In one instance, when a party of hopeless natives had come together with
the intention of killing themselves, an intendant came to them with a rope
in his hand, and told them that if they did not give up their purpose he
would hang himself with them. This threat filled them with such horror at
the prospect of meeting a Spaniard in the spirit world, that they fled
from the spot, preferring life with all its terrors to such a companion.
As may well be imagined, the natives did not all yield resistlessly to
their tyrants. Thus, in exasperation at the quantity of gold-dust which
they were forced to pay as tribute, the people of Aconcalm, in the
province of Canas, seized the brutal Spanish collector one day, and gave
him melted gold to drink, "to satisfy in this way his insatiable thirst
for gold."
In December, 1767, the descendants of the two tribes which had owned the
mining valley of Caravaya descended on the white inhabitants in revenge
for a usurpation of their lands which had taken place more than two
centuries before. They settled the question of ownership by burning the
city and killing all the inhabitants with arrows and clubs.
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