Christopher Columbus | Description of His First Encounter with Indians, 1492

I [believed] . . . that we might form great friendship, for I knew that they were a people who could be more easily freed and converted to our holy faith by love than by force, gave to some of them red caps, and glass beads to put round their necks, and many other things of little value, which gave them great pleasure, and made them so much our friends that it was a marvel to see. They afterwards came to the ship’s boats where we were, swimming and bringing us parrots, cotton threads in skeins, darts, and many other things; and we exchanged them for other things that we gave them, such as glass beads and small bells. In fine [In short], they took all, and gave what they had with good will. It appeared to me to be a race of people very poor in everything. They go as naked as when their mothers bore them, and so do the women, although I did not see more than one young girl. . . . They have no iron, their darts being wands without iron, some of them having a fish’s tooth at the end. . . . They should be good servants and intelligent, for I observed that they quickly took in what was said to them, and I believe that they would easily be made Christians, as it appeared to me that they had no religion. I, our Lord being pleased, will take hence, at the time of my departure, six natives for your Highnesses, that they may learn to speak.

Source: The Journal of Christopher Columbus (during His First Voyage, 1492–93) and Documents Relating to the Voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar Corte Real (London: Hakluyt Society, 1893), 37–38.

Antonio Pigafetta | Journal, 1521

When day came, our men leaped into the water up to our thighs, forty-nine of them. . . . The boats could not come in closer because of certain rocks in the water. . . . [When the natives saw that we were firing muskets without any result] . . . they cried out determined to stand firm . . . shooting so many arrows and hurling bamboo lances, charred pointed stakes, stones and mud at the Captain [Magellan] that he could scarce defend himself. When the Captain saw this he sent some men to burn their houses to frighten them. And when they saw their houses burning they were all the more fierce. . . . And so great a number came upon us that they pierced the right leg of the Captain with a poisoned arrow, wherefore he ordered that they gradually retreat. . . . [But] they had so many spears, darts and stones that they [the soldiers] could not withstand them, and the artillery of the fleet was so far away that it could not help them. And our men withdrew to the shore, fighting all the while. . . . They [the natives] recognized the Captain and so many assailed him that twice they knocked his sallet [helmet] from his head. And he, like a good knight, continued to stand firm with a few others, and they fought thus for more than an hour. . . . An Indian threw his bamboo spear into his [the Captain’s] face and he immediately killed him [the native] with his own spear. . . . And the Captain tried to draw his sword and was able to draw it only half way, because he had been wounded in the arm with a spear. . . . The Christian king [a rival chief who converted to Christianity] would have helped us but . . . the Captain bade him not to leave the ship. . . . When the king learned that the Captain was dead he grieved much, and not without cause.

Source: The Voyage of Magellan, the Journal of Antonio Pigafetta, trans. Paula Spurlin Paige (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969), 76–78.