89-1The Alhambra.89-2This 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, PartI, 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. 284.90-1It 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 abovep. 78.90-2The edict of expulsion bears the date of March 30.91-1Columbus reckoned in Italian miles, four of which make a league. (Navarrete.)93-1On 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. 56.94-1Tres horas de nochemeans 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. 61-62.95-1Las Casas in hisHistoria, 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.”TheHistorieagrees with the text of the Journal that the needle declined more to the west, instead of shifting to an eastern declination.The author of theHistorieremarks: “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.)96-1Garjao.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 theGarjaowas thehirondelle de mer, theSterna maximaor royal tern.96-2Rabo 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. 63.96-3This remark is, of course, not true of the tropic bird orrabo de junco, as was abundantly proved on this voyage.97-1Seep. 96, note 2.98-1Alcatraz.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 ofAlcatraz. The gannets and the pelicans were formerly classed together. The wordAlcatrazwas taken over into English and corrupted toAlbatros. Alfred Newton,Dictionary of Birds(London, 1896), art. “Albatros.”98-2More 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.”100-1The abridger of the original journal missed the point here and his epitome is unintelligible. Las Casas says in hisHistoria, 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, Cristóbal 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.”100-2Las 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” ispardelas, petrels. The French translation haspetrels tachetes,i.e., “pintado petrels,” or cape pigeons.101-1More 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.101-2Las 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, 2teaufl. (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 hisHistorieunder 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 Española 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.102-1Doradois defined by Stevens as the dory or gilt head.103-1Rabiforcado, Portuguese. The Spanish form israbihorcado. It means “forked tail.” The modern English equivalent is “frigate bird.” It is “the Fregata aquila of most ornithologists, the Frégate 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.103-2Rather, 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.105-1Las 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, Cristóbal 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 Cristóbal 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. Seepage 108, note 1.106-1Á la cuarta del Oueste, á la parte del Sudueste, at the quarter from the west toward the southwest,i.e., west by south.106-2Las Casas, in theHistoria 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 Cristóbal Colon showed him represented.”Cf.page 101, note 2.107-1Las 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.”107-2A 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.107-3Grajaos.The translator assumed this to be the same asgarjao; the French translators, on the other hand, took it to be the same asgrajos, crows. In Portuguese dictionaries the wordgrajãois found as the name of “an Indian bird.”108-1The 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 Yañez Pinzon, “since with him I had a friendship up to the year 1514 when he died.”Historia de las Indias,II., cap.XIII.108-2Escaramojos.Wild roses.109-1It was full moon on October 5. On the night of the 11th the moon rose at 11P.M.and at 2A.M.on the morning of the 12th it was 39° 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 2A.M.(Markham.)109-2The high decks fore and aft were called castles. The name survives in the English forecastle. Stevens gives poop alone as the English forCastilla de popa.109-3Oviedo, 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.109-4Columbus 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.110-1Pronounced 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.110-2Fernando and Ysabel.110-3The royal inspector.110-4Las Casas adds, I. 293, “To which he gave the name Sant Salvador.”110-5We have here perhaps the original title of what in its abridged form we now call the Journal.113-1The Portugueseceitil(pl.ceitis) was a small coin deriving its name from Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar, in Africa, a Portuguese possession. Theblancawas one-half a maravedi, or about one-third of a cent.113-2Cipango. Marco Polo’s name for Japan.115-1Rather, “I had lain to during the night for fear of reaching the land,” etc.115-2These lengths are exaggerated.115-3The