389-1The punctuation of this first paragraph has been changed in the light of the contemporary Italian translation known as theLettera Rarissima, which is given in facsimile and English translation in Thacher’sChristopher Columbus, II. 671et seqq.389-2June 29. Las Casas, III. 29.390-1By the letter of the King and Queen, March 14, 1502, Columbus had been forbidden to call at Española on the outward voyage. Las Casas,Historia de las Indias, III. 26.390-2The new governor, Ovando, who had been sent out to supersede Bobadilla, had reached Santo Domingo in April of this year, 1502.390-3Columbus was accompanied by his younger son Ferdinand and his elder brother Bartholomew. Las Casas, III. 25.390-4The translation here follows Lollis’s emendation of the text which changed the printed text, “habia, echado á la mar, por escapar, fasta la isola la Gallega; perdio la barca,†etc., to “habia echado á la mar, por escapar fasta la isla; la Gallega perdio la barca.†One of the ships was namedLa Gallega, and there is no island of that name in that region.391-1Columbus 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 theHistorie, 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.391-2From the Queen’s Garden he sailed south July 27 (the Porras narrative of this voyage, Navarrete, II. 283; in English in Thacher,Columbus, II. 640et 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 á 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 theHistoriepresents a difficulty, for it places the tedious stormy voyage ofsixtyleagues andseventydays between Caxinas (Trujillo) and Cape Gracias á 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 theHistoriemay have had “XXX dias,†which a copyist or the Italian translator may have taken for “LXX dias.â€392-1A 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 á 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 orOchenta y ochoforVeinte y ocho. In that case we should have almost exactly the time spent in going from Trujillo to Cape Gracias á Dios, August 14 to September 12, and exact agreement between our text, theHistorie, and the Porras narrative.393-1Twenty years, speaking approximately. This letter was written in 1503, and Columbus entered the service of Spain in 1485.393-2Diego 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.393-3Their 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 CariarÃ, as he gives the name, as September 17 (III. 114). TheHistoriegives the date as September 5 and the name as Cariai (p. 297).393-4Peter 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 “Chambaâ€; see Yule’sMarco Polo, II. 248-252 (bk.III., ch.V.).393-5Carambaru 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 Caravaró (III. 118). Ferdinand Columbus’s account is practically identical.394-1Veragua 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.394-2The eve or vigil of St. Simon and St. Jude is October 27. According to the narrative in theHistorie, 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.394-3Ciguare. 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.â€395-1Seep. 311, note 5.395-2Probablycasas, 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.395-3I.e., in being on either side of a peninsula, Tortosa and Fontarabia being on opposite sides of the narrowest part of the Spanish peninsula.395-4Seep. 300, note 1.396-1The Spanish reads, “Lo que yo sé es que el año 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 gone9/24round 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 hisKritische Untersuchungen über die historische Entwickelung der geographischen Kenntnisse von der Neuen Welt, I. 553, and by Peschel in hisZeitalter 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.396-2In hisLibro de ProfeciasColumbus 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. 272.396-3Readingremendiadoorremendadoinstead ofremedado.396-4Catigara was in China on the east side of the Gulf of Tonquin.396-5Marinus 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 21/2degrees 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. 519et 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 (21/2degrees 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’sStudent’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 withMondo Novo,i.e., South America.397-1The translation here adopts the emended text of Lollis, substituting “ali[e]nde†for “al Indo†in the sentence “Marino en EthiopÃa escribe al Indo la lÃnea equinoçial.â€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 theImago 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.â€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. 