Chapter 3

You _Cacics_ and _Indians_ of this Continent, the Inhabitants of such a Place, which they named; We declare or be it known to you all, that there is but one God, one hope, and one King of _Castile_, who is Lord of these Countries; appear forth without delay, and take the oath of Allegiance to the _Spanish_ King, as his Vassals.

So about the Fourth Watch of the Night, or Three in the Morning these poor Innocents overwhelm'd with heavy Sleep, ran violently on that place they named, set Fire to their Hovels, which were all thatcht, and so, without Notice, burnt Men, Women and Children; kill'd whom they pleas'd upon the Spot; but those they preserv'd as Captives, were compell'd throughTorments to confess where they had hid the Gold, when they found little or none at their Houses; but they who liv'd being first stigmatized, were made Slaves; yet after the Fire was extinguisht, they came hastily in quest of the Gold. Thus did this Wicked Man, devoted to all the Infernal Furies, behave himself with the Assistance of Profligate Christians, whom he had lifted in his Service from the 14th to the 21. or 22. Year, together with his Domestick Servants and Followers, from whom he received as many Portions, besides what he had from his Slaves in Gold, Pearls, and Jewels, as the Chief Governor would have taken, and all that were constituted to execute any kind of Kingly Office followed in the same Footsteps; every one sending as many of his Servants as he could spare, to share in the spoil. Nay he that came hither as Biship first of all did the same also, And at the vory time (as I conjecture) the _Spaniards_ did depraedate or rob this Kingdom of above Ten Hundred Thousand Crowns of Gold: Yet all these their Thefts and Felonies, we scarce find upon Record that Three Hundred Thousand _Castilian_ Crowns ever came into the _Spanish_ King's Coffers; yet there were above Eight Hundred Thousand Men slain: The other Tyrants who governed this Kingdom afterward to the Three and Thirtieth year, depriv'd all of them of Life that remain'd among the Inhabitants.

Among all those flagitious Acts committed by this Governour while he rul'd this Kindom, or by his Consent and Permission this must by no means be omitted: A certain _Casic_, bestowing on him a Gift, voluntarily, or (which is more probably) induced thereunto by Fear, about the weight of Nine Thousand Crowns, but the _Spaniards_ not satisfied with so fast a Sum of Money, sieze him, fix him to a Pole; extended his Feet, which being mov'd near the Fire, they demanded a larger Sum; the _Casic_ overcome with Torments, sending home, procur'd Three Thousand more to be brought and presented to them: But the _Spaniards_, adding new Torments to new Rage and Fury, when they found he would confer no more upon them, which was because he could not, or otherwize because he would not, they expos'd him for so long to that Torture, till by degrees of heat the Marrow gusht out of the Soles of his Feet, and so he dyed; Thus they often murder'd the Lords and Nobles which such Torments to Extort the Gold from them.

One time it hapned that a Century or Party of One Hundred _Spaniards_ making Excursions, came to a Mountain, where many People shunning so horrid and pernicious an Enemy conceal'd themselves, who immediately rushing on them, putting all to the Sword they could meet with, and then secur'd Seventy or Eighty Married Women as well as Virgins Captives; but a great Number of _Indians_ with a fervent desire of recovering their Wives and Daughters appear'd in Arms against the _Spaniards_, and when they drew near the Enemy, they unwilling to lose the Prey, run the Wives and Maidens through with their Swords. The _Indians_ through Grief and Trouble, smiting their Breasts, brake out into these Exclamations. O perverse Generation of Men! O Cruel _Spaniards_! What do you Murder _las Iras_? (In their Language they call Women by the Name of _las Iras_ as if they had said: To slay Women is an Act of bloody minded Men, worse than Brutes and Wild Beasts.

