[89-1] The Alhambra.
[89-2] This information Columbus is ordinarily supposed to have derived
from Toscanelli's letter which may be found in Fiske, _Discovery of
America_, I. 356 ff. and II. App. The original source of the information,
however, is Marco Polo, and Columbus summarized the passage on the margin
in his copy of Marco Polo, Lib. I., ch. IV., as follows: "Magnus Kam
misit legatos ad pontificem:" _Raccolta Colombiana_, Part I, Tomo 2, p.
446. That he read and annotated these passages before 1492 seems most
probable. See Bourne, _Spain in America_, pp. 10-15, and Vignaud,
_Toscanelli and Columbus_, p. 284.
[90-1] It is interesting to notice the emphasis of the missionary motive
in this preamble. Nothing is said in regard to the search for a new route
to the Indies for commercial reasons. Nor is reference made to the
expectation of new discoveries which is prominent in the royal patent
granted to Columbus, see above p. 78.
[90-2] The edict of expulsion bears the date of March 30.
[91-1] Columbus reckoned in Italian miles, four of which make a league.
(Navarrete.)
[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.
[238-1] Martin Alonso Pinzon succeeded in bringing the caravel _Pinta_
into port at Bayona in Galicia. He went thence to Palos, arriving in the
evening of the same day as the _Nina_ with the Admiral. Pinzon died very
soon afterwards. Oviedo [I. 27] says: "He went to Palos to his own house
and died after a few days since he went there very ill." (Markham.)
[239-1] Virgin of Guadalupe was the patroness of Estremadura. As many of
the early colonists went from Estremadura there came to be a good number
of her shrines in Mexico. _Cf._ R. Ford, _Handbook for Spain_, index
under "Guadalupe."
[239-2] A full account of the shrine at Loreto may be found in Addis and
Arnold, _Catholic Dictionary_, under "Loreto."
[239-3] "This is the house where the sailors of the country particularly
have their devotions." Las Casas, I. 446. Moguer was a village near
Palos.
[240-1] See page 108, note 1. and entry for October 10.
[241-1] As Beatriz Enriquez, the mother of Ferdinand, was still living,
this passage has occasioned much perplexity. A glance at the
corresponding passage, quoted in direct discourse from this entry in the
Journal, in the _Historie_ of Ferdinand, shows that the words "orphans
without father or mother" were not in the original Journal, if we can
trust this transcript. On the other hand, Las Casas, in his _Historia_,
I. 447, where he used the original Journal and not the abridgment that
has come down to us, has the words "_huerfanos de padre y madre en tierra
estrana_." It may be that Ferdinand noted the error of the original
Journal and quietly corrected it.
[241-2] In Ferdinand's text nothing is said explicitly about the Indies.
[241-3] There is nothing corresponding to this in Ferdinand's extract
from the Journal. Was this omission also a case of pious revision?
The Admiral thought that there could be no great storms in the countries
he had discovered, because trees (mangroves) actually grew with their
roots in the sea. The herbage on the beach nearly reached the waves,
which does not happen when the sea is rough. (Markham.)
[241-4] Ferdinand Columbus has preserved in his life of his father the
exact words of the Journal for the last two pages of the entry for
February 14. The extract is given here to illustrate the character of the
work of the epitomizer who prepared the text of the Journal as it has
come down to us. "I should have borne this fortune with less distress if
my life alone had been in peril, since I am aware that I am in debt to
the Most High Creator for my life and because at other times I have found
myself so near to death that almost nothing remained but to suffer it.
But what caused me boundless grief and trouble was the reflection that,
now that Our Lord had been pleased to enlighten me with the faith and
with the certainty of this undertaking in which he had already given me
the victory, that just now, when our gainsayers were to be convinced and
your Highnesses were to receive from me glory and enlargement of your
high estate, the Divine Majesty should will to block it with my death.
This last would have been more endurable if it did not involve that of
the people I brought with me with the promise of a very prosperous issue.
They seeing themselves in such a plight not only cursed their coming but
even the fear or the restraint which after my persuasions prevented them
from turning back from the way as many times they were resolved to do.
And above all this my grief was redoubled at the vision before my eyes
and at the recollection of two little sons that I had left at their
studies in Cordova without succor in a strange land and without my having
rendered (or at least without its being made manifest) the service for
which one might trust that your Highnesses would remember them.
"And although on the one hand I was comforted by the faith that I had
that Our Lord would never suffer a work which would highly exalt his
Church, which at length after so much opposition and such labors I had
brought to the last stage, to remain unaccomplished and that I should be
broken; on the other hand, I thought that, either on account of my
demerits or to prevent my enjoying so much glory in this world, it was
his pleasure to take it away from me, and so while thus in perplexity I
bethought myself of the venture of your Highnesses who even if I should
die and the ship be lost, might find means of not losing a victory
already achieved and that it might be possible in some way for the news
of the success of my voyage to come to your ears; wherefore I wrote on a
parchment with the brevity that the time demanded how I had discovered
the lands that I had promised to, and in how many days; and the route I
had followed; and the goodness of the countries, and the quality of their
inhabitants and how they were the vassals of your Highnesses who had
possession of all that had been found by me. This writing folded and
sealed I directed to your Highnesses with the superscription or promise
of a thousand ducats to him who should deliver it unopened, in order
that, if some foreigners should find it, the truth of superscription
might prevent them from disposing of the information which was inside.
