"From 'The Very Brief Relation of the Devestation in the Indies'"

This post is comprised of my notes and thoughts on The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation in the Indies,  by Bartolomé de Las Casas.  There are subheadings within the text for "Hispaniola" and "The Coast of Pearls, Paria, and the Island of Trinidad" for the two sections from the book that are included in the anthology.  The notes are from the excerpts given in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.

Text Notes:

From "Hispaniola"

• In this excerpt, Casas relays what he asserts to be a mere portion of all that he has seen.
• Casas states that Christians began by subjugating women and children and by taking them for ill-use as well as by taking food which was earned by the labor/toil of Indians for themselves.
•  In this, he attacks the vast amount that Christians eat as compared to his Indian counterpart.
• These acts lead to the hiding of food, women, and children as well as the flight of some Indians into the mountains.
• Christians proceeded to other acts next, Casas asserts.  The next step is that Christians attack Indians until they got to the village nobles, who they also misuse.
• The Christians are described by Casas as behaving with "temerity and shamelessness" (37).
• Casa also states that these actions lead the Indians to want to expel the Christians from their lands.
•  Though they desired to throw the Christians out, Casas writes that the Indian weapons are ineffective against the Christians because they are "very weak and of little service in offense and still less in defense" and that it is for this reason that "the wars of Indians against each other are little more than games played by children" (37).
• See the thoughts section below for what I think is the purpose of this statement by Casas.
•  Casas next gives the reader a myriad of examples of the Christian "massacres and strange cruelties" (37).  These cruelties include the following:
• hacking them to pieces
• betting on various violent modes of death
• killing babies
• burning them alive in groups of thirteen to represent Jesus and his apostates
• burning people alive wrapped in straw
• cutting off people's hands and stringing them around their necks
• roasting people (particularly nobles) alive on grids of rods and forked sticks
• this particular method is given in much detail and with a specific example that Casas claims to have seen personally, thus lending authority to the whole list. 

From "The Coast of Pearls, Paria, and the Island of Trinidad

•  This excerpt deals directly with the human trafficking of Indians as slaves and brifly describes the capture, shipment, and enslavement of the Indians.
• Spaniards take Native American captives and bring them to Hispaniola and San Juan.
• On the passage, they throw the dead overboard; those who die do so primarily from starvation and dehydration.
•  Once the Indians are put ashore, theya re sorted "like sheep" and separated from families, then distributed among the Spaniards.
• Those Spaniards who receive old or sickly slaves actively assert that they are displeased by the age/illness, and thus illustrate "the divine concepts of love for our fellow man as laid down by the prophets," Casas asserts (39).
• The passage ends on a specific example of the pearl diving slaves.  This group, Casas expresses, has the most "infernal and desperate" jobs in the world (39).
• Divers must hold their breath for minutes at a time.
• Marine life -and sharks in particular - attack, kill, and/or eat them.
•  They suffer problems associated with being constantly in and under water and cold.
• Mistreatment of them is overlooked because they are so good at the diving and it brings such profit.

My Thoughts:

In the first excerpt from the book, I think it is both interesting and important that Casas only refers to those performing the atrocities as "Christians" rather than Spaniards.  In the second excerpt he calls the people Spaniards.  Because of this distinction, I wonder if there is a particular reason for it. I, however, cannot fathom what that reason is, given such a small excerpt from the work.  Perhaps it is that the people that Casas discusses in "Hispaniola" are not only Spaniards, but other Europeans as well, while those discussed in "The Coast of Pearls, Paria, and the Island of Trinidad" and solely Spaniards.  More research would need to be done to determine whether there were more than just Spaniards committing the cruelties and atrocities discussed in the first excerpt.

The second thing I think about the first excerpt's use of "Christian" is that there is an extremely unsubtle moral/religious persuasion going on there.  Perhaps because Casas himself developed the moral misgivings about slavery through religion, he believes that others shall also develop the misgivings if presented with the evidence and the use of the term "Christian" over and over again.  There is also a fun (ok, not fun in the usual sense, but interesting, to say the least) little juxtaposition of the common connotation of "Christian" for a reader and the acts being committed in the text.

