[319-1] _I.e._, the first Admiral of the Ocean and the Indies where Las
Casas was when he was writing.
[319-2] This clause is probably an explanatory remark by Las Casas. It is
misleading. The war in Naples growing out of the invasion of Italy by
Charles VIII. of France, in which Ferdinand had taken an active part
against the French, had been brought to a close so far as concerned
France and Spain by a truce in March, 1497. The treaty of peace was
signed August 5, 1498.
[320-1] Funchal.
[320-2] This positive assertion that Columbus had lived in Funchal,
Madeira, has been overlooked by Vignaud and Harrisse. Vignaud, _Etudes
Critiques sur la Vie de Colomb avant ses Decouvertes_ (Paris, 1905), p.
443, note 9, rejects as unauthenticated the tradition that Columbus lived
in Madeira, without adequate grounds it seems to me. Diego Columbus told
Las Casas in 1519 that he was born in the neighboring island of Puerto
Santo and that his father had lived there. Las Casas, _Historia de las
Indias_, I. 54. This passage is not noted by Vignaud.
[320-3] One of the Canary Islands.
[321-1] The Adelantado was Bartholomew Columbus. The title Adelantado was
given in Spain to the military and political governors of border
provinces. In this use it was transplanted to America in the earlier
days. _Cf._ Moses, _The Establishment of Spanish Rule in America_, pp.
68-69.
[321-2] Beatrix Enriquez.
[321-3] This Juan Antonio Columbo seems to have been a first cousin of
the admiral. _Cf._ Markham, _Christopher Columbus_, pp. 2 and 187. It is
to be noted that he retained in Spain his family name and did not follow
the discoverer in changing his name to Colon. On this change of name, see
above, p. 77, note 2.
[321-4] _I.e._, west by south.
[321-5] Porto Rico.
[321-6] Founded in the summer of 1496 by Bartholomew Columbus in
accordance with the directions of the Admiral to establish a new
settlement on the south side of the island. Las Casas, II. 136.
[322-1] "This Espanola," so frequently repeated, is one of the
indications that Las Casas was writing in Espanola.
[322-2] _Canibales_, here used still as a tribal name equivalent to
Caribbees.
[322-3] The correct form of this name is Gargades. Columbus's knowledge
of them was derived indirectly from Pliny's _Natural History_, book VI.,
XXXVII., through Cardinal d'Ailly's _Imago Mundi_. _Cf._ Columbus's
marginal note to ch. XXXXI. of that work: "_De situ Gorgodum insule nunc
de Capite Viride vel Antonii dicitur." Raccolta Colombiana_, parte I.,
vol. II., p. 395. According to Pliny's location of them they were
probably the Canaries. Pliny's knowledge of the location of the
Hesperides is naturally vague, but his text would support their
identification with the Cape Verde Islands.
[323-1] In this Columbus was mistaken, although he had no means of
knowing it in 1498. Vasco da Gama had sailed in that sea the preceding
summer. _Cf._ Bourne, _Spain in America_, p. 72.
[323-2] Ferro.
[323-3] August 16, 1494, the sovereigns included in the letter despatched
to Columbus by Torres the essential articles of the Treaty of
Tordesillas, signed June 7, 1494, and asked him if he could not
co-operate in locating the Demarcation Line. Navarrete, _Coleccion de
Viages_, II. 155; Harrisse, _Diplomatic History of America_, pp. 80-81.
[323-4] Columbus's illness began in September, 1494, and it was five
months before he was fully recovered. Ferdinand Columbus, _Historie_, ed.
1867, p. 177. The death of Prince John took place October 4, 1497. No
actual scientific conference to locate the line took place till that at
Badajoz in 1524. See Bourne, _Essays in Historical Criticism_, pp.
205-211.
