"Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they
met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides ... they ceased to procreate. As for
the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and famished, had no
milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three
months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desperation.... this way,
husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk ... and
in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fertile ... was depopulated. "
Bartolomé de las Casas - A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
"Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides ... they ceased to procreate. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and famished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desperation.... this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk ... and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fertile ... was depopulated. "
Bartolomé de las Casas - A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies