10. Of the countless notoriously wicked and cruel acts committed in the
extirpation of these people by those who call themselves Christians,
I will relate some few that a friar of St. Francis witnessed in the
beginning; and he signed depositions with his name, sending some of
the copies to those regions and others to the kingdoms of Castile:
and I have one of the copies in my possession with his own
signature, in which he makes the following statements.
11. "I, Fray Marcus de Nizza of the Order of St. Francis, commissary of
the friars of the same Order in the provinces of Peru, who were
among the first monks who entered the said provinces with the first
Christians, speak to render truthful testimony of some of the things
that I saw with my own eyes in that country; chiefly concerning the
treatment of the Indians and the acquisition of property taken from
the natives."
12. "First of all I am eye-witness, and from actual experience know,
that these Indians of Peru are the most affable people that have
been seen among the Indians, and were very well inclined and
friendly towards the Christians."
13. "And I saw that they gave gold abundantly to the Spaniards, and
silver and precious stones and all that was asked of them, and that
they rendered them every good service; and the Indians never went
forth in war fashion, but always peaceably, as long as no cruelty
and ill-treatment provoked them; on the contrary, they received the
Spaniards with all benevolence and honour in their towns, giving
them provisions and as many male and female slaves for their
service, as they asked."
14. "I am also witness, and I testify, that without the Indians giving
them any cause or occasion, the Spaniards, as soon as they entered
their country, and after the chief lord Atabaliba had paid them more
than two millions of gold and had left all the country in their
power, without resistance, immediately burnt the said Atabaliba, who
was ruler of all the country: and after him, they burnt alive his
captain-general Cochilimaca who had come peaceably to the governor,
accompanied by other high personages."
15. "Within a few days after these executions they likewise burned
Chamba another very high lord of the province of Quito, without him
giving them any cause."