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

1. He allowed the Indians to be chained and put in prisons, and so it

was done. And the said captain took three or four in chains for

himself; by so doing and by robbing the Indians of their supplies

instead of providing for necessary sowing and populating, the

natives of the country were reduced to such want, that great numbers

of them were found in the streets starved to death.

2.2. He killed about ten thousand souls by making the Indians carry the

Spaniards’ baggage to and from the beach, because all who reached

the coast died of the heat.

3.3. After this he followed the same trail and road as Juan de Ampudia,

sending the Indians he had brought from Quito, a day in front, to

discover the Indian towns and to sack them so that he and his people

might avail themselves of them on their arrival. Those Indians

belonged to him and his companions, one of whom had two hundred,

another three hundred, according to the number each brought with

him, and they carried whatever their masters robbed. And in this

they treated children and women most cruelly.

4.4. He followed the same course in Quito, burning all the country and

the stores of maize belonging to the lords; he consented to the

killing of great numbers of sheep, all of which form the principal

provision and maintenance of the natives and of the Spaniards; for

the latter use two or three hundred just to eat the brains and fat

alone, and waste the meat.

5.5. His friendly Indians who went with him, killed great numbers of

sheep, just to eat the hearts, not eating anything else. And so two

men in a province called Purua killed twenty-five sheep and

pack-sheep, just to eat the brains and fat, although among the

Spaniards they cost twenty and twenty-five pesos each.

6.6. By such excessive disorder, they killed more than a hundred thousand

head of animals, which reduced the country to very great want, while

the natives died of starvation in great numbers. Although there was

more maize in Quito than can be told, this bad order of things

brought such penury on the people that a measure of maize came to

cost ten pesos, and a sheep the same.

7.7. When the said captain returned from the coast, he determined to

leave Quito, to go in search of Captain Juan de Ampudia. He took

more than two hundred foot and horsemen, among whom he led many

inhabitants of the country of Quito. The said captain permitted the

colonists who accompanied him to draw the lords from their

departments and as many Indians as they liked, and this they did.

8.8. Alonso Sanchez Nuyta took a lord and more than a hundred Indians

with their wives; Pedro Cobo and his cousin, more than a hundred and

fifty with their wives and many of the children, who otherwise all

died of starvation. And so likewise Moran, an inhabitant of

Popayan, had more than two hundred persons; and all the other

inhabitants and soldiers also took as many as each could.

9.9. And the said soldiers asked him if he would give them licence to put

the Indians they brought with them, in prison; and he said yes,

until they died, and when these were dead, also others; for if the

Indians were vassals of His Majesty, they were also of the

Spaniards, and they died in war.

10.10. In this way the said captain left Quito and went to a town called

Otabalo, which he owned at that time by virtue of the distribution,

and he demanded five hundred men for the war from its lord, who gave

them to him with some Indian chiefs. He distributed some of these

people among the soldiers and the rest he took with himself, some

with packs, and others in chains, and some, who served him and

brought him food, were free; the soldiers also took them, bound in

this way with chains and cords.

11.11. When they left the province of Quito they took away more than six

thousand Indians, men and women of whom not twenty men returned to

their country: because they all died of the great and excessive

labours imposed on them, in countries far from their native land.

12.12. It happened at this time, that one Alonso Sanchez was sent by the

said captain in command of certain people in a province; on the way,

he met a number of women and boys loaded with provisions who,

instead of fleeing, waited for him, to give them to him; and he had

them all put to the sword.

13.13. And a miracle happened when a soldier was stabbing an Indian woman;

at the first blow the sword broke in half, and at the second only

the handle was left, without his being able to wound her. Another

soldier with a double bladed dagger wanted to stab another Indian

woman, but at the first blow four fingers’ length of the point broke

off, and at the second nothing remained but the handle alone.

14.14. When the said captain left Quito, leading away such a quantity of

natives, separating them from their wives, giving some of the young

girls to those Indians he took with him, and others to those who

were left behind on account of their old age, a woman came behind

him, with a little child in her arms, weeping and begging him not to

take her husband away from her, because she had three little

children whom she would not be able to bring up, and who would die

of starvation; and seeing that he answered her roughly the first

time, she came back a second with louder cries saying, that her

children would die of starvation: and when she saw, that he

commanded she should be driven away and that he would not release

her husband, she threw the child on some stones and killed it.

15.15. When the said captain arrived in the province of Lili at a town

called Palo near the great river, he found there the Captain Juan de

Ampudia, who had gone in advance to explore and pacify the country;

the said Ampudia had founded a town called Ampudia, in the name of

His Majesty and of the Marquis Francisco Pizarro, and had appointed

Pedro Solano de Quiñones and eight rulers as ordinary judges; and

the greater part of the country was at peace, and divided. As soon

as he knew that the said captain was at the river, he went to see

him accompanied by many of the inhabitants and peaceful Indians,

loaded with provisions and fruit; and from thenceforward all the

Indians in the neighbourhood went to visit the said captain, and to

bring him food.

16.16. These were the Indians from Namudi, Palo, Soliman, and Bolo; but

because they did not bring as much maize as he wanted, he ordered

many Spaniards to go with their Indians, men and women to get maize,

wherever they found it. So they went to Bolo and to Palo, where

they found the Indians, tranquil in their houses; and the said

Spaniards and those who went with them, stole and carried off the

maize, gold, stuffs, and all the Indians possessed, and they bound

many of them.

17.17. When the Indians saw that they were treated so badly, they went to

complain to the said captain of what had been done, and to request

that the Spaniards should restore all they had taken from them. He

would not have anything restored, but told them that his men would

not go there a second time.

18.18. Within three or four days the Spaniards returned for maize, and to

rob the Indians of the town. The Indians having seen that the said

captain kept and observed his word so little, all the country

revolted, which did much harm and disservice to God Our Lord, and to

His Majesty.

