanding stablished, for, and at Hispani­ola, right well seeing all this, and dissimuling to see it, yea, fa­uouring [Page] and supporting all the matter: as likewise they haue had theyr eyes bended at all the other tyrannies and ransackings infinite, which hath been done in all this coast of this firme land which are about foure hundred leagues, the which haue been and nowe are vnder their iurisdiction, like vnto Venesuela, & saint Martha: all which the said court might very well haue empea­ched and remedied. There is none other cause of putting all these Indians vnder yoke of bondage, saue the only peruerse, wilfully blinde, and obstinate greedines, and insatiable wret­chednesse of these most couetous tyrants, and all to haue, and heape vp goods like as hath had all the rest throughout all the Indies, ramping these silly lambes and sheepe out of their hou­ses, and carrying their wiues and children in the maners of pro­ceeding so cruel and execrable as hath been said, branding them with the kings marke, to make them vendible for slaues.

Of the Prouinces of the firme lande, or quarter that is called Florida.

INto these Prouinces went three tyrantes at three diuers times since the yeere 1510. or 1511. there to put in vre the actes which others, and two of them from among themselues haue committed in other quarters of the Indians: to the end to aspyre to high degrees, in no respect conuenient to their per­sons, higher then their merites in the cōmon wealth could con­ceaue, with the blood & destruction of their neighbours: and they are dead all three of an euill death, & their houses likewise haue been destroyed with them, the which they had builded in times past, with the blood of mankinde, as I can be a sufficient witnes of all three, and their memorie is nowe abolished from of the face of the earth, as if they had neuer beene in this worlde. They left all this Countrie in disorder, and confusion, and their owne manners in infamie and horror, for certaine slaugh­ters whiche they did there, notwithstanding not so manie, [Page] for as much as God plagued them with death before they coulde doe any more, and kept them from this outrage in this place, for the euils for I knowe, and haue seene that they did in other partes of the Indies.

The fourth tyrant, that came last in the yere. 1538. cunning­ly aduised, and beeing fully furnished: it is three yeeres since there is no tidinges concerning him. Wee are certaine that in­continent after his entrie thither: hee hath behaued himself cru­elly, and since hath beene as a man vanished. That if he be aliue, hee and his mainies haue destroyed these three yeeres a great many mightie peoples, if hee hath found any in his enquest as hee hath gone: for sure he is one of the notoriousest and best ex­perimented amongest them that haue done the most hurts, mis­chieues, and destructions in many Realmes with their consorts: wherefore I beleeue that God hath giuen him like end vnto the others.

Three or foure yeeres after the writing of the aboue writ­ten, came out of the Florida the head of the petie tyrants which went thither with this captaine tyrant, that there left his bones: of whome wee vnderstood the cruelties and euilles, whiche there during his life time principailly, and vnder his conduct & gouernment, and since after his cursed death, the vnnaturall men haue executed against the Indians innocent, and harmeful to none, to verifie that which I had prognosticate before, they being so excessiue, that they haue the more confirmed the rule by mee set downe before at the beginning, that the farther they pro­ceeded to discouer, destroy, and to waste countries and lands: the more cruelties and notorious wickednesses they woulde doe a­gainst God, and against their neighbours. It loatheth mee to re­count those actes so cursed, ghastly, and bloodie, not of men but of sauage beastes: and therfore I would not trouble my head to stand rehearsing those which followed afterwards.

They found many great nations, and wise common weales well instituted for pollicie and ordinances. They executed vpon them great slaughters after their custome, to the ende to imprint in their heartes an awe. They martyred and murdered them, and loded them with weightie packes like beastes. And when [Page] any was foreweeried or forespent, to the ende they shoulde not need to loose the chain. in the which they were giued in collers, before they come at him that fainted, they pare off the head from the collar brymme, the Troncke tombling one way, and the chaine another: as we haue before recounted to haue beene vsed otherwise.

Entring a borough, where they were receaued with ioy, and the Indians giuing them to eate their fill, and giuing them of Indians more then sixe hundred to carry their fardels, carrying the heafte of beastes in their seruice, and dressing theyr horses: the tyrants being departed thence, a captaine kinsman of the princi­pall tyrant returned to rob the people, being without distruste & without feare, and slue with the thrustes of Launce the Lorde and Kyng of the Countrie, executing besides other cruel­ties.

In another borough, forasmuch as it seemed them that they were a little too neere neighbours, & stood more on their warde, for the actes villanous and infamous, which they had hearde of them: they put to the edge of the sworde and launce, young & olde, great and little, subiect and soueraigne, taking to mercy no creature whosoeuer.

The head tyrant caused to pare off the nose and lips downe to the chin of a great number of Indians, yea, more then 200. (as is said) yt they had caused to bee sent for from a certaine bo­rough, or it may bee came of their owne good will. And thus in this estate so rufull, and in these sorrowes and angui­shes of blood streaming downe, they sent them away: to the end they might go carry newes of the holy woorkes and myracles, which these preachers of the sacred catholike faith, & baptised, had wrought.

Let it nowe bee iudged, what kinde of people these were, what loue they beare to the Christians, and howe they doe be­leeue that God is, whome they say to bee perfectly mercifull and righteous, and that the lawe and the religion, of the whiche they make profession, and doe vaunt themselues, is without blemish. The mischiefes are exceeding sore & strange, [Page] which those vngracious caytiues, children of perdition there committed. And thus the desperate and vnluckie Captayne dyed without confession: and we neede not to doubte but that he lyeth buried in hell: if algates God of his infinite mercy se­cretly dispensed in his hidden wisdome hath not preuented him, not dealing with him, after his demerites, in respect of his vn­gracions lewdnes.

Of the riuer of la Plata, that is to say, of siluer.

SIthence the yeere, one thousande fiue hundred, and two or three and twentie: certaine Captaines made three or foure voyages vppe the Riuer of Plata, where there are great Prouinces and Realmes, and nations well ordered and endued with vnderstanding. In generall we vnderstood, that they haue made there greate butcheries and inuasions: but like as this Countrie is farre discoasted from the Indies most famous, so we are not able, to quote the notablest points in par­ticuler. Wee doubt no whit notwithstanding, but that they haue done and doe keepe as yet at this houre the same order of proceedings as hath beene kept, and are in other quarters: for they bee the selfesame Spaniardes, and there are amongest them of those same, whiche haue trauersed in other actes and exploites such as hath beene specified. Moreouer, theyr go­ing thither, is to become riche and great Lordes as well as o­thers: that which cannot bee done without spoyling, robbinge, slaying, and extirping the Indians, in maner and order holden by the others.

After the writing the abouesaid, I haue vnderstood, that of a truth, they haue wasted and dispeopled great Prouinces and Realmes in that Countrie, exercising strange slaughters & cru­elties vpon these poore people there, for the whiche they haue a­bled themselues as forwarde in wickednesse, or forwarder then [Page] any other, as hauing the commoditie by the greater distance frō Spaine, to sinne the Freer, and by occasion ther of haue liued the more disordered and farthest off from iustice: howbeit that in all the Indies, there hath beene no regarde of Iustice, as ap­peareth sufficiently, by that which hath beene aboue saide.

Amongest an infinite sort of other thinges wee reade at the counsell table for the Indies, these also which shall bee spoken of hereafter. A tyrant gouernour gaue in commande to cer­taine his bands to goe assault the Indians, and that if they gaue them not to eate they shoulde kill them al. They went armed wt this authoritie. And for because the Indians would giue thē none as being open enemies, more for feare of the sighte of them, as flying from them then for want of liberalitie, they put to the edge of the swoorde more then fiue thousande soules.

Item a certaine number of the folke of the Countrie came to put themselues into their handes, and presented them their seruice, whome at aduenture they had sent for: and for because they came not so soone, or for because they woulde after their accustomed fashion, engraue in them an horrible and astonishable terrour: the grouernour commaunded that they should put them into the handes of other Indians, whome they holde for their e­nemies: whereupon they came weeping and crying, and besee­ching them that they woulde slay them, themselues, and not de­liuer them into the power of their enemies, and hauing no mind to yeede out of their houses where they were, they were cut in peeces, crying, and saying: Wee come to serue you in peace, and do you slay vs? Our blood remaine imprinted on this wall, for a witnesse against you of our vniust death, and your barba­rous crueltie. Certes, this was an act of speciall marke, wor­thie to be remembred, and much more to bee lamented.

Of the mightie Realmes, and large Prouinces of Peru.

IN the yeere 1531. went another great tyrant with certaine other consortes, to the Realmes of Peru, where entring with the same title and intention, and with the same proceedings as all the rest before gone, forasmuch as hee was one of them, which had of long tune beene exercised in all kindes of cruel­ties and murders, which had beene wrought in the firme lande sithence the yeere one thousande fiue hundred, and ten, hee tooke encouragement to accrewe in cruelties, murders, & robberies: beeing a man without loyaltie and truth, laying waste Cities and Countries, bringing them to nought, and vtterly vndoe­yng them by slaying the inhabitaunts, and beeing the cause of all the euils, whiche ensued in that Countrie: that I am right well assured, that there is not a man that can recounte them and represent them to the eyes of the Readers, as is requi­site, vntill such time that wee shall see them and knowe them at the day of iudgement. As touching my self, if I woulde take vppon met, to recounte the deformitie, qualitie and cir­cumstances of some one, I were not able to decipher them, acording to that which is conuenient.

Hee slue and laide waste at his firste arriuall with a mis­chiefe certaine boroughes, from whome hee pillaged a greate quantitie of Golde. In an Ilande neere to the same prouin­ces, named Pagna, well peopled and pleasant, the Lord there­of with his people receiued them as it had been Angels from heauen: and sixe monethes after, when as the Spanishe had eaten vppe all theyr prouision: They discouered also vnto them the corne whiche they kept vnder grounde for them selues, their wiues, and their children, against a drie time and bar­ren: making them offer of all, with teers plentiful, to spende and eate at theyr pleasure. The recompence in the ende whiche they made them, was, to put to the edge of the sworde and launce, a great quantitie of those people. And those [Page] whom they could take aliue, they made them slaues: with other cruelties great and notable which they committed, dispeopling as it were all that Ile.

From thence they make to the pronince of Tumbala, whiche is in the firme lande, where they slay and destroy as many as they coulde come by. And because all the people were fled as affrighted by their horrible acces, they sayde that they made an insurrection, and rebelled against the king of Spayne. This tyraunt had this policie, and kept this order of proceeding, that, vnto all those whom hee toake, or vnto others which presented him with golde or siluer, or other thinges which they had: hee commaunded them to bring more, vntill such time as hee percei­ued that either they had no more, or that they brought him no more. And then hee woulde say, that hee accepted them for the vassals and lieges of the kinge of Spaine, and made muche of them: and woulde cause it to bee proclaymed at sounde of two trompettes, that from thence forth they woulde take them no more, and that they woulde doe them no maner harme at all: setting it downe for good and lawfull, all that whatsoeuer hee had robbed from them.

And that hee put them in feare with newes so abhominable which hee spredde amongst them, before hee receiued them into the safegarde and protection of the king, as though that after they were receiued vnder the protection of the king, they woulde not oppresse them, robbe them, lay them waste and desolate any more, yea and as though he had not destroyed them.

A fewe dayes after, the king & Emperour of those realmes, named Atabaliba, came accompanied with a number of na­ked people, bearing their ridiculous armour, not knowing ney­ther howe swordes did carue, nor speares did pearce, nor horses did runne, nor who or what were the Spaniardes: who if the diuelles had any money, woulde set them selues in enquest to goe robbe them. Hee commeth to the place where they were, saying: Where are these Spaniardes? Let them come, I will not stirre a foote, till they satisfie mee for my subiectes whome they haue slayne, and my boroughs which they haue dispeopled, and for my wealth, which they haue bereeued mee.

[Page] The Spaniardes set against him, and slue and infinite sorte of his people: they tooke him also in person, who came ca­ried in a litter born vpon mens shouldiers. They treat with him, to the ende that hee shoulde raunsome himselfe. The king offe­reth to perfourme foure millions of Castillans, and performeth fifteene, they promise to release him: notwithstanding in the ende, keeping nor faith nor trueth (as they neuer kept any in the Indies vnto the Indians) they layed vnto his charge altogether vntruly, that by his commaundement the people assembled.

The king answered, that in all the countrey there mooued not a leafe of a tree, without his good will: that if there assem­bled any people, they were to beleeue that it was by his com­maundement, and as touching himselfe that hee was prisoner, and they might slay him.

All this not withstanding, they condemned him to bee brent aliue: but at the request of some certayne, the Captayne caused him to bee strangled: and beeing strangled, hee was burned.

This king vnderstanding his sentence, sayde: Wherefore will you burne mee? What trespasse haue I done yee? Did not you promise mee to set mee at libertie, if I gaue you the golde? and haue I not performed more then I promised? See­inges you will needes haue it so? sende mee to your king of Spayne: speaking other thinges, to the great confusion and de­testation of the great wrongfulnesse that the Spaniardes vsed, whom in the ende they burned. Here let be considered the right and title of this warfare, the imprisonment of this prince, the sen­tence, and the execution of his death, and the conscience, where­by they possesse great treasures, as in deed they haue robbed in those realmes from this king and other seuerall lordes infinite.

As touching the innumerable cruelties, and notable, for ye mis­chiefes and enormities withall committed in the rooting out of those peoples by them, who call them selues Christians: I will here rehearse some certayne, the which a fryer of S. Frauncis order sawe at the beginning, and the same certified vnder his name and signe: sending them into all those quarters, and a­mongst others into this realme of Castile, whereof I retayne a copie in my keeping in the which it is thus written:

[Page] I Frier Marke, of the order of Saint Frauncis, commissa­rie ouer the other friers of the same order in the prouinces of Peru, and who was one of the first religious men, wt entred into the saide prouinces with the Spaniardes: doe say, bearing true testimonie of certayne things, the which I haue seene with mine eyes in that countrey, namely, concerning the entreating and conquestes made ouer the naturall inhabitaunts of the countrey: first of all, I am an eyed witnesse, and haue certayn knoweledge, that those Indians of Peru, are a people the most kinde hear­ted that hath been seen among all the Indians, beeing curteous in conuersation, and friendly vnto the Spaniardes.

