Chapter XXIII: Prologue: Of the Bishop Don Fray Bartholomew De Las Casas or Casaus (1)

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

Don Philip our Lord. Most High, and Mighty Lord.

1. As divine Providence has ordained that in his world, for its
government, and for the common utility of the human race, Kingdoms
and Countries should be constituted in which are Kings almost
fathers and pastors, (as Homer calls them) they being consequently
the most noble, and most generous members of the Republics, there
neither is nor can be reasonable doubt as to the rectitude of their
royal hearts. If any defect, wrong, and evil is suffered, there can
be no other cause than that the Kings are ignorant of it; for if
such were manifested to them, they would extirpate them with supreme
industry and watchful diligence.
2.2. It is seemingly this that the divine Scriptures mean in the Proverbs
of Solomon, qui sedet in solio iudicii, dissipat omne malum intuitu
suo: because it is thus assumed from the innate and peculiar virtue
of the King namely, that the knowledge alone of evil in his Kingdom
is absolutely sufficient that he should destroy it; and that not for
one moment, as far as in him lies, can he tolerate it.
3.3. As I have fifty, or more, years of experience in those countries, I
have therefore been considering the evils, I have seen committed,
the injuries, losses, and misfortunes, such as it would not have
been thought could be done by man; such kingdoms, so many, and so
large, or to speak better, that most vast and new world of the
Indies, conceded and confided by God and his Church to the Kings of
Castile, that they should rule and govern it; that they should
convert it, and should prosper it temporally, and spiritually.
4.4. When some of their particular actions are made known to Your
Highness, it will not be possible to forbear supplicating His
Majesty with importunate insistence, that he should not concede nor
permit that which the tyrants have invented, pursued, and put into
execution, calling it Conquests; which if permitted, will be
repeated; because these acts in themselves, done against those
pacific, humble, and mild Indian people, who offend none, are
iniquitous, tyrannous, condemned and cursed by every natural,
divine, and human law.
5.5. So as not to keep criminal silence concerning the ruin of numberless
souls and bodies that these persons cause, I have decided to print
some, though very few, of the innumerable instances I have collected
in the past and can relate with truth, in order that Your Highness
may read them with greater facility.
6.6. Although the Archbishop of Toledo, Your Highness’ Preceptor, when
Bishop of Cartagena, asked me for them and presented them to Your
Highness, nevertheless, because of the long journeys by sea and land
Your Highness has made, and of the continual royal occupations, it
may be that Your Highness either has not read them or has already
forgotten them.
7.7. The daring and unreasonable cupidity of those who count it as
nothing to unjustly shed such an immense quantity of human blood,
and to deprive those enormous countries of their natural inhabitants
and possessors, by slaying millions of people and stealing
incomparable treasures, increase every day; and they insist by
various means and under various feigned pretexts, that the said
Conquests are permitted, without violation of the natural and divine
law, and, in consequence, without most grievous mortal sin, worthy
of terrible and eternal punishment. I therefore esteemed it right
to furnish Your Highness with this very brief summary of a very long
history that could and ought to be composed, of the massacres and
devastation that have taken place.
8.8. I supplicate Your Highness to receive and read it with the clemency,
and royal benignity he usually shows to his creatures, and servants,
who desire to serve solely for the public good and for the
prosperity of the State.
9.9. Having seen and understood the monstrous injustice done to these
innocent people in destroying and outraging them, without cause or
just motive, but out of avarice alone, and the ambition of those who
design such villainous operations, may Your Highness be pleased to
supplicate and efficaciously persuade His Majesty to forbid such
harmful and detestable practices to those who seek license for them:
may he silence this infernal demand for ever, with so much terror,
that from this time forward there shall be no one so audacious as to
dare but to name it.
10.10. This—Most High Lord—is most fitting and necessary to do, that God
may prosper, preserve and render blessed, both temporally and
spiritually, all the State of the royal crown of Castile. Amen.

BREVISSIMA RELACION OR SHORT REPORT OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIES

1. The Indies were discovered in the year fourteen hundred and
ninety-two. The year following, Spanish Christians went to inhabit
them, so that it is since forty-nine years that numbers of Spaniards
have gone there: and the first land, that they invaded to inhabit
was the large and most delightful Isle of Hispaniola which has a
circumference of six hundred leagues.
2.2. There are numberless other islands, and very large ones, all around
on every side, that were all—and we have seen it—as inhabited and
full of their native Indian peoples as any country in the world.
3.3. Of the continent, the nearest part of which is more than two hundred
and fifty leagues distant from this Island, more than ten thousand
leagues of maritime coast have been discovered, and more is
discovered every day; all that has been discovered up to the year
forty-nine is full of people, like a hive of bees, so that it seems
as though God had placed all, or the greater part of the entire
human race in these countries.
4.4. God has created all these numberless people to be quite the
simplest, without malice or duplicity, most obedient, most faithful
to their natural Lords, and to the Christians, whom they serve; the
most humble, most patient, most peaceful, and calm, without strife
nor tumults; not wrangling, nor querulous, as free from uproar, hate
and desire of revenge, as any in the world.
5.5. They are likewise the most delicate people, weak and of feeble
constitution, and less than any other can they bear fatigue, and
they very easily die of whatsoever infirmity; so much so, that not
even the sons of our Princes and of nobles, brought up in royal and
gentle life, are more delicate than they; although there are among
them such as are of the peasant class. They are also a very poor
people, who of worldly goods possess little, nor wish to possess:
and they are therefore neither proud, nor ambitious, nor avaricious.
6.6. Their food is so poor, that it would seem that of the Holy Fathers
in the desert was not scantier nor less pleasing. Their way of
dressing is usually to go naked, covering the private parts; and at
most they cover themselves with a cotton cover, which would be about
equal to one and a half or two ells square of cloth. Their beds are
of matting, and they mostly sleep in certain things like hanging
nets, called in the language of Hispaniola hamacas.
7.7. They are likewise of a clean, unspoiled, and vivacious intellect,
very capable, and receptive to every good doctrine; most prompt to
accept our Holy Catholic Faith, to be endowed with virtuous customs;
and they have as little difficulty with such things as any people
created by God in the world.
8.8. Once they have begun to learn of matters pertaining to faith, they
are so importunate to know them, and in frequenting the sacraments
and divine service of the Church, that to tell the truth, the clergy
have need to be endowed of God with the gift of pre-eminent patience
to bear with them: and finally, I have heard many lay Spaniards
frequently say many years ago, (unable to deny the goodness of those
they saw) certainly these people were the most blessed of the earth,
had they only knowledge of God.
9.9. Among these gentle sheep, gifted by their Maker with the above
qualities, the Spaniards entered as soon as they knew them, like
wolves, tigers, and lions which had been starving for many days, and
since forty years they have done nothing else; nor do they otherwise
at the present day, than outrage, slay, afflict, torment, and
destroy them with strange and new, and divers kinds of cruelty,
never before seen, nor heard of, nor read of, of which some few will
be told below: to such extremes has this gone that, whereas there
were more than three million souls, whom we saw in Hispaniola, there
are to-day, not two hundred of the native population left.
10.10. The island of Cuba is almost as long as the distance from
Valladolid to Rome; it is now almost entirely deserted. The islands
of San Juan [Porto Rico], and Jamaica, very large and happy and
pleasing islands, are both desolate. The Lucaya Isles lie near
Hispaniola and Cuba to the north and number more than sixty, includ‐
ing those that are called the Giants, and other large and small
Islands; the poorest of these, which is more fertile, and pleasing
than the King’s garden in Seville, is the healthiest country in the
world, and contained more than five hundred thousand souls, but
to-day there remains not even a single creature. All were killed in
transporting them, to Hispaniola, because it was seen that the
native population there was disappearing.
11.11. A ship went three years later to look for the people that had been
left after the gathering in, because a good Christian was moved by
compassion to convert and win those that were found to Christ; only
eleven persons, whom I saw, were found.
12.12. More than thirty other islands, about the Isle of San Juan, are
destroyed and depopulated, for the same reason. All these islands
cover more than two thousand leagues of land, entirely depopulated
and deserted.
13.13. We are assured that our Spaniards, with their cruelty and execrable
works, have depopulated and made desolate the great continent, and
that more than ten Kingdoms, larger than all Spain, counting Aragon
and Portugal, and twice as much territory as from Seville to
Jerusalem (which is more than two thousand leagues), although
formerly full of people, are now deserted.
14.14. We give as a real and true reckoning, that in the said forty years,
more than twelve million persons, men, and women, and children, have
perished unjustly and through tyranny, by the infernal deeds and
tyranny of the Christians; and I truly believe, nor think I am
deceived, that it is more than fifteen.
15.15. Two ordinary and principal methods have the self-styled Christians,
who have gone there, employed in extirpating these miserable nations
and removing them from the face of the earth. The one, by unjust,
cruel and tyrannous wars. The other, by slaying all those, who
might aspire to, or sigh for, or think of liberty, or to escape from
the torments that they suffer, such as all the native Lords, and
adult men; for generally, they leave none alive in the wars, except
the young men and the women, whom they oppress with the hardest,
most horrible, and roughest servitude, to which either man or beast,
can ever be put. To these two ways of infernal tyranny, all the
many and divers other ways, which are numberless, of exterminating
these people, are reduced, resolved, or sub-ordered according to
kind.
16.16. The reason why the Christians have killed and destroyed such
infinite numbers of souls, is solely because they have made gold
their ultimate aim, seeking to load themselves with riches in the
shortest time and to mount by high steps, disproportioned to their
condition: namely by their insatiable avarice and ambition, the
greatest, that could be on the earth. These lands, being so happy
and so rich, and the people so humble, so patient, and so easily
subjugated, they have had no more respect, nor consideration nor
have they taken more account of them (I speak with truth of what I
have seen during all the aforementioned time) than,—I will not say
of animals, for would to God they had considered and treated them as
animals,—but as even less than the dung in the streets.
17.17. In this way have they cared for their lives—and for their souls:
and therefore, all the millions above mentioned have died without
faith, and without sacraments. And it is a publicly known truth,
admitted, and confessed by all, even by the tyrants and homicides
themselves, that the Indians throughout the Indies never did any
harm to the Christians: they even esteemed them as coming from
heaven, until they and their neighbours had suffered the same many
evils, thefts, deaths, violence and visitations at their hands.

