induced to write is the request of the bearer, Benvenuto
Benvenuti, the devoted servant of your Excellency and my
particular friend. He happened to be here in this city of
Lisbon, and requested that I would impart to your Excellency
a description of the things seen by me in various climes, in
the course of four voyages which I have made for the
discovery of new lands, two by the authority and command of
Don Ferdinand, King of Castile, in the great Western Ocean,
and the other two by order of Dom Manuel, King of Portugal,
towards the south. So I resolved to write, as requested, and
set about the performance of my task, because I am certain
that your Excellency counts me among the number of your most
devoted servants, remembering that in the time of our
youth, we were friends, going daily to study the rudiments
of grammar, under the excellent instruction of the venerable
brother of St. Mark, Friar Georgio Antonio Vespucci, my
uncle, whose counsels would to God I had followed! for then,
as Petrarch says, I should have been a different man from
what I am.
" ... Your Excellency will please to observe that I came
into the kingdom of Spain for the purpose of engaging in
mercantile affairs, and that I continued to be thus employed
about four years [six or seven], during which I saw and
experienced the fickle movements of fortune, and how she
ordered the changes of these transitory and perishing
worldly goods, at one time sustaining a man at the top of
the wheel, and at another returning him to the lowest part
thereof, and depriving him of her favors, which may truly be
said to be lent. Thus having experienced the continual labor
of one who would acquire her favors, subjecting myself to
very many inconveniences and dangers, I concluded to abandon
mercantile affairs and direct my attention to something more
laudable and stable. For this purpose I prepared myself to
visit various parts of the world, and see the wonderful
things which might be found therein. Time and place were
very opportunely offered me when I came to this conclusion.
"King Ferdinand of Castile had ordered four ships to go in
search of new lands, and I was selected by his highness to
go in that fleet, in order to assist in the discoveries. We
sailed from the port of Cadiz on the 10th of May, A.D.
1497, and steering our course through the great Western
Ocean, spent eighteen months in our expedition, discovering
much land and a great number of islands, the largest part of
which were inhabited. As these are not spoken of by the
ancient writers, I presume they were ignorant of them. If I
am not mistaken, I well remember to have read in one of
their books, which I possessed, that this ocean was
considered unpeopled. In this voyage I saw many astonishing
things, as your Excellency will perceive by the following
relation.
"We had sailed so rapidly that at the end of twenty-seven
days we came in sight of land, which we judged to be a
continent, being about a thousand leagues west of the
Fortunate Islands, now called the Grand Canaries. Here we
anchored our ships at a league and a half from the shore,
and, having cast off our boats and filled them with men and
arms, proceeded to land. Before we landed we were much
cheered by the sight of many people rambling along the
shore. We found that they were all in a state of nudity, and
they appeared to be afraid of us, as I suppose from seeing
us clothed and of a different stature from themselves. They
retreated to a mountain, and, notwithstanding all the signs
of peace and friendship we could make, we could not bring
them to parley with us; so, as the night was coming on and
the ships were anchored in an insecure place, we agreed to
leave there and go in search of some port or bay where we
could place our ships in safety.
"We sailed two days along the coast, and on the morning of
the third day, as dawn appeared, we saw on shore a great
number of men, with their wives and children, all laden
with provisions. Before we reached the land many of them
swam to meet us, the distance of a bow-shot into the sea (as
they are most excellent swimmers), and they treated us with
as much confidence as if we had had intercourse with them
for a long time, which gratified us much. All that we know
of their life and manners is that they go entirely naked,
not having the slightest covering whatever; they are of
middling stature and very well proportioned, and their flesh
is a reddish color, like the skin of a lion; but I think if
they had been accustomed to wear clothing they would have
been as white as we are. They have no hair on the body,
except very long hair on the head; but the women especially
derive attractiveness from this. Their countenances are not
handsome, as they have large faces, which might be compared
with those of the Tartars. Both men and women are very
agile, easy in their carriage, and swift in running or
walking, so that the women think nothing of speeding a
league or two, as we have many a time beheld.
"Their weapons are bows and arrows beautifully wrought, but
unfurnished with iron or any other hard metal, in place of
which they make use of the teeth of animals, or fish, or
sometimes a slip of hard-wood, made harder at the point by
fire. They are sure marksmen, who hit whatever they wish,
and in some parts the women also use the bow with dexterity.
They have other arms, such as lances and staves, with heads
finely wrought. When they make war they take their wives
with them--not to fight, but to carry provisions on their
backs, a woman frequently carrying a burden in this manner
for thirty or forty leagues, which the strongest man among
them could not do, as we have witnessed many times.