There was the House of a Puissant Potentate scituated about Ten or Fifteen Miles from _Panama_, whose name was _Paris_, very Rich in Gold; and the _Spaniards_ gave him a visit, who were entertained with Fraternal Kindness, and Courteously received, and of his own accord, presented the Captain with a Gift of Fifteen Thousand Crowns; who was of opinion, as well as the rest of the _Spaniards_, that he who bestow'd such a quantity of Money _gratis_, was the Master of vast Treasure; whereupon they counterfeit a pretended Departure, but returning about the Fourth Night-Watch, and entring the City privily upon a surprize, which they thought was sufficiently secur'd, consecrated it with many Citizens to the Flames, and robb'd them of Fifty or Sixty Thousand Crowns. The _Dynast_ or Prince escaped with his Life, and gathering together as great a Number of Men as he could possibly at that instant of time, and Three or Four Days being elapsed, pursued the _Spaniards_, who had depriv'd him also by Violence and Rapine of a Hundred and Thirty or Forty Thousand Crowns, and pouring in upon them, recover'd all his Gold with the destruction of Fifty _Spaniards_, but the remainder of them having receiv'd many Wounds in that Rencounter betook them to their Heels and sav'd themselves by flight: but in few days after the _Spaniards_ return, and fall upon the said _Casic_ well-arm'd and overthrow him and all his Forces, and they who out-liv'd the Combat, to their great Misfortune, were expos'd to the usual and frequently mention'd Bondage.

_Of the Province of_ NICARAQUA.

The said Tyrant _An. Dom._ 1522. proceeded farther very unfortunately to the Subjugation of Conquest of this Province. In truth no Person can satisfactorily or sufficiently express the Fertility, Temperateness of the Climate, or the Multitude of the Inhabitants of _Nicaraqua_, which was almost infinite and admirable; for this Region contain'd some Cities that were Four Miles long; and the abundance of Fruits of the Earth (which was the cause of such a Concourse of People) was highly commendable. The People of this place, because the Country was Level and Plain, destitute of Mountains, so very delightful and pleasant, that they could not leave it without great grief, and much dissatisfaction, they were therefore tormented with the greater Vexations and Persecutions, and forced to bear the _Spanish_ Tyranny and Servitude, which as much Patience as they were Masters of: Add farther that they were peaceable and meek spirited. This Tyrant with these Complices of his Cruelty did afflict this Nation (whose advice he made use of in destroying the other Kingdoms) with such and so many great Dammages, Slaughters, Injustice, Slaver, and Barbarisme, that a Tongue, though of Iron, could not express them all fully. He sent into the Province (which is larger than the County of _Ruscinia_) Fifty Horse-Men, who put all the People to the Edge of the Sword, sparing neither Age nor Sex upon the most trivial and inconsiderable occasion: As for Example, if they did not come to them with all possible speed, when called; and bring the imposed burthen of _Mahid_ (which signifies Corn in their Dialect) or if they did not bring the Number of _Indians_ required to his own, and the Service or rather Servitude of his Associates. And the Country being all Campaign or Level, no Person was able to withstand the Hellish Fury of their Horses.

He commanded the _Spaniards_ to make Excursions, that is, to rob other Provinces, permitting and granting these Theiving Rogues leave to take away by force as many of these peacable People as they could, who being iron'd (that they might not sink under the Burthen of Sixty or Eighty Pound weight) it frequently hapned, that of Four Thousand _Indians_, Six only returned home, and so they dyed by the way; but if any of them chanced to faint, being tired with over-weighty Burthens, or through great Hunger and Thirst should be siezed with a Distemper; or too much Debility and Weakness, that they might not spend time in taking off their Fetters, they beheaded them, so the Head fell one way, and the Body another: The _Indians_ when they spied the _Spaniards_ making preparations for such Journeys, knowing very well, that few, or none returned home alive, just upon their setting out with Sighs and Tears, burst out into these or the like Expressions.

Those were Journeys, which we travelled frequently in the service of Christians, and in some tract of time we return'd to our Habitations, Wives and Children: But now there being no hope of a return, we are for ever depriv'd of their Sight and Conversation.

It hapned also, that the same President would dissipate or disperse the _Indians de novo_ at his own pleasure, to the end (as it was reported) he might violently force the _Indians_ away from such as did infest or molest him; and dispose of them to others; upon which it fell out, that for the space of a Year complete, there was no sowing or planting: And when they wanted Bread, the _Spaniards_ did by force plunder the _Indians_ of the whole stock of Corn that they had laid up for the support of their Families, and by these indirect Courses above Thirty Thousand perished with Hunger. Nay it fortun'd at one time, that a Woman opprest with insufferable Hunger, depriv'd her own Son of his Life to preserve her own.

In this Province also they brought many to an untimely End, loading their Shoulders with heavy planks and pieces of Timer, which they were compell'd to carry to a Haven Forty Miles distant, in order to their building of Ships; sending them likewise unto the Mountains to find out Hony and Wax, where they were devour'd by Tygers; nay they loaded Women impregnated with Carriage and Burthens fit for beasts.

But no greater pest was there that could unpeople this Province, than the License granted the _Spaniards_ by this Governour, to demand Captives from the _Casics_ and Potentates of this Region; for at the Expiration of Four or Five Months, or as often as they obtain'd leave of the Governour to demand them, they deliver'd them up Fifty Servants, and the _Spaniards_ terrified them with Menaces, that if they did not obey them in answering their unreasonable Demands, they should be burnt alive, or baited to Death by Dogs. Now the _Indians_ are but slenderly stor'd with Servants; for it is much if a _Casic_ hath Three or Four in his Retinue, therefore they have recourse to the Subjects; and when they had, in the first place, seized the Orphans, they required earnestly and instantly one Son of the Parent, who had but Two, and Two of him that had but Three, and for the Lord of the place satisfied the desires of the Tyrant, not without the Effusion of Tears and Groans of the People, who (as it seems) were very careful of their Children. And this being frequently repeated in the space between the Year 1523, and 1533, the Kingdom lost all their Inhabitants, for in Six or Seven Years time there were constantly Five or Six Ships made ready to be fraighted with _Indians_ that were sold in the Regions of _Panama_ and _Perusium_, where they all dyed; for it is by dayly Experience prov'd and known, that the _Indians_ when Transported out of their Native Country into any other, soon dye; because they are shortned in their allowance of Food, and the Task impos'd on them no ways dimished, they being only bought for Labour. And by this means, there have been taken out of this Province Five Hundred Thousand Inhabitants and upward, who before were Freemen, and made Slaves, and in the Wars made on them, and the horrid Bondage they were reduc'd unto Fifty or Sixty Thousand more have perished, and to this day very many still are destroy'd. Now all these Slaughters have been committed within the space of Fourteen years inclusively, possibly in this Province of _Nicaraqua_ there remains Four or Five Thousand Men who are put to Death by ordinary and personal Opressions, whereas (according to what is said already) it did exceed other Countries of the World in multitude of People.

_Of new_ SPAIN.

New _Spain_ was discovered _Anno Dom._ 1517. and in the detection there was no first or second Attempt, but all were exposed to slaughter. The year ensuing those _Spaniards_ (who style themselves Christians) came thither to rob, kill and slay, though they pretend they undertook this Voyage to people the Countrey. From this year to the present, _viz._ 1542. the Injustice, Violence and Tyranny of the _Spaniards_ came to the highest degree of extremety: for they had shook hands with and bid adieu to all fear of God and the King, unmindful of themselves in this sad and deplorable condition, for the Destructions, Cruelties, Butcheries, Devastations, the Domolishing of Cities, Depradations, _&c._ which they perpetrated in so many and such ample Kingdoms, are such and so great, and strike the minds of Men with so great horror, that all we have related before are inconsiderable comparatively to those which have been acted from the year 1518 to 1542, and to this very month of _September_ that we now live to see the most heavy, grievous and detestable things are committed, that the Rule we laid down before as a Maxim might be induputably verified, to wit, that from the beginning they ran headlong from bad to worse, and were overcome in their Diabolical acts and wickedness only by themselves.

