CHAPTER XL

THE Indians called it Guanaja, but the Admiral, the Isle¹ of Pines. It was far, far, from Hispaniola, far, far, from Jamaica, over a wide and stormy sea, reached after many days of horrible weather. Guanaja, small, lofty, covered with rich trees among which stood in numbers the pines we loved because they talked of home. To the south, far off, across leagues of water, we made out land. Mainland it seemed to us, stretching across the south, losing itself in the eastern haze². The weather suddenly became blissful. We had sweet rest in Guanaja.

A few Indians lived upon this small island, like, yet in some ways unlike all those we knew. But they were rude and simple and they talked always of gods to the west. We had rested a week when there came a true wonder to us from the west.

That was a canoe, of the mightiest³ length we had yet seen, long as a tall tree, eight feet wide, no less, with twenty-five rowing Indians—tall, light bronze men—with cotton cloth about their loins. Middle of this giant canoe was built a hut or arbor⁴, thatched with palm. Under this sat a splendid barbarian⁵, tall and strong, with a crown of feathers and a short skirt and mantle⁶ of cotton. Beside him sat two women wrapped in cotton mantles⁷, and at their feet two boys and a young maid. All these people wore golden ornaments⁸ about their necks.

It was in a kind of amaze that we watched this dragon among canoes draw near to and pass the ships and to the shore where we had built a hut for the Admiral and the Adelantado and the youth Fernando, and to shelter the rest of us a manner of long booth. It seemed that it was upon a considerable voyage, and wanting water, put in here. The Guanaja Indians cried, "Yucatan! Yucatan!"

The Admiral stepped down to meet these strangers. His face glowed. Here at last was difference beyond the difference of the Paria folk!

We found that they were armed,—the newcomers. Strangely made swords of wood and flint, lances, light bucklers and hatchets⁹ of true copper¹⁰. They were strong and fearless, and they seemed to say, "Here before us is great wonder, but wonder does not subdue¹¹ our minds!"

Their language had, it is true, the flow and clink of Indian tongues, yet was greatly different. We had work to understand. But they were past masters of gesture.

The Admiral sent for presents. Again, these did not ravish, though the cacique and his family and the rowers regarded with interest such strange matters. But they seemed to say, "You yourselves and your fantastic high canoes made, it is evident, of many trees, are the wonder!"

But we, the Spaniards, searching now through ten years—long as the War of Troy—for Asia in which that Troy and all wealth beside had been placed, thought that at last we had come upon traces. In that canoe were many articles of copper, well enough wrought¹²; a great copper bell, a mortar¹³ and pestle¹⁴, hatchets and knives. Moreover in Yucatan were potters! In place of the eternal calabash here were jars and bowls of baked clay, well-made, well-shaped, marked with strange painted figures. They had pieces of cotton cloth, well-woven and great as a sail. Surely, with this stuff, before long the notion of a sail would arise in these minds! We saw cotton mantles and other articles of dress, both white and gayly dyed or figured. Clothing was not to them the brute¹⁵ amaze we had found it with our eastern Indians. Matters enough, strange to our experience, were being carried in that great canoe. We found they had a bread, not cassava, but made from maize¹⁶, and a drink much like English ale, and also a food called cacao.

Gold! All of them wore gold, disks of it, hanging upon their breasts. The cacique had a thin band of gold across his forehead; together with a fillet of cotton it held the bright feathers of his head dress.

They traded the gold—all except the coronal and a sunlike plate upon the breast of the cacique—willingly enough.

Whence? Whence?

It seemed from Yucatan, on some embassy to another coast or island. Yucatan. West—west! And beyond Yucatan richer still; oh, great riches, gold and clothing and—we thought it from their contemptuous signs toward our booths and their fingers drawn¹⁷ in the air—true houses and temples.

Farther on—farther on—farther west! Forever that haunting, deluding¹⁸ cry—the cry that had deluded¹⁹ since Guanahani that we called San Salvador. Now many of our adventurers and mariners²⁰ caught fire from that cacique's wide gestures. The Adelantado no less. "Cristoforo, it looks satisfaction at last!" And the young Fernando,—"Father, let us sail west!"

The Admiral was trying to come at that Strait. Earnestly, through Juan Lepe and through a Jamaican that we had with us, he strove to give and take light. Yucatan? Was there sea beyond Yucatan? Did sea like a river cut Yucatan? Might a canoe—might canoes like ours—go by it from this sea to that sea?

But nothing did we get save that Yucatan was a great country with sea here and sea there. "A point of the main like Cuba!" said the Admiral. Behind it, to the north of it, it seemed to us, the greater country where were the gold, the rich clothing, the temples. But we made out that Yucatan from sea to sea was many days' march. And as for the country beyond it, that went on, they thought, forever. They called this country Anahuac and they meant the same that years afterward²¹ Hernando Cortes found. But we did not know this. We did not know that strange people and their great treasure.

The Admiral looked out to sea. "I have cried, 'West—west—west!' through a-many years! Yucatan! But I make out no sea-passage thence into Vasco da Gama's India! And I am sworn to the Queen and King Ferdinand this time to find it. So it's south, it's south, brother and son!"

So, our casks being full, our fruit gathered, the sky clear and the wind fair, we left the west to others and sailed to find the strait in the south. When we raised our sails that dragon canoe cried out and marveled. But the cacique with the coronal asked intelligent questions. The Admiral showed him the way of it, mast and spar and sail cloth, and how we made the wind our rower. He listened, and at the last he gave Christopherus Columbus for that instruction the gold disk from his breast. I do not know—Yucatan might have gone on from that and itself developed true ship. If it had long enough time! But Europe was at its doors.

