Conquistador

“ These new conquistadores, the conquistadores of labor, who set their sails not for the land of dreams, but for the land of the Things-As-They-Are, were the real founders of the mighty civilization which surrounds us, and once again, in the very forefront of their ranks, stands our great fellow-countryman Samuel Champlain. ”

“ But the conquistadores were rapacious for gold, of which there are vast stores in the mountains of South America, and they slew merely to rob and thus wiped out one of the fairest races the world has ever seen. ”

“ Indeed, my rude style of writing would be insupportable without truth, and therefore I was determined to put my trust in it, and continue my narrative in the way I had begun, that it might go to the press, and publish to the world the conquest of New Spain, as it really took place. In this way his imperial majesty will also learn the great services which we, the true conquistadores, have rendered to the crown; how small our numbers were when we first arrived in this country, under the command of our highly-favoured and faithful captain, Hernando Cortes; what dangers we had to brave ”

“ I am speaking of the Indian temples, called by the inhabitants cues. This latter circumstance would certainly be most pleasing to his readers; but he never gave it a thought, when he was writing, that the conquistadores themselves, and those better informed, would detect his errors and falsehoods. Even in his other works, whenever he speaks about New Spain, he immediately commits blunders. In one place he praises a commander far above his merits, for which very reason he in another most unjustly diminishes that of a second. ”

“ The flora, the fauna, the people, the lands, so rich in romance and so celebrated for the achievements of the conquistadores—those of the cross as well as those of the world—all fascinated us and enchained our interest during every moment of our wakeful hours. ”

“ When the simple-minded Conquistadores first pushed their frail cockleshells out into the gigantic embouchure of this tawny stream and looked vainly for the opposite shore, veiled by the dewy mists of a glittering morn, they unconsciously crossed themselves and, forgetful for the moment of greed and rapine and the lust of gold, stood in reverent awe before the handiwork of their Creator. ”

“ There are still sufficient of the Conquistadores living to confirm what I have related. If they found any untruths, or even any obscure passage, they would not allow it to pass unnoticed. However, it is so in the world; malice always maligns truth. I will now enumerate in their regular order all the battles at which I was present, from the first discovery of New Spain, down to the pacification of the whole country, in order that the reader may have a short and clear view of them all at once ”

“ As it is reasonable that those who have served as explorers of the said Indies, and those who have helped by settling in them and have their wives there, should have preference in the benefits, we order that in making appointments to magistracies and other positions of advancement our Viceroys, Presidents, and Judges of our said Audiencias shall prefer the first conquistadores, and after them the married settlers, provided that they are persons competent to fulfil the duties; and until these are provided for, no other person be considered. ”

“ CHAPTER III THE SPANISH CONQUISTADORES
The pioneer conquistadores of South America afford an interesting study. Such men as those who took their lives in their hands and sailed out into the unknown were actuated by two motives—the love of adventure and the desire of gain. There is no doubt that the second consideration by far outweighed the first. A man of the period left Spain or Portugal for the New World for one cogent reason only, to seek his fortune. ”

“ The Dutchman’s Cap, Broken Jerusalem, The Dead Man’s Chest, Rum Island, and so forth, mark a time and a race more prosaic, but still more terrible, though not one whit more wicked and brutal, than the Spanish Conquistadores, whose descendants, in the seventeenth century, they smote hip and thigh with great destruction. ”

“ Thus, in fact, with the conquistadors the colonizers arrive and they begin to take hold of the country, taking the lands that are pleasing to them and cultivating them. At the beginning these families are totally independent, having no laws except for those they impose on themselves. ”

“ General! I am now convinced, from what I have seen of this vast country and its numerous towns, that of all the deeds of arms which you have accomplished in New Spain with your troops, the least victory has been that which you gained over me and my troops; and had these even been much more numerous I am sure we should have been defeated. You cannot be too highly honoured and rewarded for having subjected so vast a territory, with so many large cities, to the sceptre of our emperor. ”

“ To-day some minor nations yet remain to be cut up into sirloins and briskets by our butchers, who scruple not to dot their proposed partitions even on living hides.
To this famous crusade all the leading nations of Christendom, except Austria-Hungary and, until to-day, Italy, have despatched a respectable contingent of conquistadors. For example, Spaniards, Portuguese, French, and English have absorbed America north and south; while Russia, France, England, Holland, and Germany have raided a good part of Asia and the Far East; and so on with the other continents. ”

“ CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH. How the natives kill and eat their enemies.
SOON after the arrival of the governor at the Ascension the natives and conquistadores brought serious charges against the officers of His Majesty. Alvar Nuñez therefore ordered all the native subjects of the king to assemble, and in the presence of the monks and clergy told them he had been sent to protect them, and that they should come to the knowledge of God and accept Christianity at the hands of the monks and clergy who had come as the ministers of God, and should subject themselves to His Majesty. ”

“ Probably no race has made better provision for handing down its traditions and history than these people who wandered from the mysterious North. All this is lost to us by the infatuation of the Spanish Conquistadores, as we shall see later on. ”

“ Popular opinion long did a vast injustice to these and all other of the Spanish conquistadores, belittling their military achievements on account of their alleged great superiority of weapons over the savages, and taxing them with a cruel and relentless extermination of the aborigines. ”

“ Few immigrants seem to come with the intention of honest labor, but are mostly vagrants living on the hospitality of those who will receive them. The descendants of the conquistadores claim positions in virtue of the services of their ancestors and, as they increase in number with each generation, it is impossible to satisfy them or the impostors who pretend to be descendants. ”