word iscarguéand means “raised” or “hoisted.” The same word seven lines above was translated “made sail.” Las Casas in the corresponding passage in hisHistoriausesalzar.115-4Identified as Rum Cay.116-1A 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.”117-1Long Island. (Markham.)117-2Possibly a reference to tobacco.118-1It should be “about nine o’clock.” The original isá horas de tercia, which means “at the hour of tierce,”i.e., the period between nine and twelve.119-1Panizo, 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 underpanicum.)120-1Rather, “since it is noon.”120-2Port Clarence in Long Island. (Markham.)121-1Rather, “beds and hangings.” The original isparamentos de cosas, but in the corresponding passage in hisHistoria, I. 310, Las Casas hasparamentos de casa, which is almost certainly the correct reading.121-2“These are called Hamacas in Española.” Las Casas, I. 310, where will be found an elaborate description of them.121-3For ornament. Las Casas calls them caps or crowns, I. 311.121-4Rather: “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.”121-5Thecastellanowas 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.”123-1Crooked Island (Markham.)123-2Cape Beautiful.125-1“The Indians of this island of Española call itiguana.” Las Casas I. 314. He gives a minute description of it.126-1The 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 livebohioand this great island Española they called Hayti, and they must have said that in Hayti there were greatbohios.”126-2The name is spelled Quinsay in the Latin text of Marco Polo which Columbus annotated.127-1One or two words are missing in the original.128-1The 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.128-2These two lines should read, “I believe that it is the island of Cipango of which marvellous things are related.”128-3The 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.129-1Columbus’s conviction that he has reached the Indies is registered by his use from now on of the word “Indians” for the people.130-1This should be, “The mouth of the river is 12 fathoms deep and it is wide enough,” etc.131-1Bledos.The French translators givecresson sauvage, wild cress, as the equivalent.131-2Las 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.”131-3Baracoa (Las Casas); Puerto Naranjo (Markham); Nipe (Navarrete); Nuevitas (Thacher).132-1Punta de Mulas. (Navarrete.)132-2Punta de Cabañas. (Navarrete.)132-3Puerto de Banes. (Navarrete.)132-4Puerto de las Nuevitas del Principe. (Navarrete.)132-5Las Casas, I. 321, has “many heads well carved from wood.” Possibly these were totems.133-1Las 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. 322.133-3Near Granada in Spain.133-4Nuevitas del Principe. (Navarrete.)133-5“Alto de Juan Dañue.” (Navarrete.)134-1Rio Maximo. (Navarrete.)134-2See above,p. 91.134-3Rather, “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.134-4In Toscanelli’s letter Cathay is a province in one place and a city in another.134-5Boca de Carabelas grandes. (Navarrete.)135-1Punta del Maternillo. (Navarrete.)135-2Las 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 Española gold is calledcaona.”136-1The 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.137-1Cf.p. 134, note 3.137-2The true distance was 1105 leagues. (Navarrete.)138-1Contramaestreis boatswain.138-2“Bohiomeans 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 Española where they made signs there was gold.” Las Casas, I. 329.138-3Columbus 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.”139-1Las Casas, I. 329, identifies themamesasajesandbatatas. The batatas, whence our word “potato,” is the sweet potato.Mamesis more commonly writtenñamesorignames. This is the Guinea Negro name of theDioscorea sativa, in English “Yam.”Ajesis the native West Indies name. See Peschel,Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, p. 139, and Columbus’s journal,Dec. 13andDec. 16.Faxonesare the common haricot kidney beans or string beans,Phaseolus vulgaris. This form of the name seems a confusion of the Spanishfásolesand the Portuguesefeijões. 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.139-2The word iscontramaestre, boatswain.141-1The last line should read, “but that they did not know whether there was any in the place where they were.”141-2The 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 calltabacos. I knew Spaniards in this island of Española 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.142-1On 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 Española when he wrote. He left the island in 1546.142-2This last part of this sentence should read, “and is cultivated withmames, kidney beans, other beans, this same panic [i.e., Indian corn], etc.” The corresponding passage in theHistorieof Ferdinand Columbus reads, “and another grain like panic called by themmahizof very excellent flavor cooked or roasted or pounded in porridge (polenta),” p. 87.142-3Thearrobawas 25 pounds and thequintalone hundred weight.143-1In 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.144-1I.e., although the Spaniards may be only fooling with them.145-1An interesting forecast of the future which may be compared with John Cabot’s; seeone of the last pages of this volume.145-2Linaloe.