[Vision2020] Bartoleme de Las Casas
DonaldH675@aol.com
DonaldH675@aol.com
Thu, 30 Oct 2003 16:58:09 EST
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Let's put aside for the moment what Steve Wilkins or Rose Huskey has to say
and the colonization of North and South America and read what Bartolome de las
Casas, a Catholic priest, reported.
....Their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls
is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to acquire gold, and to
swell themselves with riches in a very brief time and thus rise to a high
estate disproportionate to their merits. It should be kept in mind that their
insatiable greed and ambition, the greatest ever seen in the world, is the cause
of their villainies. And also, those lands are so rich and felicitous, the
native peoples so meek and patient, so easy to subject, that our Spaniards have no
more consideration for them than beasts. And I say this from my own knowledge
of the acts I witnessed. But I should not say "than beasts" for, thanks be to
God, they have treated beasts with some respect; I should say instead like
excrement on the public squares. And thus they have deprived the Indians of
their lives and souls, for the millions I mentioned have died without the Faith
and without the benefit of the sacraments. This is a wellknown and proven fact
which even the tyrant Governors, themselves killers, know and admit. And never
have the Indians in all the Indies committed any act against the Spanish
Christians, until those Christians have first and many times committed countless
cruel aggressions against them or against neighboring nations. For in the
beginning the Indians regarded the Spaniards as angels from Heaven. Only after the
Spaniards had used violence against them, killing, robbing, torturing, did the
Indians ever rise up against them. On the Island Hispaniola was where the
Spaniards first landed, as I have said. Here those Christians perpetrated their
first ravages and oppressions against the native peoples. This was the first
land in the New World to be destroyed and depopulated by the Christians, and here
they began their subjection of the women and children, taking them away from
the Indians to use them and ill use them, eating the food they provided with
their sweat and toil. The Spaniards did not content themselves with what the
Indians gave them of their own free will, according to their ability, which was
always too little to satisfy enormous appetites, for a Christian eats and
consumes in one day an amount of food that would suffice to feed three houses
inhabited by ten Indians for one month. And they committed other acts of force and
violence and oppression which made the Indians realize that these men had not
come from Heaven. And some of the Indians concealed their foods while others
concealed their wives and children and still others fled to the mountains to
avoid the terrible transactions of the Christians.
And the Christians attacked them with buffets and beatings, until finally
they laid hands on the nobles of the villages. Then they behaved with such
temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of the islands had to see
his own wife raped by a Christian officer.
>From that time onward the Indians began to seek ways to throw the Christians
out of their lands. They took up arms, but their weapons were very weak and of
little service in offense and still less in defense. (Because of this, the
wars of the Indians against each other are little more than games played by
children.) And the Christians, with their horses and swords and pikes began to
carry out massacres and strange cruelties against them. They attacked the towns
and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in
childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to
pieces as if dealing with sheep in the slaughter house. They laid bets as to who,
with one stroke of the sword, could split a man in two or could cut off his
head or spill out his entrails with a single stroke of the pike. They took
infants from their mothers' breasts, snatching them by the legs and pitching them
headfirst against the crags or snatched them by the arms and threw them into the
rivers, roaring with laughter and saying as the babies fell into the water,
"Boil there, you offspring of the devil!" Other infants they put to the sword
along with their mothers and anyone else who happened to be nearby. They made
some low wide gallows on which the hanged victim's feet almost touched the
ground, stringing up their victims in lots of thirteen, in memory of Our Redeemer
and His twelve Apostles, then set burning wood at their feet and thus burned
them alive. To others they attached straw or wrapped their whole bodies in
straw and set them afire. With still others, all those they wanted to capture
alive, they cut off their hands and hung them round the victim's neck, saying, "Go
now, carry the message," meaning, Take the news to the Indians who have fled
to the mountains. They usually dealt with the chieftains and nobles in the
following way: they made a grid of rods which they placed on forked sticks, then
lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, so
that little by little, as those captives screamed in despair and torment, their
souls would leave them....
