Las Casas, Bartolomé de (1474-1566).

8vo (168 x 96mm.), [32], 134 [i.e. 126]pp., illustration: folding engraved plate by R[ichard] Gaywood mounted to A1, the four illustrations from the plate have also been inserted separately, as is usual, between B3 and 4, B4 and 5, B8 and C1 and E2 and 3 respectively, manuscript notes in shorthand, binding: contemporary blind-ruled calf, spine gilt, brown morocco lettering-piece, lacking final leaf with half-title, folding plate supplied from another copy and mounted on A1, ink lettering on recto of A1 seeping through to plate, marginal tears to I3, I4 and K3, with loss not affecting text, other marginal chips, spotting and staining, binding worn, upper cover becoming detached

Church 549; Sabin 11289; Thomason, E.1586[1]; Wing C799; Kevin A. Creed, The Pamphleteers Protestant Champion: Viewing Oliver Cromwell through the media of his day (University of Virginia, 1992)

An English translation of Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (1552), a work described by Church as the "most gruesome" of its age. It contains graphic accounts of the cruelty of the Spaniards towards the Indians. Bartolomé de las Casas was the most fervent and influential advocate of Indian rights during his time. He lived during a period in which Spanish conquistadors viewed the Indians as natural slaves and barbarians. This translation is by John Phillips (1631-1706), a nephew of John Milton, and in his preface Phillips denounces the Spanish in language that recalls his uncle's fallen angels: “the Indians... received (the Spanish) as Angels sent from Heaven, till their excessive cruelties, the torments and slaughters of their countrymen mov'd them to take Arms against the Spaniards”. The book is dedicated to "Oliver, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth", who is encouraged to punish "the bloody and popish nation of the Spaniards". Milton was Cromwell's official censor and it appears probable that this populist and gory translation by his nephew is intrinsically an extension of Milton's remit to promote the dissemination of pro-Protector propaganda.