Monday, 24 December 1492
Your Highnesses may believe that in all the world there cannot be better or more gentle people. Your Highnesses must be greatly pleased because you will soon make them Christians and will teach them the good customs of your realms, for there cannot be a better people or country. The people are so numerous and the country so great that I do not yet know how to describe it. I have already spoken in the superlative degree of the people and country of Juana, which they call Cuba. But there is as much difference between the people of this country and the people of Juana as there is between day and night. Neither do I believe that any other person who saw this would have done or said less than I have said. Indeed it is true that the things here are marvelous, and so also are the great villages of this Isla Espanola, as I have named it, and which they call Bohio. And all the people behave in a remarkable friendly manner and speak softly, not like the other Indians, who appear to threaten when they speak. And the men and women are of good stature and are not black. It is true that they all paint themselves, some black, some other colors, but mostly red. I have learned that they do this on account of the sun,* which does not injure them as much if they are painted. And the houses and settlements are very attractive, governed by a chief or judge whom all obey, and it is a marvel. And all these chiefs are men of few words and have fine manners, and their orders are usually given by a sign of the hand, and then it is understood, which is a marvel.
*This may be the first reference in history to suntan lotion!
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(Picture found on the Internet)
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