"These people have no captains, neither do they march in
order, but each one is his own master. The cause of their
wars is not a love of conquest, or of enlarging their
boundaries, neither are they incited to engage in them by
inordinate covetousness [unlike the Spaniards], but from
ancient enmity which has existed among them in times past;
and having been asked why they made war, they could give us
no other reason than that they did it to avenge the deaths
of their ancestors. Neither have these people kings or
lords, nor do they obey any one, but live in their own
entire liberty; and the manner in which they are incited to
go to war is this: when their enemies have killed or taken
prisoners any of their people, the oldest relative rises and
goes about proclaiming his wrongs aloud, and calling upon
them to go with him to avenge the death of his relation.
Thereupon they are moved with sympathy and make ready for
the fight.
"They have no tribunals of justice, neither do they punish
malefactors; and what is still more astonishing, neither
father nor mother chastises the children when they do wrong;
yet, astounding as it may seem, there is no strife between
them; or, to say the least, we never saw any. They appear
simple in speech, but in reality are very shrewd and cunning
in any matter which interests them. They speak but little,
and that little in a low tone of voice, using the same
accentuation that we use, and forming the words with the
palate, teeth, and lips; but they have a different mode of
diction. There is a great diversity of language among them,
inasmuch as every hundred leagues or so we found people who
could not understand one another. Their mode of life is most
barbarous; they do not eat at regular intervals; but it is a
matter of indifference to them whether appetite comes at
midnight or at mid-day, and they eat upon the ground at all
hours, without napkin or table-cloth, having their food in
earthen basins, which they manufacture, or in half-gourd
shells or calabashes. They sleep in nets of cotton, very
large and suspended in the air; and although this may seem a
very bad way of sleeping, I can vouch for the fact that it
is extremely pleasant, and one sleeps better thus than on a
mattress. They are neat and clean in their persons, which is
a natural consequence of their perpetual bathing; but some
of their habits are unmentionable....
" ... We are not aware that these people have any laws.
Neither are they like Moors or Jews, but worse than Gentiles
or Pagans, because we have never seen them offer any
sacrifice, and they have no houses of prayer. From their
voluptuous manner of life, I consider them as Epicureans.
Their dwellings are in communities and their houses are in
the form of huts, but strongly built of large tree-trunks
and covered with palm leaves, secure from winds and storms.
In some places they are of such great length that in a
single house we saw six hundred people, and we found that
the population of thirteen houses only amounted to four
thousand. They change their location every seven or eight
years, and on being asked why they did so they said it was
on account of the intense heat of the sun upon the soil,
which by that time became infected and corrupted, and caused
pains in their bodies, which seemed to us reasonable.
"The riches of these people consist in birds' feathers of
beautiful colors, of beads, which they fabricate from
fish-bones or colored stones, with which they decorate their
cheeks, lips, and ears, and of many other things which are
held in little or no esteem by us. They carry on no
commerce, neither buying nor selling, and, in short, live
contentedly with what nature gives them. The riches which we
esteem so highly in Europe and other parts--such as gold,
jewels, pearls, and other wealth--they have no regard for at
all. They are liberal in giving, never denying one anything,
and, on the other hand, are just as free in asking....
"In case of death they make use of various funeral
obsequies. Some bury their dead with water and provisions
placed at their heads, thinking they may have occasion to
eat and drink, but they make no parade in the way of funeral
ceremonies. In some places they have a most barbarous mode
of interment, which is thus: When one is sick or infirm, and
nearly at the point of death, his relatives carry him into a
large forest, and there attaching one of their
sleeping-hammocks to two trees, they place the sick person
in it, and continue to swing him about for a whole day, and
when night comes, after placing at his head water and
provisions sufficient to sustain him for five or six days,
they return to their village. If the sick person can help
himself to eat and drink, and recovers sufficiently to be
able to return to the village, his people receive him again
with great ceremony; but few are they who escape this mode
of treatment, as most of them die without being visited, and
that is their only burial.
"They use in their diseases various kinds of medicines, so
different from any in vogue with us that we are astonished
that any escaped. I often saw, for instance, that when a
person was sick with a fever, which was increasing upon him,
they bathed him from head to foot with cold water, and
making a great fire around him, they made him turn round in
a circle for about an hour or two, until they fatigued him
and left him to sleep. Many were cured in this way. They
also observe a strict diet, eating nothing for three or four
days. They practise blood-letting; not on the arm, unless in
the arm-pit, but generally taking it from the thighs and
haunches. Their blood or phlegm is much disordered on
account of their food, which consists mainly of the roots of
herbs, of fruit, and fish. They have no wheat or other
grain, but instead make use of the root of a tree [shrub]
from which they manufacture flour, which is very good and
called _huca_ [yucca]; the flour from another root is called
_kazabi_, and from another _igname_.
