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Ferdinand and Isabella arrived, surrounded by
noblemen and religious officials. Columbus
was motioned toward the royal thrones.
Columbus kneeled and kissed their hands as a
sign of respect. The king and queen ordered
that a chair be brought out so that Columbus
could sit before them, which was a great honor.
The admiral presented the fascinated court
with proof that could only have come from
exotic lands. “Don Christopher Columbus,”
remembered Las Casas, “carried very beautiful
red-tinged green parrots, and guaycas,which
were masks made of a collection of fishbones
arranged like pearl-seed, and some belts of the
same material, fashioned with admirable
craftsmanship; also a great quantity and variety
of very fine gold, and many other things never
before seen or heard of in Spain.”
Columbus described the wide bays and
forested mountains he had found in the
Indies, islands that would one day be named
the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola (home to
the nations of Haiti and the Dominican
Republic). He handed his royal patrons jew-
elry and nuggets he had brought back from his
travels. “Heasserted,” Las Casas wrote, “the(^4) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
Shown in an 1870 lithograph, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella received Columbus at court in 1493 after
his first voyage to the Americas, which they sponsored.(Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[LC-USZ62-96536])
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