Concerning the treatment of Native American workers:
When they were allowed to go home, they often found it deserted and no other recourse than to go out into the woods to find food and to die. When they fell ill, which was very frequently because they are a delicate people unaccustomed to such work, the Spaniards did not believe them and pitilessly called them lazy dogs, and kicked and beat them; and when illness was apparent they sent them home as useless, giving them some cassava for the twenty to eighty league journey. They would go then, failing into the first stream and dying there in desperation; others would hold on longer, but very few ever made it home. I sometimes came upon dead bodies on my way, and upon others who were
gasping and moaning in their death agony,
repeating "Hungry, hungry.""
-Bartolome de Las Casas, priest and social reformer, In Defense of the Indians c. 1550
1. Which of the following best explains the underlying cause of the Spanish actions describes by Las Casas?
A. Racism
B. Religion
C. Desire for wealth
D. Fear of native power
2. The primary audience that Las Casas hoped to influence by his writing was
A. The monarchs of Spain
B. The Roman Catholic Church
C. The conquistadores
D. The Native Americans
3. Which of the following factors that affected native Americans directly implied but not stated in this excerpt?
A. Many Spaniards were sympathetic to the Native Americans
B. The Catholic Church was trying to help the Native Americans
C. European diseases were killing millions of Native Americans
D. The Spanish faced strong resistance from Native Amercians
