760 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLEEY. 



Crazed by and for these -from oue side of tlie continent to the other, they have 

 "bartered away their game, their lands, and even their lives; for wherever rum and 

 whisky have gone the small-pox has also traveled, and in every tribe one-half or 

 more have fallen victims to its mortality. 



Columbus, perhaps^ was the first white man who ever saw an American Indian, in 

 October, 1492. Landing on the island of San Salvador, one of the Bahamas, " he dis- 

 covered Indians running to the shore, naked, and gazing at the ships." 



In Hay ti, where he met greater numbers, he says, in a letter to Louis de St. Angel, 

 " True it is that after the Indians felt confidence, and lost their fears of na, they were 

 80 liberal with what they possessed that it would not be believed by those who had 

 not seen it. If anything was asked of them, they never said no, but gave it cheer- 

 fully, and showed as much anxiety as if they gave their very heart ; and if the things 

 given were of great or little value, they were content with whatever was given in 

 return." 



Columbus was afterwards wrecked on the island of Hispaniola. The cacique (chief), 

 Gua-can-a-gan, living within a league and a half of the wreck, shed tears of sympathy, 

 and sent all his people in canoes to his aid; and the cacique rendered all the aid he 

 could in person, both on sea and on land, consoling Columbus by saying that every- 

 thing he possessed should be at his disposal, ill the eifects of the wrecked ship were 

 deposited near the cacique's dwelling, and not the slightest article, though exposed to 

 the whole population, was pilfered ! 



And Columbus, in his letter to the King and Queen of Spain, says : "So tractable, 

 so peaceable, are these peoijle, that I swear to your majesties there is not in the world 

 a better nation. They love their neighbors as themselves, and their discourse is even 

 sweet and gentle, and accompanied with a smile ; and though it is true that they are 

 naked, yet their manners are decorous and praiseworthy." 



Columbus, amongst these people, was loaded with presents the most costly that they 

 possessed; and as he says himself, "this generous cacique, and a variety of other 

 chiefs, placed coronets of pure gold on his head." And what was the sequel? This 

 "generous cacique," and all the " variety of other chiefs " and their people, who had 

 not even bows and arrows to defend themselves witb (so peaceable they were), were 

 driven from their dwellings into the mountains, and their villages burnt to the ground. 

 The Caribbes were more warlike, and, armed with bows and arrows, made a stronger 

 resistance; but 'they were at length defeated by one of the most disgraceful stratagems 

 that ever appeared in the history of warfare. These Indians, who possessed large 

 quantities of gold, got an idea that silver, first produced amongst them by the 

 Spaniards, was of much greater value, exchanged gold at the rate of ten ounces for 

 one. To turn this to the best account, a massive pair of steel manacles were highly 

 polished for the purpose to resemble silver (and, of course, of an immense value), were 

 represented to Ca-on-e-bo, the chief, at the head of the Indian army, as a magnificent 

 pair of bracelets of silver, sent to him by the King of Spain. Dazzled by so brilliant 

 a present, and from the King, he submitted to mount a powerful steed and have them 

 put on. They were locked to his wrists, and by a mailed troop of horse in readiness 

 he was galloped through the Indian lines and to the coast, where he was put in addi- 

 tional irons, and sent a prisoner to Spain. And in the space of five years of deadly 

 and the most cruel warfare, waged with guns and coats of mail and sabers against 

 these harmless and inofi'ensive people by the man whose honors were to be immortal, 

 over 200,000 of these poor people were slain on their own ground, and more than 5,000 

 were made prisoners and shipped to Spain and sold as slaves, where they slew them- 

 selves, or perished from diseases of the country. 



Here began American history, and here was the beginning (not the end) of the 

 Indians' second series of calamities. 



This cruel and disgraceful warfare was all for gold, but the shining god proved to 

 be farther west, and another fleet and another army were on its track, and another 

 monster at its head. Fernando Cortes was this man, this educated demon, with a 



