Prologue

A summary of the twenty-seven chapters of Book 1 tracing the travels of Nico Ribeiro, recently turned fourteen-year-old son of a merchant sailor, with his father and uncle from Portugal to the Kongo, Barbary coast, Italy and Cairo. Separated in Cairo he travels the middle East to Istanbul and east to Samarkand and then south and west to Mecca and Abyssinia before returning to Cairo and home shortly after his sixteenth birthday. On the way he learns much about boy love and his own sexual orientation.

Nicolau Ribeiro (14-16yo)
Mt, tb, consensual, interracial

I am called Nicolau Ribeiro, though for the past year and a half I have gone by the name Naqi Ah ibn-Mustafa and many have been the days when I have thought I am the latter and the former no longer lives. I was born in the Portuguese port and trading centre of Viano do Costela on April 14th in the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and seventy-six, the first son of João Ribeiro and the second oldest child of five. A month after my fourteenth birthday, much to my delight, and I am ashamed to confess full of arrogant pride, I left school and travelled with my father and my mother's brother, Uncle Paolo, up the Kongo River, Father and Uncle being renown and daring merchant sailors. We followed the route taken by our illustrious countryman Diogo Cao who had discovered the river only eight years earlier, in search of new goods and the fabled land of Prester John. I quickly discovered being a sailor involves much hard work, even more so when you are the son of the captain for everyone expects that much more of you and a father's expectations are higher than they are for the sons of others, as it should be. The voyage, however, also affirmed my love of the sea and of the life of a sailor.

I also discovered why Uncle speaks with such passion of his travels. There is nothing more exciting than travelling to new lands, and what you learn from meeting people of different customs you can never learn from books or schoolmasters as these tales shall reveal. Travel into unknown lands is also most dangerous, good reader, and fulled with surprises, both good and bad, as I shall also reveal. Upon encountering the black heathens of the upper reaches of the river, the Bakongo, I was greatly shocked to see the women walking brazenly about bare-breasted and the young, male and female alike, going about as naked as they were born without an ounce of shame. As a fourteen-year-old innocent I found it difficult to avert my gaze with such temptation flaunted before my eyes. Even more shocking, on our first night with these heathens, Father, Uncle and I were provided young girls to bring us pleasures of the flesh, and when we declined as graciously as we could, finding the provision most vulgar and offensive as any Christian with proper upbringing would, much to my surprise we were offered young boys in their place, and were informed by our interpreter that to decline would be insulting to our hosts, and would perhaps even result in our deaths!

In my innocence I thought the six-year-old boy sent to accompany me would play the role of a servant, but much to my surprise and consternation, he assumed the role, most willingly, of a bed partner and introduced me to the obscene and hitherto unknown pleasures of the flesh that can be engaged in between two boys, something which I engaged in most unwillingly and only because I feared for my life, and which I shamefully confess, I eagerly participated in before the night was over so great is Satan's temptation. Although in darkness and in separate rooms, from the sounds in the night the two ten-year-old boys assigned to Father and Uncle did likewise and I could only imagine their revulsion and disgust being forced to engage in such wicked practice.

Upon our return to Portugal, Father and Uncle reported our discoveries to King João, at least those that decent men would reveal, neither Father, Uncle nor I having mentioned even to each other those hot, sweaty nights in the jungles of the dark continent succumbing to Satan's perverted temptations, and they requested financing for further trade explorations. While the king deliberated, I was introduced to horseback riding, a most uncomfortable and terrifying experience that convinced me man was not meant to ride beasts more suited to pulling wagons, and was questioned by the king's recently married fifteen-year-old son, Prince Afonso, about the black heathens of Africa and rumours regarding their nakedness, which I confirmed were not rumours. Our discussion of such lewd behaviour stirred unhealthy desires in my loins, and his, which led to the two of us and his bastard nine-year-old brother Jorge engaging in prohibited intimacies condemned by all I knew, and then the Prince and his Castilian valet and I indulging in further carnal pleasures with the two prepubescent sons of a local fisherman.

I was much surprised, and I again shamefully confess, aroused by the revelation that brothers would engage in this cardinal sin with each other and in the presence of each other. I was also sorely frightened knowing that the power of Satan was such that nobles and peasants alike could fall into his perverse temptations despite their strong Christian upbringing, and I prayed fervently for forgiveness and redemption, for myself and for my Prince whom I otherwise found to be an upstanding model for all Portuguese to follow. That I found much pleasure in these carnal exploits caused me much guilt and many sleepless nights despite my Prince's justification that sex between a man and a boy was for pleasure whereas sex between a husband and a wife was a duty and so there was nothing wrong with a man engaging in both, something which I was sure Father Francisco would strongly disagree with.

Receiving a commission to pick up spices at Cairo and to secretly check out the possibility of a trade route to the Red Sea and to discretely inquire into the fate of two envoys our king had sent to the area earlier, Father and Uncle began making arrangements and I accompanied Prince Afonso and his wife of four months, Isabella, to Madrid on a show of faith and support to her parents, and so Afonso could spy out their plans for exploration. On the way I sensed a great hostility to Afonso, an unthinkable behaviour for any loyal and decent Portugese citizen, and I witnessed first hand the horror and brutality of the Spanish inquisition, witnessing the torture of Marranos, Jews falsely professing to be Catholic, and the burning at the stake of Moors, vile peoples who are said to have introduced sodomy to Spain and who have been, praise the Lord, expelled from Portugal some two hundred years now. In one instance I witnessed an inquisitor force a son to have carnal knowledge with his father, a scene so vile it sickened me to my stomach and brought the taste of bile to my mouth. I was most glad to leave such hostile and savage peoples who have no right to claim themselves civilized. On our way back to Lisbon, I, Ahmar (a young Berber thief with whom in my mortal weakness I had engaged in carnal sin not just once but several times) and the Moor Mustafa thwarted an assassination attempt on Prince Afonso, for which we were greatly rewarded by King João.

And so we embarked on our mission. En route across the Great Sea, a storm drove our ship to the Berber coast of northern Africa where while our ship was being repaired I learned much about the life and customs of the Berber people and, I shamefully confess, the techniques of making love between males, and succumbing to these carnal pleasures, I found myself, much to my surprise and shame, falling in love with the fourteen-year-old thief, Ahmar and falling further into the diabolical clutches of Lucifer.

With the repair of our ship, we continued on to Rome to seek financial support and blessing of our mission. Feeling great guilt over engaging in carnal relations with others of my gender, I was most shocked and most confused to learn that Moors and Jews given as slaves to Pope Innocent VIII to Christianize were in turn given to select cardinals and favourites to convert, or more commonly, to sodomize! Adding further to my confusion was the discovery that a highly respected Cardinal, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, a strong candidate to become our next Pope, Pope Innocent clearly being of ill health, sought the pleasure of both women and members of his Swiss Guard. Even more bewildering was the discovery that a choirboy from our hometown had become a castrati to preserve his singing voice. The thought of one willingly having his testicles cut off caused my own to draw up into my body for protection.

Continuing on to Pisa, I intended on meeting with Cardinal Giovanni de Lorenzo de'Medici to discuss my confusion and doubts regarding my Christian faith and to confess my sexual transgressions and sins, figuring being fourteen years of age himself, he would have an understanding of my troubled mental and spiritual state and would be able to help me understand how I could find such immense pleasure in such a despicable, obscene practice. To my utter surprise, the most venerable Cardinal instead gave me a very different interpretation of passages in the Bible regarding congress between males than that held by our local priest, Father Francisco, and even more surprising and confusing for a simple parishioner as I, we had congress with each other and then with his young scribes upon his urging and with the assurance it was perfectly acceptable in the Eyes of the Lord.

Continuing on to Florence, Father, Uncle and I attended a banquet hosted by the rich and powerful Lorenzo de'Medici where many of the artists, poets and philosophers for whom he was patron were in attendance. I sat in awe listening and conversing with such intelligent and renown personages, and a whole new life and way of looking at the world was opened up for me. I had never before heard of many of the topics discussed, including this conception they called platonic love though it was evidently something practised hundreds of years ago and was still commonly practised by civilized men. Just as surprising to me were the open and accepting attitudes in Florence regarding intimacies between men and between men and boys, and my sexual knowledge increased by leaps and bounds as I engaged in trysts with several of the artisans, including the famous Leonardo da Vinci who was only a year younger than Father and a young artisan, the arrogant and conceited and highly talented Michelangelo, who was only a year older than myself.

Travelling back to Rome quite bewildered and confused by these revelations by men much wiser and nobler than myself and experiences they took as common practice, I rejoined my new friends who further enlightened me on the joy of congress between those of the same gender and on the practices of members of the church elite, and who provided me another interpretation of the motives of Lorenzo the Magnificent of Florence for supporting the artisans and philosophers of his city, motives I would never have imagined in my innocence. While at the Vatican, I also met my first Ottoman, Prince Djem, had along with Father and Uncle an audience with Pope Innocent VIII, and attended a party in honour of Cesare Borja where I experienced my first drunk, and my first orgy. As we continued on our way, I struggled greatly with my conscience and with the conflict between what I had been taught for the past fourteen years about congress between males and what I had recently been told, and what I had witnessed and experienced with both peasants and nobility, and with both commoners and the church elite. I began having erotic dreams and leaking my seed at night and waking up to morning erections on a daily basis which caused me more anxiety, and the adults I turned to for advice, the Jew shoemaker Josepe whom I had helped rescue in Castile, and the ship's doctor did little to bring me peace of mind.

Arriving at Cairo, we found King João's envoy, Pero da Covilha, and he and Father headed south to the Red Sea. While seeking information at the market, I was captured by a slave trader to replace an injured slave who had tried to escape, and taken to the Citadel where I was sold to the Sultan as a slave soldier-in-training. There I met a fellow captive who talked proudly of the honour of having sex with an adult as part of his training to be a Mameluke, adding further to my confusion regarding congress between males, something most considered a mortal sin while many others considered it quite common and acceptable and even honourable. Also while in the Citadel, I came to the defence of a young boy raped by an older soldier-in-training and I would likely have been raped myself but before the opportunity arose I was purchased by a man by the name of Usama el Hasan ibn Fuad, a twenty-eight-year-old Mameluke soldier serving as a guard to a merchant caravan, and taken on as an apprentice I ended up in a Mameluke soldier camp just outside Cairo.

So it was that I travelled with Usama across the Holy Land from Cairo to Aleppo, learning from him the use of arms, horsemanship (which I came to understand and appreciate), the tenets of Islam, and the code of the "men of arms" during the day, and how to make delightful love with a man at night. Learning of an advancing army from the north, we left the services of the caravan master and joined a Mameluke army heading to confront the invaders. Arriving at the Ottoman border I put my training in warfare to practice during the day and my training in man-boy love to practice with Usama at night, orally, anally and manually. I realized that I loved the man just as a man might love a woman, causing me much dismay and causing me to question why I had accepted this man-boy relationship despite all I had been taught against it.

Captured by the Ottoman Janissaries, I was taken to Istanbul where, after a meeting with Sultan Bayazid II, who was intrigued by my possession of a sword from the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, an Order he was much impressed with and an Order I had been made a knight of by Pope Innocent, I became employed as a tellak boy in the Istanbul baths in the hope of earning enough money to pay for my passage back home, the prospect of returning home far outweighing the guilt and shame of being a tellak. As a beautiful and skilled bath boy, I became extremely popular with the customers, which brought new problems: the envy of other bath boys, physical attacks to try to disfigure or kill me, and the sexual assault by a distant member of the royal family. In my dejection and despair I rejected all gods, and accepted my sinfulness and the fact I was a weak and degenerate pervert caught in the web of Satan.

As a result of my ravishment by the royal client in the hammam, I was helped by one of the kinder patrons of the bathhouse to join a troupe of performers, the Ghilman Entertainers. Thinking they were heading west my hopes were raised, but I discovered too late they were heading east instead. And so I became a koçek, a young male dancer who looked like a girl and provided the sexual services of one, a position that was ironically highly revered by these heathens. I had never heard of boys who liked to dress as women, some of whom actually thought they were women and acted and talked just as they did. Much to my horror, as we continued across the steppes and deserts of these desolate lands, I realized that not only were there boys who acted like girls but I was starting to also, and enjoying it.

Travelling with the troupe, I learned much about music and dancing and about the peoples we came into contact with, both those of the Islamic faith and those of the Orthodox Eastern Church through whose lands we travelled. I also received advice about how to be happy. Eskander, the brother of the leader of the troupe who served as a guard and looked after the wagons and horses, said to be happy be yourself and do what you have a passion for. A shoemaker at Erzurum said to be proud of your skill and knowledge and to take care in what you do for it says who you are. And so it was that I came to accept myself and the desires that constantly welled up in my loins for I was skilled in bringing pleasure to others of my gender and many envied me for what I was and sought my pleasures in the dark of night. Of course not all did, and I suffered the abuse and jealousy that came with being a koçek as imams and Christian priests alike and their followers assailed us and despised us. Finally at Tabriz one of our group, beautiful, gentle Rifki who would never hurt a soul, had his throat cut because he was more successful in attracting men than the female belly dancers in the city who were responsible for his death.

Shortly after the brutal murder of Rifki, while engaged in bringing pleasure to an eighteen-year-old Prince from Samarkand, Prince Abbas, I thwarted an attempt on his life and he negotiated with the leader of our troupe for me to join him as his personal guard and comrade at arms. The night of that same day I helped him kidnap the eleven-year-old son of the Bey under an arrangement with the boy's father. It is the strange custom of these heathens that for a boy to become a man he had to be kidnapped by a man who then taught him the skills he needed to become a warrior, and made him a man by having congress with him. As we travelled east, the boy was trained in hunting and how to satisfy a man's sexual needs and I practised swordsmanship and horse riding, something which I had come to enjoy immensely, while wondering about fathers who encourage their sons to be ridden by men and those who would rather see them die, and wondering what I will decide when I have sons of my own.

I learned that there are things that Allah says, things that Imams say Allah says, and things Imams say; and that Princes can do what common men and even Imams cannot. There is a saying among these heathens that women are for breeding, boys for pleasure, and melons for sheer delight, and I saw the belief put into practice often, at least the first two. Prince Abba, my comrade at arms, visited male and female houses of prostitution with equal delight. And in my travels I learned of new and strange religions, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, the followers of the former wild-eyed zealots who would kill a man for touching another man intimately and the followers of the latter seeing such intimacy as so insignificant as to not even mention it in their religious books. I learned of catamites who willingly engage in congress with men, catamites who are forced into submission, and boys who would rather die than have congress with another of their gender.

Travelling through Mongol lands, some desolate and severe, others fertile and abundant with fruits I have never heard of, I witnessed the barbaric brutality and raw sexuality of the Mongol peoples, the rape and beheading of enemy soldiers, and sheiks who take pleasure with several wives, beautiful young female concubines, and beautiful young male concubines depending on their mood. I witnessed the rivalry between royal houses, brothers vying with brothers and uncles vying with nephews for land and followers. From the boy whore China Boy Zhang I learned the more exotic aspects of love play, the use of cock rings and anal beads, and how to raise passions higher than I ever imagined possible with tenderness and love.

Following the assassination of Prince Abbas, I travelled with a caravan of merchants as a guard and bacha (singer), gradually making my way west. Performing for the Sultan of Herat, I sensed his desire that I join his court as one of his possessions, both for my voice and for my body, which hastened me on my way before he succeeded. Learning of a group of men intending on travelling west to expand their knowledge and skills, I readily accepted their offer to join them. In our travels I discovered that throughout most of Persia bache bazi, boy play, was commonly practised by nobles and commoners alike, and that the joy of the love of boys was a common theme in the poetry and philosophy of both ancient and present peoples. The praise of such practice ran contrary to everything I had been taught and yet matched my own beliefs and desires, resulting in a daily struggle with my conscience.

When my companions turned north and away from my destination, we parted company and while searching for a way home I gained employment as a harem boy to a rich sheik, sixty-four years of age with four wives, six female concubines, six boy concubines, three eunuchs, and numerous slaves, servants and guards. The presence of Christian slaves purchased from Barbary Coast slave traders and with the arrival of Christmas, the conflict between my Christian background and my lust for men and delight in pleasures of the flesh became even stronger, and as I learned more about Islam and jihad, the similarities and differences with Christianity caused me to struggle with my basic religious beliefs and I began to despair of ever returning home.

To my joy, my master announced a pilgrimage to Mecca far to the West and listed me among those who would be joining him. So I found myself celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad and engaging in an orgy with my master like a heathen, and on our way across the vast Arabian desert encountering the mysterious and feared Badawi who though more devout and ascetic than any people I have met rut with boys like any other Saracen. Unable to deny the lust of the Bedouin patriarch, I did reject the sexual advances made by the female concubine Jauharah, who was in her fertile period and eager for a child, and advances by the eunuch Sali'a with dire consequences for it caused them to be dismissed from the sheik's retinue and put my life in danger.

The sheik had agreed to release me of my duties upon our arrival in Mecca, but it soon became evident that he was not about to honour that agreement and in fact was planning on taking me back east with him. When Jauharah and Sali'a made an attempt on my life and mistakenly killed another they thought was me, I fled to Abyssinia with a young, black Christian slave by the name of Sol before a second attempt could be made. There I travelled to Sol's home, witnessing many strange and wondrous beasts and engaging with him in the gadai follee and the running of the bulls, a rite of passage for those turning sixteen. Hoping to find information about Prester John and thinking that perhaps the king of Abyssinia was the fabled Christian leader, I found instead he was a follower of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Meeting him and visiting his prison and treasury, I discovered that he imprisoned his brothers to prevent them from leading a revolt to seize his throne and was no better than the Mongol royalty I had escaped from. Eager to leave, I found passage up the Red Sea on an Arab dhow. Fighting off an attack by pirates who would surely have killed me or sold me into slavery, I arrived at al-Suways where I immediately left for Cairo with a group of traders.

Arriving in Cairo I encountered and helped a merchant from Venice, gaining me passage with him and his colleagues to Venice where much relieved to be back in Christian company I joined the young nobles of that wondrous city in their nighttime escapades despite the risks of being caught and punished by the much to be feared Lords of the Night. Much to my bewilderment, nobles gave their sons for the entertainment of powerful men for political gain and youth and men alike lived secret lives of carefree debauchery while the city's rulers feared the destruction of their city by God for the sinfulness of its citizens as he had done with Sodom. These rulers brutally dealt with those caught engaging in congress with members of their own gender, causing a renewed struggle in my mind and in my heart between my desires and what others considered sins. Witnessing the beheading and burning at the stake of one of my new companions and the cruel public starvation of a priest for his sin of boylove, I could take the life in Venice no longer.

Learning from a Turk that the Lance of Longinus was being brought to Italy and uncomfortable with life in Venice where I could fulfill my desires of the flesh but at the risk of my neck, I travelled to Florence where I rejoined Cardinal Giovanni and Michelangelo and where their enlightened attitude toward congress between men put my heart and mind at ease. From there I travelled to Anacona to join the Cardinals escorting the Holy Lance of Longinus back to the Vatican where Pope Innocent VIII received the Lance. I found the reverence and sacredness of the relic at odds with the plots and intrigue and the covert sexual activities that were daily events in the Holy See. Attending one of two political weddings of five-year-old boys and witnessing the loss of their virginity with their new wives, I learned of a ship leaving for Portugal and gratefully obtained passage home. Arriving at Lisbon, I informed King João of my discoveries, at least those suitable for his ears, and to my surprise I was awarded an estate for my services.

Finally on the 23rd of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and ninety-two, I arrived back at Viana do Castelo and was greeted with much joy as my family had feared my death or captivity among the heathens, and I discovered the birth of a second male in the family, my brother, and the marriage of my elder sister. It was of great relief to be back with family, but also I found great discomfort for I was no longer a boy and no longer the innocent I was when I had left. So after a brief stay, I travelled to my estate where by shear coincidence I was able to continue my perverted lust with the fourteen-year-old son of the groundskeeper of my estate. Attempting to avoid Satan's temptations and reluctant to rely on my groundskeeper and his family for the welfare of my new property, I threw myself into a plan to establish a stable source of revenue to maintain my estate. Relying on the interest and expertise of my caretaker and his family, I established a fledging fishing industry, the beginning of a vineyard, and the foundation for a horse ranch. My plans were interrupted however by a messenger from Lisbon, and on the 25th of July I appointed my caretaker Steward of Quintas de Ribeiro and returned to Viana do Castelo to consult my father as to what I should do.

Chapter 1
Travelling the Ocean Sea

Sixteen-year-old Nicolau Ribeiro sets sail with Columbus upon the request of his monarch, King João, in search of a route west to the Indies. Stopping for repairs in the Canary Islands Nico finds diversion with a boy clearing tables in an inn, a caulker's son and a local Guanche (Berber) before continuing on the journey across the Ocean Sea. He is tempted to masturbate on the long journey but a sailor is caught and his punishment dissuades Nico. Discouraged and unimpressed with Columbus's skill, Nico, and much of the crew, fears they will drown at sea.

Nicolau Ribeiro (16yo); Spanish Boy (12yo), Caulker's son (9yo), Ismail al-Hamani, a Guanche (14yo)
tb tt

King João's messenger having travelled to Viana do Castelo on a small, light, single-masted ship capable of carrying up to six people, part of the Royal Fleet used specifically for quick transport of messengers and envoys along the coast, we returned to Lisbon the same way. Blessed by Our Gracious Lord, we had favourable winds and made the journey in two days and two nights, arriving early in the morning of the third day. Changing into my best clothes and donning my cape with the insignia denoting I was a Knight of the Order of Santiago, a venerable honour King João had bestowed upon me, and fastening it with the silver clasp in the form of a rearing horse given to me by his late son Prince Afonso, I was escorted immediately to the palace and was given an audience with King João that same morning, the matter being of the utmost urgency. I was informed by King João that the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile, were sending an expedition headed by a Cristóvão Colombo across the Ocean Sea in the hopes of finding a westerly route to the spice lands. Having been impressed with my past service accompanying his son Afonso to Madrid, and with the information I had brought back from my journey to the east, information which was the result of my inadvertent travels through the vast and barren lands of the Saracens, he informed me much to my surprise that he had decided I would be the best individual to travel with this Colombo and serve as a spy for Portugal.

