Sweet Tooth for Empire: Sugar and the British Atlantic World

would be read before the Senate of the Republic of Venice indicated that the New World and its
cannibalistic inhabitants had grabbed hold of the European mind and consciousness.
Before proceeding to other letters, it is important to recognize that Chanca’s report was
not the only one which influenced the letters and correspondence of the Europeans. Another
report had as much significance as Chanca’s letter, the report of Michele da Cuneo, an Italian
“who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage in 1493,” 27 and who “reports what he saw
and did simply and directly—even crudely.” 28 Cuneo, who became famous for his lurid
description of his rape of a female cannibal, wrote, in reference to the men Columbus left at
Hispaniola to form the nucleus of a new colony, “we thought the islanders had eaten them, for as
soon as they have killed anyone, they immediately gouge out his eyes and eat them.” 29 He also
made sure to discuss the fact that “the Cannibals, when they capture some Indians, eat them like
we eat young goats, and they say that the flesh of a boy is much better than that of a female.
They have an insatiable appetite for that human flesh.” 30 Written roughly around the same time
as Chanca’s letter, Cuneo’s report was equally influential.
Simone dal Verde, a merchant living in Valladolid, also wrote a letter to his village
discussing the difference between the Tainos, whom the Europeans stereotyped as the friendly
group of Indians and the Caribs. 31 He noted “for while the latter [the Tainos] were meek and
trusting, these [the Caribs] were suspicious and cruel, for they eat human flesh, as you will
27 Geoffrey Symcox, “Introduction,” in Repertorium Columbianum Volume 12: Italian Reports on America-1493-
1522: Accounts by Contemporary Observers, ed. Geoffrey Symcox, (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2002), 10-11.
28 Ibid.
29 Michele da Cuneo, in Symcox, 52.
30 Da Cuneo, 57.
31 Symcox, “Introduction,” in Symcox, 31.