----------------------------------------------------------------------
_Of the _Pearl-Coast, PARIA, _and_ TRINITY-ISLE.
The _Spaniards_ made great Spoils and Havock from the _Parian_ Coast to the Bay of _Venecuola_, exclusively, which is about Two Hundred Miles. It can hardly be exprest by Tongue or Pen how many, and how great Injuries and Injustices, the Inhabitants of this Sea-shore have endur'd from the year 1510, to this day. I will only relate Two or Three Piacular and Criminal Acts of the First Magnitude, capable of comprehending all other Enormities that deserve the sharpest Torments, Wit and Malice can invent, and so make way for a deserved Judgment upon them.
A Nameless Pirate of the Year 1510, accompanied with a parcel of Sixty or Seventy, arriv'd at _Trinity-Island_, which exceeds _Sicile_, both in Amplitude and Fertility, and is contiguous to the Continent on that side where it toucheth upon _Paria_, whose Inhabitants, according to their Quality, are more addicted to Probity and Vertue, than the rest of the _Indians_; who immediately published an Edict, that all the Inhabitants should come and cohabit with them. The _Indian_ Lords and Subjects gave them a Debonair and Brotherly Reception, serving them with wonderful Alacrity, furnishing them with dayly Provisions in so plentiful a manner, that they might have sufficed a more numerous Company; for it is the Mode among _Indians_ of this New World, to supply the _Spaniards_ very bountifuly with all manner of Necessaries. A short time after the _Spaniards_ built a stately House, which was an Appartment for the _Indians_, that they might accomplish their praemeditated Designs, which was thus effected. When they were to thatch it, and had rais'd it two Mens height, they inclos'd several of them there, to expedite the Work, as they pretended, but in truth that they who were within, might not see those without; thus part of them surrounded the House with Sword in Hand that no one should stir out, and part of them entred it, and bound the _Indians_, menacing them with Death, if they offered to move a Foot; and if any one endeavoured to escape, he was presently hackt in pieces; but some of them partly wounded, and partly unwounded getting away, with others who went not into the House, about One Hundred and Two Hundred, betook themselves to another House with Bows and Arrows; and when they were all there, the _Spaniards_ secur'd the Doors, throwing in Fire at another place, and so they all perished. From hence they set Sail to the Island of St. _John_ with near upon One Hundred and Eighty Slaves, whom they had bound, where they sold one half of them, and thence to _Hispaniola_, where they dispos'd of the rest. Now when I taxed this Captain with Wickedness and Treachery in the very Isle of St. _John_, he dismist me with this Answer; _Forbear good Sir._ I had this in commission from those who sent me hither, that I should surprize them by the spetious pretense of Peace, whom I could not sieze by open Force, and in truth this same Captain told me with his own Mouth, that in _Trinity-Isle_ alone, he had met with a Father and Mother in Civil usage, which he uttered to his greater Confusion and the aggravation of his Sins. The Monks of our Order of St. _Dominic_ on a certain time held a Consult about sending one of their Fraternity into this Island, that by their Preaching they might instruct them in the Christian Faith, and teach them the way to be sav'd, of which they were wholly Ignorant. And to this end they sent thither a Religious and Licentiate in Theologie, (or Doctor in Divinity, as we term it among us) a Man Famous for his Vertue and Holiness with a _Laic_ his Associate, to visit the Country, converse with the Inhabitants, and find out the most convenient places for the Erection of Monasteries. As soon as they were arriv'd according to custom, they were entertain'd like Coelestial Messengers, with great Affection, Joy and Respect, as well as they could, for they were ignorant of their Tongue, and so made use of signs, for the present.