Page 274 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

274 from Italy to the Canary Islands

from Reccho, reported that those islands were about nine hundred miles
from Seville, but less distant from Cape St. Vincent than from the Conti-
nent; that the island that was found first has a circumference of almost one
hundred and fifty miles; a rocky island, wooded, and with an abundance
of goats and other animals; the men and women go nude and have wild
customs and rituals. The letters also said that he and his companions took
with them the greater part of the hides and tallow from this island; and that
they did not dare to go too far inland. From there they moved on to an al-
most greater island, where they were met on the shore by a great multitude
of men and women, almost all of them nude. Some who appeared to have a
higher status wore goatskins painted yellow and red, which appeared soft
and delicate from afar, sewn with much artifice with bowel ropes; and one
could tell from the way they were acting that they had a prince, who was
revered and honoured by all. That multitude of people showed the desire to
communicate and have commerce and spend time with those on the ships.
Then the smallest of the ships went over near the shore, but they could not
get themselves to go down on account that they could not at all understand
the language. According to what they said, the language was quite formal
and spoken fast, similarly to Italian. As no one was coming down from the
ships, some of the natives swam to them; it was thus that they took some of
them. Finally, when the sailors saw there was nothing useful to gain, they
left and sailed around the island, finding out that it was much better culti-
vated in the north than in the south. They saw many houses, figs, and trees,
and palms with no dates, and vegetable gardens, and cabbage and herbs
good for eating. Twenty-five of them went ashore with their weapons and
found thirty nude people inside of those houses. Upon seeing those armed
people, the dwellers were frightened and fled screaming. They saw that the
houses were wonderfully made with square stones and covered with very
large and beautiful timbers; and since the doors were locked, and they
wanted to see what they looked like inside, they smashed them with rocks
and opened them; at that, the dwellers, who had left, let out very loud cries
of indignation; at last, having broken whatever doors they found, they got
inside the houses, where they found nothing but dried figs that tasted good
like those from Cesena, inside palm baskets, and wheat much more beau-
tiful than ours, with longer and bigger grains than ours, and being also
whiter; and also barley, and other grains from which those people lived.
The houses, made of very beautiful stonework and woodwork, appeared
to be coated with white plaster. They also saw a little church where there