After the wars and the killings had ended, when usually there survived only
some boys, some women, and children, these survivors were distributed among the
Christians to be slaves. The repartimiento or distribution was made according
to the rank and importance of the Christian to whom the Indians were
allocated, one of them being given thirty, another forty, still another, one or two
hundred, and besides the rank of the Christian there was also to be considered
in what favor he stood with the tyrant they called Governor. The pretext was
that these allocated Indians were to be instructed in the articles of the
Christian Faith. As if those Christians who were as a rule foolish and cruel and
greedy and vicious could be caretakers of souls! And the care they took was to
send the men to the mines to dig for gold, which is intolerable labor, and to
send the women into the fields of the big ranches to hoe and till the land, work
suitable for strong men. Nor to either the men or the women did they give any
food except herbs and legumes, things of little substance. The milk in the
breasts of the women with infants dried up and thus in a short while the infants
perished. And since men and women were separated, there could be no marital
relations. And the men died in the mines and the women died on the ranches from
the same causes, exhaustion and hunger. And thus was depopulated that island
which had been densely populated.
Source: Bartoleme de Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the
Indies. (1542)
Wilkins's glorification of the lofty spiritual motives of Cortez is not
unexpectedly on par with his defense of southern slaverholder. Anyone see a theme
here? All I can say is YIKES!!!!!
Rose Huskey
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<P><SPAN style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica"><FONT face=3D"T=
imes New Roman" size=3D3>Let's put aside for the moment what Steve Wilk=
ins or Rose Huskey has to say and the colonization of North and South Americ=
a and read what Bartolome de las Casas, a Catholic priest, reported.</FONT><=
/SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica"></SPAN><FONT fa=
ce=3D"Arial Rounded MT Bold"><FONT size=3D3><SPAN style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt=
; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica"><EM><FONT face=3D"Times New Roman" size=3D3>....Th=
eir reason for killing and</FONT> <FONT face=3D"Times New Roman" size=3D3>de=
stroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ult=
imate aim, which is to acquire gold, and to swell themselves with riches in=20=
a very brief time and thus rise to a high estate disproportionate to their m=
erits. It should be kept in mind that their insatiable greed and ambition, t=
he greatest ever seen in the world, is the cause of their villainies. And al=
so, those lands are so rich and felicitous, the native peoples so meek and p=
atient, so easy to subject, that our Spaniards have no more consideration fo=
r them than beasts. And I say this from my own knowledge of the acts I witne=
ssed. But I should not say "than beasts" for, thanks be to God, they have tr=
eated beasts with some respect; I should say instead like excrement on the p=
ublic squares. And thus they have deprived the Indians of their lives and so=
uls, for the millions I mentioned have</FONT> </EM><FONT face=3D"Times New R=
oman" size=3D3><EM>died without the Faith and without the benefit of the sac=
raments. This is a wellknown and proven fact which even the tyrant Governors=
, themselves killers, know and admit. And never have the Indians in all the<=
/EM> <SPAN><EM>Indies committed any act against the Spanish Christians, unti=
l those Christians have first and many times committed countless cruel aggre=
ssions against them or against neighboring nations. For in the beginning the=
Indians regarded the Spaniards as angels from Heaven. Only after the Spania=
rds had used violence against them, killing, robbing, torturing, did the Ind=
ians ever rise up against them. </EM></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FON=
T size=3D3><FONT face=3D"Times New Roman"><FONT face=3D"Arial Rounded MT Bol=
d"><EM><FONT size=3D3><SPAN style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Helveti=
ca"><FONT face=3D"Times New Roman"><FONT size=3D3><FONT face=3D"Times New Ro=
man Baltic">On the Island Hispaniola was where the Spaniards first landed, a=
s I have said</FONT>. Here those Christians perpetrated their first ravages=20=
and oppressions against</FONT></FONT> <FONT face=3D"Times New Roman" size=
=3D3>the native peoples. This was the first land in the </FONT></SPAN></FONT=
><st1:place><SPAN style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica"><FONT=20=
face=3D"Times New Roman" size=3D3>New World</FONT></SPAN></st1:place></EM></=
FONT><SPAN style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica"><FONT face=
=3D"Times New Roman"><FONT size=3D3> <EM>to be destroyed and depopulated by=20=
the Christians, and here they began their subjection of the women and childr=
en, taking them away from the Indians to use them and ill use them, eating t=
he food they provided with their sweat and toil. The Spaniards did not conte=
nt themselves with what the Indians gave them of their own free will, accord=
ing to their ability, which was always too little to satisfy enormous appeti=
tes, for a Christian eats and consumes in one day an amount of food that wou=
