Document – Bartolomé de las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1542)

Document

Once the two caravels on which Comendador Bobadilla was sending Columbus and his brothers as prisoners to Castile had sailed, he [Bobadilla] tried to please the 300 Spaniards who remained on the island. This was the number Columbus had informed the King as being necessary to subjugate the island and its natives; therefore, the King had ordered the admiral to maintain this force. It was more than enough not only to keep the Indians pacified, had they treated them differently, but also to subdue and kill them all, which is what they did. Indeed, twenty or thirty horses were enough to tear them to pieces, especially since they had trained dogs for this purpose and one Spaniard with one dog felt as safe as if accompanied by fifty or a hundred Christians. This is clear even to the dullest minds. How can a people who go about naked, have no weapons other than bow and arrow and a kind of wooden lance, and no fortification besides straw huts, attach or defend themselves against a people armed with steel weapons and firearms, horses and lances, who in two hours could pierce thousands and rip open as many bellies as they wished? …

Comendador Bobadilla granted the 300 men liberties and privileges. He taxed their gold at only 1 peso on 11 and they, having no mind to work and excavate, asked him for Indian labor both for the mines and the making of bread. He ordered—rather he advises—them to form partnerships of two to share all the profits and assigned Indian tribes to them, thus making them very happy. You should have seen those hoodlums, exiled from Castile for homicide with crimes yet to be accounted for, served by native kinds and their vassals doing the meanest chores! These chiefs had daughters, wives and other close relations whom the Spaniards took for concubines either with their own consent or by force. Thus, those 300 hidalgos lived for several years in a continuous state of sin, not counting those other sins they committed daily by oppressing and tyrannizing Indians. They called these women servants and shamelessly spoke of them to one another as “My servant so and so” and X’s servant,” meaning “My wife so and so” and “X’s wife.” No comendador didn’t give a straw for all this; at least he too no measures to remedy or avoid the situation. He would frequently tell them: “Take as many advantages as you can since you don’t know how long this will last”; he cared even less for the hardships, afflictions and deaths of the Indians. The Spaniards loved and adored him in exchange for such favors, help and advice, because they knew how much freer they were now than under Columbus.

The admiral, it is true, was blind as those who came after him, and he was so anxious to please the King that he committed irreparable crimes against the Indians. However, if he did not report the harm that certain Spaniards causes them, and if he assigned a tribe a tribe of Indians to Francisco Roldán and a few others to do work for them or find gold, it seems the occasions were very, very rare, and he acted as if forced to do it by his own men, on account of past rebellions. At least he did abominate the free and easy life of those sinners who called themselves Christians. Sin leads to sin, and for many years they lived unscrupulously, not observing Lent or other fasts and, except at Easter, ate meat on Fridays and Saturdays. They saw themselves as masters of lords, served and feared by tribes of nobles and common people who trembled at the sight of them because of past cruelties renewed in the present whenever they felt the whim, and who especially trembled if the chief’s wife, daughter or sister was thought to be a Spaniard’s “wife.” Thus they grew more conceited every day and fell into greater arrogance, presumption and contempt toward these humble people. They no longer felt like walking any distance. Having neither mules nor horses, they rode the backs of Indians if they were in a hurry; if they had more leisure, they traveled as if by litter, stretched on a hammock carried at a good speed and with relays. In this case they also had Indians carry large leaves to shade them from the sun and others to fan them with goose wings. I saw many an escort follow them loaded like a donkey with mining equipment and food, many of them with scars on their shoulders like working animals. Whenever they reached an Indian village, they consumed what to fifty Indians would represent abundance, and forced the chief to bring them whatever he had, to the accompaniment of dances. Not only were they exceedingly vain in these matters, but they had other women as well who would serve in other capacities such as chambermaid, cook and similar offices. I once knew an organ maker who had such maids.

There were two kinds of servants. One, all the boys and girls taken from their parents on their plundering and killing expeditions, whom they kept in the house night and day; these were called

, meaning “servants” in the vernacular. And two, seasonal workers for the mines and the fields, who returned to their own homes starving, exhausted and debilitated. And it was a laughing matter to see the Spaniards’ presumption, vanity and air of authority when they had not even a linen shirt to their names, nor cape, coat or trousers but wore only a cotton shirt over another shirt from Castile if they had it; if not, they wore their cotton shirt over bare legs and instead of boots they had sandals and leggings. To console them for their services, they beat and insulted the Indians, hardly calling them anything but “dog.” Would to God they treated them as such, because they would not have killed a dog in a million years, while they thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades. Two of these so-called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys. Another one of these tyrants, angry at an Indian chief, hanged twelve of his vassals and eighteen others al in one house. Another shot arrows into an Indian in public, announcing the reason for punishment as his failure to deliver a letter with the speed he required.