524.397-2This is unintelligible. The Spanish is, “Tolomeo diz que la tierra mas austral es el plazo primero.†The meaning ofplazois 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’sDictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, art. “Prasum Promontoriumâ€; also Ptolemy’sGeography, bk.IV., ch.IX., the descriptive matter relating to Map 4 on Africa.398-1II. Esdras,VI.42, seep. 358, note 1.398-2See the Letter of Columbus on his Third Voyage. Major,Select Letters of Columbus, p. 141.398-3Ptolemy reckoned the length of the degree on the equator at 621/2miles. The shorter measurement of 562/3was the estimate adopted by the Arab astronomer Alfragan in the ninth century and known to Columbus through Cardinal d’Ailly’sImago 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’sOpus Majus. Columbus was deeply impressed with Alfragan’s estimate of the length of the degree and annotated the passages in theImago Mundi.Cf.Raccolta Colombiana, Parte I., tomo II., pp. 378, 407, and frequently. See this whole question in Vignaud,Toscanelli and Columbus, p. 79et seqq.398-4In Puerto Bello. Seep. 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. 292.399-1Columbus 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. 306.399-2Me reposó atrás il viento, etc. Forreposóthe text apparently should be eitherrepuso, “put back,†orrempujó, “drove back,†and the translation is based on this supposition.399-3They 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. 306.399-4That 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. 309.400-1Not mentioned in theHistorieby name. It was the place where they stayed from December 26 to January 3 to repair the shipGallegaas appears in theProbanzas del Almirante. Navarrete,Viages, III. 600. It was between Rio de los Lagartos and Puerto Bello. Lollis,Raccolta Colombiana, Parte I., tomo II., p. 187.400-2Adopting de Lollis’s text and punctuation.400-3La 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. 27.400-4Epiphany, January 6. It will be remembered that Columbus had passed Veragua the previous October when working eastward. Seep. 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.401-1Proeses.In nautical Spanishproisorproizais a breastfast or headfast, that is a large cable for fastening a ship to a wharf or another ship. In Portugueseproizis a stone or tree on shore to which the hawsers are fastened. Major interpreted it in this sense, translating the wordslas 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. 315.402-1Quibianis 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 Jurá.â€De Rebus Oceanicis, p. 241.402-2“Una mozada de oro.â€Mozadais not given in any of the Spanish dictionaries I have consulted. The Academy dictionary givesmojodaas a square measure, deriving it from the low Latinmodiatafrommodius. Perhaps one should readmojadainstead ofmozadaand give it a meaning similar to that ofmodiusor about a peck. Major’s translation follows the explanation of De Verneuil, who says: “Mozada signifie la mesure que peut porter un jeune garçon.â€403-1The mouth of the river was closed by sand thrown up by the violent storms outside.Historie, p. 321.403-2The teredo.403-3During 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 theHistorieand 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’sHistoria de las IndiasLas 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. 608.404-1De Lollis points out that these striking words are a paraphrase of the famous lines in Seneca’sMedea, Chorus, Act II.:—Venient annis saecula serisQuibus Oceanus vincula rerumLaxet, et ingens pateat tellus,Tethysque novos detegat orbesNec sit terris ultima Thule.Columbus copied these verses into hisLibro de las Profeciasand translated them. Navarrete,Viages, II. 272.404-2Accepting de Lollis’s emended text.405-1“Quando se aia de proveer de socorro, se proveera de todo.â€405-2April 16, 1503.405-3Cuba. 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 (seep.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.406-1Allà me torné á reposar atrás la fortuna.De Lollis, following the Italian translation, reads:Allà me torné á reposar atrás 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 toreposar, he suggests that Columbus may have writtenrepujar, “to drive.â€406-2June 23.Historie, p. 334.407-1On 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. 108.408-1Cuba.408-2The pilots thought that they were east of Española when Columbus turned north, and consequently thought that Cuba (Mango) was Porto Rico (San Juan).Cf.Historie, p. 333.408-3I.e., in that it is clear to one who understands it, and blind to one who does not.408-4Las naos de las Indias,i.e., the large ships for the Indies,i.e., Española.408-5Bow-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.)409-1I.e., rigged with lateen sails in the Portuguese fashion.409-2Columbus, in his marginal notes to his copy of theHistoria Rerum ubique Gestarumof 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.