Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Two Accounts Written by De Las Casas


I think that one of the author important information is when he explains that the Indies were discovered in the year one thousand four hundred and ninety-two. In the following year a great many Spaniards went there with the intention of getting the land. That land was called Hispaniola, which was six hundred leagues in circumference. Around it in all directions are many other islands, some very big, others very small and all of them were, as we saw with our own eyes, densely populated with native people also called Indians.
 The author also says that Spaniards have behaved in no other way during the past forty years, down to the present time, for they are still acting like ravening beast, killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native people. Then the author explains the reason why Spaniards were doing criminal acts to the native people. He says that their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim which is to acquire gold and to swell themselves with riches in a very brief time and thus rise to a high estate disproportionate to their merits. It should be kept in mind that their insatiable greed and ambition, the greatest ever seen in the world, is the cause of their villainies.
 An important part that the author explains about the native mistakes is that they regarded the Spaniards as angels from heavens. The Spaniards committed acts of force and violence and oppression which made the Indians realize that these men had not come from Heaven. From others islands the Spaniards perpetrated the same acts of aggression against the Indians. The author was in defense of the Indians where he talks about Sepulveda’s opinion which says, “That campaigns against the Indians are lawful.” This story has broadened my understanding a lit of bit more because I thought that only in the Hispaniola the Spaniards killed many Indians people, but they also killed Indians from others islands.

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