Note 5 — Chapter V · THE SPANIARDS IN HISPANIOLA AND CUBA.

Las Casas, in his zeal for the Indians, has been charged with exaggerating the numbers destroyed, but no one has attempted to deny the following fact asserted by him: “I once beheld four or five principal Indians roasted alive at a slow fire; and as the miserable victims poured forth dreadful screams, which disturbed the commanding officer in his afternoon slumbers—he sent word that they should be strangled; but the officer on guard (I know his name—I know his relatives in Seville) would not suffer it; but causing their mouths to be gagged, that their cries might not be heard, he stirred up the fire with his own hands, and roasted them deliberately till they all expired. I saw it myself!!!”