Chapter CLXV.
There remains the demonstrations, now proved in detail, of the industrious contrivance of Americo Vespucio, not at first easily conceived, as I believe, but thought out at some subsequent time, by which he attributed to himself the discovery of the greater part of that Indian world, when God had conceded that privilege to the Admiral. Now it is proper to continue the history of what happened to Alonso de Hojeda, with whom Americo went on his first voyage. He departed from the port of Cadiz with four ships, in the month of May. Juan de la Cosa, with all the experience acquired in his voyages with the Admiral, went as pilot, and there were other pilots and persons who had served in the said voyages. Americo also embarked, as has already been mentioned in chap. 140, either as a merchant, or as one versed in cosmography and studies relating to the sea. They sailed in May, according to Americo, but not, as he says, in the year 1497, the true date being 1499, as has already been sufficiently proved. Their course was directed towards the west, to the Canary Islands, then southward. After twenty-seven days[ 150] (according to the said Americo) they came in sight of land, which they believed to be continental, and they were not deceived. Having come to the nearest land, they anchored at a distance of about a league from the shore, from fear of striking on some sunken rock. They got out the boats, put arms into them, and reached the beach, where they saw an immense number of naked people. They received them with great joy. But the Indians looked on with astonishment, and presently ran away to the nearest forest. The Christians approached them with signs of peace and friendship, but they would not trust the strangers. As the Christians had anchored in an open roadstead, and not in a port, wishing to be out of danger if bad weather came on, they weighed, and stood along the coast to seek for a port, all the shore being crowded with people. After two days they found a good port. (Las Casas then quotes the account of the natives given by Americo Vespucci, respecting which he makes the following comments.) Americo relates all these things in his first Navigation, many of which he could not have known in two, nor three, nor in ten days that he may have been among the Indians, not knowing a single word of their language, as he himself confesses. Such are the statements, that owing to the heat of the sun they move from place to place every eight years; that when the women are enraged with their husbands they create abortions; that they have no rule or order in their marriages; that they have neither king nor lord nor chief in their wars; and others of the same kind. Therefore we can only believe those statements which are based on what he actually saw or might see, such as what the natives ate and drank, that they went naked, that they were of such and such colour, were great swimmers, and other external acts. The rest appears to be all fiction.
Chapter CLXVI.
They left these people and proceeded along the coast, often landing and having intercourse with different tribes, until they arrived at a port where, as they entered, they saw a town built over the water like Venice. Americo says that it contained twenty very large houses, built, like the others he had seen, in the shape of a bell, and raised on very strong piles. At the doors of the houses they had drawbridges, by which, as if they were streets, they went from one house to another. (Las Casas then gives the account of the encounter with the natives of this town on piles, just as it is given by Vespucci.) They made sail from this port, and proceeded for eighty leagues along the coast; and this was the land of Paria discovered by the Admiral, as has already been shown. Here they found another people, with very different customs and language. They anchored and got into their boats to go on shore, where they found over 4,000 natives on the beach. The Indians were so frightened that they did not wait, but fled to the mountains. The Christians having landed, followed a path, and came to many huts, which they believed were those of fishermen. Here they found fish of various kinds, and also one of the iguanas which I have already described, and which astonished them, for they thought it was some very fierce serpent. The bread eaten by these people, says Americo, was made with fish steeped in hot water, and afterwards pounded. From this mass small loaves were kneaded and baked, making very good bread, in his judgment. They found many kinds of fruits and herbs; but they not only took nothing, but left many small things from Castille in the huts, in the hope that thus the fears of the natives would be dispelled, and the Spaniards then returned to the ships. (Las Casas here inserts the account given by Vespucci of a journey inland, and of intercourse with these natives.) Americo then says that the land was populous, and also full of many different animals, few being like those of Spain. He mentions lions, bears, deer, pigs, wild goats, which had a certain deformity, and were unlike ours. But in truth I do not believe that he saw either lions or bears, because lions are very rare, and there cannot have been so many as that he should see them; and the same remark applies to bears. No one who has been to the Indies has even seen goats there, nor can I understand how he can have seen the difference between deer and goats nor how he can have seen pigs, there being none in those parts. Deer he may well have seen, as there are many on the mainland. He says there are no horses, mules, asses, cows, nor sheep, nor dogs, and here he tells the truth, although there is a kind of dog in some parts. He says that there is great abundance of other wild animals of various kinds, but if they were not rabbits he could have little true evidence of having seen them. Of birds of different plumage and species he says that he saw many; and this I believe, for there is an infinite number. He says that the region is pleasant and fertile, full of woods and great forests, which consist of evergreens, yielding fruits of many sorts; and all this is also true.
He then repeats that many people came to see the whiteness and persons of the Spaniards. (I do not know whether he is speaking of this same land, as it would seem, or of another, for he appears to confuse his account here with what he had said before, that they had to depart that night.) He tells us that the natives asked whence the Spaniards came, and they replied that they had come down from heaven to see the things of the earth, which the Indians undoubtedly believed. Here the Christians committed a great sacrilege, thinking to make an agreeable offering to God. As they saw the natives so gentle, meek, and tractable, although neither could understand a single word of what the other said, and therefore the Spaniards could not teach the Indians any doctrine, yet, says Americo, they baptized an infinite number; whence it appears how little Americo, and those who were with him, appreciated the practice of the sacraments and the reverence that is due to them, nor even the disposition and frame of mind with which they should be received. It is manifest that those Christians, in baptizing the natives, committed a great offence against God. Americo says that after they were baptized, the Indians used the word charaybi, which means that they called the Spaniards men of great knowledge. This statement is a thing to laugh at, for the Spaniards did not even know the Indian names for bread or for water, which are among the first that we learn in acquiring a language; yet during the few days they remained Americo wants us to believe that he understood that charaybi signifies men of great knowledge. Here Americo declares that the natives called this land Paria; and he conceals, what he must have known, that the Admiral had already been there several days, which was a reason for not remaining silent.