Chapter XXVI: Prologue: Of the Bishop Don Fray Bartholomew De Las Casas or Casaus (4)

1. These provinces(101) have been visited at divers times since the
year 1510 or 1511 by three tyrants who imitated the deeds done by
the others, and also by two of them in other parts of the Indies
seeking to advance to a degree disproportioned to their merit, at
the cost of the blood and destruction of their fellow creatures.
2.2. And all three died a bad death, and their families and properties
established in human blood, perished, for I am witness of all three,
whose very memory is already as extinct in the world as though they
had never lived.
3.3. The infamy and horror of their names scandalised all the land
because of some massacres they perpetrated: these were not many,
however, for God killed them before they did more, for He had
reserved till that hour the punishment for the wickedness that I
know and saw they committed in other parts of the Indies.
4.4. The fourth tyrant went there recently, in the year 1538, with his
plans made and with great preparations. Since three years nothing
has been seen or heard of him.
5.5. We are sure, that as soon as he landed he committed cruel deeds and
at once disappeared: and that, if he be alive, he and his men have
destroyed numbers of people in these three years, if he encountered
any on his march, for he is one of the notorious, and experienced
ones who, together with his other companions, has done the most harm
and wickedness, and has destroyed many provinces, and kingdoms. But
we rather believe that God has given him the same end as the others.
6.6. Three or four years after the above things were written, three of
the other tyrants returned from the land called Florida; they had
accompanied the chief tyrant whom they left dead, and we learned
from them what cruelty and unheard of wickedness, these inhuman men
committed there against those innocent and harmless Indians,
principally during the life of their commander and also after his
unhappy death: therefore what I foretold above has not turned out
wrong.
7.7. And so many things confirm the rule I laid down at the beginning:
that the more they continue to discover, ruin, and destroy both
peoples and countries, the more notorious are the cruelties and
iniquities they commit against God and their fellow creatures.
8.8. It is already wearisome to us to relate so many, and such execrable,
horrible, blood-thirsty operations, not by men, but by ferocious
beasts, hence I will not stop to relate any but the following.
9.9. They found large towns full of people who were friendly,
intelligent, politic, and orderly. They did great slaughter among
them, according to their custom, in order to impregnate the hearts
of those people with fear of them.
10.10. They tormented and killed them, loading them like animals. When
one became tired, or fainted, they cut off his head at the neck, in
order not to free those in front from the chain that bound them, and
the body fell to one side and the head to the other, as we have told
elsewhere above.
11.11. In one town where they went they were received with joy, and
over-abundant food was given them, while more than six hundred
Indians carried their loads, like beasts of burden, and cared for
their horses; when the tyrants had left there, a captain who was a
relative of the chief tyrant, turned back to rob the entire town
whose people felt themselves safe; and with a lance, he killed the
lord and king of the town, and did other cruel deeds.
12.12. Because the inhabitants of another large town seemed to them to be
a little more on their guard, on account of the infamous and
horrible deeds of which they had heard, they put to the sword large
and small children and old people, subjects and lords, without
sparing any one.
13.13. It is said that the chief tyrant had the faces of many Indians cut,
so that they were shorn of nostrils and lips, down to the beard; and
in particular of a group of two hundred whom he either summoned or
who came voluntarily from a certain town. Thus he despatched these
mutilated, suffering creatures dripping with blood to carry the news
of the deeds and miracles done by those baptised Christians,
preachers of the Holy Catholic faith.
14.14. It may be judged in what state those people must be, how they must
love the Christians, and how they will believe that their God is
good and just, and that the law and religion they profess and
praise, is immaculate.
15.15. Most great and outlandish are the evils done here by those unhappy
men, sons of perdition. And thus the wickedest of captains died
miserably and without confession; and we doubt not that he is buried
in hell, unless by chance, God out of His divine mercy has
mysteriously succoured him despite his guiltiness for such execrable
wickedness.

Rio della Plata

1. Three or four times since the year 1522 some captains have visited
Rio della Plata, (102) where there are large kingdoms and provinces,
and very friendly and intelligent people.
2.2. We know, in general, that they have committed many homicides and
much injury. In particular, as it is so distant from the Indies, we
have nothing signal to tell.
3.3. We have no doubt at all, however, but that they have and do carry on
the same practices as in other places; because they are the same
Spaniards, and some among them have visited other regions, and
because they go to get wealth and power just like the others; it is
impossible for this to come about, except by destruction, massacres,
robbery, and the extermination of the Indians by the adoption of the
perverse rule and system they have all alike followed.
