[389-1] The punctuation of this first paragraph has been changed in the
light of the contemporary Italian translation known as the _Lettera
Rarissima_, which is given in facsimile and English translation in
Thacher's _Christopher Columbus_, II. 671 _et seqq._
[389-2] June 29. Las Casas, III. 29.
[390-1] By the letter of the King and Queen, March 14, 1502, Columbus had
been forbidden to call at Espanola on the outward voyage. Las Casas,
_Historia de las Indias_, III. 26.
[390-2] The new governor, Ovando, who had been sent out to supersede
Bobadilla, had reached Santo Domingo in April of this year, 1502.
[390-3] Columbus was accompanied by his younger son Ferdinand and his
elder brother Bartholomew. Las Casas, III. 25.
[390-4] The translation here follows Lollis's emendation of the text
which changed the printed text, "_habia, echado a la mar, por escapar,
fasta la isola la Gallega; perdio la barca_," etc., to "_habia echado a
la mar, por escapar fasta la isla; la Gallega perdio la barca_." One of
the ships was named _La Gallega_, and there is no island of that name in
that region.
[391-1] Columbus set forth from the harbor of Santo Domingo in the storm,
Friday, July 1. The ships found refuge in the harbor of Azua on the
following Sunday, July 3. (Ferdinand Columbus in the _Historie_, ed.
1867, pp. 286-287.) Azua is about 50 miles west of Santo Domingo in a
straight line, but much farther by water. After a rest and repairs the
Admiral sailed to Yaquimo, the present Jacmel in the territory of Hayti,
into which port he went to escape another storm. He left Yaquimo, July
14. (Las Casas, III. 108; Ferdinand Columbus, _Historie_, p. 289.) He
then passed south of Jamaica, and was carried by the currents northwest
till he reached the Queen's Garden, a group of many small islands south
of Cuba and east of the Isle of Pines, so named by him in 1494 on his
exploration of the coast of Cuba.
[391-2] From the Queen's Garden he sailed south July 27 (the Porras
narrative of this voyage, Navarrete, II. 283; in English in Thacher,
_Columbus_, II. 640 _et seqq._), and after a passage of ninety leagues
sighted an island Saturday, July 30. (Porras in Thacher, II. 643.) This
was the island of Guanaja about twelve leagues north of Trujillo,
Honduras. (Las Casas, III. 109.) Here a landing was made and a canoe was
encountered which was covered with an awning and contained Indians well
clothed and a load of merchandise. Notwithstanding these indications of a
more advanced culture than had hitherto been found, the Admiral decided
not to explore the country of these Indians, which would have led him
into Yucatan and possibly Mexico, but to search for the strait which he
supposed separated Asia from the continental mass he had discovered on
his third voyage (Paria, South America). He struck the mainland near
Trujillo, naming the point Caxinas. At or near this place they landed
Sunday, August 14, to say mass. (Las Casas, III. 112; Ferdinand Columbus,
_Historie_, p. 295.) From this point he coasted very slowly, sailing in
sight of land by day and anchoring at night, distressed by storms and
headwinds, some days losing as much ground as could be gained in two,
till September 12, when he reached Cape Gracias a Dios. (Las Casas, III.
113; _Historie_, p. 297; Porras narrative in Thacher, _Columbus_, II.
644.) It will be seen from this collation of the sources that the
statements in our text are far from exact, that they are in fact a very
general and greatly exaggerated recollection of a most trying experience.
It will be remembered that Ferdinand was on this voyage, but his
narrative says nothing of any storm between July 14 when he left the
Queen's Gardens and the arrival at Guanaja, a passage which Porras says
took three days. This passage, however, Las Casas describes apparently on
the basis of this letter as having taken sixty days (_Historia_, III.
