Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings

LETTER

Paulus Papa tertius universis Christi fidelibus prÆsentes litteras inspecturis salutem et Apostolicam benedictionem. Sublimis Deus sic dilexit humanum genus, ut hominem talem condiderit qui non solum boni sicut cÆterÆ creaturÆ particeps esset, sed ipsum Summum Bonum inaccesibile et invisibile attingere et facie ad faciem videre posset; et cum homo ad vitam et beatitudinem Æternam obeundam, etiam sacrarum literarum testimonio, creatus sit, et hanc vitam et beatitudinem Æternam, nemo consequi valeat, nisi per fidem Domini nostri Jesu Christi fateri necesse est, hominem talis conditionis et naturÆ esse, ut Fidem Christi recipere possit, et quemqunque, qui naturam hominis fortitus est, ad ipsam Fidem recipiendam habilem esse. Nec enim quisque adeÒ desipere creditur, ut se secredat Fidem obtinere posse, et medium summe necessarium, nequaquam attingere.

[pg 428]

Hinc veritas ipsa quÆ nec falli, nee fallere potest, cum prÆdicatores fidei ad officium prÆdicationis destinaret, dixisse dignoscitur. Euntes, Docete Omnes Gentes. Omnes dixit, absque omni deletu, cum omnes fidei disciplinÆ capaces existant. Quod videns ipsius humani generis emulus qui bonis operibus, ut pereant semper adversatur, modum excogavit ac temis in auditum, quo impediret, ne verbum Dei gentibus salve fierent, predicaretur, ac quosdam suos satelites commovit, qui suam cupiditatem ad implere, cupientes occidentales, et meridionales Indos, et alias gentes, quas temporibus istis ad nostram notitiam pervenerunt, sub prÆtextu, quod Fidei CatolicÆ expertes existant, uti muta animalia ad nostra obsequia redigendos esse passim asserere prÆsumat.

Nos igitur qui eiusdem Domini Nostri vices, licet immeriti, gerimus in terris, et oves gregis sui nobis commissas, quÆ extra eius ovile sunt, ad ipsum ovile toto nixu exquirimus. Attendentes Indos ipsos, ut potÈ veros homines, non solum ChristianÆ Fidei capaces existere, sed ut nobis innotuit, ad fidem ipsam promptissimÈ currere. Ac volentes super his congruis remediis providere, prasdictos Indos et omnes alias gentes ad notitiam Christianorum imposterum deventuras, licet extra Fidem Christi existant sua libertate Àc rerum suarum dominio privatos, seÙ privandos non esse. ImÒ libertate et dominio huiusmodi, uti et potiri, et gaudere, liberÈ et licitÈ posse, nee in servitutem redigi debere. Ac si secÙs fieri contigerit irritum et innane. Ipsosque Indos et alias gentes verbi Dei prÆdicatione et exemplo bonÆ vitÆ ad dictam Fidem Christi invitandos fore, et prÆsentium literarum transumptis manu alicuius Notarii publici subscriptis, Àc sigillo alicuius personÆ in dignitate Ecclesiastica constitutÆ munitis, eamdem fidem adhibendam esse, quas originalibus adhiberetur auctoritate Apostolice per prÆsentes litteras decernimus [pg 430] et declaramus. Non obstantibus prÆmissis, cÆterisque contrariis quibuscumque.

Datum RomÆ Anno Domini millessimo quingentessimo trigessimo septimo. Quarto nonas Junii Pontificatus nostri, Anno tertio.

[pg 426]