4.4. After writing the above, we have learned, with ample proof, that
they have destroyed and depopulated great provinces and kingdoms of
that country, murdering, and cruelly treating those unfortunate
people; they have thereby made themselves even more notorious than
the others, because, being at a greater distance from Spain, they
could do more as they pleased and consequently lived in greater
disorder and with less justice. As for justice, however, there has
never been any in all the Indies, as is seen from what has been
related above.
5.5. Among infinite other cases, the three following have been read
before the Council of the Indies. A tyrant governor commanded
certain of his people, to go to some Indian town and, if food was
not given them, to kill all the inhabitants. Thus authorised, they
started and, because the Indians considered them their enemies and
more out of fear and the desire to escape from them, than from a
want of generosity, refused to supply them, the Spaniards put more
than five thousand persons to the sword.
6.6. Another time a certain number of people presented themselves
peaceably for their service, or perhaps they had been summoned by
the Spaniards; and because they did not come quickly enough, or
because, as is their habit and common usage, they wished to inspire
them with fear and horrible fright, the Governor commanded that they
should all be consigned into the hands of their Indian enemies.
7.7. They wept and cried, praying that the Spaniards would kill them,
rather than deliver them to their enemies. (103) And as they would
not leave the house where they were, they were cut to pieces there,
weeping, and crying out: “We came peaceably to serve you and you
kill us? May our blood, remain on these walls as testimony of our
unjust death and of your cruelty!” This was, in truth, a notorious
action, and worthy of consideration, but much more of being
lamented.

The Vast Kingdoms and Great Provinces of Peru

1. In the year 1531 another great tyrant went with certain people to
the kingdoms of Peru,(104) which he invaded by virtue of the same
title, intentions, and principles as all the former ones, because he
was one of the most experienced, and since a long time had taken
part in all the cruelties and massacres that had been committed on
the continent since the year 1510; he was devoid of faith and
honour, and he did more cruelty and slaughter, destroying towns,
killing and exterminating the people of them and causing such great
mischief in these countries that, I am certain, it would be
impossible for any one to recount and describe them till we shall
see and know them clearly in the day of judgment. I could not, nor
should I know how to describe the deformity, the character, and the
circumstances of some incidents that I would relate, and which
greatly aggravate their hideousness.
2.2. From his unhappy landing, he killed and destroyed some peoples and
robbed them of a large quantity of gold. In an island near the same
province called Pugna which is very populous and pleasing, they were
received by the lord and people like angels from heaven and, after
having eaten all their provisions in six months, the Indians again
uncovered the store of corn they had laid up for themselves and
their families in time of drought and barrenness, tearfully offering
it for their consumption. The payment that was finally awarded the
natives, was to put them to the sword, for they killed great numbers
with lances, and those whom they captured alive, they made slaves;
in consequence of this and the other great notorious cruelties done
there, they left this island almost deserted.
3.3. From there the Spaniards went to the province of Tumbala, which is
on the continent, where they killed and destroyed everything they
could. And because all the people fled from their fearful and
horrible operations, they declared they had revolted and were in
rebellion against the king.
4.4. This tyrant employed the following artifice. He demanded still more
from all who either offered or whom he asked to present him with
gold, silver, and their other possessions, until he saw that they
either had no more, or brought no more: he then declared that he
received them as vassals of the king of Spain and embraced them; he
caused two trumpets to be sounded, giving them to understand that
for the future he would take nothing more from them, nor do them any
harm; he esteemed it permissible to rob them or to take all they
gave, out of fear inspired by the abominable reports they heard of
him, before he received them under the shelter and protection of the
king, as though after they were received under the royal protection
he would no more oppress, rob, desolate, and destroy them.
5.5. A few days later came the universal king and emperor of those
kingdoms, who was called Atabaliba with many naked people armed with
ridiculous weapons and ignorant of how swords cut, and lances wound,
and horses run; nor did they know the Spaniards, who would assault
the very devils if they had gold, to rob them of it. He arrived at
the place where they were, and said: “Where are these Spaniards? let
them come forward, for I shall not stir from here till satisfaction
is rendered me for my vassals whom they have killed, for the town
they have desolated, and for the riches they have stolen from me.”
6.6. The Spaniards attacked him—killing infinite numbers of his people;
they took him prisoner from the litter in which he was carried and
after they had captured him, they negotiated with him for his
ransom: he promised to give four million crowns, and paid them
fifteen, after which they promised to set him free.
