Note 361 — Our New Possessions—The Danish West Indies

The Caribs who were kind to each other and hospitable to strangers were made vindictive and cruel by the treatment received from the Spaniards. With their cruel weapons they fought without ceasing for the possession of their native land, but they, of course, were no match for the invaders.

When missionaries from Europe attempted to convert them they haughtily replied "You have stolen our lands and those of our neighbors; you have massacred our people, desolated our homes, and committed unheard-of cruelties for the sake of gold. How then can you expect from what we have seen of the bad life of you Christians that we should wish to be like you?" So fearful had been the barbarities practiced upon them that the very name of Christian inspired them with horror and to call them Christians never failed to excite them and to make them grind their teeth with rage. A defenceless, subject people who were so intelligent as to understand thoroughly the hypocrisy of their conquerors and who were possessed of the courage to express their contempt boldly were, in those times, inviting greater cruelties, even possible extermination. Taylor, "Leaflets from the West Indies," 108.