The story of Columbus . men some stories large enough to suitthem, or that they were speaking figuratively, after themanner of Indians, and were misunderstood. Meantime, the town of the inland king, where themessengers had gone, proved to be an Indian village ofsome fifty houses. The white men were received withevery honor, and seated on some curious reclining chairsin the shape of hammocks, carved to look like animalswith short legs and a flattened tail. The tail was curvedupward to serve as a back, and the eyes and ears wereincrusted with gold. The visitors were fed on fruits and vegetables,
The story of Columbus . men some stories large enough to suitthem, or that they were speaking figuratively, after themanner of Indians, and were misunderstood. Meantime, the town of the inland king, where themessengers had gone, proved to be an Indian village ofsome fifty houses. The white men were received withevery honor, and seated on some curious reclining chairsin the shape of hammocks, carved to look like animalswith short legs and a flattened tail. The tail was curvedupward to serve as a back, and the eyes and ears wereincrusted with gold. The visitors were fed on fruits and vegetables, andtheir hands and feet were kissed by the men and womenof the place. But the people of the village spoke neitherHebrew, Arabic, Coptic, nor Armenian, and so one ofthe Indian interpreters had to make a speech, in which 74 THE STORY OF COLUMBUS. he told them among other things that the white menhad come from heaven. As there was nothing to be learned here concerningthe whereabouts of the Emperor of China, the Spaniard,. CHAIR SUCH AS COLTJMBUSS MESSENGERS SAT IN A CAVE ON TURKs ISLAND. the Jew, and the two Indians set out on their returnjourney. On their way back they met Indians carryingfirebrands with them, so that they might light fires withwhicli to cook a certain root. This root r/as nothingless than the potato, and this was the first time that awhite man saw it. The potato was destmed to be worthmore to Europe than all the spices for which Columbuswas looking, but of course the Spaniards did not sus-pect this. These messengers also saw Indians rollingup dry leaves within a dry leaf, and then lighting oneend of the roll and sucking the smoke into their Indians called these rolls of dried leaves innocent white man could not imagine why theIndians smoked these leaves, unless it were to perfumethemselves. The same messengers were the first Euro^ COLUMBUS VISITS CUBA. Y6 peans who saw fields of Indian corn; they also saw fieldsplanted with pota
Size: 2301px × 1086px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectcolumbuschristopher
