> Columbus, seeing the people who lived on Hispaniola, wrote in his log that they were
> "una gente in dios", Spanish for "naked people".

Wrong. "una gente in dios" doesn't mean anything in Spanish. Probably is a typo, where Columbus wanted to say "una gente SIN Dios", refering to the fact that they were no catholics. If you want to say "naked people" using "gente" and "Dios" you would say "la gente iba como Dios la trajo al mundo" (people was like when they were born).

> "En dios", or "in God", referred to their lack of clothing; in Spanish, "en"
> becomes "in" when it follows a terminal "e".)

Wrong again. In Spanish "in" does not exists as a word.

> India, the country, was known to England at the time as Hindustan, not India.

In Spain at the age India was known as "Las Indias". Columbus was searching for and optimal route to "Las Indias y Cipango" (India and Japan) when he found America. Because he couldn't imagine he had found another continent, he thought people he found were Indians.

Nowadays in Spanish you have to distinguish between "Indios" (native people from America) and "Hindúes" (people from India), tought Indios is a more intuitive name for people from India.

Bye