ns should see what had
been done to these people; and he cut off the noses of many women
and children.
29. Nobody could explain the actions, and cruelty of this man, God's
enemy, because they are innumerable, nor have such deeds as he did
in those countries and in the province of Guatemala, ever been
witnessed or heard of since then: during many years he went about
those countries doing these deeds, burning and destroying the
inhabitants and their property.
30. The witnesses in the trial further say, that the cruelties and
massacres perpetrated in the said new kingdom of Granada by the
captain himself and, with his consent, by all those tyrants and
destroyers of the human race who were with him, were such that they
have wasted and exterminated all the country. And that unless His
Majesty arrests the massacring done among the Indians to extort gold
which, as they had already given all they had, they no longer
possess, the destruction will shortly be complete, and no Indians of
any sort will be left to sustain the country, which will be left
depopulated and desolate.
31. It should be considered how great and furious has been the cruelty
and pestilential tyranny of unhappy tyrants, in the space of two or
three years, since the discovery of this kingdom which, as all who
have been there, and the witnesses at the trial say, was as thickly
populated as any in the world; they have desolated it with
massacres, so devoid of mercy, of the fear of God and the King, that
they say, not a single person will be left alive unless His Majesty
shortly prevents these infernal operations. And so I believe it to
be, for with my own eyes I have seen many, and large countries in
those parts, which they have destroyed and completely depopulated
within a brief period.
32. There are other large provinces, bordering the said new kingdom of
Granada, called Popayan and Cali: also three, or four others that
extend for more than five hundred leagues; the Spaniards have
rendered them desolate, and destroyed them like the others, unjustly
robbing and torturing to death the numberless inhabitants of that
most delightful country.
33. People coming now from there declare that it excites compassion to
see so many large towns burnt and destroyed; towns whe