And I sawe them giue to the Spanishe in abundaunce, golde, siluer, and precious stones, and all that was asked them, and that they had, doing them all kinde of seruice lawfull. And the Indians neuer yee ded foorth to warre, but kept them in peace so long time, as they gaue them not occasion, by their euill en­treating of them and their cruelties, but contrariwise receiued them with all amitie and honour in their boroughes, in giuing them to eate, and as many slaues mankinde and women kind, as they demaunded for their seruice.

Item I am witnesse, that without that the Indians gaue occasion: the Spanish as soone as they were entred the lande, after that the greate Cacike Atabaliba, had giuen to the Spanish more then two millions of gold, and had put into their power the whole countrie without resistance, incontinent they burned the said Atabaliba which was Lord of the whole countrie.

And after him they brent his captayne generall Cochilima­ca, who had come to the gouernour in peace with other Lords. In the like maner, also a fewe dayes after they burned a great Lorde named Chamba, of the prouince of Quito, without any fault at all, and without hauing giuen the least occasion that might bee.

In like maner they burned vniustly Schappera Lorde of the Canaries. Also they brent the feete of Aluis a great Lorde amongst all those which were in Quito, and caused him to en­dure sundrie other torments, to make him tell where was the gold of Atabaliba: of the whiche treasure as it appeared, hee knewe nothing.

[Page] Also they brent in Quito Cosopanga, who was gouernour of all the prouinces of Quito, which vpon the request to him first made by Sebastian of Bernalcasar Captayne vnder the gouer­nour, was come to them in peace: and onely because hee gaue them not golde so much as hee demaunded of him their burned him with very many other Caciks and principall Lorde▪ And for ought that I can vnderstand, the intente of the Spaniards was, that there shoulde not bee lefte aliue one Lorde in the whole countrey.

Item I certifie, that the Spaniardes caused to assemble a great number of the Indians, and socked them vp in three great housen, as many as coulde be pored in, and setting to fire, they burned them all, without that they had done the least thing that might bee, or had giuen to the Spanishe the least occasion there­of whatsoeuer. And it came to passe, that a priest, who is na­med Ocanna, drewe a young boy out of the fire, in the which hee burned, which perceiuing an other Spaniarde tooke from out of his handes the boy, and flunge him into the middest of the flames, where he was resolued into ashes together with others. The which Spaniarde returning the same day to the campe, fell downe dead suddenly, and mine aduice was hee should not bee buried.

Item I affirme, to haue seene with myne owne eyes, that the Spanishe haue cutte the handes, the noses, and the eares of the Indians, and of their women, without any other cause or purpose, saue onely that so it came into their fantasie, and that in so many places and quarters, that it shoulde bee too tedious to rehearse. And I haue seene, that the Spanishe haue made their Mastiues runne vpon the Indians to rent them in pieces. And moreouer, I haue seene by them brent so many houses, and whole borughes, or towneshippes, that I am not able to tell the number. Also it is true, that they violently plucked the little in­fants from the mothers dugges, and taking them by the armes, did throwe them from them as farre as they coulde: Together with other enormities and cruelties without any cause, whiche gaue me astonishment to behold them, and woulde be to long to rehearse them.

[Page] Item, I sawe when as they sent for the Cacikes and other principall Indians, to come see them in peace, and assuraunce to them made, promising them safe conduct: and incontinent as they were arriued, they burned them. They burned two whiles I was present, the one in Andon, and the other in Tumbala: and I coulde neuer preuaile with them to haue them deliuered from burning, preached I vnto them neuer so muche. And in God and my conscience, for ought that euer I coulde perceiue, the Indians of Peru, neuer lift themselues vp, nor neuer rebelled for any other cause, but for the euill entreating of the other side, as is manifest vnto euery one, and for iust cause: the Spaniardes destroying them tyrannously against all reason and iustice, with al their countrey, working vpon them so many outrages, that they were determined to die, rather then to suffer much an other time.

Item I say, that by the reporte of the Indians themselues, there is yet more golde hidden then is come to light, the whiche because of the vniustices and cruelties of the Spaniardes, they woulde not discouer, neyther euer will discouer, so long as they shall bee so euyll entreated, but will those rather to die with their fellowes.

Wherein GOD our Lorde hath been highly trespassed agayinst, and the kinges Maiestie euill serued, hauing beene defrauded in that, that his highnesse hath loste suche a countrey, as hath been able to yeelde sustenaunce to all Castile: for the re­couerie of which countrey, it will be a matter of great difficulty, dispence, and charges.

All these hitherto are the formall woordes of the sayde religious person: the which are also ratified by the Byshoppe of Mexico, which witnesseth that the reuerende father hath to his knowledge affirmed all the aboue saide.

It is heere to bee considered, that the good father sayeth, that he sawe those thynges. For that, that hee hath beene fiftie, or an hundred leagues vp into the conntrey, for the space of niene or tenne yeeres, and that at the very beginning, when there were not as yet but very fewe of the Spaniardes: but at [Page] the ringing of the golde, there were quickly gathered and flee­ked thither foure or fiue thousande, which shedde themselues foorth ouer many great realmes and prouinces, more then fiue hundred or sixe hundred leagues, the whiche countrey hath beene throughly destroyed, they executing still the selfe same practises, and others more barbarous and cruell.

Of a veritie from that day vnto this presente, there hath beene destroyed and brought to desolation moe soules then hee hath compted: and they haue with lesse reuerence of GOD or the King, and with lesse plttie then before, abo­lished a great part of the linage of mankinde.

They haue slayne vnto this day in these same realmes (and yet dayly they doe slay them) moe then foure millions of soules.

Certayne dayes passed, they pricked in shooting with dartes of reedes to death a mightie Queene, wife of Eling, who is yet King of that Realme, whom the Spaniardes by laying handes vpon him compelled to rebell, and in rebellion hee persi­steth.

They tooke the Queene his wife, and so as hath beene sayde, slue her against all reason and iustice, beeing greate with childe as shee was, as it was said onely to vexe her husband withall.

If it shoulde bee expedient to recounte the particularities of the cruelties and slaughters that the Spanishe haue com­mitted, and yet dayly doe committe in Peru: without all doubt they shoulde bee so frightfull, and in so great number, that all that wee haue hitherto saide of the other partes of the Indies, woulde bee shadowed, and it woulde seeme a small mat­ter in the respecte of the grieuousnesse and greate number hereof.

Of the newe realme of Grenado.

VVIthin the yeere 1539. there tooke their flight toge­ther sundry tyrantes, flocking from Venesuela, from Saint Martha, and from Carthagene, to search for the Perous: and there were also others which came downe from Peru it selfe to assay, to make a glade farther into the countrey: And they found from beyond S. Marthas and Carthagene, 300. leagues vp into the countrey,, fertile landes, and admirable prouinces, full of infinite people, kinde hearted like the rest, and verye riche, as well of golde as of precious stones, which they call eme­raldes.

Vnto the whiche Prouinces they gaue the name of Newe Grenado: For because that the tyraunt whiche came first into this countrey, was a grenado, borne in our countrey. And for because that diuers wicked men and cruell of those whiche roaued ouer this parte, were not orious butchers, making it as occupation to shedde mans blood, hauing the practise and ex­perience of the great fellonies aforementioned in moste part of the other regions of the Indies: it is the cause why their diue­lishe woorkes haue beene suche, and in so great number, whiche the circumstaunces doe make appeare so monstrous and odi­ous, that they haue farre exceeded the others, yea all the gests that haue gone before, done by others, or by them selues in other Prouinces.

I will recounte some one or other of an infinite whereof they are giultie, as doone by them within these three yeeres, and whiche yet they, cease not to committe. That is, that a Gouernour, for as muche as hee whiche robbed and slewe in the newe Realme of Grenado, woulde not admitte him for consorte with him to robbe and sley as did hee: hee procured an enquirie, and thereby euidence came in agaynst [Page] him with sundrie witnesses, vpon the fact of his slaughters, dis­orders, and murders which hee had done, and doeth as yet vnto this day, the processe of which enquirie, together with the euiden­ces was read, and is kept in the recordes of the counsell of the Indies.

The witnesses doe depose in the same enquirie, that the saide whole realme was in peace, the Indians seruing the Spani­ards, giuing them to eate of their laboure, and labouring con­tinually, and manuring the grounde, and bringing them muche golde and precious stones, suche as are emerauldes, and all that which they coulde and had: the townes, and the Lordeshippes, and the people being distributed amongst the Spaniardes eue­ry one his share: which is all that they studie for, for that, that it is their meane way to attayne to their last end and scope, to witte golde,

And all beeing subdued to their tyrannie and accustomed bondage, the tyrant the principall Captayne which commaun­ded ouer that countrey, tooke the Lorde and King of the coun­trey, and detayned him prisoner sixe or seuen monethes, exacting of him golde and emerauldes without cause or reason at all. The sayde king, who was named Bogata, for feare which they put him in, sayde that he woulde giue them an house full of gold: hoping that hee shoulde escape out of the handes of him whiche tormented him. And hee sent Indians which shoulde bringe him golde, and by times one after an other, they brought in a great quantitie of golde and precious stones. But bec ause the king did not giue an whole house full of golde, the Spaniardes did kill him: sethence that hee did not accomplishe that which he had promised.

The tyraunt commaunding that this king shoulde bee ar­raigned before him selfe: They sommon and accuse in this or­der the greatest king of all that countrey, and the tyraunt gi­ueth sentence, condemning him to bee racked and tormented, if hee doe not furnishe forth the house full of golde.

They giue him the torture and the strapado with cordes: they flinge burnyng sewe [...] vppon his naked belly: they lay [Page] on boltes vpon his feete, which were fastened to one stake, and gyrd his neck fast vnto another stake, two men holding both his handes, and so they set fire vnto his feete: and the tyrant, com­ming vp and downe, nowe and then, willeth him to haue his death giuen him by little and little, if hee made not readie the golde. Thus they dispatched and did to death that noble Lord in those torments, during the execution whereof, God manife­sted by a signe, that those cruelties displeased him, in consuming with fire all the towne where they were committed. All the Spaniardes to the ende to followe their good Capataine, and ha­uing none other thing to doe, but to hackle in peeces those poore innocents doe the like, tormenting with diuers and sauage tor­ments euery Indian, both Cacike or Lorde of euery people or peoples, with all their flocks, that were committed to their char­ges: those said Lordes with all their subiects seruing them, and giuing them golde and emerauds as many as they coulde, and as muche as they had: Tormenting them onely to the ende they shoulde giue them more golde, and rich myneralles: thus they broyled and dispatched all the Lordes of that Countrie.

For the great feare of the notorious cruelties, that one of the petie tyrants did vnto the Indians, there transported himselfe vnto the mountaines, in flying so great crueltie, a great Lorde named Daytama, with many of his people. For this they holde for their last remedie and refuge, if it might haue preuai­led them ought: and this the Spaniardes call insurrection and rebellion. Which the Captaine head tyrant hauing knowledge of he sendeth supplie of souldiers vnto the said cruel man: (for whose cruelties sake, the Indians that were peaceable, and had endured great tyrannies and mischiefes, were nowe gone into the mountaines:) to the ende hee should pursue them. Who, be­cause it sufficed not to hide them in the entrals of the earth, fin­ding there a great multitude of people, slue and dispatched thē, aboue 500. soules, what mē, what womē, for they receiued none to mercy. Also the witnesses depose, that the said Lord Dayta­mā, before that the Spaniards put him to death, came to the cru­ell man, and brought him foure or fiue thousand Castillans, the which notwithstanding he was murdered as is aboue saide.

[Page] Another time manie Indians beeing come to serue the Spa­niardes, and seruing them with such humilitie and simplicitie, as they are accustomed to doe, reputing themselues assured: be­hold, the captaine of the towne where they serued, who commeth by night commaunding that those Indians should be put to the edge of the sworde, when they had supped, and whiles that they were a sleepe, taking their rest after the toyle which they sustai­ned the day time. And this hee did, for that it seemed him neces­sary to do this massacre, to the end to engraue an awe of himself in the heartes of all the peoples of that countrie.

Another time the captaine commaunded to take an othe of the Spaniardes, to wit, howe many euery one had in his ser­uice of the Caciks, and principall Lords, and Indiās of the mea­ner sort: that incontinent they shoulde bee brought to the moste open place of the citie, where he commaunded that they shoulde be beheaded: thus were there at that time put to death a foure or fiue hundred soules.

Moreouer these witnesses depose concerning another of the petty tyrants, that he had exercised great cruelties in slaying, & chopping off the hands and noses of many persons, aswell men as women, and destroying very much people.

Another time the captaine sent the self same cruell man with certaine Spaniardes into the Prouince of Bogata, to bee infor­med by the inhabitants what Lorde it was, that was successour vnto the chiefe Lorde, whom he had made to die ye cruell death in those torments spoken of before: Who running along the countrie throughout sundrie places, tooke as many Indians as he could come by: And for that he could not learn of them, what he was that succeeded that Lorde, he mangled off some handes, he bid cast others, men and women vnto hungrie mastiues, who rend them in peeces. And in this maner haue been destroyed ve­ry many Indies, and Indesses. One time at the fourth watch of the night, he went to ouerrunne Caciks or gouernours of the lande, with many of the Indians, which were in peace, and helde themfelues assured (for he had giuen them his faith, & assurance that they shoulde receiue no harme nor damage) vpon credit [Page] wherof, they were come foorth of their holes in the mountains, where they had been hid, to people the plaine, in the which stoode their citie: thus being commen without suspition, & trusting the assurance made, he tooke a great number, aswell men as womē, and commanded to holde out their handes stretched against the ground, & himselfe with a woodknife cut of their hands, telling them that he did on them this chastisement, for that they woulde not confesse, where their new Lorde was, which had succeeded in the charge of gouernement of the Realme,

Another time for that the Indians gaue him not a cofer full of golde, that this cruel captaine required them: he sent men to warre vpon them: who cut off the handes and noses of men and women without number. They cast others before their dogs being hunger bitten, and vsed to the feate of feeding on flesh, the which dispatched and deuoured them.

Another time the Indians of that Realme perceiuing, that the Spaniards had brent 3. or 4. of their principall Lordes, they fled for feare vp into a mountaine, from whence they might de­fende themselues against their enemies so estraunged from all humanitie. There were of them by the testimonie of the witnesses a foure or fiue thousande Indians. This aboue saide Captaine sent a great and notable tyrant, which exceeded farre most of those to whom he had giuen the charge to ransacke and waste, together with a certaine number of Spaniardes, to the ende that they should chastise the Indian rebels: as they would seeme to make them for that they were fled from a pestilence & slaughter so intollerable: and as though it apperteined vnto them, to chastice and punish them as malefactors themselues in deede being worthie of all torment without that any body should haue of them pitie or compassion, being so deuoid thereof, as ap­peareth by the handling of those poore innocents of that fashion. Well, so it is that the Spanish by force preuailed to get vppe to the mountaine: for the Indians were naked without weapons. And the Spaniardes cryed peace vnto the Indians: assuring them, that they would do them no harme: and that they of their partes shoulde not war any longer. Streight way as the Indi­ans stinted from their owne defense, the vile cruel man sent to ye [Page] Spaniardes to take the fortes of the mountaine, and when they shoulde get them to enclose within them the Indians. They set then like vnto Tigers and Lions, vpon these lambes so meeke, and put them to the edge of the sworde, so long that they were faine to breath and rest themselues. And after hauing rested a certaine season, the captaine commaunded that they shoulde kill and cast downe from the mountaine, the which was very highe, the residue that were aliue: that which was done. And these witnesses say, that they sawe as it were a cloude of the Indians cast downe from the mountaine, to the number by estimation of seuen hundreth men together, where they fell battered to peeces.

And to atchieue all his great crueltie, they searched al the In­dians that were hid amongst the bushes: and hee commaunded to cut of their heads, at blockes ends: and so they siue them and cast them downe the mountaine: yet coulde not hee content him selfe with those saide thinges so cruell but that hee would make himselfe a litle better knowne, augmenting his horrible sinnes, when as hee commaunded that all the Indians men and womē, which some priuate persons had taken aliue (for euery one in those massacres is accustomed to cull out some one or other mankinde and womankind, to the ende to become his seruants) shoulde be put into a strawen house, sauing and reseruing those, which seemed necessarie to bee employed in their seruice, and that there shoulde be put to fire: thus were there burned fourty or fiftie. Hee caused the rest to bee flong to the carrion kinde dogges, which rende them in peeces, and deuoured them.

Another time the selfe same tyrant went to a Citie called Cotta, and tooke there a great number of Indians, and caused to be dismembred by his dogs, a fifteene or twentie Lords of the principal, and cut the handes of a great multitude of men & wo­men: which saide handes hee hanged one by another on a pole, to the ende the other Indians might see that, which he had done vnto them. There were so hanged one by another threescore and ten payre of hands. He slysed off besides from many women and children their noses.

No creature liuing and reasonable, is able to decipher the [Page] mischiefes and cruell dealings of this fellowe, enemie of God. For they are without number, neuer otherwise hearde of, nor seene: those, I meane, which he hath done in the lande of Guati­mala, and all about where he hath become, for there are a good many yeres passed, in the which he hath bene professed in the mi­sterie, to bereaue that land, & those people.

The witnesses say for a surcharge, that the cruell dealings & slaughters which haue beene committed, and are yet in the saide Realme of new Grenado, by the captaines themselues in person and by their consents giuen vnto all the other tyrants, wasters, and weeders of the nature of man, which were in his company, and the which hath laid all the countrie wilde & waste, are suche and so excessiue, that if his maiestie doe not take some order therein in some time (albeit that the slaughter and discomfiture of ye Indians is done only to bereaue thē of their gold, the which they haue none of, for they haue surrendred all that which they had) they wil in a short time make an end of them so in such sort, that there will bee no more Indians to inhabite the lande, but that it wyll remaine in a wildernesse without beeing manu­red.

Nay, wee must note heere the cruell and pessilent tyrrannie of these cursed tyrants, howe raging and diuelish it hath beene, that in the space of two or three yeeres, sithence that this realme hath bene first discouered (which as they say both those that haue been there, and those which depose as witnesses, was the moste peopled of inhabitantes, as possiblie might bee any Countrie in the worlde,) they haue rased and emptied it with slaughters, de­claring themseues so farre remooued from pittie, and the reue­rent feare of God and the Prince, that the opinion is, with­out the present succour of his Maiesty, to stay these vnnatural & diuelish tyrannies, there wil not remaine as muche as one man aliue, & I verily beleue it. For I haue seen with mine own eyes that in these parts, they haue destroyed and dispeopled in a small time, great countries.

There are other great Prouinces, which bounde vpon the saide Realme, of newe Grenado, which they call Popay an and [Page] Cali, and three or foure others, which containe more then 500. leagues of ground, which they haue destroyed and desolated in the same maner, as they haue done others, robbing and slaying with torments, and the enormities afore spoken of. For the land is very fertile, and those that come from thence now dayly, dot report, yt it is a rufull thing to see so manie goodly townes bur­ned and sayd desolate, as they might behold passing vp & downe that way: so as there, where there was wont to be in one towne a thousand or two thousand householdes, they haue not founde fiftie, and the rest vtterly ransacked and dispeopled. And in some quarters they haue found two or three hundred leagues of lande dispeopled and burned, & great cities destroyed. And finally, by that, that si thence into the Realmes of Peru, of the Prouince side of Quito, are entred farre into the Countrie sore and fel ty­rants, as far as to the said Realme of Grenado, & of Popayan, & of Cali by the coast of Carthagene, and Araba, & other accur­sed tyrants of Carthagene haue gone to assault Quito, and moreouer, afterwards of the riuer side of S. Iohn, which is on ye south side, all the whiche haue met to ioyne handes together in this exployte: they haue rooted out and dispeopled aboue sixe hun­dred leagues of land, with the losse of an infinitie of soules, do­ing still the selfe same to the poore wretches that remain behind, howsoeuer innocent they appeare to be.

Thus then is the rule which I set down at the beginning, by them verified: that is, that the tyrannie, rage, and vngracious­nesse of the Spanishe, hath alwayes proceeded encreasing in their crueltie, vnnaturalnesse, and mischiuousnes amongst those so sweete lambes. That which is continued at this present day in those Prouinces, amongst other their doings worthy the fire and torment, is this which followeth.

After the ends of the slaughters and massacres of the warres, they bring the people into the horrible bondage aboue saide, and giue them to the commaundment of Diuels, to one an hundred Indians, to another three hundred. The cēmaunder Diuel com­mandeth, that there come before him an hundred Indians, which incontinent present themselues like lambes. He causing a forty or fiftie amongest them to haue their heads cut off: saith vnto the other there present, I will serue you of the same sauce, if you [Page] doe not mee good seruice, or if so be, that you goe out of my sight without my leaue.

That for the honour of God, all they that haue read this peece of worke, or shall giue it a reading, consider nowe, whether this act, so hideous, fell and vnnatural, doe not exceede all crueltie and iniquitie, that may bee imagined, and whether the Spani­ardes haue any wrong offered them when a man calleth them Diuels, & whether were better, to giue the Indiās to keep to the diuels in hel, or the Spaniards which are at the Indies.

After this I will rehearse another diuelish part, the which I cannot tell whether it be lesse cruell & deuoide of manhood, then are those of sauage beastes: that is, that the Spanish which are in the Indies, doe keepe certaine dogges most raging, taught and trayned wholy to the purpose, to kill and rende in peeces the Indiās. That let all those yt are true christians, yea, and also those which are not so, behold, if euer there were the like thinge in the whole worlde: that is, to feed those dogs, they led about wt them wheresoeuer they goe a great nūber of Indians in chaines as if they were hogs, and kill them, making a shambles of mans flesh. And the one of them will say to another, Lend mee a quar­ter of a villaine, to giue my dogs some meate, vntill I kyll one nexte, altogether as if one shoulde borrowe a quarter of an hog or mutton. There bee others which goe foorth a hunting in the morning with their curres, the which being returned to eat, if another aske him: Howe haue yee sped to day, they aun­swere, very well: for I haue killed with my dogs to day, fifteene or twentie viliacoes. All these Diabolicall doings, with others like haue beene proued in the sutes of law, that the tyrants haue had one of them against another. Is there any case more ouglie or vnnaturall?

I will here now deport me of this discourse, vntill such time, yt there come other newes of things, in vngraciousnes more no­torious and remarkable (if it so be, yt there can be any more gree­uous) or vntill such time as wee may returne thither to beholde them our selues anewe, as wee behold them for the space of 42. yeeres continually with mine owne eyes: Protesting in a good conscience before God, that I doe beleeue, and I holde it for [Page] certaine, that the damages and losses are so great, with the di­structions and ouerthrowes of Cities, massacres and murders, with the cruelties, horrible and ougly, with the rauins, iniqui­ties and robberies, all the which things haue beene executed a­mongest those people, and are yet dayly committed in those quarters: that in all the things, which I haue spoken and deci­phered, as I was able the neerest to the truth: I haue not saide one of a thousande, of that which hath beene done, and is dayly a doyng at this present, be it that you consider the qualitie, or bee it, that ye consider the quantitie.

And to the end that all Christians haue the greater compassi­on of those poore innocents, and that they complaine with mee the more their perdition and destruction, and that they detest the greedinesse, loftinesse, and felnesse of the Spanish: that all doe holde it for a most vndoubted veritie, with all that hath beene a­boue saide, that sithence the first discouery of the Indies vntyll nowe, the Indians neuer did harme vnto the Spanishe in any place wheresoeuer, vntill suche time, that they firste receiued wrongs and iniuries, being robbed and betrayed: but indeede did repute them to be immortall, supposing them to bee descen­ded from heauen, and they receiued them for suche, vntill suche time as that they gaue it forth manifestly to be knowen by their doings, what they were, and whereto they tended.

I will adioyne heerevnto this, that from the beginning vn­to this houre, the Spaniardes haue had no more care to procure that vnto those people shoulde bee preached the faith of Iesus Christe, then as if they had been curre dogs, or other beastes: but in lien thereof, which is much worse, they haue forbidden by ex­presse meanes the religious men to doe it, for because that that seemed vnto them an hinderance likely to bee, to the getting of their golde, and these riches which their auarice foreglutted in. And at this day there is no more knowledge of God throughout the Indies, to wit, whether hee bee of tymber, of the ayre, or the earth, then there was an hundred yeeres agoe, excepting [...]ewe Spaine, whether the religious men haue gone, which is but a litle corner of the Indies: and so are they perished, and doe pe­rishe all without faith, and without sacraments.

[Page] I brother Bartholomewe delas Casas or Casaus, religious of the order of S. Dominicke, which by the mercie of God am come into this courte of Spayne, to sewe that the hell might hee withdrawen from the Indes, and that these innumerable soules, redeemed by the blood of Iesus Christ, shoulde not perishe for euermore without remedie, but that they might knowe their creator and bee saued: also for the care and compassion that I haue of my countrey, which is Castile, to the ende that God de­stroy it not for the great sinnes thereof, committed against the fayth and his honour, and against our neighbours: for certaine mens sakes notablie zealous of the glory of God, touched with compassion of the afflictions and calamities of others, followers of this court: howebeit, that I was purposed to do it, but I could not so soone haue done it, because of my continuall occupations, I atchieued this treatise and summarie at Valencia, the 8. of December, 1542. the force beeing mounted to the highest type of extremitie, and all the violences, tyrannies, desolations, an­guishes, and calamities aboue sayde, spread ouer all the Indies, where ther are any Spaniardes, although they bee more cruell in one part then they bee in an other, and more sauage, and more abhominable.

Mexico and her confines are lesse euill intreated. In truth, there they can not execute their outrages openly, for that there and not elsewhere, there is some forme of iustice, as slender as it is. For because that there also they kill them with diuelishe tributes: I am in good hope, that the Emperour and King of I payne, our liege Soueraigne Lorde, don Charles the fifte of that name, who beginneth to haue vnderstanding of the mischie­ues and treasons that there haue been, and are committed a­gainst those poore people, against the will of God, and his owne, (for they haue alwayes cunningly concealed the trueth from him) will roote out those euilles, and take some order for this newe worlde that God hath giuen him, as vnto one that leueth and doeth iustice: whose honour and prosperous estate Imperi­all, God almightie vouchsafe to blesse with long life, for the be­nefite of his whole vniuersall Church, and to the saluauen of his [Page] owne royall soule. Amen.