7.7. They ended by keeping no faith nor truth, for they have never been
kept by the Spaniards in their dealings with the Indians: they
calumniated him, saying that by his orders the people were
assembling, and he replied that not a leaf moved in all the country
save by his will and that if the people were assembling, they might
believe that he was the cause of it: as he was their prisoner, they
might therefore kill him.
8.8. In spite of all this they condemned him to be burned alive, although
later, some of them begged the captain, to have him strangled and to
burn him afterwards. When he learned this he said: “Why do you wish
to burn me? What have I done to you? Have you not promised to free
me, after my ransom was paid? Have I not given you more than what I
promised you? Send me, as thus you wish it, to your King of Spain.”
He said many other things showing condemnation and detestation of
the great injustice of the Spaniards: and at last they burnt him.
9.9. Let the justice of these deeds be considered: the reason of this
war: the imprisonment, death sentence, and execution of this
monarch; and how conscientiously these tyrants hold the great
treasures they steal in those kingdoms from such a great king and
from numberless other lords and private people.
10.10. Of the countless notoriously wicked and cruel acts committed in the
extirpation of these people by those who call themselves Christians,
I will relate some few that a friar of St. Francis witnessed in the
beginning; and he signed depositions with his name, sending some of
the copies to those regions and others to the kingdoms of Castile:
and I have one of the copies in my possession with his own
signature, in which he makes the following statements.
11.11. “I, Fray Marcus de Nizza of the Order of St. Francis, commissary of
the friars of the same Order in the provinces of Peru, who were
among the first monks who entered the said provinces with the first
Christians, speak to render truthful testimony of some of the things
that I saw with my own eyes in that country; chiefly concerning the
treatment of the Indians and the acquisition of property taken from
the natives.”
12.12. “First of all I am eye-witness, and from actual experience know,
that these Indians of Peru are the most affable people that have
been seen among the Indians, and were very well inclined and
friendly towards the Christians.”
13.13. “And I saw that they gave gold abundantly to the Spaniards, and
silver and precious stones and all that was asked of them, and that
they rendered them every good service; and the Indians never went
forth in war fashion, but always peaceably, as long as no cruelty
and ill-treatment provoked them; on the contrary, they received the
Spaniards with all benevolence and honour in their towns, giving
them provisions and as many male and female slaves for their
service, as they asked.”
14.14. “I am also witness, and I testify, that without the Indians giving
them any cause or occasion, the Spaniards, as soon as they entered
their country, and after the chief lord Atabaliba had paid them more
than two millions of gold and had left all the country in their
power, without resistance, immediately burnt the said Atabaliba, who
was ruler of all the country: and after him, they burnt alive his
captain-general Cochilimaca who had come peaceably to the governor,
accompanied by other high personages.”
15.15. “Within a few days after these executions they likewise burned
Chamba another very high lord of the province of Quito, without him
giving them any cause.”
16.16. “Thus too they burnt unjustly Chapera lord of the Canaries.”
17.17. “Likewise they burnt the feet of Luis who was one of the great
lords in Quito, and tortured him in many other ways, to force him to
reveal the hiding place of Atabaliba’s gold, of which treasure it
was known that he knew nothing whatever.”
18.18. “They likewise burnt in Quito, Cozzopanga, who was governor of all
the provinces of Quito and who had responded to the intimations of
Sebastian de Benalcazza, the governor’s captain, by coming
peaceably; but because he did not give them as much gold as they
asked, they burnt him, with many other lords and principal persons.
As far as I could understand, it was the intention of the Spaniards
that no lord should survive in all the country.”
19.19. “The Spaniards assembled a large number of Indians, and shut up as
many as could enter, in three large houses which they then set on
fire and burnt them all, although they had never done the slightest
thing against any Spaniard, nor given the least cause.”
20.20. “It once happened, that when a priest called Ocana, pulled a child
out of the fire in which it was burning, another Spaniard snatched
it out of his hands and threw it back in the middle of the flames,
where it became ashes together with the others; while the aforesaid
Spaniard, who had thus thrown the Indian into the fire was returning
to his dwelling the same day, he suddenly fell dead in the road; and
it was my opinion, that they should not give him [Christian]
burial.”
21.21. “Moreover I affirm, that I myself saw the Spaniards cut off the
hands, noses, and ears of the Indian men and women, for no purpose
whatever but just because the fancy struck them; and in so many
places and regions did this occur that it would be a long story to
tell.”
22.22. “I also saw the Spaniards setting dogs onto the Indians, to tear
them to pieces; and thus I saw many of them torn to pieces.”
23.23. “I likewise saw so many houses and towns burned that I could not
tell the number, so great was their multitude.”
