A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies Or, a faithful NARRATIVE OF THE Horrid and Unexampled Massacres, Butcheries, and all manner of Cruelties, that Hell and Malice could invent, committed by the Popish Spanish Party on the inhabitants of West-India, TOGETHER With the Devastations of several Kingdoms in America by Fire and Sword, for the space of Forty and Two Years, from the time of its first Discovery by them.

"A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies" by Bartolomé de las Casas is a powerful historical record, a denouncement of the horrifying cruelty inflicted upon the Indigenous peoples of the Americas by Spanish colonizers during the 1500's. Las Casas, drawing from his own observations, shines a light on the widespread massacres and enslavement that decimated entire Indigenous communities across several decades. The narrative begins by highlighting the original innocence and warm welcome the Indigenous people offered the Spanish, only to be met with extreme violence fueled by the colonizers' relentless greed; this set a somber tone for the horrors to come and emphasized the complete devastation of native populations.