Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-07
How the Early Conquerors Depopu-
lated the Indies.
BLOODY WARS OF DETERMINATION
Gentle and Simple Aborigines
Massacred by the Million.
SIMILAR METHODS TODAY

If anything were lacking to show the ut
ter futility of expecting redress and allevi-
alton Of Cuban wrongs at the hands of
Spain, whatever promises of reform she
may now make, one needs only to glance
back at the continuous record of murder
and robbery that has characterized Spain's
policy in America for 400 years, ever since
her discovery and conquest of the Indies.
The most complete and graphic account of
Spains unspeakable atrocities upon the alb
original inhabitants of Cuba and adjacent
islands is given in the Relation" or mar
ration, by Don Bartholomew Las Casas,
the distinguished Dominican monk and
bishop Of Chiapas, contemporary of Ferdi
hand and Isabella and of Charles V, who in
the year 1912 wrote out his observations
and submitted them to the Spanish royal
council for the Indies, after uttering them
orally to Emperor Charles V at Valladoid,
Spain.
From the perusal of Las Casas' work a
well-infOrmed reader must rise with pro-
found conviction that Spain's policy in
Cuba today differs but little from her pol
icy in 1911, when her ''conquis tadores' en-
tered the island and that the Spanish tenn
permanent and character have undergone but
slight change in the long interval since
then, the only noticeable differences being
in the age. time and surroundings, and the
consequent lack of opportunity and power,
not of capacity to commit like wrongs and
crueltieS Were the struggling Cuban in
surgents of today unarmed and defenseless
aborigines. instead of being sons of other
races, introduced into the island to super
sede the original inhabitants eXterminated
by Spain, there is little question but that
they would suffer similar fate.
Eyewitness of Crimes.
Las Casas was a natve-born Spaniard
and loyal subject of the Spanish crown.
though widely celebrated for his keen
sersibilty and humanity, his liberality and
his progressive ideas. He was an eyewit-
ness of many of the revolving crimes he
describes, and learned of others from par
Elephants in them and from contemporary
authorities Considering the position he
occupied and his facilities for information
and the august tribunal he addressed. his
dreadful Indictment is perhaps the most
impressive that has ever been brought
against the Spanish nation. The work
was first printed in Spanish al Seville, in
1852, and is known to antiquaranS as the
"Rrevissa Relacion de la DESTRUCTION de
las lndiaS'-briet narration of the dastruc-
ton of the Indies. 1t was subsequently re-
printed succ assively in Latin, Italian,
Dutch, French AMI English, but all those
early editions are now exceedingly rare.
In the Congressional Library is
iginal of the OppeEheimer edition of
1914 in Latin. of the Amsterdam edition
of 1854 in Flemish. and of the Lon
don edition of 1863 in English. The
experts given below are taken from the
last named edition. Despite the naivere
of the author and the quaint language Of
the translator the reader will not fail to
recognize between the lines the distinctive
characteristics of the Spanish soldier and
the Spanish official IN Cuba today-his in
satiabie greed for gold his inhuman bru-
tally, bis peculiar proreness to maladmin-
fstration and his skill in procuring i'm
munity therefor. And the reader may we'll
ask can the Spanard be expected to re-
form in one year the villainies he has prac-
ticed for 100?
To Exterminate InnOcents.
Las Casas says at the outset, speaking
generally OF the Spanish cruelties ard the
inoffensive disposition of the West In
dian natives THE Almighty seems to
have inspired these people dhe natives)
with a meekness and softness Of humor
like that of lambs; and the Spaniards re-
senble savage tigers wolves and lions
when enraged with pressing hunger In
whatever part of America the Spaniards
nave set their feet, they Ierpetrated the
same abomnablc villainics ard massacres
to Cypress and exterminate these poor in
nocents. They have applied themselves
forty years together wholly to Tnassacring
the poor wretches that inhabited the is
lands putting them to all kinds Of I'M
heard-of torments and punishments inso-
much that the Island of Hispaniola HIaytD
LOT example. which upon the arrival of
lions of people is Low reduced to less
than three hundred. The Island of Cuba,
in length equal to the distance between
Valladolid and Rome, is entirely DESTROYED
and destitute of inhabitants, and nothing
but ruins are now to be seen in it, ana
the Islands of st. John and Jamaica have
met with like treatment. The islands near
Cuba and Hispaniola on the north side are
sixty in number, of which the least fruit
full abounds more than that planted within
the Royal Garden of Seville but they are
now destitute of Inhabitants
Twelve Millions of People Massacred.
When the Sps niards first landed in these
Islands there were above five hundred
thousand souls. The Spaniards cut the
threats of great part of these, and car
ried away the rest by force to make them
work In the mines of Hispaniola Above
thirty isles north CT st. John were entirely
depopulated. AS fer the continent, it is
certain, and what I myself know to he
true. that the Spaniards have ruined ten
Kingdoms there, bigger than all Spain. nv
the commission of all sorts of barbaritv
and unheard-of cruelties. We dare to as
sert without fear of mourning the reproach
of eXaggerating that in the space of those
forty years in which the Spaniards have
exercised their intolerable tyranny in this
new world theS have unjustly put to
death above twelve millions of people
counting men, women and children: and If
may be affirmed without injury to the
truth, upon a just calculation, that dur
ing this space of time, above fifty millions
have died in those countries"
Two Methods Of determination.
THE Spaniards who invaded these islands
and boosted of their Christianity made use
of two ways principally to extermnate the
lnhab1tants-first, by unjust and bloody
war, carried on with the utmost barbsritv
and cruelty; the other, by that detestable
policy which inspired them to massacre all
that had any remains of liberty or endea-
Vored to shake off their tyranncal woke
When they had killed all the men in war
they suffered the women and children to
i've, but with the imposition of a woke so
cruel and insupportable that their condi-
ton was rendered as miserable as that of
beasts. And the gold and silver these
people had in their possession was the mo-
tive that voluntarily prompted the Span-
iards to prosecute and destroy them. In a
word, the Spaniards' avarice and ambition
We're aroused to an excess beyond imagina
ton. The immense riches of the new
world. the tractable, sweet and good dis.
position Of the Indians which rendered.
a descent into their country easy to any
that would attempt it, have occa stoned all
this ravage and spoil. = These outrages
and cruelties which these innocent people
have suffered are so horrid and notorious
fhni~ tor IL