BLack Robe essays

BLack Robe essays After reading the assigned biographies and viewing the movie "Black Robe", I think the "Black Legend" fails to accurately define Indian/European relationships. Bartolome de Las Casas initially makes the Spanish conquistadors look like very abusive and uncaring men. He writes, "The Christians, with their horses and swords and lances, began to slaughter and practise strange cruelties among them." The Indians, on the other hand, are described as a kind and delicate people, like lambs or gentle sheep; but still considered inferior to the Europeans. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish nobleman, initially viewed the Indians as a people to be conquered and enslaved. He came to America in hopes of finding treasures of gold but, instead, I think he found himself. Cabeza de Vaca was born into a family of adventurers so it is not surprising that he joined Panfilo de Narvaez's expedition to the "West Indies" to conquer the land we know as present-day Florida. Upon reaching Florida after months at sea and a winter in Cuba, the Indians of the land were not overjoyed to see this new batch of Spaniards. In fact, after meeting Narvaez's emissary, "the entire village fled into the forest." When Narvaez came ashore, he read the requerimiento which simply stated the Indians were now subjects of the King of Spain and were required to obey all Spanish law and become Christians. Should they refuse to obey, they would become enslaved and sold. It mattered not to Narvaez that the Indians were not present when he read this. An expedition set out to find what ikons as present-day Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca was part of this expedition which lasted several years and took him through present-day Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. As Cabeza de Vaca searched for Mexico, he came to realize that this race of people known as Indians were not so heathen as he once thought. Although he still viewed them as inferior to the Europeans, he did conclude that t...