Of all his numerous works the two that are of great and permanent interest to students of American history, the _Historia General_ and the _Historia Apologetica de las Indias_, were originally designed to form a single work. The writer informs us he began this work in 1527 while he resided in the Dominican monastery near Puerto de Plata.
Fabié writes that his examination of the original manuscripts of the two works preserved in the library of the Spanish Academy of History in Madrid, shows that the first chapter of the _Apologetica_ was originally the fifty-eighth of the _Historia General_. Prescott possessed a copy of these manuscripts, which is believed to have been burned in Boston in 1872, and other copies still exist in America in the Congressional and Lenox Libraries, and in the Hubert Howe Bancroft collection.
During his constant journeying to and fro, much of the material Las Casas had collected for the _Historia General_ was lost and when he began to put that work into its actual form--probably in 1552 or 1553--he was obliged to rely on his memory for many of his facts, while others were drawn from the _Historia del Almirante, Don Cristobal Colon_, written by the son of Christopher Columbus, Fernando.
The first historian who had access to the original manuscript, in spite of the instruction of Las Casas to his executors to withhold them from publication for a period of forty years after his death, was Herrera, who dipped plenis manibus into their contents, incorporating entire chapters in his own work published in 1601. His book obtained a wide circulation despite the fact that it was prohibited in Spain.
It was not until 1875-1876 that a complete edition of the _Historia General_ and the _Apologetica_ was printed in Spanish. This work was edited in five volumes by the Marques de la Fuensanta and Señor José Sancho Rayon, and was issued by the Royal Academy of History in Madrid. A Mexican edition of the _Historia General_ in two volumes, but without the _Apologetica_, appeared in 1878. The _Historia Apologetica_ treats of the natural history, the climate, the flora, fauna, and various products of the Indies, as well as of the different races inhabiting the several countries; their character, costumes, habits, and forms of government. Though its purpose bore less directly upon the injustices under which the natives suffered, it was none the less educational, the author's purpose being to put before his countrymen a minute and accurate description of the New World and its inhabitants that should vindicate the latter's right to equitable treatment at the hands of their conquerors. Misrepresented and defamed, as he maintained the Indians were, by the mendacious reports sent to Spain, Las Casas composed this interesting apology as one part of his scheme of defence. As a monument to his vast erudition, his powers of observation, and his talents as a writer, the _Apologetica_ is perhaps the most remarkable of all his compositions.