, destroying towns,
killing and exterminating the people of them and causing such great
mischief in these countries that, I am certain, it would be
impossible for any one to recount and describe them till we shall
see and know them clearly in the day of judgment. I could not, nor
should I know how to describe the deformity, the character, and the
circumstances of some incidents that I would relate, and which
greatly aggravate their hideousness.
2. From his unhappy landing, he killed and destroyed some peoples and
robbed them of a large quantity of gold. In an island near the same
province called Pugna which is very populous and pleasing, they were
received by the lord and people like angels from heaven and, after
having eaten all their provisions in six months, the Indians again
uncovered the store of corn they had laid up for themselves and
their families in time of drought and barrenness, tearfully offering
it for their consumption. The payment that was finally awarded the
natives, was to put them to the sword, for they killed great numbers
with lances, and those whom they captured alive, they made slaves;
in consequence of this and the other great notorious cruelties done
there, they left this island almost deserted.
3. From there the Spaniards went to the province of Tumbala, which is
on the continent, where they killed and destroyed everything they
could. And because all the people fled from their fearful and
horrible operations, they declared they had revolted and were in
rebellion against the king.
4. This tyrant employed the following artifice. He demanded still more
from all who either offered or whom he asked to present him with
gold, silver, and their other possessions, until he saw that they
either had no more, or brought no more: he then declared that he
received them as vassals of the king of Spain and embraced them; he
caused two trumpets to be sounded, giving them to understand that
for the future he would take nothing more from them, nor do them any
harm; he esteemed it permissible to rob them or to take all they
gave, out of fear inspired by the abominable reports they heard of
him, before he received them under the shelter and protection of the
king, as though after they were received under the royal p