The Province of St. Martha
was rich in the Neighbouring Golden Mines, and a fruitful
Soil, nay the People were very expert and industrious
in those Mine-works: Upon this Account, or Temptation
it was, that from the Year 1540, to 1542, abundance
of Tyrants sailed thither, laying waste the whole
Country by their Depredations, slaughtering the Inhabitants
at a prodigious and bloody rate; and robbing them of
all their Gold, who dayly fled to their Ships for
Refuge, moving sometime to one place, and sometime
to another. And thus those Provinces were laid
waste, the greatest Outrages being committed on the
Sea-shore, which lasted till the Year 1523, whither
the Spaniards then came to seat themselves,
and fis their intended Habitation. And becuase
it is a plentiful Region and Opulent withal; it was
subjected to several Rulers, who like Infernal Fiends
contended who should obtain the Palm, by out-staining
the Sword of his Predecessor in Innocent Blood; insomuch,
that from the Year 1529 to this very day, they have
wasted and spoiled as much good ground as extended
Five Hundred Miles, and unpeopled the Countrey.
If I design’d to enumerate all
the Impieties, Butcheries, Desolations, Iniquities,
Violences, Destructions and other the Piacula
and black Enormities committed and perpetrated by
the Spaniards in this Province, against God,
the King, and these harmless Nations; I might compile
a Voluminous History, and that shall be compleated,
if God permit my Glass to run longer, in his good
time. It may suffice for the present to relate
some passages written in a Letter to our King and
Lord by a Revernd Bishop of these Provinces, Dated
the 20th of May, An. Dom 1541. wherein
among other matters he thus words it.
I must acquaint your Sacred Majesty, that
the only way to succour and support this tottering
Region is to free it from the Power of a Father in
Law, and marry it to a Husband who will treat her as
she ought to be, and lovingly entertain her, and
that must be done with all possible Expedition too,
if not, I am certain that she will suddenly decay and
come to nothing by the covetous and sordid Deportment
of the Governours, &c. And a little after he writes
thus, By this Means your Majesty will plainly know
and understand how to depose the Prefects or Governours
of those Regions from their Office if they deserve
it, that so they may be alleviated and eas’d
of such Burthens; which if not perform’d, in
my Opinion, the Body Politick will never recover its
Health. And this I will make appear to your
Majesty that they are not Christians, but Devils;
not Servants of God and the King, but Traitors to
the King and Laws, who are Conversant in those Regions.
And in reality nothing can be more obstructive to
those that live peacably, then Inhumane and Barbarous
Usage, which they, who lead a quiet and peacable Life,
too frequently undergo, and this is so fastidious
and nauseous to them, that there can be nothing in
the World so odious and detestable among them, as the
Name of a Christian: for they term the Christians
in their Language Yares, that is, Devils;
and in truth are not without reason; for the Actions
of those that reside in these Regions, are not such
as speak them to be Christians or Men, gifted with
Reason, but absolute Devils; hence it is, that the
Indians, perceiving these Actions committed
by the Heads as well as Members, who are void of all
Compassion and Humanity, do judge the Christian Laws
to be of the same strain and temper, and that their
God and King are the Authors of such Enormities:
Now to endeavour to work upon them a contrary perswasion
is to no purpose; for this would afford them a greater
Latitude and Liberty to deride Jesus Christ and his
Laws. Now the Indians who protect and
defend themselves by force of Arms, think it more
eligible, and far better to dye once, than suffer
several and many Deaths under the Spanish Power.
This I know experimentally, Most Invicible Casar,
&c. And he adds farther, Your Majesty is more
Powerful in Subjects and Servants, who frequent these
Kingdoms, then you can imagin. Nor is there one
Soldier among them all, who does not publickly and
openly profess, if he robs, steals, spoils, kills,
burns His Majesties Subjects, ’tis to purchase
Gold: He will not say that he therein does your
Majesty great Service, for they affirm they do it
to obtain their own Share and Dividend. Wherefore,
Most Invincible Casar, it would be a very prudential
Act for your Majesty to testifie by a rigid Correction
and severe Punishment of some Malefactors, that it
is disservice to you for your Subjects to commit
such Evil Acts, as tend to the Disobedience and Dishonour
of the Almighty.
What you have read hitherto is the
Relation of the said Bishop of St. Martha,
Epitomized and Extracted from his Letters, whereby
it is manifest, how Savagely they handle these mild
and affable People. They term them Warlike Indians,
who betake themselves to the Mountains to secure themselves
from Spanish Cruelty; and call them Country
Indians, or Inhabitants, who by a dreadful Massacre
are delivered up to Tyrannical and Horrible Servitude,
whereby at length they are become depopulated, made
desolate, and utterly destroy’d; as appears by
the Epistle of the praementioned Bishop, who only
gives us a slight Account or Essay of their persecution
and Sufferings. The Indians of this Country
use to break out into such Words as these, when they
are driven, loaded like Brutes through the uncouth
wayes in their Journeys over the Mountains, if they
happen to faint through Weakness, and miscarry through
extremity of Labour, (for then they are kicked and
cudge’d, their Teeth dasht out with the Pummels
of their Swords to raise them up again, when tired
and fallen under weighty Burthens, and force them
to go on without Respiration, or Time to take Breath,
and all this with the following increpation, or upbraiding
and taunting words, O what a wicket Villain art
thou?) I say they burst out into these Expressions,
I am absolutely tir’d, kill me, I desire to dye,
being weary of my Life as well as my Burthen and Journey:
And this not without deep Heart-breaking Sighs, they
being scarce able to draw or breathe out their words,
which are the Characteristical Notes, and infallible
of the Mind drowned in Anguish and Sorrow. My
it please our Merciful God to order the discovery
of these Crimes to be manifested to those Persons,
who are able and oblig’d to redress them.