108). Next the text of the _Historie_ presents a difficulty, for it
places the tedious stormy voyage of _sixty_ leagues and _seventy_ days
between Caxinas (Trujillo) and Cape Gracias a Dios (_Historie_, p. 296),
although in another place it gives the beginning of this coasting as
after August 14 and the date of arrival at the Cape as September 12. This
last chronological difficulty may perhaps be accounted for in this way:
The original manuscript of the _Historie_ may have had "XXX dias," which
a copyist or the Italian translator may have taken for "LXX dias."
[392-1] A review of the chronology of the voyage in the preceding note
will show that no such storm of eighty-eight days' duration could have
occurred in the first part of this voyage. Columbus was only seventy-four
days in going from Santo Domingo to Cabo Gracias a Dios. Either the text
is wrong or his memory was at fault. The most probable conclusion is that
in copying either LXXXVIII got substituted for XXVIII or _Ochenta y ocho_
for _Veinte y ocho_. In that case we should have almost exactly the time
spent in going from Trujillo to Cape Gracias a Dios, August 14 to
September 12, and exact agreement between our text, the _Historie_, and
the Porras narrative.
[393-1] Twenty years, speaking approximately. This letter was written in
1503, and Columbus entered the service of Spain in 1485.
[393-2] Diego was the heir of his father's titles. He was appointed
governor of the Indies in 1508, but a prolonged lawsuit was necessary to
establish his claims to inherit his father's rights.
[393-3] Their course was down the Mosquito coast. Cariay was near the
mouth of the San Juan River of Nicaragua. Las Casas gives the date of the
arrival at Cariari, as he gives the name, as September 17 (III. 114). The
_Historie_ gives the date as September 5 and the name as Cariai (p. 297).
[393-4] Peter Martyr, _De Rebus Oceanicis_ (ed. 1574), p. 239, says that
Columbus called Ciamba the region which the inhabitants called
Quiriquetana, a name which it would seem still survives in Chiriqui
Lagoon just east of Almirante Bay. The name "Ciamba" appears on Martin
Behaim's globe, 1492, as a province corresponding to Cochin-China. It is
described in Marco Polo under the name "Chamba"; see Yule's _Marco Polo_,
II. 248-252 (bk. III., ch. V.).
[393-5] Carambaru is the present Almirante Bay, about on the border
between Costa Rica and Panama. Las Casas describes the bay as six leagues
long and over three broad with many islands and coves. He gives the name
as Caravaro (III. 118). Ferdinand Columbus's account is practically
identical.
[394-1] Veragua in this letter includes practically all of the present
republic of Panama. The western quarter of it was granted to Luis Colon,
the Admiral's grandson, in 1537, as a dukedom in partial compensation for
his renouncing his hereditary rights. Hence the title Dukes of Veragua
borne by the Admiral's descendants. The name still survives in geography
in that of the little island Escudo de Veragua, which lies off the
northern coast.
[394-2] The eve or vigil of St. Simon and St. Jude is October 27.
According to the narrative in the _Historie_, on October 7, they went
ashore at the channel of Cerabora (Carambaru). A few days later they went
on to Aburema. October 17 they left Aburema and went twelve leagues to
Guaigo, where they landed. Thence they went to Cateva (Catiba, Las Casas)
and cast anchor in a large river (the Chagres). Thence easterly to
Cobrava; thence to five towns, among which was Beragua (Veragua); the
next day to Cubiga. The distance from Cerabora to Cubiga was fifty
leagues. Without landing, the Admiral went on to Belporto (Puerto Bello),
which he so named. ("Puerto Bello, which was a matter of six leagues from
what we now call El Nombre de Dios." Las Casas, III. 121.) He arrived at
Puerto Bello November 2, and remained there seven days on account of the
rains and bad weather. (_Historie_, pp. 302-306.) Apparently Columbus put
this period of bad weather a few days too early in his recollection of
it.
[394-3] Ciguare. An outlying province of the Mayas lying on the Pacific
side of southern Costa Rica. Peter Martyr, _De Rebus Oceanicis_, p. 240,
says, "In this great tract (_i.e._, where the Admiral was) are two
districts, the near one called Taia, and the further one Maia."
