Therefore, we shall be bold and speak the truth, and although we shall
take off our hats and bow very respectfully, we must still assert that
Christopher Columbus was the first who practised piracy in American
waters.

When he sailed with his three little ships to discover unknown lands, he
was an accredited explorer for the court of Spain, and was bravely
sailing forth with an honest purpose, and with the same regard for law
and justice as is possessed by any explorer of the present day. But when
he discovered some unknown lands, rich in treasure and outside of all
legal restrictions, the views and ideas of the great discoverer
gradually changed. Being now beyond the boundaries of civilization, he
also placed himself beyond the boundaries of civilized law. Robbery,
murder, and the destruction of property, by the commanders of naval
expeditions, who have no warrant or commission for their conduct, is the
same as piracy, and when Columbus ceased to be a legalized explorer, and
when, against the expressed wishes, and even the prohibitions, of the
royal personages who had sent him out on this expedition, he began to
devastate the countries he had discovered, and to enslave and
exterminate their peaceable natives, then he became a master in piracy,
from whom the buccaneers afterward learned many a valuable lesson.

It is not necessary for us to enter very deeply into the consideration
of the policy of Columbus toward the people of the islands of the West
Indies. His second voyage was nothing more than an expedition for the
sake of plunder. He had discovered gold and other riches in the West
Indies and he had found that the people who inhabited the islands were
simple-hearted, inoffensive creatures, who did not know how to fight and
who did not want to fight. Therefore, it was so easy to sail his ships