CORONADO

It was the facts of life in the old days:

Herman J. Viola, Carolyn Margolis, eds., Seeds of change: a quincentennial commemoration, (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), p. 122:

"[In Columbus’ day and until modern inventions,] sugarcane was [by necessity] a labor-intensive crop. [It was not until] the late 19th century that giant sugar mills began to re­place older mills powered by slaves and livestock.

"[Regarding] the island of Hispaniola, where Columbus established … the first permanent colony in the New World,

p. 13:

"[he] remarked that ‘the Indians of this island … are its riches, for it is they who dig and produce the bread and other food for the Christians and get the gold from the mines…and perform all the services and labor of men and of draft animals.'

"Although American Indians were readily enslaved, they just as readily died ... [chiefly] from the diseases the Europeans introduced to the New World. Indeed, the [Indians of Hispaniola] had disappeared by 1600. Although no one knows what their numbers were in 1492, current estimates range from sixty thousand to as many as eight million.

When there were no longer sufficient Indians to maintain the New World plantations, Europeans turned to Africa for labor. ... [And] Africans ... replaced Indians as the dominant ethnic group in the Caribbean.

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