When Snopes Doesn't Do Enough Research

You have to love how things are pulled out of context to prove points on the Internet. Many have probably seen this quote from Christopher Columbus:

"A hundred castellanos are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general, and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls: those from nine to ten are now in demand and for all ages a good price must be paid."

This is used to support that Columbus was an awful man who encouraged those under him to rape and prostitute the natives. I found this on Snopes as one of the quotes supporting this claim is true.

I didn't research the rest of the supporting documentation after I discovered they pulled this out of context to suit their assumption. In most cases, Snopes provides a decent assessment. Even here, they allow you to read the original document. However, since they had access to the full document, I am amazed they didn't actually read it. Here is a fuller quote from the source (brackets denote where I have modernized the language a bit):

"...I would like to know how to remedy this, and all the rest of what has been said and what has taken place since I have been in the Indies...but [maintaining justice] and [extending the laws of] her Highness has [been keeping] me down. Now that so much gold is found, a dispute arises as to which brings more profit, whether to go about robbing or to go to the mines. A hundred castellanos are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general, and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls: those from nine to ten are now in demand and for all ages a good price must be paid. I assert that the violence of the [slander] of [disorderly] persons has injured me more than my services have profited me; which is a bad example for the present and for the future. I take my oath that a number of men have gone to the Indies who did not deserve water in the sight of God and the world."

Whereas the quote out of context makes it seems as if Columbus was bragging about his conquests (or at least reporting them without concern), the full letter shows he was an anguish that the people he brought with him were acting so lawlessly. I haven't seen anybody saying that Columbus was encouraging people to rob others using the above information, so why are they using it to portray him as a rapist.

Since his first voyage, he was hated by those under him. He was a devout Christian, who was more prone to giving things to the natives and punishing his own men. Those with him wanted to rape all they could from America and return as quickly as possible to Europe with their plunder. Much is talked about how Europeans brought diseases to the natives. This is completely true. However, little is said about the fact that the Europeans who came here also suffered from new diseases. Many of them died as well. When those Columbus brought to colonize the Americas came upon his last settlement (which had been razed by natives with no survivors), and Columbus led them to build another settlement when they were tired and hungry and only there for the gold, they were not happy. Then they started getting sick and dying like flies. People tried to steal ships to get back to Europe with what plunder they could carry. And when he prevented them from doing this, they accused him of atrocities. Ironically, we are now reviving those accusations and pulling things out of context to prove our "new" vision of him.