3. _Cordovan._ From the city of Cordoba, Spain, noted for the leather
prepared there.
8. _Corselet._ A breastplate and backpiece forming a protection for the
upper part of the body.
_Sword of Damascus._ Damascus in Syria is one of the oldest cities
in the world. The swords made here were once famous not only for
their remarkably fine temper, but for the artistic figures and mystic
characters wrought in the blade. The secret of their make is now
largely a lost art.
1-20. Miles Standish was at this time about thirty-six years of age,
though the description seems to make him older. He had evidently left
England for the Netherlands to fight with the Dutch against Spain. In
Holland he had met his compatriots, the Puritans, cast his fortunes
with them, and embarked as one of their number for the New World. John
Alden, at this time about twenty-one, had joined the Pilgrims when
their vessel touched at the port of Southampton.
19. “While yet an abbot, Gregory’s interest had been awakened by the
fair faces and flaxen hair of a group of Saxon youths exposed for sale
in the slave-market at Rome. ‘Who are they?’ he asked. ‘Angles,’ was
the reply. ‘It suits them well,’ he said; ‘with faces so angel-like.’”
(_Painter, History of English Literature._)
20. _The Mayflower._ The name of the vessel that carried the Pilgrims
to America.
28. _Arcabucero._ A Spanish word, originally meaning archer, now
generally equivalent to musketeer.
22-33. The pictures given of their personal appearance is completed and
reinforced by the first words the two men speak. Compare the character
indications of 25-30 and 32, 33.
52. _Sagamore_, _sachem_. These words are the titles of Indian chiefs,
the former being a subordinate, the latter a principal chief.
_Pow-wow_, an Indian medicine-man.