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 theBursera gummifera. The last did not prove to be a commercial resin like the mastic of Scio. SeeEncyclopædia Britannicaunder Aloes and Mastic, and Heyd,Histoire du Commerce du Levant au Moyen Age, II. 581, 633.145-3The ducat being 9s.2d.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.)146-1Las Sierras del CristalandLas Sierras de Moa. (Navarrete.)147-1Puerto de Taxamo, in Cuba. (Navarrete.)148-1Cf.Fra Mauro’s Map (1457-1459), Bourne,Spain in America, 14, and Behaim’s Globe, Winsor’sColumbus, p. 186, or Fiske’sDiscovery of America, I. 422.149-1Las Casas did not know the meaning of this word. In all probability it is the Italiantasso, badger.Cf.p. 139, note 1. The animal, Cuvier suggested was probably the coati.149-2Cuvier conjectured this to be the trunk fish.150-1The agouti.152-1Seep. 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.152-2The sentences omitted are comments of Las Casas on these reflections of Columbus.153-1Seep. 138, note 3.153-2A la hora de tercia, about 9A.M.Seep. 118, note 1.153-3Cayo de Moa. (Navarrete.)154-1Rio de Moa. (Navarrete.)154-2Punta del Mangle or del Guarico. (Navarrete.)154-3Sierras de Moa. (Navarrete.)154-4“These must have beenmargasetastones which look like gold in streams and of which there is an abundance in the rivers of these islands.” Las Casas, I. 346.155-1Madroños.Arbutus unedoor the Strawberry tree. The California Madroña is theArbutus Menziesii.155-2Rather, “for making sawmills.”156-1Among these were the Bay of Yamanique, and the ports of Jaragua, Taco, Cayaganueque, Nava, and Maravi. (Navarrete.)156-2Seep. 126, note 1.157-1The original of the words Cannibal and Carib and Caribbean.Cf.alsop. 138, note 3.157-2The port of Baracoa. (Navarrete)157-3Monte del Yunque. (Navarrete.)158-1Port of Maravi. (Navarrete.)158-2Punta de Maici. (Id.)158-3Puerto de Baracoa. (Id.)160-1With these suggestions for a colonial policycf.Columbus’s more detailed programme in his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella,pp. 273-277below. 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.”161-1Thefustawas a long, low boat propelled by oars or a sail. It is represented in earlier English by “foist” and “fuste.”161-2Las 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.162-1About 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.”162-2Puerto de Baracoa. (Navarrete.)163-1This reef actually exists on the S.E. side of the entrance to this port, which is described with great accuracy by Columbus. (Navarrete.)163-2Lombardais the same asbombarda, 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 whilebombardawas 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 Aráutegui,Apuntes Históricos sobre la Artilleria Española en los Siglos XIV y XV.164-1This line should be, “in which he saw five very largealmadias[low, light boats] which the Indians callcanoas, likefustas, very beautiful and so well constructed,” etc. “Canoe” is one of the few Arawak Indian words to have become familiar English.164-2Rather, “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.hisOrigin of Cultivated Plants, pp. 245 ff. Oviedo, however, in hisHistoria General y Natural de Indias, lib.VIII., cap.VIII., says that thecalabaçasof the Indies were the same as those in Spain and were cultivated not to eat but to use the shells as vessels.164-3Rather, “rods.”166-1Rio Boma. (Navarrete.)166-2Punta del Fraile. (Id.)166-3Punta de los Azules. (Id.)167-1Las Casas, I. 359, says, “This high and beautiful cape whither he would have liked to go I believe was Point Maycí, 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 Maicí.167-2Cf.note 57. Las Casas, I. 359, remarks, “Its real name was Haytí, the last syllable long and accented.” He thinks it possible that the cape first sighted may have been called Bohio.167-3Columbus 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. 