I knew little about this Cristóvão Colombo other than that he was a Genoese by birth but who had lived for a time in Portugal as a young man and there had married a noble woman by whom he had a son, and that his wife had died shortly after giving birth. Shortly thereafter he had moved to the Spains. I had learned from Uncle that he had tried on two unsuccessful occasions to seek funding for his mad plan from King João, and had made at least one previous attempt to do so with the Catholic Monarchs. In my opinion it was a far-fetched idea, anyone with any knowledge of the world knowing that it would be much too far for a man to sail for no ship was large enough to carry enough food and fresh water for such a journey, and he would be sailing into waters unknown to man, and likely inhabited by sea monsters the likes of which were better left unknown. It was a fool's voyage, one filled with danger and the unfamiliar, but I must confess the challenge and daring of such a voyage intrigued me. In addition, the trust and responsibility placed on me by my monarch were a great honour, and, I must confess, filled me with such pride that I could not help but agree with his scheme. As I left the audience chamber, it was fortunate Mother, Father and Uncle were not present to witness my strutting through the castle and down the streets of Madrid like the vain and foolish peacock that I was. (1)

Time was of the essence and knowing I would accept out of my loyalty to him, or perhaps knowing of my vanity, King João had already made arrangements to transport me to my destination by a swift single-masted ship, only myself joining a highly trusted captain and his sole crewman. Treating me with the same deference as he would any of those travelling on business for His Majesty despite my young age, he was surprised and pleased when I stripped down to my waist and relieved his crewman, and when he saw I was skilled in managing a small sailing craft, he set up a schedule in which we each worked sixteen candle marks and slept eight so that at any given time there were two of us guiding the ship. Sailing close to the coast, there was actually little for us to do, the winds and currents doing most of the work. Rounding the southernmost cape of Portugal, we veered east and north, reaching Palos de la Frontera on the morning of the fourth day. I knew from Father and Uncle that the port was an important one, being the easternmost port of Castile and a major trade centre, and the home of several rich and famous ship builders. Even so, I was most surprised at its size, and the number of ships tied up at the docks and anchored in the harbour. I was most impatient to land, fearing that the expedition had already set sail, but we had to wait our turn to be admitted by the harbour master. To make matters worse, given the nature of my covert mission we had assumed the pretense that I was the son of a minor merchant come to purchase Castilian wine which was hardly a priority for docking.

Finally receiving permission, I was relieved to learn that Colombo had not yet left and I set to pushing my way through the crowds in search of his mooring. I finally reached where his ship was tied up, but was turned away by the ship's Royal Steward, one Pedro de Gutierrez, who informed me that they were no longer hiring and refused my request to speak to the captain himself, saying that the captain was much too busy and that it would be of no consequence anyway. Learning that there were in fact three ships which would be setting sail, I sought out the other two and was told the same thing by their stewards, and that there was little point in speaking to the captains of the two vessels as only the Admiral himself, as Colombo wished to be called, had the authority to hire and he had completed that task the previous day. Returning to the main ship, I attempted to sneak on board, there being much activity with men loading supplies for the voyage and making the ship ready for sailing, but the Royal Steward was a sharp-eyed man and spotted me, and after my first attempt he was on guard for any future attempts.

That evening I sought out any members who had been hired in the local taverns, hoping to get a recommendation from one of them, which I was sure a few rounds on my purse would ensure, but I was not so fortunate. I even considered, much to my shame, getting one of them falling-down drunk and injuring himself so I could offer to take his place, but the men were not about to risk their employment, or were such sots any one of them would have had to consume a keg of ale to get drunk. Dejected, I slept little that night. I made no headway with the Stewards or the crew members of the three ships the following day, and though the dock was even busier than the day before, resulting in greater confusion, the Stewards were keeping a watchful eye on who boarded their ships.

I realized by their dress that there was an extraordinary number of Jews milling about, and stopping and talking to one young fellow I discovered that the Catholic Monarchs had decreed that all Jews in the land were to instantly convert to Christianity, or be put to death by fire. Already, he said, hundreds had been burned in the marketplace for refusing to give up their faith. Recalling the Castilian brutality I had witnessed during my earlier visit to Madrid, I shuddered at the memory of the tortures and killings, the abominable perversions Jew prisoners were forced to perform, even son upon father, and the stench of burning flesh in the marketplace. I wondered if Josephe the Jew shoemaker that I had helped rescue from the Castilians two years ago had been so foolish as to return to Castile and I hoped for his sake and that of his young son that he had not.

As I dejectedly took my evening meal late that evening in the dockside inn where I was staying, a rundown establishment of questionable repute that I would not normally frequent but which seemed to be popular with the local sailors and especially those hired on by Colombo, a young, dishevelled boy with long greasy hair, smudged cheeks and dirty fingernails but with an attractive face and even more attractive buttocks clearing tables caught my eye, and I caught his. Despite his young age, which I figured to be about twelve, he was an experienced lad and as he picked up the dirty plates he bent over, offering up his backside for my inspection, and glancing over at me, he ran a hand down along his thigh suggestively. In need of something to lift my spirits and the boy being handsome enough that I was reasonably sure he would be able to lift not just my spirits but my flesh, I gave him an encouraging smile. Quickly crossing over to pick up the empty mugs on the table beside me, he whispered that he would be taking a break from his duties behind the establishment in half a candle mark.

So I lingered over my meal and had another goblet of their cheap wine and thought of the fine grapes I had purchased for my estate and of my Steward and of his fourteen-year-old son Vasco and I wondered what they were doing that evening and if Vasco had found another to satisfy his sexual appetite in my absence. My thoughts of him and our sport together caused the lust in my loins to swell so when I joined the young kitchen boy in the dark alley behind the inn, I was ready for him. He too was ready as he informed me he only had less than half a candle-mark before he had to return to work and held out his hand for payment in advance. It was a coarse move but it did not dampen my ardour. After all, I had spent the better part of a year selling my own body, though not so cheaply nor so crassly. I paid him the smallest coin I had, a couple centimos, which from the look in his eyes was more than he was accustomed receiving.

So, with him smelling of sweat and greasy food and the alley smelling of wharf rats and kitchen refuse and the air smelling of the sea, he dropped his trousers and I dropped mine and I took him standing there in the shadows. His arsehole was hot and moist but not that tight and as I easily sank my member up his ass I wondered how many men had used him in the past, or even that very night. So great was my perversity and my need that the thought of slipping my cock through the accumulated slime of several other men got me even more aroused rather than dissuading me. Grasping his hips, I began to savagely and eagerly pump my own to and fro, driving my swollen cock in and out of his asshole. He was impassionate but all I required was a willing boy with a hole, something which much to my shame I had provided others many times in my sordid past, and at times with as little enthusiasm. Whether or not the twelve-year-old boy was enjoying our congress did not really matter and the needs of the body took over and my mind instead focussed on the throbbing of my swollen member and the pleasant itch about the knob, sensations that are not uncommon for sixteen-year-old boys. Soon I was spurting my seed up his arse, and not having shot it for several days, it was copious and delightful. As we pulled up our trousers, he hinted that he would be off work at midnight but I knew he was only interested in more of my coin, not because he had derived any enjoyment out of what we had done. Having spent my seed and worked off my lust, and my frustration, I had little interest in further congress and made no comment on the offer.

Word was that Colombo would be sailing the following evening with the prediction of favourable winds and I desperately tried once again to convince the Royal Steward to allow me to see the Captain, even offering a bribe which to his credit he did not take. Failing that, I tried once again to sneak aboard the lead ship and failed once more, succeeding only in rising the Steward's ire. Filled with dismay and despair, I was at my wit's end as evening arrived and from the activity on deck the men were preparing to sail. As I was considering trying to sneak aboard one of the other ships again even though I knew it was futile, a group of men approached the Royal Steward and my hopes rose that they would provide a distraction and that I might still achieve my goal. The group, I noticed, included a cardinal from his dress, accompanied by several lesser priests, and I suspected, probably personal guards. A sailor was dispatched up the gangplank and I watched for my opportunity. Before it arose, six men appeared at the rail of the Santa Maria and descended the gangplank, from their clothes and their demeanor clearly men of importance, and as they talked, I heard one of them call the tallest of the men and the one in the lead Colombo. I learned later that the other five men were the captains of the other two ships and the owner and master of each of the three vessels.

As Colombo stepped onto the dock, I slipped from the shadows where I had been hiding and was before him before anyone could stop me. Dropping to one knee and doffing my cap, I informed him of my desire to sail with him, blurting out my qualifications and skills as a sailor, but he abruptly informed me that he had enough sailors, and, he added evidently questioning my youth, that they were skilled and experienced men all. By then the Royal Steward had called for the Master-at-Arms, one Diego de Arana, and had reached us, anger in his eyes and his hand on the pommel of his sword. I quickly informed Colombo that I was skilled in Languages and offered myself as an interpreter. Raising his hand to stop the Royal Steward and Master-at-Arms from dragging me off, he asked if I spoke the language of Great Khan, whom he had every expectation of meeting on this voyage, and when I confessed that I did not but I was certain I would be able to learn, I was abruptly informed that he already had an interpreter fluent in Hebrew and Arabic and he nodded for the Master-at-Arms to remove me. As the man grasped me about the waist, I offered my services then as guard, but he informed me he had no need for soldiers as he was on a trade and diplomatic mission to Great Khan, not about to declare war on him with three ships, to the amusement of the other men accompanying him. As the Master-at-Arms began to drag me away, the Cardinal called for him to stop.

"You are a member of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem?" he asked, cocking his head to one side as he studied the scabbard at my side.

"Yes, I was made a knight of the Order by His Eminence, Pope Innocent VIII."

"The late Pope," he said solemnly. "Innocent died eight days ago."

"I did not know," I said, crossing myself. "Has a new Pope been chosen?"

"No. Not yet. The Cardinals have been summoned, but it is a long distance for an old man such as myself to travel, and besides, I have little interest in such discussions and debates. Anyway, I have important and pressing things to do here, and I think it is evident who will be his successor." (2)

Although thin and showing his age, I could tell he was a man of action and a military man from his air of authority and the way he carried his body and would not be comfortable discussing theology with many of those I had met or seen at the Vatican. "Cardinal Borja?" I dared to venture. That I was so daring surprised me.

"Yes," he said with a slight smile and though he tried to hide it, with some surprise that I would know. "What did you say your name was?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. In my eagerness to express my desire to sail with Colombo, I could not recall at the time if I had mentioned my name and I do not recall now.

"Nicolau Ribeiro."

He thought for a moment. "The youth Innocent sent to travel to Istanbul on his behalf and who was captured and forced to join the perverted Mameluke army, and who after much abuse no Christian man should have to endure, escaped from them, killing hundreds of the savage Saracens at great risk to his own life, and then travelled with the barbaric Janissaries and endured their vile ways to do as he had been commanded by the Holy Father. The youth who by the Grace of God convinced the heathen Bayazid to relinquish the Lance of Longivus and then escorted it back to its rightful place in Rome. Your exploits have been the subject of much gossip at the Vatican and among the Princes of the Holy Church. And from your success, it is no surprise that you wear the Cross of Saint Christopher."

Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travellers. It had hung about the neck of Uncle Paolo for as long as I had known him until the morning I had departed for Lisbon just six days past, his parting gift that teary morning. "Well, yes, I did mention-," I began. True, I had talked to the Sultan Bayazid II about the Lance, and I had accompanied those escorting the Lance back once it arrived in Italy, but most of it was pure coincidence and not anywhere near as grand as the Cardinal had made it sound.

"The Lance of Longivus?" interrupted Colombo.

"Indeed. This joven is highly regarded by the Holy See. And it is evident he is more knowledgeable than most regarding the inner workings of the Vatican." (3)

Colombo studied me, looked skyward, looked at me again and then at the cardinal. "Surely that Our All-knowing and Gracious Lord God has sent one so devout and so blessed to join us in our journey across the Ocean Sea is a sign, a blessing of good fortune on our expedition." He looked at me again. "We leave immediately."

"Everything I need is on my back."

"Then you will sail with me," he said. "Cardinal."

We bowed our heads and Cardinal de Mendoza blessed the ships, the honourable and brave men standing before him, and the crew about to sail. I offered up a quick and silent prayer to Saint Christopher for his part in securing me passage with Colombo, and to Uncle Paolo for gifting me with the cross. As I followed four of those brave and honourable men up the gangplank of the Santa Maria, I wondered at Colombo's words and at my brashness in stepping before him, and in expressing my opinion regarding the successor of the late Pope Innocent. Perhaps seeing my desperation the Good Lord did intercede on my behalf and I gave him silent and most grateful thanks. We left the port at eight that evening. (4)

Three days into our voyage the helm of the Pinta disconnected and two of our leader's many faults were revealed, his short and violet temper and his deep feelings of persecution. He became extremely angry and cursed the owners of the caravel, one Gomes Rascon and one Cristo hal Quintero, whom he suspected of sabotage because, he claimed, the voyage was displeasing to them, having been forced by, he said, the Most Christian and very exalted and very excellent and very powerful Princes, the King and Queen of the Spains and of the Islands of the Sea, our Lords, to provide the Pinta for this exploration which they did not wish to do. The Admiral went even further, saying that before he left, they had discovered the aforesaid men concerned in certain plots and intrigues, though whom he meant by "they" and what those plots were he did not say. The Admiral was greatly disturbed besides that he was unable to come to the aid of the Pinta.

The crew of the Pinta did manage to make repairs and we continued on our way but it is a difficult job to do in water and the helm separated once again two days later and the Pinta began to take on water. The pilots of the three ships met to discuss what should be done and in the course of their discussion I discovered that the three disagreed exactly where they were. Columbo felt we were close to the Grand Canary Islands and stated that he wished to go there to leave the Pinta and obtain another caravel there if one could be found. The failing of the Pinta and the disagreement among the three pilots were, to me, a poor beginning to our journey, and hardly filled me with confidence in our leaders.

So, on the tenth day of our voyage, Sunday, August 13 in the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and ninety-two, we arrived at the Canary Islands, at one time claimed by France, Portugal and Castile until they fell under the authority of the Castilian crown by treaty with Portugal thirteen years ago. There Colombo ordered the restocking of provisions, repairs to the Pinta, and rerigging of the Niña's lanteen sails to square sails. Being islands of farmers and fishermen, there was little for the sailors to do while we waited. The islands were named the Islas Cararias by the Roman Pliny due to the presence of wild dogs, canes being Latin for wild dogs, many of whom still roamed the islands making it dangerous to travel outside of the towns without a weapon. Many of the men sought out women to help while away the time and like any seaport there were houses to be found where women provided such pastime for a price.

Myself I found gravitating toward the nine-year-old son of a caulker working on the Pinta. The boy envied me traveling off to sea and confessed to me his dreams of exploration, and that he was not content to follow in his father's footsteps. He listened in awe as I related some of my experiences, which I must shamefully confess in my conceit I found most pleasing and which I found myself embellishing. And so it was that I told him in detail of my first voyage to the Kongo and the practice there of the black savages to give girls or boys to visitors for their nighttime pleasure, in part to bolster my image in his eyes, finding his admiration most pleasing, and, like the devil Satan, in part to lead him into temptation. He of course was curious how a boy could provide the same pleasures as a girl, and I to my shame and depravity willingly offered to instruct him.

So, one hot, dry afternoon while his father was toiling in the sun to caulk our vessels and his mother was toiling in the kitchen preparing his evening meal, he took me along the sea cliffs to a favorite spot of his there and in the shade a grove of date palms we dropped our trousers and I introduced him to the sin of self abuse. He watched me closely as I revealed that age-old secret, slipping my thumb and four fingers about my flaccid flesh and slowly stroking it, brushing them against the rim of my bulb ever so lightly so as not to arouse myself too soon. My cock of course responded quickly to my ministrations and began to swell, much to his amazement as he claimed his had never done such a thing. I continued until my cock was stiff, and I offered it to him to feel and he did so hesitantly, as if it might be a hot poker, and he was amazed at its hardness. I then told him to try the same with his, which he did eagerly, using his thumb and only two fingers his little tiddler was of such tiny size. It took longer for his flesh to respond, this being a new experience, and I suspect, because he was only nine, but in time his little member began to swell also. I asked how it felt and he replied that the bulb itched and burned but not totally in an unpleasant way.

Once he was stiff, I told him to stand and walk about and I did likewise and he giggled how our cocks stuck out from our bodies and pointed the way. We sat again and we continued stroking, slipping our fingers up and down our swollen flesh slowly and deliberately, concentrating on every sensation throbbing through our stiff cocks, a throbbing long familiar to me and one that was new to this innocent. We did it slowly, enjoying it thoroughly until he observed that his arm was beginning to tire. We rested for a bit and then continued and I closed my eyes and controlled my breathing as I tried to delay the inevitable, wanting him to be the first to experience that ultimate of pleasures. I stopped frequently and when he inquired I told him as a boy gets older he has to pause, but I did not explain why. As I was about to give in to my desire, certain I could not hold back any longer, he observed that his cock had gone numb, and I told him that was natural, and that the desired result would not be long in coming. Suddenly he quivered and jerked his hips repeatedly and from the glaze in his eyes I knew he had reached his climax. The knowledge that this young boy was having his first orgasm, and that it was because of me, I found so erotic that when I reached my own orgasm it was the most violent I have felt for a long time. Perhaps it was because of the lengthy delay, and I suspect it was perhaps for both reasons. The boy stared at me wide-eyed and slack-jawed as I spurted my seed onto the ground.

As we headed back down from the cliffs I made him promise not to tell another soul about what we had done or what I had shown him and with his eyes filled with worship he promised that he would not. We met his father on his way home from work and he greeted me cordially as I and his son had become frequent companions, and as he and his son headed off to their home and I back to the ship, I wondered what he would think if he knew what his son had learned from me that afternoon.

I of course sought out my young pupil the following afternoon and he was most eager that we take another walk up along the cliffs and again we sat beneath the grove of date palms and pleasured ourselves as we looked out across the sea, though I must confess I spent more time watching him than watching the sea as I found it arousing to watch this innocent youngster stroking himself, and I noticed he also spent much time watching me, and the fact that he was watching me increased my arousal. As we parted, he asked eagerly if I would be by the next day, and of course I responded that I would. That night I thought about the coming afternoon and wondered if I should extend his education. On the one hand I was most anxious to do so and just the thought had my member eagerly jutting up and aching for attention despite having been pleasured that afternoon, but on the other I knew that what I had taught the youngster to do was considered a sin by our mother Church, and by most adults I knew, and that what I was considering on introducing to him next was an even greater sin. I fell asleep stiff-cocked and aching with guilt, and I awoke feeling the same way. I was most hesitant to join him and several times decided I would not, but in the end Satan won out, revealing me to be a weak-willed wretch.

Arriving at the grove of date palms and dropping our trousers, I inhaled nervously and almost decided not to do what I had planned, but as I looked down at that tender, inviting tubelet of flesh and at his eager, bright-eyed face, I decided that to not share my knowledge would be selfish and wrong. I asked him if he remembered how our secret sport had all begun, with my telling him how the black savages of the Kongo had provided a boy for pleasure, and how he had asked how a boy could bring another pleasure like a girl. He nodded and said that he did.

"Well," I said, my voice suddenly very husky and my breath trembling, "there are many ways that a boy can pleasure another. One is to do to another what we have been doing to ourselves."

He immediately asked if we could try doing each other, proving to me that in a boy's mind there is no concept of sin and in his heart no concept of shame for seeking this pleasure and for sharing it with another. Before I had a change of heart, I spread apart my hands and offered my most private parts to him. Without a moment's hesitation, the innocent reached over and picking up my limp cock he began to stroke it as I had shown him how to stroke his own and my cock responded instantly and far more rapidly than to my own stroking. I of course reached over and picked up his little worm and it too responded quickly, proving that the flesh shows no guilt nor hesitation. Feeling his little tiddler growing quickly in my fingers caused my own to grow faster, and the swelling of my cock caused his to swell faster also. In no time we were both stiff, his little nine-year-old cock and my sixteen twice its size, but both aching with the same desire.

I fought the temptation to go faster and instead pumped my fingers up and down his stiff flesh with exaggerated slowness and he similarly pumped his fist up and down mine with the same slowness, copying me exactly. It felt so much different having a smaller, hotter hand stroking my stiff cock than my own, and as I looked down at him the eagerness and joy in his eyes and the curl of his lips as he watched his hand slipping up and down my shaft and over my bulb left no doubt in my mind of the rightness of what we were doing, that older boys were meant to instruct younger ones in the secret ways boys can pleasure each other, and that younger boys were meant to pleasure older boys.

It was of such pleasure that I wanted to squirt my seed heartbeats after we had begun and it was with immense effort that I held back until he reached his orgasm first, and as he jerked and gasped with his climax, his delight caused me great pleasure and I inhaled deeply and released my seed. It shot up into the air and away from my body with more force and farther than it had the previous two days, and felt doubly as pleasant, but not as pleasant as the feeling I had witnessing his own orgasm. When it brings both so much joy, how can the sharing of such pleasure be wrong? As the pressure in my loins subsided, my seed spurted with less force until it ceased to spurt and flowed out the opening of my swollen cock and over his young, innocent fingers. He watched as it did so and then, curious, he raised his fingers to his eyes and studied the thin film of creamy slime and rubbed it between his fingers and thumb and then smiled up at me with innocent delight. He brought his sticky fingers to his nose and inhaled deeply, and recalling my own curiosity and wonder regarding this marvel of the male body, I brought mine to my nose and smelled them also with the same wonder as he. When we returned to his home a while later, his mother had just finished baking and the delightful fragrance of bread fresh from the oven filled our lungs and caused our mouths to water, but to me the fragrance was nowhere near as satisfying as the fragrance of a young boy's cock on my fingers or that of one's seed fresh from one's balls.

