Bartolomé de Las Casas

Late 17th-century edition of a central primary source in the conquest of the Americas, bound with an early edition of French buccaneer Montaubon's 1695 voyage to the Caribbean.

• Bartolomé de Las Casas (Spanish)
• Amsterdam: Chez J. Louis de Lorme Librairie sur le Rockin, à l'enseigne de la Liberté, 1698.
• Engraved frontispiece of the sacking of an indigenous village, separate title page for Montaubon.
• Two-page publisher's catalogue at rear, inked label at head of spine, monogram stamp on title page.
• Bound in early full speckled calf, elaborately gilt stamped spine, tan and black spine labels, all edges stained red.

Las Casas first sailed to the West Indies when he was only eighteen, participating in the brutal Spanish occupation of Cuba. Upon his conversion, he dedicated his life to fighting the devastation caused by himself and his countrymen. This publication contains a French translation of four tracts from his most famous work, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, which was first published in nine tracts in 1552. The book documented Spanish depredations in the New World in an attempt to persuade the Spanish government to change its policies. Today, Las Casas is regularly cited in modern legislation attempting to rename Columbus Day.

Las Casas is bound with Etienne de Montauban's account of his 1695 voyage attacking English and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. The first edition, published only the year before, is extremely scarce, with only one copy at auction in the past 40 years; in 1699 the account would be incorporated into Exquemelin's History of the Buccaneers of America.