Led Columbus to take the Arawak Indians as prisoners on his expedition to search for gold. He sailed through the islands capturing Indians along the way. He captured 1,500 Arawak men, women and children, sadly but gratefully for them, they died on the voyage, so some did not have to endure the horrible conditions Columbus subjected them to. However, those who survived were completely naked and treated like animals because that's how white people saw them. Those who survived had to find gold, which was almost impossible, but those who found nothing had their hands cut off and bled to death. Due to this inhumane treatment some tried to escape but were unable to and were hunted down like dogs and killed. Furthermore, the prisoners were forced to wage war against the Spanish who were well armed and therefore had no chance of winning. This leads me to believe that the savages were Columbus and his crew. The Arawaks could not tolerate more cruel and inhumane treatment to the point of committing mass suicide. For them they would rather be dead by their own hands than be treated like animals. Christopher Columbus' atrocious actions “in two years, through murder, mutilation, or suicide, half of the 250,000 Indians…were dead” (Zinn 1980:107). What's even more barbaric is that they think they can do it all over again. When most of the Arawak Indians were killed, they ran out of much-needed slaves