[395-1] See p. 311, note 5.
[395-2] Probably _casas_, houses, should be the reading here. In the
corresponding passage of the contemporary Italian version the word is
"houses." This information, mixed as it is with Columbus's
misinterpretations of the Indian signs and distorted by his
preconceptions, was first made public in the Italian translation of this
letter in 1505 and then gave Europe its first intimations of the culture
of the Mayas.
[395-3] _I.e._, in being on either side of a peninsula, Tortosa and
Fontarabia being on opposite sides of the narrowest part of the Spanish
peninsula.
[395-4] See p. 300, note 1.
[396-1] The Spanish reads, "Lo que yo se es que el ano de noventa y
cuatro en veinte y cuatros grados al Poniente en termino de nueve horas."
The translation in the text and that in Thacher (II. 687) of the Italian
makes nonsense. The translation should be "what I know is that in the
year '94 (1494) I sailed westward on the 24th parallel (lit. on 24
degrees) a total of nine hours (lit. to a limit of nine hours)." That is,
he reckoned that he had gone 9/24 round the world on the 24th parallel,
and he knew it because there was an eclipse by which he found out the
difference in time between Europe and where he was. The "termino" of nine
hours refers to the western limit of his exploration of the southern
coast of Cuba when he concluded it was a projection of the mainland of
Asia. After reaching the conclusion that this is the correct
interpretation of this passage, I discovered that it had been given by
Humboldt in his _Kritische Untersuchungen ueber die historische
Entwickelung der geographischen Kenntnisse von der Neuen Welt_, I. 553,
and by Peschel in his _Zeitalter der Entdeckungen_, p. 97, note 2. It may
be objected to this explanation that in reality Columbus had only gone
about 75 degrees west of Cape St. Vincent in Portugal. The accurate
calculation of longitude at that time, however, was impossible, and as
will be seen in the following note Columbus's calculation was biassed by
powerful preconceptions.
[396-2] In his _Libro de Profecias_ Columbus recorded the data of this
eclipse which took place February 29, 1494, from which he drew the
conclusion, "The difference between the middle of the island Jamaica in
the Indies and the island of Cadiz in Spain is seven hours and fifteen
minutes." Navarrete, _Viages_, II. 272.
[396-3] Reading _remendiado_ or _remendado_ instead of _remedado_.
[396-4] Catigara was in China on the east side of the Gulf of Tonquin.
[396-5] Marinus of Tyre divided the earth into 24 meridians, 15 degrees
or one hour apart. His first meridian passed the Fortunate Isles, which
he supposed to be 2-1/2 degrees west of Cape St. Vincent, and his
fifteenth through Catigara, southeastern China. The inhabited world
embraced fifteen of these lines, 225 degrees, and the unknown portion
east of India and west of Spain, nine lines, or hours, or 135 degrees.
_Cf._ Vignaud, _Toscanelli and Columbus_, p. 74; Bunbury, _History of
Ancient Geography_, II. 519 _et seqq._ Columbus, therefore, according to
his calculations, had in 1494 completely covered this unknown section and
reached India (or China), and so had demonstrated the correctness of
Marinus's views. In reality his strong preconceptions as to where he was
distorted his calculations of the longitude. Ptolemy corrected Marinus's
estimate of 225 degrees from Cape St. Vincent to Sera in China, and, as
noted in Columbus's letter, placed Catigara in China (on the east side of
the Gulf of Tonquin) at twelve lines or 180 degrees west of his meridian
(2-1/2 degrees west of Cape St. Vincent). If Ptolemy was right, Columbus
had not reached India (or more exactly China) or come, on his own
calculation, within 45 degrees or 2700 geographical miles of it measured
on the equator. The outline reproduction of the map of Bartholomew
Columbus made after his return from this voyage given in Channing's
_Student's History of the United States_, p. 27 (photographic
reproduction in Bourne, _Spain in America_, p. 96) illustrates the
Admiral's ideas and conclusions. This region (_i.e._, Costa Rica and
Panama) is a southern extension of Cochin-China and Cambodia and is
connected with _Mondo Novo_, _i.e._, South America.
