ot understand.

Nor could there be an act of greater cruelty and injustice; for the
Spaniards could not have any right to drive these gentle and peaceful
inhabitants (as they afterwards did) from their peaceful abodes, which
had been theirs and their fathers before them, perhaps for thousands of
years, and in the end, utterly to destroy them, and take their land for
themselves.

After performing this ceremony, of which Columbus himself could not
foresee the consequences to the Indians, for he was very kind to them,
he made them presents of trinkets and other trifles, with which they
were greatly delighted, and brought him in return the fruits of their
fields and groves, and a sort of bread called cassada, made from the
root of the yuca; with whatever else their own simple mode of life might
afford.

Columbus then returned to his ship, accompanied by many of the
islanders in their boats, which they called canoes; these simple and
undiscerning children of nature having no foresight of the calamities
and desolation which awaited their country.

This island was called by the natives Guanahini, and by the Spaniards
St. Salvador: it is one of that cluster of West India Islands called the
Bahamas, and if you look on the map you will see that it is the very
first island that would present itself to a ship sailing direct from
Spain.

Columbus did not continue his voyage for some days, as he wished to give
all his sailors an opportunity of landing and seeing the wonders of the
new-discovered world, and to take in a fresh supply of water, in which
they were cheerfully assisted by the natives, who took them to the
clearest springs and the sweetest and freshest streams, filling their
casks and rolling them to the boats, and seeking in every way to gratify
(as they believed) their celestial visitors.

Columbus having thus refreshed his crews, and supplied his ships with
water, proceeded on his voyage. After visiting several smaller islands
he discovered a large island which the natives called Cuba, and which
still retains that name. This was so large an island that he at first
thought it to be a new continent.

In proceeding along the coast, having observed that most of the people
whom he had seen wore small plates of gold by way of ornament in their
noses, he eagerly inquired, by signs, where they got that precious
metal.

The Indians, as much astonished at his eagerness in quest of gold as the
Europeans were at their ign