Bartolomé de las Casas

“ But afterward the Spaniards having recruited and got together in a Body, they resolved to take the City and carried it at last, wherein most detestable Butcheries were acted, a vast number of the people slain, and their Rulers perished in the Flames.
All these horrid Muders being commited in Mexico and other Cities ten, fifteen and twenty miles distant. This same Tyranny and Plague in the abstract proceeded to infest and lay desolate Panuco; a Region abounding with Inhabitants even to admiration, nor were the slaughters therein perpetrated less stupendous and wonderful. ”

“ When the Captain arrived at the Haven, to fight with a Spanish Officer, who made War against him, and left another with an hundred Soldiers, more or less as a Guard to King Montencuma, it came into their heads, that to act somewhat worth remembrance, that the dread of their Cruelty might be more and more apprehended, and greatly increased. ”

“ The Spaniards presently consult about their slaughter or castigation (as they term it) that they might fill every corner of this Region by their Cruelties and wicked Deeds with terror and consternation; for in all the Countries that they came they took this course, that immediately at their first arrival they committed some notorious butcheries, which made those Innocent Sheep tremble for fear. ”