Columbus_ The Four Voyages - Laurence Bergreen [142]
In his search for a paradise, Columbus touched the eastern cape of the Isla de Gracia, off the Venezuelan coast. Once again, he sent small craft to the shore, where his scouts encountered cold fires, a deserted dwelling, fish set out to dry, and other signs of people who had fled the intruders. The Spaniards harvested Jamaican plum, a leathery fruit that Las Casas compared to “oranges with insides like figs.” And they took note of “wild cats.” Otherwise, they had little to report. With every passing harbor, his visions of paradise faded, and the unresolved tasks of his voyage loomed.
On Monday, August 6, the fleet was approached by a small canoe bearing four men who belonged to the Guaiqueri Indian nation, and the occasion probably marked their first contact with Europeans. They wore brilliant textiles accented by jewelry fashioned from gold and gold alloy, which they obtained by trade from other Indian groups. This gleaming metal was likely guanín, an alloy combining gold, silver, and copper in varying proportions. Columbus had run across guanín a couple of times on previous voyages, thanks to the Taínos, who offered it to him, and he had sent a sample to Spain to be assayed, with interesting results. The Spaniards, of course, favored gold, but the Indian alloy contained a high proportion of copper, which lowered the melting point from over a thousand degrees centigrade for unadulterated gold to two hundred degrees for alloys containing 14 percent to 40 percent copper. For this reason, copper was more valuable to the Indians than gold.
While they exchanged and examined jewelry, the trading parties imbibed chicha, brewed from maize. Slightly cloudy and yellowish in appearance, and tasting like sour apple cider, the potion had a low alcoholic content that imparted a mild buzz. One of the Spanish pilots indicated to the Indians that he wished to accompany them to the shore, but as he stepped into the lightweight craft, he capsized it and the Indians swam away, but not fast enough to avoid the pilot, who presented them aboard ship to the Admiral. “When they left here,” he reported, “I gave these Indians bells and beads and sugar, and I sent them to shore, where they had a great battle. And after they found out about the good treatment, they all wished to come to the ships.” Columbus graciously received the Indians seeking safe haven, and received tributes of bread, water, and chicha. Warmed by the beverage, he cordially engaged them in conversation, with smiles and nods of mutual incomprehension all around.
The next day, the Indians returned to the ships in greater numbers, bearing more gifts, especially their pleasant, murky beverages. In exchange they were happy to accept tiny brass bells. The metal exerted a continuing fascination for the Indians, who gratefully sniffed the gleaming items, attempting to detect properties in European jewelry to which the Europeans themselves were oblivious. The Indians believed they could smell valuable copper, if any, in the jewelry.
The inhabitants offered shrieking, twitching parrots and skillfully woven, brightly colored textiles to the Admiral, who preferred to take the Indians themselves. By day’s end, his intended hostages had slipped away. In the morning, when a canoe bearing twelve Indians approached, the Spaniards briskly took them into custody. Columbus selected six to his liking, and dismissed the rest, “without scruple,” Las Casas reported, “as he did many other times on the first voyage.