[397-1] The translation here adopts the emended text of Lollis,
substituting "ali[e]nde" for "al Indo" in the sentence "Marino en
Ethiopia escribe al Indo la linea equinocial." _Raccolta Colombiana_,
parte I., tomo II., p. 184. The translation of the unamended text as
printed by Major was "the same author describes the Indus in Ethiopia as
being more than four and twenty degrees from the equinoctial line."
Apparently the 24 should be 44. With these changes the statements in the
text agree with Columbus's marginalia to the _Imago Mundi_, where he
notes that the Cape of Good Hope is Agesinba and that Bartholomew Diaz
found it to be 45 degrees south of the equator. "This," he goes on,
"agrees with the dictum of Marinus, whom Ptolemy corrects, in regard to
the expedition to the Garamantes, who said it traversed 27,500 stadia
beyond the equinoctial." _Raccolta Colombiana_, parte II., tomo II., p.
377. On Marinus's exaggerated estimate of the distance covered by the
Romans in tropical Africa, see Bunbury, _History of Ancient Geography_,
II. 524.
[397-2] This is unintelligible. The Spanish is, "Tolomeo diz que la
tierra mas austral es el plazo primero." The meaning of _plazo_ is not
"boundary" but "term" (allotted time). The reading should be: "la tierra
mas austral es el praso promontorio," and the translation should be,
"Ptolemy says that the most southern land is the promontory of Prasum,"
etc. Prasum promontorium was Ptolemy's southern limit of the world. He
placed it at about 16 degrees south latitude. See Bunbury, _History of
Ancient Geography_, II. 572, and Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Geography_, art. "Prasum Promontorium"; also Ptolemy's _Geography_, bk.
IV., ch. IX., the descriptive matter relating to Map 4 on Africa.
[398-1] _II. Esdras_, VI. 42, see p. 358, note 1.
[398-2] See the Letter of Columbus on his Third Voyage. Major, _Select
Letters of Columbus_, p. 141.
[398-3] Ptolemy reckoned the length of the degree on the equator at
62-1/2 miles. The shorter measurement of 56-2/3 was the estimate adopted
by the Arab astronomer Alfragan in the ninth century and known to
Columbus through Cardinal d'Ailly's _Imago Mundi_, the source of much if
not most of his information on the geographical knowledge and opinions of
former times. Cardinal d'Ailly's source of information about Alfragan was
Roger Bacon's _Opus Majus_. Columbus was deeply impressed with Alfragan's
estimate of the length of the degree and annotated the passages in the
_Imago Mundi_. _Cf._ _Raccolta Colombiana_, Parte I., tomo II., pp. 378,
407, and frequently. See this whole question in Vignaud, _Toscanelli and
Columbus_, p. 79 _et seqq._
[398-4] In Puerto Bello. See p. 394, note 2. Porto Bello, to use the
Anglicized form, became the great shipping port on the north side of the
isthmus for the trade with Peru. _Cf._ Bourne, _Spain in America_, p.
292.
[399-1] Columbus left Porto Bello November 9 and went eight leagues, but
the next day he turned back four and took refuge at what is now Nombre de
Dios. From the abundance of maize fields he named it Port of Provisions
(Puerto de Bastimentos). _Historie_, p. 306.
[399-2] _Me reposo atras il viento_, etc. For _reposo_ the text
apparently should be either _repuso_, "put back," or _rempujo_, "drove
back," and the translation is based on this supposition.
[399-3] They remained at Bastimentos till November 23, when they went on
to Guiga, but did not tarry but pushed on to a little harbor (November
26), which the Admiral called Retrete (Closet) because it was so small
that it could hold only five or six vessels and the entrance was only
fifteen or twenty paces wide. _Historie_, p. 306.