Of Hispaniola

1. In the island of Hispaniola—which was the first, as we have said, to
be invaded by the Christians—the immense massacres and destruction
of these people began. It was the first to be destroyed and made
into a desert. The Christians began by taking the women and
children, to use and to abuse them, and to eat of the substance of
their toil and labour, instead of contenting themselves with what
the Indians gave them spontaneously, according to the means of each.
Such stores are always small; because they keep no more than they
ordinarily need, which they acquire with little labour; but what is
enough for three households, of ten persons each, for a month, a
Christian eats and destroys in one day. From their using force,
violence and other kinds of vexations, the Indians began to perceive
that these men could not have come from heaven.
2.2. Some hid their provisions, others, their wives and children: others
fled to the mountains to escape from people of such harsh and
terrible intercourse. The Christians gave them blows in the face,
beatings and cudgellings, even laying hands on the lords of the
land. They reached such recklessness and effrontery, that a
Christian captain violated the lawful wife of the chief king and
lord of all the island.
3.3. After this deed, the Indians consulted to devise means of driving
the Christians from their country. They took up their weapons,
which are poor enough and little fitted for attack, being of little
force and not even good for defence; For this reason, all their wars
are little more than games with sticks, such as children play in our
countries.
4.4. The Christians, with their horses and swords and lances, began to
slaughter and practise strange cruelty among them. They penetrated
into the country and spared neither children nor the aged, nor
pregnant women, nor those in child labour, all of whom they ran
through the body and lacerated, as though they were assaulting so
many lambs herded in their sheepfold.
5.5. They made bets as to who would slit a man in two, or cut off his
head at one blow: or they opened up his bowels. They tore the babes
from their mothers’ breast by the feet, and dashed their heads
against the rocks. Others they seized by the shoulders and threw
into the rivers, laughing and joking, and when they fell into the
water they exclaimed: “boil body of so and so!” They spitted the
bodies of other babes, together with their mothers and all who were
before them, on their swords.
6.6. They made a gallows just high enough for the feet to nearly touch
the ground, and by thirteens, in honour and reverence of our
Redeemer and the twelve Apostles, they put wood underneath and, with
fire, they burned the Indians alive.
7.7. They wrapped the bodies of others entirely in dry straw, binding
them in it and setting fire to it; and so they burned them. They
cut off the hands of all they wished to take alive, made them carry
them fastened on to them, and said: “Go and carry letters”: that is;
take the news to those who have fled to the mountains.
8.8. They generally killed the lords and nobles in the following way.
They made wooden gridirons of stakes, bound them upon them, and made
a slow fire beneath: thus the victims gave up the spirit by degrees,
emitting cries of despair in their torture.
9.9. I once saw that they had four or five of the chief lords stretched
on the gridirons to burn them, and I think also there were two or
three pairs of gridirons, where they were burning others; and
because they cried aloud and annoyed the captain or prevented him
sleeping, he commanded that they should strangle them: the officer
who was burning them was worse than a hangman and did not wish to
suffocate them, but with his own hands he gagged them, so that they
should not make themselves heard, and he stirred up the fire, until
they roasted slowly, according to his pleasure. I know his name,
and knew also his relations in Seville. I saw all the above things
and numberless others.
9.10. And because all the people who could flee, hid among the mountains
and climbed the crags to escape from men so deprived of humanity, so
wicked, such wild beasts, exterminators and capital enemies of all
the human race, the Spaniards taught and trained the fiercest
boar-hounds to tear an Indian to pieces as soon as they saw him, so
that they more willingly attacked and ate one, than if he had been a
boar. These hounds made great havoc and slaughter.
10.11. And because sometimes, though rarely, the Indians killed a few
Christians for just cause, they made a law among themselves, that
for one Christian whom the Indians killed, the Christians should
kill a hundred Indians.

