Horrors of the New World: Early Accounts From the Spanish Conquistadores

It's the year fifteen twenty in South Texas as an unforgiving landscape to those who aren't used to the terrain, the Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Caveza Devaca is far from everything that he was looking for gold and glory. Lots of things went wrong back then. He had gone through a disaster after a shipwreck, there was starvation, and then they had been wandering around for years desperately. Eventually he started living among the Quahuiltecan Indians. The tribe started to see him as a healer when he was able to remove an arrowhead from a dying man's chest using a flint knife. Suddenly they trust him and began telling him about a terrifying account an entity that had been tormenting their village about fifteen years before. They called it Mala Cosa, the bad Thing. The Quahuiltecan described malac Gosa as a small, bearded creature that had a natural terrifying strength. He could lift up a house into the air and send it crashing to the ground. It sometimes appeared wearing the regular clothes of a man, and other times it would be dressed as a woman. It was known to stalk their dances and settlements at night. The thing was the natives were able to know when Mala Cosa was near in the dark because the hair on their arms and legs would suddenly stand on end in terror. His arrival was given away by a burning torch that would appear at the door of a home, but after that there was a grisly horrific ritual. It would enter the house, take a victim and use a razor sharp flint knife to carve three deep gashes into their side. He would then put his hand into the open wounds, rip out the insides, and throw a portion of their intestines directly into the embers of the fire. He was known to slash and dislocate his victim's arms, but then the creature would place its hands over the injuries he had inflicted and the wounds would close and heal like a miracle. The natives were desperate and even try to feed the creature to make him stop, but he didn't want to eat. They asked where had come from, but he simply pointed out a hole in the earth and said that his home was down below. When Alvard heard this story, he laughed. After surviving the real horrors of the Texas Coast. There was no way he was going to believe that malac Gosa thing was real. It seemed kind of like a boogie Man story. It was then when the quaw Tekan started lining up in front of Alvarre and one by one started showing him the actual physical scars that were left behind by malac Gosa's knife. There, looking straight at the undeniable, permanent evidence in the skins of multiple victims, Alvard started getting creeped out. He stopped making fun of the story and concluded that this entity, this Mala Gosa, was not a myth, but a literal demon sent by Satan. When the Spanish arrived to the Americas, a land unknown to much of Europe, they brought a lot of horrors, but they also documented a strange series of events, some supernatural in nature, that showed that some of the dangers they were facing weren't only about survival, but also about darkness and entities that we still fear today. My name is Edwin, and here's a horror story from what we now know as Texas. We're going to move to a village named Britasa, located not very far from the Spanish settlement of Anserma in the province of Popayan in modern day Columbia. In fifteen forty nine. There lived a handsome, young native leader named Tamaracunga, the brother of the local lord, and he wanted to convert to Christianity, so he traveled to the Spanish settlement to get baptized. But according to the historical chronicles of Pedro Sia Sadeleone, his decision angered the local demons, who were not willing to lose a soul that they considered their own. Now pay attention to this part because it's a Spanish man saying that demons would not let natives convert to Christianity anyway. What I said to have happened next was a bunch of paranormal events that multiple Spaniards got to see. Terrifying visions were Tamaracunga was stalked by demons that showed up as birds that smelled really bad, which were only visible to him. Eventually, the activity turned physical when he called for a nearby Christian to help. Spaniards watched in disbelief as stones inexplicably whistled and flew through the air. Then it got even more violent. Witnesses described seeing Tamaracunga looking beat up, exhausted, and even physically thrown through the air from one side of the room to the other by invisible forces, and one incident reported a glass of wine magically lifted into the air, emptied itself out, and then the wine got poured back into the glass moments later. These invisible forces even try to suffocate him by shoving mud into his mouth while he tried to hide his face in the blankets. Completely terrified, the Spaniards were desperate to save him, so they decided to escort him to the village church to baptize him. They were followed by over two hundred indigenous people, terrified, mind you, and not willing to get close. The journey was tough, and as they reached a dangerous pass, the invisible entities took to Marakunga and lifted him into the air, trying to hurl him off a cliff while he screamed for the Christians to help him. The Spaniards rushed in tied ropes to their bells