72 THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONSto have died and been thrown overboard, to float like planks on the
waves. African slaves would have a higher survival rate.^16
Nothing like this would be seen again until the Nazi Jew hunts and
killer drives of World War II. Within decades, the native Arawaks
(Tainos) and Caribs were largely wiped out.*
The Caribbean conquest, of course, only began the story. The Span
ish thirst for gold and treasure was unassuaged; the enterprise of factious
malcontents irrepressible. Mission leaders, agents of the Spanish crown,
found that one of the best ways to deal with disobedience and rebellion
was to ship the troublemakers off to unknown shores. Let them hunt
the Fountain of Youth; with luck they might die in the search. The des
perate readiness and hardiness of these adventurers surpass belief. The
history of Spanish conquest, then, is in part a story of ill-starred voyages
and futile marches into legend and oblivion. But also of lucky strikes like
Mexico and Peru. One find, even one report, could provoke and jus
tify a dozen expeditions. Such were the ingredients of empire: power,
greed, and mission, seasoned with credulity, wrath, and madness.
Black Gold^17
The gold that found its way from somewhere in Africa to the
Mediterranean coast held European merchants in thrall. They went
to places like Tunis to trade silver and arms, textiles and leather, rice
and figs, nuts and wine (presumably for re-export) for grain and
fodder, oils, fats, semolina, and honey; and then—to balance
payments—for gold. Gold dust, gold ingots, gold coins (Moorish
ducats). Not only did the yellow metal cast an almost hypnotic lure,
the rate of exchange made these transactions extremely lucrative.
- The extent of this holocaust is a subject of disagreement. High estimates of the pop
ulation of the Caribbean islands at the time of Columbus' arrival run into the millions,
over a million for Hispaniola (Haiti) alone. These are based on a count supposedly
done by Bartholomew Columbus (the admiral's brother) in 1496 and repeated as au
thority in subsequent reports—Sauer, The Early Spanish Main, pp. 65-67. What kind
of count this was is impossible to say. On the other hand, Sauer, p. 204, states that
plague and disease were not reported in the islands until 1518, at which time the na
tive population of Hispaniola was down to some eleven thousand. How, then, had the
missing persons been extinguished? By brutality, murder, forced labor in placer gold
mines, a precipitous fall in births. Still, it is hard to understand how even a busy colony
of sadists, butchers, and taskmasters could kill so many (that is, over a million) so fast.