Another view of Columbus Day

From Columbus' own journal, written about the Arawak Indians of Hispaniola (Haiti).

"They...brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

Within a few years of his arrival, 175,000 men, women, and children—half of the Indian population—were dead.