8/13/2019 Bartolom de Las Casas + Vasco da gama

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Bartolom de Las Casas, "Of the Island of Hispaniola" (1542)

God has created all these numberless people to be quite the simplest, without malice or duplicity, most obedient, most faithful

to their natural Lords, and to the Christians, whom they serve; the most humble, most patient, most peaceful and calm, withoutstrife nor tumults; not wrangling, nor querulous, as free from uproar, hate and desire of revenge as any in the world. . . .

Among these gentle sheep, gifted by their Maer with the above qualities, the !paniards entered as soon as soon as they newthem, lie wolves, tiger and lions which had been starving for many days, and since forty years they have done nothing else;

nor do they afflict, torment, and destroy them with strange and new, and divers inds of cruelty, never before seen, nor heardof, nor read of. . . . .

"he Christians, with their horses and swords and lances, began to slaughter and practice strange cruelty among them. "heypenetrated into the country and spared neither children nor the aged, nor pregnant women, nor those in child labour, all of

whom they ran through the body and lacerated, as though they were assaulting so many lambs herded in their sheepfold.

"hey made bets as to who would slit a man in two, or cut off his head at one blow# or they opened up his bowels. "hey tore the

babes from their mothers$ breast by the feet, and dashed their heads against the rocs. %thers they sei&ed by the shoulders and

threw into the rivers, laughing and 'oing, and when they fell into the water they e(claimed# )boil body of so and so*) "heyspitted the bodies of other babes, together with their mothers and all who were before them, on their swords.

"hey made a gallows 'ust high enough for the feet to nearly touch the ground, and by thirteens, in honour and reverence of our

+edeemer and the twelve Apostles, they put wood underneath and, with fire, they burned the ndians alive.

"hey wrapped the bodies of others entirely in dry straw, binding them in it and setting fire to it; and so they burned them. "hey

cut off the hands of all they wished to tae alive, made them carry them fastened on to them, and said# )Go and carry letters)#that is; tae the news to those who have fled to the mountains.

"hey generally illed the lords and nobles in the following way. "hey made wooden gridirons of staes, bound them upon

them, and made a slow fire beneath; thus the victims gave up the spirit by degrees, emitting cries of despair in their torture. . . .

-rom artolom/ de Las Casas, Very Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, in

Bartolom de Las Casas, trans. -. A. Mc0utt 1Cleveland# Arthur 2. Clar, 34546, 7378734.

8/13/2019 Bartolom de Las Casas + Vasco da gama

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Vaso da !ama #o$nd %fria to India, 14&'14& C*

Vasco da Gama was born about 1!" at #ines, $ortu%al. Both $rince &ohn and $rince 'anuel continued

the efforts of $rince (enry to find a sea route to India, and in 1)* 'anuel +laced Vasco da Gama, who

already had some re+utation as a warrior and nai%ator, in char%e of four essels built es+ecially for the

e-+edition. hey set sail &uly /, 1)*, rounded the Ca+e of Good (o+e four months later, and reached

Calicut 'ay 0", 1)/. he 'oors in Calicut insti%ated the amorin of Calicut a%ainst him, and he was

com+elled to return with the bare discoery and the few s+ices he had bou%ht there at inflated +rices 2but

still he made a 3"""4 +rofit56. A force left by a second e-+edition under Cabral 7who discoered Bra8il

by sailin% too far west9, left behind some men in a :factory: or tradin% station, but these were ;illed by

the 'oors in reen%e for Cabral"0, he bombarded Calicut 7irtually destroyin% the +ort9, and

returned with %reat s+oil. (is e-+edition turned the commerce of ?uro+e from the 'editerranean cities

to the Atlantic Coast, and o+ened u+ the east to ?uro+ean enter+rise.

394: "he ay of !t. 2elena on the west coast of the present country of !outh Africa