Excerpted from:

Armadillo's WWW Server - Letters on the Texas Explorers - de Soto

You will see the use of the word "wardogs" and should know the Spanish used vicious dogs which were specially trained to "disembowel" human beings. (Yes, that means to rip open their stomachs with their sharp teeth and tear out their guts!)

On with the story, and it's a bloody one...

DeSoto used his wardogs in that way. They would attack and just watching them tear out the stomachof one of your friends was enough to scare you out of the fight! They used Indian captives for guides through the woods and forests, and if a guide led them into a trap and got them into trouble, they would throw him to the dogs and let his friends, the other guides, watch the dogs tear him to death! I'll bet the other Indian guides were very careful not to lead DeSoto into any more traps or bad places. Wouldn't you be careful, after seeing that?
 

• Dogs on the De Soto Expedition
• Aztec Accounts of Spanish War Dogs

And this Captain having gone there, he found the people gone, and he burned the town, and he set the dogs on [aperrear] an Indian he brought as a guide. The reader must understand that to set the dogs on [an Indian] is to make the dogs eat them or kill them, tearing the Indian to pieces. The conquistadors in the Indies have always used greyhounds or fierce and valiant dogs in war; and this is why hunting Indians was mentioned above. Therefore the guide was killed in this way because he lied and guided poorly.¹
 
 

Following this, this Indian fleeing from the Christians the next day, a noble greyhound from Ireland plunged after him in the multitude of Indians that were on a densely wooded hill [arcabuco]. It rushed to the clamor and entered among all the Indians; and although it had passed by many, not one did seize but the one who had fled, who was among the multitude, and it held him by the fleshy part of his arm in such a manner that the Indian was thrown down and apprehended. ²
 
 

...and all the Indians went fleeing through the woods. The governor ordered loose a hound which he had brought along, previously gutted on them, which passing by many other Indians went to seize the pretended cacique who had fled from the Christians and held him until the latter came to seize him. ³
 
 

The governor ordered him thrown to the dogs, and another one guided him to Soacatino, whither he arrived the next day. ⁴
 
 

When the Spaniards saw this they wondered at it, and the y loosed a greyhound to finish killing him by grasping and tearing him. So ended this treacherous and malicious Indian, as he deserved.

The Castilians had not gone fifty paces from the Indian, whom they believed to be dead and eaten by the dog, when they heard the hound giving great howls, clamoring as if they were killing him. Our men ran to see what it was and found that the Indian, with his little remaining strength, had placed his thumbs on either side of the dog's mouth and was tearing his jaws apart, the dog being unable to help himself. Seeing this, one of the Spaniards stabbed him repeatedly, finally killing him; another cut off his hands with a hunter's cutlass that he carried, and after they were severed he could not loosen them from the dog's mouth so desperately had he grasped it. ⁵
 
 

At the shout the Indians raised on shooting their arrows, a greyhound which one of the governor's pages was leading by the collar, jumped and knock down the page, dragging him on the ground. He gave a leap and threw himself into the water, and however much the Spaniards might call to him so skillfully that they placed more than fifty arrows in his head and shoulders, which were exposed. With all this the dog was able to come out on the bank, but on leaving the water he at once fell dead. This grieved the governor and all his people very much, because he was an extremely fine animal and much needed in the conquest, during which, in the short time that it lasted, he had made forays that caused no little wonder against the Indian enemies, both by day and by night, only one of which we shall recount, in order to show his prowess.⁶
 
 

The greyhound, which happened to be nearby, hearing the shout the Indians gave and seeing them run, followed them. As if he had human understanding, he passed by the first whom he overtook and also the second and the third, until reaching the fourth, who was running ahead. Seizing him by the shoulder, he threw him down and held him on the ground. Meanwhile the Indian who was nearest to the came up; as the dog saw that he was passing by he loosed the first one and caught the one who was passing, and having thrown him down, he grasped the third, who was now passing by, and having done the same with the first two, he went at the fourth, who now came up. Throwing him to the ground, he returned to the others and ran between them with such dexterity and skill, leaping at the one who was down and grasping and pulling down him who raised up, and threatening them with loud barks at the same time that he seized them, that he confused and held them until the Spaniards came up to their assistance...They [had] thought to boast of this exploit later among the Indians...of which they had be deprived of by the hound Bruto, for so the dog was named. ⁷
 
 

At this point Juan Coles, having recounted some of things that we have told, tells of another particular exploit of the hound Bruto...He says that the hound, which was nearby, seeing what had happened, jumped in after them, and although he overtook other Indians, he says that he did not seize any of them until he came to the one who had struck the blow, and grasping him, he tore him to pieces in the water.

For these attacks and for others that Bruto had made upon them while guarding the army at night, so that no enemy approached it whom he did not immediately destroy, the Indians avenged themselves by killing him as has been told.⁸
 
 

The governor, being angered by this and at seeing his army in such want through the Indian's malice, ordered that he be tied to a tree and that the mastiffs they had with them be let loose upon him. One of them shook and dragged him badly.⁹
 
 

On the other hand they all said together that he who had done them such harm hitherto would do worse in the future, and they ordered the dogs let loose. Being very hungry, in a short time they tore him to pieces and ate him.¹⁰
 
 

Greyhounds have performed wonderful feats in the conquests in the New World, as did Becerillo on the Island of San Juan de Puerto Rico, where the Spaniards gave to the dog from the profits that they made, or through him to his master, who was an harquebusier, the part and share of an harquebusier. To Leoncillo, as son of this hound, there fell 500 pesos in gold at distribution of the riches won by the famous Vasco Núñez de Balboa, after having discovered the South Sea. ¹¹

Their dogs are enormous, with flat ears and long dangling tongues.  The color of the eyes is a burning yellow; their eyes flash fire and shoot off sparks. their bellies are hollow, their flanks long and narrow.  They are tireless and very powerful.  They bound here and ther, panting, with their tongues hanging out.  And they are spotted like an ocelot.¹²

Their dogs came with them, running ahead of th column.  They raised their muzzles high; they lifted their muzzles to the wind.  They raced on before with saliva dripping from their jaws.¹³

They also said that the strangers brought...wild animals on leashes;...lions and ounces so ferocious that they ate people...¹⁴

2 Clayton. Vol.I. pp.262-263.

3 Clayton. Vol.I. p.66.

4 Clayton. Vol.I. p.146.

5 Clayton. Vol.II. p.201-202.

6 Clayton. Vol.II. pp.148-149.

7 Clayton. Vol.II.p.150.

8 Clayton. Vol.II.p.150-152.

9 Clayton. Vol.II.p.459.

10 Clayton. Vol.II.p.420.

11 Clayton. Vol.II.p.152.

12 Leon-Portilla, Miguel.  The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conqust of Mexico. (Beacon Press, Boston 1992) p.31.

13  Leon-Portilla. p.41.

14 Leon-Portilla. pp.45-46.

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