360.168-1The port of St. Nicholas Mole, in Hayti. (Navarrete.)168-2Cape of St. Nicholas. (Id.)168-3Punta Palmista. (Id.)168-4Puerto Escudo. (Id.)168-5The channel between Tortuga Island and the main.168-6Tortoise.169-1Atalayas, “watchtowers.”169-2This 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.169-3This clause should be “It extends in this manner to the south-south-east two leagues.”169-4A gap in the manuscript.170-1This is the “Carenero,” within the port of St. Nicholas. (Navarrete.)171-1Accepting Navarrete’s conjecture ofabrezuelaoranglezuelafor the readingagrezuelaof the text.171-2It should be north 11 miles. (Navarrete.)171-3This is an error. It should be 15 miles. (Navarrete.) The directional Leste cuarta del Suesteis East by South.171-4Puerto Escudo. (Navarrete.)172-1Bahia Mosquito. (Navarrete.)172-2Cuvier notes that neither the nightingale proper nor the Spanish myrtle are found in America.172-3It should be 11 miles. (Navarrete.)173-1I.e., Spanish Isle, not “Little Spain,” which is sometimes erroneously given in explanation of the Latin Hispaniola. This last is a Latinized form of Española 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 Española 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’sNatural 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. 472.174-1The distance is 11 miles. (Navarrete.)175-1Camarones.175-2The proper English equivalents for these names in the original are hard to find. Thecorbinawas a black fish and the name is found in both Spanish and Portuguese.Pámpanosis 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.177-1Rather, “bread ofniames.”Cf.note, p. 139.178-1Las Casas, I. 373, says that at that season the length of the day in Española is somewhat over eleven hours. The correct latitude is 20°.179-1Elsewhere called Babeque. (Navarrete.)180-1Paradise Valley.180-2Rather, “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.181-1Diego de Arana of Cordova, a near relation of Beatriz Henriquez, the mother of the Admiral’s son Fernando. (Markham.) Alguazil means constable.181-2Ajes.The same asmames.Cf.note, p. 139.
89-1The Alhambra.
89-2This 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, PartI, 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.
90-1It 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 abovep. 78.
90-2The edict of expulsion bears the date of March 30.
91-1Columbus reckoned in Italian miles, four of which make a league. (Navarrete.)
93-1On 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.
94-1Tres horas de nochemeans 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.
95-1Las Casas in hisHistoria, 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.”
TheHistorieagrees with the text of the Journal that the needle declined more to the west, instead of shifting to an eastern declination.
The author of theHistorieremarks: “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.)
96-1Garjao.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 theGarjaowas thehirondelle de mer, theSterna maximaor royal tern.
96-2Rabo 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.
96-3This remark is, of course, not true of the tropic bird orrabo de junco, as was abundantly proved on this voyage.
97-1Seep. 96, note 2.
98-1Alcatraz.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 ofAlcatraz. The gannets and the pelicans were formerly classed together. The wordAlcatrazwas taken over into English and corrupted toAlbatros. Alfred Newton,Dictionary of Birds(London, 1896), art. “Albatros.”
98-2More 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.”
100-1The abridger of the original journal missed the point here and his epitome is unintelligible. Las Casas says in hisHistoria, 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, Cristóbal 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.”
100-2Las 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” ispardelas, petrels. The French translation haspetrels tachetes,i.e., “pintado petrels,” or cape pigeons.
101-1More 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.
101-2Las 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, 2teaufl. (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 hisHistorieunder 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 Española 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.
102-1Doradois defined by Stevens as the dory or gilt head.
103-1Rabiforcado, Portuguese. The Spanish form israbihorcado. It means “forked tail.” The modern English equivalent is “frigate bird.” It is “the Fregata aquila of most ornithologists, the Frégate 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.
103-2Rather, 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.
105-1Las 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, Cristóbal 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 Cristóbal 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. Seepage 108, note 1.
106-1Á la cuarta del Oueste, á la parte del Sudueste, at the quarter from the west toward the southwest,i.e., west by south.
106-2Las Casas, in theHistoria 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 Cristóbal Colon showed him represented.”Cf.page 101, note 2.
107-1Las 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.”
107-2A 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.
