The island of Cuba

Among the noteworthy outrages committed by the Spaniards is the one that they perpetrated against a cacique, a very important noble, by name Hatuey, who had come to Cuba from Hispaniola with many of his people, to flee the calamities and inhuman acts of the Christians. When he was told that Christians were now coming to Cuba, he assembled as many of his followers as he could and said this to them: "Now you must know that they are saying Christians are coming here, and you know by experience how they have put So and So and So and other nobles to an end. They are coming here to do the same here. Do you know why they do this?". The Indian replied: "We do not know. But it may be that they are by nature wicked and cruel." And he told them: "No, they do not act only because of that, but because they have a God they greatly worship and they want us to worship that God, and that is why they struggle with us and subject us and kill us".

He had a basket full of gold and jewels and he said" "You see their God here, the God of the Christians. If you agree to it, let us dance for this God, who knows, it may please the God of the Christians and then they will do no harm." And his followers said, all together, "Yes, that is good, that is good!" And they danced around the basket of gold until they fell down exhausted. Then their chief, the cacique Hatuey, said to them: "See here, if we keep this basket of gold they will take it from us and will end up by killing us. So let us cast away the basket into the river." They all agreed to do this, and they flung the basket of gold into the river that was nearby.

The Christians, when they arrived, captured the cacique Hatuey and many of his followers and they burned all at the stake. They killed him because he had fled from Christians before and had defended against them. When tied to the stake, the cacique Hatuey was told by a Franciscan friar who was presetn, an artless rascal, something about the God of the Christians and of the articles of the Faith. He was told what he could do in the brief time that remained to him, in order to be saved and go to Heaven. The cacique, who had never heard any of this before, and was told he would go to Inferno where, if he did not adopt the Christian Faith, he would suffer eternal torment, asked the Franciscan friar if Christians all went to Heaven. When told that they did he said he would prefer to go to Hell. Such was the fame and honor that God and Christian Faith had earned in the Indies.

A few days after a typical massacre, I (the author of the book) sent messengers ahead to the chiefs of the province of Havana, knowing they had heard good things about me, telling them we were about to visit the town and telling them they should not hide but should come out to meet us, assuring them that no harm would be done to them. I did this with full knowledge of the captain. And when we arrived in the province, there came out to welcome us twety-one chiefs and caciques, and our captain, breaking his pledge to me and the pledge that I had made to them, took all these chieftains captive, intending to burn them at the stake, telling me this would be a good thing because those chiefs had in the past done him some harm. I had great difficulty in saving those Indians from the fire, but finally succeeded.