Witchcraft in Early North America - Alison Games [77]
The case began in the following way. There was an old Indian in this nation who was a great sorcerer and had very intimate dealings with the devil. Although he had been baptized, he only pretended to renounce that diabolical pact. Or perhaps he truly did renounce it and subsequently backslid, just as many other heretics in the world have done. He apostatized, taking along with him an idol, which was like his oracle and the means by which he communicated with the devil. When he entered the pueblos of Santiago, Tunal, and Tenerapa, which were all near Durango, he preached perversely against our Holy Faith, with the harmful intention of inciting those people to abandon their Faith and rebel against God and the king. The governor of Nueva Vizcaya received some news of Indian unrest in Durango. He investigated the case and determined that it was nothing more than one of these people’s ancient diabolical superstitions. He ordered the usual punishment for this Indian and his accomplices: that they be flogged for the scandal they had caused in those pueblos. This sorcerer was astute and bedeviled, and in order to disguise his intentions (in which he still persisted, as was later demonstrated), he found an image of our holy crucifix and displayed it to some people. He told them that this was the God whom he and his companions worshiped. Afterwards, however, he went to the aforementioned pueblo of baptized Tepehuan, called Tenerapa. . . . There he ordered that his idol be worshiped, and through his lies and tricks he convinced these Indians that he, through his idol, was God. He also convinced them that both he and the idol were angry and offended because he had assigned the Spaniards a homeland in kingdoms on the other side of the ocean in Spain, and yet they had come to these parts without his permission, settling in his lands and introducing the Christian law. He wished to free them of this, and in order to do so, as well as to placate their true gods, they would have to cut the throats of all long-time Christians, particularly the priests and fathers who instructed them, as well as all the Spaniards in the region. If they did not do so, they would receive a terrible punishment in the form of illnesses, plagues, and famines. But if they obeyed him, he promised them safety for their own lives, their women and children, and victory over the Spaniards. Even if some of them should die in battle, he promised them that within seven days they would be resurrected. He who is the father of deception and was this Indian’s own familiar demon heaped one lie on top of another. He added that once they had achieved the promised victory, all the old men and women would be made young again. The devil is aware of how strong this desire is in mankind, who do not want even to appear to be old. On this occasion he used this and other lengthy arguments to pervert [these] ignorant people, just as he has done many other times for similar ends with other people of greater [intellectual] capacity.
This trickster did not desist in his lies and false promises. He assured the Tepehuan that they would wipe out the Spaniards in the region, and that afterwards he, [acting] as God through his idol, would create storms at sea, sinking the Spaniards’ ships and thus preventing additional Spaniards from reaching these lands. In confirmation of this diabolical hoax and to further terrorize and frighten these people, he gave them an example [of his power], which some said actually occurred. Even if there was some truth to what was said to have happened, owing to the fact that God, for His reasons, allowed it to happen, the Indian trickster nevertheless misled the people. That notwithstanding, some Indians confessed that an Indian named Sebastián, who was a native of Tenerapa, and a woman named Justina, a native of Papasquiaro, were both swallowed up when the earth opened on the order of the sorcerer, who punished them for disobeying him.