LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 



to them, and gazed at the persons and proceedings of the 

 new-comers with looks of profound awe, and with signs 

 of adoration. Finding themselves unharmed, they con- 

 tinued to advance, and examine the hands, beards, and 

 faces of the Spaniards more closely, Columbus treating 

 them with a benignity, which soon won their entire confi 

 dence. The colored caps, glass beads, and hawk bells, 

 which he distributed among them, they received as 

 inestimable gifts, hanging the beads on their necks, and 

 leaping with joy at the sound of the bells. The shore 

 was again thronged with them the next morning. Fear- 

 less of the ships, which had at first seemed to them mon- 

 sters of the deep, numbers of them came swimming off 

 towards them; and others embarked in long light canoes, 

 bailed with calabashes, and dexterously managed with 

 paddles. Anything and everything, even fragments of 

 glass, they received from the Spaniards as divine gifts, and 

 cheerfully gave particles of their own in return ; among 

 other things, parrots, large balls of cotton-yarn and cakes 

 of a kind of bread called cassava, made of a great root. 

 One of them was at another time detained on board the 

 admiral's vessel, for the purpose of conciliating him and 

 his countrymen, though somewhat against his own will. 

 Columbus put a colored cap on his head, strings of 

 green beads around his arms, and hawks bells in his 

 ears ; and then dismissed him to return to the shore, and 

 be surrounded and admired by his countrymen. After 

 this, Columbus continued his cruise, and discovered the 

 Bahama isles and the island of Cuba, delighted to en- 

 thusiasm, as his crew also were, with the rich and glowing 

 scenery, the verdure, the perfume, the music of innumer- 

 able birds, the glancing light from the scales of many, 

 colored myriad fish in the clear water, the massy mag- 

 nificence of the forests, and the simplicity and gentleness 

 of the natives ; only one of the habits of these people 

 surprised them. Several of them were seen going about 

 with fire-brands in their hands, and certain dried herbs, 

 which they rolled up in a leaf, and lighting one end, put 

 the other in their mouth and puffed out the smoke. This, 

 it seems, was a tobacco, the name being originally given 

 to the roll, and since transferred to the plant. 



