rotection
he would no more oppress, rob, desolate, and destroy them.
5. A few days later came the universal king and emperor of those
kingdoms, who was called Atabaliba with many naked people armed with
ridiculous weapons and ignorant of how swords cut, and lances wound,
and horses run; nor did they know the Spaniards, who would assault
the very devils if they had gold, to rob them of it. He arrived at
the place where they were, and said: "Where are these Spaniards? let
them come forward, for I shall not stir from here till satisfaction
is rendered me for my vassals whom they have killed, for the town
they have desolated, and for the riches they have stolen from me."
6. The Spaniards attacked him--killing infinite numbers of his people;
they took him prisoner from the litter in which he was carried and
after they had captured him, they negotiated with him for his
ransom: he promised to give four million crowns, and paid them
fifteen, after which they promised to set him free.
7. They ended by keeping no faith nor truth, for they have never been
kept by the Spaniards in their dealings with the Indians: they
calumniated him, saying that by his orders the people were
assembling, and he replied that not a leaf moved in all the country
save by his will and that if the people were assembling, they might
believe that he was the cause of it: as he was their prisoner, they
might therefore kill him.
8. In spite of all this they condemned him to be burned alive, although
later, some of them begged the captain, to have him strangled and to
burn him afterwards. When he learned this he said: "Why do you wish
to burn me? What have I done to you? Have you not promised to free
me, after my ransom was paid? Have I not given you more than what I
promised you? Send me, as thus you wish it, to your King of Spain."
He said many other things showing condemnation and detestation of
the great injustice of the Spaniards: and at last they burnt him.
9. Let the justice of these deeds be considered: the reason of this
war: the imprisonment, death sentence, and execution of this
monarch; and how conscientiously these tyrants hold the great
treasures they steal in those kingdoms from such a great king and
from numberless other lords and private people.