This might be a dumb question but i’ve always wondered since they had never encountered people who spoke a completely new language they’d never heard, how did they communicate?
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There’s actually a great video by the YouTube channel History Matters about this very question. Very basically, they used a kind of improvised sign language to try and communicate at first. Eventually there would be captive Europeans or captive natives on either side of the Atlantic that would then learn the other language. Then those people would act as interpreters in future interactions. Here’s the video if you want more: [How did European Explorers Speak to Newly-discovered Natives? (Short Animated Documentary)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu-EdQ44EZU)
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