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By Root 713 0

seemed a changed man. In the pages of his letters to the Sovereigns, he expressed an eagerness for the companionship of Indians, rather than sizing up their potential as slaves or converts to Christianity. Blistered by the Doldrums, shaken and humbled by the tidal wave, he sounded simply glad to be alive, and delighted to inhale deep drafts of scented air and to immerse his head in cold, sweet water. For a charmed interval, he saw himself as a fortunate survivor, part of the larger landscape linking divinity and humanity, rather than an overdetermined conqueror and master. Even the sight of gold and pearls adorning the Indians did not make him salivate with greed as it did on the previous voyages: “Many wore pieces of gold about their necks and some pearls on their arms. I was most happy to see those pearls and attempted to inquire where they could be found, and the people replied that they were taken from there, in the north of that land.” But Columbus put aside his obsession with riches in favor of the “wheat, wine, and meat” on the verge of spoiling in the holds of his ships, “and since my sole purpose was to see that they did not, I would not tarry for anything in the world”—not even gold. His priorities had altered; for once, he was more concerned with his well-being than with attempting superhuman tasks. The sense of tranquillity soon dispelled. On second thought, “I did try to get some of the pearls and sent the boats ashore.”

The landing party encountered “handsome,” “gentle,” and “tractable” people who gladly led the way to a “large house with a gabled roof,” rather than the expected tent, fully furnished with seats. The newly magnanimous Columbus praised his hosts for their good manners, and for their “fine bodies, tall and elegantly graceful, their hair very long and smooth and held around their heads by embroidered cloth . . . that from a distance seems to be made of silk and gauze.” He admired their well-made canoes (“I saw that in the center of each of them is a cabin with a bed occupied by the chief and his wives”) and on the setting, which he called Jardínes, or Gardens, “because that name fit it.” Absolutely riveted by the Indians’ showy gold jewelry, he peppered them with inquiries about where they had found it and how he could reach it, but they warned him away with tales of fierce cannibals or animals, he could not tell which. He considered seeking pearls as a substitute for gold but “did not carry out that search because of the victuals and the problems with my eyes, and because I have too big a nao, unsuitable for searching for pearls.”

A banquet of bread, fruit, and red and white “wine” awaited them. The alcoholic beverages puzzled Columbus; they were not distilled from grapes, but from some other fruit he did not recognize, and from maize, which he defined as “a grain with an ear shaped like a spindle.” Maize is the Taíno term for corn. Samples would be sent to Castile at the earliest opportunity.

Men and women remained segregated during the feast, and awkward silences dampened the mood. “Both parties were most sad because they could not understand each other; they wanted to ask us about our homeland, and we wanted to know about theirs,” Columbus remarked with laudable equanimity. He was tempted to linger, but “I was most anxious to deliver safely the victuals that would otherwise spoil and to get some remedy for myself since I felt sick from lack of sleep.” He calculated that “during this voyage on which I discovered the mainland I went thirty-three days without sleeping,” and claimed that he went “without my sight” throughout that period. At the very least, he suffered from impaired vision, and, he complained, “my eyes never hurt as much nor were as bloodshot and painful as they were at this point.”

Still unwilling to accept the mounting evidence that he had arrived at a continent, Columbus took refuge in the thought that the coastline delineated an island, and thought about sailing north, in the direction of Hispaniola. Wonder and confusion ensued when he dispatched a “light caravel