[Note 3:  The Brevissima Relacion de la Destruycion de las Indias, of Fray B. de las Casas, contains the most crushing indictment of Spanish colonial government ever penned.  When every allowance has been made for the apostolic, or even the fanatical zeal, with which Las Casas defended his proteges and denounced their tormentors, the case against the Spanish colonists remains one of the blackest known to history.  Just what the native population of Haiti and Cuba originally numbered is hardly ascertainable; twelve millions is doubtless an excessive estimate; but within twenty-five years of the discovery of America, the islanders were reduced to 14,000.  Between 1507 and 1513 their numbers fell from 14,000 to 4000, and by 1750 not one remained.  Consult Fabie, Vida y Escritos de Fray Bartolome de Las Casas (Madrid, 1879); MacNutt, Bartholomew de las Casas, his Life, his Apostolate, and his Writings, New York, 1910.]

In the mountains of Cibao, which are situated in about the centre of the island, and in the province of Cahibo where we have said the most gold was found, there lies a district called Cotohi.  It is amongst the clouds, completely enclosed by mountain chains, and its inhabitants are numerous.  It consists of a large plateau twenty-five miles in length and fifteen in breadth; and this plateau lies so high above the other mountains that the peaks surrounding it appear to give birth to the lesser mountains.  Four seasons may be counted on this plateau:  spring, summer, autumn, and winter; and the plants there wither, the trees lose their leaves and the fields dry up.  This does not happen in the rest of the island, which only knows spring-time and autumn.  Ferns, grass, and berry bushes grow there, furnishing undeniable proof of the cold temperature.  Nevertheless the country is agreeable and the cold is not severe, for the natives do not suffer from it, nor are there snow storms., As a proof of the fertility of the soil it is alleged that the stalks of the ferns are thicker than javelins.  The neighbouring mountainsides contain rich gold deposits but these mines will not be exploited because of the cold, which would make it necessary to give clothing even to those miners who are accustomed to that labour.

The natives are satisfied with very little; they are delicate and could not endure winter, for they live in the open air.  Two rivers traverse this region, flowing from the high mountains which border it.  The first, called Comoiaixa, flows towards the west and loses its name where it empties into the Naiba.  The second, called the Tirechetus, flows east and empties into the Iunna.

When I passed the island of Crete on my journey to the Sultan,[4] the Venetians told me that there was a similar region on the summit of Mount Ida; this region, more than the rest of the island, produces a better wheat crop.  Protected by the impassable roads which led to these heights, the Cretans revolted, and for a long time maintained an armed independence against the Senate of Venice.  Finally, when weary of fighting, they decided to submit, and the Senate decreed their country should remain a desert.  All avenues leading to it were guarded so that no one could go there without its consent.