[324-1] _Mayordomo._
[324-2] _Escribano de la hacienda._ In 1497 Rodrigo Affonso, a member of
the king's council, was granted the northern of the two captaincies into
which Sao Thiago was divided and also the wild cattle on the island of
Boavista (Buenavista in Spanish). D'Avezac, _Ils de l'Afrique_ (Paris,
1848), p. 218. The word _mayordomo_, translated "steward," here stands
for the high Portuguese title of honor _Mordomo mor da Casa Real_, a
title in its origin similar to the _majores domus_ or mayors of the
palace of the early French kings. _Escribano de la hacienda del Rey_
means rather the king's treasurer.
[324-3] This account of Boavista and its lepers is not noticed in the
histories of the Cape Verde Islands so far as I know.
[324-4] From Pliny's time through the Middle Ages the name Ethiopia
embraced all tropical Africa. He calls the Atlantic in the tropics the
"Ethiopian Sea." Pliny's _Natural History_, book VI., chs. XXXV. and
XXXVI.
[325-1] A remark by Las Casas, of which many are interspersed with the
material from Columbus's Journal of this voyage.
[326-1] The Tordesillas line was 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde
Islands alone.
[326-2] This reason for the desire of King John of Portugal to have the
Demarcation Line moved further west has escaped all the writers on the
subject. If Columbus reported the king's ideas correctly, we may have
here a clew to one of the reasons why Cabral went so far to the southwest
in 1500 that he discovered Brazil when on his voyage to India, and
perhaps also one of the reasons why Vasco da Gama struck off so boldly
into the South Atlantic. _Cf._ Bourne, _Spain in America_, pp. 72, 74.
[327-1] Sierra Leone.
[328-1] As one faces north.
[329-1] On Hanno's voyage see _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ under his name.
There was no Greek historian Amianus; the name should be Arrianus, who
wrote the history of Alexander the Great's expedition to India and a
history of India. The reference is to the latter work, ch. XLIII., sects.
11, 12.
Ludovico Celio: Ludovico Ricchieri, born about 1450. He was for a time a
professor in the Academy at Milan. He took the Latin name Rhodiginus from
his birthplace Rovigo, and sometimes his name appears in full as
Ludovicus Coelius Richerius Rhodiginus. His _Antiquarum Lectionum Libri
XVI._ was published at Venice in 1516, at Paris in 1517, and in an
extended form at Basel, 1542. It is a collection of passages from the
classical authors relating to all branches of knowledge, with a critical
commentary.
[329-2] The Guards, "the two brightest stars in Ursa Minor." (Tolhausen.)
[329-3] _Grajos._ The meaning given in the dictionaries for _grajo_ is
"daw."
[329-4] This word, as a name of a fish, is Portuguese. It means
"blunted."
[329-5] See Pliny, _Natural History_, book IV., ch. XXXVI. The
Cassiterides are commonly identified with the Scilly Islands.
[329-6] The fifth clime or climate is a term in Ptolemy's geographical
system. The fifth climate was a strip 255 Roman miles in width lying
between 41 deg. and 45 deg. north latitude. _Cf._ _Raccolta Columbiana_,[TN-7]
Parte I., Tomo 2, p. 293. The latitude of the Azores is about 37 deg.-40 deg..
[330-1] The names are _alcatraz_ and _rabihorcado_. See above, note to
Journal of First Voyage, p. 98, note 1, and p. 103, note 1.
[330-2] Huelva, near Palos.
[331-1] Trinidad.
[331-2] Salve Regina, one of the great hymns to the Virgin in the
Catholic service. "The antiphon said after Lauds and Compline from
Trinity Sunday to Advent." Addis and Arnold, _Catholic Dictionary_.
[331-3] _I.e._, that his will was not to serve the sovereigns but to
advance himself.
[332-1] Cape of the Galley. To-day, Cape Galeota.
[332-2] The last of the canonical hours of prayer, after sunset or early
evening.
[334-1] Sandy Point.
[334-2] Of the whale.
