THE
C O M P A N I O N S OF C O L U M B U S .
71
Alonzo de Ojeda, servant of the most high and mighty sovereigns of Castile and Leon, conquerors of barbarous nations, their mes senger and captain, do notify unto you and make you know, in the best way I can, that God our Lord, one and eternal, created the heaven and the earth, and one man and one woman, from whom you and we and all the people of the earth proceeded and are descendants, as well as all those who shall come hereafter." The formula then went on to declare the fundamental principles of the Catholic Faith ; the supreme power given to St. Peter over the world and all the human race, and exercised by his rep resentative the Pope ; the donation made by a late Pope of all this part of the world and all its inhabitants to the Catholic sove reigns of Castile ; and the ready obedience already paid by many of its lands and islands and people to the agents and representa tives of those sovereigns.
It called upon those savages present,
therefore, to do the same, to acknowledge the truth of the Chris tian doctrines, the supremacy of the Pope, and the sovereignty of the Catholic King, but in case of refusal, denounced upon them all the horrors of war, the desolation of their dwellings, the seiz ure of their property, and the slavery of their wives and children. Such was the extraordinary document, which, from this time for ward, was read by the Spanish discoverers to the wondering sav ages of any newly-found country, as a prelude to sanctify the violence about to be inflicted on them.* When the friars had read this pious manifesto, Ojeda made signs of amity to the natives, and held up glittering presents. They had already suffered, however, from the cruelties of white
* The reader will find the complete form of this curious manifesto in the Appendix.