24.24. “It is likewise true that they took nursing children by the arms
and hurled them in the air as high as they could; and their other
injustice and aimless cruelties terrified me, besides innumerable
other things that I saw, and which it would take long to tell.”
25.25. “I saw moreover that they called the Indian lords and chiefs, to
come peaceably, promising them safety, but as soon as they arrived
they burnt them. And in my presence they burnt two, one from Andon
and the other in Tumbala, nor was I able for all I preached to them,
to prevent them burning them.”
26.26. “I call God and my own conscience to witness that, as far as I can
understand, the Indians only revolted on account of this ill
treatment which sufficiently justified their action as may be
clearly seen by everybody.”
27.27. “The Spaniards have never dealt honestly with them nor kept their
word but, contrary to all reason and justice, they have tyrannically
ruined them and all their country, doing such things against them,
that they [the Indians] have resolved sooner to die, than suffer
such deeds.”
28.28. “I say moreover, that the Indians are right in affirming that there
is more gold hidden, than has been discovered, for they have refused
to disclose it because of the injustice and cruelty shown them by
the Spaniards; nor will they disclose it as long as such treatment
continues, but rather will they die like the others.”
29.29. “God our Lord has been much offended by these deeds, and His
Majesty very badly served and defrauded, for they have made him lose
countries that could very well provide food for the whole of
Castile, and in my opinion, it will be very difficult and expensive
to recover them.”
30.30. All these are the formal words of the said monk; and bear the
signature also of the Bishop of Mexico, testifying that everything
was affirmed by the said Father, Fray Marcus.
31.31. What this Father says he has seen, should be considered here:
because this happened throughout fifty or a hundred leagues of
country and during nine or ten years, at the beginning, when there
were very few Spaniards: afterwards the sound of gold drew thither
four or five thousand Spaniards, who spread through many large
kingdoms and provinces, covering more than five hundred or seven
hundred leagues, all of which they have destroyed by practising the
same deeds and others still more ferocious and cruel.
32.32. Truly, from that time to the present day, a thousand times more
people have been destroyed and dispersed than he was told of; being
devoid of mercy and the fear of God and the King, the Spaniards have
destroyed a very large part of the human race.
33.33. Within the space of ten years they have killed, up to the present
day, more than four millions of persons; and they are still killing.
34.34. A short time since they pursued and killed a great queen, wife of
Elingue, he who was left king of those kingdoms which the Christians
had tyrannically seized and provoked to rise in the present
rebellion. They captured the queen, his wife who, it is said, was
pregnant and, contrary to all justice, they killed her, only to
grieve her husband.
35.35. If the cruelties and different murders committed by the Christians,
and their daily deeds in those kingdoms of Peru were to be told,
they would doubtless be so horrible and so numerous that what we
have recounted of the other countries would fade, and seem little,
compared with their number and their gravity.

Of the New Kingdom of Granada

1. In the year 1539 many tyrants joined together and started from
Venezuela, Santa Marta, and Cartagena for Peru: and others came back
from the same Peru to explore those countries. Three hundred
leagues inland behind Santa Marta and Cartagena, they found some
very delightful and marvellous provinces, full of numberless people,
as mild and kind as the others, and very rich in gold, and in those
precious stones called emeralds.
2.2. To these provinces they gave the name of the new kingdom of Granada;
because those tyrants who first came to these countries were natives
of the kingdom of Granada in Spain.
3.3. As many iniquitous and cruel men among those who gathered from all
parts, were notorious butchers and shedders of human blood who were
very inured to, and experienced in the great sins that we have said
were committed in many parts of the Indies, it follows that their
fiendish operations, and the circumstances and qualities that
blackened and aggravated them, were such that they have surpassed
very many, or indeed all, that the others and they themselves have
committed elsewhere in the Indies.
4.4. Of the multitude they have committed in these three years, and
continue without ceasing to commit, I will briefly relate a few. As
a man who was robbing and murdering in the said kingdom would not
allow a governor to also rob and kill, the latter brought a suit
against him, calling many witnesses to prove the slaughter,
injustice, and massacres he had done, and is doing; this evidence
was read, and is to be found in the Council of the Indies.
5.5. The witnesses in the said law-suit affirm that all the kingdom was
quiet, and subject to the Spaniards; the Indians continually
laboured to furnish them provisions, and to accumulate property for
them; they brought them all the gold and precious emeralds they
possessed or could obtain: the lords and inhabitants of the towns
had been divided among the Spaniards, who lay claim to them as the
means for obtaining their final object, which is gold. Having thus
reduced everybody to the usual tyranny and slavery, the principal
tyrant captain commanding them, captured the sovereign of all that
country, without any cause or reason, and kept him for six or seven
months, demanding gold and emeralds of him.