[334-3] One of the native names of the Orinoco, here referring to one of
the northern branch mouths. A detailed map of the region is given
Winsor's _Columbus_, p. 353.
[336-1] "A sort of veil, or head attire used by the Moorish women, made
of thin silk, striped of several colors, and shagged at the ends, which
hangs down on the back." John Stevens, _A New Dictionary, Spanish and
English_, etc. (London. 1726.)
[337-1] The exploration of the west coast of Africa, the only equatorial
regions then known to Europeans, had led to the conclusion that black was
the natural color of the inhabitants of the tropics.
[337-2] The Navidad referred to by Las Casas was near the Gulf of Paria.
(Thacher.)
[337-3] _Poner a monte carracas._ _Poner a monte_ is not given in the
Spanish dictionaries, and is apparently a sea phrase identical with the
Portuguese "por um navio a monte," to beach or ground a vessel. The
translator went entirely astray in this passage. See Thacher's
_Columbus_, II. 388. The figure here given and the use of word _pasos_,
normally, a land measure of length, instead of _braza_, "fathom," would
seem to indicate that the 65 paces refers to the extent of shore laid
bare, and not to the height of the tide. The corresponding passage in the
_Historie_ reads: "so that it seemed a rapid river both day and night and
at all hours, notwithstanding the fact that the water rose and fell along
the shore (_per la spiaggia_) more than sixty paces between the waves
(_alle marette_) as it is wont to do in San Lucar di Barrameda where the
waters [of the river] are high since although the water rises and falls
it never ceases to run toward the sea," _Historie_ (London ed.), p. 229.
In this passage _maree_, "tides," should be read instead of _marette_.
[338-1] Accepting the emendation of de Lollis which substitutes _fructas_
for _fuentes_, "springs."
[339-1] _I.e._, north by east.
[339-2] _Loma._
[340-1] Las Casas here quotes Columbus's letter to Ferdinand and Isabella
on this voyage. See Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, p. 123.
[340-2] Serpent's mouth. The name is still retained.
[340-3] _Lapa_ means barnacle; _caracol_, periwinkle; and _delfin_,
dolphin.
[340-4] Dragon's mouth. The name is still retained.
[340-5] _I.e._, along the south shore of the peninsula of Paria in the
Gulf of Paria.
[341-1] The grammatical form of this sentence follows the original, which
is irregular.
[341-2] See p. 311, note 2.
[341-3] _Galos paules_ (Cat-Pauls). A species of African monkey was so
called in Spain. The name occurs in Marco Polo. On its history and
meaning, see Yule's _Marco Polo_, II. 372.
[342-1] Im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_, p. 193, says, "Indians
after babyhood are never seen perfectly naked."
[343-1] _Flechas con hierba muy a punto_, literally, arrows with grass
very sharp. Gaffarel, _Histoire de la Decouverte de l'Amerique_, II. 196,
interprets this to mean arrows feathered with grass; but _hierba_ used in
connection with arrows usually means poison. _Cf._ Oviedo, lib. IX.,
title of cap. XII., "_Del arbol o mancanillo con cuya fructa los indios
caribes flecheros hacen la hierba con que tiran e pelean_."
[343-2] _Hureyos_ is _Tureyos_ in the printed edition of Las Casas, an
obvious correction of the manuscript reading. On _turey_, see above, p.
310.
[343-3] See above, p. 336, note 1.
[344-1] Needle. Alcatrazes, to-day. (Navarrete.)
[344-2] Gardens.
[344-3] _Ojas de oro._ The translator took _ojas_ (_hojas_) for _ojos_
and rendered it "eyes of gold." See Thacher, _Columbus_, II. 393.
[345-1] _I.e._, in Espanola.
[346-1] Irregularly shaped pearls, seed pearls.
[346-2] "Keep your eyes open."
[347-1] Isabela in the printed text.
[348-1] The north wind.
