The admiral gave thanks to God for having afforded him samples of the commodities of those countries without exposing his men to toil or danger. He ordered such things to be taken as seemed most valuable, amongst which were cotton coverlets and tunics without sleeves, curiously worked and dyed with various colors; coverings for the loins, of similar material; large mantles, in which the female Indians wrapped themselves like the Moorish women of Granada; long wooden swords with channels on each side of the blade, edged with sharp flints that cut the naked body as well as steel; copper hatchets for cutting wood, bells of the same metal, and crucibles in which to melt the metal. For provisions they had roots and grains, a sort of wine made of maize, resembling English beer, and great quantities of almonds[1] of the kind used by the people of New Spain for money.
The Spaniards were very much struck by the modest bearing of these new comers, and considered them superior to any natives they had yet seen. Columbus ordered their canoe to be restored to them, with European goods in exchange for those he had taken. He then let them all go except one old man who was more intelligent than the rest, and who seemed to be their chief—or cacique, as such a person is called in Spanish histories of the New World. This cacique could understand the language spoken in Honduras, and through his interpreters from that country Columbus heard about the old man's home at the west. The historian adds: "Although the admiral had heard so much from the Indians concerning the wealth, politeness and ingenuity of these people, yet, considering that
- ↑ Cacao-beans, of which chocolate is made.