6.6. The said king, who was called Bogota, being overcome by fear said
that he would give a house of the gold they demanded, hoping to free
himself from the hands of his tormenters: he sent some Indians to
bring him the treasure, and several times they brought a large
quantity of gold and stones: because he did not give the house of
gold, the Spaniards declared that he should be killed, because he
did not fulfil his promise.
7.7. The tyrant said that he should be tried by process of law, so they
prosecuted him, accusing the said king of the country. The tyrant
gave sentence, condemning him to tortures, if he did not give the
house of gold.
8.8. They tortured him with the cord: they threw burning fat on his
belly; they put his feet in irons fastened to a stake, tied his neck
to another, while two men held his hands; and in this position they
put fire to his feet.
9.9. Every now and then, the tyrant entered and told him, that they would
kill him by inches with tortures if he did not give the gold. And
thus they did, and killed this lord with tortures. While they were
tormenting him, God gave a sign of destestation of that cruelty, by
causing all that town, where it was committed to be burnt.
10.10. The other Spaniards imitated their good captain and, since they
only know how to rend these people, they did the same; torturing the
lord of the town or towns, that had been confided to them, with
divers and fierce tortures while those lords and their people felt
themselves safe, and were giving them all the gold and emeralds they
could: the Spaniards tortured them only to extort more gold and
jewels. And in this way they burnt and cut to pieces all the lords
of that country.
11.11. Terror-stricken by the excessive cruelty practised upon the Indians
by one of those particular tyrants a great lord called Daytama fled,
with many of his people from such inhumanity, and retreated to the
mountains. This, if it did but avail, they conceive to be the
remedy and refuge, and this is what the Spaniards call revolt and
rebellion.
12.12. The principal tyrant captain hearing this, sent a force to that
cruel man, whose ferocity and wickedness towards the peaceful and
submissive Indians had driven them to the mountains; the latter went
in pursuit of the natives, and because it sufficed not to hide in
the bowels of the earth, they found a large number of people whom
they killed, cutting to pieces more than five hundred men, women,
and children, and sparing no one.
13.13. The witnesses also say that before his death, the same Prince
Daytama had been to see that cruel man and had taken him four or
five thousand crowns, but notwithstanding this, he committed the
said slaughter.
14.14. Another time a great number of people having come to serve the
Spaniards, and feeling themselves safe, serving with their humility
and simplicity, the captain entered the town one night where the
Indians were and commanded that all those Indians should be put to
the sword while some of them were sleeping, and some supping and
resting from the labours of the day.
15.15. He perpetrated this massacre because it seemed good to him to make
himself feared by all the people of the country.
16.16. Another time the captain put all the Spaniards on oath, to lead at
once as many lords and chiefs and common people as each had in his
household service, to the square, where he had all their heads cut
off, thus killing four or five hundred people. And the witnesses
say that he thought in this way to pacify the country.
17.17. The witnesses depose that one particular tyrant did great cruelty,
killing, and cutting off the hands and noses of many men and women,
and destroying many people.
18.18. Another time the captain sent the afore-named cruel man, with
certain Spaniards to the province of Bogota, to make inquiry as to
who had succeeded to that dominion since they had tortured the
universal lord to death: he marched through many leagues of country,
capturing as many Indians as he could.
19.19. And because the people did not show him the lord who had succeeded,
he cut off the hands of some and gave others to ferocious dogs,
which tore them to pieces both men, and women; and in this way he
killed, and destroyed many Indian men and women.
20.20. One day, near sunrise, he went to attack some lords, or captains
and many Indians who felt tranquil and secure, because he had
assured them and given them his word that they should receive no
hurt or harm; confiding in this assurance they had come down from
the mountains, where they were hidden, to dwell in this town on the
plain; thus he captured a great many of these unsuspecting and
confiding people, women and men, and making them put their hands
flat on the ground he himself cut them off with a scimitar, saying
that he punished them because they would not tell where the new
lord, who had succeeded to that kingdom, was hidden.
21.21. Another time, because the Indians did not give a coffer full of
gold that this cruel captain demanded, he sent people to make war on
them, in which they killed numberless persons, and cut off the hands
and noses of so many women and men that they could not be counted:
they gave others to fierce dogs that tore them to pieces and ate
them.
22.22. Another time, the Indians of a province of that kingdom, seeing
that the Spaniards had burnt three or four principal lords,
retreated in fear to a strong rock to defend themselves from enemies
so devoid of humanity; and according to the witnesses, there may
have been four or five thousand Indians on the rock.
