123 School Work

Bartolome De Las Casas

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  Essay on An Account, Much Abbreviated, of the Destruction of the Indies
  
       This book, written by Bartolome De Las Casas, is quite possibly one of the most graphic, blatant and outright evil accounts of what happened to the native peoples of the "new world". It is also one of the few European stories of such that was ever written by someone that witnessed such atrocities first hand. One of the most impressive things that stands out in my mind in reading this book, is even though it is a translation, Las Casas seems to have written the book as a sort of gospel in that he has a very biblical sense about his writing. He uses a very profound sort language that really seems to make some of the incidents in this book really stand out.
       Another of the things that really stands out in my mind is the frequency with which he uses very graphic examples of mistreatment, if not downright torture, that the conquistadors used. Yet another somewhat surprising point of interest to me is that while the book is translated, and the author himself admits to it being a "much abbreviated account", the book in its entirety accounts for only eighty-eight pages written by Bartolome de Las Casas himself. This is before the editor added the additional texts to apparently help explain some of the situations described in the main text of the book. While the part "New Laws of the Indies" made for an interesting read, the rest of the additional texts included by the editor seem to have little to do with the majority of the book unless they are there to simply give a short and slight glimpse as to what the other side of the coin looked like in this case. (pg. 111 From Hernan Cortes, Cartas de Relacion)
        Bartolome de Las Casas' book seems to be a long written plea, to whoever will listen, telling about the great injustices to native people done at the hands of the conquistadors...