FEWKES] 



ARCHKOLOUirAL OBJECTS 



208 



The tirst mention of the use l)v the West Indians of chairs of state 

 occurs in the diarv of Columbus" published by Las Casas. Rodriguez 

 de Xeres and Luis de 

 Torres, the hitter fa- 

 miliar with the He- 

 brew, Chaldean, and 

 Arabic languages, 

 were sent by the 

 admiral to visit an 

 Indian town in Cuba 

 and interview the 

 ruler, supposed to be 

 the Grand Khan, 

 whose territoi'y Co- 

 lumbus thought he 

 had discovered. This 

 embass}- penetrated 

 12 leagues inland and 

 visited a village of 

 about 50 h o u s e s , 

 where it was received 

 with great solemnity 

 hj the natives and 

 escorted into one of 

 the largest houses of 

 the pueblo. The In- 

 dian chiefs took the 

 envoys bj' the arms 

 and led them to two 

 seats, "sillas," in 

 which they sat, while 

 the natives occupied 

 seats about the Span- 

 iards. 



Although in the 

 account given by Las 



Casas the form of these seats is not mentioned, 

 Herrera introduces the following: "Causing them 

 [the Spaniards] to sit down on seats uiade of a solid 



"The original of Columbus's diary of his first voyage is now lost, but it w a^ printed 

 by Navarette, Coleccion de los Viajes y descubrimientos que hicieron por ear los 

 Espanoles desde fines del siglo xv. 159-313. and by Las Casas. Coleccion imdita 

 OS para servir por la Historia de Espana, Madrid, 1842. It has frequently been 

 republished, as, for instance in Jlonte y Tejada's Historia de Santo Domingo, 

 Doctor Cronau's Amerika, and numerous other works, where the text of Las Casas 

 is often somewhat abridged, Las Casas apparently had the original copy, for he 

 repeatedly notes " the admiral says," as if quoting from the manuscript itself. For ^ 



references to the Indians whom Columbus saw in his second voyage, see Andros Bernaldez, History 

 of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the letter of Doctor Chanoa to the Municipal Corporation of Seville, 



