Indigenous populations, particularly focusing on their massacres and enslavement. At the start of the narrative, Las Casas introduces the background of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, emphasizing the innocence and hospitality of the Indigenous people upon the Spaniards' arrival. He vividly describes their initial peaceful interactions and the subsequent violent turn when the Spanish conquerors, driven by greed, unleashed their ferocity upon the native population. The beginning sets a grim tone as it outlines the immense suffering inflicted over the years, leading to the near annihilation of entire communities, and foreshadows the extensive documentation of these inhumane acts that will follow in subsequent chapters. (This is an automatically generated summary.)