19.19. So the whole country is left deserted, because the people have been

destroyed by their enemies the Olomas and Manipos: these are a

warlike people from the mountains, who descended every day to the

plains to capture and despoil them, seeing that their towns and

native country were left abandoned; and the most powerful among them

ate the weaker, because they were all dying of starvation.

20.20. Having done this, the said captain returned to the said country of

Ampudia, where he was received as General and seven days later he

again left to go to the places called Lili and Peti, accompanied by

more than two hundred men on foot and on horse.

21.21. Afterwards the said commander sent his captain in all directions,

making cruel war on the natives; and so they killed great numbers of

Indians, men and women, and burnt their houses and stole their

goods: this lasted many days.

22.22. The lords of the country seeing that they were killing and

destroying them, sent some peaceable Indians, with provisions. And

the said captain having left for a settlement called Yce, he at once

sent some Spaniards to rob, capture, and kill as many Indians as

they could, commanding that many houses should be burnt; and so they

burnt more than a hundred.

23.23. From there he went to another town, called Tolilicuy, (105) where

the lord at once came forth peaceably with many Indians: and the

said captain demanded gold of him and of his Indians. The lord said

he had but little, but that he would give him what he had. They all

immediately began to bring him what they could.

24.24. The said captain gave each of the Indians a ticket bearing the name

of the said Indian who had given him gold, threatening that any

Indian who did not pay and was without this ticket, should be thrown

to the dogs. Terrified by this, all the Indians who had gold, gave

him all that they could; and those who had none fled to the mountain

and to other towns, for fear of being killed; for which reason a

great number of natives perished.

25.25. The said captain forthwith ordered the lords to send two Indians to

another town, called Dagua, to order the inhabitants to come

peaceably to him, and bring him a quantity of gold.

26.26. On arriving at another town, he sent a number of Spaniards, and

Indians from Tolilicuy to capture many Indians, and so the following

day they brought back more than a hundred persons with them. He took

all those capable of carrying loads, for himself and the soldiers,

and put them in chains so that they all died; and the said captain

gave the infants to the said lords of Tolilicuy to be eaten. And

to-day in the house of the said Lord Tolilicuy there are the skins

of the infants full of ashes.

27.27. Without saying anything, he departed from there for the provinces

of Calili, where he joined Captain Juan de Ampudia, who had been

sent by him to explore the country by another route; both the one

and the other did much slaughter and much injury to the native

people wherever they went.

28.28. The said Juan de Ampudia arrived at a place, the lord of which was

called Bitacon; he had prepared some pits for his defence, into

which two horses belonging to Antonio Redondo and Marcus Marquez

fell; the latter died but the other not. In consequence of this the

said Ampudia ordered as many as possible of the Indians, men and

women, to be captured; more than a hundred persons were captured

whom they threw into those pits alive where they killed them, and

they burnt more than a hundred houses in that town.

29.29. Thus they joined one another at a large town and, without calling

the Indians pacifically, nor sending interpreters to summon them,

they made cruel war on them, and persecuted them, and killed great

numbers of them. And as soon as they joined one another as has been

said, the aforenamed Ampudia told the captain what he had done at

Bitacon, and how he had thrown so many people into the pits; and the

said captain replied that he had done very well; and that he himself

had done the same at Riobamba, which is in the province of Quito,

where he threw more than two hundred persons into the pits; both

stayed here, making war throughout the country.

30.30. After this he entered the province of Birù or Anzerma, making cruel

war of fire and blood, from this province to the salt ponds. From

there he sent Francisco Garcia Tobar forward, making cruel war on

the natives as is told above; and the Indians went to him two by

two, making signs that they sought peace in the name of all the

country, and asking what the Spaniards wished; for if they wanted

gold or women or provisions, they should be given them, and begging

that they should not be killed in this way: and this the Spaniards

themselves have confessed to be true.

31.31. And the said Francisco Garcia told them to go away, that they were

drunk, and that he did not understand them, after which he returned

to where the said captain was and they set out to march through all

the province, making most cruel war on the natives, plundering and

killing them; and more than two thousand souls were carried off from

there between him and his soldiers, all of whom died in chains.

32.32. Before they left the inhabited country, they killed more than five

hundred persons. Thus he returned to the province of Calili; and if

on the way some Indian, man or woman, became so tired that he could

not walk, they stabbed him; if he was in chains they cut off his

head, so as not to undo them and so that the others seeing this,

should not feign being ill.

33.33. In this way they all died, and on this journey all the people he

had brought from Quito, Pasto, Quilla, Cagua, Paria, Popayan, Lili,

Cali, and Anzerma, perished in very great numbers. On his return

march, as soon as he entered the large town, they killed all they

could. And they captured three hundred persons in that day.

34.34. From the province of Lili, he sent the said captain, Juan de

Ampudia, with many people to the place and dwellings of Lili, in

order to capture all the Indians, men and women, that he could, for

carrying the packs; because all the numerous people he had brought

from Anzerma, had already died. And the said Juan de Ampudia

brought more than a thousand persons, many of whom he killed.

35.35. The said captain took all the people he needed, giving the rest to

the soldiers, who at once put them in chains, where they all died:

after depriving the said country of the Spaniards, and of the

natives in such great numbers, as is seen by the few that are left,

he set out for Popayan.

36.36. On the way he left behind a live Spaniard, whose name was Martin de

Aguirre, because he could not walk as much as the healthy ones. On

his arrival at Popayan he dwelt in that town, and began to destroy,

and rob the Indians of the surrounding country, with the same

disorder as he had done in the others.