23.23. The above-named captain sent a great and notorious tryant, who
surpassed many of those who have charge of destroying those
countries, with a certain number of Spaniards, to punish those
Indians who had fled from such a great pestilence and butchery: and
he declared they were in revolt, seeking to make it appear that they
had done something wrong, for which the Spaniards must punish them
and take vengeance: they themselves, however, merit any most cruel
torture whatsoever, without mercy, because they are so deprived of
mercy and compassion towards those innocent creatures.
24.24. The Spaniards went to the rock and forced their way up, the Indians
being naked and without arms; then the Spaniards called the Indians
with professions of peace, assuring them that no harm should be done
them, if they did not fight; the Indians at once ceased, whereupon
that most cruel man commanded the Spaniards, to seize all the strong
positions of the rock, and when taken, to surround the Indians.
These tigers and lions surrounded the tame lambs, and disembowelled
and put to the sword so many, that they stopped to rest, so many had
they cut to pieces.
25.25. When they had rested a little, the captain ordered that they should
kill and throw down from the rock, which was very high, all the
survivors; and so they did. And the witnesses say, that they beheld
such a mass of Indians thrown from the rock, that there might have
been seven hundred men together, who were crushed to pieces where
they fell.
26.26. To complete their great cruelty, they sought out all the Indians
who had hidden in the thicket, and he commanded all to be put to the
sword; and thus they killed them, and threw them down from the rock.
27.27. Nor would he rest satisfied with the cruel things that have been
related, but wished to distinguish himself still more and increase
the horribleness of his sins, by commanding that all the Indians,
men and women, save those he kept for his own service, who had been
captured alive (because in these massacres each usually chooses a
few men, women and children for his own use) should be put in a
straw house to which he set fire: some forty or fifty were thus
burnt alive, while others were thrown to fierce dogs that tore them
to pieces and ate them.
28.28. Another time, this same tyrant captured many Indians in a certain
town called Cota which he visited; he had fifteen or twenty lords
and principal persons torn by dogs; and he cut off the hands of many
men and women, tied them to cords and hung about seventy pairs of
hands along a beam, so that the other Indians should see what had
been done to these people; and he cut off the noses of many women
and children.
29.29. Nobody could explain the actions, and cruelty of this man, God’s
enemy, because they are innumerable, nor have such deeds as he did
in those countries and in the province of Guatemala, ever been
witnessed or heard of since then: during many years he went about
those countries doing these deeds, burning and destroying the
inhabitants and their property.
30.30. The witnesses in the trial further say, that the cruelties and
massacres perpetrated in the said new kingdom of Granada by the
captain himself and, with his consent, by all those tyrants and
destroyers of the human race who were with him, were such that they
have wasted and exterminated all the country. And that unless His
Majesty arrests the massacring done among the Indians to extort gold
which, as they had already given all they had, they no longer
possess, the destruction will shortly be complete, and no Indians of
any sort will be left to sustain the country, which will be left
depopulated and desolate.
31.31. It should be considered how great and furious has been the cruelty
and pestilential tyranny of unhappy tyrants, in the space of two or
three years, since the discovery of this kingdom which, as all who
have been there, and the witnesses at the trial say, was as thickly
populated as any in the world; they have desolated it with
massacres, so devoid of mercy, of the fear of God and the King, that
they say, not a single person will be left alive unless His Majesty
shortly prevents these infernal operations. And so I believe it to
be, for with my own eyes I have seen many, and large countries in
those parts, which they have destroyed and completely depopulated
within a brief period.
32.32. There are other large provinces, bordering the said new kingdom of
Granada, called Popayan and Cali: also three, or four others that
extend for more than five hundred leagues; the Spaniards have
rendered them desolate, and destroyed them like the others, unjustly
robbing and torturing to death the numberless inhabitants of that
most delightful country.
33.33. People coming now from there declare that it excites compassion to
see so many large towns burnt and destroyed; towns where formerly
there were a thousand or two thousand families, are reduced to
hardly fifty, while others are entirely burned and abandoned.
34.34. In other places, from one to three hundred leagues of country are
found completely deserted; large towns having been burnt and
destroyed.
35.35. Great and cruel tyrants penetrated into New Granada from the
direction of the province of Quito in the kingdom of Peru, and into
Popayan and Cali from the direction of Cartagena and Uraba, while
from Cartagena, other ill-starred tyrants marched through to Quito;
afterwards others, came from the direction of Rio de San Juan, which
is on the South coast. All of these men united together and they
have devastated and depopulated more than six hundred leagues of
country, sending innumerable souls to hell. They are doing the same
at the present day to the miserable survivors, although they are
innocent.
