This image depicts an Eden-like island, with palm trees silhouetted against the setting sun. In the accompanying verses, Columbus speaks of the riches of the land and the fact that the trees never lose their leaves. He claims that “plenty is the proper name of this land.”
The facing page shows the indigenous people running away from a giant figure falling from the sky. The natives are rendered in a simple, primitive style with few details beyond the sticks they hold, and Rice may have been using Aboriginal art or Paleolithic cave drawings in Europe as his sources. The man falling is meant to represent Columbus and his men; in the text Columbus explains that the natives believed they fell out of out the sky. The falling man may also represent the loss of innocence and peace experienced by the indigenous Americans upon the arrival of Europeans in the New World. As such, a connection to the Fall of Man and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise is also appropriate.
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