In return for bringing Spain gold and spices, Columbus was promised 10% of the profits, governorship over new-found lands, and the fame that would go with a new title: Admiral of the Ocean Sea.

Columbus reported to the Court in Madrid that he had reached Asia and an island off the coast of China. He asked for ships and men for a second expedition and promised to bring "as much gold as they need... and as many slaves as they ask."

But they found no gold fields, so they went on a great slave raid. They rounded up 1500 Arawak men, women, and children and kept them in pens guarded by Spaniards and dogs. When the Spaniards were ready, they picked the 500 best specimens to load onto the ships. Of those 500, only 300 survived the trip. When they arrived in Spain they were put up for sale.

But too many of the slaves were dying. So Columbus became more desperate to fill his ships with gold. In Cicao on Haiti, Columbus and his men ordered all Indians to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they turned over the gold, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Any Indian found without a token had their hands cut off and bled to death. The Indians' task was impossible. The only gold around was bits of dust in the streams. So they fled, and many were hunted down and killed.

The Arawaks attempted to put together a resistance army, but they faced Spaniards with armor, muskets, swords, and horses. Mass suicides among the Arawaks began.

When it became obvious to the Spaniards that there was no gold left, they worked the Indians at a ferocious pace as slave labor on estates called encomiendas.

Las Casas describes the Spaniards becoming more concieted every day. Ater a while they refused to walk any distance. They "rode the backs of Indians" or were carried on hammocks by Indians running in relays (they also had Indians carry large leaves to shade them from the sun and others fan them with goose wings.)

The Spaniards "thought nothing of knifing Indians... and cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades." "Two of these so-called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys."