The
Spanish Inquisition in action in the New World!!
The Spanish
told the Indians that they had a disease that only gold could heal....On
the island of Cuba the cacique or chief denied that he had any hidden
gold. As a result he was BURNED ALIVE:

Here is a report from
a Dominician priest named Bartolomé de las Casas who was an eyewitness
to many of the atrocities committed by his own people:
The
Spaniards told the Indians that they had a disease that only gold could
heal. They demanded that the Cuban cacique Hatuey reveal the location
of the gold. He denied that he had any hidden gold and as a result he
was ordered to be burned alive.
When
the cacique was bound to the post, a Franciscan friar ... told him some
of the matters of our Faith, which the chieftain had never before heard.
. . . The padre told the cacique that if he wished to believe these
things, he would go to Heaven ... but if not, he would go to Hell and
suffer eternal torment and sorrow. The cacique ... asked the friar if
Christians went to Heaven, and was told that the good ones did. The
cacique, without further thought, said that he did not wish to go to
Heaven but to Hell, so as not to be with Spaniards or see such cruel
people."(Las
Casas, The Devastation of the Indies: a Brief Accout,
p. 45).
References
De Las
Casas, Bartolomé. The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account.
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore & London, 1992.
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