[399-4] That is, Columbus turns back to explore the mines on account of
the violence of the east and northeast winds. This was December 5.
_Historie_, p. 309.
[400-1] Not mentioned in the _Historie_ by name. It was the place where
they stayed from December 26 to January 3 to repair the ship _Gallega_ as
appears in the _Probanzas del Almirante_. Navarrete, _Viages_, III. 600.
It was between Rio de los Lagartos and Puerto Bello. Lollis, _Raccolta
Colombiana_, Parte I., tomo II., p. 187.
[400-2] Adopting de Lollis's text and punctuation.
[400-3] _La oposicion de Saturno con Marte tan desvaratado en costa
brava_, adopting de Lollis's text following the suggestion of the
contemporary Italian translation. According to the doctrines of astrology
the influence of Saturn was malign. "When Saturn is in the first degree
of Aries, and any other Planet in the first degree of Libra, they being
now an hundred and eighty degrees each from other, are said to be in
Opposition: A bad Aspect." William Lilly, _Christian Astrology_ (London,
1647), p. 27.
[400-4] Epiphany, January 6. It will be remembered that Columbus had
passed Veragua the previous October when working eastward. See p. 394,
note 2. He now found he could enter the river of Veragua, but found
another near by called by the Indians Yebra, but which Columbus named
Belem in memory of the coming of the three kings (the wise men of the
East) to Bethlehem. (Las Casas, III. 128; Porras in Thacher, II. 645.)
The name is still preserved attached to the river.
[401-1] _Proeses._ In nautical Spanish _prois_ or _proiza_ is a
breastfast or headfast, that is a large cable for fastening a ship to a
wharf or another ship. In Portuguese _proiz_ is a stone or tree on shore
to which the hawsers are fastened. Major interpreted it in this sense,
translating the words _las amarras y proeses_, "the cables and the
supports to which they were fastened." The interpretation given first
seems to me the correct one, especially as Ferdinand says that the flood
came so suddenly that they could not get the cables on land. _Historie_,
p. 315.
[402-1] _Quibian_ is a title, as indicated a few lines further on, and
not a proper name as Major, Irving, Markham, and others following Las
Casas have taken it to be. The Spanish is uniformly "El Quibian." Peter
Martyr says: "They call a kinglet (_regulus_) Cacicus, as we have said
elsewhere, in other places Quebi, in some places also Tiba. A chief, in
some places Sacchus, in others Jura." _De Rebus Oceanicis_, p. 241.
[402-2] "_Una mozada de oro._" _Mozada_ is not given in any of the
Spanish dictionaries I have consulted. The Academy dictionary gives
_mojoda_ as a square measure, deriving it from the low Latin _modiata_
from _modius_. Perhaps one should read _mojada_ instead of _mozada_ and
give it a meaning similar to that of _modius_ or about a peck. Major's
translation follows the explanation of De Verneuil, who says: "_Mozada
signifie la mesure que peut porter un jeune garcon_."
[403-1] The mouth of the river was closed by sand thrown up by the
violent storms outside. _Historie_, p. 321.
[403-2] The teredo.
[403-3] During the weeks that he was shut in the River Belem Columbus had
his brother explore the country. The prospects for a successful colony
led him to build a small settlement and to plan to return to Spain for
re-enforcements and supplies. The story is told in detail in the
_Historie_ and by Irving, _Columbus_, II. 425-450, and more briefly by
Markham, _Columbus_, pp. 259-207. This was the first settlement projected
on the American Continent. The hostility of the Indians culminating in
this attack rendered the execution of the project impracticable. In the
manuscript copy of Las Casas's _Historia de las Indias_ Las Casas noted
on the margin of the passage containing the account of this incident,
"This was the first settlement that the Spaniards made on the mainland,
although in a short time it came to naught." See Thacher, _Columbus_, II.
608.
