A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies is an account written by the Spanish Dominican friar Bartolome de las Casas in 1542 (published in 1552) about the mistreatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in colonial times and sent to then Prince Philip II of Spain. Bartolome de las Casas (circa 1484 - 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. He became the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians." His extensive writings, the most famous being "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies" and "Historia de Las Indias," chronicle the first decades of colonization of the West Indies and focus particularly on the atrocities committed by the colonizers against the indigenous peoples.