assembled many or
all of his people, and addressed them thus.
3. "You already know that it is said the Christians are coming here;
and you have experience of how they have treated the lords so and so
and those people of Hayti (which is Hispaniola); they come to do the
same here. Do you know perhaps why they do it?" The people
answered no; except that they were by nature cruel and wicked.
"They do it," said he, "not alone for this, but because they have a
God whom they greatly adore and love; and to make us adore Him they
strive to subjugate us and take our lives." He had near him a
basket full of gold and jewels and he said. "Behold here is the God
of the Christians, let us perform Areytos before Him, if you will
(these are dances in concert and singly); and perhaps we shall
please Him, and He will command that they do us no harm."
4. All exclaimed; it is well! it is well! They danced before it, till
they were all tired, after which the lord Hatuey said; "Note well
that in any event if we preserve the gold, they will finally have to
kill us, to take it from us: let us throw it into this river." They
all agreed to this proposal, and they threw the gold into a great
river in that place.
5. This prince and lord continued retreating before the Christians when
they arrived at the island of Cuba, because he knew them, but when
he encountered them he defended himself; and at last they took him.
And merely because he fled from such iniquitous and cruel people,
and defended himself against those who wished to kill and oppress
him, with all his people and offspring until death, they burnt him
alive.
6. When he was tied to the stake, a Franciscan monk, a holy man, who
was there, spoke as much as he could to him, in the little time that
the executioner granted them, about God and some of the teachings of
our faith, of which he had never before heard; he told him that if
he would believe what was told him, he would go to heaven where
there was glory and eternal rest; and if not, that he would go to
hell, to suffer perpetual torments and punishment. After thinking a
little, Hatuey asked the monk whether the Christians went to heaven;
the monk answered that those who were good went there. The prince
at once said, without any more