The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus Part 53

[331]: Capmany, Queat. Crit.

[332]: The author of this work is indebted for this able examination of the route of Columbus to an officer of the navy of the United States, whose name he regrets the not being at liberty to mention. He has been greatly benefited, in various parts of this history, by nautical information from the same intelligent source.

[333]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. ix. cap. 10.

[334]: In the first chapter of Herrera's description of the Indies, appended to his history, is another scale of the Bahama islands, which corroborates the above. It begins at the opposite end, at the N. W., and runs down to the S.E. It is thought unnecessary to cite it particularly.

[335]: See Caballero Pesos y Medidas. J. B. Say. Economic Politique.

[336]: In preparing the first edition of this work for the press the author had not the benefit of the English translation of Marco Polo, published a few years since, with admirable commentaries, by William Marsden, F. R. S.

He availed himself, princ.i.p.ally, of an Italian version in the Venetian edition of Ramusio (1606), the French translation by Bergeron, and an old and very incorrect Spanish translation. Having since procured the work of Mr. Marsden, he has made considerable alterations in these notices of Marco Polo.

[337]: Ramusio, tom. iii.

[338]: Bergeron, by blunder in the translation from the original Latin, has stated that the Khan sent 40,000 men to escort them. This has drawn the ire of the critics upon Marco Polo, who have cited it as one of his monstrous exaggerations.

[339]: Hist. des Voyages, tom, xxvii. lib. iv. cap. 3. Paris, 1549.

[340]: Ramusio, vol. ii. p. 17.

[341]: Mr. Marsden, who has inspected a splendid fac-simile of this map preserved in the British Museum, objects even to the fundamental part of it: "where," he observes, "situations are given to places that seem quite inconsistent with the descriptions in the travels, and cannot be attributed to their author, although inserted on the supposed authority of his writings." Marsden's M. Polo, Introd., p. xlii.

[342]: Hist, des Voyages, torn. xl. lib. xi. ch, 4.

[343]: Another blunder in translation has drawn upon Marco Polo the indignation of George Hornius, who (in his Origin of America, IV. 3) exclaims, "Who can believe all that, he says of the city of Quinsai? as, for example, that it has stone bridges twelve thousand miles high!" &c. It is probable that many of the exaggerations in the accounts of Marco Polo are in fact the errors of his translators.

Mandeville, speaking of this same city, which he calls Causai, says it is built on the sea like Venice, and has twelve hundred bridges.

[344]: Sir George Staunton mentions this lake as being a beautiful sheet of water, about three or four miles in diameter; its margin ornamented with houses and gardens of Mandarines, together with temples, monasteries for the priests of Fo, and an imperial palace.

[345]: Supposed to be those islands collectively called j.a.pan. They are named by the Chinese Ge-pen; the terminating syllable _go_, added by Marco Polo, is supposed to be the Chinese word _kue_, signifying kingdom, which is commonly annexed to the names of foreign countries. As the distance of the nearest part of the southern island from the coast of China near Ning-po is not more than five hundred Italian miles, Mr.

Marsden supposes Marco Polo, in stating it to be 1500, means Chinese miles or li, which are in the proportion of somewhat more than one-third of the former.

[346]: Aristot., 2 Met. cap. 5.

[347]: Pliny, lib. i. cap. 61.

[348]: Feyjoo, Theatre Critico, tom. iv. d. 10, -- 29.

[349]: Lib. iv. de la Chancelaria del Key Dn. Juan II, fol. 101.

[350]: Torre do Tombo. Lib. das Ylhas, f. 119.

[351]: Fr. Gregorio Garcia, Origen de los Indios, lib. i. cap. 9.

[352]: Sigeberto, Epist. ad Tietmar. Abbat.

[353]: Nunez de la l'ena. Conquist de la Gran Canaria.

[354]: Ptolemy, lib. iv. tom. iv.

[355]: Fr. D. Philipo, lib. viii. fol. 25.

[356]: Hist. Isl. Can., lib. i. cap. 28.

[357]: Nunez de la Pena, lib. i. cap. 1. Viera, Hist Isl. Can., tom. i.

cap. 28.

[358]: Nunez, Conquista le Gran Canaria. Viera, Hist. &c.

[359]: Viera, Hist. Isl. Can., tom. i. cap. 28.

[360]: Idem.

[361]: Viera, Hist. Isl. Can., tom. i. cap. 28.

[362]: Viera, ubi sup.

[363]: Theatro Critico, tom. iv. d. x.

[364]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 10.

[365]: Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. iv. cap. 4. Origen de los Indios por Fr. Gregorio Garcia, lib. iv. cap. 20.

[366]: Barros, Asia, decad. i. lib. i. cap. 3.

[367]: Navarrete, Colec. Viag., tom. i. Introd. p. lxx.

[368]: T. A. Llorente, Oeuvres de Las Casas, p. xi. Paris, 1822.

[369]: Herrera clearly states this as an expedient adopted when others failed. "Bartolome de las Casas, viendo que sus conceptos hallaban en todas partes dificultad, i que las opiniones que tenla, por mucha familiaridad que havia seguido i gran credito con el gran Canciller, no podian haber efecto, _se volvio a otros expedientes, &c_."--Decad.

ii. lib. ii. cap. 2.

[370]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. iii. lib. ii. cap. 4.

[371]: Idem, decad. ii. lib. ii. cap. 20.

[372]: Idem, decad. ii. lib. iii. cap. 8.

[373]: 1 Herrera, d. i. lib. vi. cap. 20.

[374]: Idem, d. i. lib. viii. cap. 9.

[375]: Idem, d. i. lib. ix. cap. 5.

[376]: Robertson, Hist. America, p. 3.

[377]: Porque como iban faltando los Indios i se conocia que un negro trabajaba, mas que quatro, por lo qual habia gran dem anda de ellos, parccia que se podia poner algun tributo en la saca, de que resultaria provecho a la Rl. Hacienda. Herrera, decad. ii. lib. ii. cap. 8.