These weapons also make a great noise, though not comparable with that of the large pieces, which are called cannon." "And they have animals on which they sit, and which carry them at a speed far greater than that at which a man can run ?" "That is so, Sire." "Of what color are they, and of what form ?" "They are all colors: some are black, and some white, others brown, or gray, or roan, or bay." This answer seemed to surprise the king more than any other he had heard.

All the beasts and birds with which he was acquainted were of the particular color which appertained to their species, and that the animals of any one kind should thus differ in so extraordinary degree from each other struck him as remarkable, indeed.
Roger had always been fond of sketching, and had often whiled away dull hours on board ship with pencil and paintbrush; and his cousins at home had quite a collection of sketches that he made for them in, foreign parts.

He now said: "If your Majesty will order that gentleman, who is at present taking my likeness, to hand me a sheet of paper and his brushes, I will endeavor to draw for your Majesty an outline of the animal I speak of, and which we call a horse." At the king's order the scribe at once handed the necessary materials to Roger, who in three or four minutes dashed off a spirited sketch of a horse, with a rider upon his back.

The king was greatly struck with the representation.

The Aztecs possessed the art of copying objects with a fair amount of accuracy, but the figures were stiff and wooden, without the slightest life or animation.