107-3Grajaos.The translator assumed this to be the same asgarjao; the French translators, on the other hand, took it to be the same asgrajos, crows. In Portuguese dictionaries the wordgrajãois found as the name of “an Indian bird.”
108-1The 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 Yañez Pinzon, “since with him I had a friendship up to the year 1514 when he died.”Historia de las Indias,II., cap.XIII.
108-2Escaramojos.Wild roses.
109-1It was full moon on October 5. On the night of the 11th the moon rose at 11P.M.and at 2A.M.on the morning of the 12th it was 39° 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 2A.M.(Markham.)
109-2The high decks fore and aft were called castles. The name survives in the English forecastle. Stevens gives poop alone as the English forCastilla de popa.
109-3Oviedo, 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.
109-4Columbus 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.
110-1Pronounced 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.
110-2Fernando and Ysabel.
110-3The royal inspector.
110-4Las Casas adds, I. 293, “To which he gave the name Sant Salvador.”
110-5We have here perhaps the original title of what in its abridged form we now call the Journal.
113-1The Portugueseceitil(pl.ceitis) was a small coin deriving its name from Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar, in Africa, a Portuguese possession. Theblancawas one-half a maravedi, or about one-third of a cent.
113-2Cipango. Marco Polo’s name for Japan.
115-1Rather, “I had lain to during the night for fear of reaching the land,” etc.
115-2These lengths are exaggerated.
115-3The word iscarguéand means “raised” or “hoisted.” The same word seven lines above was translated “made sail.” Las Casas in the corresponding passage in hisHistoriausesalzar.
115-4Identified as Rum Cay.
116-1A 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.”
117-1Long Island. (Markham.)
117-2Possibly a reference to tobacco.
118-1It should be “about nine o’clock.” The original isá horas de tercia, which means “at the hour of tierce,”i.e., the period between nine and twelve.
119-1Panizo, 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 underpanicum.)
120-1Rather, “since it is noon.”
120-2Port Clarence in Long Island. (Markham.)
121-1Rather, “beds and hangings.” The original isparamentos de cosas, but in the corresponding passage in hisHistoria, I. 310, Las Casas hasparamentos de casa, which is almost certainly the correct reading.
121-2“These are called Hamacas in Española.” Las Casas, I. 310, where will be found an elaborate description of them.
121-3For ornament. Las Casas calls them caps or crowns, I. 311.
121-4Rather: “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.”
121-5Thecastellanowas 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.”
123-1Crooked Island (Markham.)
123-2Cape Beautiful.
125-1“The Indians of this island of Española call itiguana.” Las Casas I. 314. He gives a minute description of it.
126-1The 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 livebohioand this great island Española they called Hayti, and they must have said that in Hayti there were greatbohios.”
126-2The name is spelled Quinsay in the Latin text of Marco Polo which Columbus annotated.
127-1One or two words are missing in the original.
128-1The 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.
128-2These two lines should read, “I believe that it is the island of Cipango of which marvellous things are related.”
128-3The 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.
129-1Columbus’s conviction that he has reached the Indies is registered by his use from now on of the word “Indians” for the people.
130-1This should be, “The mouth of the river is 12 fathoms deep and it is wide enough,” etc.
131-1Bledos.The French translators givecresson sauvage, wild cress, as the equivalent.
131-2Las 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.”
131-3Baracoa (Las Casas); Puerto Naranjo (Markham); Nipe (Navarrete); Nuevitas (Thacher).
132-1Punta de Mulas. (Navarrete.)
132-2Punta de Cabañas. (Navarrete.)
132-3Puerto de Banes. (Navarrete.)
132-4Puerto de las Nuevitas del Principe. (Navarrete.)
132-5Las Casas, I. 321, has “many heads well carved from wood.” Possibly these were totems.
133-1Las 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.
133-3Near Granada in Spain.
133-4Nuevitas del Principe. (Navarrete.)
133-5“Alto de Juan Dañue.” (Navarrete.)
134-1Rio Maximo. (Navarrete.)
134-2See above,p. 91.