The canoe kept with us for a little, then shouted to see the fair breeze fill our sails and carry us from them.

It was mid-August. We came to a low-lying land with hills behind. Here we touched and found Indians, though none such as Yucatan seemed to breed. It was Sunday and under great trees we had mass, having with us the Franciscan Pedro of Valencia. From this place we coasted three days, when again we landed. Here the Indians were of a savage²² aspect, painted with black and white and yellow and uttering loud cries. We thought that they were eaters of men's flesh. Likewise they had a custom of wearing earrings²³ of great weight, some of copper, some of that mixed gold we called guanin. So heavy were these ornaments that they pulled the ear down to mid-throat. The Admiral named this place the Coast of the Ear.

On we sailed, and on, never out of sight of land to starboard. Day by day, along a coast that now as a whole bent²⁴ eastward²⁵. And yet no strait—no way through into the sea into which poured the Ganges.

1 isle   

n.小岛，岛

参考例句：

• He is from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.他来自爱尔兰海的马恩岛。
• The boat left for the paradise isle of Bali.小船驶向天堂一般的巴厘岛。

2 haze   

n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊

参考例句：

• I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中，我看不见她。
• He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。

3 mightiest   

adj.趾高气扬( mighty的最高级 )；巨大的；强有力的；浩瀚的

参考例句：

• \"If thou fearest to leave me in our cottage, thou mightiest take me along with thee. “要是你害怕把我一个人留在咱们的小屋里，你可以带我一块儿去那儿嘛。 来自英汉文学 - 红字
• Silent though is, after all, the mightiest agent in human affairs. 确实，沉默毕竟是人类事件中最强大的代理人。 来自互联网

4 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。

5 barbarian   

n.野蛮人；adj.野蛮(人)的；未开化的

参考例句：

• There is a barbarian tribe living in this forest.有一个原始部落居住在这个林区。
• The walled city was attacked by barbarian hordes.那座有城墙的城市遭到野蛮部落的袭击。

6 mantle   

n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红

参考例句：

• The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green.大地披上了苍翠欲滴的绿色斗篷。
• The mountain was covered with a mantle of snow.山上覆盖着一层雪。

7 mantles   

vt.&vi.覆盖（mantle的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• The ivy mantles the building. 长春藤覆盖了建筑物。 来自互联网

8 ornaments   

n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The shelves were chock-a-block with ornaments. 架子上堆满了装饰品。
• Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments. 一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 hatchets   

n.短柄小斧( hatchet的名词复数 )；恶毒攻击；诽谤；休战

参考例句：

• Hatchets, knives, bayonets, swords, all brought to be sharpened, were all red with it. 他们带来磨利的战斧、短刀、刺刀、战刀也全都有殷红的血。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
• They smashed all the carved paneling with their axes and hatchets. 圣所中一切雕刻的、们现在用斧子锤子打坏了。 来自互联网

10 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

11 subdue   

vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制

参考例句：

• She tried to subdue her anger.她尽力压制自己的怒火。
• He forced himself to subdue and overcome his fears.他强迫自己克制并战胜恐惧心理。

12 wrought   

v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的

参考例句：

• Events in Paris wrought a change in British opinion towards France and Germany.巴黎发生的事件改变了英国对法国和德国的看法。
• It's a walking stick with a gold head wrought in the form of a flower.那是一个金质花形包头的拐杖。

13 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

14 pestle   

n.杵

参考例句：

• He ground the rock candy with a mortar and pestle.他自己动手用研钵和杵把冰糖研成粉。
• An iron pestle can be ground down to a needle.只要功夫深，铁杵磨成针。

15 brute   

n.野兽，兽性

参考例句：

• The aggressor troops are not many degrees removed from the brute.侵略军简直象一群野兽。
• That dog is a dangerous brute.It bites people.那条狗是危险的畜牲，它咬人。

16 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

17 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

18 deluding   

v.欺骗，哄骗( delude的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• They used Teresa's desolation as another proof that believers are deluding themselves. 他们用德肋撒嬷嬷的孤寂再一次论证信徒们是在蒙蔽自己。 来自互联网
• There is, for instance, a self-deluding interpretation of the contemporary world situation. 比如说有一些对当代世界时局自我欺骗式的阐释。 来自互联网

19 deluded   

v.欺骗，哄骗( delude的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Don't be deluded into thinking that we are out of danger yet. 不要误以为我们已脱离危险。
• She deluded everyone into following her. 她骗得每个人都听信她的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 mariners   

海员，水手（mariner的复数形式）

参考例句：

• Mariners were also able to fix their latitude by using an instrument called astrolabe. 海员们还可使用星盘这种仪器确定纬度。
• The ancient mariners traversed the sea. 古代的海员漂洋过海。

21 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

22 savage   

adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人

参考例句：

• The poor man received a savage beating from the thugs.那可怜的人遭到暴徒的痛打。
• He has a savage temper.他脾气粗暴。

23 earrings   

n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子

参考例句：

• a pair of earrings 一对耳环
• These earrings snap on with special fastener. 这付耳环是用特制的按扣扣上去的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

24 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

25 eastward   

adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部

参考例句：

• The river here tends eastward.这条河从这里向东流。
• The crowd is heading eastward,believing that they can find gold there.人群正在向东移去，他们认为在那里可以找到黄金。