Part 33 (1/2)

[355-1] _El agua les es medicina_, _i.e._, a means of curing the ill.

[355-2] _Abajo._ Las Casas views the mainland as extending up from the sea. Columbus was going west along the north sh.o.r.e of the peninsula of Paria.

[355-3] _I.e._, to go west along the north sh.o.r.e of this supposed island until looking south he was to the right of it and abreast of the Gulf of Pearls.

[355-4] Three of the greatest known rivers, each of which drained a vast range of territory. This narrative reveals the gradual dawning upon Columbus of the fact that he had discovered a hitherto unknown continental ma.s.s. In his letter to the sovereigns his conviction is settled and his efforts to adjust it with previous knowledge and the geographical traditions of the ages are most interesting. See Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, pp. 134 _et seqq._ ”Ptolemy,” he says, on p. 136, ”and the others who have written upon the globe had no information respecting this part of the world, for it was most unknown.”

[356-1] The Witnesses.

[358-1] The reference is to _II. Esdras_, VI. 42, in the Apocrypha of the English Bible. The Apocryphal books of I. and II. Esdras were known as III. and IV. Esdras in the Middle Ages, and the canonical books in the Vulgate called I. and II. Esdras are called Ezra and Nehemiah in the English Bible. II. Esdras is an apocalyptic work and dates from the close of the first century A.D. The pa.s.sage to which Columbus referred reads as follows: ”Upon the third day thou didst command that the waters should be gathered in the seventh part of the earth; six parts hast thou dried up, and kept them, to the intent that of these some being planted of G.o.d and tilled might serve thee.”

[358-2] The reference is wrong, as Las Casas points out two or three pages further on (II. 266); it should be to the treatise _De Bono Mortis_, cap. 10

[359-1] Francis de Mayrones was an eminent Scotist philosopher. He died in 1327. Columbus here quotes from his _Theologicae Veritates_ (Venice, 1493). See _Raccolta Colombiana_, Parte I., tomo II., p. 377. Las Casas (II. 266) was unable to verify the citation from St. Augustine.

[359-2] The pa.s.sage omitted, Las Casas, II. 265-307, consists first, pp.

265-267, of his comments on these words of Columbus, and second, pp.

268-274, of a criticism of Vespucci's claim to have made a voyage in 1497 to this region of Paria, and of his narratives and the naming of America from him. This criticism is translated with Las Casas's other trenchant criticisms of Vespucci's work and claims by Sir Clements R. Markham in his _Letters of Amerigo Vespucci_ (London, 1894), pp. 68 _et seq._[TN-8]

These pa.s.sages are very interesting as perhaps the earliest piece of detailed critical work relating to the discoveries, and they still const.i.tute the cornerstone of the case against Vespucci. The third portion of the omitted pa.s.sage, pp. 275-306, is a long essay on the location of the earthly paradise which Columbus placed in this new mainland he had just discovered. _Cf._ Columbus's letter on the Third Voyage. Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, pp. 140-146.

[360-1] On the Roldan revolt, see Irving, _Christopher Columbus_, II. 199 _et seqq._

[360-2] April 10, 1495, the sovereigns authorized independent exploring expeditions. Columbus protested that such expeditions infringed upon his rights, and so, June 2, 1497, the sovereigns modified their ordinance and prohibited any infringements. Apparently Las Casas is in error in saying the permission had not been recalled in 1498, but the independent voyages of Hojeda and Pinzon, who first explored the northern coast of South America (Paria) in 1499-1500, may have led him to conclude that the authorization had not been recalled.

[361-1] See Journal of First Voyage, December 25.

[362-1] The pa.s.sage omitted, II. 309-313, of the printed edition, gives an account of the voyage and arrival of the vessels which came to Espanola directly from the Canaries.

[363-1] Northwest by north.

[363-2] Northeast in the printed text.

[363-3] The circle of the horizon, represented by the compa.s.s card, was conceived of as divided into eight winds and each wind into halves and quarters, the quarters corresponding to the modern points of the compa.s.s, which are thirty-two in number. The declination observed was two points of the compa.s.s, or 22 30'.

[363-4] See above, p. 329, note 2.

[364-1] An arroba was twenty-five pounds.

[364-2] _Estoraque_, officinal storax, a gum used for incense.

[364-3] _Cf._ Marco Polo, bk. III., ch. II.

[364-4] Pita, the fibre of the American agave.

[365-1] _Cf._ the letter on the Third Voyage, Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, p. 140, for Columbus's reasoning and beliefs about the Earthly Paradise or Garden of Eden; for Las Casas's discussion of the question, see _Historia de las Indias_, II. 275-306.