37.37. He made a royal stamp here and melted all the gold he had gathered,

and that Juan de Ampudia had gathered before he came; and without

any accounting or explanation, and without giving any part to any

soldier, he took it all for himself, except that he gave what he

chose to some whose horses were dead. This done, and after taking

the fifths of His Majesty he said he was going to Cuzco to report to

his Governor; so he set out for Quito, taking a great number of

Indians, men, and women, all of whom died on the journey and in that

place. And further the said captain returned to destroy the royal

stamp he had made.

38.38. It is well at this point to relate a word that this man said of

himself, showing that he very well knew the evil and cruelty that he

did. He spoke thus: “In fifty years, those that pass by here and

hear of these things, will say: ‘It was here that the tyrant so and

so marched.’ ”

39.39. These in-comings and out-goings of this captain in those kingdoms,

and this way of visiting those people living safely in their

country, and these operations practised by him against them, Your

Highness should know and be convinced, have always been done by the

Spaniards everywhere in the same way, from the discovery of the

Indies till the present day.

APPENDIX II. - THE BULL SUBLIMIS DEUS

Latin Text(106)

Paulus Papa tertius universis Christi fidelibus præsentes litteras

inspecturis salutem et Apostolicam benedictionem. Sublimis Deus sic

dilexit humanum genus, ut hominem talem condiderit qui non solum boni

sicut cæteræ creaturæ particeps esset, sed ipsum Summum Bonum inaccesibile

et invisibile attingere et facie ad faciem videre posset; et cum homo ad

vitam et beatitudinem æternam obeundam, etiam sacrarum literarum

testimonio, creatus sit, et hanc vitam et beatitudinem æternam, nemo

consequi valeat, nisi per fidem Domini nostri Jesu Christi fateri necesse

est, hominem talis conditionis et naturæ esse, ut Fidem Christi recipere

possit, et quemqunque, qui naturam hominis fortitus est, ad ipsam Fidem

recipiendam habilem esse. Nec enim quisque adeò desipere creditur, ut se

secredat Fidem obtinere posse, et medium summe necessarium, nequaquam

attingere.

Hinc veritas ipsa quæ nec falli, nee fallere potest, cum prædicatores

fidei ad officium prædicationis destinaret, dixisse dignoscitur. _Euntes,

Docete Omnes Gentes._ Omnes dixit, absque omni deletu, cum omnes fidei

disciplinæ capaces existant. Quod videns ipsius humani generis emulus qui

bonis operibus, ut pereant semper adversatur, modum excogavit ac temis in

auditum, quo impediret, ne verbum Dei gentibus salve fierent,

predicaretur, ac quosdam suos satelites commovit, qui suam cupiditatem ad

implere, cupientes occidentales, et meridionales Indos, et alias gentes,

quas temporibus istis ad nostram notitiam pervenerunt, sub prætextu, quod

Fidei Catolicæ expertes existant, uti muta animalia ad nostra obsequia

redigendos esse passim asserere præsumat.

Nos igitur qui eiusdem Domini Nostri vices, licet immeriti, gerimus in

terris, et oves gregis sui nobis commissas, quæ extra eius ovile sunt, ad

ipsum ovile toto nixu exquirimus. Attendentes Indos ipsos, ut potè veros

homines, non solum Christianæ Fidei capaces existere, sed ut nobis

innotuit, ad fidem ipsam promptissimè currere. Ac volentes super his

congruis remediis providere, prasdictos Indos et omnes alias gentes ad

notitiam Christianorum imposterum deventuras, licet extra Fidem Christi

existant sua libertate àc rerum suarum dominio privatos, seù privandos non

esse. Imò libertate et dominio huiusmodi, uti et potiri, et gaudere,

liberè et licitè posse, nee in servitutem redigi debere. Ac si secùs

fieri contigerit irritum et innane. Ipsosque Indos et alias gentes verbi

Dei prædicatione et exemplo bonæ vitæ ad dictam Fidem Christi invitandos

fore, et præsentium literarum transumptis manu alicuius Notarii publici

subscriptis, àc sigillo alicuius personæ in dignitate Ecclesiastica

constitutæ munitis, eamdem fidem adhibendam esse, quas originalibus

adhiberetur auctoritate Apostolice per præsentes litteras decernimus et

declaramus. Non obstantibus præmissis, cæterisque contrariis

quibuscumque.

Datum Romæ Anno Domini millessimo quingentessimo trigessimo septimo.

Quarto nonas Junii Pontificatus nostri, Anno tertio.

THE BULLSublimis Deus

Translation

Paul III Pope To all faithful Christians to whom this writing may come,

health in Christ our Lord and the apostolic benediction.

The sublime God so loved the human race that He created man in such wise

that he might participate, not only in the good that other creatures

enjoy, but endowed him with capacity to attain to the inaccessible and

invisible Supreme Good and behold it face to face; and since man,

according to the testimony of the sacred scriptures, has been created to

enjoy eternal life and happiness, which none may obtain save through faith

in our Lord Jesus Christ, it is necessary that he should possess the

nature and faculties enabling him to receive that faith; and that whoever

is thus endowed should be capable of receiving that same faith. Nor is it

credible that any one should possess so little understanding as to desire

the faith and yet be destitute of the most necessary faculty to enable him

to receive it. Hence Christ, who is the Truth itself, that has never

failed and can never fail, said to the preachers of the faith whom He

chose for that office “Go ye and teach all nations.” He said all, without

exception, for all are capable of receiving the doctrines of the faith.

The enemy of the human race, who opposes all good deeds in order to bring

men to destruction, beholding and envying this, invented a means never

before heard of, by which he might hinder the preaching of God’s word of

Salvation to the people: he inspired his satellites who, to please him,

have not hesitated to publish abroad that the Indians of the West and the

South, and other people of whom We have recent knowledge should be treated

as dumb brutes created for our service, pretending that they are incapable

of receiving the catholic faith.

