Oct 27, 2020 - Sale 2549

Sale 2549 - Lot 172

Price Realized: $ 4,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
Casas, Bartolomé de las (1474-1566)
An Account of the First Voyages and Discoveries Made by the Spaniards in America.

London: Printed by J. Darby for D. Brown, J. Harris, and Andr. Bell, 1699.

Octavo, A4, B-T8; illustrated with two folding engravings bound before the text; an abridged translation of the Spanish original; contents good, bound in 19th century half dark brown morocco with marbled paper boards, 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.

Alden & Landis 699/33; Church 780; Field 881; JCB (3) IV:384; Sabin 11289; Wing C-797; ESTC R21602.

The two folding plates after de Bry depict acts of violence against Native people. Casas was an early immigrant to Chiapas, and official Protector of the Indians. He advocated on behalf of the rights and fair treatment of the Native population of the Caribbean and enslaved African people being abused in New World colonies controlled by Spain. "The Spaniards who invaded these Isles, and boasted of their Christianity, made use of two ways principally to exterminate the Inhabitants: the first of which was an unjust and bloody War carried on with the utmost Barbarity and Cruelty; the other was the detestable Policy which inspir'd them to massacre all that had any remains of Liberty, or endeavour'd to shake off their Tyrannical Yoke, and to free themselves from so unjust and intolerable a Slavery; for this the bravest, most potent, and most warlike Nations of the Indians attempted. When the Spaniards had kill'd all the Men in the War, they suffer'd the Women and Children to live, but with the imposition of a Yoke so cruel and insupportable, that their Condition was rendred as miserable as that of Beasts." (page 5)