american-holocaust

206 AMERICAN HOLOCAUSTwimess, that a rock dose to the mountain, when struck with a dub, pouredout a great quantity of gold and that gold splinters flashed all over withindescribable brighmess. 30The story continues, reporting on other discoveries, such as that of a nativegoldsmith who supposedly crafted solid gold plates so large that noone man could lift them, and of rivers that flowed over beds that werethick with gold-bearing sand. And then Coma put all the pieces together,in homage to Columbus and the king and queen of Spain, linking therecent "memorable victory" over the infidel Moors in Granada, the expulsionof the Jews from Spain, and now the exploration of "the shores ofthe Orient," all events destined and intended "for the enhancement of thereligion of Christ." 31Thus, the Indies: the most beautiful lands on earth, filled with morewealth than anyone could imagine, but also inhabited by "very dark andgrim-visaged" cannibals and other uncivilized brutes who hoarded and hidthe gold that the Spanish needed to fulfill the prophecies of the faith-theprophecies ordering them to convert or destroy the ungodly, be they Moors,Jews, or the beastly denizens of "the shores of the Orient," and to bringGod's kingdom home. Such was the rationale, at least, for the carnage thatalready was well under way, and no doubt there were those who believedit. Others were less starry-eyed, such as the famed conquistador (and officialhistorian of the Conquest) Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes,who advised would-be adventurers to mouth all the right words when applyingfor passage to the Indies, but who added that he knew as well asthey "that the truth is just the opposite; you are going solely because youwant to have a larger fortune than your father and your neighbors." Itwas this same sort of cynicism (later repeated by Cortes, Pizarro, and others)that allowed Oviedo elsewhere to write sardonically of the sanctity hefelt when killing Indians: "Who can deny that the use of gunpowder againstpagans is the burning of incense to Our Lord?" 32This is not to say that belief in the earthly paradise and its golden raceof people disappeared. After all, Columbus sincerely continued to look forit-and thought he had found it when he encountered, as we saw earlier,people "whiter than any others I have seen in the Indies," and who, notincidentally, were "more intelligent and have more ability." But as timewore on the dominant European image of the New World's indigenouspeoples was one that fit well with other very ancient Old World traditions:Columbus's story of "men with one eye, and others with dogs' noses,"who ate men after decapitating them, castrating them, and finally drinkingtheir blood soon became an article of faith among many Europeans; moreover,elsewhere in the Caribbean, it was said, there existed islands inhabitedonly by Amazons and others with people whose skin color was blueand whose heads were square. 33 And everywhere, whatever their physical