A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies

injustly and impiously captivated. But when the Religious, who had engag'd to the
Inhabitants, that their Lord Alphonsus should be restor'd within Four Moneths, and
found that neither in Four, nor Eight Moneths he was return'd, they prepar'd
themselves for Death, and to deliver up their Life to Christ, to whom they had offer'd it
before their departure from Spain: Thus the Innocent Indians were revenged on the
Innocent Priests; for they were of Opinion, that the Religious had a hand in the Plot,
partly, because they found their Promises that their Lord should return within Four
Moneths, ineffectual, and partly because the Inhabitants made no difference between
a Religious Frier and a Spanish Rogue. At another time it fell out likewise, through the
Rampant Tyrrany and Cruel Deeds of evil-minded Christians, that the Indians put to
Death two Dominican Friers, of which I am a faithful Witness, escaping my self, not
without a very great Miracle, which Transaction I resolve silently to pass over, lest I
should terrifie the Reader with the Horror of the Fact.
In these Provinces, there was a City seated on the Bay of Codera, whose Lord was
call'd Higueroto, a Name, either proper to Persons or common to the Rulers of that
Place. A Cacic of such signal Clemency, and his Subjects of such noted Vertue, that
the Spaniards who came thither, were extraordinarily welcom, furnished with
Provisions, enjoying Peace and Comfort, and no Refreshment wanting: But a
perfidious Wretch got many of them on board, and sold them to the Islanders of St.
John. At the same time I landed upon that Island, where I obtained a sight of this
Tyrant, and heard the Relation of his Actions. He utterly destroy'd that Land, which
the rest of the Spaniards took very unkindly at his Hands, who frequently playd the
Pirate, and rob'd on that shore, detesting it as a wicked thing, because they had lost
that place, where they use to be treated with as great Hospitality and Freedom, as if
they had been under their own Roof: Nay they transported from this place, among
them, to the Isles of Hispaniola and St. John Two Millions of Men and upward, and
made the Coast a Desert.
It is most certainly true, that they never ship off a Vessel freighted with Indians, but
they pay a third part as Tribute to the Sea, besides those who are slaughter'd, when
found in their own Houses. Now the Soarce and Original of all this is the ends they
have propos'd to themselves. For there is a necessity of taking with them a great
number of Indians, that they may gain a great sum of Mony by their Sale, now the
Ships are very slenderly furnished with Provisions and Water in small Quantity, to
satisfie few, left the Tyrants, who are term'd Owners or Proprietors of Ships should be
at too great expence in Victualling their Vessels, nay they scarce carry Food enough
with them to maintain the Spaniards that manage the Vessel, which is the reason so
many Indians dye with Hunger and Thirst, and of necessity they must be thrown overboard:
Nay one of them told me this for a Truth, that there being such a Multitude of
Men thus destroy'd, a Ship may sail from the Isle of Lucaya to Hispaniola, which is a
Voyage of Twenty Leagues and upward, without Chart or Compass, by the sole
Direction or Observation of dead fluctuating Carkasses.