After hauing couched in writing the premisses, I vnderstood of certayne lawes and ordinaunces, whiche his Maiestie hath made about this time at Barcellone, Anno. 1542. in the moneth of Nouember, and the yeere following at Madrill: by the which ordinaunces, there is order set downe, as the case them seemeth to require: to the end, to cut off the mischeieues and sinnes whi­che are committed against God and our neighbours, tending to the vtter ruine & perdition of this new world. His Maiestie hath made these lawes, after hauing holdē many assemblies of persons of authoritie, of learning and conscience, and after hauing had disputations and conferences in Valladolyd: and finally with the assent and aduise of al those others which haue giuen their aduise in writing, and haue been founde neerest approching vnto the law of Iesus Christ, and withall free from the corruption and foyle of the treasures robbed from the Indians: the which trea­sures haue soyled the handes and much more the soules of many, ouer whom those treasures and auarice haue got the maisterie, and where hence hath proceeded the blinding, which hath caused so to marre all without remorse. These lawes being published, the creatures of those tyrantes, who then were at the court, drew out sundrie copyes thereof (for it grieued them at the hearts: for that it seemed them that thereby there was a doore shut vp vnto them agaynst their rauine and extortion afore rehearsed) and dis­persed them into diuers quarters of the Indies. Those which had the charge to robbe, roote out, and consume by their tyrannies, (euen as they had neuer kept any good order but rather disorder, such as Lusifer himselfe might haue helde) as they read those co­pies before the new iudges might come to execute their charge, knowing it (as it is sayd, and that very exediblie) by those who vntill this time haue supported and mayntayned their crimes and outrages, to be likely that such execution shoulde bee vsed of those laws: they ran into a mutinie in such wise, as that when the good Iudges were come to doe their duties, they aduised with them selues (as those which had lost the feare and loue of God) to cast off also all shame, and obedience which they owe to the king, and so tooke vnto them the name of open and arrant [Page] traytours, behauing them selues as most cruell and gracelesse tyrantes: and principally in the realme of Peru, where present­ly this yeere 1442. are committed actes so horrible and fright­full, as neuer were the like, neither in the Indies, nor in all the worlde besides, not onely agaynst the Indians, the which all or in a maner all are slayne, all those regions being dispeopled: but also betwixt themselues by a iust iudgement of God, who hath permitted that they shoulde bee the butchers one of an other of them. By meanes of the support of this rebellion, none of all the other partes of this newe worlde would obey those lawes: But vnder colour of making supplication to his Maiestie to the con­trary, they haue made an insurrection aswell as the others. For that it irketh them to leaue their estates and goodes whiche they haue vsurped, and to vnbinde the handes of the Indians, whome they detayne in a perpetuall captiuitie. And there where they cease to kill with the swoorde, redily and at the instant, they kill them a little and a little, by personall slaueries, and vniust char­ges and intollerable. That which the king could not hither vnto let: for because that they all, great and litle, roue and robbe, some more, some less [...] ▪ [...]ome ouertly, and some couertly, and vnder the pretence of seruing the king: dishonour God, and rob the king.

The Authour his wordes farder to king Philip, then at the time of writing thereof, Prince of Spayne.
The Missiue.

THat which followeth hereafter immediatly: is a part of a Missiue or letter sent, written by one, who him selfe was a partie in these voiages: recounting the works the which a captayne did, and consented to the dooing in the countrey, all the way as hee passed. And albeit so, that the saide missiue being put to binding in one booke with other papers, the binder eyther forgot, or lost a leafe or two: not­withstanding, forasmuch as the said missiue contayned things fearefull, euen to astonishement, the which one of them that had done them had giuen me: and that I had them all in my keeping: I thought good to present you therwithall, such as it is nowe, though without beginning or ending. For that this fragment remayning of the whole, is full of notable pointes: and therefore being resolued that it shoulde bee so printed, trusting that it will cause no lesse compass on and horror in your highnesse minde, then the other matters afore mentioned, with a desire forthwith to prouide for the re­dresse.

HEe gaue licence to put them to the Chaine and in bondage: That which they did: and the Cap­tayne led after him three or foure droues of these persons enchayned: and in this doing, he procu­red not yt the countrey shoulde bee inhabited and peopled (as had been conuenient shoulde haue [Page] been done) but robbing from the Indians all their victuals they had, the inbornes of the countrey were reduced to suche an ex­tremitie, that there were founde great numbers dead of famine in the high wayes. And the Indians comming and going too and fro the coast, laden with the carriage of the Spaniardes, hee was the death by these meanes of about ten thousande. For not one that arriued at the very coast escaped death: by reason of the excessiue heate of the countrey.

After this following the same tract and way, by the whiche Iohn of Ampudia was gone, hee sent the Indians which hee had purchased in Quito, a day before him, to the ende they should discouer the bourges of the Indians, and shoulde pillage them, that when hee came with his maynie, hee might finde his boo­tie readie.

And those Indians were his owne mates: of the whiche such a one had two hundred, such a one three hundred, and suche a one a hundred: according to the haggage that euery one of them had: which Indians came to yeelde them selues to their maisters with all yt they had robbed. At dooing whereof they committed great cruelties towarde young children and women: and so had hee vsed before to doe in Quito, in burning the whole countrey, and namely the garners where the Lordes kept their Mahis in prouision.

Hee suffered to bee done great outrages, in slaying the sheepe with the which they nourished and entertayned for the most part, both the Spanishe, and the naturall inhabitauntes of the countrey. And onely to haue the braynes and the sewet hee permitted that there shoulde bee killed two or three hundred wethers, of the whiche the flesh was fayne to bee cast away. And the Indians friendes to the Spaniardes, and the whiche went with the Spaniardes, onely to eate the sheepes hearts, kil­led a great number, for as much as they eate none other thing.

And two men in one prouince, named Purua, killed 25. we­thers and sheep fit for carriage like our horse, & the which were worth amongst the Spaniardes twentie, and fiue and twentie duckates a peece, only to haue to eate the braines, and the sewet. So as by this disorder of exceeding slaughter of beastes, haue [Page] been lost aboue an hundred thousande head of cattell. By occasi­on whereof also, the countrey came into a great necessitie: the natiue of the lande miserablie dying of famine. And Quito, which was furnished of so great store of Mahis, that it can not bee well spoken, was by this meanes so assaulted with famaine, that a strike or bushell of Mahis, was raysed to the prise of 10. duckets, and a sheepe to as muche.

After that the sayde Captaine was returned from the coast, hee determined to depart from Quito, and to goe seeke the Cap­tayne Iohn de Ampudia, leauing thereto moe then two hundred of foote men and horse men, amongst whome were a great many inhabitauntes of the citie of Quito. Vnto those inhabitaunts the captaine gaue licence to carrie with them the Cacikes, that were escheated them in sharing, with as many Indians as they would. That which they did: and Alfonso Sanches Nuita caried forth with him his Cacike, with moe then an hundred Indians besids: and in like maner Peter Cibo and his cousin: and they led out more then an hundred and fiftie with their wiues: and sundrie al­so sped out their children, because that in a maner euery one died for hunger. Also Moran inhabitant of Popaian, caried out moe then two hundred persons. And the like did all the rest, citizens and souldiers, euery one after his abilitie: the souldiers crauing that they might haue licence giuen them to captiue those Indi­ans men and women, which they carried forth: the which was graunted vnto them vntyll the death of the sayde captiues, and those deceased, to take as many more: for if the Indians were subiectes of his Maiestie, so likewise were the Spaniardes that died in the warres as well as they.

And after this maner departed the sayde Captayne of Qui­to, going to a citie called Otaba, the which he held at that houre for his share: and demanded of the Cacike, that there shoulde bee giuen him fiue hundred men to lead to the warres: which were giuen him with certayne principall persons of the Indians. Hee departed some of those people amongst his souldiers, and ledde forth the rest with him, some laden, and some chayned, and some vnbounde to serue him, and to bring him meate.

[Page] Thus carried hee his souldiers some pinniond in chaynes, and some in coardes. When they departed out of the Prouince of Quito, they carried out moe then sixe thousande Indians, men and women, and of al those there neuer returned home into their countrey twentie persons. For they dyed all thorough the great and excessiue trauell, which they made them endure in those br [...] ­ling countreys contrary to their nature. It happened at that tyme that one Alfonso Sanches, whom the saide Captayne sent for chieftayne ouer a certayne number of men into a Prouince there, met with a good company of women, and young boyes laden with victuals: who stayed wayting for them without mo­uing from the place to giue them of that which they had, and ha­uing so done, the captaine commaunded that they should bee put to the sharpe of the sworde. There happened here a mayuailous thing: which was, that a souldier striking an Indesse woman, his sworde brake a two in the middest, at the first blowe, and at the seconde blowe there remayned nought in his handes, but the pomell hauft without that the woman was hurt. And an other souldier, willing to strike another Indesse woman, with asquare dagger he had, the dagger brake at the first choppe, the length of foure fingers, and at the seconde, there remayned vnto him no more saue the hauft.

At the same tyme the sayde Captayne yeeded foorth of Qui­to, and drewe out a great number of the naturall inbornes, vn­marriyng them, and giuing their young wiues vnto his Indians whom hee ledde along, and the others wiues hee gaue to others which remayned in the citie, for that they were too olde.

There followed out of Quito a woman with a litle childe in her armes, crying after him, and entreating him, that her husbande might not bee forced to goe with him, for that shee had three little children, the whiche shee coulde not nourishe but were ready to dye for hunger:

And as the Captayne gaue her a churlishe answere at her first sute, shee returned the seconde time with greater cries, say­ing, that her children dyed for hunger.

[Page] And seeing that the Captayne gaue her the repulse, and that hee woulde not restore her, her husbande: shee beat the childes head agaynst the stones, and slue it.

It came to passe also, that at the tyme that the sayde Captayne came into the prouice of Lili, to a towne called Palo neere vnto the great riuer, where hee founde the Captayne Iohn de Ampudia, which was gone before to discouer, and pa­cifie the countrey: the saide Ampudia kepte a citie by him pro­uided of a garrisō in the name of his maiesty, and of the marques Frauncis of Pizarro: and had set ouer them for gouernours or­dinarie, one Petre Solano of Quennoues, and 8. counsellours, & all the rest of the countrey was in peace & shared out amongst them. And as he knew that the sayd captaine was in the said ri­uer, he came to see him with a great number of the inhabitantes of the countrey, and peaceful Indians, laden with victuals and fruites. Shortly after also all the neighbour Indians came to see him, bringing him food. There were the Indians of Xamun­di, and of Palo, and of Soliman, and of Bolo.

Nowe because that they brought no Mahis which he would haue, hee sent a great number of Spaniardes with their Indi­ans, to go search for Mahis: commaunding them to bring some wheresoeuer they founde any. So went they to Bolo, and to Pa­lo, and founde the Indians men and women in their housen in peace: and the sayd Spaniards with those that were with them, tooke them and robbed their Mahis, their golde and couerings, and all that they had, and bounde many.

The Indians seeing that they entreated them so euill, went to complaine vnto the sayde Captayne, requesting that all which had been bereft them, might be restored them: But the Captain woulde restore them none, and forbidde them to come at him any more. Notwithstanding foure or fiue dayes after the Spani­ardes estsoones returne to fetche Mahis, and to pil­ladge the Indians natiue of the soyle as before time. Wherefore, they seeing that the Captayne kepte no faith with them: all the Countrie arose and reuolted from the Spanishe, whereof ensued greate dammage, and GOD and the [Page] kings maiestie offended: and by this meanes the countrie re­mained dispeopled: for yt the Olomas & the Manipos their ene­mies which are moūtaine people, & warlike, descended dayly to take and rob them, when they perceiued the citie and places of their abode left destitute. And amongst them, hee who was the stronger, did eate vp his fellowe, for all dyed for famine. This done, the captaine came to the citie of Ampudia, where hee was receiued for generall, and seuen dayes after from thence hee de­parted to goe towards the harbour of Lili and Peti, with more then two hundred horsmen and footemen. After this, that saide is, the saide chiefe gouernour sent his captaines of one side and other, to bid cruell battayle to the natiue Indiās: staying a great number of them as wel men as women: burning also their hou­ses, and spoiling their goods. This indured a good many dayes. And the saide captaine was gone towardes a citie named Yee, withall the Indians whome they had taken in Lili, without re­leasing any one: and beeing come to the saide Yee, hee sent in­continent Spaniardes to pilladge, take and stay all the Indians men and women, that they coulde take: thus they burned moe then an hundred. From this place they goe to a Citie called Tukilicui, from whence the Cacike of the place yeeded foorth incontinent in peace, a number of Indians going before him. The captaine demaunded golde of him and of his Indians. The Cacik told him that hee had but a small deale, and that whiche he had should be giuen him: & immediatly al began to giue him all that they had. Whereupon the sayde captaine gaue vnto euery of them a ticket, with the name of the saide Indian for a testimoniall that hee had giuen him golde: affirming that hee which shoulde haue neuer a ticket, should bee cast to the dogs to bee deuoured, because hee gaue him no golde. Whereupon the Indians for feare yt they were put in, gaue him all the gold that they were able: & those which had none fled into the moun­taines and other townes for feare to be slaine. By reason where­of perished a great number of the natiue inhabitants of the coū ­trie. And shortly after the said captaine commanded the Cacike to sende two Indians to another citie named Dagna, to will them that they shoulde come in peace, and bring him golde in a­boundance [Page] bundance. And comming to another citie, he sent that night ma­ny Spaniardes to take the Indians, and namely of Tulilicui. So as they brought the next morrow aboue an hundred persons: and all those which could beare burdens, they tooke them for thē selues, and for their souldiers, and put them to the chaine, wher­of they dyed all. And the saide captaine gaue the little children vnto the said Cacik Tulilicui that hee should eate them: and in truth the skinnes of those children are kept in the house of the saide Cacik Tulilicui full of ashes: and so departed hee from thence without an interpreter, and went towardes the Prouin­ces of Calile, where he ioyned himselfe vnto the captaine Iohn de Ampudia, who had sent him to discouer another way, dooing both of them great outrages, and much mischiefe vnto the inha­bitants of the countrie where they became. And the said Iohn de Ampudia came vnto a Citie, the Cacik and Lorde whereof called Bitacur had caused to make certaine ditches to defende himselfe, and there fell into the same two horses, the one of An­tonie Rodondos, the other of Marc Marquesis. That of Mar­cos Marquis died, the other not. For which cause the said Am­pudia commaunded to take all the Indians men and women that might be: And therupon tooke & laid together more then an hundred persons, whome they cast aliue into those ditches and slue them, and brent withal more then an hundred houses in the said citie. And in that maner met in a great Citie, where with­out sommoning (the Indians being at peace, and without anye spokesman to goe betweene them,) they slue with their speares a great number of them, making on them mortall warre. And as it is said, soone after they were met, the saide Ampudia tolde the Captaine what hee had done in Bitaco, and howe hee cast so many into the ditches: and the sayd captaine aunswered, that it was well done, and that he for his part had done as much at the riuer of Bamba when hee entred the same, which is in the Pro­uince of Quito, and that hee had flong into the ditches moe then two hundred persons, and there they stayed warring on all the countrie. Soone after hee entred into the Prouince of Bitu, or Anzerma: in making cruell warre with fire and blood till they [Page] came as farre as vnto the salt houses. And from thence hee sent Frauncis Garcia before him to pilladge, who made cruel warre on the naturall inhabitants of the Countrie as hee had done be­fore him. The Indians came vnto him two and two, making signes, that they demaunded peace on the behalfe of the whole Countrie: alleadging that they woulde afoord him, all that hee coulde reasonably demaund, were it golde, or women, or victu­als, only that they woulde not kill them, as indeede it was a troth. For themselues afterwardes confessed it to be so. But the saide Frauncis Garcia, bid them get them packing: Telling them moreouer that they were a sort of drunkardes, and that he vnder stood them not, and so returned hee to the place where the saide Captaine was, and they made a complot, to ouerrunne all the Prouince, making cruell warre on all the Countrie, in spoi­ling, robbing, and slaying all: and with the souldiers, which hee brought with him drewe thence moe then two thousand soules, and all those dyed in the chaine. Before departing the place which he had peopled, they slue moe then fiue hundred persons. And so returned to the Prouince of Calili. And by the way if any Inde or Indesse were weary, in such sort that they could not passe any further, they did incontinently head them, paring it off from the shoulders euen with the chaine, to the ende not to take the paines to open the locke thereof: and to the end that others which went the same way shoulde not make wise to be sicke, and by this meanes dyed they all: and in the high wayes were lefte all those people which he made his purchase of out of Quito, & of Pasto, and of Quilla Cangua, and of Para, and of Popayan, and of Lili, and of Cali, and of Anzerma, and a great number of people dyed. Also immediately vpon theyr returne vnto the great Citie, they entred into it, staying all that they could: taking in that day moe then three hundreth persons.