[348-2] Pliny, _Natural History_, book IX., ch. LIV.
[348-3] The name is still used. It is the _Rhicopharia mangle_. See the
description of it in Thompson's Alcedo's _Geographical and Historical
Dictionary of America and the West Indies_, Appendix.
[349-1] Las Casas here inserts a long disquisition on pearls which is
omitted. It covers pp. 246-252 of the printed edition, Vol. II.
[350-1] _I.e._, the western end of the Gulf of Paria.
[350-2] These mouths of the Orinoco supplied the fresh water, but they
can hardly be the streams referred to by the sailors who explored the
western end of the Gulf of Paria. Las Casas had no good map of this
region.
[352-1] Columbus elaborated this point in his letter to Ferdinand and
Isabella. Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, p. 113. Columbus's
estimate of the sacrifice of lives in the exploration of the west coast
of Africa must be considered a most gross exaggeration. The contemporary
narratives of those explorations give no such impression.
[352-2] _Cf._ Columbus's letter to the sovereigns, "Your Highnesses have
here another world." Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, p. 148, and the
letter to the nurse of Prince John, p. 381, _post_. "I have placed under
the dominion of the King and Queen our sovereigns another world." These
passages clearly show that Columbus during and after this voyage realized
that he accomplished something quite different from merely reaching Asia
by a western route. He had found a hitherto unknown portion of the world,
unknown to the ancients or to Marco Polo, but not for that reason
necessarily physically detached from the known Asia. For a fuller
discussion of the meaning of the phrase "_another world_," "_New World_,"
and of Columbus's ideas of what he had done, see Bourne, _Spain in
America_, pp. 94-98, and the facsimile of the Bartholomew Columbus map,
opposite p. 96.
[352-3] A noteworthy prediction. In fact the discovery of the New World
has effected a most momentous change in the relative strength and range
of Christianity among the world-religions. During the Middle Ages
Christianity lost more ground territorially than it gained. Since the
discovery of America its gain has been steady.
[352-4] Such in fact their Highnesses' grandson, Charles I. (V. as
Emperor), was during his long reign, and such during a part of his reign
if not the whole, was their great-grandson Philip II. See Oviedo's
reflections upon Columbus's career. Bourne, _Spain in America_, p. 82.
[353-1] Las Casas here comments at some length on these remarks of
Columbus and the great significance of his discoveries. The passage
omitted takes up pp. 255 (line six from bottom) to 258.
[353-2] Las Casas explains _leste_, which would seem to have been either
peculiar to sailors or at least not in common usage then for "east."
[353-3] Probably _gatos_ in the sense of _gatos paules_, monkeys, noted
above, p. 341, as very plentiful.
[353-4] Port of the Cabins.
[353-5] The _Catholicon_ was one of the earliest Latin lexicons of modern
times and the first to be printed. It was compiled by Johannes de Janua
(Giovanni Balbi of Genoa) toward the end of the thirteenth century and
first printed at Mainz in 1460, and very frequently later.
[354-1] The third of the canonical hours of prayer, about nine o'clock in
the morning.
[355-1] _El agua les es medicina_, _i.e._, a means of curing the ill.
[355-2] _Abajo._ Las Casas views the mainland as extending up from the
sea. Columbus was going west along the north shore of the peninsula of
Paria.
[355-3] _I.e._, to go west along the north shore of this supposed island
until looking south he was to the right of it and abreast of the Gulf of
Pearls.
[355-4] Three of the greatest known rivers, each of which drained a vast
range of territory. This narrative reveals the gradual dawning upon
Columbus of the fact that he had discovered a hitherto unknown
continental mass. In his letter to the sovereigns his conviction is
settled and his efforts to adjust it with previous knowledge and the
geographical traditions of the ages are most interesting. See Major,
_Select Letters of Columbus_, pp. 134 _et seqq._ "Ptolemy," he says, on
p. 136, "and the others who have written upon the globe had no
information respecting this part of the world, for it was most unknown."