[404-1] De Lollis points out that these striking words are a paraphrase
of the famous lines in Seneca's _Medea_, Chorus, Act II.:--
Venient annis saecula seris Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum Laxet, et ingens
pateat tellus, Tethysque novos detegat orbes Nec sit terris ultima Thule.
Columbus copied these verses into his _Libro de las Profecias_ and
translated them. Navarrete, _Viages_, II. 272.
[404-2] Accepting de Lollis's emended text.
[405-1] "Quando se aia de proveer de socorro, se proveera de todo."
[405-2] April 16, 1503.
[405-3] Cuba. According to Ferdinand Columbus the course was as follows:
The Admiral followed the coast of the isthmus eastward beyond El Retrete
to a place he named Marmoro (near Punto de Mosquitos) somewhat west of
the entrance to the Gulf of Darien; then May 1 in response to the urgency
of the pilots he turned north. May 10 they sighted two little islands,
Caymanos Chicos, and the 12th they reached the Queen's Garden just south
of Cuba (see p. 301, note 1). The next day they landed in Cuba and
secured supplies. It is significant of the tenacity of Columbus's
conviction that Cuba was a part of the mainland of Asia that he here
calls it Mago (_i.e._, Mango). June 12, 1494, when he had explored the
southern coast of Cuba, he reached this conviction and compelled his
officers and crew to take oath that "it (_i.e._, Cuba) is mainland and in
particular the province of Mango." Navarrete, _Viages_, II. 144. (The
affidavits are translated in Thacher, _Columbus_, II. 327.) Mangi
(southern China) is described by Marco Polo at great length. In the
second Toscanelli letter Quinsay is said to be "in the province of Mangi,
_i.e._, near the province of Cathay." It is noted several times in
Columbus's marginalia to Marco Polo.
[406-1] _Alli me torne a reposar atras la fortuna._ De Lollis, following
the Italian translation, reads: _Alli me torne a reposar atras la
fortuna_, etc. "There the storm returned to drive me back; I stopped in
the same island in a safer port." As this gives an unknown meaning to
_reposar_, he suggests that Columbus may have written _repujar_, "to
drive."
[406-2] June 23. _Historie_, p. 334.
[407-1] On the contrary the narrative of Diego de Porras, which he
prepared after his return to Spain in November, 1504, is a much clearer
account of the voyage in most respects than this letter of Columbus's.
For it, see Thacher, _Columbus_, II. 640-646. Porras relates that during
this voyage the Admiral took all the charts away that the seamen had had.
Thacher, _Columbus_, II. 646.
[407-2] "_El puerto de Jaquimo_ [Jacmel], which he called the port of
Brasil." Las Casas, _Historia_, III. 108.
[408-1] Cuba.
[408-2] The pilots thought that they were east of Espanola when Columbus
turned north, and consequently thought that Cuba (Mango) was Porto Rico
(San Juan). _Cf._ _Historie_, p. 333.
[408-3] _I.e._, in that it is clear to one who understands it, and blind
to one who does not.
[408-4] _Las naos de las Indias_, _i.e._, the large ships for the Indies,
_i.e._, Espanola.
[408-5] Bow-lines are ropes employed to keep the windward edges of the
principal sails steady, and are only used when the wind is so unfavorable
that the sails must be all braced sideways, or close hauled to the wind.
(Major.)
[409-1] _I.e._, rigged with lateen sails in the Portuguese fashion.
[409-2] Columbus, in his marginal notes to his copy of the _Historia
Rerum ubique Gestarum_ of Pope Pius II. (Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini;
Venice, 1477), summarized the description of the Massagetae in ch. XII.
in part as follows: they "use golden girths and golden bridles and silver
breast-pieces and have no iron but plenty of copper and gold." _Raccolta
Colombiana_, parte I., tomo II., p. 300. This description of the
Massagetae goes back to Herodotus. While some habits ascribed to the
Massagetae were like what Columbus observed in Veragua, their home was
nowhere near eastern China.
