"The people here are very timid, and are all naked, men and women, as their mothers bore them; and they have no weapons, nor know them, for I showed them swords, and they took them by the edge and cut …"

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

"As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first island which I found, I took some of the natives by force."

"It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies."

"The people are all naked, men and women, as their mothers bore them."