shores. This was the king of that part of the island, a young man named
Guacanagari. This king sent out a large canoe full of people to the
Admiral's ship, with a request that Columbus would land in his country,
and a promise that the chief would give him whatever he had. There
must have been an Intelligence Department in the island, for the chief
seemed to know what would be most likely to attract the Admiral; and with
his messengers he sent out a belt with a large golden mask attached to
it. Unfortunately the natives on board the Admiral's ship could not
understand Guacanagari's messengers, and nearly the whole of the day was
passed in talking before the sense of their message was finally made out
by means of signs. In the evening some Spaniards were sent ashore to see
if they could not get some gold; but Columbus, who had evidently had some
recent experience of their avariciousness, and who was anxious to keep on
good terms with the chiefs of the island, sent his secretary with them to
see that they did nothing unjust or unreasonable. He was scrupulous to
see that the natives got their bits of glass and beads in exchange for
the gold; and it is due to him to remember that now, as always, he was
rigid in regulating his conduct with other men in accordance with his
ideas of justice and honour, however elastic those ideas may seem to have
been. The ruffianly crew had in their minds only the immediate
possession of what they could get from the Indians; the Admiral had in
his mind the whole possession of the islands and the bodies and souls of
its inhabitants. If you take a piece of gold without giving a glass bead
in exchange for it, it is called stealing; if you take a country and its
inhabitants, and steal their peace from them, and give them blood and
servitude in exchange for it, it is called colonisation and
Empire-building. Every one understands the distinction; but so few
people see the difference that Columbus of all men may be excused for
his unconsciousness of it.