“He once sent fifty horsemen with pikes to destroy an entire province. Not a single human being survived that massacre, neither women nor children, nor ages infirm This terrible massacre was punishment for a trifling offense: some Indians had not responded to a summons promptly enough when the tyrant had commanded that they bring him a load of maize, or else had asked for more Indians to be assigned to serve him or his comrades. And there was no place where the Indians could take refuge” The purpose of the author of the passage was most likely to