â€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.409-3Seep. 393, note 3.409-4The account in theHistorieis 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.â€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.410-1A specimen of the Maya sculptures, of which such imposing remains are found in Yucatan. The translation follows Lollis’s emendation, which substitutesmirradoformirando.410-2Gato paulo. On this name, seep. 341, note 3. Ferdinand, in theHistorie, 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 theHistorie, mistranslatedgato pauloby “gatto,†“cat.â€410-3Begare.Columbus in recollecting this incident transferred to the monkey the Indian name of the wild pigs. Thebegareis the “peccary,†a native of America. Oviedo, lib.XII., cap.XX, givesbaquiraas the name of wild pigs in Nicaragua, andbaquiraandbegareare obviously identical.410-4For the wordbarrano explanation can be offered except what is derived from the context. As the Italian hasdiverse malattie, “divers diseases,†de Lollis suggests thatbarrashould bevariasand thatmaladiaswas somehow dropped from the text.410-5Leones.The American lion or puma.411-1A misunderstanding. The Mayas made no metal tools. Brinton,The American Race, p. 156.411-2Possibly Columbus may have seen some Maya codices, of which such remarkable specimens have been preserved.412-1Considering 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.412-2It is not clear to what Columbus refers in this sentence.412-3De un camino.The texts to which Columbus refers just below show that this should readde un año, in one year.412-4In the Latin version of Josephus used by Columbus the Greek θυÏεá½Ï›, a target, was renderedlancea. SeeRaccolta Colombiana, parte I., tomo II., p. 367.412-5Tablado.In the Italian translationtavolato, a “partition wall,†“wainscoting,†also “floor.â€Tabladoalso means “scaffold†and “stage†or “staging.†We have here a curious series of mistakes. The Greek text of Josephus has á¼ÎºÏ€ÏŽÎ¼Î±Ï„α, “cups.†The old Latin translator, perhaps having a defective text, took á¼ÎºÏ€ÏŽÎ¼Î±Ï„α apparently to be equivalent to πώματα, which has as its secondary meaning, “lids,†and translated it by the uncommon wordcoopercula, “lids†(cf.Georges,Lateinischdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 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 fromcooperio, “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 ittablado. The whole passage from the old Latin version (published in 1470 and frequently later), Columbus copied into a fly-leaf of his copy of theHistoria Rerum ubique Gestarumof Pope Pius II. SeeRaccolta Colombiana, parte I., tomo II., pp. 366-367.413-1Josephus,Antiquities of the Jews, bk.VIII., ch.VII., sect. 4;I. Kings,X.14, 15;II. Chronicles,IX.13, 14.413-2The Chersonesus Aurea of Ptolemy, or the Malay Peninsula.413-3That is, Veragua and the Golden Chersonese are in the same latitude.413-4Josephus 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, ἀπὸ τῆς χÏυσῆς καλουμÎνης γῆς. Josephus gives no further identification of the location.413-5I 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 theLibro de las Profecias.414-1In hisLibro de las ProfeciasColumbus wrote, “El abad JohachÃn, calabrés, diso que habia de salir de España quien havÃa 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. 83.414-2The reference to St. Jerome I have not found in Columbus’s marginalia.414-3The 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.â€Raccolta Colombiana, parte II., tomo II., p. 446.414-4The 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 hisLibra 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. 77-160.415-1An opinion abundantly justified through the conquest of Mexico and the establishment of the kingdom of New Spain.416-1See the Capitulation,pp. 77, 78above. 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.416-2A reference to such voyages as those of Vicente Yañez 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. 15-62.416-3Accepting de Lollis’s emendationá Césarinstead of the MS. readingaçetarwhich Navarrete printedaceptar. The Italian hasa Cesaro.416-4“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God, the things which are God’s.â€Matthew,XXII.21.417-1At Española in 1500 by Bobadilla.Cf.the letter to the nurse above,p. 380.417-2This 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 1451.418-1Blanca, a copper coin worth about one-third of a cent.
