![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() One of them died soon after arriving there, but not before he was baptized a Christian. They love their neighbors as themselves, and their discourse is ever sweet and gentle, and accompanied with a smile and though it is true that they are naked, yet their manners are decorous and praiseworthy."Īll this, of course, was taken as a sign of weakness, if not heathenism, and Columbus being a righteous European was convinced the people should be "made to work, sow and do all that is necessary and to adopt our ways." Over the next four centuries (1492–1890) several million Europeans and their descendants undertook to enforce their ways upon the people of the New World.Ĭolumbus kidnapped ten of his friendly Taino hosts and carried them off to Spain, where they could be introduced to the white man's ways. "So tractable, so peaceable, are these people," Columbus wrote to the King and Queen of Spain, "that I swear to your Majesties there is not in the world a better nation. ![]() As was the custom of the people when receiving strangers, the Tainos on the island of San Salvador generously presented Columbus and his men with gifts and treated them with honor. Those Europeans, the white men, spoke in different dialects, and some pronounced the word Indien, or Indianer, or Indian. It began with Christopher Columbus, who gave the people the name Indios. ![]()
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