The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503 Part 18

[94-1] _Tres horas de noche_ means three hours after sunset.

[94-2] "On this day [Sunday, Sept. 9] they lost sight of land; and many, fearful of not being able to return for a long time to see it, sighed and shed tears. But the admiral, after he had comforted all with big offers of much land and wealth to keep them in hope and to lessen their fear which they had of the long way, when that day the sailors reckoned the distance 18 leagues, said he had counted only 15, having decided to lessen the record so that the crew would not think they were as far from Spain as in fact they were." _Historie del Signor Don Fernando Colombo_ (London ed., 1867), pp. 61-62.

[95-1] Las Casas in his _Historia_, I. 267, says "on that day at nightfall the needles northwested that is to say the fleur de lis which marks the north was not pointing directly at it but verged somewhat to the left of north and in the morning northeasted that is to say the fleur de lis pointed to right of the north until sunset."

The _Historie_ agrees with the text of the Journal that the needle declined more to the west, instead of s.h.i.+fting to an eastern declination.

The author of the _Historie_ remarks: "This variation no one had ever observed up to this time," p. 62. "Columbus had crossed the point of no variation, which was then near the meridian of Flores, in the Azores, and found the variation no longer easterly, but more than a point westerly.

His explanation that the pole-star, by means of which the change was detected, was not itself stationary, is very plausible. For the pole-star really does describe a circle round the pole of the earth, equal in diameter to about six times that of the sun; but this is not equal to the change observed in the direction of the needle." (Markham.)

[96-1] _Garjao._ This word is not in the Spanish dictionaries that I have consulted. The translator has followed the French translators MM.

Chalumeau de Verneuil and de la Roquette who accepted the opinion of the naturalist Cuvier that the _Garjao_ was the _hirondelle de mer_, the _Sterna maxima_ or royal tern.

[96-2] _Rabo de junco_, literally, reedtail, is the tropic bird or Phaethon. The name "boatswain-bird" is applied to some other kinds of birds, besides the tropic bird. _Cf._ Alfred Newton, _Dictionary of Birds_ (London, 1896). Ferdinand Columbus says: _rabo di giunco_, "a bird so called because it has a long feather in its tail," p. 63.

[96-3] This remark is, of course, not true of the tropic bird or _rabo de junco_, as was abundantly proved on this voyage.

[97-1] See p. 96, note 2.

[98-1] _Alcatraz._ The rendering "b.o.o.by" follows Cuvier's note to the French translation. The "b.o.o.by" is the "b.o.o.by gannet." The Spanish dictionaries give pelican as the meaning of _Alcatraz_. The gannets and the pelicans were formerly cla.s.sed together. The word _Alcatraz_ was taken over into English and corrupted to _Albatros_. Alfred Newton, _Dictionary of Birds_ (London, 1896), art. "Albatros."

[98-2] More exactly, "He sailed this day toward the West a quarter northwest and half the division [_i.e._, west by north and west by one eighth northwest] because of the veering winds and calm that prevailed."

[100-1] The abridger of the original journal missed the point here and his epitome is unintelligible. Las Casas says in his _Historia_, I. 275: "The Admiral says in this place that the adverseness of the winds and the high sea were very necessary to him since they freed the crew of their erroneous idea that there would be no favorable sea and winds for their return and thereby they received some relief of mind or were not in so great despair, yet even then some objected, saying that that wind would not last, up to the Sunday following, when they had nothing to answer when they saw the sea so high. By which means, Cristobal Colon says here, G.o.d dealt with him and with them as he dealt with Moses and the Jews when he drew them from Egypt showing signs to favor and aid him and to their confusion."

[100-2] Las Casas, _Historia_, I. 275-276, here describes with detail the discontent of the sailors and their plots to put Columbus out of the way.

The pa.s.sage is translated in Thacher, _Christopher Columbus_, I. 524. The word rendered "sandpipers" is _pardelas_, petrels. The French translation has _petrels tachetes_, _i.e._, "pintado petrels," or cape pigeons.

[101-1] More exactly, "On which it seems the Admiral had painted certain islands." The Spanish reads: "_donde segun parece tenia pintadas el Almirante ciertas islas_," etc. The question is whether Columbus made the map or had it made. The rendering of the note is supported by the French translators and by Harrisse.

