DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0130
96
THE INDIANS IN SPAIN
sky, and if some men had not climbed to the top of
the trees they would never have got out again, and
many other things of which I have not time to tell.”
A few months later, Isabella herself received the
following letter from a Cremona scholar at Ferrara
named Ponzone: “ I hear that a man named Colum-
bus lately discovered an island for the King of Spain,
on which are men of our height but of copper-coloured
skin, with noses like apes. The chiefs wear a plate
of gold in their nostrils which covers the mouth, the
women have faces as big as wheels, and all go naked,
men and women alike. Twelve men and four women
have been brought back to the King of Spain, but they
are so weakly that two of them fell ill of some sickness
which the doctors do not understand, and they had no
pulse and are dead. The others have been clothed,
and if they see any one who is richly clad they stroke
him with their hands and kiss his hands to show how
much they admire him. They seem intelligent, and are
very tame and gentle. No one can understand their
language. They eat of everything at table, but are
not given wine. In their own country they eat the
roots of trees and some big kind of nut which is like
pepper but yields good food, and on this they live.”1
Meanwhile affairs nearer home claimed Isabella’s
attention. Her mother’s ladies wrote long letters
from Milan giving full particulars of the birth of
Beatrice’s son, and of the splendid festivities and
rejoicings with which this event had been hailed.
Isabella’s warm heart glowed with affection when she
heard of the bello puttino, and she told her sister how
she longed to hold the babe in her arms and cover
1 G. Berghet, Fonti Ital. per la Storia della Scoperta del Nuovo
Mondo, pp. 165, 169.
THE INDIANS IN SPAIN
sky, and if some men had not climbed to the top of
the trees they would never have got out again, and
many other things of which I have not time to tell.”
A few months later, Isabella herself received the
following letter from a Cremona scholar at Ferrara
named Ponzone: “ I hear that a man named Colum-
bus lately discovered an island for the King of Spain,
on which are men of our height but of copper-coloured
skin, with noses like apes. The chiefs wear a plate
of gold in their nostrils which covers the mouth, the
women have faces as big as wheels, and all go naked,
men and women alike. Twelve men and four women
have been brought back to the King of Spain, but they
are so weakly that two of them fell ill of some sickness
which the doctors do not understand, and they had no
pulse and are dead. The others have been clothed,
and if they see any one who is richly clad they stroke
him with their hands and kiss his hands to show how
much they admire him. They seem intelligent, and are
very tame and gentle. No one can understand their
language. They eat of everything at table, but are
not given wine. In their own country they eat the
roots of trees and some big kind of nut which is like
pepper but yields good food, and on this they live.”1
Meanwhile affairs nearer home claimed Isabella’s
attention. Her mother’s ladies wrote long letters
from Milan giving full particulars of the birth of
Beatrice’s son, and of the splendid festivities and
rejoicings with which this event had been hailed.
Isabella’s warm heart glowed with affection when she
heard of the bello puttino, and she told her sister how
she longed to hold the babe in her arms and cover
1 G. Berghet, Fonti Ital. per la Storia della Scoperta del Nuovo
Mondo, pp. 165, 169.