"I have seen a lot in my life. Ever since I was a child, there have been white men around. They came from faraway lands on big ships. They always fascinated me because they were so different from us. I made friends with some of the sailors and acted as their guide and translator. Our chief didn't like what I did, he didn't trust white men, but I was sure that there was no reason for us to fight them. One of my new friends, Captain John Smith, was a good, honest man. We shared the same ideas, and when he went back to England, he took me with him. We both thought it would be very important for the English to see what Indians were like so that our nations could find out more about each other. After a short stay in England, I decided to go back to my land. I went on the ship of another English captain, who had promised to get me home safely. But instead of keeping his word, he sold me into slavery, to the Spanish. Luckily, I was bought by monks. They taught me to read and write. Sometimes the monks told me stories about great people and their great deeds."
"Take, for example, Christopher Columbus," they used to say. "This great man crossed the ocean in search of a new way to India and in 1492 discovered a new continent; the continent where you come from. Isn't it wonderful? He brought back a lot of gold and made Spain richer and more powerful."