the nine
treatises, composed into one work, issued in Amsterdam in 1620. Other
editions followed in Paris in 1635, in Lyons in 1642, and again two others
in Paris in 1697 and 1701: these latter were translated and edited by the
Abbe de Bellegarde.

The Italian translation, made by Giacomo Castellani, followed closely the
original text, by which it was accompanied; editions were printed in
Venice in 1626, 1630, and 1643, bearing the title _Istoria o Brevissima
Relatione della Distruttione dell' Indie Occidentali_. Three different
Latin versions were published as follows: _Narratio regionum Indicarum per
Hispanos quosdam devastatarum Verissima_, per B. Casaum, Anno 1582;
_Hispanice, anno vero hoc Lating excusa_, Francofurti, 1597; _Regionum
Indicarum Hispanos olim devastatarum accuratissima descriptio. Editio
nova, correctior{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}_Heidelbergae 1664. Despite the fact that Las Casas was
the first and most vehement in denouncing the Spanish conquerors as bad
patriots and worse Christians, whose acts outraged religion and disgraced
Spain, his evidence against his countrymen was diligently spread by all
enemies of his country, especially in England and the Netherlands, while
Protestant controversialists quoted him against popery, and in the conduct
of the conquerors the evidences of the Catholic depravity.

The earliest English edition was printed in 1583 under the title of _The
Spanish Colonie or Briefe Chronicle of the Acts and Gestes of the
Spaniardes in the West Indies, called the Newe Worlde, for a space of XL
Yeares_.

John Phillips, who was a nephew of Milton, dedicated another version,
called _The Tears of the Indians_, to Oliver Cromwell.

Other English editions, bearing different names, appeared in 1614, 1656,
and 1689. This last volume bore a truly startling title: _Casas's horrid
Massacres, Butcheries and Cruelties that Hell and Malice could invent,
committed by the Spaniards in the West Indies_. It doubtless had a large
sale.

Ten years later another edition was printed in London: _An Account of the
Voyages and Discoveries made by the Spaniards in America, containing the
exact Relation hitherto published of their unparalleled cruelties on the
Indians in the Destruction of about Forty Millions of People_.

The Netherlands being in revolt, both against the Catholic religion and
the Spanish government, it is not surprising to find that, in addition to
the French editions published in Amste