389-1The punctuation of this first paragraph has been changed in the light of the contemporary Italian translation known as theLettera Rarissima, which is given in facsimile and English translation in Thacher’sChristopher Columbus, II. 671et seqq.
389-2June 29. Las Casas, III. 29.
390-1By the letter of the King and Queen, March 14, 1502, Columbus had been forbidden to call at Española on the outward voyage. Las Casas,Historia de las Indias, III. 26.
390-2The new governor, Ovando, who had been sent out to supersede Bobadilla, had reached Santo Domingo in April of this year, 1502.
390-3Columbus was accompanied by his younger son Ferdinand and his elder brother Bartholomew. Las Casas, III. 25.
390-4The translation here follows Lollis’s emendation of the text which changed the printed text, “habia, echado á la mar, por escapar, fasta la isola la Gallega; perdio la barca,†etc., to “habia echado á la mar, por escapar fasta la isla; la Gallega perdio la barca.†One of the ships was namedLa Gallega, and there is no island of that name in that region.
391-1Columbus 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 theHistorie, 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.
391-2From the Queen’s Garden he sailed south July 27 (the Porras narrative of this voyage, Navarrete, II. 283; in English in Thacher,Columbus, II. 640et 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 á 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 theHistoriepresents a difficulty, for it places the tedious stormy voyage ofsixtyleagues andseventydays between Caxinas (Trujillo) and Cape Gracias á 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 theHistoriemay have had “XXX dias,†which a copyist or the Italian translator may have taken for “LXX dias.â€
392-1A 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 á 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 orOchenta y ochoforVeinte y ocho. In that case we should have almost exactly the time spent in going from Trujillo to Cape Gracias á Dios, August 14 to September 12, and exact agreement between our text, theHistorie, and the Porras narrative.
393-1Twenty years, speaking approximately. This letter was written in 1503, and Columbus entered the service of Spain in 1485.
393-2Diego 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.
393-3Their 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 CariarÃ, as he gives the name, as September 17 (III. 114). TheHistoriegives the date as September 5 and the name as Cariai (p. 297).
393-4Peter 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 “Chambaâ€; see Yule’sMarco Polo, II. 248-252 (bk.III., ch.V.).
393-5Carambaru 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 Caravaró (III. 118). Ferdinand Columbus’s account is practically identical.
394-1Veragua 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.
394-2The eve or vigil of St. Simon and St. Jude is October 27. According to the narrative in theHistorie, 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.
394-3Ciguare. 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.â€
395-1Seep. 311, note 5.
395-2Probablycasas, 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.
395-3I.e., in being on either side of a peninsula, Tortosa and Fontarabia being on opposite sides of the narrowest part of the Spanish peninsula.
395-4Seep. 300, note 1.
396-1The Spanish reads, “Lo que yo sé es que el año 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 gone9/24round 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 hisKritische Untersuchungen über die historische Entwickelung der geographischen Kenntnisse von der Neuen Welt, I. 553, and by Peschel in hisZeitalter 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.
396-2In hisLibro de ProfeciasColumbus 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.
396-3Readingremendiadoorremendadoinstead ofremedado.
396-4Catigara was in China on the east side of the Gulf of Tonquin.
396-5Marinus 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 21/2degrees 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. 519et 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 (21/2degrees 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’sStudent’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 withMondo Novo,i.e., South America.
397-1The translation here adopts the emended text of Lollis, substituting “ali[e]nde†for “al Indo†in the sentence “Marino en EthiopÃa escribe al Indo la lÃnea equinoçial.â€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 theImago 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.â€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.
397-2This is unintelligible. The Spanish is, “Tolomeo diz que la tierra mas austral es el plazo primero.†The meaning ofplazois 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’sDictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, art. “Prasum Promontoriumâ€; also Ptolemy’sGeography, bk.IV., ch.IX., the descriptive matter relating to Map 4 on Africa.
398-1II. Esdras,VI.42, seep. 358, note 1.
398-2See the Letter of Columbus on his Third Voyage. Major,Select Letters of Columbus, p. 141.
