A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies

From 1492 to the time of writing in 1542, “an uninterrupted series of Spanish plunderers” (80) arrived in Santa Marta (today the Republic of Colombia) seeking gold. Before 1523, when a permanent Spanish settlement was established, devastation of the local population was kept to the coast. At the time of settlement, and especially following 1529, there began a program of torturing local peoples and chiefs of the inland province for information on the whereabouts of gold. This accounted for the depopulation of 400 leagues of densely populated area between 1529 and 1542.

Instead of attempting to describe the list of atrocities committed here, Las Casas quotes a 1541 letter written by the bishop of the province, Fray Juan Fernández de Ángulo, to Charles V. The letter strongly urges the king to entrust the province to “someone who will love and care for it as he would his own offspring” (81), or else it will “very soon simply disappear from the face of the earth” (82). The letter encourages the king to strip the current governors of their stewardship and, much like Las Casas, accuses these so-called Christians of disgracing their religion.

In closing, Àngulo urges the king to make these men aware that “the Crown is not served by actions that are a disservice to God” (83).