The Kingdoms that were in Hispaniola

1. There were five very large and principal kingdoms in this island of
Hispaniola, and five very mighty kings, whom all the other
numberless lords obeyed, although some of the lords of certain
separate provinces did not recognise any of them as superior. One
kingdom was called Maguá, with the last syllable accented, which
means the kingdom of the plain.

This plain is one of the most notable and marvellous things in the
world, for it stretches eighty leagues from the sea on the south to
that on the north. Its width is five leagues, attaining to eight
and ten, and it has very high mountains on both sides.

2.2. More than thirty thousand rivers, and brooks water it among which
there are twelve as large as the Ebro, the Duero, and the
Guadalquivir. And all the rivers that flow from the western
mountain, which number twenty or twenty-five thousand, are very rich
in gold. On that mountain (or mountains) lies the province of
Cibao, from which the mines of Cibao are named, whence comes that
famous gold, superior in carat, which is held in great esteem here.
3.3. The king, and lord of this realm was called Guarionex. He had such
great lords as his vassals, that one alone of them mustered sixteen
thousand warriors to serve Guarionex; and I knew some of them. This
king Guarionex was very obedient, virtuous and, by nature, peaceful
and devoted to the king of Castile. And in certain years, every
householder amongst his people gave by his orders, a bell full of
gold; and afterwards, because they could not fill it, they cut it in
two and gave that half full; because the Indians had little or no
ability to collect, or dig the gold from the mines.
4.4. This prince offered to serve the King of Castile, by having as much
land cultivated as would extend from Isabella, which was the first
habitation of the Christians to the town of San Domingo, which is a
good fifty leagues, in order that gold should not be asked of him;
because he said, and with truth, that his vassals knew not how to
collect it. I know he was able to do the cultivation he proposed to
undertake, most gladly; and it would have rendered the King more
than three million crowns yearly, and, owing to this cultivation,
there would have been at the present time in this island fifty towns
as large as Seville.
5.5. The payment they awarded to this great and good king and lord, was
to dishonour him; a captain, a bad Christian violating his wife.
Although he might have bided his time to assemble his people and
revenge himself, he determined to depart alone, and to hide himself
and die exiled from his kingdom and state, in a province called
Ciguay, of which the ruler was his vassal.
6.6. When the Christians became aware that he was missing, he could not
hide himself from them. They made war on that ruler who sheltered
him, where, after great slaughter, they found and captured him.
When he was taken, they put him on a ship in chains, to bring him to
Castile in fetters. The ship was lost at sea, and many Christians
were drowned with him, besides a great quantity of gold, including
the great nugget, which was as big as a cake and weighed three
thousand and six hundred crowns, because God was pleased to avenge
such great injustice.
7.7. The second kingdom was called Marien, where now is the royal port at
the end of the plain towards the north. It was larger than the
kingdom of Portugal and was certainly much more prosperous, and
worthy of being populated; and it has many, and high mountains, and
very rich gold, and copper mines. Its king was named Guacanagari
(with the last letter accented) under whom there were many and very
great lords, many of whom I saw and knew.
8.8. In the country of this king, the old Admiral(80) who discovered the
Indies, first went to stay. When he discovered the island he, and
all the Christians who accompanied him, was received the first time
by the said Guacanagari with great humanity and charity. He met
with such a gentle and agreeable reception, and such help and
guidance when the ship in which the Admiral sailed was lost there,
that in his own country, and from his own father a better would not
have been possible. This I know from the recital and words of the
same Admiral. This king, flying from the massacres and cruelty of
the Christians, died a wanderer in the mountains, ruined and
deprived of his state. All the other lords, his subjects, died
under tyranny and servitude, as will be told below.
9.9. The third kingdom and dominion was Maguana, a country equally
marvellous, most healthy and most fertile; where now the best sugar
of the island is made. Its king was called Caonabò. In strength,
and dignity, in gravity, and pomp he surpassed all the others. They
captured this king with great cunning and malice, he being safe in
his own house. They put him on a ship to take him to Castile and,
as there were six ships in the port ready to leave, God, who wished
to show that this, together with the other things, was a great
iniquity and injustice, sent a tempest that night that sank all the
vessels, drowning all the Christians on board of them. The said
Caonabò perished, loaded with chains, and fetters.
10.10. This lord had three or four very brave brothers as powerful and
valiant as himself. They, seeing the unjust imprisonment of their
brother and lord, and witnessing the destruction and slaughter the
Christians perpetrated in the other kingdoms, (particularly after
they knew that the king their brother was dead) armed themselves to
attack the Christians and avenge themselves. The Christians went
against them with some horsemen. Horses are the most deadly arm
possible among the Indians. They worked such havoc and slaughter,
that they desolated, and depopulated half the kingdom.
11.11. The fourth kingdom is that which is called Xaragua. This was as
the marrow, or the Court of all this island. It surpassed all the
other kingdoms in the politeness of its more ornate speech as well
as in more cultured good breeding, and in the multitude and
generosity of the nobles. For there were lords and nobles in great
numbers. In their costumes and beauty, the people were superior to
all others.
12.12. The king and lord of it was called Behechio and he had a sister
called Anacaona. Both rendered great services to the King of