Hee sent from the Prouince of Lili, the saide Captaine Iohn de Ampidia, with very manye souldiers vnto the lod­gynges and peopled places of Lili: to the ende that they shoulde take all the Indes and Indesses they coulde: And that they shoulde bring them vnto him to serue for loadyng: [Page] for because that al those which he brought him before time from Anzerma & from Alli, were dead, whiche were great numbers. And the saide Iohn de Ampudia brought moe then a thousande persons, and siue very many. The captaine thus tooke as many as he needed to serue his turne, and gaue the rest vnto the soul­diers, which confined them to the chayne in whiche they dyed. So dispeopling the said citie of Spaniardes and inbornes of the countrie, both in so great a number, as appeareth by the few­nesse of the folke, that are remanent: he departed thence to goe to Popayan, & left in the way a Spaniarde named Martine A­guirr, who was not able to follow the rest. And beeing come to Popayan, he placed there a garrison, and began to root out and rob those Indians there, in the order that he had kept elswhere. And hee erected there a mynt royall, melting all the golde hee coulde come by, with all that, that Iohn de Ampudia had before he came vnto him, and without keeping any other audit or reckoning, and without giuing any part to any souldier, taking the whole to his owne vse, except a little as came in his head to giue vnto such as had lost theyr horses. And this done, bereauing the kings Maiestie of his fift part, said he went to Custo, there to giue in his account and audit vnto the gouernour. But in deede he went to Quito, taking by the way very many Indians, men and women, which all dyed by the way, or at the place at Quito. Ouer and besides that, he altered the coyne royall of the mynt, which he had made. Here is to be remembred a word, which this man spake of himselfe, as one not ignorant of so many euils and mischieues, which he wrought. Fiftie yeres hence, those the which shall passe by this way, and heere speake of these things, shall say, This way went a Tyrant

Your highnes may know and be well assured, that these entries and assaults made vnto these realmes, and this maner of visiting the Indians, which liued in securitie in their regions, and the vngraciousnesse which he did in those same, haue been practised and executed by the Spaniards, which haue alwayes followed the same traine and maner of doing, from the time that they first began to discouer vnto this present day, throughout all the I [...] ­de [...].

To the Reader.

AMong diuers the remedies by Fryar de lat Casas Bishop of the royal towne called Chi­apa, propounded in the assembly of sundrie prelates named Parsons, by his maiesties cō ­mandement gathered together in the towne of Valladolid the yeere of our Lord 1542 for order and reformation to bee obserued in the Indies: the eight in order was this insuing, which consisteth vpon twentie reasons & motions, whereupō he did cōclude, That the Indies ought not to be giuen to the Spaniardes in Commendam, fee farme, or vasselage, neither vnder any other title whatsoeuer: if his ma­iestie will according to his desire ease them of such tyrannies and losses as they doe susteine, deliuering them as it were out of the Dragons throate: least they doe wholy consume and slay thē, & so all that world remaine desart & voide of the naturall me habitants, wherewith we haue seene it replenished.

THe eight remedie, is among all other principall and most in force, as without which all the rest are to no purpose, for that they all haue relation therunto, as euery motion to his pro­per end, in whatsoeuer toucheth or is of any importaunce vnto your Maiestie, which no man can expresse: in as much as therup­on dependeth at the least the whole losse or preseruation of the Indies. And the remedie that I speake of is this, that your Maie­stie do determin, decree, cō [...]d, & solēnely in your soueraigne courts ordein by pragmaticall sāctions & royal statuts yt all the Indies as well alreadie subdued, as heerea [...] to bee subdued, may bee inserted, reduced, and incorporate into the royal crowne of Castile & Leon, to be holden in chief of your maiestie as free subiects & vassals, as they are. Likewise that they bee not giuen in commendā vnto the Spaniards: but that it stand as an inuiolable constitution, determination and royall lawe, that they neuer, nei­ther at this time, neither hereafter in time to come, may bee [Page] alienated or taken from the saide royall crown, neither that they bee giuen, commanded, demised in see farme, by depost, comman­dement or alienatiō, either vnder any other title or maner what soeuer, and bee dismembred from the royall crowne, for any whatsoeuer the seruice or desart of any, either vpon any neces­sitie that may happen, or for any cause or colour whatsoeuer that may be pretended. For the inuiolable obseruation, or establishe­ment of which law, your maiestie shall formally sweare by your faith, and on your worde and royall crowne, and by all other sa­cred thinges, whereby Christian Princes doe vsually sweare, that at no time neither your selfe, neither your successours in these 10. Dominions, or in the Indies so faire as in you shall he, shal reuoke the same: and you shall further set downe in expresse wordes in your royall will and testament, that this decree be euer kept, mainteined, and vpholden: also that so farre as in your self or in them shal lie, they shall cōfirme and continue the same: And for porofe of the necessitie hereof, there bee twentie reasons to be alleadged: out of which twentie we haue drawen and put in writing so many as may seeme to serue to our purpose.

Extract out of the second reason.

THe Spaniardes through their great auarice and couetousnes to get, doe not permit any religious persons to enter into their townes and holdes which they possesse, alleadging that they receiue double losse by them. One and the principall is, that re­ligious persons do keepe the Ind [...]es occupied when they gather them togethar to their Sermons, so as in the meane time their worke is omitted, while the Indians being [...], laboure [...]: yea, it hath so fallen out, that the Indians being in the Church at the Sermon, the Spaniarde comming in in the face of all the people, hath taken fiftie, or a hundred, or so many as he hath needed to carry his baggage and stuffe, and such as would not goe, he hath l [...]den with stripes spurning them foorth with his feete, thereby to the great griefe both of the Indians and of the [...] per­sons [...]oubling & molesting all that were present, & so defeating thē al of the benefit of their saluatiō. Their other hinderance that [Page] they say they doe susteine, is, that after the Indians are taught & become Christians, they take vppon them as masters, pretending more knowledge then they haue, & therefore will not be so ser­uiceable as afore.

The Spaniards require no more of the Indians but authority to commaund them, and that they worship them as Gods.

The Spaniards openly and of set purpose, do hinder the course of the gospel, and keepe the Indians from Christendome.

Sometime it falleth so out, that a towne or borow is giuen be­tweene three or foure Spaniardes, to one more, to another lesse, so as sometime one hath for his portion the husband, ano­ther the wise, and the third the childrē as they were swine. Thus doe they possesse the Indians. One appointeth them to labour a peece of lande: another sendeth them to the mines loaden like beastes: another hyreth them by two and two as they were moyles to carry burdens thirtie, fortie, fiftie, a hundred or two hundred miles out right. And this haue we seen to be a daily vse: heereof commeth, it that the Indians cannot heare Gods word, or bee instructed in Christian faith: they make them of free mē very strange bondslaues. They haue subuerted and dispersed great townes, and a whole worlde of people, so as they haue not left any houses standing together, no not so much as the children with the fathers. The Spaniards make no more account, neither haue any more regard of conuerting the Indians, then if al those reasonable soules should perishe with the bodies, and were not hereafter to receiue immortall life, glory, or paine, no more then beastes.

Out of the thirde reason.

THe Spaniards are charged to instruct the Indians in our ho­ly catholike saith: whereupon on a time when we examined Iohn Colmenere of S. M [...]r [...]he, a fantastical ignorant, and foo­lish man, who had gotten a great towne in commendam, and had a charge of soules, he could not [...] how to blesse himselfe: and asking him what doctrine he taught the Indians cōmitted to his charge, he said, he gaue thē to the diuell: also that it was enough [Page] for him to say Per signim sanctin Cruces. Howe can the Spani­ardes that trauaile to the Indies, howe noble or valiant so euer they bee, haue any care of the soules, when the most of them are ignorant of their Creede and ten commandements, & know not the matters perteining to their owne saluation, neither doe trauaile to the Indies for any other purpose but to satisfie their owne desires and couetous affections, being for the most Parte vicious, corrupt, vnhonest, and disordinate persons: so as he that would way them in an equal ballance, & compare them with the Indians, shoulde finde the Indians without comparison, more vertuous and holy then them. For the Indians what infidels soe­uer they bee, doe neuerthelesse keepe them to one and their own wife, as nature and necessitie teacheth, and yet we see some Spa­niarde haue foureteene or more, which Gods commandementes do forbid. The Indians deuoure no mans goods, they doe no man wrong: they doe not vexe, trouble, or slay any, where them selues doe see the Spaniardes commit all sinnes, iniquities, and treacheries, that man can commit against all equitie and iustice, To bee briefe, the Indians doe not beleeue any thing, but doe mocke at all that is shewed them of God, beeing in trueth fully rooted in this opinion of our God, that he is the worst, the most vniust and the most wicked of all Gods, because he hath such ser­uants: also concerning your maiestie, they thinke you the most vniust and cruell of all kinges, because you doe both sende thither and keepe heere such euill subiectes, supposing that your maiestie doth feed vpon humane flesh and blood. We know these things to be very new and strange to your highnes, but yet there they be very vsuall and auncient. Many like matters which with our eyes we haue seene might we speake of, but they would be offen­siue to your maiesties eares, and would besides feare men, forcing thē to wonder that euer God staied so long from plaging Spaine in the bottomlesse pit. This title, to giue the Indians to the Spa­niards in cōmedā, was neuer inuented to any other end but only to finde occasion to bring them into bondage. One Spaniard be­ing Lorde, or hauing the charge of some towne or village, will do more harme by his example and wicked life, then a hundred good religious persons can do good by edifiyng or conuerting.

Out of the fourth reason.

THe Spaniardes hauing authoritie to commaunde, or parti­cular interest in the Indies, can not by reason of their great couetousnes abstaine from afflicting, troubling, disquieting, vex­ing, or oppressing the Indians, taking away their goodes, landes, wiues, or children, and vsing among them many other kindes of iniquitie, for the which they can haue no redresse, sanction, or warrant at your Maiesties chiefe iustice, because the Spaniardes doe make them afraide: yea sometimes doe kill them, least they shoulde complaine, as wee haue had certaine notice: and there­vpon it is euident, that they can haue no rest or quiet, to tende to matters pertaining God, but doe sustaine a thousande lets, an­guishes, tormentes, sorowes, afflictions, heauinesses, and cares, hating your Maiestie, and abhorring Gods lawe, which they finde so heauie, bitter, and intollerable: as also your Maiesties yoke and dominion so insupportable, tyrannous, worthie to bee reiected and cast off, that they curse God and fall into desperati­on, attributing to him all the aforesaide euils, because that vnder the colour and title of his lawe, they do receiue such mishappes, which hee doth beare withall, and doth not correct or chastice those which boasting to be his seruanntes, doe put them to all this. They doe night and day mourne after their gods, thin­king them to bee better then ours at whom they sustaine suche harmes, while contrary wise of their owne they reape there so many commodities: and there is nothing that troubleth them so much as the Christians.

Out of the fifth reason.

VVE can shewe to your Maiestie, that the Spaniardes haue within 38. or 40. yeeres slaine of iust accompt, aboue 1 [...]. Millions of your subiectes. I will not say howe migh­tily this worlde of people migh [...] haue multiplied. This countrey [Page] being the fertilest, whether for cattel, or mankinde, that is in the worlde: the foile being for the most part, more temperate and fa­uourable to humaine generation. All these innumerable [...], and all these people haue the Spaniards slaine, to the end to [...] sway, gouerne, & cōmaund ouer the rest & when in iniust wars they haue slaine them, then doe they vse the rest who [...] [...]aue withstood them, in drawing gold & siluer, yoking them together like beasts, to make them carry their burdens, [...] bur­dening them withall that they can gaine, and [...] one to them, so that they may [...] but the truth, and yet do leaue out much vnspoken o [...] th [...]t [...] world knoweth: and whosoeuer woulde otherw [...]e perswade your Maiestie, or would endeuour to excuse those offences, wee will euen by force of the truth, dr [...]ue him to knowledge [...] guilty of treason, & that he is partaker in these murders & robe­ries committed in the Indies, or els [...] so to be.

