american-holocaust

SEX, RACE AND HOLY WAR 205not need the encouragement of their superiors to carry out what Las Casascalled their "massacres and strange cruelties" against the native people.Back in Europe, on the other hand, these reports were read with avidity.And before long a consistent picture began to emerge. The lands ofthe Indies were indeed as wondrous as Columbus originally had describedthem. Thus, Andres Bernaldez--chaplain to the Archbishop of Seville,member of the Royal Council, and Grand Inquisitor-described for hisfaithful readers the delightful islands of Hispaniola and Cuba, "the mostlovely that eyes have seen," whose "fields were such that they appeared tobe the loveliest gardens in the world." The people of the islands, however-saidthis holy man who once had rejoiced in the burning of Jewsand Moors "in living flames until they be no more"-were but "a brutishrace . . . [who] take no pleasure in anything save eating and women." 28Even before his first voyage was complete, Columbus had written toFerdinand and Isabella promising to bring back from subsequent expeditions"slaves, as many as [the Crown] shall order"-while assuring hisking and queen that such Indian bondsmen "will be idolators," that is,non-Christians, which would make their trade legitimate in the supervisoryview of the Church. 29 In the eyes of Hispaniola's Spanish invaders, however,hardly had the second voyage completed its minimal tasks ashorewhen the native "idolators" were turning into full-fledged beasts. To some,that helped explain why the natives were dying so quickly and in suchhuge numbers; but in any case, die though they might, there were millionsof them who could still be enslaved, and there was work to be donemuchgold remained to be seized.It is by no means surprising, then, that in only the second printedchronicle from the New World (the first being Columbus's report to theCrown on his initial voyage), the Spanish nobleman Guillermo Coma ofAragon dwelt at great length and in minute detail on the allegedly "verydark and grim-visaged" cannibals of the Indies. "They customarily castratetheir infant captives and boy slaves and fatten them like capons," was butone of his numerous imaginings. And with equal vividness and equal falsityhe described the great quantities of gold that awaited the adventurous,who could gather nuggets almost like fruit from a tree. "In that region,"he told his readers, there are "a large number of rivers and more than 24streams,-a country of such bountifulness that it is marvellous to describeand unbelievable to hear about." He continued:Gold is collected by cutting away the river banks. First the water rushes in,· · g and somewhat muddy; then it becomes clear again and the heavy_?ares of gold which lie at the bottom are plainly revealed. They weigh a--a=:= :about 60 grains] more or less .... There is a very lovely tale,· auld have been ashamed to relate if I had not got it from a credible