134-3Rather, “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.
134-4In Toscanelli’s letter Cathay is a province in one place and a city in another.
134-5Boca de Carabelas grandes. (Navarrete.)
135-1Punta del Maternillo. (Navarrete.)
135-2Las 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 Española gold is calledcaona.”
136-1The 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.
137-1Cf.p. 134, note 3.
137-2The true distance was 1105 leagues. (Navarrete.)
138-1Contramaestreis boatswain.
138-2“Bohiomeans 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 Española where they made signs there was gold.” Las Casas, I. 329.
138-3Columbus 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.”
139-1Las Casas, I. 329, identifies themamesasajesandbatatas. The batatas, whence our word “potato,” is the sweet potato.Mamesis more commonly writtenñamesorignames. This is the Guinea Negro name of theDioscorea sativa, in English “Yam.”Ajesis the native West Indies name. See Peschel,Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, p. 139, and Columbus’s journal,Dec. 13andDec. 16.Faxonesare the common haricot kidney beans or string beans,Phaseolus vulgaris. This form of the name seems a confusion of the Spanishfásolesand the Portuguesefeijões. 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.
139-2The word iscontramaestre, boatswain.
141-1The last line should read, “but that they did not know whether there was any in the place where they were.”
141-2The 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 calltabacos. I knew Spaniards in this island of Española 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.
142-1On 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 Española when he wrote. He left the island in 1546.
142-2This last part of this sentence should read, “and is cultivated withmames, kidney beans, other beans, this same panic [i.e., Indian corn], etc.” The corresponding passage in theHistorieof Ferdinand Columbus reads, “and another grain like panic called by themmahizof very excellent flavor cooked or roasted or pounded in porridge (polenta),” p. 87.
142-3Thearrobawas 25 pounds and thequintalone hundred weight.
143-1In 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.
144-1I.e., although the Spaniards may be only fooling with them.
145-1An interesting forecast of the future which may be compared with John Cabot’s; seeone of the last pages of this volume.
145-2Linaloe.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 theBursera gummifera. The last did not prove to be a commercial resin like the mastic of Scio. SeeEncyclopædia Britannicaunder Aloes and Mastic, and Heyd,Histoire du Commerce du Levant au Moyen Age, II. 581, 633.
145-3The ducat being 9s.2d.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.)
146-1Las Sierras del CristalandLas Sierras de Moa. (Navarrete.)
147-1Puerto de Taxamo, in Cuba. (Navarrete.)
148-1Cf.Fra Mauro’s Map (1457-1459), Bourne,Spain in America, 14, and Behaim’s Globe, Winsor’sColumbus, p. 186, or Fiske’sDiscovery of America, I. 422.
149-1Las Casas did not know the meaning of this word. In all probability it is the Italiantasso, badger.Cf.p. 139, note 1. The animal, Cuvier suggested was probably the coati.
149-2Cuvier conjectured this to be the trunk fish.
150-1The agouti.
152-1Seep. 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.
152-2The sentences omitted are comments of Las Casas on these reflections of Columbus.
153-1Seep. 138, note 3.
153-2A la hora de tercia, about 9A.M.Seep. 118, note 1.
153-3Cayo de Moa. (Navarrete.)
154-1Rio de Moa. (Navarrete.)
154-2Punta del Mangle or del Guarico. (Navarrete.)
154-3Sierras de Moa. (Navarrete.)
154-4“These must have beenmargasetastones which look like gold in streams and of which there is an abundance in the rivers of these islands.” Las Casas, I. 346.
155-1Madroños.Arbutus unedoor the Strawberry tree. The California Madroña is theArbutus Menziesii.
155-2Rather, “for making sawmills.”
156-1Among these were the Bay of Yamanique, and the ports of Jaragua, Taco, Cayaganueque, Nava, and Maravi. (Navarrete.)
156-2Seep. 126, note 1.
157-1The original of the words Cannibal and Carib and Caribbean.Cf.alsop. 138, note 3.
