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Show 126 A Relation of tire Spanifl] Vgage; and Cruelties in the Wefi-Irldies. I 27 plaints, they threaten to accufe 'em of Idolatry. Thus the poor Indians are fubjeét to the Authority of feveral different Powers, to your Maiefty, to their as the common People, to oblige his Pavarites', as Cacique, and to the Spam/b Governor, belides twen- empIOy'd 'em in any other Service they pleas'd; ty other little Tyrants, deftitute of Reafon, Honor and Confcience, who commit all forts of Outrages; and likewife the Moors whom the chief Tyrant em- and without regard to their Rank or Quality, ob- ploys to rob and opprefs the poor Indians. . :Tis much to be hard that Almighty God will eighty thoufand of 'em in the Mines, who were all make Spain feel fome extraordinary marks of his Difpleafurc and Indignation for thefe enormous to labor in the Villages, in digging the ground, Crimes: nay, there appear already fome tokens of the Divine Anger againft the Spanifl: Nation, for if thefe Indians were his abfolute Property. Their new Matters made 'em work in the Gold Mines, or lig'd 'em to bear this flavifh Yoke till they dy'd. This Governor fuffer'd the Spaniards to confine married Men, while their defolate Wives were forc'd making Ditches, and throwing up Banks, a fort of work fit only for the {trongei'c Men, and the rather the Diforders and Deval‘rations made by fome in the new World : for tho God had laid up fuch quanti- becaufe they had neither Shovels nor other Infl'ruments proper for their bufinefs. In other places they put 'em upon fpinning and other works of that ties of Treaihre there, that it may be laid neither Solomon nor any other Prince ever polfefs'd a flock kind, which they found would turn to account; and of Gold and Silver comparable to that which the would fometimes keep Husbands and Wives from feeing one another a whole year together; and when People of thefe vafi: Regions enjoy'd', yet they have bin 10 pillag‘d, that now there's little remaining they met after this long feparation, they were often among iem: But that which is more unaccountable that they were incapable of Multiplication. Some~ 15, that there's fcarce any of that Silver now to be extraordinary fcarce there, fo that the Spaniards are times the Children dy'd for want of Suitenance, their Mothers Milk being exhaufted with hard La- her and Hunger; by this means there dy'd feven thoufand Infants in the {pace of three months in the reduc'd to extreme Poverty and Indigence. [lie of Cuba, of which I was an Eye-witnefs. All the while Larc's govern'd the Indies, there was no more care taken to inltil the Principles of Chriftianity into the poor Indians, and to put 'em in the way of Salvation, than if they had no Souls of the Women tranfported with defpair ftrangl'd to fave. This General applied himfelf only to plun- der the great Cities, and would give a hundred Indmris to one Spaniard, and fifty to another, as he had. more or 1er refpeét for 'em. He made no Women in the Villages ', fo that the whole Country found, that was fo common in America when the Spaniards firit difcover'd it. This makes every thing diitintlion of Age or Condition, but promifcuoufly diitributed old Men, and bigbellied Women, as well fo fatigued, and confum'd with Hunger and Labor, Some their own Children; others that were With Child t00k poifonous Herbs to deftroy their Fruit. Thus the Men dy'd with hardihip in the Mines, and the became defer-t in a little time, becaufe the Women ceas'd to bring forth Children into the World. This Governor deliver'd up all the Indians to the Pifcretion of the Spaniards, and fulfefd 'em to treat as others, Perfons of Eminency and Princes as well "em with all the Rigor and Severity they pleas'd, and t0 Opprefs 'em with the hardeit Labor rhlejy as cou . |