“ Such men are always numerous in virile communities, and when in any society their numbers begin to diminish, its decay is at hand. The imperial activities of the modern age have more than anything else kept the breed alive in all European countries, and above all in Britain. To this type belonged the conquistadores of Spain, the Elizabethan seamen, the French explorers of North America, the daring Dutch navigators. ”

“ The zeal with which the first conquistadors undertook to instruct them in the true belief has been useless; and the watchful care of the missionaries whom the piety of our kings has not ceased to send to those regions has been of no avail, except to make of their neophytes, instead of true Catholics and useful members of society, a new species of men, who unite the slothfulness of the savages to the vices of civilized peoples. ”

“ The decrease of natives following the Spanish conquest of tropical America has long been one of the most striking events of history. Popular historians sometimes speak as if most of the native population had been killed off by the cruelty of the conquistadores. ”

“ We have always believed that Spanish conquistadores slaughtered the Indians most ruthlessly. Study the mission records and you get another impression, an impression of penniless, friendless, unprotected friars "footing" it 600, 700, 900 miles from Old Mexico to the inmost recesses of the Desert cañons. In late days, when a friar set out on his journey, twenty mounted men acted as his escort ”

“ The march of the Spaniards was now a continued triumph. No longer compelled to fight their way on, they had time to enjoy the rich and varied scenery, to scale the mountain, explore the caverns and ravines of the sierras, and the craters of the volcanoes, and show to the admiring natives, by their agility and love of adventure, that fighting and conquest had neither tamed their spirits, nor exhausted their physical powers. As they advanced, they were continually surprised and delighted with the growing evidences of civilization and high prosperity which met them on every side. ”

“ When their chief, or king, died, they had the strange custom of keeping his body until all the flesh fell off its bones, and then they adorned the skull with gay-coloured feathers, and the limbs with gold plates, and hung up the skeleton in the house the chief had dwelt in when alive. The more gentle natives used to make war on the cannibals, but all tribes were at peace with one another, and held the Spaniards for their common enemy when the English appeared amongst them. ”

“ Those commanders and Chieftaines, that shoote at honour, and abundance, shal find there more rich and bewtifull cities, more temples adorned with golden Images, more sepulchers filled with treasure, than either Cortez found in Mexico, or Pazarro in Peru, and the shining glorie of this conquest will eclipse all those so farre extended beames of the Spanish nation. There is no countrey which yeeldeth more pleasure to the inhabitants, either for these common delights of hunting, hawking, fishing, fowling, and the rest, then Guiana doth. ”

“ Such an army had never before left Spain; the gallant and daring soldiers were nearly all wealthy and well-born. They wore costly armor and all their outfit was of the richest description. Everything was provided to make the expedition a success. Arms and provisions, chains for the Indians whom they expected to make slaves, bloodhounds for hunting runaways, and cards for the young nobles to amuse themselves with. Twelve priests went with them to convert the natives and keep up religious services. ”

“ As for the first, your Majesty may be assured that heretofore these Indians never have understood, nor have they been given to understand, that the Spaniards entered this country for any other purpose than to subjugate them and compel them to pay tributes. As this is a thing which all peoples naturally refuse, it follows that where they have been able to resist they have always done so, and have gone to war. When they can do no more, they say that they will pay tribute. And these people the Spaniards call pacified, and say that they have submitted to your Majesty! ”

“ In sight, perhaps, of these mute memorials of ages past, the Spaniards and Indians fought a terrible battle. The savages had lain in ambush, and pounced upon them without warning, with shouts and yells, and such a sounding of sea-shells, trumpets, and turtle-shells that the hills seemed to shake. The astonished Spaniards fought bravely; they seem to have been superior men, in point of morals, to other armies that had invaded New Spain, and more deserving of sympathy than any that had preceded them. ”

“ The history of the Spanish conquest in America is a record of cruelty and of blood, while that of English colonization is marked by English rigor and enterprise, and is one of successful daring and ultimate triumph. ”

“ In the following section: “The Indians who shall be reduced to our obedience and allotted to the conquerors shall be persuaded, in recognition of universal seigniory and jurisdiction which we hold over the Indians, to assist us by the payment of a moderate tribute, from the fruits of the soil. It is our will that the tributes thus paid us be collected by the Spaniards to whom encomiendas shall be given, for which reason they fulfil the duties to which they are bound.” ”

“ Each time the assembled natives, well drilled, well armed for those times, and well led, received them so sturdily that the adventuresome strangers were very well content to betake themselves to their ships again while they were yet able, the more so as it at last became apparent that the conquest, even when made, offered them but little glory and still less gold, two things greatly sought for by these Castilian adventurers. ”

“ The Spanish colonists from Peru who effected the conquest of the country, had a much tougher proposition to deal with than their compatriots in other parts of the continent, for the natives they found in possession of the soil were not the usual docile type of Indian, but a race of hardy fighters, who were prepared to contest the advance of the invader to the last ditch, as it were. ”

“ Mon Dieu, my lord, for a very simple reason; we soldados da conquista, who incessantly make war against the Indian bravos, continually stake our lives, and always finish by being killed in some ambuscade. ”

“ When the Indians approached them, the Spaniards saddled their horses and rode towards them to give battle. As it is our Lord God's will and pleasure that those unknown countries, so distant from Spain, shall be opened up and His glorious standard of the Cross be known there, He almost miraculously protects the Christians; that they may find a way before them until they reach the extremity of the land, where there is little left before seeing the sun complete its course around the world. ”