Columbus questions, an attempt to erase indigenous people, With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want," Columbus wrote in his journal. In 1494, Columbus launched the trans-Atlantic slave trade, sending at least two dozen enslaved Taínos to Spain. The next year, he launched massive raids, rounding up 1,600 Taínos. Columbus sent more than 500 Taínos, including children, to Spain and kept the rest as slaves in the Caribbean.