"What shall I say of the Spanish soldier’s gentleness and humanitarian sentiments? Their only and greatest solicitude and care in the battles.. is to save the greatest possible number of vanquished and free them from the cruelty of their allies."

"Now compare these qualities of prudence, skill, magnanimity, moderation, humanity, and religion with those of those little men [of America] in whom one can scarcely find any remnants of humanity. They not only lack culture but do not even use or know about writing or preserve records of their history…They lack written laws and their institutions and customs are barbaric…what can be expected of men committed to all kinds of passion and nefarious lewdness and of whom not a few are given to the eating of human flesh….they considered a victory to be empty if they could not satisfy their prodigious hunger with the flesh of their enemies."

"But in other respects they are so cowardly and timid that they can scarcely offer any resistance to the hostile presence of out side, and m any times thousands and thousands of them have been dispersed and have fled like women, on being defeated by a small Spanish force scarcely amounting to one hundred." [p.218]
 
 

"This he [Cortes] could do because of the stupor and inertia of the people." Could there be a better testimony of the superiority that some men have over others in talent, skill, strength of spirit, and virtue? Is it not proof that they are slaves by nature?"

"We see that certain insects, such as the bees and the spiders, produce works that no human sill can imitate."

"The foremost proof of the rudeness and barbarism and innate servitude of those people lies precisely in their public institutions, nearly all of which are servile and barbarous."

They have houses and commerce "but what does this prove other than that they are not bears or monkeys completely lacking in reason? [p. 218]