36.36. And to prove the axiom I laid down in the beginning, namely that
the tyranny, violence, and injustice of the Spaniards towards these
gentle lambs, accompanied by cruelty, inhumanity, and wickedness,
most worthy of all fire and torture, which continue in the said
provinces, go on increasing, I cite the following.
37.37. After the massacres and slaughter of the war, the people are
condemned, as was said, to the horrible slavery described above. To
one of the devils, two hundred Indians were given, to another,
three. The devil commandant ordered a hundred Indians to be called
before him and when they promptly came like so many lambs, he had
the heads of thirty or forty cut off; and said to the others: “I
will do the same to you, if you do not serve me well, and if you
leave without my permission.”
38.38. Now in God’s name consider, you, who read this, what sort of deeds
are these, and whether they do not surpass every imaginable cruelty
and injustice, and whether it squares well with such Christians as
these to call them devils; and whether it could be worse to give the
Indians into the charge of the devils of hell than to the Christians
of the Indies.
39.39. I will also tell of another such operation; I do not know which is
the more cruel, the more infernal, and nearer the ferocity of wild
beasts, this one or that one just told.
40.40. It has already been said, that the Spaniards of the Indies have
tamed and trained the strongest and most ferocious dogs to kill and
tear the Indians to pieces.
41.41. Listen and see, all you who are true Christians and also you who
are not, whether such deeds have ever been heard of in the world; to
feed the said dogs they take many Indians in chains with them on
their journeys, as though they were herds of swine; and they kill
them, making public butchery of human flesh; and one says to the
other; “lend me a quarter of one of these villeins to give to my
dogs to eat, until I kill.” It is as though they were lending a
quarter of pork or of mutton.
42.42. There are others, who go hunting with their dogs in the morning and
when one is asked on his return for dinner how it has fared with
him, he replies; “it has fared well with me, because I have left
perhaps fifteen or twenty villeins killed by my dogs.”
43.43. All these and other diabolical things are being proved now in
law-suits started by some tyrants against others. What can be
filthier, fiercer, and more inhuman?
44.44. I will finish with this, till news comes of other deeds of more
eminent wickedness, if any such there can be: or until, on our
return there, we again behold them, as we continually have with our
own eyes since forty-two years.
45.45. I protest before God on my conscience that, as I believe and hold
certain, such are the perdition, harm, destruction, depopulation,
slaughter, deaths, and great and horrible cruelties, and most foul
ways of violence, injustice, robbery, and massacre, done among those
people and in all those countries of the Indies, that with all I
have described, and those upon which I have enlarged, I have not
told nor enlarged upon, in quality and quantity, a ten thousandth
part of what has been done and is being done to-day.
46.46. And that all Christians may have greater compassion on those
innocent nations, and that they may more sincerely lament their loss
and doom, and blame and abominate the detestible avarice, ambition,
and cruelty of the Spaniards, let them all hold this truth for
certain, in addition to what I have affirmed above; namely, that
from the time the Indies were discovered down to the present,
nowhere did the Indians harm any Christians, before they had
sustained harm, robbery, and treachery from them. Nay, they always
esteemed them immortal, and come from Heaven; and as such they
received them, until their deeds manifested their character and
intentions.
47.47. It is well to add something else, that from the beginning till the
present day the Spaniards have given no more thought to providing
for the preaching of the faith of Jesus Christ to these people than
if they were dogs or other animals: nay, they have persistently
afflicted and persecuted the monks, to prevent them from preaching,
because it seemed to them an impediment to the acquisition of the
gold and wealth they promised themselves in their greedy desires.
48.48. And to-day there is not in all the Indies more knowledge of God
among these people, as to whether He is of wood, or in heaven or on
earth, than there was a hundred years ago, except in new Spain,
where monks have gone and which is but a very little corner of the
Indies. And so all have perished and are perishing, without faith
and without Sacraments.

1. I was induced to write this work I, Fray Bartolomeus de las Casas,
or Casaus, friar of St. Dominic, who by God’s mercy do go about this
Court of Spain, trying to drive the hell out of the Indies, and to
bring about that all those numberless multitudes of souls, redeemed
with the blood of Jesus Christ, shall not hopelessly perish forever;
moved also by the compassion I feel for my fatherland, Castile, that
God may not destroy it for such great sins, committed against His
faith and honour and against fellow creatures. A few persons of
quality who reside at this Court and are jealous of God’s honour and
compassionate towards the afflictions and calamities of others,
urged me to this work although it was my own intention which my
continual occupations had never allowed me to put into effect.
