When Columbus and his men first arrived in the modern-day Bahamas, they were greeted by groups of Arawak offering up resources including food, water, weapons, and cotton. The culture of the Arawak and other nearby indigenous people emphasized hospitality, a trait that Columbus describes in his writing as "naive." Columbus was largely uninterested in the generosity displayed by the people of the Bahamas, and his writing primarily described the islands as a good source of gold and slaves for the Spanish crown. On his next expedition, Columbus and his men visited several islands, searching for gold and capturing indigenous people- men, women, and children- with the intent of enslaving them. However, so many died due to poor care on the voyage back to Spain that Columbus returned to the islands to force the remaining people to search for gold. The Spanish were so violent and abusive to the Arawak people that mass suicide became a common occurrence, and within two years 125,000 of the 250,000 native people on Haiti were dead. Columbus and his men viewed the indigenous people of the islands they visited only as a source of slave labor that could be brutalized into submission, and he treated them only as a potential source of profit.