398-3Ptolemy reckoned the length of the degree on the equator at 621/2miles. The shorter measurement of 562/3was the estimate adopted by the Arab astronomer Alfragan in the ninth century and known to Columbus through Cardinal d’Ailly’sImago 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’sOpus Majus. Columbus was deeply impressed with Alfragan’s estimate of the length of the degree and annotated the passages in theImago Mundi.Cf.Raccolta Colombiana, Parte I., tomo II., pp. 378, 407, and frequently. See this whole question in Vignaud,Toscanelli and Columbus, p. 79et seqq.
398-4In Puerto Bello. Seep. 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.
399-1Columbus 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.
399-2Me reposó atrás il viento, etc. Forreposóthe text apparently should be eitherrepuso, “put back,†orrempujó, “drove back,†and the translation is based on this supposition.
399-3They 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.
399-4That 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.
400-1Not mentioned in theHistorieby name. It was the place where they stayed from December 26 to January 3 to repair the shipGallegaas appears in theProbanzas 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.
400-2Adopting de Lollis’s text and punctuation.
400-3La 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.
400-4Epiphany, January 6. It will be remembered that Columbus had passed Veragua the previous October when working eastward. Seep. 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.
401-1Proeses.In nautical Spanishproisorproizais a breastfast or headfast, that is a large cable for fastening a ship to a wharf or another ship. In Portugueseproizis a stone or tree on shore to which the hawsers are fastened. Major interpreted it in this sense, translating the wordslas 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.
402-1Quibianis 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 Jurá.â€De Rebus Oceanicis, p. 241.
402-2“Una mozada de oro.â€Mozadais not given in any of the Spanish dictionaries I have consulted. The Academy dictionary givesmojodaas a square measure, deriving it from the low Latinmodiatafrommodius. Perhaps one should readmojadainstead ofmozadaand give it a meaning similar to that ofmodiusor about a peck. Major’s translation follows the explanation of De Verneuil, who says: “Mozada signifie la mesure que peut porter un jeune garçon.â€
403-1The mouth of the river was closed by sand thrown up by the violent storms outside.Historie, p. 321.
403-2The teredo.
403-3During 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 theHistorieand 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’sHistoria de las IndiasLas 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.
404-1De Lollis points out that these striking words are a paraphrase of the famous lines in Seneca’sMedea, Chorus, Act II.:—
Venient annis saecula serisQuibus Oceanus vincula rerumLaxet, et ingens pateat tellus,Tethysque novos detegat orbesNec sit terris ultima Thule.
Venient annis saecula serisQuibus Oceanus vincula rerumLaxet, et ingens pateat tellus,Tethysque novos detegat orbesNec sit terris ultima Thule.
Columbus copied these verses into hisLibro de las Profeciasand translated them. Navarrete,Viages, II. 272.
404-2Accepting de Lollis’s emended text.
405-1“Quando se aia de proveer de socorro, se proveera de todo.â€
405-2April 16, 1503.
405-3Cuba. 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 (seep.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.
406-1Allà me torné á reposar atrás la fortuna.De Lollis, following the Italian translation, reads:Allà me torné á reposar atrás 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 toreposar, he suggests that Columbus may have writtenrepujar, “to drive.â€
406-2June 23.Historie, p. 334.
407-1On 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.
408-1Cuba.
408-2The pilots thought that they were east of Española when Columbus turned north, and consequently thought that Cuba (Mango) was Porto Rico (San Juan).Cf.Historie, p. 333.
408-3I.e., in that it is clear to one who understands it, and blind to one who does not.
408-4Las naos de las Indias,i.e., the large ships for the Indies,i.e., Española.
408-5Bow-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.)
409-1I.e., rigged with lateen sails in the Portuguese fashion.
409-2Columbus, in his marginal notes to his copy of theHistoria Rerum ubique Gestarumof 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.â€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.
409-3Seep. 393, note 3.