Castile, and immense kindnesses to the Christians, delivering them
from many mortal dangers: and when the King Behechio died, Anacaona
was left mistress of the kingdom.
13.13. The governor(81) who ruled this island arrived there once, with
sixty horsemen and more than three hundred foot. The horsemen alone
were sufficient to ruin the whole island and the terra firma. More
than three hundred lords were assembled, whom he had summoned and
reassured. He lured the principal ones by fraud, into a
straw-house, and setting fire to it, he burnt them alive.
14.14. All the others, together with numberless people, were put to the
sword, and lance. And to do honour to the Lady Anacaona, they
hanged her. It happened that some Christians, either out of
compassion or avarice, took some children to save them, placing them
behind them on their horses, and another Spaniard approached from
behind and ran his lance through them. Another, if a child was on
the ground, cut off its legs with his sword. Some, who could flee
from this inhuman cruelty, crossed to a little island lying eight
leagues distant in the sea; and the said governor condemned all such
to be slaves, because they had fled from the carnage.
15.15. The fifth kingdom was called Higuey: and an old queen called
Higuanama ruled it, whom they hanged. And I saw numberless people
being burnt alive, torn, and tortured in divers, and new ways, while
all whom they took alive were enslaved.
16.16. And because so many particulars happened in this slaughter and
destruction of people, that they could not be contained in a lengthy
description—for in truth I believe that however many I told, I could
not express the thousandth part of the whole—I will simply conclude
the above mentioned wars by saying and affirming, before God and my
conscience, that the Indians gave no more cause, nor were more to
blame for all this injustice done unto them, and for the other said
wickedness I could tell, but omit, than a monastery of good and well
ordered monks would have given that they should be robbed and
killed, and that those who escaped death, should be placed in
perpetual captivity and servitude, as slaves.
17.17. And furthermore, I attest, that in all the space of time during
which the multitudes of the population of this island were being
killed and destroyed, as far as I can believe or conjecture, they
did not commit a single mortal sin against the Christians that
merited punishment by man. And of those which are reserved to God
alone, such as the desire of vengeance, hatred and rancour, that
these people might harbour against such mortal enemies as were the
Christians, I believe very few of the Indians committed any such.
They were little more impetuous and harsh, judging from the great
experience I have of them, than children or youths of ten or twelve
years.
18.18. I have certain and infallible knowledge, that the Indians always
made most just war on the Christians while the Christians never had
a single just one with the Indians; on the contrary, they were all
diabolical and most unjust, and much worse than can be said of any
tyrant in the world; and I affirm the same of what they have done
throughout the Indies.
19.19. When the wars were finished, and with them the murder, they divided
among them all the men, (youths, women, and children being usually
spared) giving to one, thirty, to another forty, and to another a
hundred and two hundred, according to the favour each enjoyed with
the chief tyrant, whom they called governor. Having thus
distributed them, they assigned them to each Christian, under the
pretence that the latter should train them in the catholic faith;
thus to men who are generally all idiots, and very cruel, avaricious
and vicious, they gave the care of souls.
20.20. The care and thought these Spaniards took, was to send the men to
the mines to dig gold, which is an intolerable labour; and they put
the women into dwellings, which are huts, to dig and cultivate the
land; a strong and robust man’s work. They gave food neither to the
one, nor the other, except grass, and things that have no substance.
The milk dried up in the breasts of nursing women and thus, within a
short time, all the infants died.
21.21. And as the husbands were separated and never saw their wives,
generation diminished among them; the men died of fatigue and hunger
in the mines and others perished in dwellings or huts, for the same
reason. It was in this way that such multitudes of people were
destroyed in this island, as indeed all those in the world might be
destroyed by like means.
22.22. It is impossible to recount the burdens with which their owners
loaded them, more than three and four arobas(82) weight, making them
walk a hundred and two hundred leagues. The same Christians had
themselves carried by Indians in hamacas, which are like nets; for
they always used them as beasts of burden. They had wounds on their
shoulders and backs, like animals, all wither-wrung. To tell
likewise of the whip-lashings, the beatings, the cuffs, the blows,
the curses, and a thousand other kinds of torments to which their
masters treated them, while, in truth, they were working hard, would
take much time and much paper; and would be something to amaze
mankind.
23.23. It must be noted, that the destruction of this island and of these
lands was begun when the death of the most Serene Queen, Doña
Isabella was known here, which was in the year 1504. For up to that
time, only some provinces in the island had been ruined by unjust
wars, but not entirely: and these were nearly all kept hidden from
the Queen. Because the Queen, who is in blessed glory, used great
solicitude and marvellous zeal for the health and prosperity of
these people, as we ourselves, who have seen the examples of it with
our eyes and touched them with our hands, well know.
24.24. Another rule to be noted is this; that in all parts of the Indies
where the Christians have gone and have passed, they ever did the
same murder among the Indians, and used tyranny and abominable
oppression against these innocent people; and they added many more
and greater and newer ways of torment. They became ever crueller,
because God let them precipitate themselves the more swiftly into
reprobate judgments and sentiments.

