terrestrial paradise
had they been worthy; but, on account of their great avarice,
stupidity and grave sins they were not; just as they have not been
worthy to possess the many other countries that God has disclosed to
them, in the Indies.
4. This tyrant, with three hundred men whom he brought with him, began
by making cruel war on those good and innocent people, who kept
within their houses without offending any one; and they killed and
destroyed countless people.
5. The country produces no gold, and if it had he would have used up
the people by working them in the mines; to coin gold therefore out
of the bodies and souls of those for whom Jesus Christ died, he made
slaves indifferently of all whom he did not kill; many ships were
attracted thither by the news that slaves were to be had, all of
which he sent back loaded with human beings whom he sold for wine,
oil, vinegar, pork, clothing, horses and whatever else he and his
men thought they needed.
6. He selected the most beautiful maid from fifty or a hundred, and
gave her to him who chose her, in exchange for an aroba of wine, or
oil, or for a pig: and similarly a handsome boy, chosen from among
two hundred or three hundred, for the same amount. One boy, who
seemed to be the son of a prince was given in exchange for a cheese;
and a hundred people for a horse.
7. He continued with these operations from the year 1526 to 1533 which
were seven years, ruining and depopulating those countries, and
killing those people without pity, till news of the riches of Peru
reached the place and the Spaniards left him, and that hell ceased
for some days.
8. Afterwards, however, his ministers returned to commit more great
evils, robbery, wickedness, and great offence against God: and
neither have they ceased at the present time. Thus have they almost
entirely depopulated all those three hundred leagues that were, as
has been said, so densely peopled.
9. No one could believe, neither could the particular cases of cruelty
that were done here, be related. I will only tell of two or three,
that I remember.
10. On one occasion these wretched Spaniards set out with fierce dogs to
hunt Indians, both women and men, and an Indian woman who was too
ill to escape, took a cord and, so that