....It appears to me that these people are ingenious and
would make very good servants, and I am of the opinion that they would
readily become Christians as they appear to have no religion. They very
quickly learn such words as are spoken to them. If it please our Lord, I
intend at my return to carry home six of them to your Highnesses that
they may learn our language."
In this brief entry in the Admiral's diary there is a whole volume to
those who can read between the lines, and a painful volume too, as much
history is. Glass beads and little tinkling bells, you see, were all
ready to be distributed from the caravels; a proof that Columbus had not
expected to reach the Asiatic Indies, for those Indians were known to be
sharp and experienced traders. How did Columbus happen to know that it
would be wise to carry rubbish along with him? Ah, that was something
found out when he left Porto Santo to accompany the Portuguese
expedition to Guinea; had he not seen the Portuguese commander exchange
ounces of bright beads for pounds of ivory and gold?
And so he, Christopher Columbus, came prepared for similar trade in his
western lands; the world, we see, was hunting for bargains, trying to
get much for little in the fifteenth century, just as it still is in the
twentieth! Then again, look at the Admiral's innocent remark, "I think
they would make excellent servants.
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