Friday, 21 December 1492
These people have no spears, arrows,* or any other arms, not have the other inhabitants of this island, which I believe to be very large. They are as naked as their mothers gave them birth, men as well as women - unlike the people of Juana and the other islands, where the women wore in front pieces of cotton, something like men’s drawers, with which they covered their private parts, especially after the age of 12. But here neither young nor old wore anything. In the other places we have been the men made the women hide from us, through jealousy, but here they do not, and there are some very pretty women. They were the first who came to give thanks to Heaven and bring whatever they had, especially things to eat, such as bread made from ajes, peanuts, and five or six kinds of fruit. I ordered some of the fruit preserved in order to take it to the Sovereigns. The women in the other places did the same thing before the men concealed them.
I ordered that at no time were any of my men to annoy any of these people in any manner - to be on guard against it - and that no one was to take anything from them against their will. For everything we received we traded something in return. I cannot believe that we have found a people with such good hearts, so liberal in giving, and so timid, that they strip themselves of everything to give all that they have to us and, upon arrival, run to bring us everything.
*Columbus is mistaken. The natives had no bows and arrows, but spears were seen on San Salvadore; on 3 December Columbus had even calmed hostile Indians by trading for their spears.
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