De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2): The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'AngheraAnghiera, Pietro Martire d'
History
De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2): The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera
Anghiera, Pietro Martire d'
America -- Early accounts to 1600
The Spaniards fired their cannon, and the natives, alarmed by the
detonation and by the slaughter that resulted from the well-aimed
shot, took to flight in various directions. Pursuing them with a
ship's boat, the Spaniards killed some and took many prisoners. The
noise of the cannon and the report of what had happened so alarmed the
caciques, who feared their villages would be robbed and their people
massacred if the Spaniards landed to take vengeance, that they sent
messengers to Vincent Yañez. As far as could be understood from their
signs and gestures they sought peace; but our compatriots report
that they did not understand a word of their language. The better to
demonstrate their desire for peace, the natives made them beautiful
presents, consisting of a quantity of gold, equal in weight to three
thousand of the kind of coins we have said are called castellanos, and
in vulgar language pesos; also a wooden tub full of precious incense,
weighing about twenty-six hundred pounds, at eight ounces to the
pound. This showed the country was rich in incense, for the natives of
Paria have no intercourse with those of Saba; and in fact they know
nothing of any place outside their own country. In addition to the
gold and the incense, they presented peacocks such as are not found
elsewhere, for they differ largely from ours in the variety of their
colours. The hens were alive, for they kept them to propagate the
species, but the cocks, which they brought in great numbers, were
dressed to be immediately eaten. They likewise offered cotton stuffs,
similar to tapestries, for household decoration, very tastefully made
in various colours. These stuffs were fringed with golden bells such
as are called in Italy _sonaglios_ and in Spain _cascabeles_. Of
talking parrots, they gave as many of different colours as were
wanted; these parrots are as common in Paria as pigeons or sparrows
are amongst us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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