What plague of pestilence, or mortalitie could there haue fal­len from heauen that had been able to consume or make wast a­bout 2500 leagues of flat countrey replenished with people, and would not haue left either trauailer or inhabitant?

Out of the sixt reason.

THe Spaniardes only for their temporall commoditie, haue blemished the Indies with the greatest infamie, that any man euen among the most horrible and villanous persons in the world, could be charged withal, & whereby they haue sought to take thē out of the degree of mankinde: nam [...]ly that they all were polluted with the abhominable sinne against nature: which is a wretched and false slaunder. For in all the great Iles. Hispaniola, S. Io [...], Cuba, & Lama [...]a: Also in the 60. Iles of [...] whi­che [...] inhabited with an infinite nomber of people, the same was neuer thought vpon, or once mentioned, as ourselues [...] who made diligent inquisition & search, euer from the be­ginning. Moreouer, through all Peru, there is no such [...] nei­ther is there any one Indiā thoughout ye whole realm that crime, neither generally throughout all the In­dies sauing that in some other part there is a voice of a few: for whose [...] all that world is not to be [...]. We may say as much of the eating of mans flesh, which likewise [Page] those places that I haue named are free of: although that in o­ther places they do it in deed. They be also charged with their i­dolatrie, as if for being idolaters, men should take vpon them to punish them, & not referre them to God only, against whō they sin, whiles they haue both lands & dominions seuerall to them selues, which they hold not of any other thē their natural Lords: besides that our ancesters were also idolaters before the faith was preached vnto them, & that all the world was gathered to Christ. The Spaniardes haue purposely, & effectually hindered the teaching of the law of God and Iesus Christ: with all other vertues among the Indians, & driuen away the religious persons out of townes and fortresses, least they shoulde see and disclose their tyrannies: yea, they haue by their euill example, infected & corrupted the Indians, teaching them many odious behauiours and vices, which before they knew not, as blaspheming the name of Iesus Christ, practising of vserie, lying, & many other abhomi­nations wholy repugnant to their nature. Again, to commit the Indians to the Spaniards, or to leaue them in their handes, is vn­doubtedly as much as to giue or leaue them to these that will destroy & bring them to nought, as well in body as soule.

The Spaniards hauing fraudulently perswaded K. Ferdinand, he suffered the Indians to be trāsported out of the Iles of Lucayos into Hispaniola, and so contrary to all reason, either naturall or diuine, dispossessed them of their own houses and lands, wherby there perished aboue 50000. soules: so as in aboue 50. Iles, wherof some were greater then the Ile of Canary, which before were re­plenished with people man Ante heape, afterward there were to be found not aboue eleuen persons as our selues can testifie. To let your Maie [...]tie [...] dealing of the inhabitants of the saide [...] the slaughters, cruelties, and spoyles that [...] Spaniardes, these good christians made among them, [...] make your royall eares to gloe, and your [...], and to your selfe to depart. That the Spaniardes haue warred vpon the Indians, that they haue killed them, taken away their wiue [...], ch [...]ldren, [...], and kindred. also that they haue robbed them of all their goodes, [Page] is alreadie sufficiently proued, as also the countrey being vtter­ly dispeopled and desert, doeth shewe it: the worlde crieth out vpon it: the Angels doe bewaile it, and God himselfe doth dayly teach it vs by the great punishments that he layeth vpon vs.

Out of the seuenth reason.

THe Spaniardes doe sucke from the Indians the whole sub­staunce of their bodies, because they haue nothing el [...]e in their houses. They make them spitte blood: They exhibite them to all daungers: They lay vpon them sundrie and intollerable trauailes: and more then al this, They loade them with torments, beatings, and sorowings: To be briefe, they spoile and consume a thousande maner of waies.

To put the Indians into the Spaniardes handes, is, to giue the childes throate to a frantick and mad man when he hath the rasor in his hande: or it is as much as to deliuer men into the power of the furious or capitall enemies, who long time haue verye desirously wayted to put them to death. It is as a man shoulde commit a faire young virgin to the guiding of a young man snared, transported, and doting in her loue, whereby shee shoulde be spoiled and deflowred, vnlesse shee were miraculous­ly preserued. To be briefe, it were as good to throwe them a­mong the hornes of wilde Bulles, eyther to deliuer them vnto hunger starued Wolues, Lions, and Tygres, and as much good shoulde they gette by any lawes, preceptes, or threates made to the saide hungrie beastes, for the forbidding of them to deuoure them, as much do we say and affirme will any lawes, threates, or preceptes, stay the Spaniardes, when they haue authoritie o­uer the Indians from murdering them for their golde. Yea by great and long experience that we haue, wee doe certifie our highnesse, that notwithstanding you shoulde commaunde to set vp a G [...]bbet before euery Spaniardes gate, and sweare by your Crowne, that for the first Indian that shoulde be missed or slain, you woulde haue them all hanged, yet would they not for feare thereof abstaine from slaying the Indians, in case your Maiestie should graunt or giue them supreme power and authoritie ouer [Page] them, or otherwise howesoeuer.

Out of the eight reason.

BEsides all that the Indians doe indure in seruing and pleasing the Spaniarde, there is yet a butcher or cruell hangman, to keepe them in awe appointed in euery towne and place, and is tearmed Estanciero or Calpisque: who hath authoritie to lay his clawes vpon them, and to make them labour, and doe what the Lorde Commaunder, or chiefe thiefe will. So as if in hell there were no other torment, yet were this incomparable. This hangman whippeth them, hee ladeth them with stripes, hee ba­steth them with scalding grease, he afflicteth them with continu­all tormentes and trauelles, he forceth & defloureth their daugh­ters and wiues, dishonouring and abusing them: hee deuoureth their hennes whiche are their greatest treasure, not bee­cause them selues doe eate them, but that of them they offer pre­sents and seruice to their greatest Lorde and chiefe tyrant: hee vexeth them with innumerable other tormentes and griefes: & least they shoulde complaine of so many iniuries and miseries, this tyrant putteth them in feare, saying: that he will accuse them, and say that he see them commit idolatrie. To be briefe, they must please and content aboue twentie disordinate and vnreasonable persons: so as they haue foure Lordes and maisters. Your Maiestie, their Cacique, him that hath them in commendam, and the Estanciero of whom I last spake, whiche Estanciero is to them more grieuous to beare then a quintall of lead, among which we may also in truth adde all the Mochachos and Mores, that do serue the commander and master, for they al do molest, oppresse, and robbe these poore people.

Out of the tenth reason.

IT is greatly to be feared, least God will lay Spain desolate, euen for those horrible sinnes that this nation hath cōmitted in the Indies, whereof we do euidently beholde the scorge, and all the world doth see & confesse that already it hāgeth ouer our heads, wher with God doth afflict & shew that he is highly offēded in those parts through the great destruction and wast of those nati­ons, in that of so great tresures as haue bin transported out of the [Page] Indies into Spaine (the like quantitie of golde and siluer, ney­ther K Salomō, neither any other worldly prince euer had, sawe, or heard of) there is none left, besids yt of that that was here be­fore the Indies were discouered, there is nowe none to be foūd, no neuer a whit. Hereof it commeth that thinges are thrise dea­rer then they were, the poore that haue want doe suffer great miseries: and your maiestie can not dispatch matters of great im­portaunce.

Out of the eleuenth reason.

SO long as Lares bare sway and ruled, that was ix. yeeres, there was no more care of teaching or bringing the Indians to sal­uation, neither was there any more labour employed, or once thought of, to that purpose, then if they had been trees, stones, dogges, or cats. He wasted great townes and fortresses, hee gaue to one Spaniard 100. Indians, to another fiftie, to another more or lesse, as euery man was in liking or fauour, and as it pleased him to graunt. He gaue children, & old men, women with child, and in childbed, men of countenance and commons, the naturall Lords of the towns and countreys, he parted them among those to whom he wished most wealth and commoditie, vsing in his letters of commaund this speech following: To you such a man, are giuen so many Indians with their Cacique, them to vse in your mines and affayres. So as all, great and small, young and olde, that could stand on their feete, men, women with childe, or in childbed, one or other, trauailed and wrought so long as they had any breath in their bodies. He gaue leue to take away maried men, and to make them drawe golde, ten, twentie, thirtie, fourty, or eightie leagues, or farther. The women remayned in farme houses and graunges, in great labours about gathering of great heapes for the making of the bread that they doe eate, which is, to heape together the earth whiche they doe digge, and rayse foure handfull hie, and twelue foote square, that is a giaunts la­bour, namely to digge the hard earth, not with mattockes or sho­uels, but with In other places they spinne cotten, and doe such other worke, as are most meete for gaine and raysing of [Page] coyne, so that the man and wife should not see one another in 8. or 10. monethes or a whole yere. And at their meeting they were so worne with labour and hunger, that they had no minde of co­habitation, whereby their generation ceased, & their poore chil­dren perished, because the mothers through hunger and trauaile had no milke wherewith to nourish them: This was a cause that in the Ile of Cuba, one of vs being there, there perished in the space of three moneths for hunger 7000, children, some de­sperate women strangled and killed their owne children, others finding them selues with childe, did eate certaine hearbes there­by to loose their fruit, so that the men died in the mines, the wo­mē perished in the farme houses, their whole generatiō in a short space decayed, and all the countrey lay desolate. The saide go­uernour, to the ende without release to keepe them in continu­all labour, stil gaue them away, and yet besides their great labours he suffered them rigorously, & very austerely to be misused. For the Spaniardes that had them in commaund, appointed certaine hangmen ouer them, some in the mines whom the termed Mi­niero, other in the farmes, that were called Estanciero: vnnatu­rall and pitilesse persons that beate them with slaues and cords, boxing them, pricking them with needles, and still calling them dogs: neither did they euer shewe any signe of humanitie or cle­mencie, but all their dealings did consist of extreame seueritie, rigor, and bitternesse, so as in troth it might be thought great crueltie so to entreat or gouerne the verie Moores, being the cruellest of all others, for all the damage that they haue done to the Christians: where the Indians are more treatable, curte­ous gentle, and obedient, then any other nation in the worlde. Farther, when because of these Estancieros and Minieros, toge­ther with such labours as they put them vnto, some of them fled into the mountaines, as making full acco [...]mpt to bee killed, the Spaniardes chose certayne officers whō they termed Algu­azil del Campo, that shoulde pursue and hunt them out of the mountaines.

The gouernour had also in the Spanish townes and fortes, certayne of the moste honourable and principall persons [Page] about him whome hee called Visitors, vnto whome also besides their other ordinarie portions that he had giuen them, he gaue in respect of their offices 100. Indians to serue them. These in the townes were the greatest executioners, as being more cruel then the rest, before whom Athuaziles del campo brought all suche as had bin taken in this chase. The accuser, hee that had them in commaund, was present, and accused them, saying: This Indian or those Indians are dogs, & wil do no seruice, but do dayly run to the mountaines, there to become loyterers & vagaboundes: And therfore required they might be punished. Then the visitor with his own hands boūd thē to a pale, & taking a pitched cord, in the Gallies called an Eele, which is as it were an iron rod, gaue them so many stripes, & bet them so cruelly, that the blood run­ning downe diuers parts of their bodies, they were left for dead. God is witnesse of the cruelties committed among those lambs: I am perswaded that of the thousād part I can not rehearse one, neither can any other tell it as it ought. The labour that they were put vnto, was to drawe golde, whereto they had need haue men of iron. For they must turne the mountaines 1000. times vpside downe, digging and hewing the rockes, and washing, and clensing the gold it selfe in the riuers, where they shall continu­ally stand in the water vntill they brust, and rent their bodies e­uē in pieces. Also whē the Mines peraduēture doe flow with wa­ter, then must they also besides all other laboures, drawe it out with their armes. To be briefe, the better to comprehend the la­bour that is emploid about gathering golde and siluer, it may please your Maiestie to consider, that the heathen Emperours (ex­cept to death) neuer condemned the Martyres to greater tor­mentes, then to mining for mettall: sometimes they were kept a whole yeere at the mines: but afterward perceiuing howe ma­nie perished there, they decreed that they mine for golde but fiue moneths, which was fourtie dayes in melting, during which time they tooke some rest.

