Columbus says Cuba falls far short of Ayiti

… “Let Your Highnesses believe that in all the world there can be no better people, nor gentler: Your Highnesses should take great joy, for soon they will make them Christians and will have taught them in the good customs of their realms, for there can be no better people nor land, and the people and the land in such quantity that I no longer know how to write it; for I have spoken in the superlative degree of the people and the land of the Juana, which they call Cuba, but there is as much difference between them and it and this one in everything as between day and night; nor do I believe that anyone else who had seen this would have done or said less than I have said, and I say that it is true that the things here are a marvel, and the great towns of this Isla Española, for so I named it, and they call it Bohío; and all of most singularly loving manner and gentle speech, not like the others, who seem to threaten when they speak; and of good stature, men and women, and not black. …