where he visited, the Spanish were committing the same crimes. On the island of Hispaniola, the Spanish were herding people into a straw building and setting fire to it, burning the occupants alive. In addition, "they sent the Males to the Mines to dig and bring away the Gold, which is an intolerable labor; but the Women they made use of to Manure and Till the ground, which is a toil most irksome even to Men of the strongest and most robust constitutions, allowing them no other food but Herbage, and such kind of unsubstantial nutriment, so that the Nursing Women's Milk was exsiccated and so dryed up, that the young Infants lately brought forth, all perished." On Puerto Rico and Jamaica, he saw the Spanish, "with the same purpose and design they proposed to themselves in the Isle of Hispaniola, perpetrating innumerable Robberies and Villanies as before." and that "These two Isles containing six hundred thousand at least, though at this day there are scarce two hundred men to be found in either of them." De las Casas also notes that what the Spanish were doing drove many natives to commit suicide. On Cuba, "By the ferocity of one Spanish Tyrant (whom I knew) above Two Hundred Indians hang'd themselves of their own accord; and a multitude of People perished by this kind of Death" and "Six Thousand Children and upward were murder'd, because they had lost their Parents who labour'd in the Mines." Legacy A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies marks a significant moment in the way 21st century colonial Latin American historians would address world history. By comparing what historians know today about colonial Latin America, with the descriptions and recommendations given by De Las Casas in A Short Account, they are able to understand more about Europeans biases, prejudices, and outlook on the colonization of the Americas. De Las Casas' A Short Account, was a revised history of the conquest, in the way that he includes facts that would aid him in his argument. Political scientist Diego von Vacano argued De Las Casas' A Short Account, revealed the ways 16th century scholars used rhetoric to lobby for changes during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In his earlier writings De Las Casas advocated the defense of indigenous peoples by recommending the use of African slaves as an alternative to indigenous people, but later