The Two Islands of San Juan and Jamaica

In 1509 the Spaniards passed over to the islands of San Juan and Jamaica, (83) which were so many gardens and hives of bees, with the same object and design they had accomplished in Hispaniola, where they committed the great outrages and iniquities narrated above. They even added to them more notorious ones, and the greatest cruelty; slaying, burning, roasting, and, throwing the Indians to fierce dogs. They oppressed, tormented, and afflicted all those unhappy innocents in the mines, and with other labours, until they were consumed and destroyed, because there were in the said isles more than a million souls, and to-day there are not two hundred in each. All have perished without faith and without sacraments.

The Island of Cuba

1. In the year 1511 the Spaniards passed over to the island of Cuba,
(84) which as I said, is as long as from Valladolid to Rome, and
where there were great and populous provinces. They began and ended
in the above manner, only with incomparably greater cruelty. Here
many notable things occurred.
2.2. A very high prince and lord, named Hatuey, who had fled with many of
his people from Hispaniola to Cuba, to escape the calamity and
inhuman operations of the Christians, having received news from some
Indians that the Christians were crossing over, assembled many or
all of his people, and addressed them thus.
3.3. “You already know that it is said the Christians are coming here;
and you have experience of how they have treated the lords so and so
and those people of Hayti (which is Hispaniola); they come to do the
same here. Do you know perhaps why they do it?” The people
answered no; except that they were by nature cruel and wicked.
“They do it,” said he, “not alone for this, but because they have a
God whom they greatly adore and love; and to make us adore Him they
strive to subjugate us and take our lives.” He had near him a
basket full of gold and jewels and he said. “Behold here is the God
of the Christians, let us perform Areytos before Him, if you will
(these are dances in concert and singly); and perhaps we shall
please Him, and He will command that they do us no harm.”
4.4. All exclaimed; it is well! it is well! They danced before it, till
they were all tired, after which the lord Hatuey said; “Note well
that in any event if we preserve the gold, they will finally have to
kill us, to take it from us: let us throw it into this river.” They
all agreed to this proposal, and they threw the gold into a great
river in that place.
5.5. This prince and lord continued retreating before the Christians when
they arrived at the island of Cuba, because he knew them, but when
he encountered them he defended himself; and at last they took him.
And merely because he fled from such iniquitous and cruel people,
and defended himself against those who wished to kill and oppress
him, with all his people and offspring until death, they burnt him
alive.
6.6. When he was tied to the stake, a Franciscan monk, a holy man, who
was there, spoke as much as he could to him, in the little time that
the executioner granted them, about God and some of the teachings of
our faith, of which he had never before heard; he told him that if
he would believe what was told him, he would go to heaven where
there was glory and eternal rest; and if not, that he would go to
hell, to suffer perpetual torments and punishment. After thinking a
little, Hatuey asked the monk whether the Christians went to heaven;
the monk answered that those who were good went there. The prince
at once said, without any more thought, that he did not wish to go
there, but rather to hell so as not to be where Spaniards were, nor
to see such cruel people. This is the renown and honour, that God
and our faith have acquired by means of the Christians who have gone
to the Indies.
7.7. On one occasion they came out ten leagues from a great settlement to
meet us, bringing provisions and gifts, and when we met them, they
gave us a great quantity of fish and bread and other victuals, with
everything they could supply. All of a sudden the devil entered
into the bodies of the Christians, and in my presence they put to
the sword, without any motive or cause whatsoever, more than three
thousand persons, men, women, and children, who were seated before
us. Here I beheld such great cruelty as living man has never seen
nor thought to see.
8.8. Once I sent messengers to all the lords of the province of Havana,
assuring them that if they would not absent themselves but come to
receive us, no harm should be done them; all the country was
terrorized because of the past slaughter, and I did this by the
captain’s advice. When we arrived in the province, twenty-one
princes and lords came to receive us; and at once the captain
violated the safe conduct I had given them and took them prisoners.
The following day he wished to burn them alive, saying it was better
so because those lords would some time or other do us harm. I had
the greatest difficulty to deliver them from the flames but finally
I saved them.
9.9. After all the Indians of this island were reduced to servitude and
misfortune like those of Hispaniola, and when they saw they were all
perishing inevitably, some began to flee to the mountains; others to
hang themselves in despair; husbands and wives hanged themselves,
together with their children, and through the cruelty of one very
tyrannical Spaniard whom I knew, more than two hundred Indians
hanged themselves. In this way numberless people perished.
10.10. There was an officer of the King in this island, to whose share
three hundred Indians fell; and by the end of three months he had,
through labour in the mines, caused the death of two hundred and
seventy; so that he had only thirty left, which was the tenth part.
The authorities afterwards gave him as many again, and again he
killed them: and they continued to give, and he to kill, until he
came to die, and the devil carried away his soul.
11.11. In three or four months, I being present, more than seven thousand
children died of hunger, their fathers and mothers having been taken
to the mines. Other dreadful things did I see.
12.12. Afterwards the Spaniards resolved to go and hunt the Indians who
were in the mountains, where they perpetrated marvellous massacres.
Thus they ruined and depopulated all this island which we beheld not
long ago; and it excites pity, and great anguish to see it deserted,
and reduced to a solitude.

