51 pages • 1-hour read
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
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Chapters 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “The Kingdom of Venezuela”
In 1526 (actually 1528) a treaty between the Spanish and the Germans put the valuable region of Venezuela in German control. German merchants, “devils in human form” (96), were subsequently responsible for depopulating 400 leagues of land and annihilating 4 to 5 million. This equates to the destruction of “entire nations, and with these people have disappeared a multitude of languages” (97). These German merchants, a footnote tells us, are part of the Welser banking house of Augsburg, a prominent player in the slave trade.
Like in other regions, the king of Venezuela was captured and tortured for gold. Germans and Spanish also tortured and murdered civilians. As always, this was despite the natives’ hospitality and graciousness.
In another large province bordering the kingdom of Santa Marta, Europeans were hosted for some time by natives before building a stockade around them all. This was organized by the German governor, who ransomed each individual for gold. If any person was able to ransom themselves, the Europeans recaptured and ransomed them again. Other natives were forced to carry large loads in shackles inland to Peru, and if they died on the way were decapitated.
Eyewitnesses provided evidence of these events to a legal advisor, but no one was prosecuted; “[i]ndeed, the justices have proved unpardonably deaf” (100). Las Casas argues that the justices did not care about persecution; they only investigated financial manners and “seem not to know how to investigate even the financial aspect of these atrocities at all accurately or professionally” (100). If they had, they would have realized the Germans were embezzling from them. But, as Las Casas notes, “these are only the temporal losses to the Crown. It is time we stopped to reflect on the other costs: the blasphemous and dishonorable outrages committed against God” (101). Las Casas notes that more than 1 million inhabitants were also sold as slaves.
Chapter 17 Summary: “The Mainland Region Known as Florida”
In 1510-1511 three Spaniards arrived in Florida. These evil men died quickly, “and all memory of them has been expunged from the face of the earth” (102), which Las Casas views as their just retribution from God.
In 1538 a new commander arrived with a large force of men. While he also died, some of his men survived and recounted “dreadful atrocities” against the natives, including the massacre of settlements, enslavement, and the decapitation of slaves who died in their shackles. During a massacre of one town, a group of native men were summoned from a neighboring town and their noses, lips, and chins were sliced off “as walking testimony to the great deeds and holy miracles performed by these dauntless missionaries of the Holy Catholic Faith” (104). Las Casas asks the reader to judge for themselves how the locals would react to Christianity in such a case as this, confirming again he is sure the Spaniards that have died are now in hell.
Chapter 18 Summary: “The River Plate”
Since 1522 or 1523 there had been four or five expeditions to this remote region. While there is little record of atrocity here, Las Casas is sure they have occurred by the evidence elsewhere. In fact, “because the region is so remote from Spain” (106), atrocity here saw even less limit.
Atrocities recounted to the Council of the Indies in this region include the massacre of an entire settlement and the dismemberment of a group of natives who refused to be handed over to another tribe with which they were at war. At the time of their killing, Las Casas says they wailed, “We came in peace to serve you and you kill us; may our blood on these walls serve as testimony to your cruelty and to the injustice of our deaths” (106).
Chapters 16-18 Analysis
Las Casas’s account of the Welser Banking House of Augsburg’s involvement in the conquest of Venezuela is another example of how this text serves as a valuable primary source on the early slave trade. It was this deal with the Welser Banking House that allowed later German influence on the history of the slave trade.
We also receive a few details on the legal administration of the island colonies at this time. The administration of the Council of the Indies did little to stymy Spanish butchery and, as part of the wider colonial machine, was much more interested in the island’s financial potential than its death tolls.
Overall these chapters show the consolidation of the Spanish colonial machine, which consistently executed similar methods of massacre, enslavement, and economic exploitation across adjacent regions. When Las Casas turns to Florida, we also get insight into how far north Spanish conquest of the Americas reached, even in the 16th century.
In Las Casas’s story of the slicing off of the facial features of Florida’s native inhabitants, his consistent trope of moralistic interruption is used somewhat more stylistically. Las Casas ironically casts the conquistadors as missionaries of the faith, sardonically chastising the men through praising their “great deeds and holy miracles.” This rhetorical technique incurs the reader’s disgust and signals Las Casas’s exhaustion with the countless evils he has witnessed, as well as his retreat into the protective desensitization of black humor. The subsequent engagement of the reader as a judge of these actions is another rhetorical technique, one deftly employed in such close proximity to scathing irony. This again shows off Las Casas’s prosecutorial argumentative style, as he engages his readers as a jury just after he pulls off the complex argumentative flourish of his irony.
Chapter 18 exemplifies how Las Casas uses assumption and anecdote as evidence. Las Casas initiates the chapter noting the paucity of official records of the atrocities in the region, then details accounts of such activity that he has seen or heard of. Las Casas also puts words in the mouth of the natives, which he does a few other times in the text, attempting to amplify his reader’s emotive response.
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