"I have no doubt that I should be able to bring all the people of this island, and all the other islands, to the knowledge of God, and to the service of Your Highnesses."

"I found the people of this island and all the other islands to be very naked, as I have said, men and women, just as their mothers bore them, but they know not what it is to be shameful, nor to cover …"

"And I say that Your Highnesses ought to determine to make them Christians, for I believe that if they begin, in a short time they will be finished, and will have great revenues and dominion, and all t…"

"They are so ingenuous and free with all they have, that no one would believe it who has not seen it; of anything they have, if you ask them for it, they never say no; rather, they invite you to share …"

"It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculi…"