Asher K. Sisneros
American Literature
Dr. Gary North
September 4, 2024
Cabeza de Vaca’s Adventures of the Unknown Interior of America and Las Casas’ A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies are two well-known Spanish manuscripts about the early colonization of North America. They may be similar in content and context, but the two are very different in style. Even though they both come to the same conclusion—don’t persecute the Indians—one of the books is dull, and the other is not; one has effective messaging, and the other does not.
Vaca’s Adventures is a remarkably effective manuscript because of its seemingly unbiased nature. Rather than immediately take one dogmatic side on the debate over Indian morality, he explains the nuance, going through the commendable and deplorable aspects of American Indian culture. His account is even more remarkable because, by profession, Vaca was a soldier. Under normal circumstances, he should not have sided with the Indians or held any sympathy for them. It was the Spanish conquistadors—soldiers—who exercised the most brutality, after all. They were at war. If anyone held a vendetta against the Indians, it would be a Spanish commander. Nevertheless, Vaca did not. Like a missionary, he cared for their souls; he longed for their salvation; and he believed Spanish cruelty was firstly immoral, and secondly, damaging to the Christian message. That is because genuine Christians, irrespective of profession or background, long for one thing: the expansion of Christ’s spiritual kingdom in the hearts and minds of all people. Even in criticizing Spanish cruelty, as he does towards the end of the narrative, Cabeza de Vaca does not engage in superfluous exaggerations that discount his narrative. He sticks with the facts. Counterintuitively, exaggerations that are blatantly untrue do not make rhetoric powerful. Deceptive embellishment covers the truth in a mask of deception, causing readers to skeptically question the truthful statements. Vaca does not engage in this form of rhetoric. By sticking with the facts, his narrative is far more effective and powerful. In addition to all of these points regarding rhetoric and nuance, Vaca’s tale is also effective in its messaging because as a book, it is fascinating. He does not just describe facts. Being an autobiographical account, he takes the reader on a journey with him as he explores the Americas, encountering danger, receiving deliverance, and becoming worshiped or tortured as a slave. Thus, his tale follows the great writing axiom of “Show, don’t tell,” making it a far more compelling and powerful story.
The same cannot be said for Las Casas’ Destruction of the Indies. Even though the brutality he describes seems plausible and even likely, the entire narrative is discounted because of his exaggerations. He speaks of Spaniards killing millions of Indians within a short period and slave owners deliberately torturing their Indian slaves to death, which is entirely uneconomical and seems implausible on a large scale. The mass extermination of Indians was not because of Spanish brutality. The masses were killed because of the diseases Europeans brought to the Americas. While the Spaniards were beyond cruel, the mass extermination was because of plagues, not warfare. Moreover, Casas advances what is sometimes referred to as the “noble savage” theory, implying the Indians were without sin or corruption. Not only is this unbiblical—because all men are born in sin—but it is downright historically absurd. Somehow, he must have forgotten about Aztec child sacrifice. He even describes their weaponry as “reeds boys play with.”1 Even in terms of storytelling, Destruction of the Indies reads as a dull and bland book. There is no excitement to turn the next page and see what happens next. The reader knows what is on the next page: another long and repetitive description of a group of natives who are slaughtered. Thus, Casas almost discounts his own story with superfluous exaggerations and propagates boredom with tedious descriptions. In terms of accuracy, rhetoric, and style, Destruction of the Indies is not a powerful book.
In terms of which book is more memorable, the answer is clear: Cabeza de Vaca’s Adventures of the Interior Unknown of America. Las Casas had so much potential. He could have written an incredibly powerful and memorable story, but it just falls short. In essence, both stories call for the same noble thing—the proper treatment of Indians—but Casas’ story is not as memorable as Vaca’s. One story is powerful; the other is not.
- Bartholomew de Las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, https://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/LasCasas.pdf, pg. 4
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Asher Sisneros 