 The "Apologetic Summary History of the People of These Indies" () was first written as the 68th chapter of the "General History of the Indies", but Las Casas changed it into a volume of its own, recognizing that the material was not historical.The material contained in the "Apologetic History" is primarily ethnographic accounts of the indigenous cultures of the Indies – the Taíno, the Ciboney, and the Guanahatabey, but it also contains descriptions of many of the other indigenous cultures that Las Casas learned about through his travels and readings.The history is apologetic because it is written as a defense of the cultural level of the Indians, arguing throughout that indigenous peoples of the Americas were just as civilized as the Roman, Greek and Egyptian civilizations—and more civilized than some European civilizations.