"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 …"

"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. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculi…"

"They have no iron or steel weapons, nor are they capable of using them... They would make fine servants."

"And I say that Your Highnesses ought to determine to make them Christians, for I believe that if they begin, in a short time they will be finished, and will have great revenues and dominion, and all t…"

"Gold is most excellent; gold is treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world."