Bartholomew Casa, who made this
computation, affirms that they (the Spaniards) hanged those unhappy
people _thirteen in a row_, in honour of the _thirteen Apostles_, and
that they also gave their infants to be devoured by dogs. [75:1]
Corsini, another religious author, tells us the Spaniards destroyed more
than fifteen millions of American aborigines, and calculates that the
blood of these devoted victims, added to that of the slaves destroyed in
the mines, where they were compelled to labour, would weigh as much as
all the gold and silver that had been dug out of them.
If these or similar horrors were perpetrated by Atheists, who can doubt
that Roman Catholics would at once ascribe them to the pestiferous
influence of Atheistical principles. And the Author of this Apology is
of opinion that they would be justified in so doing. When whole nations
of professed irreligionists shall be found conquering a country, and
hanging the aborigines of that country thirteen in a row, in honour of
some thirteen apostles of Atheism, their barbarity may fairly be
ascribed to their creed. Habit does much, and perhaps much of our
virtue, or its opposite is contingent on temperament; but no people
entertaining correct speculative opinions could possibly act, or
tolerate, atrocities like these.
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