Besides the _Brevísima relación_ a number of other pamphlets were printed in 1552 and 1553, but the more important of Las Casas’ writings remained in manuscript until long after the author’s death. These are the _Historia general de las Indias_ and _Historia apologética de las Indias_, apparently designed in the beginning to constitute a single work; but in the process of their composition, the character of each became more and more distinct, and they finally appeared in print as separate productions. The former is an account of the occupation of the West Indies and the mainland during the early years of Spanish rule, describing the condition of the native inhabitants, their mental state and their customs, with special emphasis on the treatment they received under the Spanish administration; the latter, the _Historia apologética de las Indias_, treats of the character of soil and climate of the occupied lands, of the natural and social position of the inhabitants, but does not contain a narrative of the events incident to the establishment and progress of Spanish settlements. Like other writers of his time, and even of later times, Las Casas faced the problem of the relation of the different races to one another, and of the capacity of the less developed race to rise to the highest form of civilization, and, like most of his countrymen, he regarded the fundamental difference between the races as consisting in the fact that the Spaniards were Christians, while the Indians were pagans, and that the conversion and baptism of the Indians necessarily removed the main feature of difference, and transferred the Indian from the status of barbarism to civilization. But one-remedy reformers have not been found merely among Spanish missionaries. When the government of the United States conferred the right of suffrage upon the emancipated negro slaves, this action was supported by the extravagant expectation that the possession of this right would exercise a transforming influence on the quality of the subject. This hopeful view of the missionary’s work was doubtless the principal source of Las Casas’ inspiration; it was also the source of his intolerance. [Sidenote: Encomenderos]