And what was their rest? They during those fourtie dayes, made heapes of that which they shoulde eate, that is, they dig­ged the earth, and cast it on heapes as is aforesaide, whiche la­bour doeth exceede, dressing of vines, or tilling of the earth. [Page] Throughout the yere they neuer knew holiday, neither might be suffered from labour little or much. Besides that during all this toyle, they neuer had sufficient food, no not of Cacabi whiche is the common countrie bread, and being made of rootes doth but smally nourish except there be some fish or flesh to eate withal. Moreouer, they gaue them of that countrie pepper, and Aies, which be rootes like vnto nauetes, rosted or sodden. But some Spaniarde, peraduenture meaning to seeme liberall in their diet woulde weekely kill a hogge for 50. Indians, whereof the Aliniero would consume two quarters, and part the other two among the Indians, giuing daily to euery man as great a peece as the Iacekins doe giue of holy bread in their Churches. Some there were that through nigardlinesse wanting meate to giue them, woulde send them two or three dayes abroade into the fieldes and mountaines, to feed where they might satisfie them­selues with such fruite as hang on the trees, and then vppon the force of that which they brought in their guttes, woulde force them to labour two or three dayes more without giuing thē any one morsell to eate. For the loue of God therefore, let your Maiestie thinke what substance or strength those bodies naturally so delicate and feeble, and nowe almost consumed and oppressed with these trauailes, could gather of this food: also how it were possible for those that liued so sorowfull, heauie and woeful alife, in such labour without food shoulde liue long. The gouernour commanded they shoulde bee paide their day wages and expen­ces for any labour or seruice that they shoulde doe to the Spani­arde, and their wages was three blanckes euery two dayes, whi­che in the yeere amounted to halfe a Castelin, that is worth 225 Maruedies: wherewith they might buye a Combe, a looking glasse, and a paire of blew or greene beades. Yea, many yeeres they had nothing at all paide them, but hunger and stripes did so abound, that the Indians regarded none of this, neither sought any more but euen once to get a good meales meat, or to die for all, as wishing to forsake so desperate a life. He depriued them of their libertie, suffering the Spaniards to keepe them in such bitter bondage and prison as no man that had seene it, would or coulde once thinke for: not leauing them any thing in this worlde free [Page] to vse at their pleasures: yea, notwithstanding the beastes haue some time rest, and bee suffered to feede abrode in the fieldes, yet woulde not these Spaniards that we speake of, graunt the Indi­ans any time or leasure so to doe: but the gouernour himselfe would force them to an obsolute, perpetuall, forced, & vnwilling bondage. For they neuer had their free wil to do any thing at al of themselues, because the Spaniards couetousnes, crueltie and ty­rannie, was stil forcing them to some labour, not as captiues, but as beasts, that are led bound to do whatsoeuer man will appoint. A­gaine, if at any time they were suffered to depart to their houses to rest them, then should they there find neither wife, children, nor food: as also although they had there found any meat, yet should they not haue had time to make it readie: so that there was no remedie but death. Thus grew they into sicknes through long and grieuous trauailes, and that was sone caught among thē as being (as is aforesaid) of a very delicate and tender cōplection, & much against their nature it was to be thus sodenly, contrary to their wont, & vnmercifully put to such labours, & to be beatē with staues, & spurned at, besides the calling of thē at euery word Villacos, & vpbraiding thē, that they counterfeated sicknesse like loytering losels, because they would not labour. When the Spa­niards perceiued the sicknes increase, so as there was no profit or seruice to be looked for at their hands, then would they send thē home to their houses, giuing thē to spend in some 30 40. or 80. leagues trauaile, some halfe dosen of Radish or Refortes, that is a kinde of nauet roote, & a little Cacabi, where with the poore men trauailed not far before they shold desperately die, som went 2 or 3. leagues, some 10. or 20. so desirous to get to their owne home there to finish their hellish life that they suffered, that they euē fel down dead by the waies: so as, many times we haue foūd som dead, others at deaths doore, others groning & pitifully to their powers pronouncing this word, hunger, hunger. Then the gouernour seeing that the Spaniard had in this wise slaine, half or two 3. parts of these Indians, whō he had giuen them in com­maund, he came a fresh to drawe new lottes, and make a newe distribution of Indians: still supplying the number of his firste gift, and this did hee almost euery yeere.

[Page] Pedrarias entred into the firme land, as a woolfe that had long beene starued doth into a flocke of quiet and innocent sheepe & lambs: & as Gods wrath and scourge, committing infinit slaugh­ters, robberies, oppressions & cruelties, together with those spa­niards whom he had leuied, and laid wast so many townes and villages, which before had bin replenished with people, as it were an [...] hilles, as the like was neuer seene, heard of, or written by any that in our dayes haue delt in histories. Hee robbed his maiestie & subiects with those whom he tooke with him, and the harme that he did amounted to aboue four, yea sixe millions of gold: he laid aboue 40. leagues of land desart, namely from Darien, where he first arriued vnto the prouince of Nicaraga, one of the fruit­fullest, richest and best inhabited lands in the world. From this cursed wretch sprang first the pestilence of giuing the Indians in commaund, which afterward hath infected al those Indies where any Spaniards doe inhabite, and by whom all these nations are consumed: so that from him and his commandes, haue proceeded the certaine waste and desolation that your maiestie haue sustei­ned in these so great lands and dominions since the yeere 1504.

When we shall say that the Spaniards haue wasted your maie­sties, and laid you desolate seuen kingdomes bigger then Spaine, you must conceaue that we haue seene thē wonderfully peopled, and now there is no body left, because the Spaniards haue slaine all the naturall inhabitants by meanes aforesaid, and that of the townes & houses there remaineth only the bare walles: euen as if Spaine were all dispeopled, and that all the people being dead, there remained only the walles of cities, townes and castles.

Out of the 13. reason.

YOur maiestie haue not out of al the Indies one maruedie of certaine perpetuall & set rent, but the whole reuenewes are as leaues and straw gathered vpon the earth, which beeing once gathered vp do grow no more: Euen so is all the rent that your maiestie hath in the Indies, vain & of as smal cōtinuāce as a blast of wind, & yt proceedeth only of yt the spaniards haue had yt Indi [Page] in their power: and as they doe dayly slay and rost the inhabi­tants, so must it necessarilie ensue that your maiesties rights and rentes doe waste and diminishe.

The kingdome of Spaine is in great danger to bee lost, rob­bed, oppressed and made desolate by forraigne nations, namely by the Turks and Moores, because that God who is the most iust, true, and soueraigne king ouer all the worlde, is wrath for the great sinnes and offences that the Spaniardes haue committed throughout the Indies, by afflicting, oppressing, tyrannous dea­lings, robbing and slaying such and so many people without law or equititie, and for the wasting of such and so large landes in so short a space, whose inhabitants had reasonable soules, and were created and framed to the image and likenesse of the soue­raigne trinitie, and beeing gods vassals, were bought with his most precious blood, who keepeth account, and forgetteth not one of them: but had chosen Spaine as his minis [...]er and instru­ment, to illuminate and bring them to his knowledge, and as it had bin for a wordly recompence, besides the eternal reward, had graunted her so great natural riches, and discouered for her such & so great fruitfull and pleasant landes, and with al such artificial treasure, together with so many incomparable mines of gold, sil­uer, stone, and precious pearle, with infinite other commodities, the like whereof were neuer seene ne heard of: all which not­withstanding, shee hath shewed herselfe so vnthankfull, in yeel­ding euill for so many benefites which shee had receiued. And God ordinarily vseth this rule in executing his iustice & punish­ment, that is, that he chastizeth sinne with the same, or with that which is quite contrarie to that wherwith the sinne is com­mitted.

The destructions, griefes, violences, iniuries, cruelties, and murders done and committed against those people, are so greate, horrible, publike & euident, that the teares, lamētations & blood of so many innocent persons doe ascende to the high throne of heauen, & doe not returne before they haue sounded in yt very eares of God, from whence they after descend, and straying ouer the face of the earth doe ring in the eares of al forraigne nations, so horrible and inhumaine as may be: wherupon ensueth among [Page] the hearers great offence, horror, abhomination, hatred and inf [...] ­mie toward the kinges and commons of Spaine, whereof in time to come may ensue great damage.

Out of the said Bishop and authours protestation.

THose losses and detrimentes that by these occasions the crowne of Castile and Leon, together with the rest of spain haue susteined, as also such other spoyles and slaughters as here­after will bee committed throughout the whole Indies, both the blinde shall see, the deafe heare, the dumbe publishe, and the wise shall iudge. Further in as much as our life is short, I doe take God to witnesse with all the Hierarchies and thrones of Angels, all the saints of the heauenly court, and all the men in the worlde: yea, euen those that shall hereafter bee borne, of the cer­tificate that here I doe exhibite? also of this the discharge of my conscience, namely that if his maiestie graunteth to the Spani­ards the aforesaide diuelish and tyrannous partition, notwith­standing whatsoeuer lawes or statutes shall bee deuised, yet will the Indies in short space be laid desart and dispeopled, euen as the Ile of Hispaniola is at this present, which other wise would bee most fruitfull and fertile: together with other the Iles & lands aboue 3000. leagues about, besides Hispaniola it self and other landes both farre and neere. And for those sinnes, as the ho­ly scripture doth very well informe mee, God will horribly cha­stize, and peraduenture wholy subuert and root out all Spaine. Anno, 154 [...].

The Prologue of Bishop Bortholo­mewe de las Casas or Casaus, to the most mightie Lord and Prince of Spaine, Don Philip our good Lorde.

MOst high and mightie Lorde, of late I was moued and by the kings most vigilant counsaile for the Indies, vpon their zeale and honour that they beare to our Lord God; as also hartie [Page] loyalie, wherwith they be adorned for his maiesties seruice, for­ced in writing to set downe suche matter as to your person by mouth I haue heretofore reported: namely, what I thought tou­ching the title and claime that the kings of Castile doe make to the soueraigne and vniuersall principalitie ouer the Indians: not­withstanding, some did arise, who misliking that I dealt and tra­uailed with his maiestie and your highnes, about the discomfi­tures and losses compassed and perfourmed against the people of those countries, and reported that in as much as I did so far de­test and with such bitternesse and sharpnes did abhorre them: as also I will still doe, so long as I liue, I doe call in doubt, and some­what deminish the said royall title and right.

In which deede, as a testimonie what I did think, and in truth according to God and his holy lawe doe still hold, I exhibited 30. propositions, deuoid of all other proofe then what eache of them in it selfe did conteine, the one of necessitie following the other, because I was driuen to send them to his maiestie vnder pretence of the great counsaile that then was holden.

Afterward proceeding and persisting in desire to serue god by [...] felling some mens slanders, who either for want of comprehen­ding the truth, or els hauing some other purposes & contrarie meanings, do presume vnder a fained and counterfet kinde of seruice to the kings (who of thēselues naturally are endued with courteous & simple mindes and hearts, iudging & measuring all other by themselues) to present vnto them, a poysoned, bitter, & peraduenture a mortall drinke which doth not only waste king­domes & common wealthes, in procuting their carefull calami­ties & dolorous destruction. but also doe bring euen the kinges owne persons to the pit of manifest danger & irreparable detri­ments and losses. With which frandulous counsails they doe in­fect so much as in thē lieth, the good & godly affections of kings, and do subuert all the princes vertuous deuises & studies. Here­of did sometime that most mightie king Artaxerxes otherwise tearmed Assuerus complaine, as appeareth in the booke of He­ster. I haue so indeuoured my selfe (most mightie Lord) that now I haue set in hand the proofe of the said 30. propositions & some more, comprehending the whole in this brief summarie, which [Page] is taken out of a greater volume, wherein euery article is more perticulerly expounded: herein setting in sight only the 17. and 18. proposition, because the whole substance of this matter may be reduced to these two propositions as to the principles & ends.

The title here of should in my opinion haue been: A proba­torie tretise of the soueraigne Empire, and vniuersal principa­litie, which the kings of Castile haue ouer the Indies: As presup­posing that it is manifest & proued, in that the Apostolike sea hath graunted it, and that there needeth no other opening of the reasons whereupon the graunt of this empire consisteth.

I purpose in this treatise chiefly to discharge my conscience, vsing that meane which it seemeth that Gods prouidence hath appointed me. My great age (for I am aboue 50.) being the cause of my large knowledge and eye experience of the Indian affaires, also to giue notice of that which passed in these partes, as also what was to be done, euer referring my self to the like desire that the disorders that I haue there seen practised might be redressed. And the rather because those that hinder this redresse & are most hurtful to those lāds, are such as being deuoid of truth & iustice, do indeuout by counteseating and mingling that which is false & vntrue, and withall seeming to doe it for your maiesties seruice, especially colouring your right to this new worlde, are in trueth altogether withstanders of your seruice & weale, either spiritu­all or temporall (as euery true christian & wise man wil graunt) The other benefite that I hope to obteine and reape by this trea­tise, is, that I shall detect and vnfold those mens errours, who rashly dare affirme that the right and principalitie of the kinges of Castile ouer the Indians is, or shoulde consist of armes and great force, entring vpon them euen as Nemrod who was the first hunter and oppressour of mankinde did euer, and esta­blishe his principalitie, as the holy scripture testifieth: either as great Alexander and the Romans, and all other cotable and fa­mous tyrants, doe lay the foundation of their Empires: also as the Turke doth nowe adaies inuade, trouble, and oppresse chri­stendome: and yet haue not any of them once approched the spanish tyrannies.

How far those men that do pronounce such a sentence do euill [Page] seruice, and offend the sincertie and loue of the king of Castiles iustice, is here very easie to be iudged.

Who for proofe of their matters doe commit error vpon er­ror, and so doe heape together other things both absurd, wicked and vnworthie to bee once hearde from these men which bee taken either for Christians or for reasonable persons. For vsu­ally such as stray from vertue and truth, in excusing one fault, or mainteining one errour, doe runne headlong into many. O­thers there are that do colour them with fairer & honester titles, who also deserue to be reiected, reproued, & laughed at: as those that say, because we haue more wit, or that we border neerest vp on them, either for that the Indians are infected with suche and such vices, we may subdue them: with other like colours wher­with they bee so far from vpholding or confirming that which they weene to strengthen and fortifie, that finally they lay all in the dust. To the end therefore that his maiestie may bee cer­tified of all aforesaid, and as a most Christiā and iust prince, may discerne betweene the pure and corrupt: also betwene right & wronge, and withall that he may knowe who serueth him faith­fully, and those that hange vppon him only to satisfie their owne affections: and for their priuate profit doe inuent and deuise new titles for his Indies, which be neither probable nor of any effect, & so do hope to come to do their duties before that I were able. Further for that offering this treatise to your highnes, his ma­iestie shall bee serued thereby, sith himselfe shall haue such lettes there as he goeth, I doe most humbly beseech your highnesse in his name to accept it: also to examine, discerne, and vnderstande it with such wisedome and clemencie as you holde of his maie­stie, and as himselfe would doe, seeing it is so, that Gods proui­dence hath appointed your highnesse to inherite, as we doe hope the same right in the empire & principalitie of thē: besides if it seeme necessary to be published in other places out of this realm I will, if your highnes so command me, put it in latin: & although it should not deserue to bed spersed either in latin or otherwise, yet were not the losse great, in that I caused it to be printed onlie to the end your highnesse might with more ease reade the same, whose glorious life and royall estate, the Lorde increase and pro­sper, Amen.

