Chapter XI: Part 11

[93-1] On June 30, 1484, King John II. of Portugal granted to Fernam Domimguez do Arco, "resident in the island of Madeyra, if he finds it, an island which he is now going in search of." _Alguns Documentos do Archivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo_, p. 56.

[94-1] _Tres horas de noche_ means three hours after sunset.

[94-2] "On this day [Sunday, Sept. 9] they lost sight of land; and many, fearful of not being able to return for a long time to see it, sighed and shed tears. But the admiral, after he had comforted all with big offers of much land and wealth to keep them in hope and to lessen their fear which they had of the long way, when that day the sailors reckoned the distance 18 leagues, said he had counted only 15, having decided to lessen the record so that the crew would not think they were as far from Spain as in fact they were." _Historie del Signor Don Fernando Colombo_ (London ed., 1867), pp. 61-62.

[95-1] Las Casas in his _Historia_, I. 267, says "on that day at nightfall the needles northwested that is to say the fleur de lis which marks the north was not pointing directly at it but verged somewhat to the left of north and in the morning northeasted that is to say the fleur de lis pointed to right of the north until sunset."

The _Historie_ agrees with the text of the Journal that the needle declined more to the west, instead of shifting to an eastern declination.

The author of the _Historie_ remarks: "This variation no one had ever observed up to this time," p. 62. "Columbus had crossed the point of no variation, which was then near the meridian of Flores, in the Azores, and found the variation no longer easterly, but more than a point westerly. His explanation that the pole-star, by means of which the change was detected, was not itself stationary, is very plausible. For the pole-star really does describe a circle round the pole of the earth, equal in diameter to about six times that of the sun; but this is not equal to the change observed in the direction of the needle." (Markham.)

[96-1] _Garjao._ This word is not in the Spanish dictionaries that I have consulted. The translator has followed the French translators MM. Chalumeau de Verneuil and de la Roquette who accepted the opinion of the naturalist Cuvier that the _Garjao_ was the _hirondelle de mer_, the _Sterna maxima_ or royal tern.

[96-2] _Rabo de junco_, literally, reedtail, is the tropic bird or Phaethon. The name "boatswain-bird" is applied to some other kinds of birds, besides the tropic bird. _Cf._ Alfred Newton, _Dictionary of Birds_ (London, 1896). Ferdinand Columbus says: _rabo di giunco_, "a bird so called because it has a long feather in its tail," p. 63.

[96-3] This remark is, of course, not true of the tropic bird or _rabo de junco_, as was abundantly proved on this voyage.

[97-1] See p. 96, note 2.

[98-1] _Alcatraz._ The rendering "booby" follows Cuvier's note to the French translation. The "booby" is the "booby gannet." The Spanish dictionaries give pelican as the meaning of _Alcatraz_. The gannets and the pelicans were formerly classed together. The word _Alcatraz_ was taken over into English and corrupted to _Albatros_. Alfred Newton, _Dictionary of Birds_ (London, 1896), art. "Albatros."

[98-2] More exactly, "He sailed this day toward the West a quarter northwest and half the division [_i.e._, west by north and west by one eighth northwest] because of the veering winds and calm that prevailed."

[100-1] The abridger of the original journal missed the point here and his epitome is unintelligible. Las Casas says in his _Historia_, I. 275: "The Admiral says in this place that the adverseness of the winds and the high sea were very necessary to him since they freed the crew of their erroneous idea that there would be no favorable sea and winds for their return and thereby they received some relief of mind or were not in so great despair, yet even then some objected, saying that that wind would not last, up to the Sunday following, when they had nothing to answer when they saw the sea so high. By which means, Cristobal Colon says here, God dealt with him and with them as he dealt with Moses and the Jews when he drew them from Egypt showing signs to favor and aid him and to their confusion."

[100-2] Las Casas, _Historia_, I. 275-276, here describes with detail the discontent of the sailors and their plots to put Columbus out of the way. The passage is translated in Thacher, _Christopher Columbus_, I. 524. The word rendered "sandpipers" is _pardelas_, petrels. The French translation has _petrels tachetes_, _i.e._, "pintado petrels," or cape pigeons.

[101-1] More exactly, "On which it seems the Admiral had painted certain islands." The Spanish reads: "_donde segun parece tenia pintadas el Almirante ciertas islas_," etc. The question is whether Columbus made the map or had it made. The rendering of the note is supported by the French translators and by Harrisse.

[101-2] Las Casas, I. 279, says: "This map is the one which Paul, the physician, the Florentine, sent, which I have in my possession with other articles which belonged to the Admiral himself who discovered these Indies, and writings in his own hand which came into my possession. In it he depicted many islands and the main land which were the beginning of India and in that region the realms of the Grand Khan," etc. Las Casas does not tell us how he knew that the Toscanelli map which he found in Columbus's papers was the map that the Admiral used on the first voyage. That is the general assumption of scholars, but there is no positive evidence of the fact. The Toscanelli map is no longer extant, and all reconstructions of it are based on the globe of Martin Behaim constructed in 1492. The reconstruction by H. Wagner which may be seen in S. Ruge, _Columbus_, 2^te aufl. (Berlin, 1902) is now accepted as the most successful.

According to the reckoning of the distances in the Journal, Columbus was now about 550 leagues or 2200 Italian miles west of the Canaries. The Toscanelli map was divided off into spaces each containing 250 miles. Columbus was therefore nine spaces west of the Canaries. No reconstruction of Toscanelli's map puts any islands at nine spaces from the Canaries except so far as the reconstructors insert the island of Antilia on the basis of Behaim's globe. The Antilia of Behaim according to Wagner was eight spaces west of the Canaries. Again Ferdinand Columbus, in his _Historie_ under date of October 7 (p. 72), says the sailors "had been frequently told by him that he did not look for land until they had gone 750 leagues west from the Canaries, at which distance he had told them he would have found Espanola then called Cipango." 750 leagues or 3000 Italian miles would be 12 spaces on the Toscanelli map. But according to the Toscanelli letter Cipango was 10 spaces west of Antilia, and therefore 18 spaces or 4500 miles west of the Canaries. Columbus then seems to have expected to find Cipango some 1500 miles to the east of where it was placed on the Toscanelli map. These considerations justify a very strong doubt whether Columbus was shaping his course and basing his expectations on the data of the Toscanelli letter and map, or whether the fact that Las Casas found what he took to be the Toscanelli map in the Admiral's papers proves that it was that map which he had on his first voyage.

