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would have become clear. Instead, he halted
the westward voyage and simply declared that
Cuba was China. He ordered his crew to swear
to an oath that they had found China, with the
understanding that the men would have their
tongues cut out if they should ever break their
oaths. Taking a route along the southern coast
of Jamaica, Columbus returned to Isabela.
By early 1495 Columbus was becoming
increasingly more occupied with calming
colonial discontent than with discovery. He
tried to pacify disillusioned Spanish gentle-
men who had shipped to Hispaniola expect-
ing to find a comfortable, exotic haven with an
unlimited supply of gold and instead found
themselves suffering in tropical rain. The
speculators went hungry rather than eat the
unfamiliar food of “the Indies.” Instead of
farming or prospecting, the Spanish pressed
Indians for food and more gold after the
extant supplies had been collected or stolen.
Resentment turned into open rebellion as
Arawak tribes resisted demands for labor and
wealth. Forced labor, disease, and punitive
expeditions began to kill the native inhabi-
tants of Hispaniola in large numbers, a pat-
tern that spread throughout the hemisphere
as more colonists arrived.(^32) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
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