of the Spaniards, and abundance of them afterwards voluntarily
condemned themselves to this kind of death, hoping thus in a moment to
put a period to the miseries their persecutors inflicted on 'em.

A certain Spaniard, who had the title of Sovereign in this island and
had three hundred Indians in his service, destroyed a hundred and
sixty of them in less than three months by the excessive labor he
continually exacted of them. The recruits he took to fill up their
places were destroyed after the same manner; and he would in a short
time have unpeopled the whole island if death, which took him out of
the way, very happily for those poor wretches, had not sheltered 'em
from his cruelties. I saw with my own eyes above six thousand children
die in the space of three or four months, their parents being forced
to abandon 'em, being condemned to the mines. After this the Spaniards
took up a resolution to pursue those Indians that were retired into
the mountains, and massacred multitudes of 'em; so that this island
was depopulated and laid waste in a very little time. And it is a most
lamentable spectacle to see so fine a country thus miserably ruined
and unpeopled.

BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE

(1478-1529)

[Illustration: CASTIGLIONE]

The interest to be found in the literary work of "il conte Baldassare
Castiglione"--in the one prose volume he wrote, 'Il Cortegiano' (The
Courtier)--arises not only from the historical value it now has, but
from its representing the charming character of a gentleman. And it
does this not merely by intentionally describing the ideal gentleman
of the fifteenth century, but by unconsciously revealing the character
of its author. Castiglione was himself distinctively a gentleman.
Without eminent abilities or position, his life unmarked by any
remarkable deeds or any striking events, he yet deserves remembrance
as making vivid to us those admirable qualities and conditions which
are the result, in individuals, of the long moral and intellectual
cultivation of a large group of men and women.

He was one of the group that made famous the court of Urbino, not at
the time of its greatest glory under Duke Frederic II., but just
afterward, when the duchy was ruled by Frederic's son Guidobaldo--an
estimable invalid--and the court was presided over by Guidobaldo's
wife, the much beloved and admired Duchess Elisabetta, one of the
great Gonzaga family. Castiglione's own sketch of this court (see
tr