As for the part when Casas states that "wars of Indians against each other are little more than games played by children" (37), I think that this is done with extreme purpose.  By likening the Native Americans to children, there is an extra level of horror added to the idea of European settlers battling them.  While it might seem today that Casas is demeaning the prowess of the native people, I believe that it is done intentionally as an additional bit of moral persuasion for his contemporary readers.

I think that the second excerpt is gutsy for Casas to have written.  Now, this isn't because it's some expose of an atrocity that people didn't know about, but because he specifically calls out that there are Spanish judges who allow the pearl diving to continue despite the inhumane mistreatment of the slaves because they were so good at swimming and gathering pearls, which undoubtedly made for great wealth for some.

"Bartolomé de Las Casas"

This blog post is comprised of my notes on the headnote about Bartolomé de Las Casas in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.

"Bartolomé de Las Casas"

• lived from 1474-1566
• Casas was an apologist for Native American rights.
• His initial beliefs were created because of the injustice of seizing Native Americans and creating a pageant of them, which he witnessed at the Spanish court when Columbus returned from one of his voyages.  Though he didn't understand the moral implications of the act at the time, he later developed deep feelings about it.
• Cases writes that even he initially had a moral blindness to the wrongs and that he participated in them while serving as a member of the new royal governor's party in the New World.
•  It was after becoming a priest that Casas renounced the slave system because he felt that it ran contrary to religious (Christian) teachings.
• He took his beliefs and a case to Spain, where he was appointed the 'protector of Indians' and allowed to found a peaceful colony in Venezuela, meant to be an example of what he believed.  This venture was, however, unsuccesfull, so Casas retreated to a monestary and remained there from 1522 until 1529.
•  In the 1530's, Casas returned to political activism and was able to initiate widespread effect when Pope Paul III forbade all enslavement of people.  This then spurred Emperor Charles V of Spain to create the New Laws, which protected Native Americans and forbade their enslavement.
• Casas tried to enforce these New Laws from 1544 until 1547 as a bishop in Chiapas, Mexico; however,  when Charles V revoked the laws because of the resistance settlers put forth against them, Casas returned to Spain and instead wrote about his crusade against the treatment of Native Americans in the West Indies.

"From 'Letter to Fernand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage'"

This post is comprised of my notes and thoughts on "Letter to Fernand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage" as presented in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A. 

Text Notes:

• Written by Columbus on Jamaica on July 7, 1503
• Columbus opens his letter by stating that he weeps for his great and beautiful discoveries that he sees are "in an exhausted state" with infirmity that is "incurable or very extensive" (33).  He goes on to assert that people who were originally against his exploration should not be able to currently benefit from it.
• Columbus next indicates that he was originally given leave by the Spanish monarchs to rule all that he discovered in the West Indies, and says that he wanted this at the time as a means to avoid other people benefiting from his vision and his work unfairly.  
• Columbus describes the length of his service to the Spanish crown next, stating that he began his work when he was twenty-eight years old and that presently he has grown so old that he only has grey hair over his body.  He claims that all that he possesses has been stolen from him and puts forth a plea for the "restitution of [his] honor, the reparation of [his] losses, and the punishment of him who did this" (34).  He asserts that the monarchs doing this will spread word/fame of their nobility.
• The final argument that Columbus puts forth is one for his soul.  He asserts that his service to the crown has resulted in a lapse of proper religious devotion and offerings in his life.  He begs the crown to return him to Europe and allow him to perform various pilgrimages to Rome and other places in order to save his soul.

My Thoughts:

As much as Columbus gets a bad rep as someone who came in and totally ran over the native population on the islands he discovered, I can't help but feel bad for him.  By this point, the reader knows that he has been shipwrecked in Panama and is now shipwrecked again on Jamaica.  The way the letter is written is much more difficult to connect with and understand than his letter to Santangel about his first voyage, and one must wonder whether this letter was written before or after he had his mental breakdown.  

