The History of the Indies is a three-volume work begun in 1527 while Las Casas was in the Convent of Puerto de Plata. It found its final form in 1561, when he was working in the Colegio de San Gregorio. Originally planned as a six-volume work, each volume describes a decade of the history of the Indies from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 to 1520, and most of it is an eye-witness account. It was in the History of the Indies that Las Casas finally regretted his advocacy for African slavery, and included a sincere apology, writing, "I soon repented and judged myself guilty of ignorance. I came to realize that black slavery was as unjust as Indian slavery... and I was not sure that my ignorance and good faith would secure me in the eyes of God." (Vol II, p. 257) "History of the Indies" has never been fully translated into English. The only translations into English are the 1971 partial translation by Andree M. Collar, and partial translations by Cynthia L. Chamberlin, Nigel Griffin, Michael Hammer and Blair Sullivan in UCLA's Repertorium Columbianum (Volumes VI, VII and XI). Full text to be found at : http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/historia-de-las-indias--0/html/d31cc52d-acd9-4776-a069-ee37b963f399.html Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas was born in Seville, probably in 1484, in a modest family of merchants. He went to the Indies in 1502 (at the age of 18) with the expedition of Nicolas de Ovando. This date coincides with the large-scale exploitation of the island of Hispaniola, with the consequent annihilation of the indigenous population, quickly decimated by exhausting work, wars of repression and epidemics brought by Europeans. Faced with this situation, the first to react were the religious of the Order of Santo Domingo. At the end of 1511 Las Casas had the opportunity to hear the distressed sermons of Fray Antonio Montesinos, the Dominican who proclaimed that the indigenous people were men and should be treated as such. In 1512, the so-called Burgos Laws were proclaimed which, although well-intentioned, maintained the almost feudal system of forced labour already established since 1503 with the institution of La Encomienda. Brother Bartolomé de las Casas, in his work “History of the Indians”, leaves us the point of view of the indigenous rebellion and defense. His work begins to be written in 1527, in it denounces the offenses and misdeeds perpetrated at the expense of the native peoples, as a great defense in these years when the author founded the first convent on the island of La Española. It is important to emphasize that he begins to write his works bearing in mind the conclusion that the Indians were endowed with rationality, so the way in which the Spanish proceeded in the conquest appears to be totally reproachable. In the convent La Española, Fra Bartolomé used his religious status to accumulate a wide range of legal and theological knowledge that he had not previously lacked. He found in the books the arguments that would serve him in his future work. It was also where he began to work on his two great works, the Apologetic History (1548) and The British Relationship of the Destruction of the Indias (1552), which would end in the last years of his life. After a few years, he tries to implement his theories, and after successfully participating in the peaceful reduction of Enriquillo, a rebel cacique on the island, he embarks with the intention of going to Peru, but storms take him to Nicaragua where he is persecuted by the authorities. He travels to Guatemala, where together with other Dominicans try to peaceful “conquest” of an area not subjected by the conquerors called Earth of War, which is called the new name Vera Paz. Las Casas returns to Spain in 1540 to act or intercede at the highest imperial level. It is the moment of full height of his career and the juncture is favorable to him. In 1537 Pope Pope III had proclaimed in his Sublimis Deus bull that Indians could not be deprived of their liberty, because of their human condition. In 1539 Fray Francisco de Vitoria, in his famous lessons in Salamanca, demonstrated the illegitimacy of the titles of conquest alleged until then. To support their efforts, Las Casas drafts several memorials, among which the Brief Relationship of the Destruction of the Indias (1552), dreadful vision of the atrocities of the conquest. It is implemented by the New Laws (1542-3), a major reform of existing legislation: abolition of mandates, slavery and other forms of forced labour and new regulation of armed expeditions. Brother Bartolomé explains the four reasons why there are motivations to write: to manifest eloquence to gain fame and glory; to please the princes praising their illustrious works; to restore the truth altered by others; and to make known the remarkable facts fallen in oblivion. So of the Houses he wants not to think that he writes under the first two purposes, stressing that he is under the third objective that he is driven to write