[102-1] _Dorado_ is defined by Stevens as the dory or gilt head.

[103-1] _Rabiforcado_, Portuguese. The Spanish form is _rabihorcado_. It means "forked tail." The modern English equivalent is "frigate bird." It is "the Fregata aquila of most ornithologists, the Fregate of French and the Rabihorcado of Spanish mariners." Newton, _Dictionary of Birds_, art. "Frigate-Bird." Newton says that the name "man-of-war bird" has generally passed out of use in books.

[103-2] Rather, the Guards, the name given to the two brightest stars in the constellation of the Little Bear. The literal translation is: "the Guards, when night comes on, are near the arm on the side to the west, and when dawn breaks they are on the line under the arm to the northeast," etc. What Columbus meant I cannot explain. Neither Navarrete nor the French translators offer any suggestions.

[105-1] Las Casas, I. 282, adds to the foregoing under date of October 3: "He says here that it would not have been good sense to beat about and in that way to be delayed in search of them [_i.e._, the islands] since he had favorable weather and his chief intention was to go in search of the Indies by way of the west, and this was what he proposed to the King and Queen, and they had sent him for that purpose. Because he would not turn back to beat up and down to find the islands which the pilots believed to be there, particularly Martin Alonzo by the chart which, as was said, Cristobal Colon had sent to his caravel for him to see, and it was their opinion that he ought to turn, they began to stir up a mutiny, and the disagreement would have gone farther if God had not stretched out his arm as he was wont, showing immediately new signs of their being near land since now neither soft words nor entreaties nor prudent reasoning of Cristobal Colon availed to quiet them and to persuade them to persevere." Ferdinand Columbus says simply, "For this reason the crew began to be mutinous, persevering in their complaints and plots," p. 71. See page 108, note 1.

[106-1] _A la cuarta del Oueste, a la parte del Sudueste_, at the quarter from the west toward the southwest, _i.e._, west by south.

[106-2] Las Casas, in the _Historia de las Indias_, I. 283, writes, "That night Martin Alonso said that it would be well to sail west by south for the island of Cipango which the map that Cristobal Colon showed him represented." _Cf._ page 101, note 2.

[107-1] Las Casas remarks, I. 285, "If he had kept up the direct westerly course and the impatience of the Castilians had not hindered him, there is no doubt that he would have struck the main land of Florida and from there to New Spain, although the difficulties would have been unparalleled and the losses unbearable that they would have met with, and it would have been a divine miracle if he had ever returned to Castile."

[107-2] A remark by the abridger who noted the inconsistency between a total of 48 miles for a day and night and even an occasional 15 miles per hour.

[107-3] _Grajaos._ The translator assumed this to be the same as _garjao_; the French translators, on the other hand, took it to be the same as _grajos_, crows. In Portuguese dictionaries the word _grajao_ is found as the name of "an Indian bird."

[108-1] The trouble with the captains and the sailors is told in greatest detail by Oviedo, _Historia de las Indias_, lib. II., cap. V. He is the source of the story that the captains finally declared they would go on three days longer and not another hour. Oviedo does not say that Columbus acquiesced in this arrangement. Modern critics have been disposed to reject Oviedo's account, but strictly interpreted, it is not inconsistent with our other sources. Columbus recalls in his Journal, February 14, 1493, the terror of the situation which was evidently more serious than the entry of October 10 would imply. Peter Martyr too says that the sailors plotted to throw Columbus overboard and adds: "After the thirtieth day roused by madness they declared they were going back," but that Columbus pacified them. _De Rebus Oceanicis_, Dec. lib. I., fol. 2, ed. of 1574. Oviedo says that he derived information from Vicente Yanez Pinzon, "since with him I had a friendship up to the year 1514 when he died." _Historia de las Indias_, II., cap. XIII.

[108-2] _Escaramojos._ Wild roses.

[109-1] It was full moon on October 5. On the night of the 11th the moon rose at 11 P.M. and at 2 A.M. on the morning of the 12th it was 39 deg. above the horizon. It would be shining brightly on the sandy shores of an island some miles ahead, being in its third quarter, and a little behind Rodrigo de Triana, when he sighted land at 2 A.M. (Markham.)

[109-2] The high decks fore and aft were called castles. The name survives in the English forecastle. Stevens gives poop alone as the English for _Castilla de popa_.

[109-3] Oviedo, lib. II., cap. V., says that, as they were sailing along, a sailor, a native of Lepe, cried out, "Light," "Land," but was immediately told that the admiral had already seen it and remarked upon it.

[109-4] Columbus received this award. His claiming or accepting it under the circumstances has been considered discreditable and a breach of faith by many modern writers. Oviedo says the native of Lepe was so indignant at not getting the reward that "he went over into Africa and denied the faith," _i.e._, became a Mohammedan. Las Casas seems to have seen no impropriety in Columbus' accepting the award. He tells us, I. 289, that this annuity was paid to Columbus throughout his life and was levied from the butcher shops of Seville. A maravedi was equal to two-thirds of a cent.

[110-1] Pronounced originally, according to Las Casas, I. 291, with the accent on the last syllable. Guanahani is now generally accepted to have been Watling Island. See Markham, _Christopher Columbus_, pp. 89-107, for a lucid discussion of the landfall.

[110-2] Fernando and Ysabel.

[110-3] The royal inspector.

[110-4] Las Casas adds, I. 293, "To which he gave the name Sant Salvador."

[110-5] We have here perhaps the original title of what in its abridged form we now call the Journal.

[113-1] The Portuguese _ceitil_ (pl. _ceitis_) was a small coin deriving its name from Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar, in Africa, a Portuguese possession. The _blanca_ was one-half a maravedi, or about one-third of a cent.

[113-2] Cipango. Marco Polo's name for Japan.

[115-1] Rather, "I had lain to during the night for fear of reaching the land," etc.

[115-2] These lengths are exaggerated.

[115-3] The word is _cargue_ and means "raised" or "hoisted." The same word seven lines above was translated "made sail." Las Casas in the corresponding passage in his _Historia_ uses _alzar_.