"They eat little meat except human flesh, and you will
notice that in this particular they are more savage than
beasts, because all their enemies who are killed or taken
prisoners, whether male or female, are devoured with so much
fierceness that it seems disgusting to relate, much more to
see it done, as I, with my own eyes, have many times
witnessed this proof of their inhumanity. Indeed, they
marvelled much to hear us say that we did not eat our
enemies.
"And your Excellency may rest assured that their other
barbarous customs are so numerous that it is impossible
herein to describe them all. As in these voyages I have
witnessed so many things at variance with our own customs, I
prepared myself to write a collection, which I call _The
Four Voyages_, in which I have related the major part of the
things I saw as clearly as my feeble capacity would permit.
This work is not yet published, though many advise me to
publish it. In it everything will appear minutely, therefore
I shall not enlarge any more in this letter, because in the
course of it we shall see many things which are peculiar.
Let this suffice for matters in general.
"In this commencement of discoveries we did not see anything
of much profit in the country, owing as I think to our
ignorance of the language, except some few indications of
gold. We concluded to leave this place and go onward, and
coasted along the shore, making many stops, and holding
discourses with many people, until after some days we came
into a harbor, where we fell into a very great danger, from
which it pleased the Holy Spirit to deliver us. It happened
in this manner: We landed in a port where we found a village
built over the water, like Venice. There were about
forty-four houses, shaped like bells, built upon very large
piles, having entrances by means of draw-bridges, so that by
laying the bridges from house to house the inhabitants could
pass through the whole.
"When the people saw us they appeared to be afraid of us,
and, to protect themselves, suddenly raised all their
bridges and shut themselves up in their houses. While we
were looking at them and wondering at this proceeding, we
saw, coming in from the sea, about two and twenty canoes,
which are the boats they make use of, and are carved out of
a single tree. They came directly towards our boats,
appearing to be astonished at our figures and dress, and
keeping at a little distance from us. This being the case,
we made signals of friendship to induce them to approach,
endeavoring to reassure them by every token of kindness; but
seeing that they did not come we went towards them. They
would not wait for us, however, but fled to the land, making
signs to us to wait, and giving us to understand that they
would return. They fled to a mountain, but did not tarry
long there, and when they returned brought with them sixteen
of their young maidens, and entering into their canoes came
near and put four of them into each boat, at which we were
very much astonished, as your Excellency may well imagine.
Then they mingled with their canoes among our boats, and we
considered their coming to us in this manner to be a token
of friendship. Taking this for granted, we saw a great crowd
of people swimming towards us from the houses without any
suspicion. At this juncture some old women showed themselves
at the doorways of the huts, wailing and tearing their hair,
as if in great distress. From this we began to be
suspicious, and had recourse to our weapons, when suddenly
the young girls, who were in our boats, threw themselves
into the sea, and the canoes at the same time moved away,
the people in them assailing us with their bows and arrows.
"Those who came swimming towards us brought each a lance,
concealed as much as possible under the water, and their
treachery being thus discovered, we began not only to defend
ourselves, but to act severely on the defensive. We
overturned many of the canoes with our boats, and making
considerable slaughter among them they soon abandoned the
canoes altogether and swam for the shore. Fifteen or twenty
were killed, and many wounded, on their side, while on ours
five were slightly wounded, all the rest escaping by divine
Providence, and these five being quickly cured. We took
prisoners two of their girls and three men, and on entering
their huts found one sick man and two old women. Returning
to our boats and thence to the ships, with the five
prisoners, we put irons upon the feet of each, excepting the
two young females; yet when night came the two girls and one
of the men escaped, in the most artful manner in the world.
"The next day we concluded to depart from this port, and at
length came to anchor at about eighty leagues distance, and
found another tribe of people whose customs and language
were very different from those we had last seen. We
determined to land, seeing there a great multitude numbering
about four thousand. They did not wait to receive us, but
fled precipitately to the woods, abandoning all their
things. We leaped ashore, and taking the path which led to
the wood, found their tents within the space of a bow-shot,
where they had made a great fire and two of them were
cooking their food, roasting many animals of various kinds.
"We noticed that they were roasting a certain animal that
looked like a serpent; it had no wings, and was so
disgusting in appearance that we were astonished at its
deformity. As we went through their huts or tents, we found
many of these serpents alive. Their feet were tied, and they
had a cord about their snouts so that they could not open
their mouths, as dogs are sometimes muzzled so they may not
bite. These animals had such a savage appearance that none
of us durst turn one over, thinking they might be
poisonous.[10] They are about the size of a kid, about the
length and a half of a man's arm, and have long, coarse feet
armed with large nails. Their skin is hard, and they are of
various colors. They have the snout and face of a serpent,
and from the nose there runs a crest, passing over the
middle of the back to the root of the tail. We finally
concluded that they were serpents, and poisonous; yet,
nevertheless, they were eaten by the natives.