157-2The port of Baracoa. (Navarrete)
157-3Monte del Yunque. (Navarrete.)
158-1Port of Maravi. (Navarrete.)
158-2Punta de Maici. (Id.)
158-3Puerto de Baracoa. (Id.)
160-1With these suggestions for a colonial policycf.Columbus’s more detailed programme in his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella,pp. 273-277below. 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.”
161-1Thefustawas a long, low boat propelled by oars or a sail. It is represented in earlier English by “foist” and “fuste.”
161-2Las 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.
162-1About 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.”
162-2Puerto de Baracoa. (Navarrete.)
163-1This reef actually exists on the S.E. side of the entrance to this port, which is described with great accuracy by Columbus. (Navarrete.)
163-2Lombardais the same asbombarda, 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 whilebombardawas 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 Aráutegui,Apuntes Históricos sobre la Artilleria Española en los Siglos XIV y XV.
164-1This line should be, “in which he saw five very largealmadias[low, light boats] which the Indians callcanoas, likefustas, very beautiful and so well constructed,” etc. “Canoe” is one of the few Arawak Indian words to have become familiar English.
164-2Rather, “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.hisOrigin of Cultivated Plants, pp. 245 ff. Oviedo, however, in hisHistoria General y Natural de Indias, lib.VIII., cap.VIII., says that thecalabaçasof the Indies were the same as those in Spain and were cultivated not to eat but to use the shells as vessels.
164-3Rather, “rods.”
166-1Rio Boma. (Navarrete.)
166-2Punta del Fraile. (Id.)
166-3Punta de los Azules. (Id.)
167-1Las Casas, I. 359, says, “This high and beautiful cape whither he would have liked to go I believe was Point Maycí, 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 Maicí.
167-2Cf.note 57. Las Casas, I. 359, remarks, “Its real name was Haytí, the last syllable long and accented.” He thinks it possible that the cape first sighted may have been called Bohio.
167-3Columbus 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.
168-1The port of St. Nicholas Mole, in Hayti. (Navarrete.)
168-2Cape of St. Nicholas. (Id.)
168-3Punta Palmista. (Id.)
168-4Puerto Escudo. (Id.)
168-5The channel between Tortuga Island and the main.
168-6Tortoise.
169-1Atalayas, “watchtowers.”
169-2This 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.
169-3This clause should be “It extends in this manner to the south-south-east two leagues.”
169-4A gap in the manuscript.
170-1This is the “Carenero,” within the port of St. Nicholas. (Navarrete.)
171-1Accepting Navarrete’s conjecture ofabrezuelaoranglezuelafor the readingagrezuelaof the text.
171-2It should be north 11 miles. (Navarrete.)
171-3This is an error. It should be 15 miles. (Navarrete.) The directional Leste cuarta del Suesteis East by South.
171-4Puerto Escudo. (Navarrete.)
172-1Bahia Mosquito. (Navarrete.)
172-2Cuvier notes that neither the nightingale proper nor the Spanish myrtle are found in America.
172-3It should be 11 miles. (Navarrete.)
173-1I.e., Spanish Isle, not “Little Spain,” which is sometimes erroneously given in explanation of the Latin Hispaniola. This last is a Latinized form of Española 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 Española 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’sNatural 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.
174-1The distance is 11 miles. (Navarrete.)
175-1Camarones.
175-2The proper English equivalents for these names in the original are hard to find. Thecorbinawas a black fish and the name is found in both Spanish and Portuguese.Pámpanosis 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.
177-1Rather, “bread ofniames.”Cf.note, p. 139.
178-1Las Casas, I. 373, says that at that season the length of the day in Española is somewhat over eleven hours. The correct latitude is 20°.
179-1Elsewhere called Babeque. (Navarrete.)
180-1Paradise Valley.
180-2Rather, “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.
181-1Diego de Arana of Cordova, a near relation of Beatriz Henriquez, the mother of the Admiral’s son Fernando. (Markham.) Alguazil means constable.
181-2Ajes.The same asmames.Cf.note, p. 139.