[153] The real distance is said to be eleven hundred and five leagues.—Vide Personal narrative of the first voyage of Columbus to America. [Kettell.] pp. 38-73.
[154] Historia general de las Indias. Las Casas. cap. xlvi. Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos. Navarrete. tom. 1.
[155] An arroba is equal to twenty-five pounds.
[156] Las Casas remarks: “From what he here relates, it appears that had he proceeded farther northerly he would undoubtedly, in two more days, have discovered Florida.”—MS. of Las Casas. Vide Personal narrative of the first voyage of Columbus to America. [Kettell.] pp. 73-86.
[157] Letter of Columbus to Rafael (or Gabriel) Sanchez, dated Lisbon, March 14, 1493.
[158] “Only 21° of latitude.”—Navarrete.
[159] A blank space in the original.
[160] The island of Cuba lies between 19° 50´ and 23° 10´ north latitude, and 74° 7´ and 84° 58´ west longitude. Florida is about one hundred and thirty miles north of Cuba.
[161] The argument of Las Casas concerning the heat at forty-two degrees north latitude is invalidated by Columbus’s reasons for not sailing farther to the north. In his letter to Rafael Sanchez he says: “Finding myself proceeding toward the north, which I was desirous to avoid on account of the cold, and, moreover, meeting with a contrary wind, I determined to return to the south.” It would seem that Columbus was unable to satisfy his own doubts respecting the latitude of the places in the North to which he had sailed. If he had not mentioned that he was in doubt respecting the working condition of his quadrant, the question of his sailing as far north as the forty-second parallel would be an important matter for geographical discussion. Navarrete says: “The quadrants of that time measured the double altitude, and consequently the forty-two degrees which Columbus says he was distant from the equator are to be reduced to twenty-one north latitude, which is the parallel to which he had sailed.”—Vide Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos. Navarrete, tom. i. pp. 44, 47, 62. Personal narrative of the first voyage of Columbus to America. [Kettell.] p. 95.
[162] Ferdinand Columbus says the admiral called the island of Cuba, Juana, in honor of Prince Juan, heir of Castile.—Vide Histoire del S. D. Fernando Colombo. cap. xxvi.