Amazonian Cannibals At King Charles’s Court

“In August of 1563, Michel de Montaigne, the famous French essayist, was introduced to three [indigenous Brazilians] who were visiting Rouen, France, at the invitation of King Charles the Ninth. The three men had never before left Brazil, had just been subjected to a long interrogation by the king (who was 13 years old at the time), and if they had not already contracted some dangerous European illness, they were surely undergoing a rather severe case of culture shock. Despite this, they still had enough poise to lucidly respond to Montaigne’s questions about what they thought of their new surroundings.”