But, far from introducing this, Pizarro
delivered up the conquered races to his brutal soldiery; the
sacred cloisters were abandoned to their lust; the towns and
villages were given up to pillage; the wretched natives were
parcelled out like slaves, to toil for their conquerors in the
mines; the flocks were scattered, and wantonly destroyed; the
granaries were dissipated; the beautiful contrivances for the
more perfect culture of the soil were suffered to fall into
decay; the paradise was converted into a desert. Instead of
profiting by the ancient forms of civilization, Pizarro preferred
to efface every vestige of them from the land, and on their ruin
to erect the institutions of his own country. Yet these
institutions did little for the poor Indian, held in iron
bondage. It was little to him that the shores of the Pacific
were studded with rising communities and cities, the marts of a
flourishing commerce. He had no share in the goodly heritage.
He was an alien in the land of his fathers.
The religion of the Peruvian, which directed him to the worship
of that glorious luminary which is the best representative of the
might and beneficence of the Creator, is perhaps the purest form
of superstition that has existed among men. Yet it was much,
that, under the new order of things, and through the benevolent
zeal of the missionaries, some glimmerings of a nobler faith were
permitted to dawn on his darkened soul. Pizarro, himself, cannot
be charged with manifesting any overweening solicitude for the
propagation of the Faith.
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