Columbus expresses affection towards the Indians of the new Island in his letter. However, his description in writology.com also contains influences of his own society and traditions. First of all, he concludes that the new territory can be employed for colonization practices. While describing people, he refers to them as primitive and arrogant tribes simply because they have a different lifestyle from Europeans. Also, he describes them as shy and fearful. These people are naive to the extent that they would exchange gold for simple objects like cutlery.
Furthermore, Columbus states that the color of skin of these people is not black like that of Ethiopians. So, this fact is considered to be an advantage in light of stereotypes. Further, he reveals that these people told them where a lot of gold can be found. Obviously, Europeans greatly valued colored metals like gold. Also, since colonization and slavery was spreading in European countries, it could not escape the new land.
Being a representative of the white men of the Western world, Columbus had some biased attitude to the native people of America. This is one of the reasons why the explorer assumed that the Indians were the inferior nation. Thus, the newcomers were afraid of these people because they didn’t understand them. Being hostile to the native people of America, the sailors like Columbus were more in favor of violent actions rather than looking for a suitable compromise.
Because of his own ignorance, Columbus called Native Americans ‘Indians’ since he had assumed they reached the Indian continent from the other side. The explorer describes the people as very beautiful. Also, he agreed that they are very generous to the foreigners. Columbus was sure that it would not be difficult to convert these people to Christianity because they didn’t have any idols. In general, he had a positive impression of the culture he found, but his own ethnicity and traditions could not let him look at these people without biases.
