"Thanks for saving us Columbus from the Cannibals"
Ok. even if we do accept that the Caribs practiced ritual human sacrifice (as many societies did). I'm pretty fucking sure the (almost) compete and total genocide of the entire Taino people by 1550 via brutal atrocities is not really "You are a hero" territory.
Here's a taste of what Columbus's fellows did.
CW: extreme (more extreme than you are currently expecting) violence
Which the Spaniards no sooner perceived, but they, mounted on generous Steeds, well weapon'd with Lances and Swords, begin to exercise their bloody Butcheries and Strategems, and overrunning their Cities and Towns, spar'd no Age, or Sex, nay not so much as Women with Child, but ripping up their Bellies, tore them alive in pieces. They laid Wagers among themselves, who should with a Sword at one blow cut, or divide a Man in two; or which of them should decollate or behead a Man, with the greatest dexterity; nay farther, which should sheath his Sword in the Bowels of a Man with the quickest dispatch and expedition.
They snatcht young Babes from the Mothers Breasts, and then dasht out the brains of those innocents against the Rocks; others they cast into Rivers scoffing and jeering them, and call'd upon their Bodies when falling with derision, the true testimony of their Cruelty, to come to them, and inhumanely exposing others to their Merciless Swords, together with the Mothers that gave them Life.
They erected certain Gibbets, large, but low made, so that their feet almost reacht the ground, every one of which was so order'd as to bear Thirteen Persons in Honour and Reverence (as they said blasphemously) of our Redeemer and his Twelve Apostles, under which they made a Fire to burn them to Ashes whilst hanging on them: But those they intended to preserve alive, they dismiss'd, their Hands half cut, and still hanging by the Skin, to carry their Letters missive to those that fly from us and ly sculking on the Mountains, as an exprobation of their flight.
The Lords and Persons of Noble Extract were usually expos'd to this kind of Death; they order'd Gridirons to be placed and supported with wooden Forks, and putting a small Fire under them, these miserable Wretches by degrees and with loud Shreiks and exquisite Torments, at last Expir'd.
EDIT: More Contemporary description
"Within these twelve years the Spaniards have destroyed in the Said Countinent, by Spears, Fire and Sword, computing Men, Women, Youth, and Children above Four Millions of people in these their Acquests or Conquests (for under that word they mask their Cruel Actions)"
"These two Isles containing six hundred thousand at least, though at this day there are scarce two hundred men to be found in either of them, the remainder perishing without the knowledge of Christian Faith or Sacrament." (So much for the "Light of God" excuse.)
"There is no Tongue, Art, or Human knowledge can recite the horrid Impieties, which these Capital Enemies to Government and all Mankind have been guilty of at several times and in several Nations; nor can the circumstantial Aggravations of some of their wicked Acts be unfolded or display'd by any manner of Industry, time or writing, but yet I will say somewhat of every individual particular thing, which this protestation and Oath, that I conceive I am not able to comprehend one of a Thousand."
I feel if you are being talked about as a kind of Lovecraftian Horror beyond human comprehension by your own countrymen, you might not be the good guys.
i dunno what sacrifices those people had, but wypipo used to do public hangings. a lot of them. if that's not a ritual religious sacrifice, i dunno what is.
Oh yeah, going back to rome even, where they very carefully did not have human sacrifices to the gods...they just lead theur war captives to Rome and then had them strangled in the city's most holy place in a ritualised ceremony...
"Thanks for saving us Columbus from the Cannibals"
Ok. even if we do accept that the Caribs practiced ritual human sacrifice (as many societies did). I'm pretty fucking sure the (almost) compete and total genocide of the entire Taino people by 1550 via brutal atrocities is not really "You are a hero" territory.
Here's a taste of what Columbus's fellows did.
CW: extreme (more extreme than you are currently expecting) violence
Which the Spaniards no sooner perceived, but they, mounted on generous Steeds, well weapon'd with Lances and Swords, begin to exercise their bloody Butcheries and Strategems, and overrunning their Cities and Towns, spar'd no Age, or Sex, nay not so much as Women with Child, but ripping up their Bellies, tore them alive in pieces. They laid Wagers among themselves, who should with a Sword at one blow cut, or divide a Man in two; or which of them should decollate or behead a Man, with the greatest dexterity; nay farther, which should sheath his Sword in the Bowels of a Man with the quickest dispatch and expedition.
They snatcht young Babes from the Mothers Breasts, and then dasht out the brains of those innocents against the Rocks; others they cast into Rivers scoffing and jeering them, and call'd upon their Bodies when falling with derision, the true testimony of their Cruelty, to come to them, and inhumanely exposing others to their Merciless Swords, together with the Mothers that gave them Life.
They erected certain Gibbets, large, but low made, so that their feet almost reacht the ground, every one of which was so order'd as to bear Thirteen Persons in Honour and Reverence (as they said blasphemously) of our Redeemer and his Twelve Apostles, under which they made a Fire to burn them to Ashes whilst hanging on them: But those they intended to preserve alive, they dismiss'd, their Hands half cut, and still hanging by the Skin, to carry their Letters missive to those that fly from us and ly sculking on the Mountains, as an exprobation of their flight.
The Lords and Persons of Noble Extract were usually expos'd to this kind of Death; they order'd Gridirons to be placed and supported with wooden Forks, and putting a small Fire under them, these miserable Wretches by degrees and with loud Shreiks and exquisite Torments, at last Expir'd.
EDIT: More Contemporary description
"Within these twelve years the Spaniards have destroyed in the Said Countinent, by Spears, Fire and Sword, computing Men, Women, Youth, and Children above Four Millions of people in these their Acquests or Conquests (for under that word they mask their Cruel Actions)"
"These two Isles containing six hundred thousand at least, though at this day there are scarce two hundred men to be found in either of them, the remainder perishing without the knowledge of Christian Faith or Sacrament." (So much for the "Light of God" excuse.)
"There is no Tongue, Art, or Human knowledge can recite the horrid Impieties, which these Capital Enemies to Government and all Mankind have been guilty of at several times and in several Nations; nor can the circumstantial Aggravations of some of their wicked Acts be unfolded or display'd by any manner of Industry, time or writing, but yet I will say somewhat of every individual particular thing, which this protestation and Oath, that I conceive I am not able to comprehend one of a Thousand."
I feel if you are being talked about as a kind of Lovecraftian Horror beyond human comprehension by your own countrymen, you might not be the good guys.
i dunno what sacrifices those people had, but wypipo used to do public hangings. a lot of them. if that's not a ritual religious sacrifice, i dunno what is.
tough on crime bullshit and all that.
Oh yeah, going back to rome even, where they very carefully did not have human sacrifices to the gods...they just lead theur war captives to Rome and then had them strangled in the city's most holy place in a ritualised ceremony...
Burning witches, the whole Spanish Inquisition that preceded New World colonialism and then became part of it, etc.