Amerigo VespucciOber, Frederick A. (Frederick Albion)
History
Amerigo Vespucci
Ober, Frederick A. (Frederick Albion)
Vespucci, Amerigo, 1451-1512
"Our ships having been repaired, we set sail on our return,
taking a northeasterly course, and at the end of seven days
fell in with some islands. There were a great many of them,
some peopled, others uninhabited. We landed at one of them,
where we saw many people, who called the island _Iti_.
Having filled our boats with good men, and put three rounds
of shot in each boat, we proceeded towards the land, where
we saw about four hundred men and many women, all naked,
like those we had seen before. They were of good stature and
appeared to be very warlike men, being armed with bows and
arrows and lances. The greater part of them carried staves
of a square form, attached to their persons in such a manner
that they were not prevented from drawing the bow. As we
approached within bow-shot of the shore, they all leaped
into the water and shot their arrows at us to prevent our
landing. They were painted with various colors and plumed
with feathers, and the interpreters with us said that when
they were thus painted and plumed they showed a wish to
fight. They persisted so much in their endeavors to deter us
from landing that we were at last compelled to fire on them
with our artillery. Hearing the thunder of our cannon and
seeing some of their people fall dead, they all retreated to
the shore. Having consulted together, forty of us resolved
to leap ashore and, if they waited for us, to fight them.
Proceeding thus, they attacked us and we fought about two
hours, with little advantage, except that our bow-men and
gunners killed some of their people and they wounded some of
ours. This was because we could not get a chance to use
lance or sword. We finally, by desperate exertion, were
enabled to flash our swords, and as soon as they had a taste
of our weapons they fled to the woods and mountains, leaving
us masters of the field, with many of their people killed or
wounded. This day we did not pursue them, because we were
much fatigued, but returned to our ships, the seven men who
had come with us being highly rejoiced.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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