Thus from the first entrance of the _Spaniards_ into _New Spain_, which hapned on the 18th day of _April_ in the said month of the year 1518, to 1530, the space of ten whole years, there was no end or period put to the Destruction and Slaughters committed by the merciless hands of the Sanguinary and Blood-thirsty Spaniard in the Continent, or space of 450 Miles round about _Mexico_, and the adjacent or neighboring parts, which might contain four or five spatious Kingdoms, that neither for magnitude or fertility would give _Spain_ her self the pre-eminance. This intire Region was more populous then _Toledo, Sevil, Valedolid, Saragoza,_ and _Faventia_; and there is not at this day in all of them so many people, nor when they flourisht in their greatest height and splendor was there such a number, as inhabited that Region, which embraceth in its Circumference, four hundred and eighty Miles. Within these twelve years the Spaniards have destroyed in the Said Countinent, by Spears, Fire and Sword, computing Men, Women, Youth, and Children above Four Millions of people in these their Acquests or Conquests (for under that word they mask their Cruel Actions) or rather those of the Turk himself, which are reported of them, tending to the ruin of the Catholick Cause, together with their Invasions and Unjust Wars, contrarty to and condemned by Divine as well as Human Laws; nor are they reckoned in this number who perished by their more then _Egyptian_ Bondage and usual Oppressions.

There is no Tongue, Art, or Human knowledge can recite the horrid Impieties, which these Capital Enemies to Government and all Mankind have been guilty of at several times and in several Nations; nor can the circumstantial Aggravations of some of their wicked Acts be unfolded or display'd by any manner of Industry, time or writing, but yet I will say somewhat of every individual particular thing, which this protestation and Oath, that I conceive I am not able to comprehend one of a Thousand.

_Of_ New Spain _in Particular_.

Among other Slaughters this also they perpetrated in the most spacious City of _Cholula_, which consisted of Thirty Thousand Families; all the Chief Rulers of that Region and Neighboring places, but first the Priests with their High Priest going to meet the Spaniards in Pomp and State, and to the end they might give them a more reverential and honourable reception appointed them to be in the middle of the Solemnity, that so being entertained in the Appartments of the most powerful and principal Noblemen, they might be lodged in the City. The Spaniards presently consult about their slaughter or castigation (as they term it) that they might fill every corner of this Region by their Cruelties and wicked Deeds with terror and consternation; for in all the Countries that they came they took this course, that immediately at their first arrival they committed some notorious butcheries, which made those Innocent Sheep tremble for fear. To this purpose therefore they sent to the Governours and Nobles of the Cities, and all Places subject unto them, together with their supream Lord, that they should appear before them, and no soner did they attend in expectation of some Capitulation or discourse with the Spanish Commander, but they were presently seized upon and detained prisoners before any one could advertise or give them notice of their Captivity. They demanded of them six thousand _Indians_ to drudge for them in the carriage of their bag and baggage; and as soon as they came the _Spaniards_ clapt them into the Yards belonging to their Houses and there inclosed them all. It was a thing worthy of pity and compassion to behold this wretches people in what a condition they were when they prepared themselves to receive the burthens laid on them by the Spaniards. They came to them naked, their Privities only vail'd, their Shoulders loaden with food; only covered with a Net, they laid themselves quietly on the ground, and shrinking in their Bodies like poor Wretches, exposed themselves to their Swords: Thus being all gathered together in ther Yards, some of the Spaniards Armed held the doors to drive them away if attempting to approach, and others with Lances and Swords Butcher these Innocents so that not one of them escaped, but two or three days after some of them, who hid themselves among the dead bodies, being all over besprinkled with blood and gore, presented themselves to the Spaniards, imporing their mercy and the prolongation of their Lives with tears in their Eyes and all imaginable submission, yet they, not in the least moved with pity or compassion, tore them in pieces: but all the Chief Governours who were above one hundred in number, were kept bound, whom the Captain commanded to be affixed to posts and burnt; yet the King of the whole Countrey escaped, and betook himself with a Train of thirty or forty Gentlemen, to a Temple (called in their Tongue _Quu_) which he made use of as a Castle or Place of Defence, and there defended himself a great part of the day, but the Spaniards who suffer none to escape out of their clutches, especially Souldiers, setting fire to the Temple, burnt all those that were there inclosed, who brake out into these dying words and exclamations. O profligate Men, what injury have we done you to occasion our death! Go, go to _Mexico_, where our supream Lord _Montencuma_ will revenge our cause upon your persons. And 'tis reported, while the Spaniards were engated in this Tragedy destroying six or seven thousand Men, that their Commander with great rejoycing sang this following Ayre;

