Part 17 (2/2)

20.20. And afterwards they gave them their own children, whom they love more than the light of their eyes, that they might train them. And they built them churches, monasteries and houses: and friars, were invited to other provinces, to preach and bring the natives to the knowledge of G.o.d and of him whom they called the great king of Castile.

21.21. And, persuaded by the monks, the Indians did a thing never done again up to the present day; and all that some of those Tyrants pretend about those kingdoms being destroyed by the friars, is falsehood and lies.

22.22. Twelve or fifteen lords, each ruling many va.s.sals and large territories, a.s.sembled their people and, after taking their votes and consent, subjected themselves of their own will to the dominion of the kings of Castile, receiving the Emperor, as King of Spain, for their supreme and universal sovereign; and they made some sinas, like signatures, which I have in my possession, together with the attestations of the said friars.

23.23. Just when this growth of faith inspired the friars with great joy and hope of drawing to Jesus Christ the still numerous people of that kingdom who survived the murders and unjust wars, eighteen Spanish tyrants on horse entered a certain part of the country with twelve others on foot, which makes thirty, and they brought with them many loads of idols taken from the Indians in other provinces.

24.24. And the captain of the said thirty summoned a lord of the country where he had entered, and told him that he must take those loads of idols and distribute them throughout his country, trading each idol for an Indian man or woman, to make them slaves; he threatened to make war on the chief if he refused.

25.25. Forced by fear, the said lord distributed the idols throughout all this territory and commanded all his va.s.sals that they should accept and adore them, and give him Indian men and women as slaves for the Spaniards. In alarm, the Indians who had two children gave one of them, and those who had three gave two; and in this way they concluded that sacrilegious commerce and the lord, or prince satisfied the Spaniards.

26.26. One of these impious and infernal bandits, called Juan Garcia, when ill and near death, had under his bed two loads of idols and he commanded an Indian woman who served him, to be very careful not to exchange those idols for fowls, but each one for a slave because they were very valuable. And finally with this testament and occupied with this thought the unhappy man died. And who doubts that he is buried in h.e.l.l?

27.27. Consider therefore of what profit are the religion and the examples of Christianity of the Spaniards who go to the Indies; what honour they procure for G.o.d; how they work that he may be known and adored by those people; what care they take that His holy faith be sown, grow and expand in those souls. And judge whether this be a less sin than Jeroboam's qui peccare fecit Israel by making two golden calves, for the people to adore. Or whether it equals that of Judas or causes more scandal.

28.28. These then are the deeds of the Spaniards who go to the Indies; in their desire for gold they have numberless times sold, and do sell, and have forsworn Jesus Christ.

29.29. When the Indians saw that the promise the monks made them that the Spaniards should not enter those provinces did not come true, and that the same Spaniards brought their idols from other countries to sell, after they had given all their own G.o.ds to the monks to be burned, so that they might adore the one true G.o.d, they became tumultuous and the whole country was enraged with the friars, to whom they said: 30.30. Why have you lied and deceived us saying that Christians could not enter this country? And why have you burnt our G.o.ds when your Christians bring G.o.ds from other provinces to sell to us? Were perhaps our G.o.ds not better than those of other nations?

31.31. The friars having nothing to reply, calmed them as best they could.

They sought out the thirty Spaniards, telling them the harm they had done and beseeching them to depart, but they would not go; on the contrary they gave the Indians to understand, that it was the friars themselves who had made them come there,-which was the height of all malice.

32.32. At last the Indians determined to kill the friars; being warned by some Indian, the latter escaped one night. And when the friars had left, and the Indians perceived their innocence and virtue and the malice of the Spaniards, they sent messengers a distance of fifty leagues after them, praying them to return, and asking their pardon for the anxiety they had caused them.

33.33. The friars, being servants of G.o.d and zealous for those souls, gave them credence, and returned to the country where they were received like angels, the Indians rendering them a thousand services; and they stayed there four or five months longer.

34.34. As that country was so distant from New Spain, the Viceroy's efforts to expel those Christians from it were fruitless, and they persisted in remaining there although he had them proclaimed traitors; and because they never ceased their outrages and habitual oppression of the Indians, it seemed to the monks that, sooner or later the natives would become disgusted with such perverse works, and that perhaps the evil consequences would fall on them, especially as the evil deeds of the Spaniards constantly disturbed the Indians and prevented them from preaching to them in tran- quillity. They therefore determined to abandon the kingdom.

35.35. Thus the country was left without the light and help of doctrine; and those souls were abandoned to the obscurity of ignorance and misery, in which they formerly were. The Indians were deprived, till better times should come, of a.s.sistance and the diffusion of the knowledge of G.o.d, which they had been already receiving with eagerness; it was just as though we were to deprive plants of water a few days after planting them: and this was brought about by the inexpiable fault and consummate malice of those Spaniards.

The Province of Santa Maria

1. The province of Santa Marta was a country where the Indians had a great deal of gold because both it and the places round about have rich mines which were diligently worked. And for this reason, from the year 1498 till the present 1542, numberless Spanish tyrants have continually gone there with s.h.i.+ps to ravage and kill those people and to steal their gold. They afterwards returned in the s.h.i.+ps with which they made numerous expeditions, murdering and ma.s.sacring, with notorious cruelty; this commonly occurred along the seacoast and a few leagues inland, till the year 1523.

2.2. In the year 1523 some Spanish tyrants went to take up their abode here. And because the country, as has been said, was rich, divers captains succeeded one another, each crueller than the other, so that it seemed as though each had made a vow to practise more exorbitant evils and cruelty than the other, in verification of the rule we have given above.

