Sunday, September 11, 2011

The New Kingdom of Granada

The Governor of the province seized Bogota, the lord and the King of the entire region and held him prisoner for six or seven months, demanding gold from him. The said King, impelled by fear and hoping to released, promised to give the Spaniards a house of gold. Although he could give a large qunatity of gold, since he could not provide a gold house, the King was sentenced to be tortured. First they appled the torture of screws. Then they poured hot candle grease on his belly, then they put his feet in irons through which a stick was thrust that could be twisted, then they set a fire at his feet, and while he was being tortured the Governor came into the room from time to time and told the victim that if he did not keep his promise of giving them a house of gold, they would kill him by slow torture. And it was done. The King was tortured to death.

The same cruel Governor, set out a Captain with a company of Spaniards with the assignment to make enquiries as to who was the noble successor as a ruler to the province since the execution by torture of Bogota. They marched through many leaques of the province, capturing for questioning as many Indians as they could. And when a captive Indian did not give the desired information, they cut off his hands or threw him to their savage dogs to be torn to pieces.

Spaniards had butcher shops where the corpses of Indians are hung up, on display, and some one will come in and say, more or less, "Give me a quarter of that rascal hanging there, to feed my dogs unitl I kill another one for them". Other Spaniards go hunting with their dogs in the mornings and when one of them returns at noon and is asked "Did you have good hunting?" he will reply "Very good! I killed fifteen or twenty rascals and left them with my dogs"

No comments:

Post a Comment