There was another boy who helped the time go by, a fourteen-year-old Guanche by the name of Ismail al-Hamani, the son of a basket weaver. (5) I spotted him selling baskets in the market square several days after our arrival. Not only was he an attractively handsome boy, but he resembled another fourteen-year-old Berber whom I had befriended two years ago, the young cutpurse Ahmar, who had taught me much about congress between boys, and who was my first true love. While I was watching, he got up and headed down the street and I followed him, hoping for some opportunity to strike up a conversation. Seeing him turn into an alley, I broke into a run and turned into the alley also, hoping I had not lost him. Discovering him standing there, I skidded to a stop and practically knocked him over. Why he had stepped into the alley was embarrassingly obvious.

"Well," he said, looking me up and down as he continued to relieve himself, "you are much too clumsy to be a cutpurse, unless you are as dumb as you are clumsy for you will not get any coin from a basketweaver's son. And you are much too young to be following a boy to pay him for a mid-afternoon pleasure, so you have either rushed in here to do what I am doing, or you have been following me because you are one of those boys who has a special liking for other boys." He had the same smile and the same gift of the tongue as Ahmar also. He had the truth of it and I began to turn crimson. "Ah-ha," he said, "so I am right. Fortunately for you, I am a very virile person and have very high needs, and it matters not to me if the one satisfying those needs has to stand or squat to piss." Ahmar had made the exact same comment. "You do not say much," he continued without giving me a chance to speak, "but then that it not the use of your mouth that I am interested in." I glanced down at the brown sausage in his hand. "Come, I already have it out for you."

Such was my perversity and depravity that I decided why not? He was attractive and that really was why I had followed him, and he not only looked and talked like Ahmar, but he was of the same brash character. Perhaps that is the way with young Berber boys, for it certainly seemed to be with those I have met and it is the truth that some races, especially the Blacks and the Arabs, know no sexual taboos and rut like dogs in the street. And so I dropped to my knees there in the alley and took his member in my hand. His even had a hood like Ahmar's had. Having had much experience with men who were like him, I drew it back to ensure he was clean, which to my relief he was, and I shook his member and milked it to dislodge any remaining piss before bending forward and taking it in my mouth. His dark brown cock had a slightly salty taste, from him having just taken a piss I suspect, but it was neither strong nor unpleasant, and it had a musky, cheesy odor, which I found enticing rather than repugnant. His cock began to respond quickly to my actions and was soon hard. Gently sucking on his member as I slowly slipped my lips up and down the shaft, I closed my eyes and I focused on the pleasure that comes with pleasing another boy this way. There was no doubt he was deriving pleasure as I felt the underside of his cock just below the bulb throb and I clamped my lips down just below his bulb to cut off his desire and to prolong his pleasure, and mine.

Waiting until I was assured that his ardor had subsided, I resumed sucking his cock and working my lips up and down its length and I closed my eyes once more and again focused on the pleasure that comes from that most intimate of acts between boys, and the pleasure that comes knowing the delight that sucking another's cock brings another. I delayed him one more time, but when I felt the underside of his cock pulse a third time I prepared myself for what was about to happen and continued. Soon thereafter he began to shoot his seed and I rapidly and eagerly began swallowing it. It was, I thought, of a mildly sweet taste, and thinner and more watery than most. His need was great and he shot a large volume, which I managed to drink as fast as it filled my mouth.

"You are good," he gasped when I finally slipped my lips off his still stiff cock, "very good." He was breathing heavily and his face was flushed and his dark brown eyes glazed. His balls, so dark they were almost black, were drawn up tight beneath his projecting sausage. Dropping to his knees, he reached up and untied the cord holding up my trousers and they dropped to my ankles, revealing my cock standing erect in my excitement. "How did you know when I was going to spill my seed?"

I told him about the tremor on the underside of one's cock and promising to try to bring me the same prolonged pleasure, he slipped his thick, dark brown lips over my bulb and began to suck. I watched him slowly slip his lips down my shaft until he had my entire cock in his mouth and from the glow in his brown-black eyes I could tell he was receiving as much enjoyment as I was. He was skilled and evidently experienced in providing this pleasure and I stood there with my trousers about my ankles and enjoyed his hot, moist mouth totally enveloping my stiff cock, and then the delight as his suction began to tug on my stiff member and his lips began to ease back up the shaft. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the throbbing and itching pleasure between my legs, my cock seeming to swell until it was twice its size.

All too soon I felt my seed about to erupt and I was about to tell him when he slipped his lips up my shaft and clamped them tight below the bulb as I had done to him, preventing me from shooting my seed. I inhaled and exhaled deeply as I enjoyed the throbbing pleasure between my legs and the tension deep in my groin as my nuts fought to release their load and my mind and flesh fought the urge until the pressure in my groin subsided. He resumed sucking then, slowly bringing me back to that point that was both exceedingly pleasant and exceedingly painful, and for a second time he delayed the spurting of my seed. Once again he began he began to suck and to work his lips up and down my shaft, and once again I delighted in the throbbing of my swollen cock and the itch around the rim of my knob. He was clearly enjoying sucking my cock as much as I had enjoyed sucking his, a pleasure that knows no racial boundaries.

As he brought me to that peak a third time he did not stop and I could not delay any longer. Heartbeats later I began to fill his mouth with my seed. As I had done, he immediately began to swallow but my load was copious and spurting out of my cock rapidly and he could not keep up. My seed oozed out from the corner of his lips and the slime oozed down and around his chin to form an obscene goatee and I threw back my head and sighed and groaned with the pleasure of my release. When at last I ceased to throb out my juice, he continued to suck on my still rigid cock and to slip his tightly clamped lips up and down my shaft, sucking out the remaining seed and savoring its raw taste. At last he sat back and wiping his dark brown lips and chin off with the back of his hand, he smiled up at me.

"You are very good too," I observed with a smile of satisfaction, and he returned the smile.

We met several times in the market after that first time and caught each other's eye and slipped away to that alley. If his father noticed that his son had to relieve his bladder whenever I walked by or that he was strangely flushed when he returned or smelled of sex, he never said anything. We were detained for three weeks and four days but for me the wait was not an unpleasant one. Finally on Thursday, September 6 in the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and ninety-two, we left San Sabastian La Gomera to continue on our way. Colombo reported that three Portuguese caravels were sighted near the island of Hierro and that they intended on capturing him because the King of Portugal was envious because he had gone to Castile. Again I had to wonder at the Admiral's joy in being persecuted. There may have been such ships though none were ever seen even though we were becalmed that day and night, but I knew for a fact it was a lie that King João was envious.

Six days later the crew on the Niña reported seeing a jay and a ring-tail which brought much joy to the crew for it meant land was near. I myself could not believe that we had crossed the Ocean Sea so quickly and that land was already within reach but these were largely men of experience so I kept quiet. While the crew's spirits had been lifted, I myself remained in ill sorts. I had not slept solidly since leaving the Islands as almost nightly I awoke finding myself wet and sticky with nocturnal emissions and every morning I had to take great care that others did not see the erect state I was in when I went to the head to relieve myself. One of the men joked that I was being unnecessarily prudish and that I had nothing that every other man on the ship had, and another joked that perhaps it was because of my size that I was being so careful not to be seen and joked that I need not worry for when I grew up I would have the equipment of a man. Their comments only served to make me blush, which caused them to make them all the more and all the louder.

At least they did not suspect the real reason for my modest behaviour which was some relief. Being discovered, however, was only part of my fears. Of equal worry was that my excesses while delayed on La Gomera had somehow injured my member so that it could no longer hold back my seed while asleep, and that it had somehow made it more sensitive so that it became aroused without needing thought or touch. Nightly before sleep I asked the Lord for forgiveness of my sins and to cure me of these shameful ailments, but I was a wretch and a sinner and He had no Ears for me.

On Saturday, September 15, at the beginning of night, we saw a marvellous branch of fire fall to the sea some four or five leagues away which the Admiral said was a sign from the Lord that land was not far away and He was showing us the way, which raised the joy of the crew even higher. For the next two days the sea became clogged with grass, a sure sign of land, and rain began to fall, causing me to reflect on the Admiral's great Christian faith and God's reward for such loyal belief, and I wondered again how I had gone so wrong coming from a faithful, Christian home.

It was at that time that I discovered that Colombo was using and recording two sets of distances. When I questioned him, he told me that he was computing and reporting to the crew the lesser number of leagues so as not to frighten them if the voyage should prove to be lengthy. By using the shorter distance, they would not think they were that far from Castile and so would not worry about their return but in reality our distance was the latter number. He swore me to secrecy and knowing the temper and anxiety of the crew, I agreed as my mind reasoned it was the right thing to do though in my heart I felt a leader should not lie to his men.(6)

About a week earlier while assisting the pilot, Pero Nino, I had noticed that the needle of the compass was no longer pointing to the North Star but instead varied a half point to the Northwest. I made a point of checking it each day after that and as our journey progressed I noticed it continued to vary further. When I at last mentioned my observation to Colombo, I was told to be silent and not to mention it to the crew on pain of death. The crew he said was quick to panic, which I had come to realize also, and with their destination unknown they would be most fearful. The crew was also experienced, however, and others soon discovered the fact themselves and became most anxious and, already homesick, voiced their opinion we should turn around. When confronted, Colombo claimed that the needle of the compass did not point to the North Star but rather pointed to some invisible point on Earth and there was nothing to worry about. He also expressed his hope that in answer to his prayers, "to our exalted God in whose hands are all victories land will very soon appear." Already suspecting his navigational skill, as were others, including the Pinzon brothers, I said nothing for I knew there was no advantage in doing so, but the variation in the compass reading was hardly something new, the occurrence having been noted and recorded by other sailors and being something Father had explained to me on our voyage to the Kongo two years ago though I had not witnessed such a thing until this voyage. (7)

Several days later we were calmed again and again the sea was clogged with grass and the sailors began to worry that there would be no wind to carry us back east. As if their voices had been heard, the next day we encountered a contrary wind which blew us in the direction we had come, calming the sailors' fears but setting us back. Then the following day, a Sunday, we encountered great sea waves like Moses must have encountered leading his people out of Egypt which sent fear in the hearts of the crew once again. When we had begun this voyage, I had felt that it would be a short voyage and we would be forced to turn around. Now I was beginning to fear that we would not return at all. That night I fell to my knees and grasping the Cross of Saint Christopher I prayed to the Saint for safe journey in these turbulent seas.

On Tuesday, September 25th Martin Alonzo Pinzon mounted in the stern of his ship and with great joy called to the Admiral, begging a reward from him as he saw land and the Admiral commenced on his knees to give thanks to Our Lord. Men climbed the masts on all three ships and agreed that it was about 25 leagues away and we and Martin Pinzon's people dropped to our knees in thanks and said Gloria in Excelsis Deo and I offered silent thanks to Saint Christopher. The next day, however, to our disappointment we discovered what we had thought was land was only cloud along the horizon. The weather was pleasant with a mild breeze and our ship followed a current like a river, bringing everyone much needed relief and hope after our disappointment.

My nightly emissions and morning erections had thankfully ceased, my body and mind having recovered from my excesses on the Canary Islands, the result of my long hours of honest work and my abstinence, in thought and in deed, and in response to my prayers and plea for forgiveness, but I found my prurience doubling each day and I so desperately wanted to bring myself relief that my groin ached with pain. I refrained from doing so however, out of fear of being caught, and out of fear of injuring my member again. One sailor, a younger man whose name I shall not reveal to spare him and his family the shame, did not show such restraint and was caught abusing himself one night when he thought all were asleep. The Admiral made him stand before the assembled crew and he was castigated and humiliated for his weakness and his shirt was removed and he was lashed for his sin, and he was given a bucket and ordered to clean the head daily for a week for although the great waves we encountered did an efficient job of keeping the head clean, there were days when we were becalmed and the head quickly became most foul with forty men using it. (8)

As a result of our disappointment, Colombo ordered that the ships unite at sunrise and sunset as at these times the mists disappeared and it was the best time to see long distances. To ensure the ships traveled within distance of each other, Colombo also made a habit of sending a chart between ships by cord to mark our route at those times. There was much beating about, something Colombo did not like to do and which did little to raise confidence among the crew, but it was necessary. (9)

About two weeks later, at sunrise on Sunday, October 7, as we were all sailing as fast as possible in order to see land first and enjoy the reward which the most Christian and very exalted Sovereigns had promised to whomever should first see land, the caravel Niña which was ahead on account of being a fast sailor, raised a banner on top of the mast and fired a lombard, the signal that had been arranged to indicate they saw land, but it was again another false alarm, causing the men to grumble and for tension to rise once more and I feared they would mutiny so great was their fear and their desire to return home.

Later that day a great number of birds were seen going from North to Southwest and it was reasonable to assume they were heading to land to sleep, or perhaps were fleeing from winter which had to be approaching in the countries from whence they came. I mentioned that the Portuguese discovered the greater part of the islands in their possession by the flight of birds, and Colombo changed his course from the west, turning his prow to the west-south-west to follow them, deciding to set that direction for two days and telling the crew that the Portuguese had found many of the islands in their possession by following the birds, making it sound as if it was his idea and not mine. I could tell from his voice his uncertainty, and so did much of the crew.

Three days later we had yet to find land and tempers were running high and the crew had enough and were ready to mutiny. Colombo became very angry and said he intended on finding the Indies with the aid of the Lord and that there was no use to complain. Convinced that I would never see Portugal or family again, that night I prayed to the Lord for forgiveness of my sins and I prepared to meet my Maker.

Author's notes

1. Cristóvão Colombo is the Portuguese name. Also called Christopher Columbus (English), Cristoforo Colombo (Italian), Cristóbel Colón (Spanish), and Christoffa Corombo (Genoese).
2. Cardinal Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, May 3, 1428 – Jan 11, 1495, a Castilian Cardinal, Crown Cardinal of the Catholic Monarchs and Bishop of Toledo, and advocate of Christopher Columbus, was more soldier and statesman than priest. He was involved in the campaign of the Castilians against Granada, just recently concluded, and did not attend the Papal Concave of 1492, but did travel to Palos where he blessed Columbus and his three ships. Thin and balding, his health broke down the end of 1493. His countryman, Rodrigo de Borja, was born in Jativa near Valencia and was elected the new pope, Pope Alexander VI.
3. Joven. Spanish, young man.
4. The three ships were quite tiny by modern standards no longer than a tennis court, and less than 30 feet wide. The Santa Maria had 40 men aboard, the Pinta, 26, and the Niña, 24. There are several lists identifying the men, some incomplete and the lists varying. The names of members of the ships' crew in this and subsequent chapters are actual names from what is considered the most accurate list. The reason Nico's name is not among them can be explained by the fact that he was signed on at the last moment and was therefore not listed by the Royal Steward. Columbus's flagship, the Santa Maria, was the largest, a nao (carrack). Having a round hull, it was slow and unwieldy during the long ocean voyage. The other two ships were caravels with narrow hulls and therefore faster for ocean travel. The Pinta, meaning the Pint or the Spotted One, was captained by Martin Alonzo Pinzon. The Santa Clara (nicknamed the Niña, the Girl) was captained by Pinzon's brother, Vicente Yanez Pinzon. The events (and descriptions) of the voyage mentioned in this chapter and the next (except of course those of Nico) are taken directly from the captain's log kept of the first voyage, various translations of which can be found on-line.
5. The Guanche, one of the Berber peoples and the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands, are now extinct.
6. As described in the abstract of his log made by Bartolomé de Las Casas, on the outward-bound voyage Columbus recorded two sets of distances. Las Casas originally interpreted that he reported the shorter distances to his crew so they would not worry about sailing too far from Spain as stated in this story. However, according to Oliver Dunn and James Kelley, this was a misunderstanding by Las Casas. Columbus did report two distances each day but one was in measurements he normally used, the other in the shorter Portuguese maritime leagues used by his crew.
7. Columbus's reputation as an astronomer held weight with the crew, and his theory that the compass was pointing to some invisible point alleviated their alarm. It was once believed that Columbus had discovered magnetic declination, but it was later shown that the phenomenon was already known, both in Europe and in China.
8. The bow of the ship is known also as the head, a term used since the 1490's. There a net was hung just below the bowsprit where sailors descended to perform their bodily functions. The splashing water at the bow cleaned the area naturally. This is likely the origin of referring to a toilet as the "head".
9. Beating about: a nautical phrase used to mean changing direction and searching for land.

Chapter 2
Beating About the Cipango Sea

Arriving at what will later be the Bahamas and then continuing on to what would later be Cuba and Hispaniola, Columbus and crew are struck by the nakedness, simplicity and sexual openness of the natives and Nico is struck by the arrogance, cruelty and dishonesty of the Spaniards especially given their strong faith. Has congress with several male natives during an expedition inland on the inland of Cubanascnan. He frees the captive Indians Columbus plans to taking to Europe and throws himself overboard.

Nicolau Ribeiro (16yo); Ciboney Indians (14, 18-20yo)
tt Mt cons anal

The following day we sailed twenty-seven leagues up to sunset with no sight of land and despite the Admiral's words there was much grumbling among the crew and again talk of mutiny so great were their fears. Then much to everyone's surprise and delight at two the following morning, Friday, October 12, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and ninety-two, because the caravel Pinta was the best sailor and was going ahead of the Admiral, land was discovered about two leagues distant by her crew and the signs which the Admiral had ordered should such an event occur were made. A sailor by the name of Rodrigo de Traina saw this land first and claimed the reward which was an annuity of 10,000 maravedis promised by the Catholic Monarchs, but the Admiral claimed that at 10 o'clock the previous night while in the stern forecastle he had seen a light, but that it was so concealed that he did not declare it to be land: but had called Pedro de Gutierrez, Groom of the Chamber of the King and the Royal Steward, who also saw the light, like a small wax candle which rose and fell, which hardly appeared to be an indication of land. It had been for that reason that he had implored and admonished the crew to guard the stern forecastle well and search diligently for land and had promised that to whomever should first see land he would then give a silk doublet in addition to the annuity promised by the Monarchs of the Spains, and so he claimed the reward for himself so that even in this moment of joy he caused the crew to be disgruntled.

We lowered all the sails and remained with only the cross-jack-sail, which is the great sail without bonnets, and lay to, standing off and on until dawn. There was much rejoicing and much relief when the sun rose and it was confirmed that we had indeed reached land which everyone the day before had thought would never happen! As we approached the island, we saw there were people along the shore, and as we drew nearer we saw they were all males and all naked as their mothers gave them birth, which came as a great surprise for it was our understanding that the peoples of Cipango were a civilized people and wore clothing as we did. Mindful of my offer to serve as a guard on this expedition, Colombo summoned me forward along with several other men and he with Martin Alonso Pinzon and his brother Vincente Yafiez Pinzon boarded a small armed boat and we were rowed ashore. There in the presence of the two captains and in the presence of Rodrigo Descoredo, Notary of all the Fleet, and Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, the Royal Comptroller sent by their Majesties to oversee the finances of the expedition, he planted the Royal Banners of the Catholic Monarchs and took possession of the isle for them, calling it San Salvador, which means Holy Savior.

The men we had spotted on the shore had retreated to the edge of the forest and had watched silently and now the more daring began to approach with great care and trepidation, and we in turn watched them with some anxiety though none appeared to be carrying a weapon. When their leader spoke it was unlike any language I have ever heard, but from the tone of his voice and his gestures and the gestures of the others they did not appear aggressive. Colombo greeted them in a like manner, telling them we had come in peace on behalf of their most Christian and very exalted and very powerful Majesties, the King and Queen of the Spains and of the Islands of the Sea, and seeing we did not mean to attack, the rest of the islanders slowly approached. They were young men, all appearing to be under thirty years of age, with one female who appeared very young as her breasts had barely begun to develop and she had no hair yet between her legs, evident to all as she was shamelessly as naked as the men were. Colombo gave them some red caps and some glass beads and other things of small value, so that, as Colombo explained later, "they might feel great friendship for us and because I knew they were a people who would better be freed and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force."

We returned to the ships and a short time later more of the peoples of this island appeared on shore and several came swimming to the two ships where we were, bringing us parrots and cotton thread wound in balls and spears and many other things, and they traded them with us for other things which we gave them, such as small glass beads and hawk's bells. Colombo observed that it appeared to him that they were a very poor people, in everything. They were very well built, all of them, with very handsome bodies, not one of them corpulent nor thin and their legs very straight, and generally they were all of good height, most of them being a palm or more taller than our tallest man, standing at about sixteen and a half hands tall. They had pleasant faces, their forehead and head being very wide, more than any other peoples I have yet seen. Their hair appeared almost as coarse as horses' tails and was short where they wore it over the eyebrows but exceptionally long behind. They were of the same color as the inhabitants of the Canaries, neither white nor black, but more of an olive-brown to a copper color. Some painted themselves blackish, others white, and some red. Some painted their faces, some all the body, some only the eyes, and some only the nose. I could only guess that these were some form of primitive ornament. Of course I could not help but make note of their private parts which were wantonly and openly exposed, and I noted their members all had hoods pulled over their bulb with the end tied with a cord and were of a great range of sizes, as were their testicles.

They did not carry arms nor appear to know what they were, because upon showing them swords they took them by the edge and ignorantly cut themselves. They appeared to have no iron, their spears being mere sticks, some with a fish's tooth at the end and others with a hard burnt tip. Some had scars on their bodies, and when asked, they indicated by gestures and enactment that other people came from other islands nearby to capture them and they defended themselves. Colombo noted that they would be good servants for they are intelligent and they very quickly say all that is said to them, and he stated he believed that they would easily become Christians, as it appeared that they had no sect. This land, which we assume is Cipango despite the strangeness of the islanders, they call Guanahani in their tongue. (1)

The next day these young men came again to the shore and came to the ship in boats, which they called canoa, made from the trunk of a tree, like a long boat but all in one piece and very wonderfully fashioned. (2) Some were so large forty or forty-five men arrived in each one, others were smaller, and some so small that only one man came in them. They row these canoa with a paddle and go wonderfully well; and if they upset, then they all commence to swim and bail them out with gourds, which they carry. They brought balls of spun cotton and parrots and spears and other small things which it would be tedious to write about, and gave everything for whatever might be given them. Some of them wore a small piece of gold suspended from a hole they have in the nose and by signs they indicated that going to the south there was a King who had large vessels of gold and who had a great deal of it, which of course interested Colombo greatly.

