第 5 节
作者:着凉      更新:2021-02-27 01:59      字数:9322
  victuals for their nourishment; and gold whereof to make some pretended
  medicine; setting forth; moreover; the belief in one only God; and the
  truth of our religion; which they advised them to embrace; whereunto they
  also added some threats。  To which they received this answer: 〃That as to
  their being peaceable; they did not seem to be such; if they were so。
  As to their king; since he was fain to beg; he must be necessitous and
  poor; and he who had made him this gift; must be a man who loved
  dissension; to give that to another which was none of his own; to bring
  it into dispute against the ancient possessors。  As to victuals; they
  would supply them; that of gold they had little; it being a thing they
  had in very small esteem; as of no use to the service of life; whereas
  their only care was to pass it over happily and pleasantly: but that what
  they could find excepting what was employed in the service of their gods;
  they might freely take。  As to one only God; the proposition had pleased
  them well; but that they would not change their religion; both because
  they had so long and happily lived in it; and that they were not wont to
  take advice of any but their friends; and those they knew: as to their
  menaces; it was a sign of want of judgment to threaten those whose nature
  and power were to them unknown; that; therefore; they were to make haste
  to quit their coast; for they were not used to take the civilities and
  professions of armed men and strangers in good part; otherwise they
  should do by them as they had done by those others;〃 showing them the
  heads of several executed men round the walls of their city。  A fair
  example of the babble of these children。  But so it is; that the
  Spaniards did not; either in this or in several other places; where they
  did not find the merchandise they sought; make any stay or attempt;
  whatever other conveniences were there to be had; witness my CANNIBALS。
  'Chapter XXX。 of Book I。'
  Of the two most puissant monarchs of that world; and; peradventure; of
  this; kings of so many kings; and the last they turned out; he of Peru;
  having been taken in a battle; and put to so excessive a ransom as
  exceeds all belief; and it being faithfully paid; and he having; by his
  conversation; given manifest signs of a frank; liberal; and constant
  spirit; and of a clear and settled understanding; the conquerors had a
  mind; after having exacted one million three hundred and twenty…five
  thousand and five hundred weight of gold; besides silver; and other
  things which amounted to no less (so that their horses were shod with
  massy gold); still to see; at the price of what disloyalty and injustice
  whatever; what the remainder of the treasures of this king might be; and
  to possess themselves of that also。  To this end a false accusation was
  preferred against him; and false witnesses brought to prove that he went
  about to raise an insurrection in his provinces; to procure his own
  liberty; whereupon; by the virtuous sentence of those very men who had by
  this treachery conspired his ruin; he was condemned to be publicly hanged
  and strangled; after having made him buy off the torment of being burnt
  alive; by the baptism they gave him immediately before execution; a
  horrid and unheard of barbarity; which; nevertheless; he underwent
  without giving way either in word or look; with a truly grave and royal
  behaviour。  After which; to calm and appease the people; aroused and
  astounded at so strange a thing; they counterfeited great sorrow for his
  death; and appointed most sumptuous funerals。
  The other king of Mexico;'Guatimosin' having for a long time defended
  his beleaguered city; and having in this siege manifested the utmost of
  what suffering and perseverance can do; if ever prince and people did;
  and his misfortune having delivered him alive into his enemies' hands;
  upon articles of being treated like a king; neither did he in his
  captivity discover anything unworthy of that title。  His enemies; after
  their victory; not finding so much gold as they expected; when they had
  searched and rifled with their utmost diligence; they went about to
  procure discoveries by the most cruel torments they could invent upon the
  prisoners they had taken: but having profited nothing by these; their
  courage being greater than their torments; they arrived at last to such a
  degree of fury; as; contrary to their faith and the law of nations; to
  condemn the king himself; and one of the principal noblemen of his court;
  to the rack; in the presence of one another。  This lord; finding himself
  overcome with pain; being environed with burning coals; pitifully turned
  his dying eyes towards his master; as it were to ask him pardon that he
  was able to endure no more; whereupon the king; darting at him a fierce
  and severe look; as reproaching his cowardice and pusillanimity; with a
  harsh and constant voice said to him thus only: 〃And what dost thou think
  I suffer? am I in a bath? am I more at ease than thou?〃  Whereupon the
  other immediately quailed under the torment and died upon the spot。  The
  king; half roasted; was carried thence; not so much out of pity (for what
  compassion ever touched so barbarous souls; who; upon the doubtful
  information of some vessel of gold to be made a prey of; caused not only
  a man; but a king; so great in fortune and desert; to be broiled before
  their eyes); but because his constancy rendered their cruelty still more
  shameful。  They afterwards hanged him for having nobly attempted to
  deliver himself by arms from so long a captivity and subjection; and he
  died with a courage becoming so magnanimous a prince。
  Another time; they burnt in the same fire four hundred and sixty men
  alive at once; the four hundred of the common people; the sixty the
  principal lords of a province; simply prisoners of war。  We have these
  narratives from themselves for they not only own it; but boast of it and
  publish it。  Could it be for a testimony of their justice or their zeal
  to religion?  Doubtless these are ways too differing and contrary to so
  holy an end。  Had they proposed to themselves to extend our faith; they
  would have considered that it does not amplify in the possession of
  territories; but in the gaining of men; and would have more than
  satisfied themselves with the slaughters occasioned by the necessity of
  war; without indifferently mixing a massacre; as upon wild beasts; as
  universal as fire and sword could make it; having only; by intention;
  saved so many as they meant to make miserable slaves of; for the work and
  service of their mines; so that many of the captains were put to death
  upon the place of conquest; by order of the kings of Castile; justly
  offended with the horror of their deportment; and almost all of them
  hated and disesteemed。  God meritoriously permitted that all this great
  plunder should be swallowed up by the sea in transportation; or in the
  civil wars wherewith they devoured one another; and most of the men
  themselves were buried in a foreign land without any fruit of their
  victory。
  That the revenue from these countries; though in the hands of so
  parsimonious and so prudent a prince; 'Phillip II。' so little answers
  the expectation given of it to his predecessors; and to that original
  abundance of riches which was found at the first landing in those new
  discovered countries (for though a great deal be fetched thence; yet we
  see 'tis nothing in comparison of that which might be expected); is that
  the use of coin was there utterly unknown; and that consequently their
  gold was found all hoarded together; being of no other use but for
  ornament and show; as a furniture reserved from father to son by many
  puissant kings; who were ever draining their mines to make this vast heap
  of vessels and statues for the decoration of their palaces and temples;
  whereas our gold is always in motion and traffic; we cut it into a
  thousand small pieces; and cast it into a thousand forms; and scatter and
  disperse it in a thousand ways。  But suppose our kings should thus hoard
  up all the gold they could get in several ages and let it lie idle by
  them。
  Those of the kingdom of Mexico were in some sort more civilised and more
  advanced in arts than the other nations about them。  Therefore did they
  judge; as we do; that the world was near its period; and looked upon the
  desolation we brought amongst them as a certain sign of it。  They
  believed that the existence of the world was divided into five ages; and
  in the life of five successive suns; of which four had already ended
  their time; and that this which gave them light was the fifth。  The first
  perished; with all other creatures; by an universal inundation of water;
  the second by the heavens falling upon us and suffocating every living
  thing to which age they assigned the giants; and showed bones to the
  Spaniards; according to the proportion of which the stature of men
  amounted to twenty feet; the third by fire; which burned and consumed
  all; the fourth by an emotion of the air and wind; which came with such
  violence as to beat down even many mountains; wherein the men died not;
  but were turned into baboons。  What impressions will not the weakness of
  human belief admit?  Af