After much weary waiting, and many entreaties, he obtained three
little ships from Queen Isabel of Spain; and with them, in the year
1492, came to the islands which he named the West Indies, lovely places,
full of gentle natives with skins of a dark ruddy colour, wearing, for
their misfortune, golden ornaments. To get gold was the great longing of
the Spaniards, and they did not care what cruelties they used so that
they could obtain it. The Pope, finding in the prophecies that the isles
of the sea should belong to the Church, considered that this gave him a
right to give them away to whomsoever he pleased; so he made a grant of
all to the west to the Spaniards, all to the east to the Portuguese.
Thereupon great numbers of the Spaniards went over to America; they
conquered the two great empires of Mexico and Peru, and settled in the
West-Indian Islands, robbing the poor natives of their gold and silver,
making slaves of them, and hunting them with blood-hounds when they
tried to run away. Many good priests who went out as missionaries did
all they could to hinder these horrors, but in vain; and when at last
the poor delicate Indians began to dwindle away and die off, the plan
was resorted to of bringing negroes from Africa to work in their stead.
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