We, who, though unworthy, exercise on earth the power of our Lord and seek

with all our might to bring those sheep of His flock who are outside, into

the fold committed to our charge, consider, however, that the Indians are

truly men and that they are not only capable of understanding the catholic

faith but, according to our information, they desire exceedingly to

receive it. Desiring to provide ample remedy for these evils, we define

and declare by these our letters, or by any translation thereof signed by

any notary public and sealed with the seal of any ecclesiastical

dignitary, to which the same credit shall be given as to the originals,

that, notwithstanding whatever may have been or may be said to the

contrary, the said Indians and all other people who may later be

discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty

or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith

of Jesus Christ; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately,

enjoy their liberty and the possession of their property; nor should they

be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it shall be null and

of no effect.

By virtue of our apostolic authority We define and declare by these

present letters, or by any translation thereof signed by any notary public

and sealed with the seal of any ecclesiastical dignitary, which shall thus

command the same obedience as the originals, that the said Indians and

other peoples should be converted to the faith of Jesus Christ by

preaching the word of God and by the example of good and holy living.

Given in Rome in the year of our Lord 1537. The fourth of June and of our

Pontificate, the third year.

APPENDIX III. - ROYAL ORDINANCES PROVIDING FOR THE DEPARTURE OF LAS CASAS

FROM SPAIN AND FOR HIS RECEPTION IN THE INDIES(107)

THE PRINCE. Our officials of India House, who reside in the city of

Seville: Rev. Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas, bishop-elect of the province

of Chiapa, goes to this city in order to send off forty priests, who are

now going to the province of Honduras; and also to give orders concerning

their departure and other matters which he understands. I therefore wish

the said bishop to be given every facility in these matters so that he may

be enabled to arrange quickly, as is due to one in our service, and I

command and order you that in the aforesaid, as in all things, you will

offer him help, and assist him and the said priests; and in thus doing,

you will be serving me. From Valladolid 13th day of the month of February

1544—I, the Prince, etc.

THE PRINCE. Our officials of India House, who reside in the city of

Seville; as the bulls of the bishop of the province of Chiapa, the

Reverend Father Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas have arrived and Diego

Navarro, who brought them by our orders is entitled by the agreement made

with him to be paid for the cost and the delivery of the said bulls,

amounting, according to the declaration of Pedro de Tapia and of Diego de

Gaona, apostolic notaries, and of certain money changers in Rome, to

eighty-eight thousand nine hundred and twenty-five maravedis, and since

this has to be deducted from the five hundred thousand maravedis, which

the said bishop receives from us in New Spain, I order that out of

whatever maravedis are in your charge, our treasurer shall pay the said

Diego Navarro or his authorised representative the said eighty-eight

thousand nine hundred and twenty-five maravedis. You will take care that

they are collected according to the cedula which I send by him. Let me

know what you do in this matter, and do not fail to do so.

Dated in Valladolid, etc.

Archives of the Indies, Council of Guatemala, register of property. Royal

commands issued to the authorities, corporations, and private persons of

the district, years 1529 to 1551. Desk 100, drawer 1st. Packet 1st.

THE PRINCE. By these presents I give permission and faculty to you, Rev.

Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas, bishop-elect of the province of Chiapa to

leave our realms, and dominions and go to our Indies, Islands, and “Terra

Firma” of the ocean sea, accompanied by four black slaves for your

personal service and establishment, free of all duty, as well from the two

ducats for their licences, as from the “almoxarifazgo” duties.(108)

Whatever sum this amounts to, I exempt you; and we instruct our officials

in those islands and provinces to which the said slaves are to be sent, to

take charge of this original document and place it in the chest of the

Three Keys, so that the said slaves shall be unable to make more than the

one voyage for which we give you permission by this licence. Dated in the

town of Valladolid 13th day of February 1544—I, the Prince, etc.

THE PRINCE. Reverend Father in Christ, Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas,

bishop-elect of the province of Chiapa I have been informed that the

province of Socousco is within the boundaries of your diocese. Knowing

this and with the confidence I place in you, my will is to place the said

province under your charge so that, as prelate you will have the care of

the spiritual affairs in it, until, as aforesaid, a bishop is provided for

it. I therefore order and entrust you as prelate to take charge of the

spiritual welfare of the said province until as said, a prelate is

provided for it. Of the tithes of the said province you are to take one

fourth part, and the other three parts shall be distributed among the

ecclesiastical ministers who at present serve in that province; and in the

repairs and decorations of its churches. The fourth part, of which you

have the use, shall be expended in your personal visits throughout the

said provinces and in performing their pontifical functions until the

prelate we shall appoint goes to reside in his bishopric. Dated in

Valladolid 13th day of February 1544—I, the Prince, etc.

THE PRINCE. Reverend Father in Christ, Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas,

bishop-elect of the city of Ciudad Real of the plains of Chiapa. You

already know that the Emperor King, my sovereign, having seen the

necessity of providing and ordering certain things tending to the better

government of the Indies, the better treatment of its natives, and the

better administration of justice, and in order to fulfil the duties he

owes to the service of God our Lord, and in the discharge of his royal

conscience has, after much deliberation, ordered certain ordinances to be

drawn up. As it afterwards appeared necessary and advantageous to explain

certain clauses in the said ordinances and to further strengthen others,

certain ordinances and declarations were made, many of whose articles have

been rectified for the benefit, preservation, and good treatment of the

natives of the said Indies, their lives and properties. They may all thus

be well treated as free subjects and vassals of His Majesty (which they

are) and instructed in the Holy Catholic Faith, as you will see by the

copies of the said ordinances and declarations, which I order to be sent

to you with this letter, signed by Juan de Samano, our secretary. And

whatever I have commanded in our ordinances and in our cedulas and

provisions, which I now renew, I send and order our viceroys, presidents

and the auditors of our audiencias and royal chancelleries of the said

Indies, our governors and our judges that with great zeal and diligence

they obey, comply with, and have them proclaimed. They shall rigorously

punish all who rebel against these ordinances, and many of the said

ordinances shall be given to the priests who are in those parts that they

may be made known to the natives, and procure obedience to them, and

report those who do not fulfil them, to the said audiencia. I also think

it advisable to mention this to you, feeling confident that as you are the

pastor and protector of the native Indians in your bishopric, and are

bound to be more zealous in procuring their better welfare and in

preserving their spiritual and temporal development, you will, therefore,

do this and take greater care to ensure the execution of what has been

enacted for their benefit. Thus I charge you and I command you to see

that this is carried out, and to exercise great vigilance and care to

ensure the observance of the said statutes and the execution of their

provisions. And should any person or persons violate these orders, you

will notify the governors and judges in those parts so that they may

punish them according to the provisions of the statutes. Should the

latter prove remiss, neglectful, or inclined to dissimulate, you will

report to the President and auditors of Our Audiencia and Royal

Chancellery of the Confines, indicating those who have offended and in

what way, so that they may order the guilty to be punished in conformity

with the commands we have sent them. In case the said President and

auditors fail to correct and punish them, after seeing your statement—a

thing we do not believe—you will notify us of everything in order that we

may have them punished as we may think fit. In doing this you will have

fulfilled the duties you owe to the service of God, our Lord, and in the

discharge of your conscience; moreover the Emperor my sovereign will also

be served. Dated in Valladolid, 13th day of February 1544. I the Prince,

etc.

DON CARLOS by Divine Grace, August Emperor, King of Germany; Doña Juana

his mother, and the same Don Carlos by the grace of God, Kings of Castile

and Leon, etc. To you, Rev. Father in Christ, Bartholomew de Las Casas,

bishop-elect of the city of Ciudad Real of the plains of Chiapa, health

and grace. You well know that on account of the good reports that we had

of your character, we presented you to our most Holy Father as bishop of

the said diocese, and though the bulls have not been despatched, the

service of God Our Lord, the instruction and conversion of the natives of

the said bishopric and the good government and advancement of the Church

and its divine teachings, require that you go with all haste to the said

provinces to undertake the said teaching and conversion and the other

matters with which we have charged you. Were you to await the arrival of

the said bulls, certain misfortunes might in the meantime occur there

which would displease God our Lord, and not be in accordance with our

duties to His service in the Indies. It was therefore agreed that without

awaiting the said bulls, you should go to the said province, and we

approve it. Therefore we pray and command you that as soon as you receive

this you will start for the said province of Chiapa, without awaiting the

said bulls: you will enquire into and find out the state of the spiritual

affairs of the province and also what churches and monasteries have been

built. What tithes there have been and in what way they have been spent

and distributed. If the necessary churches have not been built you will

see that they are immediately erected in such places as you judge best,

placing priests to administer the Holy Sacraments and to diligently

instruct the natives of those towns in all matters relating to our holy

Catholic Faith. In the meantime, we, as patrons of the said churches and

the others in our Indies, command persons to be named to those benefices

who will assume charge of them. You will likewise see that the divine

services are carried out with the necessary reverence, decency, and

decorum, and that the natives of the said district are instructed in the

Holy Catholic faith; you will see that the said priests and others who

reside in the said provinces live honestly, and that those who are charged

with the education of the Indians in the teachings of our Holy Catholic

Faith fulfil their duties. We command that the President and the auditors

of our Audiencia and Royal Chancellery of the Confines, as well as all

other judges and subjects of the said province of Chiapa, shall give you

all the above mentioned, and shall favour and aid you in whatever you ask

of them or is necessary. For all of which we name you and give you full

power by this, our letter with all its incidents, dependencies, annexes,

and connexes. You are notified by this letter that you are not authorised

to exercise jurisdiction or other functions forbidden to bishops-elect

before they are confirmed and consecrated. Dated in the town of

Valladolid 13th day of February etc.

DON CARLOS, etc. To you, the Rev. Father in Christ, Bartholomew de Las

Casas bishop-elect of the province of Chiapa, health and grace. Be it

known to you that we have been informed that in your diocese, many Indians

have been hunted and driven to the hills and mountains by the cruel

treatment of Spaniards living there, and of others who have gone there of

their own free will. And because we are desirous that the said Indians

should be pacified and taught our Holy Catholic Faith, and should be

brought back to the towns they used to inhabit to again live there and be

taught the Christian doctrines, we have decided, on account of the great

confidence we have in you, to beg you to endeavour to bring the said

Indians to peaceful terms. We therefore charge and command you that upon

your arrival there you will endeavour to procure peace, and to instruct

all the Indians who have been driven out of the said bishopric, in the

knowledge of the Holy Catholic Faith. And you will persuade them to

return to the towns they used to inhabit or to the places indicated by

you, which you think more suitable. And that they may come the more

willingly, you will promise and assure them in our name that if they come

and populate the said towns, they shall not be molested either now or at

any time during our royal reign; neither they, nor their descendants, nor

the towns they inhabit. By these presents we promise that should they

come to peaceful terms as stated, we will not molest them neither during

this reign nor at any other time. We moreover command that for a period

of four years they shall neither be fined nor taxed by our officials nor

by any other persons; and that they may be more relieved from work, our

will is that they shall be free of all tribute. You will have special

oversight of their good treatment and of their instruction and conversion,

and you will advise us what number of Indians have become peaceful through

these means and also what districts they have peopled. Dated in the town

of Valladolid etc.