The island we arrived at was very large and level without any mountain and had very green trees, so green it was a pleasure to behold them especially after five weeks at sea, and there were many rivers and a very large lake in the center. The people are very mild and on account of desiring our things, believing that they will not be given them without they give something, and they have nothing, they give all they have for whatever thing may be given them. They traded for even pieces of pitchers and broken glass so that I saw sixteen balls of cotton given for three ceotis of Portugal which are worth one blanca of Castile, and in the balls there would be more than an arroba of spun cotton. I concluded these islands are undiscovered islands, the unnamed islands map makers mark on a map east of Cipango to designate the end of the known world, and in mentioning this to Colombo he agreed that it might be so.

At dawn, Colombo, along with several others including myself, went along the island toward the north in a longboat to see more of the island and the villages, and the people all came to the shore calling us and giving thanks to God; some brought us water, others brought other things to eat. Others when they saw that we did not care to land threw themselves into the sea and came swimming and Luis de Torres, who had lived with the Adelantado of Murcia, and had been a Jew and who knew how to speak Hebrew and Chaldean and even some Arabic and who served as the fleet's interpreter, understood that they asked us if we came from heaven. An old man came into the boat and according to Luis the others called loudly to all the men and women, "come and see the men who came from heaven: bring them something to eat and drink." I do not know if that is so, but many did come, including many women, much to the delight of the crew as these women, like the men and the one young girl we have seen, came as naked as they were born, and not having seen a woman for five weeks, the men were most joyful to see them. Each one came with something, giving thanks to God, throwing themselves on the ground and lifting their hands toward heaven, and afterwards they called loudly to us to go to land; but a great reef of rocks which encircles all that island prevented us from landing. That was unfortunate for the water is deep within and forms a port for as many ships as there are in Christendom, but the entrance to it is very tortuous.

We searched for land upon which to build a fort, though it does not appear to be necessary because these people are very simple in matters of arms. Seven were taken captive to be carried along and learn our speech and then be returned to their country, an act that did not sit well with my mind nor my heart. Seizing men against their will and forcing them to do our bidding does not seem right. I overheard Colombo say to Luis that when their Highnesses order it, all can be taken, and carried to Castile or held captives on the island itself, because with fifty men all can be subjugated and made to do everything which is desired. I know that for certain races such as the blacks of Africa to be made slaves is the natural order of the world, they being less civilized and of lesser intelligence and slavery giving them a better lot in life. Until we know these people better, I think it presumptuous to assume such is also best for them. I know Father and Uncle are uncertain if even the blacks should be slaves for neither has slaves and both have observed that it did not seem right that one race serve another even if that race is obviously inferior. Of that I am uncertain, but despite their great claims to be good Christians, I have found few Spaniards who practice Christian charity. On the island there were orchards of trees, the most beautiful that I have ever seen, and as green and with leaves like those of Portugal in the months of April and May. Afterward when we returned to the ship and made sail we saw so many islands that it was impossible to decide which to visit first, and those men who had been taken, told Luis by signs, that there were so many that they could not be numbered, and they enumerated by their names more than one hundred. All are very level without mountains and very fertile and all inhabited, and I gathered from sign language with our captives that the inhabitants make war against each other although they are very simple and fine-looking men and have only the simplest of weapons. I have to wonder if that is also the natural way of the world, for it seems no matter where I have traveled, the people I have encountered are at war with their neighbors for their land or their belongings or to subject them to their rule.

The next large island we came to Colombo named the Isla de Santa Maria de la Concepcion, and almost at sunset we anchored near the Cape to learn if there was gold there because the natives whom Colombo had caused to be taken on the island of San Salvador told him that the people there wore very large golden bracelets on the legs and arms. I quite believe that everything they said was a lie in order to flee, hoping we would take them on land where it would be easier to escape or that upon approaching land we would be too preoccupied to stop them from diving off the ship, but Colombo's intention was not to pass by any island which he did not take possession. Unfortunately for the islanders, he must have been of the same mind as I for he never took them ashore, and when near land he posted extra men to keep watch over them.

On the fourth day of our arrival, Colombo went to the land at dawn, but a wind blew across strongly from the southeast so he soon returned to the ship. There was a large canoa beside the caravel Niña and one of the men from the island of San Salvador who was on board the caravel threw himself into the sea and went away in the canoa, and at midnight, another threw himself overboard and went after the canoa. Colombo gave chase but there never was a boat which could overtake it, although we followed it a long way. So they gained the land and they left the canoa, and some of the Admiral's company went on land after them and the people there scattered like chickens. They took the canoa which the islanders had left and brought it alongside the caravel Niña, where already there was coming from another point another small canoa with a man who came to barter a ball of cotton; and some sailors threw themselves into the sea and took him, because he would not enter the caravel.

The Admiral being on the poop of the ship saw everything and sent for him and gave him a red bonnet and some small beads of green glass and two hawk's bells, which he put in his ears, and Colombo ordered his canoa, which also was in the boat, to be returned to him and he sent him to land along with the other canoa and he gave the order to go to the other large island which we saw to the west. Colombo explained that he treated the man who had come to barter kindly so that he would tell the others that we were very good people and so the natives would hold us in this esteem and so that another time when their Highnesses send men here again the islanders would not receive our people badly. He said the other two Indians who had fled had done us some injury but he hoped the man he had sent away would counter that injury. (3)

So we continued in order to go to this other island which we were told is very large and where according to these men whom we are bringing from the island of San Salvador there is a great deal of gold and that they wear bracelets of it on their arms and on their legs and in their ears and in their noses and on their breasts. These islands are very green and fertile and the breezes are very soft and there are many things which we do not know, because Columbo did not wish to stop in order to discover and search as many islands as he could to find gold, with, he said, the aid of our Lord.

In the middle of the gulf between these two islands, the island of Santa Maria and this large one, which Colombo has named Fernandina, we found a man alone in a canoa who was going from the island of Santa Maria to Fernandina, and was carrying a little of his bread which might have been about as large as the fist, and a gourd of water, and a piece of reddish earth reduced to dust and afterwards kneaded, and some dry leaves which strangely is a thing very much appreciated among them because they had already brought some of them as a present at San Salvador: and he was carrying a small basket of their kind, in which he had a string of small glass beads and two blancas, by which we knew that he came from the island of San Salvador, and had gone from there to Santa Maria and was going to Fernandina. I could not help but marvel that these islanders could travel such distances alone in their canoa. He came to the ship and was treated fairly like the other who had come to barter in the hopes others who come after us will be received with honor.

We were becalmed the next day but made the island of Fernandina, and there at a village we found the man from the gulf. He had given such good reports of us that all night there was no lack of canoas alongside the ship as the Indians brought us water and everything which they had in return for some little glass beads on a thread, or some brass timbrels which are worth a maravedi each in Castile, or some leather straps, all of which they considered of the greatest excellence, and also molasses was provided to feed them which they thought was wonderful: and then at the hour of tercia the ship's small vessel was sent for water, and the islanders very willingly showed the crew where the water was, and they themselves brought the barrels full to the vessel, and were very greatly rejoiced to give us pleasure.

Colombo determined we would sail around the island of Fernandina and beat about until we find Samoat, which is the island or city where the gold is according to those Indians from Fernandina and those Indians from the islands of San Salvador and Santa Maria. The people of Fernandina are similar to those of the other islands, and have the same language and customs, except that these appear to be somewhat more domestic, of better manners and more subtle, because they have brought cotton here to the ship and other little things for which they know how to exact payment better than the others: and also on this island I saw cotton cloths made like headdresses and the people are better disposed and the women wear in front a little piece of cotton which covers their most private parts though just barely.

This island is very green and level and fertile, and no doubt panic-grass may be sown and harvested here all the year. There are also many trees very different from ours and among them many which to my amazement had branches of many kinds and all from one trunk, one branch being of one kind and another of another kind and so different that it is the greatest wonder in the world. For example, one branch had leaves like canes, and another like mastich-trees: and thus, on one tree alone, there are five or six of these kinds, and all are different: neither are they grafted, nor do these people take any care of them.

Like the others they do not know any sect and Colombo is of the belief that they would very soon become Christians because they possess very good intelligence. There are fish here so different from ours that it is wonderful. There are some formed like cocks of the finest colors in the world, blue, yellow, red and of all colors, and others tinted in a thousand manners: and the colors are so fine that there is not a man who does not wonder at them, and who does not take great pleasure in seeing them. Also there are whales. We saw no beasts on land of any kind except parrots and lizards, not even sheep nor goats. A cabin boy, Pedro de Terreros, told me that he did see a large snake.

When we said Mass the next morning, Colombo thanked The Lord for blessing us with such pleasant surroundings and for such abundance, and for our safe journey as we beat about this sea of Cipango. And he thanked Him also for the mild and generous Indians whom we have encountered, and again, as he did frequently, beseeched the Lord to send His priests to these islands to convert these simple people to the Holy Faith. He asked blessings also upon the Catholic Monarchs, whose virtue and faith he extolled, and upon us His loyal and pure servants, and upon all Spaniards, who were true and faithful Christians. I could not help but glance upward through slitted eyes, expecting the Lord to strike him with a bolt of lightening for his words. I had seen the way the crew looked at the women of these islands and I could see the lust in their eyes and I knew the thoughts in their minds were far from Christian. As for all Spaniards, I had seen their behavior, their cruelty and crudity, and it was not behavior befitting Christians.

As for the Catholic Monarchs, there was no question that the Holy Father in Rome blessed them and elevated them higher than others who were their betters, others like good King João, and I had heard that Queen Isabella herself was particularly virtuous when it came to matters regarding sex, to the point, according to her son-in-law Afonso, who had been a good friend of mine, being a prude. That in itself came as no surprise to me considering that both her father and his father before that were well-known lovers of men despite considering themselves righteous Christians and Catholics. (4)

That morning after Mass we took on barrels of water and I and several others visited the village where we found dogs and beds which were like nets of cotton which we have named from their language hamaca. (5) Here the older women wore breechcloths of cotton and the young girls none, except some who were already eighteen years of age but why this is I do not know. Later in the day we headed for the island I now believe the men from San Salvador call Saomete. It was very dark and cloudy and the weather was very threatening and the wind was light and did not allow us to reach land. It has rained a little or a great deal every day since we have been here in the Indies. Two days later, three hours after dawn, we spotted Saomete which Colombo named Isabella. The land is higher than that of the other islands which we have found. There likely are here many herbs and trees, which would be of great value in Spain for dyeing, for medicines and for spices, but we do not know them, which troubles the Admiral greatly.

The Indians say the King is in a village inland although Columbo does not put much faith in their sayings, as much because he does not understand them well, and because of knowing them to be so poor in gold that whatever small quantity this King wears it appears a great deal to them. The next two days we sailed along the coast of Saomete in search of the village and king of the island but found nobody. Still, the island is a delight. The singing of the little birds is such that a man would wish never to leave here, and the flocks of parrots obscure the sun. And then there are a thousand kinds of trees, each with its own fruit and they are all wonderfully odoriferous. Colombo is the most troubled man in the world that he does not know them, and he has admitted such many times.

Spotting islanders along the shore, we requested water of them and they brought us gourds full for which we gave them some hawk's bells and some little glass beads and they were very much pleased and very joyful and they said they would come here tomorrow. Wishing to fill all the ship's butts with water here, we waited hoping also to see this king and to receive his gold. We have been told of another very large island which Columbo believes must be Cipango but which they call Colba. They say that at this island there are many large ships and many skilled seamen. Near this island there is another which they call Bosio or Bohio, which they say is also very large. Colombo is eager to find these islands, and has said that he will search any other islands which lie between in passing, and according to whether we find a quantity of gold or spices, he will determine what must be done. Mostly, however, he is determined to go to the mainland to the city of Guisay and give their Highnesses' letters to the Great Khan, and beg for a reply and come back with it.

All night and the next day we waited to see the King. Many islanders arrived and brought spears and some balls of cotton to trade and which they exchanged for pieces of glass, broken cups, and for pieces of earthen porringers. Some of them wore pieces of gold fastened to their noses, which they willingly gave for a hawk's bell suitable for the foot of a sparrow-hawk, and for small glass beads; but it is so small a quantity of gold, that it is nothing. Failing to see their king, Colombo wanted to leave the next day for the island they call Cubanascnan which he believes must be Cipango but there was no wind and it rained hard though the nights are temperate like those in the month of May back home.

Finally we left for Cubanascnan and arrived that day and Colombo took possession of it, as he has every island we have found, and called it Juana after the daughter of their Majesties Ferdinand and Isabella. And, as on each island we have found, a large cross was placed at the entrance of the harbor on the highest elevation "as a sign," Colombo said, "that Our Highnesses hold the land for Their own and principally as a sign of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in honor of Christianity." The Admiral may have many faults as a sailor and as a person, but he is the most devout and staunch Christian I have ever met, even more so than some of the Cardinals I have come to know. The islanders on Juana are much the same as on the other islands. We were told they are called the Ciboney, related to those from the island of Guanahani, and the latter told us that with their canoa they cannot go around this island in twenty days.

The Indians from Guanahani said that in this island there are mines of gold and pearls, and we found mussels which is an indication of the latter, and the Admiral understood that large ships belonging to the Great Khan came there, and that from there to the mainland it was a ten-day journey. So the next day he went with a boat to a village to have speech with the Indians, and in one of the boats he sent an Indian from among those he was taking with him, because that Indian already understood us somewhat and showed that he was pleased with the Christians. All the men and women and children fled, abandoning the houses with all they had, and the Admiral ordered that nothing be touched. He said that the houses were more beautiful than those he had seen yet and he believed that the nearer we approach the mainland the better they are. They found many statues of women's forms and many heads like masks, very well made. It is not known whether they have them because of their beauty or whether they adore them. There were dogs which never barked and small wild birds tamed in their houses. There were wonderful outfits of nets and hooks and fishing implements. The Admiral believed that all the Indians on the coast must be fishermen who carry the fish inland, because that island is very large and so beautiful that he could not say too much good of it.

He says that he found trees and fruits of a very wonderful taste. And he says that there must be cows and other herds of cattle on this island, because he saw skulls which appeared to him to be skulls of cows. There were large and small birds and the crickets sang all the night, which pleased everyone. The breezes were soft and pleasant during all the night, neither cold nor warm. But in regard to the other islands he says that it is very warm upon them and here it is not, but temperate as in May. He attributes the heat of the other islands to their being very level, and to the fact that the wind which blows there is from the south and on that account very warm.

The Indians who were in the caravel Pinta said that this Cubanascnan was the mainland, very large, which extends very far to the north; and that the King of this country was at war with the Great Khan, whom they called Cami or Cavila, and his country or city they called Fava or Bafan and many other names. So the Admiral decided to send two Spaniards, Rodrigo de Jerez who lived in Ayamonte and our interpreter, Luis de Torres: and with these men he sent myself as their guard and two Indians, one of those he was taking with him from Guanahani and the other from those houses situated on the River. He gave us strings of beads to buy something to eat if hunting should fail us and six days time in which to return. He gave us specimens of spices to see if we came across any of them. He gave us instructions as to how we must ask for the King of that country and as to what we were to say on the part of the Sovereigns of Castile, how they sent the Admiral that he might give to the King on their part their letters and a present, and in order to learn of his state and gain friendship with him that he might favor them in whatever they might need: and that they might learn of certain provinces and harbors and rivers of which the Admiral had information and how far distant they were from there.

We traveled twelve leagues to a village of fifty houses where there were we figured a thousand inhabitants, as a great many live in one house. These houses are like very large pavilions, constructed of palm branches and without the uniformity of streets, but one here and another there. Within they were very well swept and clean, and their furnishings were arranged in good order. The Indians received us with great solemnity according to their custom, and the most honorable persons of the village took us by the arms to what was their principal house where we sat and all the men in the village sat around us. The Indian from Guanahani told them how we Christians lived and how we were good people. The men touched us and kissed our hands and feet wondering and marveling at their color and believing that we came from heaven. They gave us to eat from what they had, a type of flat bread made from a root that looks like a carrot and tastes like chestnuts, sweet black berries which I have never tasted before, and a fowl which they roasted over a spit and tasted much like goose. Afterwards the men went out and the women entered and seated themselves in the same manner around us, kissing our hands and feet, and trying them to see if they were of flesh and of bone like themselves.

That night we were lodged in one of their best houses and shortly afterward five young maidens joined us and it was evident why they had come. The two Indians were most honored and explained that it was their custom for a young woman to be sent to join distinguished guests to provide him pleasure during the night. Being the heathens and savages that they are, they saw nothing wrong regarding the practice and immediately took two of the young women to their beds. The two Spaniards were shocked, being good and decent Christians, but they were also men, and they had not been with a woman for two or three months, and the women who joined them were naked and well formed and skilled in providing pleasure to men. (6)

I found myself faced with a major and unexpected problem. The maiden who had approached me was young, around my own age, and well developed, but I had no feelings toward her and despite her attempts to arouse me, my flesh did not respond and the harder we both tried the more obstinate my flesh became. At this she seemed quite dismayed, and through what little of their language I could understand and from her gestures, I gathered that she was concerned that I did not find her attractive, and that she would bring dishonor to herself and her family if others found out she had been unable to please me. I tried, in the best way I could, which was awkward with the others all in the room, to tell her it was not a matter of not finding her attractive, though I could not very well tell her the truth with the others present. She inquired if the problem was because this was my first time, and I was tempted to lie and say yes, but I could not, and I had gathered anyway, that to lie was considered a great sin by these people, even greater than the coupling of unmarried individuals.

The Indian youth from Guanahani was laying closest to me, and though he was by then fully engaged with his young maiden, he evidently became aware of our problem. He spoke to me but much of what he said I could not understand, until finally, through gestures, he seemed to inquire if I would rather be with a male than a female, and with this the woman with me seemed to understand and she gave me a look that I can only describe as one of awe and perhaps even apprehension. He on the other hand did not seem averse to such a possibility, but again I could not freely admit which I would rather have with the two Christian men beside me, even if they were clearly about to engage in a very non-Christian behavior. Motioning for me to follow him, we left the house and he spoke to one of the principal men of the village, and after a lengthy discussion and much looking at me, they called for a third person, a young man who appeared a few years older than myself, a good-looking, broad-shouldered and muscular youth. Taking me by the hand, he took me to another house where there lived an old man, and they had much talk, and I gathered from their gestures and words that this was a very special and revered man, and that he too preferred other men.

The old man then left the younger man and myself alone, and the younger man, whom I figured to be between eighteen and twenty, motioned for me to lie down. Lying beside me, he reached out and caressed me, running his hands over my legs and thighs, at first above my clothing and then slowly removing my garments and caressing my naked body. He caressed my chest and gently brushed his fingertips against my nipples, causing them to become erect, and then he proceeded down to my private parts. He examined my member with great interest and then hesitantly reached out and caressed the rim of my bulb with a fingertip, causing my member to of course respond. He continued to caress me for some time, and being naked himself, it was not difficult to see that his caresses were arousing him also. As his member began to swell, he reached down and untied the cord holding his skin over his bulb, and it immediately slipped back off the bulb of his rapidly expanding member.

Rolling me over on my stomach, he ran a finger along the crack of my ass and fingered my anus, and then dipping his pointer finger in a shallow container of what I learned later was goose fat, he smeared it over my anus and then slowly inserted his finger up my rectum and began to finger fuck me. After a few minutes, he smeared some of the fat over his bulb and down his shaft, and then spreading my legs, he knelt between them and lowered himself above me, his arms on either side of my body. This was obviously not his first experience as upon contact of his member with my backside he squirmed into position and pressed his member forward so that the bulb wedged into my anus, something that could only come with experience.

Of course it was not my first experience either, and I assisted by drawing myself forward to align my anus with his member and I opened up as I felt his member press forward. It took a couple attempts, but it was not long before we achieved our goal and his bulb popped inside my hole and I felt his member slowly slip up my rectum. He slowly pushed forward until his coarse hairs were pressed against my naked backside and his member was encased by my flesh. He paused, to regain his breath and I suspect to enjoy the undescribable pleasure of having one's stiff member encased in another's hot, moist flesh. He then began to slowly fuck me, easing his slender cock in and out of my hole, and I worked with him, constricting my anus as he withdrew and relaxing as he sank it back in.

It having been almost two months since I had last had congress with another, I was quickly aroused, and the fact I was being fucked by this young, handsome, muscular primitive increased my ardor such that I felt my loins preparing to spill my seed after we had barely begun. I squeezed my anus shut in anticipation and in an attempt to close the opening of my cock even though I knew that mortal flesh cannot prevent the spilling of one's seed when the body decides it is time. He seemed to understand for he stopped his thrusting and lay there motionlessly for a time, allowing my passion to subside, our labored breathing and the chirp of crickets especially loud in the otherwise quiet of the night. I did not realize it at the time but later when I had time to think about what we had done with a rational mind, I realized that the novelty of the experience, fucking this mysterious white stranger from heaven, likely had him highly aroused also, and the clenching of my anus likely had cut off his desire.

After a bit he resumed fucking me, and I again relaxed and concentrated on the pleasure of having the member of another male stuffed up my rectum. Lying there in the hot, humid night in this hut of bamboo in this lush, exotic place and in congress with a strong, good-looking and virile heathen savage, I felt like I was in the Garden of Eden being seduced by Satan. We were sweating with our exertion and our lust, which only added to my arousal and all too soon I was ready to spill my seed again and once again I closed the opening of my member and clamped my anus tight about his member in an attempt to cut off my release. Again he instantly paused and we lay there for the longest time listening to the singing of the crickets until our breathing returned to normal and he finally began to pump his hips to and fro again, driving his throbbing member in and out of my body. As he brought me to that peak again, I allowed the pressure in my loins to continue to build, and after a dozen heartbeats, he tensed and thrust his cock up my ass and stopped and I felt his seed shooting deep up my rectum. I quivered with the thought of this naked, muscular savage squirting his stuff into my body and I felt wonderfully perverted, if that makes any sense at all. A heartbeat later I was spilling my own seed which flooded over my groin and belly hot and wet and sticky.

