[71] João dos Santos (Ethiopia Oriental, I. 2, c. 20) already identified this river with the Kiliman River. Dr. Hamy’s Chart calls it “Rio de bon Signals”, an evident corruption. Barros and Goes both call it ”Rio dos Bons Signals”, whilst Correa refers to it as Rio da Misericordia, the river of Mercy (see Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 11). Comp. Map III.
[72] A very involved sentence! Gama arrived off the bar of the Kiliman on January 24, cast anchor, and sent the smallest of his vessels, the Berrio, within, to take soundings. On the day after, the 25th, he crossed the bar with the two other vessels.
[73] Almadia, a “dug-out”, properly El Maziyah, ferry-boat (Burton’s Camoens, iv, p. 577.)
[74] Burton (Commentary, p. 408), points out that the “touca” is not a turban, but a kind of cap. Its shape, however, was not that of the “toque” of our milliners.
[75] From January 24 to February 24, both days included, is thirty-two days.
[76] Barros says they were beached for that purpose.
[77] This disease was evidently scurvy, so fatal to our early navigators. Castanheda (I. c. 4) tells us that in this time of trouble Paulo da Gama visited the sick night and day, condoled with them, and freely distributed the medicines which he had brought for his own use.
[78] The Padrão de São Raphael is distinctly marked and named on Dr. Hamy’s and Canerio’s Charts. No trace of it has ever been discovered.
[79] These are the “Insule primeras” (i.e., Ilhas primeiras) of Dr. Hamy’s and Canerio’s Charts. They are five in number, and form a chain less than 5 leagues in length. The three southern islands (Silva, do Fogo, and Crown) form a separate group, and are bare, whilst the two northern islands (Casuarina and Epidendron) have trees. Gama, apparently, missed the two southernmost islands.
[80] These six days are reckoned from February 24 to March 1.