to tie them to him, and they marched forward holding three crosses while stones rained down from the sky. But it wasn't over. They eventually reached the church, and that's where Da Marakunga claimed that he could see demons waiting for him, hanging upside down with fierce expressions. Juande Santa Maria, a friar, came to perform the baptism. The unseen forces made their final most aggressive move right in front of the friar and the Christian witnesses. Tamaracuna was taken levitated and held upside down in mid air. The invisible entities slapped him with such force that his hat flew off. They spit out rotting saliva into his face while everyone could hear demonic howls and whistles that echoed through the building. The horrified Spaniard shouted prayers, They made the sign of the Cross. They rushed to grab him, and they threw holy water at him. They put a frist stole over him, and he was like that all night. When the demonic noises left, Tamarakuna asked for the water to get baptized along with his wife and child, and then he walked outside alone to prove that demons had lost their power over him. That's when he came back, happy, unharmed, and a new Christian, the chilling Poltrygei's activity was never experienced ever again. So now let's leave the mountains of Columbia and head north to the heart of the Aztec Empire in early colonial Mexico. When the Spanish friars arrived, like Bernardino thiss Aragon, they started documenting the culture and histories of the indigenous populations. That's how they uncovered an entire catalog of nighttime phantoms and hauntings. To the natives, the darkness was packed with bizarre entities, many of them were believed to be the dark illusions of the powerful god Descatlipoca, known as a smoking mirror. One of the creepiest encounters I found in the text was about an apparition known as a yual te Pustli, or the night acts. They go something like this. Imagine you're walking alone in the dark, and suddenly you hear a distinct rhythmic sound of someone chopping and splitting wood in the distance. You shouldn't try to run away, because a sound would echo and follow you. That was the warning, at least, because they said that if a brave warrior try to investigate and track the noise to its source, it wouldn't be a woodcutter, but instead a horrific monster. Now again, this is also pretty graphic. It's a headless man with a chest and stomach split completely open. As it stood there, its two halves of the rib cage would clap open and shut, creating this nasty, wet sucking sound. To the Aztecs, running away from this creature meant a lifetime of misery. But a true warrior was expected to charge the monster, stick his hands directly into the opening and closing hole in the chest, take its heart, and refuse to let go until the entity gave him a supernatural reward. What kind of reward, Well, it came in the forms of thorns or something like a soft white feather. The number of thorns meant that exact number of enemy captives that he was destined to take in future battles. Plus it's a promised life of earthly happiness and riches. But instead of thorns or a feather, the person might pull out a piece of charcoal or a rag from the chest, and this meant that he would be doomed to a life of poverty and misery. But there were more entities in the night. The Friars wrote about the Bundle of Ashes, which is a phantom that showed up as a strange mass that went rolling and groaning through the darkness to scare anyone who crossed its path. Another one of these were encounters with shape shifters. The Spanish wrote that the god Deskallipoca would disguise himself as a huge coyote that looked like a wolf. Now, this thing would appear out of the shadows and stand right in the middle of the road to block the path of night travelers, which was seen as a dark omen for thieves, robbers or impending doom. And I know we've talked about gods here, but they also warned the Spanish of the Nawad dark sorcerers who use their magic to transform themselves into animals. Depending on their power, these men could take the shape of turkeys, a weasel, or a giant black dog to stalk the night and do evil things. Now, for the Spanish conquistadores and friars, they already believed and were terrified of witches and demonic entities, so they were very cautious. They thought it was a devil taking shape and moving forward a little bit to the year fifteen forty six and the kim bay A province and what the Spanish considered the Kingdom of Peru modern day Columbia. This region was a side of an omen a dark one that came right before a catastrophic event that was recorded by chronicler pedro Cia Saveeleon. A group of native women were going about their daily labor making salt, and then all of a sudden, a really tall phantom of a man started approaching them. He looked that he had come out of a nightmare, with his stomach ripped open and his intestines hanging exposed from his body. Even more unsettling was that it was cradling two babies in its arms. Showed up and instead of remaining silent, it spoke directly to the women with a threatening message. I promise you that I have to kill all the women of the Christians and the majority of you. It eventually vanished, but what it had said did not. Shortly after the women reported this encounter, a disease struck the