[115-4] Identified as Rum Cay.

[116-1] A line is missing in the original. The text may be restored as follows, beginning with the end of the preceding sentence, "jumped into the sea and got into the canoe; in the middle of the night before the other threw [himself into the sea and swam off. The boat was lowered] and put after the canoe which escaped since there never was a boat which could have overtaken him, since we were far behind him."

[117-1] Long Island. (Markham.)

[117-2] Possibly a reference to tobacco.

[118-1] It should be "about nine o'clock." The original is _a horas de tercia_, which means "at the hour of tierce," _i.e._, the period between nine and twelve.

[119-1] _Panizo_, literally "panic grass." Here Columbus seems to use the word as descriptive of maize or Indian corn, and later the word came to have this meaning. On the different species of panic grass, see Candolle, _Origin of Cultivated Plants_ (index under _panicum_.)

[120-1] Rather, "since it is noon."

[120-2] Port Clarence in Long Island. (Markham.)

[121-1] Rather, "beds and hangings." The original is _paramentos de cosas_, but in the corresponding passage in his _Historia_, I. 310, Las Casas has _paramentos de casa_, which is almost certainly the correct reading.

[121-2] "These are called Hamacas in Espanola." Las Casas, I. 310, where will be found an elaborate description of them.

[121-3] For ornament. Las Casas calls them caps or crowns, I. 311.

[121-4] Rather: "mastiffs and beagles." Las Casas, I. 311, says the Admiral called these dogs mastiffs from the report of the sailors. "If he had seen them, he would not have called them so but that they resembled hounds. These and the small ones would never bark but merely a grunt in the throat."

[121-5] The _castellano_ was one-sixth of an ounce. Las Casas, I. 311, remarks: "They were deceived in believing the marks to be letters since those people are wont to work it in their fashion, since never anywhere in all the Indies was there found any trace of money of gold or silver or other metal."

[123-1] Crooked Island (Markham.)

[123-2] Cape Beautiful.

[125-1] "The Indians of this island of Espanola call it _iguana_." Las Casas I. 314. He gives a minute description of it.

[126-1] The names in the Spanish text are Colba and Bosio, errors in transcription for Cuba and Bohio. Las Casas, I. 315, says in regard to the latter: "To call it Bohio was to misunderstand the interpreters, since throughout all these islands, where the language is practically the same, they call the huts in which they live _bohio_ and this great island Espanola they called Hayti, and they must have said that in Hayti there were great _bohios_."

[126-2] The name is spelled Quinsay in the Latin text of Marco Polo which Columbus annotated.

[127-1] One or two words are missing in the original.

[128-1] The translation here should be, "raised the anchors at the island of Isabella at Cabo del Isleo, which is on the northern side where I tarried to go to the island of Cuba, which I heard from this people is very great and has gold," etc.

[128-2] These two lines should read, "I believe that it is the island of Cipango of which marvellous things are related."

[128-3] The exact translation is, "On the spheres that I saw and on the paintings of world-maps it is this region." The plural number is used in both cases. Of the globes of this date, _i.e._, 1492 or earlier, that of Behaim is the only one that has come down to us. Of the world maps Toscanelli's, no longer extant, may have been one, but it is to be noted that Columbus uses the plural.

[129-1] Columbus's conviction that he has reached the Indies is registered by his use from now on of the word "Indians" for the people.

[130-1] This should be, "The mouth of the river is 12 fathoms deep and it is wide enough," etc.

[131-1] _Bledos._ The French translators give _cresson sauvage_, wild cress, as the equivalent.

[131-2] Las Casas, I. 320, says Columbus understood "that from these to the mainland would be a sail of ten days by reason of the notion he had derived from the chart or picture which the Florentine sent him."

[131-3] Baracoa (Las Casas); Puerto Naranjo (Markham); Nipe (Navarrete); Nuevitas (Thacher).

[132-1] Punta de Mulas. (Navarrete.)

[132-2] Punta de Cabanas. (Navarrete.)

[132-3] Puerto de Banes. (Navarrete.)

[132-4] Puerto de las Nuevitas del Principe. (Navarrete.)

[132-5] Las Casas, I. 321, has "many heads well carved from wood." Possibly these were totems.

[133-1] Las Casas, I. 321, comments, "These must have been skulls of the manati, a very large fish, like large calves, which has a skin with no scales like a whale and its head is like that of a cow."

[133-2] "I believe that this port was Baracoa, which name Diego Velasquez, the first of the Spaniards to settle Cuba, gave to the harbor of Asumpcion." Las Casas, I. 322.

[133-3] Near Granada in Spain.

[133-4] Nuevitas del Principe. (Navarrete.)

[133-5] "Alto de Juan Danue." (Navarrete.)

[134-1] Rio Maximo. (Navarrete.)

[134-2] See above, p. 91.

[134-3] Rather, "The text here is corrupt." Las Casas, I. 324, gives the same figures and adds, "yet I think the text is erroneous." Navarrete says the quadrants of that period measured the altitude double and so we should take half of forty-two as the real altitude. If so, one wonders why there was no explanation to this effect in the original journal which Las Casas saw or why Las Casas was not familiar with this fact and did not make this explanation. Ruge, _Columbus_, pp. 144, 145, says there were no such quadrants, and regards these estimates as proofs of Columbus's ignorance as a scientific navigator.

[134-4] In Toscanelli's letter Cathay is a province in one place and a city in another.

[134-5] Boca de Carabelas grandes. (Navarrete.)

[135-1] Punta del Maternillo. (Navarrete.)

[135-2] Las Casas says, I. 326. "I think the Christians did not understand, for the language of all these islands is the same, and in this island of Espanola gold is called _caona_."

[136-1] The last words should be, "distant from the one and from the other." Las Casas, I. 327, says: "Zayton and Quisay are certain cities or provincias of the mainland which were depicted on the map of Paul the physician as mentioned above." These Chinese cities were known from Marco Polo's description of them. This passage in the Journal is very perplexing if it assumes that Columbus was guided by the Toscanelli letter. Again a few days earlier Columbus was sure that Cuba was Cipango, and now he is equally certain that it is the mainland of Asia asserted by Toscanelli to be 26 spaces or 6500 Italian miles west of Lisbon, but the next day his estimate of his distance from Lisbon is 4568 miles. It would seem as if Columbus attached no importance to the estimate of distances on the Toscanelli map which was the only original information in it.