[409-3] See p. 393, note 3.
[409-4] The account in the _Historie_ is radically at variance with this.
The girls were brought on board and "showed themselves very brave since
although the Christians in looks, acts, and race were very strange, they
gave no signs of distress or sadness, but maintained a cheerful and
modest (_honesto_) bearing, wherefore they were very well treated by the
Admiral who gave them clothes and something to eat and then sent them
back." _Historie_, p. 299. Ferdinand gives the ages as eight and fourteen
and says nothing of witchcraft except that the Indians were frightened
and thought they were being bewitched when Bartholomew the next day
ordered the ships' clerks to write down the replies he got to his
questions; _ibid._
[410-1] A specimen of the Maya sculptures, of which such imposing remains
are found in Yucatan. The translation follows Lollis's emendation, which
substitutes _mirrado_ for _mirando_.
[410-2] _Gato paulo_. On this name, see p. 341, note 3. Ferdinand, in the
_Historie_, relates this incident in more detail, from which it is clear
that the pigs were peccaries which had been captured by the men. On the
other hand, Ulloa, the Italian translator of the _Historie_,
mistranslated _gato paulo_ by "gatto," "cat."
[410-3] _Begare._ Columbus in recollecting this incident transferred to
the monkey the Indian name of the wild pigs. The _begare_ is the
"peccary," a native of America. Oviedo, lib. XII., cap. XX, gives
_baquira_ as the name of wild pigs in Nicaragua, and _baquira_ and
_begare_ are obviously identical.
[410-4] For the word _barra_ no explanation can be offered except what is
derived from the context. As the Italian has _diverse malattie_, "divers
diseases," de Lollis suggests that _barra_ should be _varias_ and that
_maladias_ was somehow dropped from the text.
[410-5] _Leones._ The American lion or puma.
[411-1] A misunderstanding. The Mayas made no metal tools. Brinton, _The
American Race_, p. 156.
[411-2] Possibly Columbus may have seen some Maya codices, of which such
remarkable specimens have been preserved.
[412-1] Considering Columbus's experience at Veragua this account
exhibits boundless optimism. Still it is not to be forgotten that through
the conquest of Mexico to the north this prediction was rather strikingly
fulfilled.
[412-2] It is not clear to what Columbus refers in this sentence.
[412-3] _De un camino._ The texts to which Columbus refers just below
show that this should read _de un ano_, in one year.
[412-4] In the Latin version of Josephus used by Columbus the Greek
thyreos, a target, was rendered _lancea_. See _Raccolta Colombiana_,
parte I., tomo II., p. 367.
[412-5] _Tablado._ In the Italian translation _tavolato_, a "partition
wall," "wainscoting," also "floor." _Tablado_ also means "scaffold" and
"stage" or "staging." We have here a curious series of mistakes. The
Greek text of Josephus has ekpomata, "cups." The old Latin translator,
perhaps having a defective text, took ekpomata apparently to be
equivalent to pomata, which has as its secondary meaning, "lids," and
translated it by the uncommon word _coopercula_, "lids" (_cf._ Georges,
_Lateinischdeutsches Handwoerterbuch, sub voce cooperculum_). The meaning
of this word Columbus guessed at, not having the text before him to see
the connection, and from its derivation from _cooperio_, "to cover,"
took it to be a "covering" in the sense of flooring, or perhaps ceiling,
above where the shields were hung "in the house of the forest of
Lebanon," and rendered it _tablado_. The whole passage from the old
Latin version (published in 1470 and frequently later), Columbus copied
into a fly-leaf of his copy of the _Historia Rerum ubique Gestarum_ of
Pope Pius II. See _Raccolta Colombiana_, parte I., tomo II., pp.
366-367.
[413-1] Josephus, _Antiquities of the Jews_, bk. VIII., ch. VII., sect.
4; _I. Kings_, X. 14, 15; _II. Chronicles_, IX. 13, 14.