And I straightway had a large cask brought and having wrapped the writing
in a waxed cloth and put it into a kind of tart or cake of wax I placed
it in the barrel which, stoutly hooped, I then threw into the sea. All
believed that it was some act of devotion. Then because I thought it
might not arrive safely and the ships were all the while approaching
Castile I made another package like that and placed it on the upper part
of the poop in order that if the ship should sink the barrel might float
at the will of fate."
[243-1] The bonnet was a small sail usually cut to a third the size of
the mizzen, or a fourth of the mainsail. It was secured through
eyelet-holes to the leech of the mainsail, in the manner of a studding
sail. (Navarrete.)
[243-2] On this day the Admiral dated the letter to Santangel, the
_escribano de racion_, which is given below on pp. 263-272.
[244-1] This was on Sunday, 17th of February. (Navarrete.)
[244-2] The port of San Lorenzo. (_Id._).
[246-1] The incredulity of the Portuguese governor as to these assertions
was natural. The title Admiral of the Ocean Sea was novel and this was
the first time it was announced that Spain or any other European power
had possessions in the Indies.
[247-1] Half the crew were still detained on shore.
[248-1] That the site of the Garden of Eden was to be found in the Orient
was a common belief in the Middle Ages and later. _Cf._ the _Book of Sir
John Mandeville_, ch. XXX.
[249-1] The last of the canonical hours of prayer, about nine in the
evening.
[252-1] On this day the Admiral probably wrote the postscript to his
letter Santangel written at sea on February 15.
[253-1] Modern scholars have too hastily identified this Bartolome Diaz
with the discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope. There is no evidence for
this except the identity of the name. Against the supposition are the
facts that neither Columbus, Las Casas, nor Ferdinand remark upon this
meeting with the most eminent Portuguese navigator of the time, and that
this Diaz is a subordinate officer on this ship who is sent to summon
Columbus to report to the captain. That the great admiral of 1486-1487
would in 1493 be a simple _Patron_ on a single ship is incredible.
[253-2] Joao II.
[254-1] The treaty of Alcacovas signed by Portugal September 8, 1479, and
by Spain March 6, 1480. In it Ferdinand and Isabella relinquished all
rights to make discoveries along the coast of Africa and retained of the
African islands only the Canaries. The Spanish text is printed in _Alguns
Documentos da Torre do Tombo_ (Lisbon, 1892), pp. 45-46. See also
Vignaud, _Toscanelli and Columbus_, pp. 61-64.
[254-2] "The Mine," more commonly El Mina, a station established on the
Gold Coast by Diogo de Azambuja in 1482. The full name in Portuguese was
S. Jorge da Mina, St. George of the Mine.
[255-1] The Portuguese historian Ruide Pina, in his _Cronica D'El Rey
Joao_, gives an account of Columbus's meeting with the king which is
contemporary. From his official position as chief chronicler and head of
the national archives and from the details which he mentions it is safe
to conclude that he was an eye-witness.
"In the following year, 1493, while the king was in the place of the Val
do Paraiso which is above the Monastery of Sancta Maria das Vertudes, on
account of the great pestilences which prevailed in the principal places
in this district, on the sixth of March there arrived at Restello in
Lisbon Christovam Colombo, an Italian who came from the discovery of the
islands of Cipango and Antilia which he had accomplished by the command
of the sovereigns of Castile from which land he brought with him the
first specimens of the people, gold and some other things that they have;
and he was entitled Admiral of them. And the king being informed of this,
commanded him to come before him and he showed that he felt disgusted and
grieved because he believed that this discovery was made within the seas
and bounds of his lordship of Guinea which was prohibited and likewise
because the said Admiral was somewhat raised from his condition and in
the account of his affairs always went beyond the bounds of the truth and
made this thing in gold, silver, and riches much greater than it was. The
king was accused of negligence in withdrawing from him for not giving him
credit and authority in regard to this discovery for which he had first
come to make request of him. And although the king was urged to consent
to have him slain there, since with his death the prosecution of this
enterprise so far as the sovereigns of Castile were concerned would cease
on account of the decease of the discoverer; and that this could be done
without suspicion if he consented and ordered it, since as he was
discourteous and greatly elated they could get involved with him in such
a way that each one of these his faults would seem to be the true cause
of his death; yet the king like a most God-fearing prince not only
forbade this but on the contrary did him honor and showed him kindness
and therewith sent him away." _Colleccao de Livros Ineditos de Historia
Portugueza_, II. 178-179. It will be noted that according to this account
Columbus said he had discovered Cipango and Antilia, a mythical island
which is represented on the maps of the fifteenth century, and that
Columbus is called Colombo his Italian name, and not Colom or Colon.
[256-1] This may have been her brother, the Duke of Bejar, afterwards
King Manoel.
[256-2] _Espadim_: a Portuguese gold piece coined by Joao II. Las Casas,
I. 466, says: "20 _Espadinos_, a matter of 20 ducats." The Espadim
contained 58 to 65 grains of gold. W.C. Hazlitt, _Coinage of European
Nations, sub voce_. King Joao II. gave Columbus's pilot almost exactly
the sum which Henry VII. gave to John Cabot, which was L10. In the French
translation and the translation in J.B. Thacher's _Christopher Columbus_
the word _espadines_ is erroneously taken to be Spanish and rendered
"_Epees_," and "small short swords."
[257-1] Having been absent 225 days.