We did it not once but three times that night before I curled up in his muscular, powerful arms and we fell asleep. When I awoke to the melodious singing of strange birds in the tree tops, the sun had risen to almost off the horizon and I felt wonderful, and the smile of contentment and joy the naked youth at my side gave me as we lie there made me feel even more wonderful. It had been a long time since I had felt so good to be alive and so good to be me. The young Indian observed through gestures and smiles that the night had been a very pleasant one, and I responded that it had been likewise for me, which resulted in another delightful smile from him. When we emerged and walked over to the campfire where they were toasting their flat bread and roasting some fish on spits, we were greeted with happy, knowing smiles, and when the old man whose home we had used spoke to the young man and the man responded, the smiles exchanged between them were joyous ones. My companions joined us shortly thereafter, the two Christian Spaniards looking somewhat sheepish, and after breaking our fast, we gathered up our belongings. They did not inquire where I had gone, and, I suspect, were happy that I had gone and had not witnessed their congress with the native girls. I in turn was most thankful they would not know the perversion I had engaged in.

We showed the Indians the cinnamon and pepper and other spices which the Admiral had given us and we were told by signs that there was a great deal of it near there to the southeast, but that they did not know if they had it on their island. They begged us to remain there with them, but having seen that there were no rich cities we decided to return to the ship. If we had desired to make a place for those who wished to come with us, more than five hundred men and women would have come with us, because they thought we were returning to heaven. On our return journey, Luis observed that he had noticed me leaving during the night, and my heart leaped in fear and apprehension, but he went on to say he knew how it must have been for one of such strong Christian beliefs and so young, and that I needed privacy to do what God meant men and women to do was nothing to be ashamed of. Thankful that was his interpretation, and knowing he was trying to justify what the two of them had done, I made no effort to correct him and thanked him for his understanding.

Returning with us was one of the principal men of the village and his son and one of his men. On our way back we saw many kinds of trees and grasses and sweet-smelling flowers, many kinds of birds different from those in Spain, excellent partridge and nightingales, which sang, and geese, and of these there is a very great number there. We saw no four-footed beasts except dogs which did not bark. The land is very fertile and very well cultivated with those carrots that taste like chestnuts and beans which are very different from ours, panic-grass and a great quantity of cotton which they gather and spin. In one house alone we saw more than five hundred arrobas of cotton and there could be had there each year, four thousand quintals.

We found many people who were crossing to their villages, men and women with a half-burned wood in their hands to start an evening campfire and herbs to burn and inhale, which they are in the habit of doing. That evening we shared the herbs, the oldest setting them afire in a small clay bowl and then inhaling long and deeply on a long-stemmed reed attached to the bowl which he then passed to the man of next highest importance, who passed it on. Each inhaled deeply, taking the smoke into their bodies and then exhaling it with great delight, some through their noses and others through their mouth. When it was passed to Rodrigo, he copied the men who had preceded him, and when he exhaled I saw it was with more than some discomfort, as it was also with Luis. And so I inhaled much more cautiously so I took as little smoke into my body as I could, and when I exhaled it burned my throat and brought tears to my eyes and I could not help but cough. The Indians sitting with us glanced at each other and smiled knowingly and the eldest nodded at me approvingly as if I had passed some test. I sat there feeling most light-headed and as the bowl was passed around and reached me again I was aware of all eyes upon me. I again inhaled slightly and found the smoke did not burn as much though it made me dizzy. By the time we were done I found my mind spinning but from the looks on the faces of the Indians I had a feeling that I had in some way become one with them.

We did not find on the way back a village of more than five houses, but all gave us the same welcome, greeting us solemnly and with great reverence, sharing with us the food that they had, and that night housing us in their principal house. I have to assume the old man spoke to our hosts as I was housed separate from the others, and was visited this time by a young boy, one two years younger than myself. I was not sure how to begin or how to decide what to do, but like the young man the night before, he took the lead and aroused me as a maiden would a man, or at least how I assumed a maiden would, and then rolled me over on my stomach and mounted me. He was young and full of spirit and not inexperienced, though from his awkwardness not that experienced either. He fucked rapidly, almost desperately, and I had to stop him or he would have been spent heartbeats after he had begun. He fucked me four times that night, and by the fourth had learned how to do it slowly and how to enjoy the act as much as the spilling of his seed, and when we rose the next morning and were greeted by the other men of the tribe, he flashed them four fingers, and they all hooted and laughed and slapped him and myself on the back, and much to my embarrassment and surprise, even the maidens nearby seemed to be impressed. When we left, he expressed great appreciation and gifted me with a colorful, smooth, speckled stone. Luis and Rodrigo looked at me curiously, but thankfully they did not ask any questions.

Monday night we returned to find the longboats beached in order to clean their hulls. The Admiral talked with the three who had returned with us, paid them great honor and the principal man indicated to him that there were many lands and islands in these parts and the Admiral thought to bring them to the Sovereigns: and he says he did not know what the three Indians desired of him, hut it appeared that because of fear and the darkness of night the eldest desired the three of them return to land, and the Admiral says that as he had the ship dry on land, and not wishing to irritate him, he let them go, the principal man saying that at dawn they would return but they did not.

The Admiral said that it appeared to him they did not sow cotton and that it bears fruit all the year: it is very fine, and has a very large pod. All that these people have, he says, they give for a very miserable price and that they gave one great basket of cotton for the end of a leather strap or any other thing that was given them. They are a people, says the Admiral, very free from evil or from war. By means of devout religious persons knowing their language well, all would soon become Christians: and the Admiral said thus he hoped in our Lord that their Highnesses will appoint such persons with great diligence in order to turn to the Church such great peoples, and that they will convert them, even as they have destroyed those who would not confess the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: and after their days as we are all mortal, they will leave their realms in a very tranquil condition and freed from heresy and wickedness, and will be well received before the Eternal Creator, Whom may it please to give them a long life and a great increase of larger realms and dominions, and the will and disposition to spread the holy Christian religion, as they have done up to the present time.

A week later as we prepared to leave, the Admiral had a dozen men living along the river brought to the ship. They had been lead to understand that on finding gold the Admiral would allow them to return to their country. These Indians said that it was on a very large island with very large mountains and rivers and valleys, and they said that the island of Bohio was larger than Juana which they call Cubanascnan, and that it is not surrounded by water: and they appeared to give it to be understood as continental land which is behind Espanola, and which they call Caritaba and say that it is of infinite importance and they almost make it appear reasonable that these countries may be harassed by astute people because the inhabitants of all these islands live in great fear of the people of Caniba, "and so," the Admiral said, "I repeat as I have said at other times that Caniba is no other than the people of the Great Khan who must be very near here and have ships and come to capture these people, and as the captives do not return they believe they have eaten them. Each day we understand these Indians better and they understand us better, although many times they may have understood one thing for another."

So we headed for an island which the Indians we are taking positively affirmed was called Babeque, where, as they said by signs, the people on it gather gold with candles at night in the sand and afterwards with a hammer they say they make bars of it. Colombo said that yesterday, Sunday, November 11, it had appeared to him that it would be well to take some persons from those dwelling by that river in order to take them to the Sovereigns that they might learn our language so as to know what there is in the country, and that in returning they may speak the language of the Christians and take our customs and the things of the Faith, "Because I see and know," says the Admiral, "that this people have no sect whatever nor are they idolaters, but very meek and without knowing evil, or killing others or capturing them and without arms, and so timorous that a hundred of them flee from one of our people, although they may jest with them: and they are credulous and they know that there is a God in heaven, and they firmly believe that we have come from heaven: and they learn very quickly whatever prayer we tell them to say and they make the sign of the cross so that our Highnesses must resolve to make them Christians, as I believe that if they commence, in a short time a multitude of peoples will have been converted to our Holy Faith acquiring great domains and riches and all their villages for Spain: because without doubt there is a very great quantity of gold in this land, as these Indians I am bringing say, not without cause, that there are places in these islands where they dig the gold and wear it at the neck and in the ears and on the arms and on the legs and there are very heavy bracelets and also there are precious stones and pearls and an infinite quantity of spices."

Colombo went on to say, "And in this river of Alures from whence I started last night, without doubt there is a very great quantity of mastic, and there may be more if it is desired that there should be more, because in planting the trees they grow easily and there are a great quantity and very large ones, and the leaf is like the mastic-tree and the fruit, except that the trees as well as the leaves are larger, as I have seen on the island of Scio in the Archipelago. And I ordered many of these trees tapped to see if resin would flow out in order to bring some, and as it has rained all the time I have been in the said river I have not been able to get any of it, except a very small quantity which I am bringing to our Highnesses, and also it may be that it is not the time to tap them; as for this purpose I believe that the end of the winter when the trees are about to bloom is suitable: and here they already have the fruit almost ripe at the present time. And also there will be a great quantity of cotton here, and I believe that it would he sold very well here without taking it to Spain, but to the great cities of the Great Khan which will without doubt be discovered, and to many other cities belonging to other Lords which will come to serve our Highnesses, and where other things from Spain and the lands of the east will be taken, since these are to the west of us. And here there is also an infinite quantity of aloes, although it is not a thing which will produce great riches but from the mastic much is to be expected, because there is none except in the said island of Scio, and I believe that they derive from it fifty thousand ducats, if I do not remember wrongly. And there is here in the mouth of the river the best harbour that I have seen until the present time, clear and wide and deep and a good situation and strong place to construct a village; and any ships whatever can approach their sides to the banks and the land is very temperate and high and the waters are very good."

Yesterday there came to the side of the ship a canoa with six youths upon it and five of them entered the ship: these Colombo ordered kept and afterwards he sent to a house which is west of the river and they brought seven women, small and large, and three children. He said he did this that the men might conduct themselves better in Spain by having women from their country than they would without them: as it had already happened many other times in taking the men from Guinea that they might learn the language in Portugal-that after they returned and it was thought that they might be made use of in their country on account of the good company they had had and the presents which had been given them, that they never appeared after arriving there. Others did not act in this manner. So that having their wives they will be willing to undertake what is desired of them, and also these women will teach our people their language, which is all one in all these islands of India and all understand each other and all go with their canoas, which is not the case in Guinea where there are a thousand kinds of languages so that one does not understand the other. This night there came to the side of the vessel the husband of one of these women and the father of the three children who were a male and two females and asked that Colombo might let him come with them, and they are now all consoled so they must all be relatives, and he is a man of already forty-five years. We arrived at another large island and the place we anchored Colombo called La Mar de Nuestra Senora, and the harbor which is near the entrance to the said island he named Puerto del Principe. Some of the mountains appeared to reach heaven. This island those we are bringing with us call Ayti, which means land of mountains, and Colombo called it La Isla Espanola in honor of Spain.

The youths whom Colombo took in the river of Mares and whom he had ordered should go on the caravel Niña were most unhappy and had to be chained lest they throw themselves off the ship in an attempt to escape, and the others from San Salvador and the other islands who had been captured became agitated so that the mood reminded me of the crew just before we had discovered land. Others sensed the same mood and grew worried that our captives might rise up and murder us as we slept even though at no time had they ever shown such aggression. The Admiral said that the fears of the crew were unfounded for these were a timid, cowardly people and one man could command all that were aboard our three ships. Nonetheless he knew the islanders were fearful of the destiny he had planned for them, as is anyone who is ignorant of the good life of civilized Christians, and he knew there would be much trouble if nothing was done.

So it was that he had me sent with my belongings to the Niña in a small boat to dwell there for a while to speak to these latest natives, knowing that I had a special relationship with them and an understanding, not knowing of course the true nature of the relationship that I had. I was not the person to send, for having seen how these Spaniards treat their slaves with cruelty, and how the Spanish Christian priests treated any who did not profess their faith, I was in disagreement with the Admiral's plans for these innocent and gentle people. I could not honestly in my heart tell them the lies that he wished me to tell, and I could not bear the thought of them living the life he had planned for them away from their families and friends and away from these beautiful islands.

And so that evening as they were given their evening meal, I talked to them, and told them of my plan, and as I passed from one to the other I loosened their bonds, telling them to wait until the cover of night and then while everyone was asleep to slip overboard. I do not know if my words were not understood, or if the chance of freedom was too great a temptation for them, or if they are as the Admiral says truly a cowardly people, but as I finished freeing the last one, they suddenly made a bolt for the side of the ship and tossed themselves overboard, much to my horror for once it was discovered what had happened, it would be evident that I was the one who had freed them, and I knew that with the Admiral's pride and temper, I would be most severely punished, whipped before the crew and very likely put to death. Faced with that possibility, I did the only thing that I could do-I flung myself overboard also.

Author's notes

1. Colombo assumed initially that he had arrived at the island of Cipango (Japan) and maintained for the longest time that he had arrived in the East. The exact island Colombo first set foot on is unknown, but most agree it was likely Watlings Island, one of the islands of the Bahamas, which was called Guanahani by the natives: the Lucayan, Taino and Arawak. In the mid-1980's a recalculation of Columbus's log and compass settings lead some historians to the conclusion he had landed on Samana Cay of the Bahamas, now largely uninhabited for most of the year.
2. Canoa is an Arawakian word. The English word canoe comes from the Spanish which comes from Haitian.
3. Believing he had landed in the Indies of Asia, Columbus called the natives he encountered Indians, a name which has endured ever since.
4. Enrique IV, the father of Queen Isabella, was also known as Enrique the Impotent and was dethroned in later years as a puto (Spanish for faggot). His marriage to Princess Blanche of Aragon and Navarre at the age of 15 was annulled by the Pope thirteen years later when it was found the marriage was unconsummated. Although prostitutes of Segouia were questioned and swore Enrique was competent in bed, there is little doubt that their testimony was boughten. Although his second wife, Juana, the sister of Afonso V of Portugal, had children, it was rumored that the first was fathered by the Duke of Albuquerque and the second and third by the nephew of Bishop Fonsera. Enrique enjoyed hunting, which was said to be a cover for his homosexual exploits, but there is no direct evidence that he was homosexual. His father, Juan II, became king at the age of one year and ten months. At the age of twenty or twenty-two, Alvaro de Luna was appointed the three-year-old monarch's page. When Juan was seven, his mother exiled Alvaro, claiming Juan was the victim of an enchantment (hechizo) which became a euphemism for 'inappropriate sexual desire'. (Enrique was also said to have been enchanted, which seems to have been a common explanation for men of importance who preferred other men.) Upon the death of his mother, Juan reinstated Alvaro until Juan's second wife had him order Alvaro be beheaded on suspicion of murder. Alvaro his been held up by some as a loyal and faithful servant to the king wrongly accused by others for political gain, by others as a self-serving favorite who used the weak-willed king to his own advantage, and still by others as being the king's longtime lover.
5. Hamaca is Spanish and is derived from Caribbean and is the origin of the English hammock. Until then Columbus's crew slept on the wooden deck (the three ships not having cabins) and they quickly adopted the more comfortable use of hammocks.
6. The log of Columbus, from which much of the description in this chapter comes, much of it directly quoted, does not mention any of the members of the crew engaging in sex with the natives on this first expedition but this omission is not surprising in that he and the crew were depicted as most honorable and Christian throughout the log and such behavior would not be recorded. Accounts written later however mention the rape of native women by the Spaniards who were left behind due to the wreck of the Santa Maria, and this rape is cited as one of the reasons the local tribes rose up against them and slaughtered them. We know that the men on subsequent missions from Spain forced themselves upon any woman that they took a fancy to, and it is difficult to believe that these men on the first voyage who have not had a woman for two or three months (depending if they availed themselves of a woman in the layover in the Canaries), would not eagerly avail themselves of the young, naked women of the islands. The practice of native tribes of the southern States and the Carribean of providing young women to visiting dignitaries and the liberal attitude toward heterosexual relations prior to marriage has been recorded by many historians. Being of the same cultural group, there is no reason to think the Taino did not do likewise.

Chapter 3
The Taino

Having thrown himself overboard, sixteen-year-old Nico escapes with the former native captives to their home islands, warning others of the Spanish invaders on their way. While living with the Taino, he discovers their values of generosity, kindness, and sharing their belongings and their customs and rituals, participating in a coming of age ceremony and a drug-induced vision quest.

Nico (16yo), Little Sea Turtle (12yo), Unnamed Boy at Guanahari (San Salvador) (14yo)
tb, tt, cons, anal

Much to my surprise, we had swum a considerable distance before the first arrows were fired at us. Until that night normally one and never more than two islanders had ever attempted to escape at any given time, so the attempt of every captive on deck to throw themselves over the rails had surprised the crew and thrown them into confusion, fortunately for us. By the time they had recovered from their surprise and gotten organized, those who had managed to throw themselves overboard were well away from the ship. Myself, I swam as hard as I could and kept looking at the sun and praying for it to disappear below the horizon, which on any other day it did with great haste which was the way in these lands where day turned into night almost instantly unlike in Spain and Portugal where the transition was much more gradual with daylight gradually decreasing over half a candle mark or more before night fell, but on this night the sun had decided to side with the Spaniards and set with agonizing slowness.

By the time the first arrows were fired, the sun had only begun to disappear below the horizon so unfortunately there was still enough light to light up the white froth created by the swimmers. There were screams from men who had been hit, and calls of surrender by others who decided it was best to do so. With the first flight of arrows, I dove and swam underwater for as far as I could hold my breath and then surfaced to gulp a mouthful of air before submerging again. A few of the others noticed me and began copying my plan but most hoped that the darkness and their speed would be sufficient to make their escape, greatly underestimating the skill of a Spanish archer and the distances Spanish crossbows could shoot. As I surfaced to grab another gasp of air an arrow whizzed over my head close enough to part my hair and struck the swimmer in front of me in the leg. As he faltered, I swam under him and he used my body as a float as he continued to kick with his one good leg, but unfortunately for us we became a bigger and more visible target. Luckily the wind was in our favour, blowing the caravel away from the island and to the south of us so the pilot had to continually tack to keep heading in our direction. The Santa Maria and Pinta had been signalled and they turned to join the pursuit but they were some distance away and had difficulty catching up to us in the adverse wind, especially the Santa Maria.

Ever so slowly the distance between us and the Niña increased. Someone on the ship, likely Captain Vicente Yanez Pinzon, who was an experienced leader of men and whom I admired, had the inspired wisdom to fire a lombard in front of us to deter us and many of those ahead of me stopped and turned to surrender. Praying it was the right decision, I focussed on the swimmer in front of me and hoped that the cannoneer would continue to fire ahead of us to deter us rather than in our midst to kill us. We finally reached the reefs, another obstacle I had not considered, but these were men accustomed to the sea and they miraculously found passages through the jagged coral.

I at last found myself stumbling up the beach, still supporting my injured companion, until my weary legs gave out and we both collapsed on the sand. Raising myself on one arm, I turned to look out to sea to see what was happening. The crew on the Niña had lowered longboats which were rapidly catching up to the slower swimmers and those who had been injured, but fortunately I could see that they would be too large to manoeuver through the coral reefs. I knew the men would be desperate though, and the captains angry, especially the Admiral, and they would not give up the hunt so easily. So, after catching my breath, I helped my companion up and he clung to me as we staggered toward the tree line. Others were stumbling beside us, some also helping an injured companion, and seeing me struggling, one of the Indians joined us and the two of us carried and dragged our injured companion to the protection of the forest.

Finally unable to run any further, we dropped to the forest floor and caught our breaths, our legs, arms and lungs aching. I examined our injured companion's leg and tearing a piece of cloth from my shirt I tied a tourniquet about his leg above the wound and tearing off another square I folded it and tied it tightly about the wound itself, field techniques I had learned long ago as a Mameluke fighting the Ottoman, and then laid back to rest. Until daylight there was not much any of us could do. In all there were nine of us who had made it to land in addition to myself, two of the youths from Guanahari, one from Santa Maria, two from Fernandina, one from Isabella, and three from Cubanascnan. Of the latter, two were youths from the canoe who had been captured and one was one of the men who had been captured from the village by the river.

The last to have joined us on the shore of the island was a man who initially had been recaptured before he could leap overboard but who had managed in the confusion to slip over the opposite side unnoticed later, and as we rested in the forest he revealed what had happened on the Niña. Not having expected they would be needed, bows and arrows had been stored away so they would not be in the way while sailing the ship and so it took time to retrieve them and then for the archers to string their bows. They were further delayed by a debate among the officers whether or not the archers should fire upon us. Having to look after injured captives would be a burden which they had not expected, and injured prisoners would not be of much value back in Spain. Some were of the opinion that we should be left to escape for there were plenty of others that could be captured to take our place, an easy chore considering the docility and innocence of the islanders. Unfortunately for us, more were of the opinion that dead escapees would be a deterrent to others who might consider attempting to escape in the future.

With the first rays of sunlight, I searched about for a plant that I had seen a healer use in one of the villages to staunch the flow of blood when one of the youths had ignorantly grabbed my sword by the blade in his eagerness to examine it and had cut himself seriously. I had paid close attention, figuring such information about such a plant would be useful for trading purposes back home besides for our own survival in this land should we be engaged in battle, and upon asking I had been shown where it grew and I had collected some to secretly take back with me. Luckily it was a common plant and I was able to find some without much trouble which I used to stem the flow of blood of those who had injuries from arrows or cuts from the reef. Fortunately none of the wounds were that deep. While I had been caring for the wounded, others had collected nuts and fruit and the ten of us quickly consumed what they had found and were on our way again, running along one of the game trails through the forest that headed away from the shoreline. We had not run far before we were intercepted by men from the island.

