[37]That is, towards Tristão da Cunha, Gama being at that time 400 miles to the N.N.W. of these islands.
[38] Kopke supposes that we should read phoca instead of quoqua, but this is not very likely, as lobo marinho is employed throughout the Rutter to describe the phocæ or seals. Among the animals which these early navigators must have met with, but which are not mentioned, are porpoises (peixe de porco) and dolphins (doiradas or gilt-heads).
[39] Lobo marinho, sea-wolf, a term vaguely applied to all species of seals, as also to the sea-elephant, has been translated throughout as seal.
[40] Golfão, i.e., Zostera nana, which is met with along the coast of South-Western Africa.
[41] A Portuguese fathom, or braça, is equal to 5.76 feet.
[42] This was considerably to the north of St. Helena Bay, which was only reached three days later.
[43] A reference, no doubt, to Pero d’Alenquer, Vasco da Gama’s pilot, who had been with B. Dias during his memorable voyage round the Cape, as had probably others of this armada.
[44] Now called Berg River.—Kopke.
[45] Castanheda and Goes state that Nicolau Coelho was sent to take the soundings. It is, however, much more probable that this duty was intrusted to Pero d’Alenquer, who had already doubled the Cape with Bartholomew Dias, and had touched at several points in its vicinity.—Kopke.
I cannot see how his having been with Dias can have conferred any very special qualification for taking soundings in a bay which Pero d’Alenquer had never seen before. On subsequent occasions Coelho seems to have been employed repeatedly upon this duty.