Bartolomé de las Casas

“ They who came among us from those Regions report, that nothing can be more deplorable or worthy of pity and commiseration, then to behold such large and great Cities totally ruinated, and intombed in their own Ashes, and that in a City adorn'd with 1000 or 2000 Fabricks, there are hardly now to be seen 50 standing, the rest being utterly demolished, or consum'd and levelled to the ground by Fire and in some parts Regions of 100 miles in length, (containing spacious Cities) are found absolutely destroyed and consumed by Fire. ”

“ The Inhabitants of one of these Provinces, perceiving that four or five of their Governours were sent to the other World in a fiery Vehicle or Chariot, being terrified therewith, took to the Mountains for Sanctuary, there being four or five thousand in number, as appears by good Evidence; and the aforesaid Captain sends a Tyrant, more cruel than any of the rest after them. The Spaniards ascend the Mountains by force (for the Indians were naked an unarm'd) Proclaiming Peace, if they would desist and lay down their Arms, which the Indians no sooner heard, but quitted their Childish Weapons ”

“ Finally many great Tyrants who came out of the Perusian Kingdoms by the Quitonians Travelled to the said new Kindgom of Granada and Popayan, and by Carthagena and the Urabae, they directed their course to Calisium, and several other Tyrants of Carthagena assault Quito, who joyn'd themselves in an intire Body and wholly depopulated and laid waste that Region for the space of 600 miles and upward, with the loss of a prodigious number of poor Souls; nor as yet do they treat the small remnant of so great and innocent a people with more humanity then formerly. ”

“ God preserve and bless him with Renown and a happy Life in his Imperial State, and prosper him in all his Attempts, that he may remedy the Distempers of the Christian Church, and Crown him at last with Eternal Felicity, Amen. ”

“ This very Tyrant came once to the city Cota, where he surprized abundance of Men, together with fifteen or twenty Casics of the highest rank and quality, whom he cast to the Dogs to be torn Limb-meal in pieces, and cut off the Hands of several Men and Women, which being run through with a pole, were exposed to be viewed and gaz'd upon by the Indians, where you might see at once seventy pair of hands, transfixed with Poles ”

“ They rackt him, poured boiling Soap into his Bowels, chain'd his Legs to one post, and fastened his Neck to another, two men holding his Hands, and so applyed the scorching heat of the Fire to his Feet; the Tyrant himself often casting his eye upon him, and threatning him with death, if he did not give him the promised Gold; and thus with these kind of horrid torments, the said Lord was destroy'd; which while they were doing, God being willing to manifest how displeasing these Cruelties are to His Divine Majesty, the whole City, that was the Stage on which they were acted, was consumed by fire ”

“ Two of their gang in the Province of Peru kild Twenty Five Sheep, who were sold among the Spaniards for Twenty Five Crowns, merely to get the fat and brains out of them: Thus the frequent and extraordinary Slaughter of their Sheep above a Hundred Thousand Head of Cattel were destroy'd. And upon this Account the Region was reduced to great penury and want, and at length perished with Hunger. ”

“ And here is to be noted, how pestilential and inhumane the cruelty of these Tyrants hath been, and how violently exercised, when as in two or three years space, they were all slain, and the Country wholly desolate and deserted, as those that have been Eye-witnesses can testifie; they having acted like Merciless Men, not having the fear of God and the King before their Eyes, but by the instigation of the Devil ”

“ I say I have at length finished this Treatise and Summary at Valencia, Decemb. 8. An. Dom. 1542, when they were arrived at the Height, and utmost Degree of executing Violences, Oppressions, Tyrrany, Desolations, Torments, and Calamities in all the aforesaid Regions, Inhabited by the Spaniards (though they are more Cruel in some places than other) yet Mexico with its Confines were more favourably treated than the rest of the Provinces.
And indeed no Man durst openly and publickly do any injury to the Inhabitants ”

“ Dom. 1542, they acted such Horrid and Stupendous Enormities, that the like were never known or heard in America, or throughout the whole World before that time: Nor were they only practised upon the Indians, who were mostly destroy'd, but upon themselves also, God permitting them by his just Judgement to be their own Executioners, and sheath their Swords in one anothers Bowels. In like manner the other parts of this New World being moved by the Example of these Rebels, refused to yield Obedience to those Laws. The rest pretending to petition his Majesty turn Rebellious themselves ”

“ Martha, and Carthagena, hastening to the Conquest of Perusia, Anno Dom. 1539. and they accompanied with many more going farther from this Region, endeavored to penetrate into the Heart of this Countrey, where they found about Three Hundred Miles from Carthagena and St. Martha, many admirable Provinces and most fruitful Land, furnished with an even-tempered or meek-spirited People, as they are in other parts of India ”