to an house, to the number of ninety-five,
he thus debateth with them:'--

'My worthy companions and friends, why desire we to live any longer
under so cruel a servitude? Let us now go unto the perpetual seat of
our ancestors, for we shall there have rest from these intolerable
cares and grievances which we endure under the subjection of the
unthankful. Go ye before, I will presently follow you.' Having so
spoken, he held out whole handfuls of those leaves which take away
life, prepared for the purpose, and giving every one part thereof,
being kindled to suck up the fume; who obeyed his command, the king
and his chief kinsmen reserving the last place for themselves.

We speak of the crime of suicide, but few persons will see a crime in
this sad and stately leave-taking of a life which it was no longer
possible to bear with unbroken hearts. We do not envy the Indian, who,
with Spaniards before him as an evidence of the fruits which their creed
brought forth, deliberately exchanged for it the old religion of his
country, which could sustain him in an action of such melancholy
grandeur. But the Indians did not always reply to their oppressors with
escaping passively beyond their hands. Here is a story with matter in it
for as rich a tragedy as OEdipus or Agamemnon; and in its stern and
tremendous features, more nearly resembling them than any which were
conceived even by Shakespeare.

An officer named Orlando had taken the daughter of a Cuban cacique to be
his mistress. She was with child by him, but, suspecting her of being
engaged in some other intrigue, he had her fastened to two wooden spits,
not intending to kill her, but to terrify her; and setting her before
the fire, he ordered that she should be turned by the servants of the
kitchen.

The maiden, stricken with fear through the cruelty thereof, and
strange kind of torment, presently gave up the ghost. The cacique
her father, understanding the matter, took thirty of his men and
went to the house of the captain, who was then absent, and slew his
wife, whom he had married after that wicked act committed, and the
women who were companions of the wife, and her servants every one.
Then shutting the door of the house, and putting fire under it, he
burnt himself and all his companions that assisted him, together
with the captain's dead family and goods.

This is no fiction or poet's romance. It is