t was the Load-stone attracted them thither)
who answered, they were content to deliver him up all the Gold they had
in possession; and in order thereunto, the _Indians_ gathered together
a great Number of Spears gilded with _Orichalcum_, (which had the
appearance of Gold, and in truth some Gold in them intermixt) and they
were presented to him. The Captain ordered them to be toucht, and when
he found them to be _Orichalcum_ or mixt Metal, he spake to the
_Spaniards_ as followeth. Let that Nation that is without Gold be
accursed to the Pit of Hell. Let every Man detain those Servants he
Elected, let them be clapt in Irons, and stigmatiz'd with the Brand of
Slavery, which was accordingly done, for they were all burnt, who did
no excape with the King's Mark. I my self saw the Impression made on
the Son of the Chiefest Person in the City. Those that escap'd, with
other _Indians_, engaged the _Spaniards_ by Force of Arms, but with
such ill success, that abundance of them lost their Lives in the
Attempt. After this they return'd to _Gautimala_, where they built a
City, which God in his Judgement with Three Deluges, the First of
Water, the Second of Earth, the Third of Stones, as big as half a score
Oxen, all concurring at one and the same time, laid Level with its own
Ashes. Now all being slain who were capable of bearing Arms against
them, the rest were enslav'd, paying so much _per_ Head for Men and
Women as a Ransom; for they use no other servitude here, and then they
were sent into _Pecusium_ to be sold, by which means together with
their slaughters committed upon the Inhabitants, they destroy'd and
made a Desert of this Kingdom, which in Breadth as well as Length
contains One Hundred Miles; and with his Associates and Brethren in
Iniquity, Four Millions at least in Fifteen or Sixteen Years, that is,
from 1524, to 1540 were murdered, and dayly continues destroying the
small residue of that People with his Cruelties and Brutishness.
It was the usual Custom of this Tyrant, when he made War with any City
or Province, to take along with himas many of those _Indians_ he had
subjugated as he could, that they might fight with their Country-men;
and when he had in his Army Twenty, or sometimes Thirty Thousand of
them, and could not afford them sustenance, he permitted them to feed
on the Flesh of other _Indians_ taken Prisoners in War; and so kept a
Shambles of Man's Flesh in his Army, suffered Children to be kill'd and
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