Hispaniola

Spaniards first landed on the island of Hispaniola. They initially ate the food provided by the Indians but later on they began their subjection of natives. Christians attacked natives with buffets and beatings, until finally they laid hands on the nobles of the villages. They behaved with such temertity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of he islands had to see his own wife raped by a Christian officer. Indians took up arms to throw the Christians out of their lands. But their weaponswere very weak and of little service in offense and still less in defense. Christians with their horses and swords and pikes began to carry out massacres and strange cruelties against them. They stgabbed women and children. They laid bets as to who, with one stroke of the sword, could split a man in two or could cut off his head or spill out his entrails with a single stroke of the pike. They took infants from their mothers breasts, snatching them the legs and pitching them headfirst against the crags or snatched them by the arms and threw them into the rivers, roaring with laughter as the babies fell into the water "Boil there, you offspring of the devil". Spaniards made some low wide gallows on which the hanged victims feet almost touched the ground, stringing up their victims in lots of thirteen, in memory of Our Redeemer and His twelve Apostles, then set burning wood at their feet and thus burned them alive. To others, they attached straw or wrapped their whole bodies in straw and set them afire. With still others, all those they wanted to capture alive, they cut off their hands and hung them round the victims neck, saying, "Go now, carry the message", meaning, Take the news to the Indians who have fled to the mountains. The chieftains and nobles were dealt in the following way. They made a grid of rods which they placed on forked sticks, then lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, so that little by little, as those captives screamed in despair and torment, their souls would leave them.

In one such occasion, for or five nobles were burning on the grids, and because they uttered such loud screams that they disturbed the captain's sleep, he ordered them to the strangled. The constable, who was worse than an executioner, did not want to obey that order, but instead put a stick over the victims tongues, so they could not make a sound, and he stirred up the fire. but not too much, so sthat they roasted slowly, as he liked.

Spanish captains pursued those Indians who had fled to the mountains with the fierce dogs. These dogs attacked Indians tearing them to pieces and devouring them. And because on few and far between occasions, the Indians justifiably killed some Christians, the Spaniards made a rule among themselves that for every Christian slain by the Indians, they would slay a hundred Indians.

On the land island of Hispaniola there were five very large principalities ruled by five very powerful Kings to whom almost all the other rulers paid tribute. There was a kingdom called Magua which name means "The realm of the fertile lowlands". The King who ruled this realm was called Guarionex. He was virtuous and was by nature very pacific and was devotedly obedient to the Kings of Castile and in certain years gave them, through the nobles under his command, a generous amount of gold dust. This Kindg Guarionex proclaimed himself ready to serve the King of Castille with a labor force that would work the mines with great heartiness and it would be worth more than three million castellanos every year. He said, with reason, that they should not have to pay in gold because his vassals did not know how to procure it. The recompense Spaniards gave this great and good Indian ruler was to dishonor him through his wife, who was raped by a Christian officer. The King went into hiding and placed himself under the protection of the chieftain of the province called Ciguayos, one of his vassals.

When his hiding place was discovered, the Christians waged war on Ciguayos, massacring a great number of people until finally they took the exiled King and in chains put him on vessel that was to take him to Castille. But the vessel was lost in the sea and in this shipwreck was lost a quantity of gold dust and gold nuggets weighing the equivalent of 3600 castellanos.

The King of another island called Marien (now Puerto Real), Guacanagari welcomed the admiral and all those accompanying him with food and other gifts. But this King was attacked, captured when he fled to mountains. Caonabo, chief of Kingdom called Maguana was captured by Spaniards using great and wicked subtlety and was put on a ship outward bound for Castille. But this ship was lost in the sea. The native ruler had three brothers tried to resist Christians but were attacked by cavalry.

The fourth kingdom Xaragua was ruled by Behechio. He had a sister by name Anacaona. Together, brother and sister had rendered great service to the Kings of Castille. After the death of the King, Anacaona ruled the land. To this land, a Christian Governor arrived with a cavalry force of 60 horses and three hundred foot soldiers. Cavalry alone was sufficient to lay waste the land. Having been promised safe conduct there soon arrived three hundred Indian nobles. They were tricked to enter a very big Indian house of straw where they were shut in and burned alive when the house was set on fire. Those who did not perish in the conflagration were put to the sword or the pike, along with countless number of common people. As a special honor, the lady Anacaona was hanged.

Those Christians, either out of peity or cupidity, took some boys to shield them from the slaughter and placed them on the croup of their horses. But other Spaniards came up from behind and ran the boys through with their pikes. When the victims fell from the horses the Spaniards cut off their legs with a sword.

Higuanama, the aged queen of the fifth Kingdom Higuey was hanged and her subjects were butchered.