Historical 43 



" The dogs carried out by the Chasseurs del Rey are all 

 perfectly broken in. On coming up with the fugitive, they 

 bark at him till he stops. They then crouch near him, 

 terrifying him with ferocious growling if he attempts to stir. 

 In this position they continue barking to give notice to 

 the Chasseurs, who come up and secure their prisoner. 



" Each Chasseur can only hunt with two dogs. These 

 people live with their dogs, and are inseparable from them. 

 At home the animals are kept chained, and when walking 

 out with their masters, they are never unmuzzled, nor let 

 out of ropes, but for attack." 



There is no doubt that the Spaniards, in their dealings 

 with any people they considered their foes, or who stood 

 in their light in any way, were extremely cruel ; and one 

 reads with regret of the way they hunted the Indians, who 

 certainly seemed to have hated their foreign masters, and 

 to have used every means of aggression against them that 

 lay within their power. But, after all, the Indians were 

 the original inhabitants, and although " a barbarous 

 people, sensual and brutish, hating all labour and only 

 inclined to killing and making war against their neigh- 

 bours," it is to be questioned if they were much worse than 

 the Spaniards themselves. 



" The Indians, it being their custom to make the woods 

 their chief places of defence, at present made these their 

 chief places of refuge, whenever they fled from the Spaniards. 

 Hereupon, these, the first conquerors of the New World, 

 made use of dogs to range and search the intricate thickets 

 of wood and forests for their implacable and unconquerable 

 enemies ; thus they forced them to leave their old refuge, 

 and to submit to the sword, seeing no milder usage would 

 do it. 



" But this severity proved of ill consequence, for instead 



