Very brief account of the destruction of the Indies

The treaties of Bartolomé de las Casas are allegations in favor of the Indians. The most famous of these, A Very Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, was not published until 1552. De las Casas is interested in the conditions of the native inhabitants of the New World and describes its wonders.
This is how he writes, for example, about tobacco:

“They are dried herbs tucked into a certain leaf, dry also, like a musket made of paper, of those that the boys make the Passover of the Holy Spirit; and, kindled on the one side of it, on the other they suck or sip or receive with the wheezing inward that smoke, with which they numb the flesh and almost get drunk.”

Along with passages like the previous one, with passionate descriptions of the New World, Bartolomé de las Casas reflects on the Conquest and its aftermath.
Since then, “genocide” was the reference idea when thinking about the American experience.
Very brief account of the destruction of the Indies suffered in 1660 the condemnation of the Tribunal of the Inquisition. It was considered “a book pernicious to the just national prestige”.
Bartolomé de las Casas’ allegation questioned in an incisive and explicit way the methods, procedures and violent actions of the Spanish conquest. He also condemned covert forms of slavery such as encomiendas. He also denounced the mass extermination of the indigenous population, as well as warning of the disastrous ecological effects on American nature.