Note 409-2 — THE FOURTH VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS

Columbus, in his marginal notes to his copy of the Historia Rerum ubique Gestarum of Pope Pius II. (Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini; Venice, 1477), summarized the description of the Massagetae in ch. XII. in part as follows: they “use golden girths and golden bridles and silver breast-pieces and have no iron but plenty of copper and gold.” Raccolta Colombiana, parte I., tomo II., p. 300. This description of the Massagetae goes back to Herodotus. While some habits ascribed to the Massagetae were like what Columbus observed in Veragua, their home was nowhere near eastern China.