"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 …"

"I vow that I will never again set foot on land unless it is to return to Spain."

"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."

"I have come to believe that this is a mighty continent which was hitherto unknown."

"I have come to serve at 28 years with this art of navigation."