gation and
discovery of these Indies."

October 11-12. "So that they may feel great friendship for us, and
because I knew that they were a people who would be better delivered
and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force, I gave to some of
them red caps and glass bells which they put round their necks, and many
other things of little value, in which they took much pleasure, and they
remained so friendly to us that it was wonderful.

"Afterwards they came swimming to the ship's boats where we were. And
they brought us parrots and cotton-thread in skeins, and javelins and
many other things. And they bartered them with us for other things,
which we gave them, such as little glass beads and little bells. In
short, they took everything, and gave of what they had with good
will. But it seemed to me that they were a people very destitute of
everything.

"They all went as naked as their mothers bore them, and the women as
well, although I only saw one who was really young. And all the men I
saw were young, for I saw none more than thirty years of age; very well
made, with very handsome persons, and very good faces; their hair thick
like the hairs of horses' tails, and cut short. They bring their hair
above their eyebrows, except a little behind, which they wear long, and
never cut. Some of them paint themselves blackish (and they are of the
color of the inhabitants of the Canaries, neither black nor white), and
some paint themselves white, and some red, and some with whatever they
can get. And some of them paint their faces, and some all their bodies,
and some only the eyes, and some only the nose.

"They do not bear arms nor do they know them, for I showed them
swords and they took them by the edge, and they cut themselves through
ignorance. They have no iron at all; their javelins are rods without
iron, and some of them have a fish's tooth at the end, and some of
them other things. They are all of good stature, and good graceful
appearance, well made. I saw some who had scars of wounds in their
bodies, and I made signs to them (to ask) what that was, and they showed
me how people came there from other islands which lay around, and tried
to take them captive and they defended themselves. And I believed, and I
(still) believe, that they came there from the mainland to take them for
captives.

"They would be good servants, and of good disposition, for I see that
they repeat very quickly everything which is said to