scarce foodstuffs for himself and took over
the lands owned and worked by the natives
and on which they traditionally grew their own
produce. The settler would treat the whole of
the native population—dignitaries, old men,
women and children—as members of his
household and, as such, make them labor
night and day in his own interests, without any
rest whatsoever.
For the conquest of New Granada, modern Colombia, de
las Casas reports the whole Spanish strategy in action:
To realize their long-term purpose of seizing
all the available gold, the Spaniards
employed their usual strategy of apportioning
among themselves (or en-commending, as
they have it) the towns and their
inhabitants … and then, as ever, treating
them as common slaves. The man in overall
command of the expedition seized the King
of the whole territory for himself and held him
prisoner for six or seven months, quite illicitly
demanding more and more gold and
emeralds from him. This King, one Bogotá,
was so terrified that, in his anxiety to free
himself from the clutches of his tormentors,
he consented to the demand that he fill an
entire house with gold and hand it over; to
this end he sent his people off in search of
gold, and bit by bit they brought it along with
many precious stones. But still the house was
not filled and the Spaniards eventually
declared that they would put him to death for
breaking his promise. The commander
suggested they should bring the case before
him, as a representative of the law, and when
they did so, entering formal accusations
against the King, he sentenced him to torture
should he persist in not honoring the bargain.
They tortured him with the strappado, put
burning tallow on his belly, pinned both his