Spaniards had overthrowne in battell the Cacick Mabodomacha, Salazar was minded to set his dog upon an old Indian woman, that was a prisoner: now, that he might doe it the more handsomely, he giveth this old woman a letter to carrie to the Governour, being then a league off, meaning, so soone as she should be gon a little way, to let loose his dog after her. The poor soule going on merrily, in hope of deliverance by the meane of that letter, was not gon a bow-shoot on her way, before Salazar sent his dog after, who overtakes her presently. She seeing the raging curre running after her with open mouth, sits her downe upon the ground, and begins to say to him in her language; Seignior dogge, seignior dogge, I carrie these letters (therewith showing him the letters sealed) to the governor. And then adding, Seignior dog doe not hurt me. Bezerillo, lesse dogged than his lord Salazar, being (as it were) moved with the humble and abject prayers of the poore old woman, made a full stop, and lifting up his leg pisseth against the woman, as it had beene against a wall. The Spaniards that knew the currish and cruell nature of Bezerillo, made a miracle of the accident, and were ashamed to kill a woman whom such a dog had spared alive. This showeth the truth of that saying of Aristotle, That anger groweth calme towards those that stir not, as appeareth in dogs that never bit persons layd along upon the ground. read also, that the West Indians in Peru, being not able to find gold inough to satisfie the covetousnesse of the Spaniards, who applied divers kinds of tortures unto them, hid themselves in the woods; but the Spaniards going thither a hunting with their dogs, and thereby discovering the Indians, made them be set upon, strangled, and torne in pieces: they

We

that were left alive being driven into despaire, to be rid at once out of so many miseries hung themselves with their owne hands. A Spaniard, a Jacobin Frier, and after a Bishop, called Bartlemew de las Casas,' confirmeth these things, as having seene them; for describing the affaires of Peru, he deploreth withal the unhappienesse of the Indians; But I must needs (saith he) recount another devilish act, and I know not if it agree not more with the most cruell beasts, than with men. The Spaniards keepe of purpose certaine furious and bloody curres, with which they use to bite, throttle, and teare the Indians in pieces. For my part thinke not that good and right Christians, and they that will be thought to bee so (but are not indeed) can say, That they ever heard tell of the like, to wit, That the Spaniards carrie about with them wheresoever they goe, a great number of Indians chained as if it were herds of swine. They kill them, cut them into pieces, and keepe a shambles of mans flesh. You shall oft-times heare one of them say to another, Lend me a quarter of flesh of thy viliago (that is to say villaine, for so in outragious disdaine they call everie. Indian) to give to my dogs, I will give thee the like when I shall kill one of my viliagos: behaving themselves in that, as if they pleasured one another with quarters of mutton, or with legs of porck. Some of them when they goe a hunting (as they doe ordinarily), being asked at their comming home, if they had good fortune: Yea (say they), for with my dogs I have pulled downe and killed so many and so many viliacos. If it be not to the number of fifteene or twentie, they thinke they have not made a good hunting. This Spanish Bishop

1 In his book of the Destruction of the Indians by the Spaniards.

writeth of these and many other such beastly furious parts in the Spanish booke, printed at Sevill, Anno 1552, since translated into French, and published. Moreover, Anthonie le Pois, in a certaine discourse, alleageth out of the Histories of India, how that, by the commandement of Veluoa, a Spanish captaine, Pancras, a great Indian Cacick, and many other great followers of his, were throwne to dogs, which did throttle and eat them. Hee addeth, That in this voyage a Spanish souldier had such a terrible dog which he carried with him, that in bickerings hee would strike more feare into the Indians, than the Spaniards themselves could doe; whereby his master received a double pay everie moneth, one for himselfe, another for his dog. At the last, in a conflict the Indians with arrowes killed this foure-footed Spaniard, at which they rejoiced more than if they had feld a great number of two-footed enemies. This dog called Leonino, had this singular qualitie, that if any Indian prisoner did save himself by running, and the souldier would command the dog to run after, and bring him back againe; Leonino would follow the footing of the prisoner, and though he had hid himselfe among a thousand Indians, the dogge would know him againe, and by his leapings at him give him warning to come backe againe: If he obeyed, the dog would doe him no hurt; but if he resisted, Leonino would teare him in pieces. Touching the tortures and hunting with dogs practised by the Spaniards against the West-Indians, Anthonie Arnold' saith these words: in Peru they have publike tortures in the marketplaces, where they may put a thousand men at once, and

1 In his Plea against the Jesuits.

1

there the souldiers and their boyes torment these poore soules to make them confesse where their treasure lies. When they can make an escape, they goe and hang themselves in the mountains, and by them their wives, and their little children at their feete. These monsters of tyrannie goe a hunting men, as they doe heere hunt stags. They send them out to seek for honie and wax, and send their dogs after them to rent and devoure them. Peter Martyr Miliannois saith the same, where he reporteth, That the Indians burned certaine bodies which the dogs had torne in pieces. And after, he hath discourse at large of the ragingnesse of the dogs upon the poore, naked, and unarmed Indians; neverthelesse (saith he) the business fell out otherwise in the encounters between the Spaniards and the Caribes and Caramarians: for these people being fierce and fitter for the war than any other, shoote with great suddennesse poysoned arrowes, werewith they kill the dogs that come anything neere them."

Campanella2 states that this cruelty with dogs was introduced by Fedremen and Benalcazar's people, and that it became general, dogs being the main arm against the Indians.3 In Mexico the fighting dogs who were made use of in the war and had been the tomb of many kings and caciques, when this food failed them, devoured whole pasturages of sheep and swine.1

1 Lib. ii. Decad. 3.

2 De Monarchia Hispanica, p. 249.

3 L. F. Piedrahita, Historia General de las Conquistas del Nuevo Regno de Cranada, p. 305.

4 Remesal, Historia de la Provincia de Chiapa y Guatemala, p. 173.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE varieties of the dog are more numerous on the continent of Europe than throughout the whole remainder of the globe. Many volumes would be required to give even a partial description of them.

The shepherds' dogs of South Russia are thus described1 as discharging their office of protecting the flocks from the nocturnal violence of the wolf:

"The shepherds make their evening meal round a blazing fire, with their twenty watchful dogs encircling them. They lie down for their night's rest in the following order: the old head-shepherd and his guests choose the waggon for their lodging, the other shepherds drive the sheep close together into a circle round the waggon, and form with the dogs a cordon round the flock. Each shepherd lays the fur and 'swita' which, both in summer and winter, form his mattress and coverlet, on the grass of the steppes, and all place themselves at equal distances from each other. Between every two shepherds three or four dogs are placed, also at equal distances from each other. In order to make the dogs stay on their respective posts, a piece of an old cloak or sheep

1 Reisen in Sudrussland, vol. ii. p. 209. J. G. Kohl.