Though he is often not seen as sympathetic, I think that some of his arguments that he puts forth are ones that are sympathetic.  He is saddened by what is happening to his discovered islands and by who is benefiting from them.  I believe that this is not a sentiment that is unknown to the common reader.  In general, a person does not want Naysayer-X to benefit after all his nay saying in the first place.  Columbus is putting forth that exact sentiment.  He would probably not mind of people like Santangel were benefitting in the way Mister Naysayer-X over there was.  After all, supporters believed in his vision and supported his discoveries rather than saying that he was silly for believing in the endeavor.

The religious ending to the letter also strikes me as something with which I can sympathize.  I do not believe that it is Columbus claiming a sudden, inexplicable desire for religion.  Rather, it is a realization that he has strayed away from the religious fervor he had before his began his voyages.  I think this for two primary reasons.  First of all, he did not name any of his original islands after himself.  Instead, he named the first land he found San Salvador, after the saint he credited with his success.  The second island he named was after the Virgin Mary.  Only then did he begin naming after the monarchs and country of Spain itself.  Thus, it is my belief that Columbus did fervently adhere to the Catholic religion in his early career.  It does not seem unlikely to me that he wanted to reestablish that religious connection later in his life when he realized his religion had suffered during his voyages.

"From 'Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage'"

This post is comprised of my notes about "Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage" as presented in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.

Text Notes:

• This letter was written at sea on February 15, 1493
• The letter details the islands that were discovered by Columbus on his first voyage to the West Indies.
• He begins his description at the Canary Islands.
• From there, it is 33 leagues, he states, to the island which the natives refer to as 'Guarahani' and which he names San Salvador.
• He then proceeds on to find and name Isla de Santa Maria de Concepcion, Fernandina, Isabela, and Isla Juana (which the foot note informs us is today's Cuba).
• He continues on to find what he first believed was China but later learns is yet another island.
• Finally, Columbus finds Hispaniola, which he believes to be the finest island of them all.  He notes it as being "beyond comparison" with the Canary Island, Tenerife.  
• The details that Columbus includes are not all that numerous; however, he notes that there are "people innumerable" on the islands and that he receives no opposition in claiming them for Spain.
• The other details included by Columbus focus on the beauty and wonder of Hispaniola.  He touches on its majesty, the fertility of the land, its harbors and coastline, the tallness and ever greenness of the trees, the birds, the fruits, and the availability of metal to be mined inland on the island.

My Thoughts:

 The idea that Columbus puts forth about receiving no opposition from the native people of the islands when he puts down a banner to claim the land for Spain is kind of silly to me.  It's nice and all for Columbus and Spain, I suppose, but as he is the first explorer (presumably) to find these islands, of course there are no Europeans to dispute Spain's claim.  And as for the natives?  Well, what experience do they have that would allow them to understand that the placing of Spain's banner on the land thus claimed it for the country?  None.  Still, it's a nice sentiment to send back to Spain to be sure.  No opposition for the claim means that there won't be any fighting to keep it from somebody else who wants it (at least for the time being). 

My other primary thought on the letter is that there must be purpose for the great detail that Columbus goes into about Hispaniola.  To me, it seems clear that the reason is all told in the footnote and the Christopher Columbus headnote.  He spends such a great amount of time discussing the island most probably because he is writing the letter to Luis de Santangel, a man who "helped secure financing" for his voyage (32, footnote).  Because of Santangel's backing, Columbus is telling all the best parts of the voyage to him in order to illustrate that his faith and backing was well-placed and that the discoveries being made are worthwhile and will make money for Spain and Santangel. 

Finally, the headnote about Columbus let's the reader know that it is the island of Hispaniola on which Columbus establishes settlements.  This suggests one of two things in terms of an either/or scenario.  On one hand, Columbus may have settled Hispaniola because it had the most obvious resources, space, and general awesomeness for said settlement.  On the other hand, it could be because Columbus was so taken with the island and liked it the most.  Either way, Hispaniola seemed to be Columbus's favorite of the islands discussed, based on this letter alone.