THE PRINCE. Reverend Father in Christ, Francis Marroquin, bishop of the

province of Guatemala: I am informed by Our Council that you have

interfered and are interfering in the spiritual affairs pertaining to the

Diocese of Chiapa and know its affairs as though you were its bishop,

being as it is the lawful church and having its chapter, and the see being

at present vacant. The Emperor King, my sovereign, has presented to the

said bishopric the Reverend Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas, and we have

despatched him thither without waiting for his bulls. You are aware that

in a lawfully erected diocese it belongs to the chapter during the vacancy

of the see, to take cognisance of what happens there. Therefore I command

you that from the day that you receive this, you will henceforth, neither

know nor try to find out and interfere as a bishop in anything pertaining

to the said bishopric of Chiapa, and that you will leave the chapter of

the vacant see to act as is customary during a vacancy. Dated in

Valladolid etc.

THE PRINCE. Don Carlos, by Divine Grace august Emperor, King of Germany;

Doña Juana, his mother and the same Don Carlos, by the grace of God, Kings

of Castile and Leon etc. To you Rev. Father in Christ, Bartholomew de Las

Casas, bishop-elect of the city of Ciudad Real of the plains of Chiapa,

health and grace be with you. You well know how we have sent you, without

awaiting your bulls, to the said province to undertake the spiritual

affairs there and, because our wishes are that pending the arrival of the

said bulls, you shall be entitled to collect the ecclesiastical tithes of

that bishopric and to distribute them according to and in the manner

authorised by the foundation law of the diocese, we command you, pending

the arrival of the bulls authorising you to take possession of the said

bishopric, to collect all the ecclesiastical tithes of that bishopric. By

these presents we command all persons who should pay them, to bring them

to you or to whomever you authorise to receive them, just as though you

had already taken possession of the diocese by virtue of the said bulls.

The tithes thus collected you shall spend and distribute each year on the

things and in such wise as the foundation charter provided, and for their

collection we give you full power, with its incidents, dependencies,

annexes, and connexes. We likewise order that our judges and the

inhabitants of the said province shall not place nor allow to be placed

any impediment whatsoever in your way and shall leave you free to collect

the said tithes; and should necessity arise, they shall help and assist

you, and shall compel the tithe-payers to pay you the tithes as

beforesaid—Dated in the town of Valladolid 13th of February 1544—I the

Prince—by command of His Highness, Juan de Samano; signed by the Bishop of

Cuenca and the licentiates Gutierrez Velasquez; Gregorio Lopez y Salmeron.

THE PRINCE. Venerable and devout Father, Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas,

bishop-elect confirmed to the province of Chiapa; I saw your letter of the

21st ult. and the one you wrote to Juan de Samano, his Majesty’s

secretary, and the cedula you ask for, authorizing the expenses of the

forty friars who are going to Honduras, goes with this. About the two

hundred and fifty ducats which I ordered to be given you by the officials

of this chamber, seeing that there is no money wherewith to pay them, I

have ordered them to be paid on account, and that they should pay them to

you, as you will have understood when you receive this, and thus they will

settle with you in full.

I have written to the Franciscan Provincial of the Province of Castile,

that ten priests are going to the Indies instead of the twelve that I

asked for, as you told me that two of them are already in that city, of

which I am glad. The others who come will be provided with their passage

and stores according to the cedula you possess.

Pertaining to your consecration, in another document which accompanies

this, I am sending to give notice of the arrival of your bulls, charging

you to arrange at once for your consecration. I therefore beg you to do

this and to let me know how it was celebrated. Valladolid 1st day of

April 1544. I, the Prince: countersigned by Samano, signed by the bishop

of Cuenca, Velasquez, Gregorio Lopez y Salmeron.

DON CARLOS and Doña Juana etc. To you alcaldes and others and to our

judges of the provinces of Chiapa, Yucatan, Cozumel and to all Aldermen,

Judges, lawyers, gentlemen, esquires, officials and to all loyal subjects

in every city, town, and village which lie within the boundaries assigned

by our President and the auditors of our royal Council in New Spain to the

bishopric of the city of Ciudad Real of this province of Chiapa, and to

whatsoever other persons may be charged with the administration of the

churches in the said cities, towns, and villages lying within the said

boundaries and to whom this our letter may concern, health and grace. You

well know or should know that we have presented to our very Holy Father,

the Reverend Father in Christ, Fray Bartholomew de las Casas of the

Dominican Order, for the bishopric of the said city of Ciudad Real in the

province of Chiapa, to whom His Holiness, in virtue of our presentation,

conveyed the said church and bishopric; and he ordered to be given and did

give his bull for it, presenting it to us and begging us to grant our

execution of the letter so that, in conformity with the said bulls, he

would be given possession of the said bishopric and might receive its

rents and income, to enable him to appoint his vicars and other officials

of the said bishopric and that we might dispose as we saw fit. He sent

the said bulls to be shown to our Council of the Indies and after they had

seen them, we agreed that in the meantime or until we or our sovereign

successors enlarge or diminish the boundaries of the said bishopric, the

said Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas should preserve the boundaries assigned

by the said President and auditors to the said bishopric of Chiapa; and

that the tithes and other things which belong to him as bishop should be

paid him; and that we should send this, our letter to you; and we

approved. For that reason we order all and each one of you, who see the

said bulls, which will be presented by the said Reverend Fray Bartolomew

de Las Casas, conformably with their tenor and form to give or have given

to him, or to whomever he authorises, the possession of the church and

bishopric of the said city of Ciudad Real of the province of Chiapa, that

he may hold it within the boundaries the said President and auditors have

marked out. Meanwhile, and until we or the kings our successors enlarge

or diminish the said boundaries as before stated, you shall hold him as

your bishop and prelate, giving him the proceeds and incomes, tithes and

revenues, and all things pertaining to him as bishop of that diocese. And

you shall allow him to perform his pastoral duties and exercise his

episcopal jurisdiction in person or through his officials or vicars, in

whatever manner and in whatever form may be rightfully used according to

the said bulls, and as the laws of our kingdom sanction; and in all things

and cases belonging to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, you shall give him all

help and assistance. And should he ask the aid of the secular arm, you

will grant it in conformity with the law, and each one and all shall not

fail him in any way, under penalty of our displeasure and of five hundred

thousand maravedis, forfeit to our exchequer. Dated in the town of

Valladolid 7th of March 1544—I, the Prince; legalised by Samano, signed by

the Bishop of Cuenca, Gutierrez Velasquez, Gregorio Lopez y Salmeron.

