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The National Geographic Magazine 



so may we see it today, if we shut out 

 the black picture which is the product of 

 his countrymen's avarice. 



"In it" (Haiti), he says, "there are 

 many havens on the seacoast, incompar- 

 able with any others I know in Christen- 

 dom, and plenty of rivers so good and 

 great that it is a marvel. The lands there 

 are high, and in it are very many ranges 

 of hills and most lofty mountains incom- 

 parably beyond the Island of Centrefrei 

 (or Teneriffe) ; all most beautiful in a 

 thousand shapes and all accessible, and 

 full of trees of a thousand kinds, so lofty 

 that they seem to reach the sky. And I 

 am assured that they never lose their 

 foliage, as may be imagined, since I saw 

 them as green and as beautiful as they 

 are in Spain in May and some of them 

 were in flower, some in fruit, some in 

 another stage, according to their kind. 

 And the nightingale was singing, and 

 other birds of a thousand sorts, in the 

 month of November, round about the 

 way I was going. There are palm trees 

 of six or eight species, wondrous to see 

 for their beautiful variety ; but so are the 

 other trees and fruits and plants therein. 

 There are wonderful pine groves and 

 very large plains of verdure, and there is 

 honey and many kinds of birds, and many 

 mines in the earth ; and there is a popula- 

 tion of incalculable number. Espahola 

 is a marvel ; the mountains and hills, and 

 plains, and fields, and the soil, so beauti- 

 ful and rich for planting and sowing, for 

 breeding cattle of all sorts, for building 

 of towns and villages. There could be 

 no believing, without seeing, such har- 

 bors as are here, as well as the many and 

 great rivers and excellent waters, most of 

 which contain gold. In the trees and 

 fruits and plants, there are greater diver- 

 sities from those of Juana fCuba). In 

 this there are many spiceries and great 

 mines of gold and other metals. The 

 people of this island and all others that 

 I have seen, or not seen, all go naked, 

 men and women, just as their mothers 

 bring them forth." . . . 



THE LAUGHING NATIVES EONG SINCE 

 EXTERMINATED 



The tribute which Columbus pays to 

 the natives in continuing his narrative 

 would satisfy even Bellamy's ideals as ex- 

 pressed in his "Looking Backward." I 

 should like to quote all of his letter for 

 the benefit of those who have not been 

 so fortunate as to read it, but space does 

 not permit. A paragraph or two will 

 give the gist of his ideas. 



"It seems to me," he says, "that in all 

 those islands the men are content with a 

 single wife. . . . Nor have I been 

 able to learn whether they hold personal 

 property, for it seemed to me that what- 

 ever one had, they all took share of, espe- 

 cially of eatable things. ... I have 

 not found any monstrous men, but, on 

 the contrary, all the people are very 

 comely ; nor are they black like those in 

 Guinea, but have flowing hair; and they 

 are not' begotten where there is an ex- 

 cessive violence of the sun. Of anything 

 they have, if it be asked, they never say 

 no, but do rather invite the person to 

 accept it, and show as much lovingness as 

 though they would give their hearts. 

 And they know no sect or idolatry, save 

 that they all believe that power and good- 

 ness are in the sky, and they believe very 

 firmly that these ships and crews come 

 from the sky ; and this comes not because 

 they are ignorant ; on the contrary, they 

 are men of very subtle wit, who navigate 

 all these seas and who give a marvelously 

 good account of everything." 



We do not wonder when reading his 

 full description that he called this spot 

 the Garden of Eden. Would that we 

 could look on the inhabitants of this beau- 

 tiful island now as Columbus depicted it ; 

 but, alas ! since his time a sad change has 

 gradually crept over the island, so that 

 now foreigners shun it as they do a pesti- 

 lence. 



In reading the history of its people 

 since the extinction of the aborigines our 

 hearts sicken and we are appalled by the 

 revelations there disclosed. 



Its pages are black with the marks of 



