Part 15 (1/2)
1. There were five very large and princ.i.p.al 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 Magua, 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 va.s.sals, 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 va.s.sals 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 a.s.semble 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 va.s.sal.
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 s.h.i.+p in chains, to bring him to Castile in fetters. The s.h.i.+p was lost at sea, and many Christians were drowned with him, besides a great quant.i.ty of gold, including the great nugget, which was as big as a cake and weighed three thousand and six hundred crowns, because G.o.d 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 s.h.i.+p 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 ma.s.sacres 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 Caonab. In strength, and dignity, in gravity, and pomp he surpa.s.sed all the others. They captured this king with great cunning and malice, he being safe in his own house. They put him on a s.h.i.+p to take him to Castile and, as there were six s.h.i.+ps in the port ready to leave, G.o.d, 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 Caonab 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 hors.e.m.e.n. 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 surpa.s.sed all the other kingdoms in the politeness of its more ornate speech as well as in more cultured good breeding, and in the mult.i.tude and generosity of the n.o.bles. For there were lords and n.o.bles 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 hors.e.m.e.n and more than three hundred foot. The hors.e.m.e.n alone were sufficient to ruin the whole island and the terra firma. More than three hundred lords were a.s.sembled, whom he had summoned and rea.s.sured. He lured the princ.i.p.al 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 compa.s.sion 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 G.o.d 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 s.p.a.ce of time during which the mult.i.tudes 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.signed 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 gra.s.s, and things that have no substance.
The milk dried up in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s 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 mult.i.tudes 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-las.h.i.+ngs, 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, Dona 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 pa.s.sed, 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 G.o.d let them precipitate themselves the more swiftly into reprobate judgments and sentiments.
The Two Islands of San Juan and Jamaica
In 1509 the Spaniards pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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, a.s.sembled 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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.