The summe of the disputation between Fryer Bartlemewe de las Casas or Casaus, and Doctor Sepulueda.

DOctor Sepulueda the Emperors chronographer hauing in­formation, & being perswaded by certayne of those Spa­niardes, who were most guiltie in the slaughters and wastes committed among the Indian people, wrote a booke in Latine in forme of a Diologue very eloquently, and furnished with all floures, and precepts of Rhetoricke, as in deede the man is verie learned and excellent in the saide tongue, which booke consisted vpon two principall conclusions: The one, that the Spaniardes warres against the Indians, were as concerning the cause and equitie that moued thē thereto, very iust: also that generally the like war may & ought to be cōtinued. His other conclusion, that the Indians are bound to submitte them selues to the Spaniards gouernment, as the foolishe to the wise: if they will not yeelde, then that the Spaniards may (as he affirmeth) warre vpon them.

These are the two causes of the losse and destruction of so infi­nite numbers of people: also that aboue 2000. leagues of the maine lande, are by sundrie newe kindes of Spanish cruelties and inhumaine dealinges bin lefte desolate in the Ilands: name­ly by conquestes and commaundes as he nowe nameth those which were wont to be called Partitions.

The sayde Doctor Sepulueda coloureth his treatise, vnder the pretence of publishing the title which the kinges of Castile and Leon doe chalenge in the gouernment and vniuersall soueraign­tie of this Indian world, so seeking to cloake that doctrine whi­che he endeuoureth to disperse and scatter as well in these lands, as also throughout the kingdomes of the Indians. This booke he exhibited to the royall counsaile for the Indies, very earnestly and importunately lying vpon them for licence to print it, which they sundry times denied him in respect of the offence, dangers, & manifest detriment, that it seemed to bring to the common­wealth.

[Page] The Doctour seeing that heere hee coulde not publishe his booke, for that the counsaile of the Indies woulde not suffer it, he delte so farre with his friendes whiche followed the Em­perours court, that they gotte him a patente, whereby his Maie­stie directed him to the royall counsayle of Castile, who knewe nothing of the Indian affaires: vpon the comming of these let­ters the court and counsaile being at Aranda in Duero, the yeere 1547. Fryer Bartholomewe de las Casas or Casaus, Bishoppe of the royall towne of Chiapa, by happe arriued there, comming from the Indians, and hauing intelligence of Doctor Sepulueda his driftes and deuises, had notice also of the contentes of his whole booke: but vnderstanding, the authours pernitions blind­nes, as also the irrecouerable losses that might ensue vpon the printing of this booke, with might & maine withstood it, disco­uering & reuealing the poyson wherewith it abounded, and whereto it pretended.

The Lordes of the royall counsell of Castile, as wise and iust iudges, determined therefore to sende the sayde booke to the Vniuersities of Salamanca & Alcala, the matter being for he most part therein Theologically handled, with commaundement to examine it, and if it might be printed, to signe it: which Vni­uersities after many exact and diligent disputations, concluded, that it might not be printed, as contayning corrupt doctrine. The Doctour not so satisfied, but complayning of the Vniuersi­ties aforesayde, determined, notwithstanding so many denia [...]les and repulses at both the royall counsailes, to sende his treatise to his friends at Rome, to the ende there to print [...], hauing first transformed it into a certayne Apologie written [...]o the Bishop of Segouia, because the same Bishoppe hauing perused the trea­tie and booke aforesaide, had brotherly and charitablie as his friende by letters reprooued and counsayled him. The Emperor vnderstanding of the impression of the sayde booke and Apo­logie, did immediatly dispatche his letters patents, for the cal­ling in and supression of the same, commaunding likewise to ga­ther in agayne all copies thereof throughout Castile, for the said Doctour had published also in the Castilean language a certaine abstract of the saide booke, thereby to make it more common [Page] to all the lande: and to the ende also that the commons, and such as vnderstood no latine, might haue some vse thereof, as being a matter agreeable and toothsome to suche vs coueted great ri­ches, and sought wayes to clyme to other estates, then eyther themselues, or their predecessors coulde euer attaine vnto with­out great cost, labour, and cares, and often times with the loffe and destruction of diuers.

Which when the Bishoppe of Chiapa vnderstoode, hee de­termined also to write an apologie in the vulgar tongue, against the saide doctors summarie, in defence of the Indies, there in im­pugning and vndermining his soundations, and answering all reasons, or whatsoeuer the doctor coulde alleadge for him selfe, therin displaying & setting before the peoples face the dangers, inconueniences and harmes in the sayde doctine contayned.

Thus as many thinges passed on both sides, his Maiestie i [...] the yeere 1550. called to Valadolid, an assemblie of learned men, as well Diuines as Lawyers, who being ioyned with the Royall counsaile of the Indies shoulde argue, and among them con­clude, whether it were lawfull without breach of Lustice, to leuie warres, commonly tearmed conquestes, against the inhabitantes of those conneries, without any newe offence by them commit­ted their infidelitie excepted.

Doctor Sepulued a was summoned to come and say what hee coulde, and being entred the counsayle chamber, did at the first session vtter his whole minde. Then was the sayde Bishoppe likewise called, who for the space of fiue dayes, continually did reade his Apologie: but being somewhat long, the Diuines and Lawyers there assembled, besought the learned and reuerende father Dominicke Soto his Maiesties confessour, and a domini­can Fryer, who was there present, to reduce it into a summarie and to make so many copies as there were Lordes, that is four­teene, to the ende they all hauing studied vpon the matter, might afterwarde in the feare of God say their mindes.

The sayde reuerend father and Master Soto, set downe in the saide summarie, the doctors reasons, with the Bishops answeres to the same. Then had the doctour at his request a copie deliuered him to aunswere: out of whiche Summarie [Page] he gathered twelue against him selfe, whereto hee made twelue answeres, against which answeres the Bishoppe framed twelue replies.

Doctor Sepulueda his prologue to the Lordes of the assemblie.

MOst worthie and noble Lordes, sith your Lordshippes and graces haue as iudges for the space of fiue or sixe dayes heard the Lorde Bishop of Chiapa read that booke, whereinto he hath many yeeres laboured to gather all the reasons that either himself, or others could inuēt to proue the cōquest of the Indies to be vniust, as seeking first to subdue barbarous nations be­fore we preach the Gospell vnto them, which haue been the v­suall course correspondent to the graunt made by Pope Alexan­der the sixt, which all kinges and nations haue hetherto taken & obserued: it is meet, and I doe so desire you, that I who take vpon mee to defende the graunt and authoritie of the Apostolike sea, together with the equitie and honour of our kinges and na­tion, may haue the like graunt, and that it may please you dili­gently to giue me audience, while briefly and manifestly I do an­swere his obiections and subtilties: so doe I hope in God, and the trueth which I take vpon me to defende, that I shall plainely set before your eyes, and shew you that al yt is spoken on the con­trarie part before so noble and wise iudges, who are not any way to be suspected of preferring whatsoeuer may be alleaged before truth and equitie which are of such importance, doth consist on­ly vpon friuelous and vayne reasons. I will therefore, cutting off my speech come to the purpose. For it is small honour or cur­tesie to vse tediousnes among suche persons, beeing occupied in waightie affaires, namely, in the gouernement of the common wealth.

The Bishoppe of Chiapa his prologue to the Lordes of the assemblie.

[Page] MOst worthie and noble Lords, right reuerend and learned fathers, hitherto in whatsoeuer I haue read, or in writing exhibited in this so notable and honourable assemblie, I haue ge­nerally spoken against the aduersaries of the Indian enhabitants of our Indies that lie in the Occean sea, not naming any, al­though I knowe some, who openly doe seeke to write Treaties thereof, and frame their grounde vppon an excuse and defence of suche warres as were, are, and yet may be prosecuted against those people, which haue beene the occasions of so muche mis­chiefe, so manye ouerthrowes, losses, and subuersions of suche and so great kingdomes, together with manie townes and infi­nite numbers of soules. Also that they subduing of those na­tions by warres before they haue by preaching hearde of the faith or name of Iesus Christe, is a marter conformable to our Christian lawe: also that such warres are iust and lawfull, where­of it seemeth that the reuerende and worthie Doctor Sepulu [...] ­da hath nowe opened and declared him selfe the principall vp­houlder and defendour, in that hee answereth to those reasons, authorities, and obiections, that bee to the contrary: which in detesting the saide warres, and to the ende to shewe that the same beeing by another name called conquestes, are wicked and tyrannous, I haue drawen into this our Apologie whereof I haue read part vnto your excellencies and Lordeshippes.

And seeing hee hath sought to disclose him selfe, and feared not to bee taken for the authour of so execrable impietie, whiche doe redownde to the slaunder of the faith, the disho­nour of the name of Christianitie, and the domage as well spiri­tuall as temporall of the most part of mankinde: I thought it verie meete, as it is, so openly to impugne it, and for cutting off of the poysoned cancker whiche hee seeketh to disperse abroade in these countreys, to the destruction and subuersion of the same, to set my selfe as an aduersarie and partie agaynll him.

Wherefore I beseech your noble Lordeshippes graces and fa­therhoodes, to way this so waightie and daungerous matter, not as any peculiar cause, for I pretende no farther, but to de­fende [Page] it according as becommeth a Christian, but as appertei­ning to God his honour, the vniuersall Churche, and the estate as well temporall as spirituall of the kinges of Castile, who are to giue accoumpt of the losse of soules alreadie perished, and hereafter to perish, vnlesse the gate be shutte vp against this hea­uie course of warres, whiche Doctour Sepulueda endenoureth to iustifie. Also that this honourable assemblie admitte no Sophi­strie by him vsed to couer and cloake his hurtfull opinion, where­by hee sheweth a pretence to colour and defende the authoritie by him called Apostolike, and the Empire, whiche the kinges of Castile and Leon haue ouer these Iudians. For no Christian can lawefully and honestly confirme and defende the authoritie tearmed Apostolike, eyther the soueraignetie of any Christian king by vniust warres, by filling hilles and valyes with innocent blood, either with the infamie and blaspheming of Christ and his faith:

But the Apostolike sea is rather by suche meanes defamed and looseth her authoritie, the true God is dishonoured, and the true title and right of a king is loste and perisheth, as euery wise and Christian man may easily gather by that which Doctor Sepulueda him selfe hath propounded.

This title and right is not founded vpon the entrie into those countries, and against those people to robbe, slay, and tyrannos­ly to rule ouer them, vnder pretence of preaching the faith, as those tyrāts entred & haue done, who by an vniuersallmassa cre and slaughter, haue murdered such a multitude of Innocentes: But it consisteth of a peaceable, louing, and gentle preaching of the Gospell, and of an vnfaigned introduction and foundation of faith, and of Christes principalitie. Yea who so euer goeth about to giue our Kinges and Lordes any other tide, whereby to obtayne the soueraigntie and principalitie ouer those Indians, is starke blind, offendeth God, is a traitour to his king, and an e­nemie to the Spanish nation, whom he abuseth and most perni­tiously deceiueth, seeking to replenish hell with soules.

Least therefore any of your Lordshippes graces or father­hoods [Page] should stay vpon these damnable humors, it were mee [...] as becommeth most christian & wife men: yea; and very expedi­ent to put to silence so hurtful and abhomnable an opinion. And although in our Apologie, wee may seeme to haue satisfied, and at large answered whatsoeuer may be brought in defence of the said Apologie, yet because the doctor hath once againe propoun­ded his defences, by parting father Sotoes summarie into twelue obiections, reason willeth mee to replie and shew that his obiec­tions are friuolous, and to no purpose.

Out of which replies, heere followeth the abstract of two that stand vs in st [...].

THe report is vnture that the Indians did yeerely sacrifice in nowe Spaine [...]0000 persons▪ either one 100. or 50. For had that been so, wee could not nowe haue found there so much people: and therefore the Tyrants haue inuented it, thereby to excuse and iustifie their tyrannies also to deteine so many of the Indians as escaped the oppression and desolation of the first vin­tage, in bondage and tyrannie. But we may more truely say, that the Spaniards during their aboade in the Indies, haue yeerely sa­crificed to their so dearely beloued and reuerende Goddesse Co­uetousnes more people, then the Indians haue done in a 100. yeeres. This doe the heauens, the earth, the elements, and the starres both testifie and bewaile: the tyrants, yea, the very mini­sters of these mischiefes cannot denie it. For it is euident howe greatly these countries as out first entrie swarmed with people, as also how we haue nowe laide it waste, and dispeopled the same: wee might euen blushe for shame, that hauing giuen ouer all feare of God, wee will yet neuerthelesse seeke to colour and ex­cuse these our so execrable demeanours: considering that only for getting wealth and riches, wee haue in 45. or 48. yeeres, wasted and consumed more land then all Europe, yea and part of Asia, [Page] doe in lengih and breadth con [...]aine, robbing and vsurping vpon that with all crueltie, wrong, and tyranny, which wee haue seene well inhabited [...] people among whome there haue been slaine and destroyed 20. millions of soules.

In the last and twelfth replie as followeth.

THE Spaniardes haue not entred into India for any de­sire to exalt Gods honour, or for zeale to christian religion, either to fauour, and procure the saluation of their neighbours, no neither for their princes seruice, whereof they doe so vainely bragge: but conetousnes hath brought them and ambition hath allured them to the perpetuall dominion ouer the Indies, which they as tyrants and diuels, doe couet to bee parted among them: and to speake plainely and flatly, doe seeke no other but to expell and driue the kings of Castile out of all that worlde and them­selues seazing thereupon, by tyrannie to vsurpe and take vpon them all royall soueraigntie.

FINIS.

Imprinted at London at the three Cranes in the Vintree by Thomas Dawson, for William Broome. 1583.

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