In 50 years not a single original native inhabitant could be found. In 1516 Spanish historian Pedro Martyr wrote "A ship without a compass, chart or guide, but only following the trail of dead Indians who had been thrown overboard from the ships,could find its way from the Bahamas to Hispaniola."

But after a while, there were no natives left to protect. Experts generally agree that before 1492, the population of the island of Hispaniola probably exceeded 3 million inhabitants. Within 20 years of the Spanish arrival, it had been reduced to only 60,000.

"Such inhumanities and barbarities were committed before my eyes as no age can parallel," De las Casas wrote. "My eyes have seen these acts so alien to human nature that I now tremble as I write."

De Las Casas spent the rest of his life trying to protect the defenseless natives.

He says that Columbus's men poured boiling soap over people. In a single day, De las Casas witnessed Spanish soldiers dismembering, beheading, or raping 3,000 natives.

He described how the Spaniards under Columbus's command cut off the legs of children who ran away from them to test the sharpness of their blades. According to De las Casas, the men made bets on who could, with a single stroke of their sword, cut a person in half.

.But the king and queen of Spain, their treasury overflowing with gold, pardoned Columbus and set him free.

One of Columbus's men, Bartolomé de las Casas, was so appalled by Columbus's brutal atrocities against the natives that he left Columbus's service and became a Catholic priest.

Columbus's acts of cruelty were so unspeakable and so notorious—even in his own time—that Governor Francisco de Bobadilla arrested Columbus and his two brothers, bound them in chains, and sent them back to Spain to answer for their crimes against the Arawak people.

If the Spaniards ran out of meat to feed the dogs, Arawak babies were killed for food.

If a native resisted enslavement, he would cut off their nose or an ear. If the slaves tried to escape, Columbus would burn them alive. Other times, he would send attack dogs to hunt them down, and the dogs would tear off the arms and legs of the screaming natives while they were still alive.

Catholic law prohibited the enslavement of Christians, but Columbus solved this problem. He simply refused to baptize the natives of Hispaniola.

On his second voyage to the New World, Columbus brought cannons and attack dogs.

If an Indian worker didn't deliver his quota of gold dust by Columbus's deadline the soldiers would cut off their hands and tie them around their necks to send a message. Slavery was so intolerable for these sweet and gentle island people that at one point a hundred of them committed mass suicide.

He said: "A hundred castellanos are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and this is very common, and there are many dealers who seek girls; those of nine to ten years are now in demand." He forced these peaceful natives to work in his gold mines until they died of exhaustion.

Shockingly, Columbus oversaw the sale of native girls into sexual slavery. Girls aged 9 to 10 were the most desired by his men. In 1500, Columbus casually wrote about it in his diary.

A REAL BOSS!