fecit Israel by making two golden
calves, for the people to adore. Or whether it equals that of Judas
or causes more scandal.
28. These then are the deeds of the Spaniards who go to the Indies; in
their desire for gold they have numberless times sold, and do sell,
and have forsworn Jesus Christ.
29. When the Indians saw that the promise the monks made them that the
Spaniards should not enter those provinces did not come true, and
that the same Spaniards brought their idols from other countries to
sell, after they had given all their own gods to the monks to be
burned, so that they might adore the one true God, they became
tumultuous and the whole country was enraged with the friars, to
whom they said:
30. Why have you lied and deceived us saying that Christians could not
enter this country? And why have you burnt our gods when your
Christians bring gods from other provinces to sell to us? Were
perhaps our gods not better than those of other nations?
31. The friars having nothing to reply, calmed them as best they could.
They sought out the thirty Spaniards, telling them the harm they had
done and beseeching them to depart, but they would not go; on the
contrary they gave the Indians to understand, that it was the friars
themselves who had made them come there,--which was the height of all
malice.
32. At last the Indians determined to kill the friars; being warned by
some Indian, the latter escaped one night. And when the friars had
left, and the Indians perceived their innocence and virtue and the
malice of the Spaniards, they sent messengers a distance of fifty
leagues after them, praying them to return, and asking their pardon
for the anxiety they had caused them.
33. The friars, being servants of God and zealous for those souls, gave
them credence, and returned to the country where they were received
like angels, the Indians rendering them a thousand services; and
they stayed there four or five months longer.
34. As that country was so distant from New Spain, the Viceroy's efforts
to expel those Christians from it were fruitless, and they persisted
in remaining there although he had them proclaimed traitors; and
because they never ceased their outrages and habitual oppression of
the Indians, it seemed to the monks that, s