3.3. In the year 1529 there arrived a great tyrant accompanied by many men, devoid of any fear of G.o.d or any mercy on mankind; so great were the ma.s.sacres, slaughter and impiety he perpetrated, that he surpa.s.sed all his predecessors. During the s.p.a.ce of six, or seven years that he lived, he and his men stole much treasure. (96) 4.4. He died without sacraments after also avoiding the commission of investigation met on his account; and afterwards, other murderous and thieving tyrants succeeded, who continued to destroy those people who had survived the treatment and cruel swords of their predecessors.

5.5. They marched far inland, ruining and exterminating large and numerous provinces; killing, and making slaves of their people in the ways above told of the others, putting lords and their va.s.sals to grievous tortures to force them to disclose the gold and the town where it was to be had: as has been said they surpa.s.sed, both in number and quality, the operations of all their predecessors so that from the said year 1529, till to-day, they have devastated in those parts more than four hundred leagues of country, which was as densely peopled as the other.

6.6. I truthfully declare that if I had to relate singly the evil, the ma.s.sacres, the destruction, injustice, violence, slaughter, and the great sins the Spaniards have committed in this Kingdom of Santa Marta, against G.o.d, against the King, and against those innocent nations, I would compose a very long history; I shall relate all this however in due time, if G.o.d gives me life.

7.7. Here I wish only to quote some few of the words that the lord bishop of that province now writes to the King: and the date of his letter is the 20th of May, 1541, in which among other words he says thus: 8.8. ”I a.s.sert, oh Sacred Caesar, that the way to remedy the ills of this country is for Your Majesty to now take it out of the hands of step-fathers and to give it a husband, who will treat it justly, and as it deserves; and this as soon as possible because otherwise I am certain that the way these tyrants who now have the government, crush and hara.s.s it, will very soon destroy it,” etc.

9.9. And further on he says: ”therefore Your Majesty will clearly discern that those who govern in these parts, deserve to be destroyed, to relieve the republics. And if this is not done, their infirmities are, in my opinion, without remedy. And Your Majesty will know in like manner that in these parts there are no Christians but demons; neither are there servants of G.o.d nor of the King, but traitors to His law, and to the King.”

10.10. ”Because in truth, the greatest obstacle I find to winning the Indians from war to peace, and from peace to the knowledge of our Holy Faith, is the harsh and cruel treatment that the peaceable ones receive from the Christians.”

11.11. ”They have on this account become so fierce and enraged, that nothing is more hated or abhorred by them, than the name of Christians, whom in all this country they call in their language Yares, which means demons; and without doubt they are right, because the deeds they do here are not those of Christians nor of reasonable men, but of devils.”

12.12. ”From which it arises, that the Indians, seeing these perverse operations are general, and that both the commanders and the subordinates are so devoid of mercy, think that such is the law of the Christians, of which their G.o.d and their King are the authors.

And to try to persuade them to the contrary is like trying to dry up the sea, and only makes them laugh and jeer at Jesus Christ and His law.”

13.13. ”And the Indian warriors, seeing the treatment shown the peaceable people, count it better to die once, than many times in the power of the Spaniards; I know this most invincible Caesar from experience”

etc.

14.14. And in a chapter further on he says: ”Your Majesty has more servants in these parts than is supposed; because there is not a soldier among those here who, while he is a.s.sa.s.sinating, or robbing, or destroying, or killing, or burning Your Majesty's va.s.sals to force their gold from them, does not make bold to claim that he is serving Your Majesty. It would therefore be well, Most Christian Caesar, that Your Majesty should make known by rigorously punis.h.i.+ng some of them, that such services as are contrary to the service of G.o.d, are not accepted.”

15.15. All the above are formal words of the said Bishop of Santa Marta, and from them it will be clearly seen what is done to-day in these unfortunate countries, and to these innocent people.

16.16. By ”Indian warriors” he means those who live in the mountains and have been able to escape from ma.s.sacres perpetrated by the unhappy Spaniards. And he terms ”peaceable” those Indians whom the Spaniards, after having killed numberless people, condemn to the aforesaid tyrannical and horrible slavery, in which they then finish destroying and killing them, as appears from the quoted words of the bishop: and in truth very little indeed does he express, of what they suffer.

17.17. When the Spaniards make them labour, carrying loads over the mountains, they kick and beat them, and knock out their teeth with the handles of their swords, to force them to get up when they fall, fainting from weakness, and to go on without taking breath; and the Indians commonly exclaim; ”go to, how wicked you are: I am worn out so kill me here, for I would rather die now and here.” And they say this with many sighs and gasps, showing great anguish and grief.

18.18. Oh! who could express the hundredth part of the affliction and calamity that these innocent people suffer from the unhappy Spaniards! May G.o.d make it known to those who can, and ought to remedy it.

The Province of Cartagena

1. This province of Cartagena lies westward and fifty leagues below that of Santa Marta, and bordering on that of Cenu as far as the Gulf of Uraba: it comprises about a hundred leagues of seacoast and a large territory inland towards the south.

2.2. These provinces have been as badly treated as those of Santa Marta, distressed, killed, depopulated and devastated, from the year 1498 or 99 until to-day, and in them many notorious cruelties, murders, and robberies have been committed by the Spaniards; but in order to finish this brief compendium quickly and to recount the wickedness done by them elsewhere, I will not describe the details.

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