Quickly explaining the reason for our presence, we were escorted to the nearest village where we were taken to the chief. The oldest among us, the man from the village on Cubanascnan, spoke for us with the others occasionally interjecting, and there was much pointing at me which I assumed was as proof of what they were saying, and being the first Christian these islanders of Ayti had seen there was much scrutiny of me and my possessions, which consisted of my shirt, doublet, trousers, and boots; my sword, scabbard and dagger, the cross of Saint Christopher given to me by Uncle Paolo and the silver clasp of a rearing horse given to me by Prince Afonso, both of which I wore wherever I went, the speckled stone I had been given by the boy on Cubanascnan, and my panpipe which I had been playing just prior to our escape supposedly as a means of engaging and placating the Indians as far as my companions were concerned, but of course in reality I was using as a means of concealing my real intentions.

In the course of the conversation, I learned that there were five head chiefs on this island, each with a number of lessor chiefs under him. Natives were sent the way we had come to see if anyone was attempting to follow us and others were sent to other points along the coast to watch for the great ships. We were given food and drink and were on our way again, accompanied now by several of the fastest runners from the village who were to escort us to the closest of these five kings, a man by the name of Guacanagari. We were received by him the next afternoon with great interest and he listened to us carefully along with the other elders of the village and asked many questions. (1)

We were invited to remain with the villagers, but eager to be as far away from the Spaniards as possible and certain the Spaniards would find their way to this great chief, and eager to be back among their family and friends, the natives who had escaped from the Niña graciously declined the offer, determined to continue on their way that very day. They were provided a sturdy canoa capable of carrying all of them, and not having any alternative, I joined them. With ten of us, six rowed while four rested and when the four took over the six rested so that we did not stop even for the night, and with ten men rowing we travelled a great distance. I marvelled again that these men travelled so far away from land and seemed to be able to travel these waters with no question as to the direction they were headed, having not so much as a compass to help guide them. We travelled first to Cubanascnan where the two youths and older man were greeted with much rejoicing and we were all fed and treated like heros. Eager to be on our way, we again declined offers to stay, staying overnight but the next morning continuing on to Isabella so great was the desire of these Indians to return to their family and friends. At Isabella we parted with one of our group and went on to Fernandina where two more left us. There we also left the canoa in favour of a smaller one that held four.

So we were on our way again, pausing only overnight to rest, and though there were only four of us to row compared to ten, we still travelled day and night, two rowing while two rested, and we still travelled a great distance, and this canoa had a single mast from which we hung a crude cotton cloth when the winds were in our favour. At Santa Maria we left one of our companions, and twenty-eight days after we had thrown ourselves overboard, we finally arrived at the island they call Guanahari where the first two to have been captured and the last two to return were greeted with much rejoicing. We rested the first night of our arrival and on the second we celebrated. Fish were wrapped in wet palm leaves and baked in the coals of a fire while ducks were roasted on a spit above and their bread, which they call cacábi and make from the root of a plant, was baked on the fire pit stones. Bowls of squash, sweet yams and beans along with baskets of fruit and nuts whose names I did not know were set out. Prior to eating we performed a curious ritual that all these people had and which had caused the captives much dismay when they had been unable to perform it onboard the ship. We crushed a herb with our fingers and smeared the pulp over our hands and then washed the pulp off with fresh water, leaving our hands smelling like crushed grass. These primitives have a strange obsession regarding water. Bathing and washing of the hands are common practices by all, male and female, young and old, even to a greater extent than I had found among the Ottoman, who also had an obsession for bathing also but for whom the baths were also associated with sex, which explained their attraction. At first I resisted the reckless practice, but they made it clear by gestures that they found my odor offensive, and rather than anger these people who have treated me so kindly and upon whom I am now dependent, I gave in to their ways and so far I have suffered no ill effects from this unsavory practice. (2)

After eating until we could eat no more, the chief of the village took out, with much ceremony, an ornately carved tube with a wooden bowl at the end, stuffed the bowl with dried leaves which they called tapaco, and then lit the leaves on fire. He then placed the end of the tube between his lips and inhaled deeply, held the smoke in for several heartbeats before exhaling it through his nose, and then passed it on to the next man of importance, whom I learned later was the healer, called a bohiti, in the village. And so it was passed around with great solemnity and reverence. When it was passed to me, I inhaled the slightest amount, having learned from past experience, but even the slightest amount caused my head to spin dizzily. As we smoked, the two captives I had freed stood and through song and pantomime told of their capture, their life with us, and of our escape with much praise being placed on me which I humbly proclaimed to be greatly exaggerated, which it was, for each time the story was told since our escape it became more and more daring and more and more dangerous. It was most interesting and most revealing to hear their description of their lives since their capture from their point of view and there were several times where I had to stop myself from speaking and correcting their perception of the things we had them do and that we ourselves did. That we did not understand them well and that they did not understand us and that they often understood things contrary to what they were became very obvious.

When we retired that night, two young maidens smelling strongly of honey accompanied the two returning heros to see to their comfort. Neither of the two men had accompanied me on my visit to the village on Cubanascnan, but the one who had, evidently had told these two what had happened there, and they evidently had informed the chief of their village for I was housed separately from them and that evening I was visited by a young boy of about twelve, whose name was Little Sea Turtle. He informed me that he had only two moons ago become a man, receiving this adult name and losing his virginity to a young maiden after his first successful solo hunt in what was obviously a rite of manhood, and that his mother's brother and other older men of the village had decided it was now time for him to learn of the other pleasure, a pleasure that men partook with other men while on an extended hunt in the absence of women. As I was a great bohiti among the white men from the sky, and a niizh maniduowag besides, they figured I was the most qualified to teach him. I was not sure what a niizh whatever was. At the time I had figured it sounded Jewish though I had never heard it before and I wondered if perhaps the Jews had visited these people before us, which considering their wiling ways when it comes to matters of money and trade was highly possible. From the rest of what he said and from what we did, I concluded that it involved congress between males.

I was much relieved to have escaped retribution from the Spaniards, at least for the time being, but I was most distressed by my new predicament. At least when I had found myself stranded in the land of the Saracens, I had some hope of returning home even if I had to walk all the way. In my present circumstances, that was going to be a very long walk indeed from the Indies, if that was where I was though I was beginning to suspect it was not, and my only means of returning the way I had come was with men who were more likely to hang me by the neck for my recent deeds. What I had done to displease God so that He was punishing me so, I had a fairly good idea, and I was about to displease Him further by engaging in that sin again with this young boy, but I was in sore need of a distraction from my sorrows and worries, and, I figured, condemned already anyway. Finding the openness and acceptance of these islanders of congress between males a welcome and encouraging difference, it was most difficult to resist temptation.

There were several things I considered doing with this boy, things that I had not done for many months, but I was still uncertain just what exactly was considered acceptable and what was not and I did not want to offend my new hosts upon whom my day to day existence so depended. And so it was that I resorted to the known from my past experiences with these islanders, which was not an unpleasant thing. We began by my stripping naked, and while the boy examined my body closely by sight and by touch, I likewise examined his. Although four years separated us, Little Sea Turtle was much closer to my height than most twelve-year-old boys in Portugal or Spain. And of course there was the difference in skin colour, his flesh being a delightful coppery colour that reflected the moonlight in a most attractive way, and our differences in appearances being of different races.

He was an attractive boy, muscular and broad shouldered as were most of his people, but still having the soft contours and undefined muscles of a twelve-year-old boy that I found so arousing. He had the handsome, broad face of these people with thick, coarse hair that he cut in a bang across the forehead and wore at the back of his head long and loose to almost the middle of his back. He of course went about naked as was the custom of these people and was uncircumcised. He had just begun a growth of a coarse bush of hairs above his genitals, which were of the same colour as the rest of his body and the typical size of a twelve-year-old boy.

Little Sea Turtle was just as interested in my body as I was in his, not just because of our differences in race and therefore colour, but also because I was four years older than he was and had the body that he would eventually also have. He was of course curious about my cock in that it did not have a hood such as his, and he unabashedly touched it and examined it, which of course caused it to begin to swell with such attention and handling. He was evidently familiar with that response as he delicately fondled and stroked my member and cupped and rolled my balls, something else he was evidently familiar with. I did not hesitate to respond reciprocally, gently pulling his hood back to reveal his darker reddish-copper bulb and then pulling it forward to cover the bulb again, and cupping and rolling his own delicate balls, and he too began to respond.

Lying down on the sleeping mat, I turned around so I was facing in the other direction and I gently kissed his flat stomach as I massaged his smooth buttocks and his thighs, and I slowly skipped my lips down to kiss his member and his testicles, and then to slip his growing cock between my lips and suck on the velvet-smooth tube of flesh, causing it to swell much faster. He inhaled deeply and nervously and I concluded that this was something he had never had done to him, and had no idea that two boys did such a thing. That innocence and novelty I found most arousing and my member quickened its growth and lifted away from my body. I slowly slid my lips down his tube to his coarse hairs and then slid them back up and over his bulb and then descended once again, continuing to suck on his tender cock all the while. I inhaled his fresh, youthful fragrance, the sweet fragrance of the forest palms and blossoms mingled with the smoky fragrance from the cook fire and the exciting fragrance of his hot, coppery flesh, and my head spun dizzily with delight much as it did when inhaling the smoke of smoldering tapaco.

I was tempted to continue engaging in this pleasure to its natural conclusion, but I was uncertain how such an act would be perceived, and although I had been assured that it was a common practice among the French, I knew that was not the case with all nations, and as I have said, I was most hesitant to do anything that might cause offense. So I reluctantly stopped once we were both stiff and assumed the universal position on my knees and elbows that I was sure he would recognize and understand. I was correct, and he unstoppered a container he had brought with him and spread a fragrant grease over my anus, and worked it into my rectum with his middle finger which he eventually inserted up my rectum up to his knuckle and worked in and out of my ass, much to my delight. Quickly lubricating his now stiff copper-coloured cock, causing it to shine in the moonlight, he assumed the position behind me and mounted me as a dog mounts its mate. It was something new for him and it took several tries and my assistance before he had his stiff cock angled at the right degree to penetrate me. I opened up to him and sighed with pleasure as I felt his cock sink up my rectum until his coarse hairs were pressing against my backside.

He immediately began to fuck and I instructed him to stop and concentrate on the pleasure of our union, for him the pleasure of having his stiff cock surrounded by another male's hot, moist ass flesh, and for me, having another male's stiff, throbbing cock stuffed up my rectum. Only then did I instruct him to begin working his hips back and forth and easing his stiff cock in and out of my body, and remind him to do it slowly so we might both enjoy the sensations rippling through our loins instead of rushing to the ultimate of pleasures. I had him stop frequently to prolong our pleasure, and I worked my anal muscle in time with him. That this was his first time was highly arousing for both of us, and I required the pauses as much as he did.

Reaching back and taking his right hand, I guided it to my stiff cock and wrapping his fingers about my stiff, aching member, I eased his fist up my shaft and back down. This was clearly something else that he was familiar with and he needed no further prompting to begin stroking my cock as he fucked me. And so we knelt there in the palm hut set aside for me, enjoying the pleasures that only two males can know in the light of the full moon. My anus and swollen cock throbbed and burned in unison with that sweet irritation that you wish would never end as his cock pumped in and out of my body and his fist worked up and down my member. Slowly our breathing grew deeper and more laboured until he had to stop to allow his passion to cool and we then resumed engaging in this delight until finally neither of us could wait any longer. I held back until he gasped with the delight of his ejaculation and threw back his head and thrust his cock up my rectum as he throbbed his seed into my body, and I quivered with the delight of having my rectum filled by this twelve-year-old boy and with the delight of my own orgasm, my hot seed flying from the burning tip of my cock and squirting through the air to land in the soil beyond my sleeping mat. We both inhaled deeply, sucking in the musky fragrance of spilt seed and the spicy fragrance of our sweat, and again my head spun dizzily with the delight.

He was twelve and full of energy and need, and I was sixteen and had suffered abstinence far too long for any youth. We engaged in the act three more times before contentedly falling asleep in each other's arms, both of us delightfully spent. In the morning, he greeted me with a smile and gratitude that warmed my heart and caused it to quicken and caused my limp member to begin to swell despite my balls having been drained of seed the night before. When we emerged into the bright sunshine, he was greeted by his companions with great joy and when he proudly flashed them four fingers they looked upon him with great admiration and I was looked upon with a combination of both awe and respect. The adults, men and women alike, were not so obvious in their awareness of what we had done, but they gave us both discreet glances and knowing smiles of acceptance. Their accepting attitude toward the congress of two males was a new experience for me as I have mentioned, and fitting with their gentle attitude and propensity for sharing. It was certainly an attitude I found comforting.

This was only one of many customs that I learned over the following days. I learned from my new companions that the word Taino, the name they call themselves, means "men of the good" and there could be no more fitting name than that for these gentle people. The simplicity that Colombo and his men took to be primitiveness was more a matter of innocence, the innocence that one might find in a child. They spoke openly and without guile or secret intent, humble in their words and their ways, a marked contrast compared to the arrogance and ready lies that came to the lips of the Spanish, and they treated each other with trust and kindness as one sees in very young children compared to the suspicion and cruelty common among the adults of most races I have encountered. That was something I found most remarkable and requiring much consideration and contemplation such as the scholars I had met at Florence might dedicate to it considering the great Christian faith Colombo and most of his men expressed was absent among these people. (3)

Colombo had observed that these people were very meek and very fearful, naked, and without arms and without government. As the days progressed and I witnessed them in their day to day life and often joined them in their activities, I found that not one of the Admiral's observations was true. As I have said, they are a gentle people, but that does not mean they are meek nor fearful but only that their actions are guided by the belief that non confrontation is preferable to aggression, a most commendable belief but impossible to practice given the nature of man.

They are without clothing for clothing is unnecessary to protect them from the elements, and indeed, I quickly found clothing is more of a hindrance in this heat and humidity of their lands. I resisted their urging to go about naked as they did, being of strong Christian faith and of decent upbringing, but the wearing of clothing was unbearable, the cloth soaked and sticking to my body by day and clammy by night and stinking of sweat continually. So I gradually discarded one piece at a time until I was naked as they were, having to even forgo wearing a breechclout for modesty as only females wore an apron, though I did keep my boots to protect my tender feet. I must have been a spectacle seen prancing about in only my leather boots, and I felt most conspicuous being exposed and most uncomfortable feeling the sun and the wind where the sun never before shone. I learned that the painting of their bodies was more than decoration-it served also to protect them from the burning of the sun and from the bites of mosquitoes and other biting insects which thrive in this land, and, they tell me, to protect them from evil entities that exist in this world. And so I allowed my cheeks, nose, and shoulders, and to their amusement, my penis, to be painted blue, using the ground petals of certain flowers, so these parts did not burn. I also learned that they tattooed their bodies with symbols that indicated their family and clan, and that they adorned their bodies with shells and gold studs in their ears and nose, or as pendants about their necks so they did not truly go about naked.

Married women wear a nagua, a finely woven cotton apron that covers the front but not the buttocks, which is actually a symbol of marriage like wearing a wedding band and is not worn to cover their genitals. The more noble the woman the longer the cloth. For them there is no shame in the exposure of their bosoms nor buttocks nor even their cunts, but instead they feel it is shameful for a woman to be seen without her arm or leg bands. Men on the other hand have their foreskins pulled forward and tied with twine, and find it shameful only if the twine slips off and their knob is exposed in public. As I have already mentioned, it is a common and perfectly acceptable practice to give visiting dignitaries female companions, but, I learned, married women with naguas are not to be touched. (4)

They do not know of steel nor weapons as we know them, but they are skilled with the bow and with the spear. And they do have government, being ruled by chiefs under which are subchiefs and decisions being made by a council of the principal individuals of the village. Of great shock to me was that in some villages the chiefs were female, and often a woman had as much say in council regarding politics, education of the young and economic planning as a man, sometimes more. Females on these islands were not weak nor were they simple-minded when it comes to such matters as are the women throughout the nations I have awareness of. Also of great surprise to me was that individuals traced their ancestry through their mother rather than their fathers, a practice that would abhor any decent citizen of Portugal, male or female.

These people know nothing of Christ, yet they are the most Christian people I have ever met. Their greatest values are the great values taught in our churches, values of generosity, kindness and cooperation. Theft is abhorred and there appears to be no private property; what belongs to one belongs to all. All contribute to food-producing or other goods-producing tasks and the land is especially valued and seen as something sacred. Producing and harvesting food from the sea, land and forest is an esteemed task and any food obtained by an individual is shared with everyone. It is the duty of young boys to collect mussels and oysters. Older boys and men hunt fowl, capture turtles, and fish in the sea and in the rivers using harpoons, fishnets, traps and spears with a fishbone point or fire-hardened tip. Tame ducks are raised and the cultivation of fields is done by both men and women, and from the gardens and growing naturally in the forest we get a plant called cacábi whose root is ground up to make bread, beans, many fleshy roots I have never seen nor tasted before, a plant with stiff spear-like leaves that they cook in stews, and a nut that is about the size of a fingernail and is eaten raw or roasted. Another plant, which they call maize, is roasted over a fire and the kernels eaten, or it is fermented to make an intoxicating drink called chicha. (5)

Their homes, made out of wood poles and woven straw and palm leaves, have simple furnishings, sleeping and sitting mats woven from palms, sometimes a hamaca for sleeping instead of a mat, and wooden chairs which they call dujo and which have woven seats. A typical home provides for about twenty family members which includes grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, unmarried children and married female children and their husbands and children. Married males live with their wives' families. Some larger homes hold from ten to fifteen families so that one home can have from fifty to seventy-five individuals. They make abundant use of cotton, weaving it into mats, hamaca, ropes, and even small sails.

Shortly before my departure, a young couple got married, which like all marriages that I have ever witnessed in my travels, was the cause of much happiness and celebration. Like marriages elsewhere, there was a huge feast and much drinking. They played a type of ball game in which two opposing teams tried to get a leather ball to the opposite end of a field. It was also the occasion for dancing and singing and speeches, especially concerning the virtues of the couple about to marry. There was also the playing of music, drums, rattles, which they call maracas and are made from gourds containing dried peas, and flutes made from marsh reeds. I joined them with my panpipes, which they had never heard nor seen before, and which made me particularly popular. The evening of the marriage day, the bride took all male friends of her husband into their marriage chamber and she emerged some time later with the cry manikato which is the cry of victory, and there was no question and no shame over what they had done. The newly married lived in the home of the mother's brother, who was considered more important than a boy's father. It was this uncle who taught the boys about becoming men and who introduced the boys to men's societies. That part of their customs I could understand for Uncle Paolo, my mother's brother, had taken a large role in my own upbringing.

Colombo had also stated that these simple folk could be easily converted into the Catholic faith and that they had no religion and I at first was similarly inclined and was as eager as he to save their souls. (6) However, as I learned more about my hosts I found his observations were not totally correct, and I began to question if converting them to the Catholic faith was really the best thing to do for them. They are in fact a deeply religious people and worship many spirits of the earth and practice their religion more faithfully than I have seen Christians practice theirs. At the areito, which is a round dance and storytelling ceremony, spirits of the plant and animal life of their world are remembered. There are areitos for the season of Huracan, which is a time of violent storms, for the four skywalker brothers who represent the four directions, for the origin of the sun and moon, the ocean and fishes, the snake and a rabbit-like animal they call a jutia, for the guayaba, the ceiba, maize, cassava, giving of a name and the yucca, a root which is their main food and was a special gift to the Taino.

The god of the yucca was called Yucahu, whom they refer to as their Supreme or Original Being. His mother was called Atabey, goddess of the moon, fresh water, and fertility. They believe the souls of the dead, the jupias, go to the land of the dead, Coaybay, where they rest by day and come out as bats at night and eat a fruit they call guayaba. Much to my surprise, I discovered they have a story of the flood. According to them a son was going to kill his father but when he learned of this the father killed the son and put his bones in a gourd. These bones turned to fish and the gourd broke and flooded the world. Although very different from the biblical account of Noah, the occurrence of this belief among people so distant gives great credence that the event did in fact occur. The differences can easily be explained as no two people see things the same way nor recall things in the same detail as anyone knows who has heard two different people relate their version of an event that both experienced. The occurrence of such a tale from such different peoples also causes one to question the doubts of the nonbeliever for how else could two peoples so far apart have a similar tale unless the event did happen.

Another legend that gives rise to such thought is that of Aycayla, a seductive and sexually aggressive maiden who willingly gave men pleasure but robbed them of their will. Aycayla and her six lustful sisters were punished and Aycayla was condemned to the care of an ancient crone called Guanayoa and sent to an isolated place called Punta Majagua, but still she was visited by men so she was sent to sea and transformed into a creature that was half woman and half fish. Every sailor is aware of the story of mermaids who must surely exist if these people have such a similar legend as told by sailors of Portugal.

In that I could not envision traveling back across the Ocean Sea, I made inquiries about what lay to the west, and the islanders all agreed that there was a mainland to the north and west of San Salvador. Certain that the Spaniards would return to the island some day and eager to both avoid them and to return to my own home, I decided my best alternative was to seek this mainland and perhaps obtain a horse there and travel to the land of the Saracens and hence back to Portugal. Reluctant to see me leave and insistent that before I do I had to receive a name that would bring me good fortune, the chief of the village ordered that a naming areito be arranged.

First of all I bathed in the stream running beside the village in the midday and then their priest stuck a smooth stick down my throat repeatedly, causing me to vomit until I could bring nothing more up. He then escorted me to a special hut built just for the occasion and there I was told to sit and pray to Yucahu for direction. That I did, along with a prayer to Saint Christopher for good measure. I was given only fresh water to drink until late the following afternoon, which by my estimation was the day of Our Lord's birth, December 25. My body was rubbed from head to toe with the sweet-smelling herb they use to rub on their hands before eating and I again bathed in the stream. I was then lead to the center of the village and given a seat beside their chief, a position of great honor. On a chair on the other side the chief was a carved wooden statue which they called a zemi. A large loaf of freshly baked bread was brought forward and a piece broken off and placed before the zemi. It was then passed to the cacique who tore off a chunk and passed it on to me. I did likewise and passed it on to their healer-priest, the bohiti, who similarly broke off a piece and passed it along.