The Mainland

1. In the year 1514 there passed over to the continent an unhappy
Governor(85) who was the cruellest of tyrants, destitute of
compassion or prudence, almost an instrument of divine fury. His
intention was to settle large numbers of Spaniards in that country.
And although several tyrants had visited the continent, and had
robbed and scandalised many people, their stealing and ravaging had
been confined to the sea-coast; but this man surpassed all the
others who had gone before him, and those of all the Islands; and
his villainous operations outdid all the past abominations.
2.2. Not only did he depopulate the sea-coast, but also countries and
large kingdoms where he killed numberless people, sending them to
hell. This man devastated many leagues of country extending above
Deldarien to the kingdom and provinces of Nicaragua inclusive, which
is more than five hundred leagues; it was the best, the happiest,
and the most populous land in the world. There were very many great
lords and numberless settlements, and very great wealth of gold: for
until that time, never had there been so much seen above ground. For
although Spain had been almost filled with gold from Hispaniola, and
that of the finest, it had been dug by the labour of the Indians
from the bowels of the earth, out of the aforesaid mines, where, as
has been said, they perished.
3.3. This governor and his people invented new means of cruelty and of
torturing the Indians, to force them to show, and give them gold.
There was a captain of his who, in an incursion, ordered by him to
rob and extirpate the people, killed more than forty thousand
persons, putting them to the sword, burning them alive, throwing
them to fierce dogs, and torturing them with various kind of
tortures: these acts were witnessed by a Franciscan friar with his
own eyes, for he went with the captain, and he was called Fray
Francisco de San Roman.
4.4. The most pernicious blindness of those who have governed the Indies
up to the present day, in providing for the conversion and salvation
of these people, which (to tell the truth) they have always
postponed, although with words they have represented and pretended
otherwise, reached such depths that they have commanded notice to be
given the Indians to accept the Holy faith and render obedience to
the kings of Castile; otherwise war would be made on them with fire
and blood, and they would be killed and made slaves etc.
5.5. As though the Son of God, who died for each of them, had commanded
in his law, when he said Euntes, docete omnes gentes that intimation
should be sent to peaceful and quiet infidels, in their own
countries, that, if they did not receive it at once, without other
teaching or doctrine, and that if they did not subject themselves to
the dominion of a king, of whom they had never heard, nor seen, and
particularly whose messengers are so cruel, so wicked, and such
horrible tyrants, they should therefore, lose their rights, their
lands and liberty, their wives and children, with all their lives;
such a blunder is stupid and worthy of infamy, obloquy, and hell.
6.6. This wretched and unhappy governor, in giving instructions as to the
said intimations, the better to justify them—they being of
themselves unseemly, unreasonable and most unjust—commanded these
thieves sent by him, to act as follows: when they had determined to
invade and plunder some province, where they had heard that gold was
to be found, they should go when the Indians were in their towns,
and safe in their houses; these wretched Spanish assassins went by
night and, halting at midnight half a league from the town, they
published or read the said intimation among themselves saying:
Princes and Indians of such a place in this continent, we make known
unto you, that there is one God, one Pope, and one King of Castile,
who is Lord of this country; come at once to render him obedience
etc. otherwise know that we shall make war on you, kill you, and put
you into slavery etc. And towards sunrise, the innocent natives
being still asleep with their wives and children, they attacked the
town, setting fire to the houses that were usually of straw, burning
the children, the women and many others alive, before they awoke.
They killed whom they would, and those whom they took alive, they
afterwards killed with tortures, to force them to indicate other
towns where there was gold, or more than was to be found there; and
