The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503 Part 32

[331-3] _I.e._, that his will was not to serve the sovereigns but to advance himself.

[332-1] Cape of the Galley. To-day, Cape Galeota.

[332-2] The last of the canonical hours of prayer, after sunset or early evening.

[334-1] Sandy Point.

[334-2] Of the whale.

[334-3] One of the native names of the Orinoco, here referring to one of the northern branch mouths. A detailed map of the region is given Winsor's _Columbus_, p. 353.

[336-1] "A sort of veil, or head attire used by the Moorish women, made of thin silk, striped of several colors, and s.h.a.gged at the ends, which hangs down on the back." John Stevens, _A New Dictionary, Spanish and English_, etc. (London. 1726.)

[337-1] The exploration of the west coast of Africa, the only equatorial regions then known to Europeans, had led to the conclusion that black was the natural color of the inhabitants of the tropics.

[337-2] The Navidad referred to by Las Casas was near the Gulf of Paria.

(Thacher.)

[337-3] _Poner a monte carracas._ _Poner a monte_ is not given in the Spanish dictionaries, and is apparently a sea phrase identical with the Portuguese "por um navio a monte," to beach or ground a vessel. The translator went entirely astray in this pa.s.sage. See Thacher's _Columbus_, II. 388. The figure here given and the use of word _pasos_, normally, a land measure of length, instead of _braza_, "fathom," would seem to indicate that the 65 paces refers to the extent of sh.o.r.e laid bare, and not to the height of the tide. The corresponding pa.s.sage in the _Historie_ reads: "so that it seemed a rapid river both day and night and at all hours, notwithstanding the fact that the water rose and fell along the sh.o.r.e (_per la spiaggia_) more than sixty paces between the waves (_alle marette_) as it is wont to do in San Lucar di Barrameda where the waters [of the river] are high since although the water rises and falls it never ceases to run toward the sea," _Historie_ (London ed.), p. 229.

In this pa.s.sage _maree_, "tides," should be read instead of _marette_.

[338-1] Accepting the emendation of de Lollis which subst.i.tutes _fructas_ for _fuentes_, "springs."

[339-1] _I.e._, north by east.

[339-2] _Loma._

[340-1] Las Casas here quotes Columbus's letter to Ferdinand and Isabella on this voyage. See Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, p. 123.

[340-2] Serpent's mouth. The name is still retained.

[340-3] _Lapa_ means barnacle; _caracol_, periwinkle; and _delfin_, dolphin.

[340-4] Dragon's mouth. The name is still retained.

[340-5] _I.e._, along the south sh.o.r.e of the peninsula of Paria in the Gulf of Paria.

[341-1] The grammatical form of this sentence follows the original, which is irregular.

[341-2] See p. 311, note 2.

[341-3] _Galos paules_ (Cat-Pauls). A species of African monkey was so called in Spain. The name occurs in Marco Polo. On its history and meaning, see Yule's _Marco Polo_, II. 372.

[342-1] Im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_, p. 193, says, "Indians after babyhood are never seen perfectly naked."

[343-1] _Flechas con hierba muy a punto_, literally, arrows with gra.s.s very sharp. Gaffarel, _Histoire de la Decouverte de l'Amerique_, II. 196, interprets this to mean arrows feathered with gra.s.s; but _hierba_ used in connection with arrows usually means poison. _Cf._ Oviedo, lib. IX., t.i.tle of cap. XII., "_Del arbol o mancanillo con cuya fructa los indios caribes flecheros hacen la hierba con que tiran e pelean_."

[343-2] _Hureyos_ is _Tureyos_ in the printed edition of Las Casas, an obvious correction of the ma.n.u.script reading. On _turey_, see above, p.

310.

[343-3] See above, p. 336, note 1.

[344-1] Needle. Alcatrazes, to-day. (Navarrete.)

[344-2] Gardens.

[344-3] _Ojas de oro._ The translator took _ojas_ (_hojas_) for _ojos_ and rendered it "eyes of gold." See Thacher, _Columbus_, II. 393.

[345-1] _I.e._, in Espanola.

[346-1] Irregularly shaped pearls, seed pearls.

[346-2] "Keep your eyes open."

[347-1] Isabela in the printed text.

[348-1] The north wind.

[348-2] Pliny, _Natural History_, book IX., ch. LIV.

[348-3] The name is still used. It is the _Rhicopharia mangle_. See the description of it in Thompson's Alcedo's _Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies_, Appendix.

[349-1] Las Casas here inserts a long disquisition on pearls which is omitted. It covers pp. 246-252 of the printed edition, Vol. II.

[350-1] _I.e._, the western end of the Gulf of Paria.

[350-2] These mouths of the Orinoco supplied the fresh water, but they can hardly be the streams referred to by the sailors who explored the western end of the Gulf of Paria. Las Casas had no good map of this region.

[352-1] Columbus elaborated this point in his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella. Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, p. 113. Columbus's estimate of the sacrifice of lives in the exploration of the west coast of Africa must be considered a most gross exaggeration. The contemporary narratives of those explorations give no such impression.

[352-2] _Cf._ Columbus's letter to the sovereigns, "Your Highnesses have here another world." Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, p. 148, and the letter to the nurse of Prince John, p. 381, _post_. "I have placed under the dominion of the King and Queen our sovereigns another world." These pa.s.sages clearly show that Columbus during and after this voyage realized that he accomplished something quite different from merely reaching Asia by a western route. He had found a hitherto unknown portion of the world, unknown to the ancients or to Marco Polo, but not for that reason necessarily physically detached from the known Asia. For a fuller discussion of the meaning of the phrase "_another world_," "_New World_,"

and of Columbus's ideas of what he had done, see Bourne, _Spain in America_, pp. 94-98, and the facsimile of the Bartholomew Columbus map, opposite p. 96.

[352-3] A noteworthy prediction. In fact the discovery of the New World has effected a most momentous change in the relative strength and range of Christianity among the world-religions. During the Middle Ages Christianity lost more ground territorially than it gained. Since the discovery of America its gain has been steady.

[352-4] Such in fact their Highnesses' grandson, Charles I. (V. as Emperor), was during his long reign, and such during a part of his reign if not the whole, was their great-grandson Philip II. See Oviedo's reflections upon Columbus's career. Bourne, _Spain in America_, p. 82.

[353-1] Las Casas here comments at some length on these remarks of Columbus and the great significance of his discoveries. The pa.s.sage omitted takes up pp. 255 (line six from bottom) to 258.

[353-2] Las Casas explains _leste_, which would seem to have been either peculiar to sailors or at least not in common usage then for "east."

[353-3] Probably _gatos_ in the sense of _gatos paules_, monkeys, noted above, p. 341, as very plentiful.

[353-4] Port of the Cabins.

[353-5] The _Catholicon_ was one of the earliest Latin lexicons of modern times and the first to be printed. It was compiled by Johannes de Janua (Giovanni Balbi of Genoa) toward the end of the thirteenth century and first printed at Mainz in 1460, and very frequently later.

[354-1] The third of the canonical hours of prayer, about nine o'clock in the morning.