Las casas wrote this for the Spanish rulers and government, to let them know that the indigenous people were suffering because of the Encomienda system that was imposed by the Spaniards in the Americas. He wanted to get the Encomienda system banned.
Explanation:
The encomienda system was a system that was developed by the Spanish crown. It granted the settlers in "new Spain" with a large piece of land. You could compare it with the manors in Europe in the middle ages. The Spanish settlers were the "landowners" and the indigenous people were the "serfs", but their fate was even worse than that of serfs, because they got NO profit from the lands at all. This would change with the later formed hacienda system, were indigenous people were allowed to keep small profits of the land in theory. In reality it was usually nothing,