[101-2] Las Casas, I. 279, says: "This map is the one which Paul, the physician, the Florentine, sent, which I have in my possession with other articles which belonged to the Admiral himself who discovered these Indies, and writings in his own hand which came into my possession. In it he depicted many islands and the main land which were the beginning of India and in that region the realms of the Grand Khan," etc. Las Casas does not tell us how he knew that the Toscanelli map which he found in Columbus's papers was the map that the Admiral used on the first voyage.

That is the general a.s.sumption of scholars, but there is no positive evidence of the fact. The Toscanelli map is no longer extant, and all reconstructions of it are based on the globe of Martin Behaim constructed in 1492. The reconstruction by H. Wagner which may be seen in S. Ruge, _Columbus_, 2^te aufl. (Berlin, 1902) is now accepted as the most successful.

According to the reckoning of the distances in the Journal, Columbus was now about 550 leagues or 2200 Italian miles west of the Canaries. The Toscanelli map was divided off into s.p.a.ces each containing 250 miles.

Columbus was therefore nine s.p.a.ces west of the Canaries. No reconstruction of Toscanelli's map puts any islands at nine s.p.a.ces from the Canaries except so far as the reconstructors insert the island of Antilia on the basis of Behaim's globe. The Antilia of Behaim according to Wagner was eight s.p.a.ces west of the Canaries. Again Ferdinand Columbus, in his _Historie_ under date of October 7 (p. 72), says the sailors "had been frequently told by him that he did not look for land until they had gone 750 leagues west from the Canaries, at which distance he had told them he would have found Espanola then called c.i.p.ango." 750 leagues or 3000 Italian miles would be 12 s.p.a.ces on the Toscanelli map.

But according to the Toscanelli letter c.i.p.ango was 10 s.p.a.ces west of Antilia, and therefore 18 s.p.a.ces or 4500 miles west of the Canaries.

Columbus then seems to have expected to find c.i.p.ango some 1500 miles to the east of where it was placed on the Toscanelli map. These considerations justify a very strong doubt whether Columbus was shaping his course and basing his expectations on the data of the Toscanelli letter and map, or whether the fact that Las Casas found what he took to be the Toscanelli map in the Admiral's papers proves that it was that map which he had on his first voyage.

[102-1] _Dorado_ is defined by Stevens as the dory or gilt head.

[103-1] _Rabiforcado_, Portuguese. The Spanish form is _rabihorcado_. It means "forked tail." The modern English equivalent is "frigate bird." It is "the Fregata aquila of most ornithologists, the Fregate of French and the Rabihorcado of Spanish mariners." Newton, _Dictionary of Birds_, art.

"Frigate-Bird." Newton says that the name "man-of-war bird" has generally pa.s.sed out of use in books.

[103-2] Rather, the Guards, the name given to the two brightest stars in the constellation of the Little Bear. The literal translation is: "the Guards, when night comes on, are near the arm on the side to the west, and when dawn breaks they are on the line under the arm to the northeast," etc. What Columbus meant I cannot explain. Neither Navarrete nor the French translators offer any suggestions.

[105-1] Las Casas, I. 282, adds to the foregoing under date of October 3: "He says here that it would not have been good sense to beat about and in that way to be delayed in search of them [_i.e._, the islands] since he had favorable weather and his chief intention was to go in search of the Indies by way of the west, and this was what he proposed to the King and Queen, and they had sent him for that purpose. Because he would not turn back to beat up and down to find the islands which the pilots believed to be there, particularly Martin Alonzo by the chart which, as was said, Cristobal Colon had sent to his caravel for him to see, and it was their opinion that he ought to turn, they began to stir up a mutiny, and the disagreement would have gone farther if G.o.d had not stretched out his arm as he was wont, showing immediately new signs of their being near land since now neither soft words nor entreaties nor prudent reasoning of Cristobal Colon availed to quiet them and to persuade them to persevere."

Ferdinand Columbus says simply, "For this reason the crew began to be mutinous, persevering in their complaints and plots," p. 71. See page 108, note 1.

[106-1] _a la cuarta del Oueste, a la parte del Sudueste_, at the quarter from the west toward the southwest, _i.e._, west by south.

[106-2] Las Casas, in the _Historia de las Indias_, I. 283, writes, "That night Martin Alonso said that it would be well to sail west by south for the island of c.i.p.ango which the map that Cristobal Colon showed him represented." _Cf._ page 101, note 2.