_Mira_ Nero _de_ Tarpeia, Roma _como se ardia, Gritos de_ Ninos _y Vieyot, y el de nadase dolia._

_From the_ Tarpeian _still Nero espies_ Rome _all in Flames with unrelenting Eyes,_ _And hears of young and old the dreadful Cries._

They also committed a very great Butchery in the City _Tepeara_, which was larger and better stored with Houses than the former; and here they Massacred an incredible number with the point of the Sword.

Setting sail from _Cholula_, they steer'd their course to _Mexico_, whose King sent his Nobles and Peers with abundance of Presents to meet them by the way, testifying by divers sorts of Recreations how grateful their arrival was and acceptable to him: but when they came to a steep Hill, his brother went forward to meet them accompanied with many Noblemen who brought them many gifts in Gold, Silver, and Robes Emboidered with Gold and at their entrance into the City, the King himself carried in a golden Litter, together (with the whole Court) attended them to the Palace prepared for their reception; and that very day as I was informed by some persons then and there present by a grand piece of Treachery, they took the very great King _Montencuma_, never so much as dreaming of any such surprize, and put him into the custody of eighty Soldiers, and afterward loaded this Legs with irons; but all these things being passed over with a light pencil of which much might be said, one thing I will discover acted by them, that may merit your obervation. When the Captain arrived at the Haven, to fight with a Spanish Officer, who made War against him, and left another with an hundred Soldiers, more or less as a Guard to King _Montencuma_, it came into their heads, that to act somewhat worth remembrance, that the dread of their Cruelty might be more and more apprehended, and greatly increased.

In the interim all the Nobility and Commonality of the City thought of nothing else, but how to exhilarate the Spirit of their Captive King, and solace him during his Confinement with varity of diversions and Recreations; and among the rest this was one, _viz._, Revellings and Dances which they celebrated in all Streets and Highways, by night and they in their Idiom term _Mirotes_, as the Islanders do _Arcytos_; to these Masques and nocturnal Jigs they usually go with all their Riches, Costly Vestments and Robes, together with any thing that is pretious and glorious, being wholly addicted to this humor, nor is there any greater token among them then this of their extraordinary exultation and rejoycing. The Nobles in like manner, and Princes of the Blood Royal every one according to his degree exercise these Masques and Dances, in some place adjoyning to the House where their King and Lord is detained Prisoner. Now there were not far from the Palace about 2000 Young Noblemen who were the issue of the greatest Potentates of the Kingom, and indeed the flower of the whole Nobility of King _Motencuma_, and a _Spanish_ Captain went to visit them with some Soldiers, and sent others to the rest of the places in the City where these Revellings were kept, under pretence only of being spectators of the solemnity. Now the Captain had commanded, that, at a certain hour appointed they should fall upon these Revellers, and he himself approaching the _Indians_ very busie at their Dancing, said, _San Jago_ (that is St. _James_ it seems that was the Word) _Let us rush in upon them_, which was no sooner heard, but they all began with their naked Swords in hand to pierce their tender and naked Bodies, and spill their generous and Noble blood, till not one of them was left alive on the place, and the rest following his example in other parts, (to their inexpressible stupefaction and grief) seized on all these Provinces. Nor will the Inhabitants till the General conflagration ever discontinue the Celebration of these Festivals, and the Lamentation and Singing with certain kind of Rhythmes in their _Arcytos_, the doleful ditty of the Calamity and Ruin of this Seminary of the antient Nobility of the whole Kingdom, which was their frequent Pride and Glory.