that I would engage
(for they understood my Authority) that they should not receive the
least of Injuries; for the whole Country was extremely afflicted at the
Evils and Mischiefs already perpetrated, and this I did with the
advice of their Captain. As soon as we approached the Province, Two
and Twenty of their Noblemen came forth to meet us, whom the Captain
contrary to his Faith given, would have expos'd to the Flames,
alledging that it was expedient they should be put to Death, who were,
at any time, capacitated to use any Stratagem against us, but with
great difficulty and much adoe, I snatcht them out of the fire.

These Islanders of _Cuba_, being reduc'd to the same Vasselage and
Misery as the Inhabitants of _Hispaniola_, seeing themselves perish and
dy without any redress, fled to the Mountains for shelter, but other
Desperado's, put a period to their days with a Halter, and the Husband,
together with his Wife and Children, hanging himself, put an end to
those Calamities.

By the ferocity of one _Spanish_ Tyrant (whom I knew) above Two Hundred
_Indians_ hang'd themselves of their own accord; and a multitude of
People perished by this kind of Death.

A certain Person here in the same Isle constituted to exercise a kind
of Royal Power, hapned to have Three Hundred _Indians_ fall to his
share, of which in Three Months, through excessive labour, One Hundred
and Sixty were destroy'd, insomuch that in a short space there remained
but a tenth part alive, namely Thirty, but when the number was doubled,
they all perisht at the same rate, and all that were bestow'd upon him
lost their lives, till at length he paid his last Debt to Nature and
the Devil.

In Three or Four Months time I being there present, Six Thousand
Children and upward were murder'd, because they had lost their Parents
who labour'd in the Mines; nay I was a Witness of many other stupendous
Villanies.

But afterward they consulted how to persecute those that lay hid in the
Mountains, who were miserably massacred, and consequently this Isle
made desolate, which I saw not long after, and certainly it is a
dreadful and depolorable sight to behold it thus unpeopled and laid
waste, like a Desert.

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_Of the_ CONTINENT.

In the Year 1514, a certain unhappy Governour Landed on the firm Land
or Continent, a most bloody Tyrant, destitute of all Mercy and
Prudence, the Instrument of