[137-1] _Cf._ p. 134, note 3.

[137-2] The true distance was 1105 leagues. (Navarrete.)

[138-1] _Contramaestre_ is boatswain.

[138-2] "_Bohio_ means in their language 'house,' and therefore it is to be supposed that they did not understand the Indians, but that it was Hayti, which is this island of Espanola where they made signs there was gold." Las Casas, I. 329.

[138-3] Columbus understood the natives to say these things because of his strong preconceptions as to what he would find in the islands off the coast of Asia based on his reading of the Book of Sir John Maundeville. Cf. ch. XVIII. of that work, _e.g._, "a great and fair isle called Nacumera.... And all the men and women have dogs' heads," and ch. XIX., _e.g._, "In one of these isles are people of great stature, like giants, hideous to look upon; and they have but one eye in the middle of the forehead."

[139-1] Las Casas, I. 329, identifies the _mames_ as _ajes_ and _batatas_. The batatas, whence our word "potato," is the sweet potato. _Mames_ is more commonly written _names_ or _ignames_. This is the Guinea Negro name of the _Dioscorea sativa_, in English "Yam." _Ajes_ is the native West Indies name. See Peschel, _Zeitalter der Entdeckungen_, p. 139, and Columbus's journal, Dec. 13 and Dec. 16. _Faxones_ are the common haricot kidney beans or string beans, _Phaseolus vulgaris_. This form of the name seems a confusion of the Spanish _fasoles_ and the Portuguese _feijoes_. That Columbus, an Italian by birth who had lived and married in Portugal and removed to Spain in middle life, should occasionally make slips in word-forms is not strange. More varieties of this bean are indigenous in America than were known in Europe at the time of the discoveries. Cf. De Candolle, _Origin of Cultivated Plants_, pp. 338 ff.

[139-2] The word is _contramaestre_, boatswain.

[141-1] The last line should read, "but that they did not know whether there was any in the place where they were."

[141-2] The last line should read, "with a brand in their hand, [and] herbs to smoke as they are accustomed to do." This is the earliest reference to smoking tobacco. Las Casas, I. 332, describes the process as the natives practised it: "These two Christians found on their way many people, men and women, going to and from their villages and always the men with a brand in their hands and certain herbs to take their smoke, which are dry herbs placed in a certain leaf, also dry like the paper muskets which boys make at Easter time. Having lighted one end of it, they suck at the other end or draw in with the breath that smoke which they make themselves drowsy and as if drunk, and in that way, they say, cease to feel fatigue. These muskets, or whatever we call them, they call _tabacos_. I knew Spaniards in this island of Espanola who were accustomed to take them, who, when they were rebuked for it as a vice, replied they could not give it up. I do not know what pleasant taste or profit they found in them." Las Casas' last remarks show that smoking was not yet common in his later life in Spain. The paper muskets of Las Casas are blow-pipes. Oviedo, lib. V., cap. II., gives a detailed description of the use of tobacco. He says that the Indians smoked by inserting these tubes in the nostrils and that after two or three inhalations they lost consciousness. He knew some Christians who used it as an anesthetic when in great pain.

[142-1] On this indigenous species of dumb dogs, _cf._ Oviedo, lib. XII. cap. V. They have long been extinct in the Antilles. Oviedo says there were none in Espanola when he wrote. He left the island in 1546.

[142-2] This last part of this sentence should read, "and is cultivated with _mames_, kidney beans, other beans, this same panic [_i.e._, Indian corn], etc." The corresponding passage in the _Historie_ of Ferdinand Columbus reads, "and another grain like panic called by them _mahiz_ of very excellent flavor cooked or roasted or pounded in porridge (polenta)," p. 87.

[142-3] The _arroba_ was 25 pounds and the _quintal_ one hundred weight.

[143-1] In Las Casas, I. 339, Bohio is mentioned with Babeque, and it is in Bohio that the people were reported to gather gold on the beach.

[144-1] _I.e._, although the Spaniards may be only fooling with them.

[145-1] An interesting forecast of the future which may be compared with John Cabot's; see one of the last pages of this volume.

[145-2] _Linaloe._ Lignaloes or agallochum, to be distinguished from the medicinal aloes. Both were highly prized articles of mediaeval Oriental trade. Lignaloes is mentioned by Marco Polo as one of the principal commodities exchanged in the market of Zaitun. It is also frequently mentioned in the Bible. _Cf._ numbers xxiv, 6, or Psalm xlv. 8. The aloes of Columbus were probably the Barbadoes aloes of commerce, and the mastic the produce of the _Bursera gummifera_. The last did not prove to be a commercial resin like the mastic of Scio. See _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ under Aloes and Mastic, and Heyd, _Histoire du Commerce du Levant au Moyen Age_, II. 581, 633.

[145-3] The ducat being 9_s._ 2_d._ In the seventeenth century the value of the mastic exported from Chios (Scio) was 30,000 ducats. Chios belonged to Genoa from 1346 to 1566. (Markham.)

[146-1] _Las Sierras del Cristal_ and _Las Sierras de Moa_. (Navarrete.)

[147-1] Puerto de Taxamo, in Cuba. (Navarrete.)

[148-1] _Cf._ Fra Mauro's Map (1457-1459), Bourne, _Spain in America_, 14, and Behaim's Globe, Winsor's _Columbus_, p. 186, or Fiske's _Discovery of America_, I. 422.

[149-1] Las Casas did not know the meaning of this word. In all probability it is the Italian _tasso_, badger. _Cf._ p. 139, note 1. The animal, Cuvier suggested was probably the coati.

[149-2] Cuvier conjectured this to be the trunk fish.

[150-1] The agouti.

[152-1] See p. 134, note 3. The words following "Port of Mares" should be translated "but here he says that he has the quadrant hung up (or not in use) until he reaches land to repair it. Since it seemed to him that this distance," etc. Las Casas omitted to insert the number of degrees in his comment.

[152-2] The sentences omitted are comments of Las Casas on these reflections of Columbus.

[153-1] See p. 138, note 3.

