The questions of the cacique Nicaragua

A cross-examination of Europeans by an American ruler that the Spanish side put into print. Lopez de Gomara gives the questions at length — the flood, the stars, where souls go, whether the pope dies, why so few men want so much gold — and says the Spaniards stood amazed. The same pages carry the cost: an embassy offering friendship or war, a mass baptism some said was badly made, lords refusing to give up their dances, and a second cacique who raised an army instead.