Professor O'Reilly translates manta as cloak throughout; while Mr. Sedgwick also does so the first time he meets with it, but calls it blanket always afterwards. Manta means a blanket, but manto is a mantle, veil, or cloak; and the error alluded to is due, no doubt, to the similarity of the two words.
Again, both gentlemen translate un trompeta as a trumpet: it should be a trumpeter. The cause of the mistake here lies in overlooking the nature of the article made use of. Trompeta is both a masculine and feminine noun. The former signifies the man who blows a trumpet, and the latter is the instrument itself. In the present instance, the article (un) being masculine, shows that the word is used in its masculine sense, and therefore means a trumpeter.
I will now briefly refer to a few cases of the two translators separately, taking Professor O'Reilly first.
Galleon and galley do not translate each other, but refer to very different classes of ships.
Cuellar did not remain on board his own ship after he had been sentenced to death and reprieved, but was detained on the ship of the Judge Advocate, in which he was subsequently wrecked. The number of dead bodies lying on the shore where he was cast away is given by Cuellar as more than 600, not as more than 800.
"Casiñas de paja" means, I think, that the huts were not merely thatched with straw, but composed of it altogether. This appears to be clear from the fact that Cuellar uses another expression—"Casas pajizas"—when he wished to describe the thatched houses in Ocan's village.
Referring to the ship that Cuellar's companions—who outstripped him—embarked upon, and in the wreck of which they were subsequently lost, Professor O'Reilly says she "drifted there by good luck" (con gran fortuna). I think this is not the true meaning of the passage, but that the ship was driven in "by a great tempest" or storm; for he goes on to say that her main-mast and rigging were much injured. It should be borne in mind that fortuna means a storm or tempest, as well as fortune or luck.
Turning now to Mr. Sedgwick's translation, he gives Ancients as the English equivalent for Alférez, which is probably some curious misprint; for the ordinary meaning of the word is ensign.
Again, Sierra does not mean a "peak," but a mountain ridge or range.