Haiti was Christopher Columbus' second stop, having first arrived in the new world at the island of San Salvador. Friendly natives greeted Columbus, and directed him to Haiti when he inquired about gold. On his way to the island, a ship was wrecked. So peaceful and honest were the Native Indians that they helped him save almost the entire cargo. Nothing was stolen.
In return, for the Indians' kindness:
The Spaniards, the most advanced Europeans of their day, annexed the island, called it Hispaniola, and took the backward natives under their protection. They introduced Christianity, forced labour in mines, murder, rape, blood hounds, strange diseases, and artificial famine (by the destruction of cultivation to starve the rebellious). These and other requirements of the higher civilisation reduced the native population from an estimated half-a-million, perhaps a million, to 60,000 in 15 years. (The Black Jacobins, Pg 3-4)
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