[356-1] The Witnesses.
[358-1] The reference is to _II. Esdras_, VI. 42, in the Apocrypha of the
English Bible. The Apocryphal books of I. and II. Esdras were known as
III. and IV. Esdras in the Middle Ages, and the canonical books in the
Vulgate called I. and II. Esdras are called Ezra and Nehemiah in the
English Bible. II. Esdras is an apocalyptic work and dates from the close
of the first century A.D. The passage to which Columbus referred reads as
follows: "Upon the third day thou didst command that the waters should be
gathered in the seventh part of the earth; six parts hast thou dried up,
and kept them, to the intent that of these some being planted of God and
tilled might serve thee."
[358-2] The reference is wrong, as Las Casas points out two or three
pages further on (II. 266); it should be to the treatise _De Bono
Mortis_, cap. 10
[359-1] Francis de Mayrones was an eminent Scotist philosopher. He died
in 1327. Columbus here quotes from his _Theologicae Veritates_ (Venice,
1493). See _Raccolta Colombiana_, Parte I., tomo II., p. 377. Las Casas
(II. 266) was unable to verify the citation from St. Augustine.
[359-2] The passage omitted, Las Casas, II. 265-307, consists first, pp.
265-267, of his comments on these words of Columbus, and second, pp.
268-274, of a criticism of Vespucci's claim to have made a voyage in 1497
to this region of Paria, and of his narratives and the naming of America
from him. This criticism is translated with Las Casas's other trenchant
criticisms of Vespucci's work and claims by Sir Clements R. Markham in
his _Letters of Amerigo Vespucci_ (London, 1894), pp. 68 _et seq._[TN-8]
These passages are very interesting as perhaps the earliest piece of
detailed critical work relating to the discoveries, and they still
constitute the cornerstone of the case against Vespucci. The third
portion of the omitted passage, pp. 275-306, is a long essay on the
location of the earthly paradise which Columbus placed in this new
mainland he had just discovered. _Cf._ Columbus's letter on the Third
Voyage. Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, pp. 140-146.
[360-1] On the Roldan revolt, see Irving, _Christopher Columbus_, II. 199
_et seqq._
[360-2] April 10, 1495, the sovereigns authorized independent exploring
expeditions. Columbus protested that such expeditions infringed upon his
rights, and so, June 2, 1497, the sovereigns modified their ordinance and
prohibited any infringements. Apparently Las Casas is in error in saying
the permission had not been recalled in 1498, but the independent voyages
of Hojeda and Pinzon, who first explored the northern coast of South
America (Paria) in 1499-1500, may have led him to conclude that the
authorization had not been recalled.
[361-1] See Journal of First Voyage, December 25.
[362-1] The passage omitted, II. 309-313, of the printed edition, gives
an account of the voyage and arrival of the vessels which came to
Espanola directly from the Canaries.
[363-1] Northwest by north.
[363-2] Northeast in the printed text.
[363-3] The circle of the horizon, represented by the compass card, was
conceived of as divided into eight winds and each wind into halves and
quarters, the quarters corresponding to the modern points of the compass,
which are thirty-two in number. The declination observed was two points
of the compass, or 22 deg. 30'.
[363-4] See above, p. 329, note 2.
[364-1] An arroba was twenty-five pounds.
[364-2] _Estoraque_, officinal storax, a gum used for incense.
[364-3] _Cf._ Marco Polo, bk. III., ch. II.
[364-4] Pita, the fibre of the American agave.
[365-1] _Cf._ the letter on the Third Voyage, Major, _Select Letters of
Columbus_, p. 140, for Columbus's reasoning and beliefs about the Earthly
Paradise or Garden of Eden; for Las Casas's discussion of the question,
see _Historia de las Indias_, II. 275-306.
[365-2] High sail.
[366-1] The rack was used to bend the crossbow.