Kimbaya province. It swept through the region, wiping out a large portion of the population. It was severe. I started with the fever and headaches that eventually moved to the left ear, and people would only last two or three days before dying. The psychological toll the death tolls it was heavy at the time. The native people reported that the veil between life and death had been torn open by the plague, and they said that they could visibly see spirits of the dead wandering the land right among the living. The Spanish conquistadoes were terrified, and for the soldiers and the chroniclers watching everything, it wasn't only a disease, but a profound encounter with a dark, supernatural force. If we head toward the Santa Helena Peninsula in what is now Ecuador, Pedrosi Sadeleone also recorded an interesting story that was passed down from their ancestors. They said that a fleet of massive reed wraths, which looked like a large boat collection, arrived from the sea. The passengers were men of huge, like unimaginable proportions, almost like monsters. They said that an average sized man only reached the knee of one of these beams. Their heads were big, framed by long hair that fell down their backs, and the faces were completely beardless. But their eyes, oh man, They said that they were the size of small plates. Some were dressed in the skins of animals, while others were completely naked, and they brought no women with them. They established their settlements on the peninsula, but because they found no fresh water, they started digging deep wells right through the solid rock. Remember they were said to be incredibly strong, and their meals the locals said that a single giant ate the same as fifty ordinary men. So they finished up all the food supply very quickly, and being out part to the ocean. Because of their massive nets, they started being hated and feared by the indigenous people. And again, because they had no women, they started forcing themselves on the local native women, killing them in the process. Everyone was too terrified to fight back. After years of terrorizing the locals and engaging in what the Spanish chroniclers called the abominable sin of sodomy among themselves, the heavens intervened. According to indigenous accounts, a terrifying, roaring fire came down from the sky, and from this a shining angel with the glowing razor sharp sword came down. With the same strike, it killed the giants. The fire burned them up and left nothing but scorched bones and skulls as a lasting warning. Now, the Spanish explorers might have easily heard of that and been like, nah, impossible, but they didn't. That was because they stumbled upon real physical evidence. The Conquistadorores discovered massive, unexplainable bones. Betrosi sa Leone recorded that they found pieces of huge molars teeth that were so large that a single tooth was thought to weigh over half a pound. They also found fragments of giant shin bones. Even more bizarre is that the reports of these colossal skeletons weren't only found in equalor by fifteen fifty the Visioi of New Spain, though Antonio de Mendoza reported finding similar massive human like bones Mexico. And when faced with these undeniable physical remains and the ruins of giant wells, Spanish chroniclers didn't see the story as only folklore anymore. They concluded that these giants had genuinely walked the earth. So, as we come to an end of the journey, let's look back at what these explorers and indigenous people had to see and navigate through events without explanations that were later told to the Conquistadores, solidifying their spot in history. As you listen to this now, cleaning your house, walking the dog, maybe at work, trying to pass the time, it's easy to dismiss these stories as just campfire tales. Back then, the Conquistadores, the Friars, the indigenous populations, these were undeniable realities, sometimes leaving physical scars. So that being said, the arrival of the Spanish and the Americas was at its core a violent collision of two different worlds. Perhaps the Native is found with scared the Spanish and maybe exaggerated the stories. Maybe the Spanish wanted to look good for the nation that they represented. They wanted to demonstrate that they were standing over Christianity, and they introduced demons to their stories. But really two cultures mixed, and with that so did their fears, their ghosts, their gods, and their demons. They left behind a historical record as a chilling reminder of how incredibly thin the veil between the natural and the supernatural once was. Keeping an open perspective here, what do you think actually happened out there in the uncharted frontiers of the sixteenth century New World? Was it mass hallucinations, psychological stress due to surviving out there? Did the Spanish genuinely encounter something terrifying or is there something out there that still remains completely beyond our current understanding. I'll go through some of these questions in our episode of Paranormal which is more discussion based, where we'll take a look at some of these reasons and the logic behind it. You can look at Paranormal Club on your podcast staff or over on YouTube. But anyway, that's all I got for you this week. Thank you very much for listening. Keep it scary everyone, See you soon.