american-holocaust

PESTILENCE AND GENOCIDE 141answered that he should ask God. The Fr. asked through the interpreter ifhe slept with his wife, to which the Indian said yes. Then the father hadthem placed in a room together so that they would perform coitus in hispresence. The Indian refused, but they forced him to show them his penis inorder to affirm that he had it in good order. The father next brought thewife and placed her in the room. The husband he sent to the guardhousewith a pair of shackles. . . . Fr. Olbes asked her if her husband slept withher, and she answered that, yes. The Fr. repeated his question "why don'tyou bear children?" "Who knows!" answered the Indian woman. He hadher enter another room in order to examine her reproductive parts.At this point the woman resisted the padre's attempted forced inspection;for that impertinence she received fifty lashes, was "shackled, and lockedin the nunnery." He then gave her a wooden doll and ordered her to carryit with her, "like a recently born child," wherever she went. Meanwhile,her husband remained in jail, only leaving once each day to attend massandduring all the time he was outside the guardhouse he was required toundergo the public humiliation of wearing on his head "cattle horns affixedwith leather." 157From time to time some missions permitted certain of their captives toreturn home for brief visits, under armed guard. "This short time is thehappiest period of their existence," wrote one foreign observer, "and Imyself have seen them going home in crowds, with loud rejoicings." Hecontinues:The sick, who can not undertake the journey, at least accompany their happycountrymen to the shore where they embark and sit there for days togethermournfully gazing on the distant summits of the mountains which surroundtheir homes; they often sit in this situation for several days, without takingany food, so much does the sight of their lost home affect these new Christians.Every time some of those who have the permission run away, and theywould probably all do it, were they not deterred by their fears of the soldiers.158There was, of course, good reason for the Indians to fear the consequencesof running away and being caught. Since even the most minoroffenses in the missions carried a punishment of fifteen lashes, while middlinginfractions, including fighting, "brought one hundred lashes and aset of shackles at the guard house," those who were captured while tryingto break free of mission captivity might count themselves lucky to bewhipped 100 times and clapped in irons affixed to a heavy log. For as onetraveler described the condition of some attempted escapees he had seen:"They were all bound with rawhide ropes and some were bleeding fromwounds and some children were tied to their mothers." He went on: