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In Chapter 19, Taylor again portrays the Spanish as much worse than the British. As Janewton mentioned, the Spanish brutality appears to be a recurring theme. Similar to their earlier colonization, the Spanish focus on converting the natives more than any other imperial power. I found Taylor’s description of Fray Junipero Serra on page 457 interesting. Serra practiced self-mutilation as a means of furthering his faith: “He wore rough hair shirts augmented with metal wire points, periodically flagellated his bare back until it was bloody, and burned the hair on his chest with a lighted candle.” Furthermore, he refused treatment of a wound on his leg. I think that having Serra as a leader of a mission helps to explain why the Spanish were so brutal to the natives. If Serra despised his own mortal body to this extent, he must have had much less respect for the lives of natives who were not even Christian.
On the other hand, Taylor presents a stark contrast between the Spanish missions the British explorer James Cook. Taylor says, “Cook was no conquistador come to plunder, conquer, enslave, and convert” (469). Instead, Cook appeared to hold himself to the higher standards of the Enlightenment. He treated the natives with respect, but inadvertedly could not avoid infecting them with disease. Earlier in colonization, the British used “The Black Legend” to describe the Spanish brutality and minimize their own damages. But this sentiment does not seem to be held by the British alone. Throughout the book, Taylor portrays the Spanish as consistently more devastating to native life and culture. Perhaps the British were right, and the Spanish were truly more cruel than the other countries.