Excerpt from: The Log of Christopher Columbus * Sunday, 13 January 1493 (Part 4 of 4)

Taken from The Log of Christopher Columbus (Part 4 of 4)
Sunday, 13 January 1493

When the boat reached land there were at least 55 men behind the trees, all naked and wearing their hair long, as the women wear it in Castile. On the back of their heads they wore headdresses of parrot feathers and other feathers, and each one carried a bow. The Indian in the boat went ashore and made the others lay down their bows and arrows, and the heavy, club like sticks that they carry in place of a sword. These Indians came to the boat, and my men landed and began to trade for the bows and arrows and other arms because I had ordered them to do so. But after trading two bows, these Indians did not wish to give up any more; rather, they prepared to attack the sailors and capture them. They ran to get their bows and arrows where they had laid them and returned with cords in their hands to bind the men. The sailors were ready, since I always advised my men to be on guard; when the Indians approached, the sailors attacked. They gave one Indian a great cut o the buttocks and wounded another in the breast with an arrow. When the Indians saw that they could gain little, although there were only seven Spaniards and more than 50 of them, they took flight until not one remained. One left his arrows here; another, his bow there. The men would have killed many of them if the pilot who went ashore as captain had not prevented it. The men then returned to the caravel and told me of the affair. In one way it troubled me and in another it did not, I.e., in that now they might be afraid of us. Without doubt, the people here are evil, and I believe they are from the island of Caribe, and that they eat men. If the boat I left with 39 men in the fortress and Villa de la Navidad comes here, these people may be afraid to do them any harm. If these people are not Caribes, they must at least be inhabitants of lands fronting them and have the same customs and the same fearlessness, not like the others on the other islands who are without arms and cowardly beyond reason. These people also build many fires according to the custom on this Isla Espanola, and I would like to take some of them with me.