Part 19 (1/2)

[118-1] It should be ”about nine o'clock.” The original is _a horas de tercia_, which means ”at the hour of tierce,” _i.e._, the period between nine and twelve.

[119-1] _Panizo_, literally ”panic gra.s.s.” 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 gra.s.s, see Candolle, _Origin of Cultivated Plants_ (index under _panic.u.m_.)

[120-1] Rather, ”since it is noon.”

[120-2] Port Clarence in Long Island. (Markham.)

[121-1] Rather, ”beds and hangings.” The original is _paramentos de cosas_, but in the corresponding pa.s.sage in his _Historia_, I. 310, Las Casas has _paramentos de casa_, which is almost certainly the correct reading.

[121-2] ”These are called Hamacas in Espanola.” Las Casas, I. 310, where will be found an elaborate description of them.

[121-3] For ornament. Las Casas calls them caps or crowns, I. 311.

[121-4] Rather: ”mastiffs and beagles.” Las Casas, I. 311, says the Admiral called these dogs mastiffs from the report of the sailors. ”If he had seen them, he would not have called them so but that they resembled hounds. These and the small ones would never bark but merely a grunt in the throat.”

[121-5] The _castellano_ was one-sixth of an ounce. Las Casas, I. 311, remarks: ”They were deceived in believing the marks to be letters since those people are wont to work it in their fas.h.i.+on, since never anywhere in all the Indies was there found any trace of money of gold or silver or other metal.”

[123-1] Crooked Island (Markham.)

[123-2] Cape Beautiful.

[125-1] ”The Indians of this island of Espanola call it _iguana_.” Las Casas I. 314. He gives a minute description of it.

[126-1] The names in the Spanish text are Colba and Bosio, errors in transcription for Cuba and Bohio. Las Casas, I. 315, says in regard to the latter: ”To call it Bohio was to misunderstand the interpreters, since throughout all these islands, where the language is practically the same, they call the huts in which they live _bohio_ and this great island Espanola they called Hayti, and they must have said that in Hayti there were great _bohios_.”

[126-2] The name is spelled Quinsay in the Latin text of Marco Polo which Columbus annotated.

[127-1] One or two words are missing in the original.

[128-1] The translation here should be, ”raised the anchors at the island of Isabella at Cabo del Isleo, which is on the northern side where I tarried to go to the island of Cuba, which I heard from this people is very great and has gold,” etc.

[128-2] These two lines should read, ”I believe that it is the island of c.i.p.ango of which marvellous things are related.”

[128-3] The exact translation is, ”On the spheres that I saw and on the paintings of world-maps it is this region.” The plural number is used in both cases. Of the globes of this date, _i.e._, 1492 or earlier, that of Behaim is the only one that has come down to us. Of the world maps Toscanelli's, no longer extant, may have been one, but it is to be noted that Columbus uses the plural.

[129-1] Columbus's conviction that he has reached the Indies is registered by his use from now on of the word ”Indians” for the people.

[130-1] This should be, ”The mouth of the river is 12 fathoms deep and it is wide enough,” etc.

[131-1] _Bledos._ The French translators give _cresson sauvage_, wild cress, as the equivalent.

[131-2] Las Casas, I. 320, says Columbus understood ”that from these to the mainland would be a sail of ten days by reason of the notion he had derived from the chart or picture which the Florentine sent him.”

[131-3] Baracoa (Las Casas); Puerto Naranjo (Markham); Nipe (Navarrete); Nuevitas (Thacher).

[132-1] Punta de Mulas. (Navarrete.)

[132-2] Punta de Cabanas. (Navarrete.)

[132-3] Puerto de Banes. (Navarrete.)

[132-4] Puerto de las Nuevitas del Principe. (Navarrete.)