The gravity of the proceeding must have astonished the beholding islanders.

Their attention, however, was soon turned to the Spaniards themselves; and they approached the strangers, wondering at their whiteness and at their beards.

Columbus, as being the noblest looking personage there present, and also from wearing a crimson scarf over his armour, attracted especial attention, and justly seemed, as he was, the principal figure in this great spectacle.
Columbus is for the present moment radiant with success.

Our interest passes now from him to the new people he was amongst.

And what were they like?
Were they worthy of the efforts which the Old World had made to find them?
Was there mind and soul enough in them for them to become good Christians?
What says the greatest of the men who first saw them?
What impression did they make on him?
Let him answer for himself:-- "Because they had much friendship for us, and because I knew they were people that would deliver themselves better to the Christian faith, and be converted more through love than by force, I gave to some of them some coloured caps and some strings of glass beads for their necks, and many other things of little value, with which they were delighted, and were so entirely ours that it was a marvel to see.