New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-12-14
SPANISH CRUELTY.

SPANISH CRUELTY.
Though Spanish power has long beer
on the decline, the cruelty of Spanish
officials seems to be as keen now as al
any former period in the annals of the
rulers OF that country, or their subordi.
mates, wherever they have ruled. A writer
once having occasion to ask how many
millions Of men the Spaniards had butch
cred in South America, Bartholomew Casa
affirmed that, i'll forty-fve years after the
discovery of the western hemisphere, they
had destroyed about ten millions of human
beings in converting them to Spanish
Ideas OF civilization and Christianity.
These millions, he declared, We're butch
cred outright, and if were to be added
those who died laboring in the mines,
doing the crudgery Of asses, oxen and
mules, to what vast number would they
amount. Many of these poor creatures
were made by their cruel Spanish rulers
to carry burdens UPON their backs Of a
hundred and sixty pounds weight above
| three hundred miles, and it is impossible
| to say how many were made to perish by
water as well as by land, by diving faith
oms deep. feeling for pearl remaining I'M
der water sometimes half an hour, pant
| ing and drawing the same breath all the
while. The persons who were selected for
this kind of work were fed by their
| Spanish masters on coarse biscuit and
dry things, to make them long winded.
Besides being treated in this cruel way,
the poor natives of that day were sub
| Jected to still worse treatment. Their
Spanish masters are said to have driven
them away and then hunted them with
dogs, as means Of affording sport to
themselves. This was the kind of treat
ment Spanish authority melted out to the
| natives of Mexico and Peru and through
| out Spanish America in the fifteenth CEN
fury. And enough has TRANSFERRED since
that time to show that the Spanish char
acter for cruelty has been steadily main
tanned at home and abroad, where it WAS
deemed necessary to maintain Spanish
authority and feed Spanish pride and
| avarlce. The cruelties of the Spanish
lnquisition in the past are some of the
horrors that have attended Spanish rule at
home. They were, indeed, terror to
many of the good people of Spain, who
found themselves unable to resist the
barbarities of Spanish officials. But they
We're no worse than the cruelties perpe-
trated by Spanish rule in the New World
'ascendency? Therefore none need be
surprised at the cruelties that are being
perpetrated on the island of Cuba, and
that, too, under the cloak of Christianity.
In disposing of % portion of those
persons captured on the Virginius,
and afterward condemned to death, we
are reminded Of story that is related of
Hathir Cacica, native of Peru, who was
condemned to death by Spanish authority
tie was persuaded by Franciscan friar
to turn Christian, and then he would go
W 4ASuNSus SdCICd dohSu WuStlCE CueTS
were any Spaniards in Heaven. eyes,"
said the friar, sit is full of them"
"Stay, then" said the Indian, Il would
rather go to hell than have any more of
their company"
1t will be remembered that number6
the men who persisted with Captain ~
were rendered the consultations of religion
and actually converted to the Catholic
faith preparatory to being butchered
There may be consolation in this, but the
poor Indian failed to see it-particularly,
when told that his cruel prosecutors
would meet him in Heaven.
But, how much longer, we would ask,
in the name OF Christianity, is Spanish
authority to indulge in such atrocities?
The poor natives of Cuba are suffering
all the torments that Spanish cruelty can
invent, and yet the civilized world looks
on in cold silence, without attempting to
stay the reign of slaughter.