Cotton grew everywhere! Cotton, cassava, calabashes,
all things! When they visited a cacique they took
him gifts, and at parting he gave them gifts. That was all.
Gold? They knew of it. When they found a bit they kept
it for ornament. The cacique possessed a piece the size
of a ducat, suspended by a string of cotton. It had been
given to him by a cacique who lived on the great water.
Perhaps he took it from the Caribs. But it was in the mountains, too. He indicated the heights beyond.
Sometimes
they scraped it from sand under the stream. He seemed indifferent
to it. But Diego Colon, coming in, said that it
was much prized in heaven, being used for high magic, and
that we would give heavenly gifts for it. Resulted from that
the production in an hour of every shining flake and grain
and button piece the village owned. We carried from this
place to the Admiral a small gourd filled with gold. But it
was not greatly plentiful; that was evident to any thinking
man! But we had so many who were not thinking men.
And the Admiral had to appease with his reports gold-thirsty
great folk in Spain.
We spent three days in this village and they were days for
gods and Indians of happy wonder and learning. They
would have us describe heaven. Luis and I told them of
Europe. We pointed to the east. They said that they knew
that heaven rested there upon the great water.
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