A Diet of Robbery, Murder, and Violence
Firsthand details of the Spanish colonization of the West Indies
Previously… La Navidad, a Gap in the Historical Record
A (very) Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
In 1552, Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican friar, published a damning firsthand account (book available here) of the atrocities he witnessed while living among the indigenous people of the Caribbean. He describes a world of rape, disfigurement, torture, murder, infanticide, forced cannibalism, and lots of burning people alive – slowly. Though shocking, these reports are a hugely valuable piece of my research for The Masters, and helps me understand how I might insert my characters into the world of 1500.
First, Imagine the Murder of 251 million People
In 1500, the estimated population of Earth was 461 million. In a 40 year period of time, Spanish conquistadors killed between 12 and 15 million indigenous men, women, and children (by de las Casas’ estimates).
Adjusted for population growth, those 12-15 million deaths in the 1500s scales up to 202-251 million deaths today.
Contemplate 251 million deaths using modern unit conversion
83,000 September 11’s (total deaths)
1,091 Indonesian Tsunamis of 2004 (total deaths)
383 American Civil Wars (total deaths)
100 years of Covid (total deaths)
44 US States (total population)
5 World World II’s (total deaths, all countries)
4 European countries: Spain, Italy, France, and the UK (total population)
The Extraordinary Cheapening of Human Life
One of the most shocking aspects of de las Casas’ account is the Spaniards’ complete and total otherizing of indigenous people, and the carelessness with which they treated their lives.
A Spaniard who was out hunting deer or rabbits realized that his dogs were hungry and, not finding anything that they could hunt, took a little boy from his mother, cut his arms and legs into chunks with his knife and distributed them among his dogs. Once they had eaten up these steaks, he threw the rest of the carcass on the ground for them to fight over.
Disfigurement for Pleasure
I testify that I saw with my own eyes Spaniards cutting off the hands, noses and ears of local people… simply for the fun of it.
It is reported that the butcher-in-chief arranged for a large number of natives in the area and, in particular, one group of over two hundred… to have their noses, lips and chins sliced from their faces; they were then sent away, in unspeakable agony and all running with blood, to act as walking testimony to the great deeds and holy miracles performed by these dauntless missionaries of the Holy Catholic Faith.
The Casual Murder of Babies and Children
[The Spaniards] slaughtered anyone and everyone in their path, on occasion running through a mother and her baby with a single thrust of their swords.
They tore babes and sucklings from the mother’s breast and played games with them, seeing who could throw them the farthest.
When one or two Spaniards tried to save some of the children, either because they genuinely pitied them or perhaps because they wanted them for themselves, and swung them up behind them on to their horses, one of their compatriots rode up behind and ran them through with his lance. Yet another member of the governor’s party galloped about cutting the legs off all the children as they lay sprawling on the ground.
An Obsession with Burning People Alive
Descriptions of slowly murdering people through the gradual application of fire crops up again and again and again in de las Casas’ writings. The Spaniards’ use of it is bizarre and gratuitous.
They spared no one, erecting especially wide gibbets1 on which they could string their victims up with their feet just off the ground and then burn them alive thirteen at a time, in honour of our Saviour and the twelve Apostles.
The way they normally dealt with the native leaders and nobles was to tie them to a kind of griddle consisting of sticks resting on pitchforks driven into the ground and grill them over a slow fire, with the result that they howled in agony and despair as they died a lingering death.
Preemptive Murder for the sake of Terror
In Cholula, a city of some thirty thousand inhabitants, the Spaniards decided that the moment had come to organize a massacre in order to inspire fear and terror in all the people of the territory. [They requested the local lord] to send for all the nobles... that they should bring with them 5 or 6 thousand native bearers and these were mustered in the courtyards when and as they arrived. Once they were all safely inside the courtyard, armed guards took up positions covering the exits and Spanish soldiers proceeded to slaughter these poor innocents. Not a single soul escaped. After a day or two had gone by, several victims surfaced, soaked from head to foot in the blood of their fellows beneath whose bodies they had sheltered (so thick was the carpet of corpses in the courtyard) and, with tears in their eyes, pleaded for their lives; but the Spaniards showed them no mercy nor any compassion, and no sooner did they crawl out from under the pile of corpses than they were butchered. The leading citizens, who numbered over a hundred and were roped together, were to be tied to stakes set in the ground and burned alive.
“A Conspiracy of Silence”
Keep in mind that de las Casas is presenting testament directly to the King of Spain – essentially reminding him that unspeakable crimes are being prosecuted in his name.
Until now, there has been an effective conspiracy of silence about what has really been happening... For 42 years now, these matters have been constantly before my eyes and on my mind, and I can honestly say, as God is my witness, that I have solid grounds for believing that the depredations, the harm, the destruction, the depopulation, the atrocities and massacres, the horrible cruelty and barbarism, the violence, the injustice, the plunder and the wholesale murder that all these territories have witnessed and their people suffered (and still suffer) are on such a scale that what I have here been able to relate is no more than a thousandth part of the reality of what has been taking place and continues to take place.
And, to date, the Crown has not shown itself strong enough to put a stop to these injustices, because everyone, young and old alike, who journeys to the New World is either openly or in secret a fortune-hunter, albeit that some are worse than others, and all such fortunes are made at the expense of the local people. That they serve their own ends while pretending to serve those of the Crown is something that not only damages the Spanish interest but also brings dishonour on the name of God and on that of the King.
What Next?
First, let me just say: it’s astonishing to me that de las Casas’ book isn’t required reading for everyone on Earth. It’s as if we’re extending, without limit, the shameful conspiracy of silence he calls out.
Interviews
I’ve been conducting informal interviews with friends and acquaintances – people with cultural roots in the lands impacted by the Spanish colonization of the Americas (Puerto Rico, Haiti, Mexico, Jamaica) in an attempt to better understand the range of attitudes that exist about Latin, Caribbean, and Spanish identity.
Sample Questions
What words come to mind when you think of the country of Spain?
Which country (other than the US) do you and your family most identify with?
What qualities do you associate with ☝🏽 this country?
What qualities would the average American associate with this country?
What words come to mind when you think of Christopher Columbus? How about Bartolome de las Casas?
more…
I’ll be sharing the feedback I gather as I go.
Gibbet: an elevated beam, often serving as a gallows.