the Indians as he could, to fight
against the others; and as he led ten or twenty thousand and gave
them nothing to eat, he allowed them to eat the Indians they
captured. And so a solemn butchery of human flesh took place in his
army where, in his presence, children were killed and roasted; and
they would kill a man only to eat his hands and feet, which were
esteemed the best bits. And all the people of the other countries,
hearing of these villainies, were so terror stricken they knew not
where to hide themselves.
16. They killed numberless people with the labour of building boats.
From the South Sea to the North, a distance of a hundred and thirty
leagues, they led the Indians loaded with anchors weighing seventy
and eighty pounds each--some of which wore into their shoulders and
loins. They also carried much artillery in this way on the
shoulders of those poor naked creatures; and I saw many of them
loaded with artillery, suffering along the roads.
17. They deprived the husbands of their wives and daughters, and gave
them to the sailors and soldiers, to keep them contented and bring
them on board the ships. They crowded Indians into the ships, where
they all perished of hunger and thirst. And in truth, were I to
recount his cruelties one by one, I could make a big book that would
astonish the world.
18. He built two fleets, each composed of many ships, with which he
burnt, as though with fire from heaven, all those countries. Of how
many did he make orphans! Of how many did he take away the children!
How many did he deprive of their wives! how many wives did he leave
without husbands! Of what adulteries, rapes and violence was he the
cause! how many did he deprive of liberty! what anguish and calamity
were suffered by many people because of him! what tears did he cause
to be shed! what sighs! what groans! what solitude in this life and
of how many has he caused the eternal damnation in the next! not
only of the Indians--who were numberless--but of the unhappy
Christians, of whose company he made himself worthy, with such
outrages, most grave sins and execrable abominations. And I pray
God, that he may have had compassion on him and be appeased with the
bad death to which he at last brought him. (93)