The bohiti then stood and spoke to the zemi, and presented it with a palm frond upon which food had been heaped. We then all ate, roasted fish and duck, mussels, yams and fruits and nuts until we could eat no more, and having not eaten for a day I was most famished. There followed songs accompanied by maracas by several of the men including the two who had escaped from the Niña with me who told of our escape in grand exaggeration and which reminded me of the tales of Homer I had heard recited while in Florence, and I was urged to play the panpipes, which I readily did while the men danced around me.

A reed was produced, but unlike those I had seen previously, the one end of this one was forked like a "Y" and instead of a bowl and the usual leaves, a fine powder was placed at the other end. It was offered first to the zemi. The bohiti took it and inserting the two ends of the 'Y' in his nostrils, he inhaled deeply, sucking in the fine powder. It was then passed to the circque and then to me. Again I inhaled lightly, held my breath, and then exhaled. The powder was of a sweetish, musky smell and my eyes watered as I struggled not to sneeze. The tube was passed around to the principal men of the tribe only. After it made the circle five or six times, I began to feel very dizzy, more so than when smoking their tapaco, and the people first of all became blurry and then seemed to turn colors and to stretch into absurd shapes. Although I tried to refuse, the reed was pressed upon me a seventh and eighth time and after that I lost count and quit trying to refuse it. I became even dizzier and the images about me began to swirl and become even more distorted, and at some point I found myself floating in the air and looking down with great amazement at my body, which was sprawled out on the ground on its back, and down at the others sitting or laying around me.

I seemed to rise higher and higher and I wondered if I was my soul and if I had died, poisoned by that powder I had inhaled, but if I was, I was not overly concerned by my death. Then I was flying, swooping through the air and making loops like a child's kite as I chased the sun across the sky. I was flying along the coast and the land and sea below me passed quickly. Flying over vast swamps and huge rivers emptying into the sea I finally came upon a huge village floating on a lake with tall stone pyramids which were like those I had seen in Egypt only in shape and were otherwise much different in color and these having steps and terraces. There were people on the tops of these pyramids with splendid robes and headdresses made of brightly colored feathers holding their hands up to the sky, and as I swooped down upon them there was much cheering and happiness to see me and I saw their arms were dripping with blood and they were holding beating hearts in their hands. Horrified and frightened, I soared back up into the sky much to their dismay and I continued to fly, but now the sun was constantly on my right instead of before me. Again I swooped down over a village of pyramids and the people there beckoned to me but I was afraid and flew on, coming to mountains so high that they were covered with snow and touched the sky, and there sitting in the snow were statues of gold, but when I began to descend I found they were men frozen in the snow and the dead men reached up and called me to them and they fell down and worshiped me and as I flew round and round them and as the sun began to set everything became a blur and darkness enclosed me.

When I awoke it was night and I found myself lying spread-eagled on my back on a slab of rock, the snow gone and a naked boy several years younger than myself sitting on my groin and bouncing on my body. We were surrounded by strange people of strange colors, some having two heads and four arms and four legs, others having the heads of animals and others with horse-size cocks, all sitting within a circle of torches and watching the boy and me. I reached up and held his body steady and upright as he flexed his leg muscles, rising above me and then sinking down. There was a hot, moist throbbing between my legs and I slowly realized I was erect and my member was stuck up the young boy's rectum. He descended on my member until he was sitting on my groin and my hairs were pressed against his naked buttocks, and then he rose until my knob was about to slip out of his rectum. My member was swollen and throbbing far stronger than it had ever done and my entire body seemed to be swollen and numb and throbbing in time with my member. A great joy filled my heart and pleasure flooded over me, brining me greater delight than I had ever felt before. The boy looked down at me with seductive, dark brown eyes and pleasure slowly curled his upper lip. His copper body was glistening with sweat and he was breathing deeply, as was I, and the two of us throbbed as one and a great bliss passed over me followed by a feeling of urgency. Then I was spurting my seed up his rectum and he was spurting his seed, spraying my naked, heaving chest with his hot, slimy seed and I had never felt such immense pleasure before as the whole world spun about me and I swirled into a spiral of darkness once again as one by one the torches snuffed out. (7)

Author's notes:

1. Guacanagari was one of five chiefs (caciques) on Haiti and the Dominican Republic (Hispanola), the only one to receive Columbus and who refused to join the other four in fighting the Spaniards. He gave Columbus permission to start a colony (La Navida) near his village near Caracol Bay after the Santa Maria had been wrecked Christmas Day. He was ultimately forced to flee to the mountains during the fighting between the Taino and the Spaniards where he died.
2. The Spanish and most Europeans considered daily bathing unhealthy and upon discovering its practice among the natives of America, Queen Isabella even passed a law forbidding it. The custom throughout Europe was to cover up body odors with perfumes and powders. As a result, lice and fleas were common, especially among the poor people.
3. What we know of the Taino people and culture largely comes from written accounts from the Spanish which is largely biassed either to justify their treatment of the islanders or simply because it was seen through their eyes and preconceived notions. The Taino as a culture are extinct, the result of deaths by infectious diseases, warfare, enslavement and interracial breeding. Once having a population estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, they were reduced by 1548 to less than 500.
4. There was a practical side to this practice. Members within a tribe were most likely to marry, resulting in inbreeding and the accompanying genetic problems. Offering females to outsiders improved the gene pool.
5. These include sweet yams, squash, peanuts, and yucca, all of which originate in North America. Maiz is a Spanish word derived from a West Indian word.
6. This fifteenth century Spanish idea that non Christian peoples could be oppressed at will and converted to Christianity is rooted in the thesis of the Cardinal bishop of Ostia, Henry of Susa, in the thirteenth century, who successfully postulated that, "heathen peoples had their own political jurisdiction and their possessions before Christ came into the world. But when this occurred, all the powers and the rights of dominion passed to Christ, who, according to doctrine, became lord over the earth, both in the spiritual and temporal sense and heathens lost such right."
7. The zemi (or cemi) is a carved wood statue, or one made from the bones of the dead, representing various forces. The zemi is polished and addressed, fed, and smoked for, and on special occasions, followed by tribal meditation and vision using sacred herbs (cohoba, a hallucinogenic snuff from the seeds of anadenanthera peregrina, the cojobanna or piptadenia tree) which are inhaled in front of the zemi through a forked tube also called cohoba while holding a round dance. During the tribal meditation a vision takes place in which the zemi makes known its will. This frequently includes what has been called astral travel. In the ceremony seeking a blessing from Yucahu, the participant prays to the god of bread for good harvest, holding the zemi while praying, and then he buries it and urinates on it. There are stories that tell that upon being introduced to the crucifix, the Taino treated it in the same manner as if it were a zemi, needless to say infuriating the priests and resulting in the decapitation of the worshiper!

Chapter 4
The Tocobaga

Bestowed the name Baracutey, One Who Travels Alone, Nico meets the Ais and travels with an Ais trader and his son across what is presently Florida in his search for a way home, arriving at the territory of the Tocobaga where a captive woman claims to know of the pyramids and blood sacrifices seen in his vision. He enjoys their open attitude toward sex but is shocked by their permissive and aggressive women and their acceptance of multiple wives and incest. He engages in a manhood ceremony and aggressive anal sex.

Nicolau Ribeiro (16yo); Owl (14yo), son of war chief, Scalp Lock manhood ceremony (15/16 yo)
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The next time I woke, I was no longer on the mountain top and it was no longer night. The sun in fact was rising toward its summit, its brightness causing my eyes to throb with pain and to water. Slowly rising to my elbows, my head feeling like it was about to explode, I sat in wonder at the strange dream I had experienced and I felt completely drained of all energy and yet more contented and at peace than I had felt since leaving Quintas de Ribeiro. As I recalled my congress with the young boy surrounded by the strange mountain villagers and my immense pleasure, I smiled with the memory. Slowly looking about I found the Taino elders were spread out around me, several just beginning to wake up also. Beside me was a beautiful young boy of about fourteen who looked exactly like the boy in my dreams, and I slowly realized my body was streaked with what could only be the dried remains of a boy's seed. I glanced over at the boy again, perplexed by what had happened, no longer certain what was real and what was not.

The village cacique and healer-priest were sitting nearby and seeing I was awake the chief motioned for me to join them and motioned for one of the young girls to bring fruit and drink. I do not know what the drink was as it was not something I have ever had before, but it had a sharp, bitter taste and I found it quickly cleared the fog in my mind just as the sour fruit relieved the dryness of my mouth. Out of habit from my training under Father and Uncle, I made a note to inquire about this marvellous drink for the purposes of trade with these people once I got back home. The healer-priest asked what I had experienced over the night, and he and the chief listened with great intentness and wonder as I described my dream, which to my amazement I found I could recall in vivid and total detail that had to be the result of more than the training I had received in observation by Uncle Paolo. As I related what I had dreamed, the young boy who had been beside me awoke and glancing over at me, he flashed me a knowing and happy smile and I knew that at least part of my dream was based on reality, which greatly frightened me when I wondered about the other parts of my dream.

Neither the chief nor the healer-priest had ever heard of the things I described, but both were certain that what I described really existed and that I had indeed flown to these strange lands, and that I was destined to travel to them in the future and experience what I had envisioned. After hearing my vision, the healer-priest bestowed upon me the name Baracutey, which he said meant 'one who travels alone' and so I became known in the days to come. So it was that next morning I gathered my few possessions, my sword, scabbard and dagger, my boots and my Cross of Saint Christopher, my belt which I now used to hold my scabbard and dagger having discarded my clothing, and a narrow headband I had traded my smooth, speckled rock for to hold back my hair and keep the sweat out of my eyes and to which I had fastened my silver cloak clasp, and I set out with two of the islanders for what I was told was the land of the Ais, a journey across great expanses of sea, traveling north and west according to the stars from one island to the next.

At each island we were warmly greeted by the chief of that land for we were traveling among friends. My two companions made this journey two times a year I was told, bringing nuts, fruit and parrot feathers from Guanahari to trade for clay pots and stone arrow heads and spear points. We reached the first island after six days of paddling across the Cipango Sea, the second after ten days, the third after twelve, and the fourth after eight, and again I marveled at how fast these canoa could travel and how these islanders could travel across such great expanses of open water and with no navigational aides other than the stars at night. Each of the islands we traveled to differed only in size, all having sandy beaches and thick, green forests and most ringed by coral reefs. From the fourth and last island, it was four days of paddling to the land of the Ais which I was told was not an island.

These people, the Ais, speak a language similar to the Taino and they look and live in much the same manner. The men wear their hair tied back in a roll and held in place by two sharpened bones and they wear a triangular breechclout of woven palm leaves which hangs in front from a colorful four-finger-wide belt tied about their waists with the tip of the triangle passed between their legs and tied to the belt in the back so that it encased their genitals and covered the cleft of their buttocks. Their name, I learned, came from the name of a great cacique who had once ruled over them. My two companions were known by the members of the tribe and were greeted with much excitement and joy and the villagers quickly brought out their belongings to trade for the goods we had brought with us. The most valued item the Ais had for my companions to take back were small dishes which the Ais said were made from a stone that was dug out of the earth at a place where there were great lakes so large that one could not see the opposite shore line and high cliffs and that was many moons travel by canoa to the north. I examined them carefully and found them similar to the copper cups and bowls of home though these were not as ornate nor as skillfully crafted.

As we sat around the evening fire and exchanged news, I and my companions told of the arrival of the Spaniards and warned the Ais of their savagery and their lust for the rock which we call gold and which they call caona. They of course were much interested in me and asked many questions about these big ships with sails upon which we traveled great distances across the Ocean Sea, and the Ais were told of my freeing of the captives that had been taken onboard the Niña, which had become so exaggerated that I would not have been surprised if it was claimed I had walked on water.

The chief of course inquired what my intention was now and when I told them of my hope to travel back to my homeland and inquired where I might obtain a horse they were mystified by my request, and claimed to know of no such beast but remarked on what a wonder it must be for a man to travel so. My companions urged me to relate my vision and the elders listened with great intent and interest, for I have found these simple folk love hearing and telling tales most dearly. The chief then summoned forth an elderly woman whose name was Tzequecotl and whom he said had been captured as a young girl and traded by one man to another several times for she was weak and knew no womanly skills other than making of babies and desired only to return to her home until many winters ago, three times as many as a man has fingers, she had arrived at this village and married one of the village warriors who already had a wife and did not need one for any other reason than the one she was good at.

Much to my surprise, she said that she had come from a place as I had described where men were cut open on the tops of huge temples and their hearts offered to the gods. This land she said, was many moons travel to the west and the south.

I was greatly heartened to learn that such a place really existed, though having to travel through such a land with such savagery filled me with great apprehension. When I inquired about my land, Tzequecotl said she had never heard of such a place, but when I asked further she said there was a vast desert and rugged and desolate mountains to the west of the home of her birth, and from her description it sounded much like the eastern lands of the Mongols with which of course I am familiar and that too gave me much hope about my return home.

There was one man, an older man about the age of my father, who had listened most intently to all this, and he asked me many more questions about my homeland and my people, but he too had never heard of such folk. He was, I learned, a trader and a storyteller who traveled to the west and to the north to exchange the goods produced by the Ais and to bring back those items that the surrounding villagers had and that the Ais did not. He was about to make one last journey to these surrounding tribes, saying that he had grown too old to make such a strenuous journey, and he wished to spend what winters he had left with his wife and children. One of his sons, a youth of about twenty who was called Bat, had accompanied him in the past and would be taking over his trade route after this trip. I of course welcomed any help in guiding me on my journey, but he was at first most reluctant to have me travel with them until I assured him I had no desire to take over his work or compete with his son, and that I would part company once they headed south. I also assured him I would help with the portages needed and the loading and unloading of his goods but would not ask for any of the profits, and though not a greater hunter, I could use a bow and would help in the killing of game along the way for our food. He was encouraged by this for he said he was growing too old to hunt, and his son had poor eyes, which was why he had chosen to be a trader and not a hunter, and which was why he was called Bat, who in this land as in mine, is a beast known to have poor eyesight.

So it was that two days later, the third morning after having arrived at the village, I headed out across land with him and his son to the Tocobaga, whom he said lived on the other side of this land on the coast of a great sea, ten days of travel along canals and across great swamps. From his description, I feared that this land was another island despite what I had been told and these Tocobaga only lived on the other side, but I was headed west and that many steps closer to my home and that was encouraging.

Never have I seen nor imagined country such as we traveled through. Although it was February and the middle of winter, the days were hotter than the hottest days of summer in Portugal, and though we had no rain and I was told this was the dry season, the air was humid. The trees grew out of the water, their roots submerged, and great vines and tangles of moss hung from the trees like old men's beards. The waterways were homes of many large birds, water snakes which I was told were poisonous, and large lizards longer than a man is tall and as heavy as a man, similar to the crocodiles of Egypt and Africa but their snouts were blunter and their heads flatter. Seen sunning themselves on upended logs in the waterways, we gave them wide berth whenever we could and passed by quickly and silently otherwise. I was told their short, sharp teeth and muscular jaws could chomp through the leg bone of a man and I had no doubt that it was true. The waterways were clogged with vegetation, sometimes so thick you had to cut your way along with long knives made of sharpened bone or chipped stone. It was strenuous work in the heat and the humidity and we did not talk, conserving our strength for paddling or cutting through the swamp.

In the evenings as we ate our evening meal, however, the trader talked about his travels and I learned much about the Tocobaga and of the Calusa, a much larger population of natives which occupied most of the land to the south. He told me that both were expert fishermen and hunters and daring travelers of the great sea along which they lived. He also told me they were fierce and determined warriors and therefore left alone by most of their neighboring tribes. The name Calusa I was told meant 'powerful men'.

In the afternoon of our tenth day of traveling, the trader suddenly told us to stop paddling. I did not understand the reason but did as I was told and sat patiently and silently as did he and his son. Why we had stopped quickly became apparent as there suddenly appeared on our right four men with their bows drawn and their arrows pointing directly at us, and at the same time on our left another four men appeared with their weapons similarly trained on us. The leader, one of the four men on the right, demanded to know who we were and why we were there.

"I am the Trader," the trader said. "We come in peace. I have been here before and we did a good trade. I come with more goods you will like. Do you not recognize me?"

The vines parted and the man and his three companions cautiously approached us in a canoa. He studied the Trader, and looked into our canoa. "It is good," he said. "The cacique will be glad to see you."

The thick vines on the other side of the canal separated and a second canoa appeared with the other four men and we followed the two canoa. The canal gradually became wider and the vegetation along the sides less thick until it opened up onto a flat stretch of beach beyond which I could see stretching out to the horizon another Ocean Sea and my heart sank with the thought that this was another island and I still had far to go before I reached the land of the Great Khan. There were many canoa pulled up along the shore, more than I have ever seen at one time, some small and others large, and as we drew closer to my surprise several canoa were tied together as pairs, and there were several larger canoa with sails. We pulled our canoa up onto land and followed the men into the village of Tocobaga.

It was a large village, the houses square in shape and the walls plastered smooth like the surface of a mud flat after a rain and roofed with palm thatch, those closest to the shore built up on stilts so that you could see under them because, I was told, when the Ocean Sea came in it flooded the land under them, which I found most marvelous and improbable, but which I was to witness during my stay with these people. Farther back there were many large mounds that towered above the homes on stilts, some round, some square, all with a flat terrace on top and several with the same mud walled and palm thatched homes. Those smaller mounds farther back and partially hidden by the thick growth of vegetation I was told were burial mounds and I was warned not to approach them as the spirits did not take kindly to those who disturbed their resting place. Though smaller, some of these mounds were huge, six feet high and sixty feet across, and I wondered how many dead were buried in them. The Trader was well known here and greeted with much joy and the children ran ahead of us, announcing our arrival.

The villagers who stepped out of their homes to discover what the noise was about all looked similar to the Taino, their skin perhaps a bit of a redder brown than a copper and their faces more rough in appearance. The men wore loincloths like the Ais and the women a skirt woven from the moss that I had seen hanging from the trees. Neither wore anything above the waist and both wore shell or bead necklaces. Some of the men had what I later discovered was a copper ear spool in one or both ears. The children, male and female, were naked just like children of the Taino and of the Ais. Arriving at the center of the village, we walked up a ramp that spiraled to the top of one of the highest mounds where the houses were larger than all the rest.

The cacique came out of his home, the largest building on the top of this mound, to meet us along with several warriors and several women. He wore an ornate deerskin cape tied over his shoulders which artfully showed his elaborate tattooing. His hair was tied up in a knot on the top of his head so neatly I wondered how many candle marks it took to arrange it and who did it for him. On his forehead he wore an ornament, a brightly painted shell, and on his legs he wore beaded bands. Two of the women with him were beautiful, their breasts full and well formed, and two were older, one wrinkled and with sagging breasts and the other with fat thighs and arms and plump breasts like overstuffed pillows. As he approached us, the trader's son dropped to his knees and raised his hands, palms up. Uncertain, I glanced at the Trader who gave me an almost imperceptible nod and I followed suit, followed lastly by the Trader. The chief broke out into a great grin as he stepped up to the trader.

"Ah, the Trader! You were here six moons ago, and when we sat down to trade we thought we were smarter than you, but you bested us," he said, his grin turning into a glower as he looked down at the Trader and my heart leaped to my throat. This was not good. "Now we know, and this time we will get the best of you!" he exclaimed cheerfully and the warriors about him smiled and nodded and my heart continued to beat once again. I had been truly worried that my journey was going to come to an abrupt end. "After we feed you and your son," he continued, "and," he said, looking at me in surprise and evident curiosity, "your strange-looking slave."

"This one is not my slave," the Trader said. "He is on a vision quest, and I have agreed to take him this far in return for his strong back and arms and keen eye."

"A vision quest!" he exclaimed. "Then he will eat with us in my home also, and tell us about his mission." The room we entered was larger and more impressive than any I had ever seen in these lands, and as I looked around I was so surprised I could not conceal my awe and I gawked about like a peasant entering a noble's home, which as it turned out greatly pleased the cacique for he was very proud of his home and his possessions. Brightly painted shields hung on the walls along with ornate masks of people and of animals, some recognizable and many that had to be exaggerations for never have I seen animals with such features and colors. About the room were wooden carvings of animals, magnificently done, and I wondered if these had been collected for their beauty, or if these were items of worship. Great spears and bows and fine arrows of the finest quality hung from the posts supporting the roof and leaned up against the walls.

The chief sat on a low stool. To his left was an older man with even more tattoos with arm and leg bands, the healer-priest, whom I learned went by the title "Medicine Man," and to his right was a younger man, fierce looking with his face and chest painted in red and black and with fearsome, penetrating eyes, the war chief. The rest of us, several of the warriors who had accompanied him, Bat, the Trader and myself, sat cross-legged on the floor before them. Our meal was served by young, naked children whom I learned later were slaves captured from nearby tribes or the children of families who owed service to the cacique. In addition to the shellfish, roots and vegetables I had grown accustomed to was a very tasty but very different meat, neither fish nor fowl. "From the deep sea," the cacique said, noticing my puzzlement. "The finned killer. He came after our fish in our net, and so we speared him and now it is he who is eaten!" The others chuckled at his wit and I had to admire the irony. These savages, I am discovering, are pleasant and of good humor as a people, which I cannot say of the heathen Saracens of my travels to the East or even of our neighbors, the men of Castile Our meal was accompanied by a tasty red drink served in conch shells that burned the tongue and down the throat, which I noticed too late the Trader only sipped and drank very slowly. My throat being parched and the drink tasty, I downed several until I realized the drink was beginning to make me dizzy.

