A Spanish tyrant received great comforts from Indians and he lived in a house constructed by them. After some time, he invited a large number of them to his house and then locked them in and burnt them.
When I remonstrated with the Captain general for such an outstanding acts of wickedness and betrayal , as I encountered him in SanJuan, his response was this: "Sir, after all, I have only obeyed the orders I was given when I was sent to the Indies, for I was told 'If you can not conquer them by war, then capture them, no matter how' " And he told me that, in truth, he had all his life lacked a mother and father and had never been treated kindly except by the Indians on the island of Trinidad. He said this to explain his great confusion and the worsening of his sins which had been many on the mainland, and now the taking captive Indians to whom he had promised saftey.
On another occasion, our Dominican Order having been given permission to preach and convert the native peoples who were without enlightenment and hope of salvation, then sent a religious eminently learned in theology and of great virtue and holiness, along with a lay friar to survey the land and to find with the help of an Indian a site favorable to the establishment of a monastery. They were welcomed like angels from Heaven and their words were listened to with attention.
By chance, after the ship that brought them had gone away, another vessel came with the Spaniards on it. Using their customary deceitfulness, took on board the Don Alonso, the chief ruler of these lands, Spaniards duped him to board the ship along with his wife and a certain number of his followers. Once they had Indians on board, Spaniards hoisted the sail and voyaged to Hispaniola where all the captives were sold into slavery.
All the people of the land, upon seeing this, came to the Dominican friars, intending to kill them. They soothed Indians as best as they could, assuring them that by next ship they would send a letter to Hispaniola and would have the Indian Chief and his followers returned to this land. Dominican friars wrote many times asking for the return of the Indians who had been so unjustly taken captive. Those who read the letter were never willing to do justice. The friars had promised the Indians that within four months they would see their chieftain return with his followers. When they did not return even after eight months, Indians took a just vengeance and slew the friars.
During voyage, the ship owners never gave food to the Indians. And for the pitiful Indians who died of hunger and thirst, there is no remedy but to cast them into the sea. The ships in this reason could voyage without compass or chart, merely by following for the distance between the Lucayos Islands and Hispanioloa, which is sixty or seventy leagues, the trace of those Indian corpses floating in the sea, corpses that had been cast overboard by earlier ships.
When they embark on the islands of Hispaniola, the Indians are traded and shared among Spaniards. When in this repartimiento, a tyrant gets an old person or an invalid, he says "Why do you give me this one? To bury him? And this sick one, do you give him to me to make him well?".
The tyranny exercised by the spaniards against the Indians in the work of pearl fishing is one of the most cruel that can be imagined. The pearl fishers dive into the sea at a depth of five fathoms, and do this from sunrise to sunset, and remain for many minutes without breathing, tearing the oysters out of the rocky beds where the pearls are formed. If the pearl diver shows signs of wanting to rest, he is showered with blows, his hair is pulled, and he is thrown back into the water.
Often a pearl diver does not retrun to the surface, for these waters are infested with man eating sharks of two kinds, both vicious marine animals that can kill, eat and swallow a whole man. Exposed to water continuously, cold penetrates Pearl fishers, constricts the chest, and they die spitting blood or weakened by diarrhea.
When I remonstrated with the Captain general for such an outstanding acts of wickedness and betrayal , as I encountered him in SanJuan, his response was this: "Sir, after all, I have only obeyed the orders I was given when I was sent to the Indies, for I was told 'If you can not conquer them by war, then capture them, no matter how' " And he told me that, in truth, he had all his life lacked a mother and father and had never been treated kindly except by the Indians on the island of Trinidad. He said this to explain his great confusion and the worsening of his sins which had been many on the mainland, and now the taking captive Indians to whom he had promised saftey.
On another occasion, our Dominican Order having been given permission to preach and convert the native peoples who were without enlightenment and hope of salvation, then sent a religious eminently learned in theology and of great virtue and holiness, along with a lay friar to survey the land and to find with the help of an Indian a site favorable to the establishment of a monastery. They were welcomed like angels from Heaven and their words were listened to with attention.
By chance, after the ship that brought them had gone away, another vessel came with the Spaniards on it. Using their customary deceitfulness, took on board the Don Alonso, the chief ruler of these lands, Spaniards duped him to board the ship along with his wife and a certain number of his followers. Once they had Indians on board, Spaniards hoisted the sail and voyaged to Hispaniola where all the captives were sold into slavery.
All the people of the land, upon seeing this, came to the Dominican friars, intending to kill them. They soothed Indians as best as they could, assuring them that by next ship they would send a letter to Hispaniola and would have the Indian Chief and his followers returned to this land. Dominican friars wrote many times asking for the return of the Indians who had been so unjustly taken captive. Those who read the letter were never willing to do justice. The friars had promised the Indians that within four months they would see their chieftain return with his followers. When they did not return even after eight months, Indians took a just vengeance and slew the friars.
During voyage, the ship owners never gave food to the Indians. And for the pitiful Indians who died of hunger and thirst, there is no remedy but to cast them into the sea. The ships in this reason could voyage without compass or chart, merely by following for the distance between the Lucayos Islands and Hispanioloa, which is sixty or seventy leagues, the trace of those Indian corpses floating in the sea, corpses that had been cast overboard by earlier ships.
When they embark on the islands of Hispaniola, the Indians are traded and shared among Spaniards. When in this repartimiento, a tyrant gets an old person or an invalid, he says "Why do you give me this one? To bury him? And this sick one, do you give him to me to make him well?".
The tyranny exercised by the spaniards against the Indians in the work of pearl fishing is one of the most cruel that can be imagined. The pearl fishers dive into the sea at a depth of five fathoms, and do this from sunrise to sunset, and remain for many minutes without breathing, tearing the oysters out of the rocky beds where the pearls are formed. If the pearl diver shows signs of wanting to rest, he is showered with blows, his hair is pulled, and he is thrown back into the water.
Often a pearl diver does not retrun to the surface, for these waters are infested with man eating sharks of two kinds, both vicious marine animals that can kill, eat and swallow a whole man. Exposed to water continuously, cold penetrates Pearl fishers, constricts the chest, and they die spitting blood or weakened by diarrhea.
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