" ... Finally these people became very friendly, told us
that this was not their place of dwelling, but that they had
come there only to carry on their fishery. They importuned
us so much to go to their village that, having taken
counsel, twenty-three of us Christians concluded to go with
them, well prepared, and with firm resolution to die
manfully if such was to be our fate. Three leagues from the
coast we arrived at a well-peopled village, where we were
received with so many and such barbarous ceremonies that no
pen is equal to the task of describing them. There was
dancing and singing, weeping mingled with rejoicing, and
great feasting. After having passed the night and half of
the next day, an immense number of people visiting us from
motives of curiosity, we determined to proceed still farther
inland, having been desired to visit other villages. And it
is impossible to tell how much honor they did us there. We
visited so many villages that we spent nine days in the
journey. On our return we were accompanied by a wonderful
number of both sexes, quite to the sea-shore; and when any
of us grew weary with walking, they carried us in their
hammocks, much at our ease. Many of them were laden with the
presents they made us, consisting of very rich plumage, many
bows and arrows, and an infinite variety of parrots,
beautiful and varied in colors. Others carried loads of
provisions and animals. For a greater wonder, I will tell
your Excellency that when we had to cross a river they
carried us on their backs.
"Having arrived at the sea and entered the boats, which had
come ashore for us, we are astonished at the crowd which
endeavored to get into the boats to go to see our ships, for
they were so overloaded that they were ofttimes on the point
of sinking. We carried as many as we could on board, and so
many more came by swimming that we were quite troubled at
the multitude, although they were all naked and unarmed.
They marvelled greatly at the size of our ships, our
equipments, and implements. Here quite a laughable
occurrence took place, at their expense. We concluded to try
the effect of discharging some of our artillery, and when
they heard the thunderous report the greater part of them
jumped into the sea from fright, acting like frogs sitting
on a bank, who plunge into the water on the approach of
anything that alarms them. Those who remained on the ship
were so timorous that we repented of having done this.
However, we reassured them by telling them that these were
our arms, with which we killed our enemies. After they had
amused themselves on the ship all day, we told them that
they must go, as we wished to depart in the night; so they
took leave of us with many demonstrations of friendship,
even affection, and went ashore.
"I saw more of the manners and customs of these people while
in their country than I care to dwell on here. Your
Excellency will notice that in each of my voyages I have
noted the most extraordinary things which have occurred, and
have compiled the whole into one volume, in the style of a
geography, and entitled it _The Four Voyages_. In this work
will be found a minute description of the things which I
saw; but, as there is no copy of it yet published, owing to
my being obliged to examine it carefully and make
corrections, it becomes necessary for me to impart them to
you herein.
"This country is full of inhabitants and contains a great
many rivers. Very few of the animals are similar to ours,
excepting the lions, panthers, stags, hogs, goats, and deer,
and even these are a little different in form. They have
neither horses, mules, nor asses; neither cows, dogs, nor
any kind of domestic animals. Their other animals, however,
are so very numerous that it is impossible to count them,
and all of them so wild that they cannot be employed for
serviceable uses. But what shall I say of the birds, which
are so numerous and of so many species and varieties of
plumage that it is astounding to behold them? The country is
pleasant and fruitful, full of woods and forests which are
always green, as they never lose their foliage. The fruits
are numberless and totally different from ours. The land
lies within the torrid zone, under the parallel which
describes the Tropic of Cancer, where the pole is elevated
twenty-three degrees above the horizon.
"A great many people came to see us and were astonished at
our features and the whiteness of our skins. They asked us
where we came from, and we gave them to understand that we
came from heaven, with the view of visiting the world, and
they believed us. In this country we established a baptismal
font, and great numbers were baptized. They called us, in
their language, _Carabi_, which means men of great wisdom.
The natives call this province _Lariab_. We left the port
and sailed along the coast, in sight of land, until we had
run, calculating our advances and retrogressions, eight
hundred and seventy leagues towards the northwest, making
many stops by the way and having intercourse with many
people. In some places we found traces of gold, but in small
quantities, it being sufficient for us to have discovered
the country and to know that there was gold in it.
"We had now been thirteen months on the voyage, and the
ships and rigging were much worn, the men very weary. So by
common consent we agreed to careen our ships on the beach in
order to calk and pitch them anew, as they leaked badly, and
then to return to Spain. When we took this resolution we
were near one of the best harbors in the world, entering
which we found a vast number of people, who received us most
kindly. We made a breastwork on shore with our boats and
casks, and placed our artillery so it would play over them;
then, having unloaded and lightened our ships, we hauled
them to land and repaired them wherever they needed it. The
natives were of great assistance to us, continually
providing food, so that in this port we consumed very little
of our own. This served us a very good turn, for our
provisions were poor and the stock so much reduced at this
time that we feared it would hardly last us on our return to
Spain.