[153-2] _A la hora de tercia_, about 9 A.M. See p. 118, note 1.

[153-3] Cayo de Moa. (Navarrete.)

[154-1] Rio de Moa. (Navarrete.)

[154-2] Punta del Mangle or del Guarico. (Navarrete.)

[154-3] Sierras de Moa. (Navarrete.)

[154-4] "These must have been _margaseta_ stones which look like gold in streams and of which there is an abundance in the rivers of these islands." Las Casas, I. 346.

[155-1] _Madronos._ _Arbutus unedo_ or the Strawberry tree. The California Madrona is the _Arbutus Menziesii_.

[155-2] Rather, "for making sawmills."

[156-1] Among these were the Bay of Yamanique, and the ports of Jaragua, Taco, Cayaganueque, Nava, and Maravi. (Navarrete.)

[156-2] See p. 126, note 1.

[157-1] The original of the words Cannibal and Carib and Caribbean. _Cf._ also p. 138, note 3.

[157-2] The port of Baracoa. (Navarrete.)

[157-3] Monte del Yunque. (Navarrete.)

[158-1] Port of Maravi. (Navarrete.)

[158-2] Punta de Maici. (_Id._)

[158-3] Puerto de Baracoa. (_Id._)

[160-1] With these suggestions for a colonial policy _cf._ Columbus's more detailed programme in his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, pp. 273-277 below. In the Spanish policy of exclusion of foreigners from the colonies the religious motive, as here, was quite as influential as the spirit of trade monopoly. Las Casas, in making the same quotation from the Journal, remarks, I. 351: "All these are his exact words, although some of them are not perfect Castilian, since that was not the Admiral's mother tongue."

[161-1] The _fusta_ was a long, low boat propelled by oars or a sail. It is represented in earlier English by "foist" and "fuste."

[161-2] Las Casas, I. 353, remarks, "This wax was never made in the island of Cuba, and this cake that was found came from the kingdom and provinces of Yucatan, where there is an immense amount of very good yellow wax." He supposes that it might have come from the wrecks of canoes engaged in trade along the coast of Yucatan.

[162-1] About 70 feet. Las Casas adds the words, "it was most beautiful," and continues, "it is no wonder for there are in that island very thick and very long and tall fragrant red cedars and commonly all their canoes are made from these valuable trees."

[162-2] Puerto de Baracoa. (Navarrete.)

[163-1] This reef actually exists on the S.E. side of the entrance to this port, which is described with great accuracy by Columbus. (Navarrete.)

[163-2] _Lombarda_ is the same as _bombarda_, bombard, the earliest type of cannon. The name has nothing to do with Lombardy, but is simply the form which was used in Castile in the fifteenth century while _bombarda_ was used elsewhere in the peninsula and in Europe. The average-sized bombard was a twenty-five pounder. _Diccionario Enciclopedico Hispano-Americano_, art. _lombardo_, based on Arautegui, _Apuntes Historicos sobre la Artilleria Espanola en los Siglos XIV y XV_.

[164-1] This line should be, "in which he saw five very large _almadias_ [low, light boats] which the Indians call _canoas_, like _fustas_, very beautiful and so well constructed," etc. "Canoe" is one of the few Arawak Indian words to have become familiar English.

[164-2] Rather, "He went up a mountain and then he found it all level and planted with many things of the country and gourds so that it was glorious to see it." De Candolle believes the calabash or gourd to have been introduced into America from Africa. _Cf._ his _Origin of Cultivated Plants_, pp. 245 ff. Oviedo, however, in his _Historia General y Natural de Indias_, lib. VIII., cap. VIII., says that the _calabacas_ of the Indies were the same as those in Spain and were cultivated not to eat but to use the shells as vessels.

[164-3] Rather, "rods."

[166-1] Rio Boma. (Navarrete.)

[166-2] Punta del Fraile. (_Id._)

[166-3] Punta de los Azules. (_Id._)

[167-1] Las Casas, I. 359, says, "This high and beautiful cape whither he would have liked to go I believe was Point Mayci, which is the extreme end of Cuba toward the east." According to the modern maps of Cuba it must have been one of the capes to the southwest of Point Maici.

[167-2] _Cf._ note 57. Las Casas, I. 359, remarks, "Its real name was Hayti, the last syllable long and accented." He thinks it possible that the cape first sighted may have been called Bohio.

[167-3] Columbus gave Cuba the name Juana "in memory of Prince Juan the heir of Castile." _Historie_, p. 83.

[167-4] "In leaving the cape or eastern point of Cuba he gave it the name Alpha and Omega, which means beginning and end, for he believed that this cape was the end of the mainland in the Orient." Las Casas, I. 360.

[168-1] The port of St. Nicholas Mole, in Hayti. (Navarrete.)

[168-2] Cape of St. Nicholas. (_Id._)

[168-3] Punta Palmista. (_Id._)

[168-4] Puerto Escudo. (_Id._)

[168-5] The channel between Tortuga Island and the main.

[168-6] Tortoise.

[169-1] _Atalayas_, "watchtowers."

[169-2] This method of giving names in honor of the saint on whose day a new cape or river was discovered was very commonly followed during the period of discoveries, and sometimes the date of a discovery, or the direction of a voyage, or other data can be verified by comparing the names given with the calender.

[169-3] This clause should be "It extends in this manner to the south-south-east two leagues."

[169-4] A gap in the manuscript.

[170-1] This is the "Carenero," within the port of St. Nicholas. (Navarrete.)

[171-1] Accepting Navarrete's conjecture of _abrezuela_ or _anglezuela_ for the reading _agrezuela_ of the text.

[171-2] It should be north 11 miles. (Navarrete.)

[171-3] This is an error. It should be 15 miles. (Navarrete.) The direction _al Leste cuarta del Sueste_ is East by South.

[171-4] Puerto Escudo. (Navarrete.)

[172-1] Bahia Mosquito. (Navarrete.)

[172-2] Cuvier notes that neither the nightingale proper nor the Spanish myrtle are found in America.

[172-3] It should be 11 miles. (Navarrete.)

