"The inhabitants of both sexes in this island, and in all the others I have seen or of which I have information, always go as naked as they came into the world, except that some of the women cover a single place with the leaf of a plant or with a net of cotton which they make for the head. They are all of good stature and fine forms, very well proportioned; their colour is neither black nor white; they have no iron or steel or weapons, nor are they fitted to use them, not because they are not well built and of handsome stature, but because they are very marvellously timorous."

Christopher Columbus, letter to Luis de Santangel, Keeper of the Privy Purse to Ferdinand and Isabella, written at sea, 15 February 1493. Published in Barcelona shortly after Columbus's return.