He heard, too, of
the island of the Amazons, fierce, wild women, who use bows and
spears, and are less like women than men. And there was an island
where the inhabitants had no hair, and one where the people had tails.
Mermaids he saw, but, adds the honest admiral, they were "not so like
ladies as they are painted."
66. "Where do you get your gold?" says the admiral by signs to the
islanders. "Cubanacan," say the natives. _Kubla Khan_, flashes across
the admiral's mind, and he sails off in renewed certainty. The island
which the natives called Colba, or Cuba, he took for Cipango, and
after much searching he came to it at last. When he did reach it, its
size deceived him into thinking he had reached the continent, and
messengers were straightway dispatched to seek the Grand Khan, with
his marble bridges and golden towers. Columbus bad brought along a
letter to him from Ferdinand and Isabella, in which they tell him
that, having heard of his love for them, and his wish to hear news
from Spain, they now send their admiral to tell him of their health
and prosperity! But the messengers could not find the khan. How could
you know, Cristoforo Colombo, that you were only half way around the
great world, and thousands of miles yet from Cathay!
THE REWARD.
67. America was discovered. The daring admiral never knew it. To the
day of his death he thought the world was only half as large as it is,
and that he had sailed west to Cathay.
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