[173-1] _I.e._, Spanish Isle, not "Little Spain," which is sometimes erroneously given in explanation of the Latin Hispaniola. This last is a Latinized form of Espanola and not a diminutive. Las Casas, I. 367, in the corresponding passage, has "Seeing the greatness and beauty of this island and its resemblance to Spain although much superior and that they had caught fish in it like the fish of Castile and for other similar reasons he decided on December 9 when in the harbor of Concepcion to name this island Spanish Island."

At a period some time later than his first voyage Columbus decided that Espanola and Cipango were the same and also identical with the Ophir of the Bible. _Cf._ his marginal note to Landino's Italian translation of Pliny's _Natural History_, "la isola de Feyti, vel de Ofir, vel de Cipango, a la quale habio posto nome Spagnola." _Raccolta Colombiana_, pt. I., vol. II., p. 472.

[174-1] The distance is 11 miles. (Navarrete.)

[175-1] _Camarones._

[175-2] The proper English equivalents for these names in the original are hard to find. The _corbina_ was a black fish and the name is found in both Spanish and Portuguese. _Pampanos_ is translated "giltheads," but the name is taken over into English as "pompano." It must be remembered that in many cases the names of European species were applied to American species which resembled them but which were really distinct species of the same genus.

[177-1] Rather, "bread of _niames_." _Cf._ note, p. 139.

[178-1] Las Casas, I. 373, says that at that season the length of the day in Espanola is somewhat over eleven hours. The correct latitude is 20 deg..

[179-1] Elsewhere called Babeque. (Navarrete.)

[180-1] Paradise Valley.

[180-2] Rather, "There are on the edges or banks of the shore many beautiful stones and it is all suitable for walking." The Spanish text seems to be defective.

[181-1] Diego de Arana of Cordova, a near relation of Beatriz Henriquez, the mother of the Admiral's son Fernando. (Markham.) Alguazil means constable.

[181-2] _Ajes._ The same as _mames_. _Cf._ note, p. 139.

[183-1] This Indian word survives in modern Spanish with the meaning political boss.

[183-2] Diego de Arana.

[184-1] Rodrigo de Escobedo.

[184-2] In Spain in earlier times the Annunciation was celebrated on December 18 to avoid having it come in Lent. When the Roman usage in regard to Annunciation was adopted in Spain they instituted the Feast of our Lady's Expectation on December 18. It was called "The Feast of O because the first of the greater antiphons is said in the vespers of its vigil." Addis and Arnold, _Catholic Dictionary_, under "Mary." The series of anthems all begin with "O."

[186-1] The excelente was worth two castellanos or about $6 in coin value.

[187-1] El Puerto de la Granja. (Navarrete.)

[187-2] The bay of Puerto Margot. (_Id._)

[188-1] Point and Island of Margot. (Navarrete.)

[188-2] _Camino_ for _Cabo_ (?). (Markham.)

[188-3] Mountain over Guarico. (Navarrete.)

[188-4] _Cf._ p. 178, note.

[188-5] Bahia de Acul. (Navarrete.)

[189-1] This conjecture proved to be wrong. The Peak of Teneriffe is over 12,000 ft. high, while 10,300 ft. (Mt. Tina) is the highest elevation in Santo Domingo.

[189-2] This is one of the passages used to determine the date of Columbus's birth. By combining his statement quoted in the _Historie_ of Ferdinand, ch. IV., that he went to sea at 14, and this assertion that he followed the sea steadily for 23 years, we find that he was 37 years old in 1484 or 1485, when he left Portugal and ceased sea-faring till 1492.

[189-3] A gap of a line and a half in the manuscript.

[189-4] Another gap in the manuscript.

[190-1] The mutilation of the text makes this passage difficult. The third line literally is, "and I saw all the east [or perhaps better the Levant, _el Levante_] and the west which means the way to England," etc. After the second gap read: "better than the other which I with proper caution tried to describe." After "world," read: "and [is] enclosed so that the oldest cable of the ship would hold it fast."

[190-2] The distance is six miles. (Navarrete.)

[190-3] Acul. (_Id._)

[191-1] _Gonze avellanada._ The interpretation of the French translators is followed. The word _gonze_ is not given in the dictionaries.

[193-1] "This king was a great lord and king Guacanagari, one of the five great kings and lordships of this island." Las Casas, I. 389.

[194-1] "This girdle was of fine jewellery work, like misshapen pearls, made of fish-bones white and colored interspersed, like embroidery, so sewed with a thread of cotton and by such delicate skill that on the reverse side it looked like delicate embroidery, although all white, which it was a pleasure to see." Las Casas, I. 389. From this we learn that wampum belts were in use among the Indians of Espanola.

[196-1] Port of Guarico. (Navarrete.)

[196-2] This estimate was far too great. The island is about one-third the size of Great Britain and one-half the size of England.

[196-3] Guarico.

[196-4] It is now called San Honorato. (Navarrete.)

[197-1] "The fact is that _Cacique_ was the word for king, and _Nitayno_ for knight and principal lord." Las Casas, I. 394.

[197-2] The similarity between the names and the report of gold made Columbus particularly confident of the identification.

[198-1] Entrance of the Bay of Acul. (Navarrete.)

[198-2] Isla de Ratos. (_Id._)

[199-1] Puerto Frances. (Navarrete.)

[199-2] Perhaps better "a young common sailor."

[200-1] The master, who was also the owner, of the Admiral's ship was Juan de la Cosa of Santona, afterwards well known as a draughtsman and Pilot. (Markham.)

[200-2] Rather, "Then the seams opened but not the ship." That is, the ship was not stove. The word translated "seams" is _conventos_, which Las Casas, I. 398, defines as _los vagos que hay entre costillas y costillas_. In this passage he is using _costillas_ not in the technical sense of _costillas de nao_, "ribs," but in the sense of "planks," as in _costillas de cuba_, "barrel staves."

[202-1] In reality Cibao was a part of Espanola.

[202-2] Made from the manioc roots or _ajes_. Cassava biscuit can be got to-day at fancy grocery stores. It is rather insipid.

[204-1] In reality, three-quarters the size of Portugal.

[204-2] Juan de la Cosa, the master, was a native of Santona, on the north coast of Spain. There were two other Santona men on board and several from the north coast. (Markham.)

[206-1] "He ordered then all his people to make great haste and the king ordered his vassals to help him and as an immense number joined with the Christians they managed so well and with such diligence that in a matter of ten days our stronghold was well made and as far as could be then constructed. He named it the City of Christmas (Villa de la Navidad) because he had arrived there on that day, and so to-day that harbor is called Navidad, although there is no memory that there even has been a fort or any building there, since it is overgrown with trees as large and tall as if fifty years had passed, and I have seen them." Las Casas, I. 408.

[206-2] These were not islands, but districts whose chiefs were called by the same names. _Cf._ Las Casas, I. 410.

[207-1] For Yanez. Vincent Yanez Pinzon.

[208-1] Rather, "For now the business appeared to be so great and important that it was wonderful (said the Admiral) and he said he did not wish," etc.

[208-2] The first suggestion of systematic colonization in the New World.

[209-1] See note 2 under Jan. 9, p. 218.

[210-1] The actual number was 44, according to the official list given in a document printed by Navarrete, which is a notice to the next of kin to apply for wages due, dated Burgos, December 20, 1507. Markham reproduces this list in his edition of Columbus's Journal.

[210-2] Las Casas gives the farewell speech of the Admiral to those who were left behind at Navidad, I. 415. It is translated in Thacher's _Columbus_, I. 632.

[211-1] "It is not known how many he took from this island but I believe he took some, altogether he carried ten or twelve Indians to Castile according to the Portuguese History [Barros] and I saw them in Seville yet I did not notice nor do I recollect that I counted them." Las Casas, I. 419.

[212-1] It is N. 80 deg. E. 70 leagues. (Navarrete.)

[212-2] Los siete Hermanos. (_Id._)

[212-3] Bahia de Manzanillo. (_Id._)

[212-4] Should be S.W. three leagues.

[212-5] Rio Tapion, in the Bahia de Manzanillo. (_Id._)

[212-6] A mistake for three leagues. (_Id._)

[212-7] Should be W.S.W. (_Id._)

[213-1] Isla Cabra. (Navarrete.)

[213-2] Anchorage of Monte Cristi. (_Id._)

[213-3] Punta Rucia. (_Id._)

[214-1] Martin Alonso Pinzon had slipped away during the night of November 21.

[215-1] Here probably the island of Iguana Grande.

[215-2] Jamaica.

[215-3] On this myth see below under January 15.

[215-4] It is remarkable that this report, which refers probably to Yucatan and to the relatively high state of culture of the Mayas, drew no further comment from Columbus. From our point of view it ought to have made a much greater impression than we have evidence that it did; from his point of view that he was off Asia it was just what was to be expected and so is recorded without comment.

[216-1] This is the large river Yaqui, which contains much gold in its sand. It was afterwards called the Santiago. (Navarrete.)

[217-1] Afterwards called the Rio de Santiago. (Navarrete.)

[217-2] This should be 8 leagues. (_Id._)

[217-3] Las Casas, I. 429, says the distance to the mines was not 4 leagues.

[217-4] Punta Isabelica. (_Id._)

[217-5] The distance is 10-1/2 leagues, or 42 of the Italian miles used by Columbus. (_Id._)

[218-1] The mermaids [Spanish, "sirens"] of Columbus are the _manatis_, or sea-cows, of the Caribbean Sea and great South American rivers. They are now scarcely ever seen out at sea. Their resemblance to human beings, when rising in the water, must have been very striking. They have small rounded heads, and cervical vertebrae which form a neck, enabling the animal to turn its head about. The fore limbs also, instead of being pectoral fins, have the character of the arm and hand of the higher mammalia. These peculiarities, and their very human way of suckling their young, holding it by the forearm, which is movable at the elbow-joint, suggested the idea of mermaids. The congener of the _manati_, which had been seen by Columbus on the coast of Guinea, is the _dugong_. (Markham.)

[218-2] Las Casas has "on the coast of Guinea where manequeta is gathered" (I. 430). _Amomum Melequeta_, an herbaceous, reedlike plant, three to five feet high, is found along the coast of Africa, from Sierra Leone to the Congo. Its seeds were called "Grains of Paradise," or _maniguetta_, and the coast alluded to by Columbus, between Liberia and Cape Palmas, was hence called the Grain Coast. The grains were used as a condiment, like pepper, and in making the spiced wine called _hippocras_. (Markham.)

[219-1] Rio Chuzona chica. (Navarrete.)

[219-2] Reading _broma_ ("ship worm") for _bruma_ ("mist") in the sentence: _sino que tiene mucha bruma_. De la Roquette in the French translation gives _bruma_ the meaning of "shipworm," supposing it to be a variant form of _broma_. The Italian translator of the letter on the fourth voyage took _broma_ to be _bruma_, translated it _pruina e bruma_, and consequently had Columbus's ship injured by frost near Panama in April! _Cf._ Thacher, _Christopher Columbus_, II. 625, 790.

[220-1] So called because the summit is always covered with white or silver clouds. Las Casas, I. 432. A monastery of Dominicans was afterwards built on Monte de Plata, in which Las Casas began to write his history of the Indies in the year 1527. Las Casas, IV. 254. (Markham.)

[220-2] Puerto de Plata, where a flourishing seaport town was afterwards established; founded by Ovando in 1502. It had fallen to decay in 1606. (Markham.)

[220-3] Punta Macuris. The distance is 3, not 4 leagues. (Navarrete.)

[220-4] Punta Sesua. The distance is only one league. (_Id._)

[220-5] Cabo de la Roca. It should be 5, not 6 leagues. (_Id._)

[220-6] Bahia Escocesa. (_Id._)

[220-7] Las Casas says that none of these names remained even in his time. I. 432.

[221-1] This was the Peninsula of Samana. (Navarrete.)

[221-2] Isla Yazual. (_Id._)

[221-3] Cabo Cabron, or Lover's Cape; the extreme N.E. point of the island, rising nearly 2000 feet above the sea. (Markham.)

[221-4] Puerto Yaqueron. (Navarrete.)

[221-5] Cabo Samana; called Cabo de San Theramo afterwards by Columbus (Markham.)[TN-3]

[221-6] The Bay of Samana. (Navarrete.)

[221-7] Cayo de Levantados. (_Id._)

[222-1] This should be, "who says that he was very ugly of countenance, more so than the others that he had seen."