THE PRINCE. Our officials in the province of Higueras and Cape of

Honduras: know ye that on account of the good reports and information of

the character and life of Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas of the Dominican

Order, the Emperor King, my sovereign, has presented him to His Holiness

as bishop of the province of Chiapa in place of Fray Juan de Arteaga,

deceased, former bishop of the said diocese. As the said bishop has

explained to me that in order to go to reside in the said diocese, he will

be obliged to provide himself in the said province with a few things for

his voyage, he has begged me to order you to lend him from your funds the

sum of two hundred ducats, or what I am pleased to give; and I approve. I

have therefore ordered in one of my documents, that five hundred thousand

maravedis in excess of the fourth part of the tithes of the said

bishopric, are to be yearly given from our purse. That he may have

sufficient to maintain himself better, I command that out of whatever

maravedis are in your care, our treasurer shall give and pay to the said

Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas, or to his authorised representative, the

said two hundred ducats, amounting to seventy-five thousand maravedis, and

shall note it on the back of the said document above mentioned; as you pay

it on account and in part payment of the said five hundred thousand

maravedis that we give him in this way each year, we have ordered that

these and other maravedis, which in these countries are to be given him,

shall be deducted from the five hundred thousand maravedis. You will take

his receipt or that of his authorised representative to show that the said

two hundred “ducats” have been received on account. Dated in Valladolid,

thirteenth day of February 1544,—I, the Prince, countersigned by

Samano—signed by the bishop of Cuenca, and Gre. Velasquez, Gregorio Lopez

y Salmeron.

THE PRINCE. Our officials in the province of Guatemala, or any other

persons who may have been appointed to collect the tithes of the Bishop of

Chiapa, during the vacant bishopric. Know ye that the Emperor King, my

sovereign, because of the good reports he had of the character and merits

of the Rev. Father in Christ, Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas of the

Dominican Order, presented him to the Holy Father as bishop of the said

diocese of the city of Ciudad Real of the plains of Chiapa, in place of

the licentiate Rev. Juan de Arteaga, former bishop, deceased. The said

bishop has begged me, in order to assist him in his many expenses until he

starts to the said bishopric and to pay the expenses of his bulls, to

graciously give him the tithes belonging to the church, that have

accumulated since the decease of the said Rev. Juan de Arteaga, should I

so wish, and I, agreeing to the above and to help him, do approve. I

therefore command you to help and assist the said bishop or his authorised

representatives with any tithes you may have collected or that remain in

the said bishopric of Chiapa belonging to the church, from the day the

said predecessor died until the day when he will enter and enjoy the five

hundred thousand maravedis which we order to be given him. Dated in

Valladolid thirteenth day of February 1544—I the Prince—by command of His

Highness, Juan de Samano.

THE PRINCE. Forasmuch as the Reverend Father in Christ, Fray

Bartholomew de Las Casas, bishop-elect of the city of Ciudad Real of the

plains of Chiapa has informed me that it may happen that in the Cathedral

of your said bishopric, there may not be more than one or two incumbents,

presented by us and installed by you in the dignities, canonries, and

prebends of the diocese, and, that not being more numerous, they must

divide amongst them all that pertains to the capitula mensa and promotes

the service of God our Lord and increases the divine cult in the said

church. Should this be the case, the persons who were installed and were

present should take what was required for its establishment, and out of

the remainder competent salaries should be given to some of the priests

who serve in the said church so long as there are no more beneficiaries,

as we desire that the above mentioned may be corrected. We order and

charge by these presents that, when it happens that in the said church

there are not at least four incumbents in residence, you will appoint up

to the said number to fill the vacant places, and priests who lead

exemplary lives and of the necessary abilities to serve in the said

church, as its canons and priests should; you will give them a sufficient

salary from the funds that belong to the Order of the Chapter; first

paying those who reside there and are ordained as the foundation statutes

provide. And what may be left over from this and from the said salaries,

which you will order to be paid from the said funds, you will order to be

divided among all those installed and named by you, according to what is

due to each. But should it happen that four incumbents or more than are

entitled to, reside in the said church, let them have from the funds of

the said Order of the Chapter, according to the foundation. And you will

endeavour to hold them to this and will report to our Council for the

Indies by the first ships sailing, all particulars respecting the persons

appointed, with their salaries as before mentioned, and their

capabilities, so that we may judge what will be most useful to the service

of God our Lord, and to Holy Church.

And take care to enlighten us when the funds increase, that we may appoint

more persons for the service of the said church. And be careful that the

salaries you have to fix, do not exceed the usual amount allowed in like

cases. Dated in the town of Valladolid, thirteenth day of February 1544.

I, the Prince, by command of His Highness, Juan de Samano, signed by the

Bishop of Cuenca, by the licentiate Gre. Velasquez, Gregorio Lopez y

Salmeron.

THE PRINCE. Our officials in New Spain; you already know how, on account

of the good reports we have had of the character and merits of the

Reverend Father, Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas, we presented him to the

bishopric of the province of Chiapa in the place of Don Juan de Arteaga

the late bishop; and as his bulls have been sent and their delivery cost

eighty-eight thousand, nine hundred and twenty-five maravedis, which

amount must be paid out of the five hundred thousand maravedis which we

ordered in another document to be given to him yearly in that country, and

because our officials of India House, who reside in the city of Seville,

have by our order paid eighty-eight thousand nine hundred and twenty-five

maravedis, I ordered them to send you this my cedula in order that you

might repay it. I therefore command you that of the five hundred thousand

maravedis which the said Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas receives from us in

that country, the two first years in succession, you will collect the said

eighty-eight thousand nine hundred and twenty-five maravedis which you

will send to the aforesaid officials at Seville, that we may be repaid

therefrom.