Cases of this sort are infinite among out Christians. Having failed in their attempts to defend themselves, these gentle and patient people fled to the hills but, since experience had taught them the impossibility of escaping from Spaniards anywhere, they suffered and died in the mines and other labors in desperate silence, knowing not a soul in the world to whom they could turn for help. And this at the root of the doubt as to whether they were animals or human beings. Soulless, blind and godless, these Spaniards killed without restraint and perversely abused the patience, natural simplicity, goodness, obedience, gentleness and services of the Indians. They should have admired and pitied them and tempered their own cruelties; instead, they despised and belittled them, discrediting their humanity and believing them to be nonrational animals, and so it was thought throughout the world. The lamentable error to believe them incapable of Catholic indoctrination sprang from this first error and may he who persists in it burn for such beastly heresy…

In that year of 1500, in order to investigate Columbus’s claim for justice against Bobadilla, as well as for other reasons, the King determined to send a new governor to Hispaniola, which at the time was the only seat of government in the Indies. The new governor was fray Nicolás de Ovando, Knight of Alcántara, and at that comendador of Lares. When, some years later, the mastership of the Order of Alcántara fell vacant in Castile while Ovando was here, the King honored him with the title, so that we called him comendador mayor instead of Comendador Lares. He was a most prudent man worthy of ruling over many, except Indians, because his government caused them inestimable harm. He was of middle stature and had a light reddish beard. There was an air of authority about him and he was a friend of justice. He was honest in person, deeds and words, and a great enemy of greed and avarice. He did not seem to lack the pearl of all virtues, humility, which he showed both in his appearance and in his actions, in the management of his house, in his clothes and at table, in public and private conversations. He was grave and authoritative. Even after he was made comendador mayor he would not allow anyone to call him señoría. All these virtues we surely recognized in him.

This man, them, was sent by the monarchs to govern Hispaniola and the Indies, and he took with him full provisions and instructions concerning the two years of his government, including the right to investigate Francisco Bobadilla and the cause of Francisco Roldán’s subversion; also, the faults imputed to Columbus and the cause of his imprisonment, all of which was to be reported to Spain. Among his instructions there was a very specific clause: all the Indians of Hispaniola were to be left free, not subject to servitude, unmolested and unharmed and allowed to live like free vassals under law just like any other vassal in the kingdoms of Castile. He was also to see that they were instructed in our Catholic Faith; in this respect our Queen always sought fair treatment in the conversion of these people. He brought with him as justice of…

…whether this was by express order of the King or the King’s secretaries. He was such a [erson that contrary to the Castilian practice, his office was higher than that of the auditor. The King trusted him to the degree of acting upon his recommendations in all matters concerning the Indies.

When this treasurer arrived in 1508, there were 60,000 people living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494… to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it, but it is a fact born of our sins, and it will be well that in time to come we lament it.

When the Spaniards saw how fast they were killing Indians in the mines, plantations and other endeavors, caring only to squeeze the last effort out of them, it occurred to them to replenish the supply by importing people from other islands and they deceived King Hernando with a craft argument. They notified him either by letter or a special court representative, presumable with the comendador’s consent, that the Lucayo or Yucayo Islands close to Cuba and Hispaniola were full of an idle people who had learned nothing and could not be Christianized there. Therefore they asked permission to send two ships to bring them to Hispaniola where they could be converted and would work in the mines, thus being of service to the King.

The King agreed, on the blind and culpable recommendation of the council, acting as if rational beings were timber cut from trees and used for buildings or a herd of sheep or any other animals and nothing much would be lost if they died at sea. Who would not blame an error so great: natives taken by force to new lands 100 and 150 leagues away, however good or evil the reason may have been, much less to dig gold in mines where they would surely die, for a King and foreigners they had never offended? Perhaps they sought justification by deceiving the King with a falsehood, that is, that the Lucayo Indians would be instructed in the Faith: which, even if it were true was night right—and it wasn’t true, for they never intended anything of the kind nor did anything in that direction. God did not want Christianity at that cost; God takes no pleasure in a good deed, no matter its magnitude, if sin against one’s fellow man is the price of it, no matter how minuscule that sin may be; and this is a fact all sinners, especially in the Indies, deceive themselves into ignoring. In total condemnation of this lie, let it be remembered that the Apostles never expatriated anyone by force in order to convert them elsewhere, nor has the universal Church ever used this method, considered pernicious and detestable. Therefore, the King’s council was very blind and, consequently, because its members are scholars, it is guilty before God, since ignorance cannot be adduced.