[413-2] The Chersonesus Aurea of Ptolemy, or the Malay Peninsula.
[413-3] That is, Veragua and the Golden Chersonese are in the same
latitude.
[413-4] Josephus wrote that the gold came from the "Land of Gold," "_a
terra que vocatur aurea_," as the passage in the Latin version reads.
The Greek is, apo tes chryses kaloumenes ges. Josephus gives no further
identification of the location.
[413-5] I have not been able to verify this reference. There is nothing
in the fourteenth Psalm relating to this matter, nor is the fourteenth
Psalm mentioned among the many citations from the Psalms in the _Libro de
las Profecias_.
[414-1] In his _Libro de las Profecias_ Columbus wrote, "El abad
Johachin, calabres, diso que habia de salir de Espana quien havia de
redificar la Casa del Monte Sion." "The abbot Joachim, the Calabrian,
said that he who was destined to rebuild the House of Mount Sion was to
come from Spain." Lollis remarks that Columbus interpreted in his own way
the "Oraculum Turcicum," which concludes the thirty prophecies of Joachim
of Flora in regard to the popes. In the edition (Venice, 1589) which
Lollis had seen, this prophecy was interpreted to mean Charles VIII. of
France. _Raccolta Colombiana_, parte II., tomo II., p. 83.
[414-2] The reference to St. Jerome I have not found in Columbus's
marginalia.
[414-3] The father and uncle of Marco Polo had been given this mission by
Cublay Kaan. See Marco Polo, bk. I., ch. VII. Opposite the passage in his
copy of the Latin Marco Polo which he had, Columbus wrote, "magnus kam
misit legatos ad pontificem." _Raccolta Colombiana_, parte II., tomo II.,
p. 446.
[414-4] The recovery of the Holy Sepulchre had been long a cherished
object with Columbus. See the Journal of the First Voyage, December 26;
the letter to Pope Alexander VI., February, 1502 (Navarrete, _Viages_,
II. 280), and his _Libra de Profecias_, a collection of Scripture texts
compiled under his supervision relating to the restoration of Zion, etc.
_Raccolta Colombiana_, parte I., tomo II., pp. 77-160.
[415-1] An opinion abundantly justified through the conquest of Mexico
and the establishment of the kingdom of New Spain.
[416-1] See the Capitulation, pp. 77, 78 above. The limit mentioned was
fixed by the Papal Demarcation line; the limit agreed upon by Spain and
Portugal was 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.
[416-2] A reference to such voyages as those of Vicente Yanez Pinzon,
Hojeda, Diego de Lepe, and Rodrigo de Bastidas which occurred in
1499-1502. _Cf._ Bourne, _Spain in America_, pp. 67-71, and for details
Irving, _Columbus_, III. 15-62.
[416-3] Accepting de Lollis's emendation _a Cesar_ instead of the MS.
reading _acetar_ which Navarrete printed _aceptar_. The Italian has _a
Cesaro_.
[416-4] "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and
unto God, the things which are God's." _Matthew_, XXII. 21.
[417-1] At Espanola in 1500 by Bobadilla. _Cf._ the letter to the nurse
above, p. 380.
[417-2] This is one of the most important passages bearing upon the age
of Columbus. As he came to Spain at the end of 1484 according to
Ferdinand Columbus, _Historie_, ch. XII., Peschel fixed his birth in
1456, _Zeitalter der Entdeckungen_, p. 76. The majority of modern
critics, however, have agreed upon the basis of notarial documents in
Genoa that 1446 was the date of his birth and propose therefore to emend
the text here by substituting "treinta y ocho" for "veinte y ocho." On
the various dates set for his birth see Vignaud, _The Real Birth-date of
Christopher Columbus_. Vignaud fixes upon 1451.
[418-1] _Blanca_, a copper coin worth about one-third of a cent.
[Illustration: The New World in the Cantino Chart of 1502, showing the
state of geographical knowledge at the time of the death of Columbus.]