The Burning of Hatuey by the Spaniards at Yara, Cuba, on February 2, 1512, 1664...

illustration from a Latin Translation of 'Brevisima relacion de la destruccion de las Indias' by Bartolome de las Casas (1474-1566), published in Nuremberg; Hatuey was a chieftain from the island of Hispaniola who is celebrated as the first national hero of Cuba; the picture shows a Franciscan monk asking Hatuey if he will accept Jesus and go to heaven; Las Casas records Hatuey's response that if such cruel people as the Spaniards lived in heaven, he did not wish to go there; Las Casas was the first European writer and historian to expose the oppression of native American Indians by Europeans and to call for the abolition of slavery;