Clyx.com

1.	He allowed the Indians to be chained and put in prisons, and so it was done. And the said captain took three or four in chains for himself; by so doing and by robbing the Indians of their supplies instead of providing for necessary sowing and populating, the natives of the country were reduced to such want, that great numbers of them were found in the streets starved to death.
2.2.	He killed about ten thousand souls by making the Indians carry the Spaniards' baggage to and from the beach, because all who reached the coast died of the heat.
3.3.	After this he followed the same trail and road as Juan de Ampudia, sending the Indians he had brought from Quito, a day in front, to discover the Indian towns and to sack them so that he and his people might avail themselves of them on their arrival. Those Indians belonged to him and his companions, one of whom had two [pg 416] hundred, another three hundred, according to the number each brought with him, and they carried whatever their masters robbed. And in this they treated children and women most cruelly.
4.4.	He followed the same course in Quito, burning all the country and the stores of maize belonging to the lords; he consented to the killing of great numbers of sheep, all of which form the principal provision and maintenance of the natives and of the Spaniards; for the latter use two or three hundred just to eat the brains and fat alone, and waste the meat.
5.5.	His friendly Indians who went with him, killed great numbers of sheep, just to eat the hearts, not eating anything else. And so two men in a province called Purua killed twenty-five sheep and pack-sheep, just to eat the brains and fat, although among the Spaniards they cost twenty and twenty-five pesos each.
6.6.	By such excessive disorder, they killed more than a hundred thousand head of animals, which reduced the country to very great want, while the natives died of starvation in great numbers. Although there was more maize in Quito than can be told, this bad order of things brought such penury on the people that a measure of maize came to cost ten pesos, and a sheep the same.
7.7.	When the said captain returned from the coast, he determined to leave Quito, to go in search of Captain Juan de Ampudia. He took more than two hundred foot and horsemen, among whom he led many inhabitants of the country of Quito. The said captain permitted the colonists who accompanied him to draw the lords from their departments and as many Indians as they liked, and this they did.
8.8.	Alonso Sanchez Nuyta took a lord and more than a hundred Indians with their wives; Pedro Cobo and his cousin, more than a hundred and fifty with their wives [pg 417] and many of the children, who otherwise all died of starvation. And so likewise Moran, an inhabitant of Popayan, had more than two hundred persons; and all the other inhabitants and soldiers also took as many as each could.
9.9.	And the said soldiers asked him if he would give them licence to put the Indians they brought with them, in prison; and he said yes, until they died, and when these were dead, also others; for if the Indians were vassals of His Majesty, they were also of the Spaniards, and they died in war.
10.10.	In this way the said captain left Quito and went to a town called Otabalo, which he owned at that time by virtue of the distribution, and he demanded five hundred men for the war from its lord, who gave them to him with some Indian chiefs. He distributed some of these people among the soldiers and the rest he took with himself, some with packs, and others in chains, and some, who served him and brought him food, were free; the soldiers also took them, bound in this way with chains and cords.
11.11.	When they left the province of Quito they took away more than six thousand Indians, men and women of whom not twenty men returned to their country: because they all died of the great and excessive labours imposed on them, in countries far from their native land.
12.12.	It happened at this time, that one Alonso Sanchez was sent by the said captain in command of certain people in a province; on the way, he met a number of women and boys loaded with provisions who, instead of fleeing, waited for him, to give them to him; and he had them all put to the sword.
13.13.	And a miracle happened when a soldier was stabbing an Indian woman; at the first blow the sword [pg 418] broke in half, and at the second only the handle was left, without his being able to wound her. Another soldier with a double bladed dagger wanted to stab another Indian woman, but at the first blow four fingers' length of the point broke off, and at the second nothing remained but the handle alone.
14.14.	When the said captain left Quito, leading away such a quantity of natives, separating them from their wives, giving some of the young girls to those Indians he took with him, and others to those who were left behind on account of their old age, a woman came behind him, with a little child in her arms, weeping and begging him not to take her husband away from her, because she had three little children whom she would not be able to bring up, and who would die of starvation; and seeing that he answered her roughly the first time, she came back a second with louder cries saying, that her children would die of starvation: and when she saw, that he commanded she should be driven away and that he would not release her husband, she threw the child on some stones and killed it.
15.15.	When the said captain arrived in the province of Lili at a town called Palo near the great river, he found there the Captain Juan de Ampudia, who had gone in advance to explore and pacify the country; the said Ampudia had founded a town called Ampudia, in the name of His Majesty and of the Marquis Francisco Pizarro, and had appointed Pedro Solano de QuiÑones and eight rulers as ordinary judges; and the greater part of the country was at peace, and divided. As soon as he knew that the said captain was at the river, he went to see him accompanied by many of the inhabitants and peaceful Indians, loaded with provisions and fruit; and from thenceforward all the Indians in the neighbourhood went to visit the said captain, and to bring him food. [pg 419]
16.16.	These were the Indians from Namudi, Palo, Soliman, and Bolo; but because they did not bring as much maize as he wanted, he ordered many Spaniards to go with their Indians, men and women to get maize, wherever they found it. So they went to Bolo and to Palo, where they found the Indians, tranquil in their houses; and the said Spaniards and those who went with them, stole and carried off the maize, gold, stuffs, and all the Indians possessed, and they bound many of them.
17.17.	When the Indians saw that they were treated so badly, they went to complain to the said captain of what had been done, and to request that the Spaniards should restore all they had taken from them. He would not have anything restored, but told them that his men would not go there a second time.