A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies () is an account written by the Spanish Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas in 1542 (published in 1552) about the mistreatment of and atrocities committed against the indigenous peoples of the Americas in colonial times and sent to then Prince Philip II of Spain. Background Bartolomé de las Casas explains in the prologue that his fifty years of experience in Spanish colonies in the Indies granted him both moral legitimacy and accountability for writing this account. In 1516, Las Casas was granted the title of Protector of the Indians by Cardinal Cisneros after he submitted a report on their population decline due to harsh labor and mistreatment by colonial officials. During the time when Las Casas served as the Protector of the Indians, several clerics from the Order of Saint Jerome attempted to reform systems which used the native populace as laborers. However, Las Casas found their attempts insufficient to protect the welfare of the Indians, and returned to Spain to appeal to the Spanish monarch in 1517. From 1517 to 1540, Las Casas traveled back and forth between Spain and Spanish colonies in Latin America numerous times, struggling to find a common ground between Spanish authorities and his own attempts to improve the conditions of Indian subjects in Spanish dominions. One of purposes of his travels was to continue to protest Spanish colonial mistreatment of Indians. In 1542, after Las Casas first wrote the chronicle later known as A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, during the hearings ordered by Charles V of Spain to resolve issues of forceful conversion and colonial exploitation of Indians, Las Casas presented the account before the members of the Council of the Indies as proof of atrocities committed upon Indians by colonial authorities. Contents It was written for Prince Philip II of Spain. Las Casas appeals to the Prince's pathos throughout his account. One of the stated purposes for writing the account is his fear of Spain coming under divine punishment and his concern for the souls of the Native peoples. The account is one of the first attempts by a Spanish writer of the colonial era to depict examples of unfair treatment that indigenous people endured in the early stages of the Spanish conquest of the Greater Antilles, particularly the island of Hispaniola. De las Casas noticed that no matter