Massacre of Panamanian Indians, 1513

Massacre of Panamanian Indians, 1513

On October 5, 1513, days after the discovery of the Pacific Ocean, Vasco Nunez de Balboa ordered the killing of several hundred Panamanian Indians in the village of Quarequa (Isthmus of Panama), including some forty who practiced sodomy. In 1552, the Dominican friar Bartolome de las Casas published A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, an account of atrocities committed by landowners and officials during the colonization of New Spain, particularly in Hispaniola. Las Casas, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage, described Columbus's treatment of the natives in his History of the Indies. His description of Spanish savagery was used by writers of Spain's rivals as a convenient basis for attacks on Spain which would later be referred to as The Black Legend. Las Casas was one of the first advocates for the indigenous people. Engravings appeared in Narratio regionum Indicarum per Hispanos quosdam deuastatarum verissima by Theodore de Bry in 1598.

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