Dated, in Valladolid ist of April 1544, I, the Prince, countersigned by

Samano, signed by the bishop of Cuenca, Velasquez, Gregorio Lopez y

Salmeron.

THE PRINCE. Counsellors, judges, lawyers, gentlemen, esquires, officials,

and all royal subjects of the city of Ciudad Real of the plains of Chiapa;

know ye that the Emperor King, my sovereign, on account of the good

reports he had of the character, life, and habits of the Reverend Fray

Bartholomew de Las Casas, has presented him to this bishopric. Because

we hope our Lord will be well served by him, we have ordered him to start

without waiting for his bulls and we have provided him with what we

thought necessary. I charge and command you to honour him and treat him

justly, and to ask his advice in whatever matters may occur and in

accordance with the service of God our Lord and the good government of

this city, for I trust that by his good works and example and the great

zeal he shows for the service of God and for His Majesty, he will counsel

and guide you in whatever may contribute to the best results. Valladolid,

23rd of February, etc.

THE PRINCE. Venerable dean and chapter of the Cathedral of the bishopric

of Chiapa: know ye that the Emperor King, my sovereign, because of the

good report he had of the character, life, and habits of Fray Bartholomew

de Las Casas, has presented him to this bishopric; and because we hope

that our Lord will be well served by his mission and for the benefit of

the Holy Church, we have ordered him to start without waiting for his

bulls to be granted to him, and we have ordered what provision we thought

necessary. I charge and command you to honour him and to treat him with

respect and to take his advice in everything necessary for the government

of the church during the time he is awaiting consecration, because I hope

that with his wise teachings, good example, and the zeal he shows in the

service of God and His Majesty, he will advise and direct what is most

advantageous to the best results.

Valladolid 23rd of February 1544, Idem, etc.

THE PRINCE. Presidents and Auditors of Our Audiencia and Royal Chancellery

of the Confines: know ye that the Emperor King, my sovereign, on account

of the good reports he had of the character, life, and habits of the

Reverend Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas, has presented him to the bishopric

of the city of Ciudad Real of the plains of Chiapa. With a view to the

good results we hope he will achieve in instructing and converting the

natives of his diocese, we have commanded him to depart without waiting

for his bulls. Being the man he is and having had so much experience in

the affairs of those parts, we have entrusted to him to let us know what

is happening over there, and what is necessary for the service of God our

Lord in that country and among its natives. Therefore I charge and command

you that whenever the said bishop has anything to relate to you you will

listen and endeavour to help him in the service of God, your Father and

ours. And in whatever befalls him, you will help and favour and honour

him, according as his dignity demands.

Valladolid, 13th of February 1544—I, the Prince—by command of His Highness

Juan de Samano, signed by the Bishop of Cuenca and the licentiate

Gutierrez Velasquez, Gregorio Lopez y Salmeron.

THE PRINCE. President and judges of our Council and of Our Royal

Chancellery of the Confines; know ye that the Emperor King, my sovereign,

presented the bishopric of the city of Ciudad Real of the plains of Chiapa

to the licentiate Arteaga, and His Holiness, in response to the said

representation, conferred it upon him. After his death, His Majesty,

presented the said bishopric to Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas, whom we

have commanded to depart without waiting for his bulls, and to fulfil the

good we hope he will accomplish among the natives of the said bishopric.

And that he may know the limits of the said bishopric, dividing it from

the bishoprics of Guatemala, Honduras, Tiascala, and Guascaco, I command

that upon his arrival there, you show him the limits to which the said

bishopric of Chiapa extends. Bearing in mind how the said Fray

Bartholomew de Las Casas has served and will serve us, and the good he can

do in the conversion of the natives in the said bishopric, the boundaries

which will be pointed out to him must be quite distinct from the other

bishoprics of the country, for as long as it is our wish—Dated in the town

of Valladolid 13th day of February 1544—I, the Prince, etc.

THE PRINCE. President and judges of our Audiencia and Royal Chancery of

the Confines. Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas, bishop-elect of the city of

Ciudad Real of the plains of Chiapa, has informed me, and we all well

know, that he and the other priests of his Order have worked hard to bring

peace to the provinces of Teçulatlan, Lacandon, and others that were

engaged in warfare; these provinces are situated within the limits of the

bishopric and he beseeches me, since he and the said priests have

understood and are endeavouring to bring peace to the said provinces, to

be good enough to order that they shall be included within the limits of

his diocese; thus included, he would work with more love and zeal than any

former prelate to convert the natives to a knowledge of the Holy Catholic

Faith, according to our wishes. Our Council of the Indies having

considered this, it was agreed that I should send you this my cedula, and

as I approved, I command you to see to the above. Should the said

provinces of Teçulatlan and Lacandon be outside the limits of the said

diocese of Chiapa, you will arrange that the said Fray Bartholomew de Las

Casas has them under his charge as prelate, until His Holiness, upon our

presentation, appoints a prelate over the said provinces. Let the said

bishop-elect have charge of the spiritual affairs in those provinces and

as prelate take a fourth part of the tithes which belong to him in the

said provinces; the other three quarters shall be distributed among the

ecclesiastical ministries already in existence in the said provinces and

in the repairs and the decorations of the churches of them. Dated in

Valladolid thirteenth day of February 1544—I, the Prince, etc.

[Illustration: Map: Scenes of Las Casas’s Labours]

Scenes of Las Casas’s Labours

[Illustration: Holograph of Las Casas]

Holograph of Las Casas Giving Directions for the Publication of his Work.

Reproduced from Thacher’s "Christopher Columbus".