Chap. I. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. . s3 



bendi*. And I am perfuaded, that the great conquefts of which we 

 read in antient hiftory, fuch as thofe of the Aflyrians, Medes, Perfians, 

 Macedonians, and Romans, proceeded from the love of money as 

 much as from ambition; for money or wealth was wanted to fiipport 

 the hixury and vanity of their Princes and great men. There is one 

 vrar in modern times, which deftroyed, I believe I may fay, very 

 near as many men as all the antient wars put together ;. I mean the 

 war of the Spaniards againft the people of Mexico, Peru, and the 

 Weft Indies. This very great defolation of the newly difcovered 

 World, on the other fide of the r.tlantic, is a fact fo memorable, that, I 

 think, it is proper, even in The Hiftory of Man, to give a particular 

 account of it, taken from a book publifhed by a Spaniard of the name 

 of Las Calas, Biihop of Sciappo, in Mexico, upon the fubjed of 

 the tranfa6tions of the Spaniards in America and the Weft Indies • 

 to give an account of which, he was fent to- America by the Em- 

 peror Charles V. There is a tranflatlon of it, from the Spanifh, 

 into French, publifned at Amfterdam in 1698. This tranflation I 

 have feen and peiufed ; and from it the following account is taken. 



The author was long in the Weil Indies and America, and an eye 

 witnefs of a great many things he relates. He returned to Spain 

 in order to difcharge his office, by informing Charles V. of the 

 terrible outrages committed by the Spaniards in that part of the 

 world; and, he fays, he fmifhed his work at Valentia the 8th day of 

 December 1542 f. Befides what he faw himfelf, he appeals to a 

 letter of a Religious of the Francifcan order to the King of Caftile, 

 of which he gives you the words. It relates to the terrible cruelties 

 and devaft \tiuns committed by the Spaniards in Peru ; and this Re- 

 ligious fays, he was an eye witnefs of every thing he relates. His 

 relation. Las Cafas fays, was confirmed by the Biihop of Mexico ."f. 



And 



* Et belli rabies d amcr fiiccejfit hahendi. — ^ndd. 3. V. -^27. 

 ■\ Page 141. ij: p. 122. — 128, 



