Bartolomé de las Casas

“ These more cruel then the rest beyond comparison, behav'd themselves more inhumanely then rapacious Tygres Wolves and Lyons, for they had the jurisdiction of this Kingdom, and therefore possessing it with the greater freedom from controul; lay in wait and were the more vigilant with greater care and avarice to understand the practical part of heaping up Wealth, and robbing the Inhabitants of their Gold and Sliver, surpassing all their Predecessors in those indirect ways, rejecting wholly both the fear of their God and King, nay forgetting that they were born men with reasonable Faculties. ”

“ These incarnate Devils laid waste and desolate Four Hundred miles of most Fertile Land, containing vast and wonderful Provinces, most spatious and large Valleys surrounded with Hills, forty Miles in Length, and many Towns richly abounding in Gold and Silver. ”

“ This course the other Tyrants took who set sail from Venecuela and St. Martha (with the same Resolution of detecting the Perusian Golden, Consecrated Houses as them they esteemed) who found the fruitful Region so desolate, deserted, and wasted by Fire and Sword, that those Cruel Tyrants themselves were smitten with wonder and astonishment at the traces and ruins of such prodigious Devastations. ”