"Now, my sister and first wife will lead the dance for us," the cacique said as we finished our meal. At this the older, plump woman who had been among those who had greeted us and who had sat with the other women apart from the men rose from the other side of the room and began to dance, showing her legs provocatively, her big breasts bouncing and as I envisioned being embraced by her and being smothered by those large mammaries my member stirred. Two more women, much younger, joined her after a bit, the youngest looking no more than fourteen and obviously pregnant. The way they swayed their hips and hiked up their moss skirts as they ran their hands along their thighs and their suggestive looks as they rotated their shoulders and hips seductively, my member began to swell despite my lack of interest in those of the opposite gender and I began to feel an ache and need in my loins that I normally felt for those of my sex.

"Now, we will trade," the cacique announced as the dance concluded.

It was not until I stood that I realized just how powerful the red drink was as the room spun and the floor tipped one way and then the other and I almost fell as I tottered to the door. I also realized why the Trader had drank so little, the chief obviously hoping to get him drunk to take advantage of him in the bargaining to follow. Already embarrassed and befuddled by my state of intoxication, I was further embarrassed by the behavior of my member which was fortunately bound by a loincloth which I had taken to wearing upon joining the Ais but whose stiff condition caused my loincloth to jut out like a little tent and was impossible to conceal. My condition brought great amusement to the cacique and the Medicine Man, the latter observing that it was good to be young, and the chief pleased that I had enjoyed the dancing. As I glanced at his wife out of the corner of my eye she smiled and was obviously pleased also, which caused me to turn a bright red and which in turn caused the others much amusement.

The Trader had brought feather cloaks he had obtained from the Taino besides packets of bright parrot feathers, the small copper dishes that he said had come from the far north, and colorful seashells, all of which he traded for flint arrowheads, wooden carvings, and fine spears for fishing. After trading, the Trader complaining about how skillful the cacique had bargained and how he had gotten the worse of the deal though from my observation it was just the reverse and the cacique saying so, the Trader was asked what news he brought from the West and if he had learned any new stories since he had last visited. He said he had much to tell, but the greatest news was that which I had about pale-faced and bearded visitors that had arrived across the great Ocean Sea and he encouraged me to tell my tale. It was greeted with great disbelief and it was only because of the honesty and reputation of the Trader that they accepted it as truth, though I could tell they thought it greatly exaggerated because of my youth, and because I was a member of this faraway tribe.

That night, the trader's son was visited by a young maiden and much to my surprise the Trader was visited by the cacique's fat sister-wife. I was visited by a boy by the name of Owl for he had huge eyes like an owl and who said he was fifteen winters of age and I figured the Trader or his son had advised the chief that I would rather males than females, but the boy said they did not have to as the Medicine Man had sensed that I would rather those of my own sex. I could not see how that could be possible, especially considering my earlier reaction to the female dancers, but I saw no advantage in correcting him. As we lay down, I mentioned having seen the chief's first wife going to the Trader and my surprise considering how many young and beautiful women there were besides she being his wife and sister. The boy was even more surprised at my surprise, saying that the Trader was a very important guest and so was given the best, the chief's wife. He said she was very experienced and very skilled in pleasing a man and being of the age where she could no longer bear children she did it for the pleasure and not as a duty to have a child, and being the chief's wife and sister she was herself a very important person. Regardless what he said, I could not see how one so old and fat would be preferable over one of the young, beautiful maidens, and I was still surprised a man would send his wife to have congress with another man, and his sister besides. I could not possibly imagine Father sending my mother to have sex with someone else, nor she agreeing to it, and I certainly would never consider having congress with one of my sisters or sending her to have congress with someone just because he was important. These people have some very strange customs and are in great need of Christian guidance.

Owl went on to say that the Chief was very careful in selecting who would spend the night with guests. The younger maiden for example could still have children, and it would be a good thing to have a son by the Trader's son. I could only shake my head in wonder at the perversity of these people and their wickedness that they would encourage a woman to have a child by someone she was not married to, unquestionable proof of their need of Christian education. He went on to say that he had been chosen because I was young and full of life and lust and would need someone also young with the same high needs so they might satisfy me, but I was also an important person and skilled in sport between men, so the chief had chosen a boy who would be worthy of learning from such an experienced person, and so had selected the war chief's son with of course the war chief's knowledge and permission. The son of the war chief! Their perversity and wickedness surely know no bounds, and though I was pleased by the flattery that I was both important and skilled, I was also worried that the boy evidently had such high expectations of his upcoming night with me. I certainly did not want to disappoint him, nor the war chief, and certainly not the cacique!

Throughout our discourse we were caressing and fondling each other as a man and a woman do, and he said he knew of such things from watching his mother and father but not yet being a man he was not allowed to do such things with a girl, and he really had no interest in doing such things with another boy, adding quickly that even though he felt that way he had come to my lodge willingly and had great trust in his father and in the chief that they were right in sending him to me. As I fondled his member I slowly and gently pulled back the hood and was relieved to find the parts it covered clean. He was most interested in the fact my member had no such hood, and when I told him it was the custom of my people to have it removed, he reacted with great horror and great concern for the shame its removal must have brought, but great admiration for my endurance of what had to be great pain. Being an infant I confess I have no memory of the pain though considering the sensitivity of that part I imagine it had to have been immense, and I told him in that it was a common practice, I attached no shame to its removal, which he confessed he did not understand for among his people if a man's hood slipped back to reveal his knob he would be greatly embarrassed and greatly ashamed.

In that he informed me he had been told to do whatever I told him to do and figuring I would never have another chance like this, I dared to kiss him and when he kissed me back I continued kissing him, first on the lips, which made my young cock tremor, and then on the neck and on down over his muscular chest to his nipples, which I kissed and licked and sucked until they were hard. After allowing him to do the same to me, I continued on down to his cock and balls. His crotch had a smoky, pungent odor like I have never smelled before combined with the unmistakable odor of cock and ball sweat which caused me to become fully erect. He was not yet fully aroused himself and I slipped my mouth about his flaccid sausage and sucked on it gently, delighting in the flavor and in the eroticism of sucking this young, virgin boy's cock. He of course became erect instantly and his cock throbbed eagerly in my mouth.

Clamping my lips tightly about the boy's cock, I continued sucking on it as I began to slip my lips up and down its length, up and down his shaft and over his bulb, causing him to tense and inhale sharply with the pleasure shooting through his bulb. I continued pleasuring him thus and then I ran my tongue over his sensitive opening and he immediately began to leak that sweet, clear nectar that precedes one's seed. I did not want him to ejaculate too soon, so I continued my actions for only another several dozen heartbeats and then allowed his organ to slip out of my mouth so that he might recover. He took that action as an invitation for him to do the same to me as I had done to him, and having found it most pleasurable, he did not hesitate to slip his lips about my swollen member and to suck on it, and to work his lips up and down its length as I had done to him. Of course I too rewarded him with the precious droplets of my clear nectar which he lapped up willingly with his tongue, tasting that unique ambrosia that only a man can make.

I drew away to allow my desire to subside and caressed him slowly and gently, avoiding those spots that I knew would arouse him greatly, and he copied me. Twisting around so we were facing each other but lying in opposite directions, I once again took his member in my mouth and he quickly copied me. As I sucked gently on his swollen member, I closed my eyes with pleasure as his hot, moist mouth enveloped my cock and he began to suck on it. All too soon I felt the pressure developing in my loins and I knew I would soon be expelling my seed. Before I did Owl exclaimed something and began to pull away from me and though I did not know the words I knew what was happening. I reached down and held his hips tightly, preventing him from withdrawing his cock, and heartbeats later he was squirting his seed into my mouth. I swallowed the thick, tart juice eagerly and once he realized I had anticipated this he relaxed and allowed the pleasure to flood over him.

Having my mouth filled with his hot seed triggered my own release and I warned him I was about to do the same as he had, but he made no move to slip his mouth off my cock and heartbeats later I was also filling his mouth with my hot, thick seed, and he too swallowed it. When we were at last done, we allowed each other's member to slip out of our mouths and we swallowed the last of each other's bitter slime. When our eyes met in the dark I smiled and he slowly smiled back, his lips glistening with a film of my seed. He said he had never heard of such a thing being done and he was amazed and pleased.

We rested for a bit and then began to caress and arouse each other again. This time I greased Owl's anus with the grease that he had brought with him and then my stiff member and then had him lay on his back with his legs raised and I penetrated him, laying above him. As I began to work my cock in and out of his rectum, I kissed him and he returned the kiss. It was delightful feeling his hot, moist rectum tightly gripping my aching member and feeling his rectum and my member throbbing together as one. Delightful also was the steadily increasing itch about my glans until I had to pause lest I squirt my seed. I paused and the two of us lay there panting, our naked bodies glistening with sweat as my cock and his rectum throbbed with pleasure. As the need to release my seed subsided, I resumed fucking him and as I looked down in the dark at his flushed face and parted lips I knew he was enjoying our congress as much as I. I delayed for as long as I could, but all too soon I was filling his rectum with my seed.

As I rolled off him, I handed him the grease but he set it aside and lay there enjoying the sensation of having been fucked, a new sensation for him. It was good that he waited for if he had not we would have both been too aroused to hold back for long. He finally greased my anus as I had done his and his still swollen cock and the two of us assuming the same position as we had before except me being on the bottom, he attempted to penetrate me. His awkwardness and difficulty reminded me that this was his first time, having never fucked a male nor a female before, and the novelty for him heightened my own arousal. I of course had much experience and I assisted him in achieving our union, just as eager for him to experience being on top as I was to be penetrated by this handsome, naked savage. As I felt his stiff cock slip up my rectum, I inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with his smoky, musky scent and I sighed with pleasure. As he began to fuck me we again embraced and kissed and my head spun with the pleasure that congress with another male brings. For the first time he had his aching member in the body of another, and he grunted and snorted like a wild animal as he thrust his cock in and out of my rectum. I knew the pleasure he was feeling, and what it had to be like feeling it for the first time, and his pleasure doubled my own. When he came some time later and filled my rectum with his hot, thick seed, I enjoyed his ejaculation as much as he did, and when he collapsed on me and groaned in ecstasy I knew I need not worry if I had pleased him. It was a most wonderful night. When we emerged in the morning, we were greeted with knowing smiles. For these people there was no shame in what the two of us had done and I can truly say that I had never felt happier.

That day the Trader rested, saying to everyone's amusement and to the chief's pride, that the chief's wife had exhausted him, and she responding that though the Trader had dipped his paddle in the sea many times he had not tired, causing him to beam with pride also. The young maiden shared grins with the chief's wife and said that the Trader's son had kept her awake all night and that she had lost count of the number if times he had dipped his paddle, which made him and his father very proud. No secrets are kept by these people, not even such intimacies.

The Trader's son went fishing with the men in the hopes of capturing a finned killer to take with them when he and his father journeyed back home so I was left to find my own diversion for the day. Owl appeared to have been assigned to keep me company and see to my needs so we found shade near the village and sat and talked for I was eager to learn more about these peoples, a curiosity about others that had been encouraged and fostered by Uncle Paolo. I learned from Owl that the Chief had four wives, the youngest being the one who had danced for us and who was the daughter of the war chief, Owl's sister, and that if the chief was dissatisfied for whatever reason, he could change his Principal wife, further evidence of how uncivilized these people are and how casually they regard marriage, and how great their need for Christian intervention. He said most men were content to have one wife, but if a man was particularly skilled in hunting he might have two, and if he was skilled in fighting he might capture a young girl with the intention of making her his slave and possibly his wife. I never heard of such an absurdity as a man marrying his slave! He told me that one man in their village had married a woman whose husband had been killed in a raid and he had married her daughter also, which was considered a great thing to do as they had no one to provide them food. The daughter Owl said was two winters younger than himself, and she and her mother were at the moment both with child. Even after my exposure to the immoral ways of the heathens of the far East, I was shocked that a mother and daughter would both be impregnated by the same man and consider it a decent thing. Father Francisco would be horrified to hear of such unchristian behavior.

I also learned from Owl that a man might have a wife who was a warrior and did all things that a man did instead of performing the duties that God created women for, even hunting and making weapons, so that she was a man in all ways except for what was lacking between her legs. I told him no woman from my homeland would want to do a man's work, and none would be capable. He found that just as strange as I found that a Tocobaga woman would not know her place in the world and that a man would marry such a woman. In other ways I found the Tocobaga are no different from the civilized peoples of Europe. They, for example, are divided into four classes of people, the naboria (common people), nitaino (subchiefs which are like nobles back home), the bohiques (the medicine person) and the caciques (chiefs or princes), all of whom have their proper place as God intended it to be.

Another similarity is that usually girls learn to be women from their mothers and sisters, and boys learn to be men from their fathers and their uncles. Boys I was told engage in running contests to develop strength in their legs for hunting and for war against other tribes, and they play mock raids and even mock battles with each other to perfect those skills. They also do their part in providing for their families and others by hunting small creatures like squirrels with bows and arrows, and work their way up to larger prey such as deer, and then the most difficult prey of all-man. The boys join clans, such as the eagle, turtle, rattlesnake or deer, each having a particular responsibility and each having secret ceremonies. One strangeness is that which clan a boy becomes a member of is determined by the clan of his mother, not their father. Just as boys play mock battles, men of different clans engage in play battle between clans to keep up their skills. They, like all the others in this land, know nothing of swords or canons, but they are all experts with the spear and the bow and arrow, the arrows ingeniously tipped with fishbone or sharks tooth for these people know nothing of iron.

That night I entertained the villagers with the panpipes, which they were most thrilled to hear and kept asking for more, and I told them of my vision quest. None had heard of such things as I described and were amazed, and considered me very brave to be traveling to such terrifying lands, and Owl looked upon me with such admiration that I was embarrassed. The next day the Trader headed south along the coast, planning on traveling around the southern tip of the land and back to his village. As my destination lay in the opposite direction, I bade him farewell, sorry to see them leave for he and his son were fine men.

That night the chief announced that he had given four youths from the village permission to conduct a raid on the village to the north across what they called the Little Big River. The people who lived there, the Ocale, spoke a different tongue and followed different customs and conducted raids on the Tocobaga and so were considered suitable enemies. That night the four youths, fifteen and sixteen years of age and filled with excitement and bravado, painted their bodies with the symbols and colors of their clans, two being members of the Rattlesnake Clan, one from the Deer Clan, and one from the Jicotea or Land Turtle Clan, which for each of them as I have mentioned was the clan of their mother, and they performed the Preparation Dance, demonstrating to all by pantomime their particular skill, throwing the spear, creeping with stealth, shooting with the bow and arrow, or making the call of a night owl and other night birds, and proclaiming their great strength and courage. When the dance was done, they lined up before the Medicine Man and taking a sharp coral, he scratched their forearms and their calves and though he drew blood and they bit their lower lips, the four did not flinch nor call out in pain, proving their endurance and their suitability to engage in this raid. They then left to spend the night in a lean-to of palm leaves that had been especially built for them at the edge of the village. The boys had fasted that day and I was told would continue to fast until morning, and they would be given the White Water that would cause them to vomit and thus be purified. (1)

In that the destination of the four youths was to the north, the chief bade me put off my leaving until after the youths had made their raid and so I agreed and continued to learn from the boy Owl but I had difficulty maintaining my interest for I was eager to be on my way. The boys had left before the sun had risen and they returned in mid-afternoon the following day, in high spirits and with much rejoicing. They reported they had succeeded in killing a warrior, and held up his bloody scalp as proof, and had maimed another, the two warriors being alone and hunting wild turkeys south of their village. Two of the boys had been badly injured, one having been struck by a spear which had broken and left the tip embedded in his side, and the other having fallen in their escape and broken an ankle.

The healer and his assistant had both gone out to sea with most of the men of the village, the boys not being expected back so soon, and, to my dismay I seemed to be the only one available that knew anything about treating such injuries. I sent Owl for herbs and cotton cord while the mothers of the two boys comforted them. Dealing with the spear wound first, I prepared a drink with a herb that I knew would numb the pain. Having the strongest boys in the village hold the injured boy down and giving him a stick to clamp his teeth into so he would not bite his tongue, I heated the tip of my dagger and proceeded to remove the tip of the spear and cauterize the wound to stop his bleeding. I quickly stitched the opening shut with the sinew the women used to sew the men's loincloths and tied a cotton pad over it to protect it and allow it to heal. Fortunately the spear had hit a rib and the tip had snapped off so the point had not penetrated too deeply. Turning to the boy with the broken ankle, I again had the stronger boys hold him down, and sitting before him, I raised his leg and gave his foot a quick twist to reset the bone and wrapped it up tightly with cord so the bones would not move with the instruction for him to keep off it. Totally exhausted, I headed to the stream to wash off my bloody hands and being alone, I reflected on the need for boys to prove their strength and courage, a need that appears to be universal for I have found it in every culture I have ever encountered.

Being advised it would be dangerous to travel north after the raid, I reluctantly postponed my travel, annoyed that the chief and the four boys had inconvenienced me and eager to be on my way but well understanding the wisdom of not venturing into Ocale land. Each day passed with agonizing slowness. Finally, two weeks later, the two boys had sufficiently healed that the bohique declared they could proceed with the ceremony by which they would become men, which I discovered had been the reason for the raid in the first place, and which caused me to question even more the wisdom of such a practice. The four youths were once again secluded from the village and they once more purified themselves by fasting and taking deep draughts of White Water and vomiting. They then returned to the village, their hair now tied up in the back in the manner of men instead of hanging loose like children, and before the villagers the elders spoke of their great deeds and their courage during the raid, and then as each stepped forward he blessed them by casting smoke over them from a smoldering pot and gave them their adult names, Spear-in-side, Broken-foot, Swift Runner, and Scalp Lock. The sacred pipe, another custom common to all these peoples, was ceremoniously taken out and filled with tapaco, and it was passed from the chief to the bohique and then the four boys, and then to other prominent members of the tribe, including myself now seen as a hero for treating the boys' wounds. There followed a great feast of fish and shellfish and dances and everyone in the village stepped forward to congratulate the boys. Now that they were considered men, they were allowed to wear their hair tied up in a knot and wear paint on their bodies, speak at ceremonies, have sex with those of the opposite gender, and marry

The unmarried males in the village lived in a long barracks-like lodge whereas the married men lived in their wives' parent's lodge. That night, maidens came to the warriors in their corner of the barracks and for the first time in their lives they had congress with a member of the opposite sex, all but one. Scalp Lock I discovered preferred men to women, and that night I was given the honor of welcoming him into manhood. Considering that most people back home questioned the masculinity of those who preferred congress with other males, I found that most ironic.

It was a dark night and it was even darker in that far corner of the lodge, and those around Scalp Lock and I were vague shadows. Even though those closest to us talked softly, I could hear snatches of their conversation and from what I heard I gathered that the young maidens were asking their partners about their raid and their part in it even though the entire village had heard the details of their exploits. The young braves of course were describing what had happened with great pride and great delight, impressing on the maidens their great bravery and skill. Taking my clue from what was happening around me, I asked Scalp Lock about his part in the raid and of course he likewise proudly and excitedly described the raid once again and how he had snuck up on one of the hunters and had killed him and collected his scalp. Like the maidens beside me, I expressed my admiration for his skill and bravery, which was sincere for what he had done had taken much skill and courage, though I personally saw no honor in attacking another in ambush, and I found the idea of cutting off his scalp repulsive. As he talked, his voice and his eyes reflecting great pride, I was reminded of the savagery I had seen in my journey through the land of the Mongols, and the battle in which Prince Abbas's soldiers had decapitated their enemy and piled their skulls beside his tent flashed in my mind. Man's cruelty and violence against his fellow man seems to be another universality across all cultures, both Christian and non-Christian.

Worked up by their description of the raid and the blood coursing rapidly through their veins, from the sounds I heard the boys beside me took their companions roughly and aggressively, and from the sounds of their congress the maidens apparently had come expecting such coarse behavior and similarly aroused, met their advances with similar savagery. It was no different for Scalp Lock. Inflamed by his telling of the raid and filled with his sense of importance and the proof of his manhood, he similarly advanced upon me aggressively. Having been taken in such manner as a bathboy back in Istanbul by those filled with their own importance and guided by their perception that congress between males should be violent as that was the nature of males, I knew how to accommodate such a partner without injury to myself and so I let him have his way with me, and I reacted with equal roughness and coarseness, knowing that is what he expected.

So he plunged his member up my rectum as though he was stabbing me with a knife, and he savagely rammed his cock in and out of my body, focusing on his own pleasure and having only one goal in mind, his ejaculation. I had brought animal fat with me and had lubricated my anus in preparation for the night, just as the maidens had come prepared smelling of honey so our union was not excessively painful, and his passion and savage lust was arousing, and contagious. So as he banged his body against mine and delighted in the pleasure of a swollen cock and the burning rim of his knob, I thrust my hips up to meet his descending body and delighted in the sensation of having my rectum stuffed with another's aching cock and the pleasure of a burning ring about my anus. It was a very different type of sex and perhaps it was that difference that made it so enjoyable, that, and the knowledge that on this night my partner was considered a man. When he shot his seed up my rectum, I shot mine into the woven palm mat with as much pleasure and as much force.

We had congress four times that night, whether it was to keep up with the pairs beside us or because Scalp Lock was that aroused. Each time I took the passive role with him mounting me. It was raw, animalistic sex, and I thrashed about on the palm mat and sought the release of my seed with the same fervidness as he did. Our lust finally spent after the fourth time, we lay on our sides and cuddled against each other and drifted off to sleep, those on either side of us similarly having quieted.

1. White Water is actually black in colour and made from holly, the main ingredient being an emetic. Sea water is sometimes added to increase the emetic effect.
2. Much of the information regarding the customs of the Ais and the Tocobaga in this chapter comes from the fictional novel Tatham Mound by Piers Anthony which is set in the first half of the 1500's in Florida prior to and during the invasion by Hernando De Soto. These two tribes had no written records of course, and neither exists today, the two nations having disappeared before Europeans settled Florida, so we can't study present customs today and infer what they might have been in the past. What we do know is based on archaeological excavation of their burial mounds south of the Withlacoochee River (the Little Big River) and what we know about the larger Muskogean group of tribes of the southeast USA with whom they most likely were affiliated. Like Piers Anthony stated in his fictional novel, we can never know precisely what their culture was like but this story presents one conjecture.

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