 It has also been noted that exaggeration of numbers was the norm in writing in 16th-century accounts, and both contemporary detractors and supporters of Las Casas were guilty of similar exaggerations.The Dominican friars Antonio de Montesinos and Pedro de Córdoba had reported extensive violence already in the first decade of the conquest of the Indies, and throughout the conquest of the Americas, there were reports of abuse of the natives by friars and priests and ordinary citizens, and many massacres of indigenous people were reported in full by those who perpetrated them.Even some of Las Casas's enemies, such as Toribio de Benavente Motolinia, reported many gruesome atrocities committed against the Indians by the colonizers.