This voyage of Columbus, during which he sailed to India, lasted 33 days. There he discovered many islands inhabited by countless people. At first, Columbus explored the island of Juan, but since there were only a few settlements and uncommunicative natives, and winter also came, he decided to move south from these shores. Columbus then explored another vast island, Hispaniola. Hispaniola is a miracle due to its beautiful nature. The natives also fled at the sight of Columbus, but he managed to talk to some, giving them something useful, beautiful, or valuable. It was vital for Columbus to please them and encourage them to become Christians.
The natives turned out to be pagans. They are very resourceful, quite good-natured, very timid, and far from ignorant. Columbus argued that the island was more extensive than England and Scotland combined. The natives are pretty good-looking; they are not black like in Guinea. Columbus heard that the people living on the second island at the entrance to India are considered the most ferocious and eat human flesh. According to The Letter of Columbus to Luis De Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery (1493), it was written aboard the Caravel off the Canary Islands on February 15, 1493.
The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies
Christians completely destroyed this land in the New World, did not spare even women, pregnant women, older people, and children. They committed the most real atrocities that made the Indians understand that these people did not come from Heaven. According to de las Casas (n.d.), Christians dismembered people, bet on who could split a man in half with one blow of the sword, beat babies to death, hung Indians, and burnt them.
A Christian officer raped even the wife of the most powerful ruler of the islands. From that time on, the Indians began to look for ways to expel Christians from their lands. Since the weapons of the Indians were too weak, they fled to the mountains. But the Spanish captains, whom the author calls enemies of the human race, chased them with the help of ferocious dogs, which attacked the Indians, tearing them to pieces and devouring them. And since the Indians fairly killed some Christians on rare occasions, the Spaniards established a rule among themselves that for every Christian killed by the Indians, they would kill a hundred Indians.
Works Cited
de las Casas, Bartolomé. “Excerpts from The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies”, (n.d.). Web.
“The Letter of Columbus to Luis De Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery.” U.S. History, 1493. Web.