Documents relating to American Indians and the law demonstrate how their legal status has been ambigious since the earliest days of European colonisation. Cédula containing ordinances regulating repartimientos, tax collection, and the treatment of Indians in New Spain was a royal decree outlawing the mistreatment of indigenous people. It was partly the result of the efforts of Spanish Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas, who campaigned for the rights of native people against what he saw as inhuman and illegal treatment by Spanish colonisers. Historia de las Indias, a history of the mistreatment of Indians written by las Casas, tells of continued mistreatment despite these changes in law.