HKB
above Thirty Thousand perished with Hunger. Nay it fortun'd at one time, that a Woman opprest with insufferable Hunger, depriv'd her own Son of his Life to preserve her own.
In this Province also they brought many to an untimely End, loading their Shoulders with heavy planks and pieces of Timer, which they were compell'd to carry to a Haven Forty Miles distant, in order to their building of Ships; sending them likewise unto the Mountains to find out Hony and Wax, where they were devour'd by Tygers; nay they loaded Women impregnated with Carriage and Burthens fit for beasts.
But no greater pest was there that could unpeople this Province, than the License granted the Spaniards by this Governour, to demand Captives from the Casics and Potentates of this Region; for at the Expiration of Four or Five Months, or as often as they obtain'd leave of the Governour to demand them, they deliver'd them up Fifty Servants, and the Spaniards terrified them with Menaces, that if they did not obey them in answering their unreasonable Demands, they should be burnt alive, or baited to Death by Dogs. Now the Indians are but slenderly stor'd with Servants; for it is much if a Casic hath Three or Four in his Retinue, therefore they have recourse to the Subjects; and when they had, in the first place, seized the Orphans, they required earnestly and instantly one Son of the Parent, who had but Two, and Two of him that had but Three, and for the Lord of the place satisfied the desires of the Tyrant, not without the Effusion of Tears and Groans of the People, who (as it seems) were very careful of their Children. And this being frequently repeated in the space between the Year 1523, and 1533, the Kingdom lost all their Inhabitants, for in Six or Seven Years time there were constantly Five or Six Ships made ready to be fraighted with Indians that were sold in the Regions of Panama and Perusium, where they all dyed; for it is by dayly Experience prov'd and known, that the Indians when Transported out of their Native Country into any other, soon dye; because they are shortned in their allowance of Food, and the Task impos'd on them no ways dimished, they being only bought for Labour. And by this means, there have been taken out of this Province Five Hundred Thousand Inhabitants and upward, who before were Freemen, and made Slaves, and in the Wars made on them, and the horrid Bondage they were reduc'd unto Fifty or Sixty Thousand more have perished, and to this day very many still are destroy'd. Now all these Slaughters have been committed within the space of Fourteen years inclusively, possibly in this Province of Nicaraqua there remains Four or Five Thousand Men who are put to Death by ordinary and personal Opressions, whereas (according to what is said already) it did exceed other Countries of the World in multitude of People.
Of new SPAIN.