"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…"

"I am so grieved at their departure that I shall never cease to regret it."

"They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them."

"The people here are simple in war-like matters... I could take them all with 50 men and subjugate them to my will."

"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…"