[13] The Amoretti edition (Milan, 1800; a wofully garbled adaptation of the Italian MS.) wrongly ascribes this desire to Clement VII, instead of Villiers L’Isle-Adam. See Stanley, p. 36, note 3.
[14] MS. 5,650 reads: “Finally, most illustrious Lordship, after all provisions had been made and the ships were in readiness, the captain-general, a wise and virtuous man, and one mindful of his honor, would not commence his voyage without first making some good and suitable rules, such as it is the approved custom to make for those who go to sea, although he did not entirely declare the voyage that he was about to make lest those men, through astonishment and fear, should refuse to accompany him on the so long voyage that he had determined upon. In consideration of the furious and violent storms that reign on the Ocean Sea where he was about to sail, and in consideration of another reason also, namely, that the masters and captains of the other ships in his fleet had no liking for him (the reason for which I know not, unless because he, the captain-general, was a Portuguese, and they Spaniards or Castilians, who have for a long while been biased and ill-disposed toward one another, but who, in spite of that, rendered him obedience), he made his rules such as follow, so that his ships might not go astray or become separated from one another during storms at sea. He published those rules and gave them in writing to every master in the ships and ordered them to be inviolably observed and kept, unless for urgent and legitimate excuse, and the proof that any other action was impossible.”
[15] A Spanish word, meaning “lantern.”
[16] Mosto wrongly derives strengue from the Spanish trenza “braid” or “twist.” Instead it is the Spanish word estrenque, which denotes a large rope made from Spanish grass hemp (stipa)—known to the Spaniards as esparto. MS. 5,650 reads: “Sometimes he set out a lantern; at other times a thick rush cord which was lighted and was called ‘trenche’ [i.e., ‘estrenque,’ ‘rope of Spanish grass hemp’].” Barcio (Diccionario general etimológico) says that the origin of estrenque is unknown.
[17] MS. 5,650 reads: “If he wished the other ships to haul in a bonnet-sail, which was a part of the sail attached to the mainsail, he showed three lights. Also by three lights notwithstanding that the weather might be favorable for making better time, it was understood that the bonnet-sail was to be hauled in, so that the mainsail might be sooner and easier struck and furled when bad weather came suddenly in any squall or otherwise.”
[18] MS. 5,650 adds: “which he had extinguished immediately after;” and continues: “then showing a single light as a sign that he intended to stop there and wait until the other ships should do as he.”
[19] MS. 5,650 adds: “that is to say, a rock in the sea.”
[20] Stanley translates the following passage wrongly. Rightly translated, it is: “Also when he desired the bonnet-sail to be reattached to the sail, he showed three fires.”
[21] This passage is omitted in MS. 5,650.
[22] Hora de la modorra is in Spanish that part of the night immediately preceding the dawn. Mosto, p. 52, note 8.