The King’s permission arrived and ten or twelve residents from Concepción and Santiago gathered 10,000 or 12,000 gold pesos, brought two or three ships and fifty to sixty salaried men, and raided the Indians who lived in the Lucayos in peace and security… To this kind of people the Spaniards did the following. They say that the first harvesters of Lucayo Indians, fully aware of their simplicity and gentle manners (they knew this from the report of Christopher Columbus), anchored they ships and were received as they always are before our deeds prove the contrary, that is, as angels from Heaven. The Spaniards said they came from Hispaniola, where the souls of their beloved ones were from Hispaniola, where he souls of their beloved ones were resting in joy, and that their ships would take them there if they wanted to see them, for it is a fact that all Indian nations believe in the immortality of the soul. After death, the body joins the soul in certain delightful places of pleasure and comfort; some nations even believe that the souls of sinners first undergo torment. So then, with those wicked arguments, the Spaniards deceived the Indians into climbing on board ship, and men and women left their homes with their scant belongings.

On Hispaniola, they found neither father, mother nor loved ones but iron tools and instruments and gold mines instead, where they perished in no time; some, from despair at seeing themselves deceived, took poison; others died of starvation and hard labor, for they are a delicate people who had never imagined such type of work even existed. Later, the Spaniards used every possible wile and force to trick them into ships. At the landing sites, usually Puerto de Plata and Puerto Real on the north shore facing the Lucayos, men, women, children and old people were thrown helter-skelter into lots; the old with the young, the sick with the healthy—they often dell ill in the ships, and many died of anguish, thirst and hunger in the hottest and stuffiest hold—without any concern for keeping man and wife, father and son together, handled like the basest animals. Thus the innocent,

were divided into groups and those who had contributed their share in the raiding expedition drew lots. When someone drew an old or sick one he protested, “Give that old man to the devil, why should I take him? To feed and bury him? And why give me that sick dog? To cure him?”

Sometimes, it happened that Indians died on the spot either from hunger, debilitation, sickness or the pain of a father seeing his son or a husband seeing his wife bought and taken away. How could anyone with a human heart and human entrails witness such inhuman cruelty? Where was the principle of charity, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” in the minds of those who, forgetting that they were Christians or human beings, performed such “humanity” upon human beings? Finally, to cover the cost and pay the salaried men, they agreed to allow the sale of allotted Indians at not more than 4 gold pesos per piece—they referred to them as pieces as if they were heads of cattle. And they thought selling and transferring so cheaply was an honorable thing to do, while in truth, had the price been higher, the Indians would have received better treatment as valuable items and would have lasted longer…

I could have found out, and I could consequently now relate, the particulars of many more cruelties inflicted upon this innocent flock, if in those days of my residence in Hispaniola I had cared to question the men who performed such things. But I want to tell what one of them told me in Cuba. He had come to Cuba in an Indian canoe, perhaps as a runaway from his captain or to escape danger or again from a sense of guilt and a desire to leave such reprobate ways. He told me they used to stuff shiphold with hundreds of Indians of both sexes and all ages, pack them like sardines and close all the hatchways to prevent escape, thus shutting off air and light. And, since ships carried food and water only for the Spanish crew, the Indians died and were thrown into the sea, and the floating corpses were so numerous that a ship could find its course by them alone, without need of a compass, charts or the art of navigation. Those were his words. This is certain: no ship ever raided the Lucayos that did not for the above reasons have to throw overboard one-third or one-fourth of its human cargo, and this inhumanity went on sometimes more and sometimes less but it is a fact that it went on. This arrangement, if such a thing can bear that name, brought to Hispaniola over a million souls over a period of ten years—men, women, children and elderly; a few shipments were made to Cuba also, and they all perished in the mines from overwork, anguish and exhaustion.

Pedro Martyr declared that according to his information there were 406 Lucayo Islands, from which the Spaniards enslaved 40,000 Indians to work the mines, and, from all the island they had a total of 1,200,000… He adds that the Lucayo Indians sometimes killed Spaniards. This happened when a small group of Spaniards were caught off guard because, when they realized the Spaniards meant to destroy them, the Indians used bows and arrows invented for fishing to kill their killers. But it was all in vain since they never succeeded in killing more than a handful. As to what Martyr says about the number of Lucayo Islands, he is including those called Jardín de la Reina and Jardín del Rey, which is a string of small islands south and north of the Cuban coast. The Indians there shared the natural goodness of the Lucayos. However, by Lucayos we refer only to the larger islands that go from Hispaniola to Florida away from Cuba, and these number between forty and fifty, large and small. Pedro Martyr also adds that he kept his information constantly up to date and this was possible because at that time he was a member of the council of the Indies which he joined in 1518 and I was there when he presented his credentials to the council. The Emperor gave him this post in Saragossa almost immediately after the coronation ceremonies.

Review

1. 1) According to de las Casas, how did the Spanish hidalgos treat the native population of Hispaniola and Cuba? Why did the Comendador allow this treatment? Why did the king allow it?
2. 2) How did the native people of Hispaniola respond to this treatment? What happened to them?
3. 3) How did de las Casas, a Roman Catholic priest, interpret and explain Spanish behavior? Who does he blame for the maltreatment of the natives?