2.2. I brought it to a close at Valencia the 8th of December 1542, when
all the violence was more terrible, and the oppression, tyranny,
massacres, robberies, destructions, slaughter, depopulation,
anguish, and calamity aforesaid, are actually at their height in all
the regions where the Christians of the Indies are; although in some
places they are fiercer, and more abominable than in others.
3.3. Mexico and its neighbourhood are a little less badly off; there, at
least, such things dare not be done publicly, because there is
somewhat more justice than elsewhere, although very little, for they
still kill the people with infernal burdens.
4.4. I have great hope, for the Emperor and King of Spain our Lord Don
Carlos, Fifth of this name is getting to understand the wickedness
and treachery that, contrary to the will of God, and of himself, is
and has been done to those people and in those countries; heretofore
the truth has been studiously hidden from him, that it is his duty
to extirpate so many evils and bring succour to that new world,
given him by God, as to one who is a lover and observer of justice,
whose glorious, and happy life and Imperial state may God Almighty
long prosper, to the relief of all his universal Church, and for the
final salvation of his own Royal soul. Amen.

1. Since the above was written, some laws and edicts have been
published by His Majesty, who was then in the town of Barcelona, in
the month of November 1542 and in the town of Madrid the following
year; these contain such provisions as now seem suitable to bring
about the cessation of the great wickedness and sin committed
against God and our fellow creatures, to the total ruin and
destruction of that world.
2.2. After many conferences and debates amongst conscientious and learned
authorities, who were assembled in the town of Valladolid, His
Majesty made the said laws; acting finally on the decision and
opinion of the greater part of all those who gave their votes in
writing, and who drew nearer to the law of Jesus Christ, as true
Christians. They were likewise free from the corruption and
foulness of the treasures stolen from the Indies that soiled the
hands, and still more the souls of many in authority who, in their
blindness, had committed unscrupulous destruction.
3.3. When these laws were published, the agents of the tyrants, then at
Court, made many copies of them; they displeased all these men who
considered that they shut the doors to their participation in what
was robbed and taken by tyranny: and they sent the copies to divers
parts of the Indies.
4.4. None of those who there had charge of robbing the Indians, and of
finishing their destruction by their tyranny, had ever observed any
order, but such disorder as might have been made by Lucifer; when
they saw the copies, before the arrival of the new judges who were
to execute them, it is said and believed that they had been warned
of what was coming by those in Spain, who have till now encouraged
their sins and violence. They were so agitated, that when the good
judges who were to carry out the laws arrived, they resolved to set
aside shame and obedience to the King, just as they had already lost
all love and fear of God.
5.5. They thus determined to let themselves be called traitors, for they
are cruel and unbridled tyrants, particularly in the kingdoms of
Peru, where at present, in this year of 1546, such horrible,
frightful, and execrable deeds are committed, as have never been
done, either in the Indies or in the world; not only do such things
happen among the Indians whom they have already all or nearly all
killed, but among themselves. In the absence of the King’s justice
to punish them, God’s justice has come from heaven to bring
dissension amongst them and to make one to be the executioner of the
other.
6.6. Shielded by the rebellion of these tyrants, those in all the other
regions, would not obey the laws and, under pretext of appealing
against them, have also revolted; they resent having to abdicate the
dignities and power they have usurped, and to losing the Indians
whom they hold in perpetual slavery.
7.7. Where they have ceased to kill quickly by the sword, they kill
slowly by personal servitude and other unjust and intolerable
vexations. And till now the King has not succeeded in preventing
them because all, small and great, go there to pilfer, some more,
some less, some publicly and openly, others secretly and under
disguise; and with the pretext that they are serving the king, they
dishonour God, and rob and destroy the King.

The present work was printed in the most noble, and faithful town of Seville, at the house of Sebastian Truxillo book-printer. To our Lady of Grace.

The Year M.D.LII

What follows is part of a letter and report, written by one of those very men who went to these regions, recounting the deeds the captain did, and allowed to be done, in the countries he visited. When the said letter and report was given with other things to be bound, the bookseller either forgot or lost one or more pages containing frightful things, that had all been given me by one of those who did them, all of which I had in my possession; what follows is therefore without beginning or end. But as this piece that is left, is full of notorious things, it seemed well to me not to leave it unprinted: because I believe it will not excite less compassion and horror in Your Highness, than some of the irregularities already related, as well also as the desire to correct them.

LETTER