14 quotes
Christ wanted love to be called his single commandment. This we owe to all men. Nobody is excepted.
In Defense of the Indians (1548)
These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world.
History of the Indies (1561)
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.
History of the Indies (1561)
More than thirty other islands in the vicinity of San Juan are for the most part and for the same reason depopulated, and the land laid waste.
History of the Indies (1561)
After the wars and the killings had ended, when usually there survived only some boys, some women, and children, these survivors were distributed among the Christians to be slaves.
History of the Indies (1561)
They laid bets as to who, with one stroke of the sword, could split a man in two or could cut off his head or spill out his entrails with a single stroke of the pike.
History of the Indies (1561)
And never have the Indians in all the Indies committed any act against the Spanish Christians, until those Christians have first and many times committed countless cruel aggressions against them or against neighboring nations.
History of the Indies (1561)
Christ seeks souls, not property. ... He who wants a large part of mankind to be such that ... he may act like a ferocious executioner toward them, press them into slavery, and through them grow rich, is a despotic master, not a Christian; a son of Satan, not of God; a plunderer, not a shepherd.
In Defense of the Indians (1548)
And of all the infinite universe of humanity, these people are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity, the most obedient and faithful to their native masters and to the Spanish Christians whom they serve.
History of the Indies (1561)
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.
History of the Indies (1561)
With still others, all those they wanted to capture alive, they cut off their hands and hung them round the victim's neck, saying, "Go now, carry the message," meaning, Take the news to the Indians who have fled to the mountains.
History of the Indies (1561)
They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if dealing with sheep in the slaughter house.
History of the Indies (1561)
They made a grid of rods which they placed on forked sticks, then lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, so that little by little, as those captives screamed in despair and torment, their souls would leave them.
History of the Indies (1561)
The Indians were totally deprived of their freedom and were put into the harshest, fiercest, most horrible servitude and captivity which no one who has not seen it can understand. Even beasts enjoy more freedom when they are allowed to graze in the field.
History of the Indies (1561)