He was so cruel to his Negroes, that, when one of them behaved badly, he would whip him almost to death.  He had among others a slave named Macaco, “on behalf of whom,” said Gage, “I often pleaded, but in vain.  At times he hung him by the hands and beat him until he had his back entirely covered with blood, and in that state, the skin being entirely torn to pieces, in order to heal up the slave’s sores the master poured hot fat over them.  Moreover, he had marked him with a hot iron face, hands, arms, back, belly, and legs, so that this poor slave got tired to live and intended several times to suicide himself; but I prevented him from doing so every time by remonstrances I made him.”

Juan Palomeque was so sensual and voluptuous that he constantly abused the wives of his slaves as he liked, and even when he saw in the city some girl or woman of that class whom he wanted, and she was not attracted to him, he would call upon her master or mistress and buy her, “giving much more than she had cost; afterwards he boasted that he would break down her pride in one year of slavery.”  “In my times,” said Gage, “he killed two Indians on the road to the Gulf, but by means of his money he got so easily out of that affair as if he had killed but a dog.”  As Gage does not tell anything of a prosecution for the crimes against the Negro, no actual law seems to have been violated.[3]

The descendants of the ancient slaves have so completely become mixed up with Spanish-Indian blood that, making exception of the valley of the Motagua River, they have practically disappeared as a race.  In 1796, their number was considerably increased by the so-called Caribs, whom the English deported from the Island of St. Vincent and set ashore in Guatemala.  They live now on the Atlantic coast, also on that of Honduras and Nicaragua, and are estimated to total about 20,000.  They are Zambos, but the African blood seems to prevail.[4]

A MULATTO CORSAIR OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

When on his return voyage to England, sailing down the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica, Thomas Gage’s ship was intercepted by two corsairs under the Dutch flag, one of them being a man-of-war.  The struggle of the Netherlands for freedom against Spain had not then come to a close.  The Dutch commander was a character, of whose strange experiences Gage gives an interesting account.  Much to the surprise of the traveler the captain who had caught them was a mulatto named Diaguillo, who was born and brought up at Habana (Cuba), where his mother was still living.  Having been maltreated by the Governor of Campeche in whose service he had been, this mulatto in a fit of utter desperation threw himself into a boat and ventured into the sea, where he met with some Dutch ships on watch for a prize.  He swam to and went aboard one of these vessels, hoping to find better treatment than among his country-men.  He offered himself to the Dutch and promised to serve them loyally against those of his nation who had maltreated him.  Afterwards he proved himself so loyal and reliable to the Dutch, that he won much fame among them.  He was married to a girl of their nation and later made captain of a vessel under that brave and noble Dutchman, whom the Spaniards dreaded much and whom they named Pie de Palo, or Wooden-leg.