409-4The account in theHistorieis 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.â€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.
410-1A specimen of the Maya sculptures, of which such imposing remains are found in Yucatan. The translation follows Lollis’s emendation, which substitutesmirradoformirando.
410-2Gato paulo. On this name, seep. 341, note 3. Ferdinand, in theHistorie, 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 theHistorie, mistranslatedgato pauloby “gatto,†“cat.â€
410-3Begare.Columbus in recollecting this incident transferred to the monkey the Indian name of the wild pigs. Thebegareis the “peccary,†a native of America. Oviedo, lib.XII., cap.XX, givesbaquiraas the name of wild pigs in Nicaragua, andbaquiraandbegareare obviously identical.
410-4For the wordbarrano explanation can be offered except what is derived from the context. As the Italian hasdiverse malattie, “divers diseases,†de Lollis suggests thatbarrashould bevariasand thatmaladiaswas somehow dropped from the text.
410-5Leones.The American lion or puma.
411-1A misunderstanding. The Mayas made no metal tools. Brinton,The American Race, p. 156.
411-2Possibly Columbus may have seen some Maya codices, of which such remarkable specimens have been preserved.
412-1Considering 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.
412-2It is not clear to what Columbus refers in this sentence.
412-3De un camino.The texts to which Columbus refers just below show that this should readde un año, in one year.
412-4In the Latin version of Josephus used by Columbus the Greek θυÏεá½Ï›, a target, was renderedlancea. SeeRaccolta Colombiana, parte I., tomo II., p. 367.
412-5Tablado.In the Italian translationtavolato, a “partition wall,†“wainscoting,†also “floor.â€Tabladoalso means “scaffold†and “stage†or “staging.†We have here a curious series of mistakes. The Greek text of Josephus has á¼ÎºÏ€ÏŽÎ¼Î±Ï„α, “cups.†The old Latin translator, perhaps having a defective text, took á¼ÎºÏ€ÏŽÎ¼Î±Ï„α apparently to be equivalent to πώματα, which has as its secondary meaning, “lids,†and translated it by the uncommon wordcoopercula, “lids†(cf.Georges,Lateinischdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 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 fromcooperio, “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 ittablado. The whole passage from the old Latin version (published in 1470 and frequently later), Columbus copied into a fly-leaf of his copy of theHistoria Rerum ubique Gestarumof Pope Pius II. SeeRaccolta Colombiana, parte I., tomo II., pp. 366-367.
413-1Josephus,Antiquities of the Jews, bk.VIII., ch.VII., sect. 4;I. Kings,X.14, 15;II. Chronicles,IX.13, 14.
413-2The Chersonesus Aurea of Ptolemy, or the Malay Peninsula.
413-3That is, Veragua and the Golden Chersonese are in the same latitude.
413-4Josephus 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, ἀπὸ τῆς χÏυσῆς καλουμÎνης γῆς. Josephus gives no further identification of the location.
413-5I 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 theLibro de las Profecias.
414-1In hisLibro de las ProfeciasColumbus wrote, “El abad JohachÃn, calabrés, diso que habia de salir de España quien havÃa 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.
414-2The reference to St. Jerome I have not found in Columbus’s marginalia.
414-3The 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.â€Raccolta Colombiana, parte II., tomo II., p. 446.
414-4The 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 hisLibra 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.
415-1An opinion abundantly justified through the conquest of Mexico and the establishment of the kingdom of New Spain.
416-1See the Capitulation,pp. 77, 78above. 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.
416-2A reference to such voyages as those of Vicente Yañez 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.
416-3Accepting de Lollis’s emendationá Césarinstead of the MS. readingaçetarwhich Navarrete printedaceptar. The Italian hasa Cesaro.
416-4“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God, the things which are God’s.â€Matthew,XXII.21.
417-1At Española in 1500 by Bobadilla.Cf.the letter to the nurse above,p. 380.
417-2This 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.
418-1Blanca, a copper coin worth about one-third of a cent.