[107-1] Las Casas remarks, I. 285, "If he had kept up the direct westerly course and the impatience of the Castilians had not hindered him, there is no doubt that he would have struck the main land of Florida and from there to New Spain, although the difficulties would have been unparalleled and the losses unbearable that they would have met with, and it would have been a divine miracle if he had ever returned to Castile."

[107-2] A remark by the abridger who noted the inconsistency between a total of 48 miles for a day and night and even an occasional 15 miles per hour.

[107-3] _Grajaos._ The translator a.s.sumed this to be the same as _garjao_; the French translators, on the other hand, took it to be the same as _grajos_, crows. In Portuguese dictionaries the word _grajo_ is found as the name of "an Indian bird."

[108-1] The trouble with the captains and the sailors is told in greatest detail by Oviedo, _Historia de las Indias_, lib. II., cap. V. He is the source of the story that the captains finally declared they would go on three days longer and not another hour. Oviedo does not say that Columbus acquiesced in this arrangement. Modern critics have been disposed to reject Oviedo's account, but strictly interpreted, it is not inconsistent with our other sources. Columbus recalls in his Journal, February 14, 1493, the terror of the situation which was evidently more serious than the entry of October 10 would imply. Peter Martyr too says that the sailors plotted to throw Columbus overboard and adds: "After the thirtieth day roused by madness they declared they were going back," but that Columbus pacified them. _De Rebus Oceanicis_, Dec. lib. I., fol. 2, ed. of 1574. Oviedo says that he derived information from Vicente Yanez Pinzon, "since with him I had a friends.h.i.+p up to the year 1514 when he died." _Historia de las Indias_, II., cap. XIII.

[108-2] _Escaramojos._ Wild roses.

[109-1] It was full moon on October 5. On the night of the 11th the moon rose at 11 P.M. and at 2 A.M. on the morning of the 12th it was 39 above the horizon. It would be s.h.i.+ning brightly on the sandy sh.o.r.es of an island some miles ahead, being in its third quarter, and a little behind Rodrigo de Triana, when he sighted land at 2 A.M. (Markham.)

[109-2] The high decks fore and aft were called castles. The name survives in the English forecastle. Stevens gives p.o.o.p alone as the English for _Castilla de popa_.

[109-3] Oviedo, lib. II., cap. V., says that, as they were sailing along, a sailor, a native of Lepe, cried out, "Light," "Land," but was immediately told that the admiral had already seen it and remarked upon it.

[109-4] Columbus received this award. His claiming or accepting it under the circ.u.mstances has been considered discreditable and a breach of faith by many modern writers. Oviedo says the native of Lepe was so indignant at not getting the reward that "he went over into Africa and denied the faith," _i.e._, became a Mohammedan. Las Casas seems to have seen no impropriety in Columbus' accepting the award. He tells us, I. 289, that this annuity was paid to Columbus throughout his life and was levied from the butcher shops of Seville. A maravedi was equal to two-thirds of a cent.

[110-1] p.r.o.nounced originally, according to Las Casas, I. 291, with the accent on the last syllable. Guanahani is now generally accepted to have been Watling Island. See Markham, _Christopher Columbus_, pp. 89-107, for a lucid discussion of the landfall.

[110-2] Fernando and Ysabel.

[110-3] The royal inspector.

[110-4] Las Casas adds, I. 293, "To which he gave the name Sant Salvador."

[110-5] We have here perhaps the original t.i.tle of what in its abridged form we now call the Journal.

[113-1] The Portuguese _ceitil_ (pl. _ceitis_) was a small coin deriving its name from Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar, in Africa, a Portuguese possession. The _blanca_ was one-half a maravedi, or about one-third of a cent.

[113-2] c.i.p.ango. Marco Polo's name for j.a.pan.

[115-1] Rather, "I had lain to during the night for fear of reaching the land," etc.

[115-2] These lengths are exaggerated.

[115-3] The word is _cargue_ and means "raised" or "hoisted." The same word seven lines above was translated "made sail." Las Casas in the corresponding pa.s.sage in his _Historia_ uses _alzar_.

[115-4] Identified as Rum Cay.

[116-1] A line is missing in the original. The text may be restored as follows, beginning with the end of the preceding sentence, "jumped into the sea and got into the canoe; in the middle of the night before the other threw [himself into the sea and swam off. The boat was lowered] and put after the canoe which escaped since there never was a boat which could have overtaken him, since we were far behind him."

[117-1] Long Island. (Markham.)

[117-2] Possibly a reference to tobacco.