[222-2] Las Casas says, I. 433, "Not charcoal but a certain dye they make from a certain fruit."

[222-3] Las Casas, I. 434, says there never were any cannibals in Espanola.

[223-1] Las Casas, I. 434, says that a section in the northeastern part of Espanola "was inhabited by a tribe which called themselves _Mazariges_ and others _Ciguayos_ and that they spoke different languages from the rest of the island. I do not remember if they differed from each other in speech since so many years have passed, and to-day there is no one to inquire of, although I have talked many times with both generations; but more than fifty years have gone by." The Ciguayos, he adds, were called so because they wore their hair long as women do in Castile. This passage shows that Las Casas was writing this part of his history a half-century after he went first to Espanola, which was in 1502, with Ovando.

[223-2] See p. 226, note 4, under Jan. 15.

[223-3] Porto Rico. (Navarrete.)

[223-4] Las Casas, I. 434, says that Guanin was not the name of an island, but the word for a kind of base gold.

[223-5] A gap in the original manuscript.

[224-1] Las Casas, I. 435, has, "and as word of a palm-tree board which is very hard and very heavy, not sharp but blunt, about two fingers thick everywhere, with which as it is hard and heavy like iron, although a man has a helmet on his head they will crush his skull to the brain with one blow."

[224-2] "This was the first fight that there was in all the Indies and when the blood of the Indians was shed." Las Casas, I. 436.

[225-1] Porto Rico. Navarrete says it is certain that the Indians called Porto Rico Isla de Carib.

[225-2] Probably Martinique or Guadeloupe. (Navarrete.)

[226-1] By this calculation the Admiral entered the service of the Catholic Sovereigns on January 20, 1486. (Navarrete.)

[226-2] "What would he have said if he had seen the millions and millions (_cuentos y millones_) that the sovereigns have received from his labors since his death?" Las Casas, I. 437.

[226-3] Porto Rico.

[226-4] Columbus had read in Marco Polo of the islands of MASCULIA and FEMININA in the Indian Seas and noted the passage in his copy. See ch. XXXIII. of pt. III. of Marco Polo. On the other hand there is evidence for an indigenous Amazon myth in the New World. The earliest sketch of American folk-lore ever made, that of the Friar Ramon Pane in 1497, preserved in Ferdinand Columbus's _Historie_ and in a condensed form in Peter Martyr's _De Rebus Oceanicis_ (Dec. I., lib. IX.), tells the story of the culture-hero Guagugiona, who set forth from the cave, up to that time the home of mankind, "with all the women in search of other lands and he came to Matinino, where at once he left the women and went away to another country," etc., _Historie_ (London ed., 1867), p. 188. Ramon's name is erroneously given as Roman in the _Historie_. On the Amazons in Venezuela, see Oviedo, lib. XXV., cap. XIV. It may be accepted that the Amazon myth as given by Oviedo, from which the great river derived its name, River of the Amazons, is a composite of an Arawak folk-tale like that preserved by Ramon Pane overlaid with the details of the Marco Polo myth, which in turn derives from the classical myth.

[227-1] _Y los mas le ponen alli yerba_, "and the most of them put on poison." The description of these arrows corresponds exactly with that given by Sir E. im Thurn of the poisoned arrows of the Indians of Guiana, which still have "adjustable wooden tips smeared with poison, which are inserted in the socket at the end of a reed shaft." _Among the Indians of Guiana_, p. 242.

[227-2] Capsicum. (Markham.)

[228-1] Gulf of the Arrows. This was the Bay of Samana, into which the river Yuna flows. (Navarrete.)

[228-2] Porto Rico. It would have been distant about 30 leagues. (Navarrete.)

[229-1] "The sons remain with their mothers till the age of fourteen when they go to join their fathers in their separate abode." Marco Polo, pt. III., ch. XXXIII. _Cf._ p. 226, note 4.

[229-2] Now called Cabod el Engano,[TN-4] the extreme eastern point of Espanola. It had the same name when Las Casas wrote. (Markham.)

[229-3] Alcatraz.

[230-1] The _almadrabas_, or tunny fisheries of Rota, near Cadiz, were inherited by the Duke, as well as those of Conil, a little fishing town 6 leagues east of Cadiz. (Markham.)

[230-2] _Un pescado_ (a fish), called the _rabiforcado_. For _un pescado_, we should probably read _una ave pescadora_, and translate: a fishing bird, called _rabiforcado_. See entry for September 29 and note.

[230-3] _Alcatraces_, _rabos de juncos_, and _rabiforcados_: boobies, boatswain-birds, and frigate-birds. The translator has not been consistent in selecting English equivalents for these names. In the entry of January 18 _rabiforcado_ is frigate-bird; in that of January 19 _rabo de junco_ is frigate-bird; in that of January 21 _rabo de junco_ is _boatswain-bird_. September 14 _garjao_ is the tern, while on January 19 the _rabiforcado_ is the tern. On these birds, see notes 11, 12, 13, and 20. See also Oviedo, _Historia General y natural de las Indias_, lib. XIV., cap. I., for descriptions of these birds.

[231-1] _Rabiforcados y pardelas._ Las Casas, I. 440, has _aves pardelas_. Talhausen, _Neues Spanisch-deutsches Woerterbuch_, defines _pardelas_ as _Peters-vogel_, _i.e._, petrel.

[231-2] _Rabos de juncos y pardelas._ The translator vacillates between sandpipers and terns in rendering _pardelas_. _Cf._ January 28 and 31, but as has just been noted "petrels" is the proper word.

[231-3] An error of the transcriber for miles. Each glass being half-an-hour, going six miles an hour, they would have made 33 miles or 8-1/4 leagues in five hours and a half. (Navarrete.)

[233-1] Petrels.

[233-2] The English equivalent is dory, or gilthead.

[234-1] Petrels.

[235-1] Vicente Yanez Pinzon.

[235-2] Later a rich citizen of the city of Santo Domingo, Espanola, where he was known as Roldan the pilot. Las Casas, I. 443.

[236-1] The name is also written Peralonso Nino. He made one of the first voyages to the mainland of South America after the third voyage of Columbus. See Irving, _Companions of Columbus_. Bourne, _Spain in America_, p. 69.

[237-1] A gap in the original manuscript.