ld suffice to feed three houses inhabited by ten Indians for one month. And=20=
they committed other acts of force and violence and oppression which made th=
e Indians realize that these men had not come from Heaven. And some of the I=
ndians concealed their foods while others concealed their wives and children=
and still others fled to the mountains to avoid the terrible transactions o=
f the Christians</EM></FONT></FONT>.</SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><SPAN style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica"><FONT face=3D"T=
imes New Roman" size=3D3><EM>And the Christians attacked them with buffets a=
nd beatings, until finally they laid hands on the nobles of the villages. Th=
en they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful=20=
ruler of the islands had to see his own wife raped by a Christian officer.</=
EM></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica"><FONT face=3D"T=
imes New Roman" size=3D3><EM>From that time onward the Indians began to seek=
ways to throw the Christians out of their lands. They took up arms, but the=
ir weapons were very weak and of little service in offense and still less in=
defense. (Because of this, the wars of the Indians against each other are l=
ittle more than games played by children.) And the Christians, with their ho=
rses and swords and pikes began to carry out massacres and strange cruelties=
against them. They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor t=
he aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and=
dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if dealing with sheep in th=
e slaughter house. They laid bets as to who, with one stroke of the sword, c=
ould split a man in two or could cut off his head or spill out his entrails=20=
with a single stroke of the pike. They took infants from their mothers' brea=
sts, snatching them by the legs and pitching them headfirst against the crag=
s or snatched them by the arms and threw them into the rivers, roaring with=20=
laughter and saying as the babies fell into the water, "Boil there, you offs=
pring of the devil!" Other infants they put to the sword along with their mo=
thers and anyone else who happened to be nearby. They made some low wide gal=
lows on which the hanged victim's feet almost touched the ground, stringing=20=
up their victims in lots of thirteen, in memory of Our Redeemer and His twel=
ve Apostles, then set burning wood at their feet and thus burned them alive.=
To others they attached straw or wrapped their whole bodies in straw and se=
t them afire. With still others, all those they wanted to capture alive, the=
y cut off their hands and hung them round the victim's neck, saying, "Go now=
, carry the message," meaning, Take the news to the Indians who have fled to=
the mountains. They usually dealt with the chieftains and nobles in the fol=
lowing way: they made a grid of rods which they placed on forked sticks, the=
n lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, s=
o that little by little, as those captives screamed in despair and torment,=20=
their souls would leave them....</EM></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica"><FONT face=3D"T=
imes New Roman" size=3D3><EM>After the wars and the killings had ended, when=
usually there survived only some boys, some women, and children, these surv=
ivors were distributed among the Christians to be slaves. The repartimiento=20=
or distribution was made according to the rank and importance of the Christi=
an to whom the Indians were allocated, one of them being given thirty, anoth=
er forty, still another, one or two hundred, and besides the rank of the Chr=
istian there was also to be considered in what favor he stood with the tyran=
t they called Governor. The pretext was that these allocated Indians were to=
be instructed in the articles of the Christian Faith. As if those Christian=
s who were as a rule foolish and cruel and greedy and vicious could be caret=
akers of souls! And the care they took was to send the men to the mines to d=
ig for gold, which is intolerable labor, and to send the women into the fiel=
ds of the big ranches to hoe and till the land, work suitable for strong men=
. Nor to either the men or the women did they give any food except herbs and=
legumes, things of little substance. The milk in the breasts of the women w=
ith infants dried up and thus in a short while the infants perished. And sin=
ce men and women were separated, there could be no marital relations. And th=
e men died in the mines and the women died on the ranches from the same caus=
es, exhaustion and hunger. And thus was depopulated that island which had be=
en densely populated.</EM></FONT></SPAN></P><SPAN style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt=
; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica">
<P><FONT face=3D"Times New Roman" size=3D3>Source: Bartoleme de Las Casas, <=
I>Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies</I>. (1542)</FONT></P></SPA=
N><SPAN style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica">
<P><FONT face=3D"Times New Roman" size=3D3>Wilkins's glorification of the lo=
fty spiritual motives of Cortez is not unexpectedly on par with hi=
s defense of southern slaverholder. Anyone see a theme here? All=
I can say is YIKES!!!!!</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=3D"Times New Roman" size=3D3>Rose Huskey</FONT></SPAN></P></BO=
DY></HTML>
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