the others that survived, they put into chains as slaves. Then when
the fire was extinguished or low they went to look for the gold that
was in the houses.
7.7. In this way and with such operations, were this wretched man and all
the bad Christians he took with him occupied during the year 1514,
till the year 1521 or 1522, sending on these raids six or more
servants, who collected for him a certain portion of all the gold
and pearls and jewels the Spaniards stole, and of the slaves they
captured, besides the share that belonged to him as Captain General.
The officers of the king did the same, each sending as many boys or
servants as he could. And also the first bishop of that kingdom
sent his servants to obtain part of this profit.
9.8. As far as I can judge they stole, during that time in the said
kingdom, more gold than a million crowns; and I believe I understate
it; and it will not be found that, of all they stole, they sent the
King more than three thousand crowns. And they destroyed more than
eight hundred thousand souls. The other tyrant governors who
succeeded them till the year 1533 killed, and allowed to be killed
the survivors with the tyrannical servitude that followed the war.
10.9. Among the other numberless knaveries he committed and permitted
during the time he governed, was this one; a prince, or lord, having
of his own will, or more likely out of fear, given him nine thousand
crowns, he was not satisfied with this sum so he took the said lord,
bound him seated to a stake, with his feet distended and exposed to
fire, to force him to give them a larger quantity of gold; and he
[the chief] sent to his house and brought other three thousand
crowns; they tortured him again, and as he gave no more gold, either
because he had none or did not wish to give it, they kept him thus,
till the marrow oozed out from the soles of his feet; and thus he
died. Numberless times they killed and tortured lords in this way
to get gold from them.
11.10. Another time a company of Spaniards, while going to assassinate,
came to a mountain where a great number of people were sheltered and
in hiding, to escape from the pestilential and horrible operations
of the Christians; assaulting it unexpectedly they captured seventy
or eighty young girls and women; and left many dead whom they had
killed.
12.11. The next day many Indians assembled and pursued the Christians,
driven by their anxiety for their wives and daughters to fight; and
the Christians finding themselves at close quarters, and not wishing
to disorder their company of horse, drove their swords into the
bodies of the young girls and women, and of all the eighty they left
not even one alive. The Indians writhing with grief cried out, and
said: “O wretched men, cruel Christians, you kill Iras!” (the women
in that country are called Iras). They meant that to kill women is
a sign of abominable, cruel and bestial men.
13.12. Ten or fifteen leagues from Panama there was a great lord called
Paris, who had great wealth of gold. The Christians went thither
and he received them as though they were his brothers: he willingly
presented the captain with fifty thousand castellanos. It seemed to
the captain and to the Christians that one who spontaneously gave
that quantity, must have a great treasure; which was the aim and
recompense of their effort. They dissimulated, saying they wished
to depart: towards sunrise they returned and attacked the
unsuspecting town; and they set fire to it and burnt it. They
killed and burnt many people, and stole other fifty or sixty
thousand castellanos, and the prince, or lord fled to escape death
or capture.
14.13. He quickly assembled all the people he could, and in two or three
days came upon the Christians, who were carrying away his hundred
and thirty or forty (86) thousand castellanos, and fell upon them
manfully, killing fifty Christians, recapturing all the gold while
the others escaped badly wounded.
15.14. Afterwards, many Christians turned on the said lord and destroyed
him and many of his people; they killed the rest with the usual
servitude, so that to-day there is neither sign nor any vestige
whatsoever that there was ever a town or born man where formerly was
thirty leagues of dominion well populated. The murders and
destruction done by that miserable man and his company in that
kingdom which he devastated, are without number.

The Province of Nicaragua