If a Taino indigene did not deliver his full quota
of gold dust by Columbus’s deadline, soldiers
would cut off the man’s hands and tie them
around his neck to send a message to others.
This has always been the European way. To
steal, plunder, and kill a welcoming indigenous
people. Slavery was so unacceptable to the
island people that at one point, 100 of them
committed mass suicide. Catholic law at the
time forbade the enslavement of Christians,
but Columbus solved this problem. Although
priests were available to convert natives to
Christianity, Columbus simply refused to have
them baptize, so they would remain slaves.
One of his men, Bartolome De Las Casas, was so
annoyed by Columbus’ brutal atrocities against
the native peoples; he converted to a Catholic
priest. He described how the Spaniards under
Columbus’s command would cut the legs of
children, to test the sharpness of their blades.
According to Bartolome, the men made bets of
who, with one sweep of the sword, could cut a
Taino person in half.
B
artolome De Las Casas accounted
that in a single day; the Spanish
soldiers dismembered, behead-
ed, or raped 3000 native people.
” Such inhumanities and barba-
risms were committed in my sight
as no age can parallel,” He wrote.
“My eyes have seen these acts so
foreign to human nature that now I tremble
as I write.” Columbus had been appointed as
the governor and Viceroy of the new lands by
the Spanish crown, and for the next year and
a half, he attempted to do his job. Although he
was renowned to be a good ship’s captain, he
was a failed administrator. The sole purpose of
Columbus and his Spaniards was to seek abun-
dant gold, and unfortunately little or none was
to be found. The gold the Spaniards and colo-
nialists had been promised never materialized,
and what little gold was discovered was sent
to the Spanish crown. In the meantime, their
65 | Colossium . June 2019
supplies began to run out, and there was great
discord in the colony. Columbus used brutality
and cruelty to restore order. With their supplies
almost finished, in March of 1496, he returned
to Spain for more resources to keep his strug-
gling colony from failing. This time around, in
Spain he was not met with jubilation. On the
contrary, there were distrust and doubt about
his venture. However, he managed to get sub-
stantial financial support, and his third expedi-
tion left on May 30, 1498, with six ships in his
fleet. The fleet split into two squadrons; three
ships were to sail directly for Hispaniola with
supplies for the colonists, and the other three
led by Columbus’s advanced for further explo-
ration of the uncharted islands. After a short
time exploring other parts of the so-called “new
world”, Columbus returned to Hispaniola on
August 19, 1498, and found open hostility. As a
matter of fact, it was civil unrest among the col-
onist. The constant unrest was resolved when
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella appointed
Francisco de Bobadilla as royal commissioner,
with administrative powers in Hispaniola.
Christopher Columbus, after
his release, made a fourth
voyage, to search for the
Strait of Malacca to the
Indian Ocean. Mindfully,
when geographers examined
a current map, his westward
theory was doomed from the
beginning; On May 11, 1502,
four old ships and 140 men
under Columbus’s command
set sail from the port of
Cadiz