this work. When he returns, now become Bishop, in 1544 he understands the strong opposition of the colonial world to its reforms. The settlers' protests go to such an extreme of violence that the Crown is forced to restore the commendations. As he sees his efforts contrary, Las Casas returns to Spain in 1547 to resume his struggle. There he was expecting his great opponent, Ginés de Sepulveda, a well-known humanist whose thesis around the legitimacy of conquest, based on the supposed barbarism of the Indians, radically contradicted the Lascasian postulates. They were engaged in a theological dispute that lasted two years (1550-1551) and finally resolved in favor of Las Casas, since armed conquests except in cases of indigenous offenses were prohibited. Partly of their work was the abolition of the perpetuity of the commissions, now replaced by the distributions, controlled by real power. He died in 1566. In the destruction of the Indias (1552), the recognition and denunciation of the grim side of the conquest begins. But it should be noted that Las Casas does not deny the need to carry out the company itself, but it does propose to reform it and humanize it through measures which it calls “remedies”, which would allow the crown's high tasks and humanism. In this work we can see that the author's personal style tends to hyperbole and to inflamed argument. He was both a lawyer, a prosecutor and a relentless judge. In fact, the composition of the book is an effort to synthesize and set out the copious verbal arguments it had made in defence of the indigenous people. The impact of his work was decisive and keeps interest to our day. It is not exaggerated to consider De Las Casas a precursor to pacifism and the struggle for human rights. However, he is accused as the initiator of the so-called “black legend” of the Spanish conquest. In the work the author is interested in highlighting his essentially pragmatic conception of the historical genre characterized by the belief of the educational virtues of history and its irreplaceable exemplary. He believes that, in the face of the falsehood with which reality has spread, the truth must be restored harmfully offended as a moral obligation. All this shows that this claim of historical truth is shaped by a theology and philosophy inspired by St. Augustine exposed in Civitas Dei. Throughout his work, Fra Bartolomé quotes Augustine repeatedly on topics such as the glory of God and his Church, the infallible designs of divine providence and the universal principle of predestination.In fact, with this vision, Fra Bartolomé intends that, restore the truth, help restore justice in this world of iniquities and cooperate with his teaching to the City of God. The Houses characterize the indigenous people with an unbeatable moral full of virtues and good customs, totally antagonistic to the Spanish, who, by the name of Christians, has nothing worthy of bearing that name. With this heinous attitude on the part of the Spanish, the Indians had no choice but to fight for the defense of their people as a legitimate war. In the work, this almost unsolid goodness of the indigenous people and the relentless Spanish ambition is emphasized, so that once the Aboriginal people have been defeated they are subjected to inhumane servitude, thus the beginning of the total annihilation of native nations. This work presents a very dramatic vision of history, so one can ask about the total objectivity with which it was written. This work presents a very dramatic vision of history, so one can ask about the total objectivity with which it was written. His benevolent vision of the Indians and the appreciation of the Spanish guided by infernal greed, caused by their inhuman behavior, is not a conditioned and somewhat schematic representation, but it is not therefore a cease to be in conformity with the essential reality of the drama experienced by the Indians with sufficient reasons and foundations. In addition, there is accuracy in his work because of the criticism of the legal documents of his era that encouraged the degeneration of the Indians, namely, the laws of Burgos and Valladolid and the avalanches such as commendation and slavery, thus coining the author direct responsibility for the politicians responsible for the Royal Councils for their blindness to such atrocities. Likewise, we cannot fail to highlight the well-established conviction that Fray Bartholomew has to be appointed by God for the fulfillment of his such high mission. The role he played, from this providentialist vision, elevates him with full right to the height of the protagonist; with this, everything is ambiguous about the usual notion of objectivity of his work, which distinguishes her from other Indian stories. But, above all, what needs to be very aware is that this enablement of the Dominican as a protagonist is based on the idea that it traces its historiographic work from another approach, with other values and thus configures differently the plot and meaning of the event.