[218-1] The mermaids [Spanish, “sirens”] of Columbus are the manatis, or sea-cows, of the Caribbean Sea and great South American rivers. They are now scarcely ever seen out at sea. Their resemblance to human beings, when rising in the water, must have been very striking. They have small rounded heads, and cervical vertebrae which form a neck, enabling the animal to turn its head about. The fore limbs also, instead of being pectoral fins, have the character of the arm and hand of the higher mammalia. These peculiarities, and their very human way of suckling their young, holding it by the forearm, which is movable at the elbow-joint, suggested the idea of mermaids. The congener of the manati, which had been seen by Columbus on the coast of Guinea, is the dugong. (Markham.)
[218-2] Las Casas has “on the coast of Guinea where manequeta is gathered” (I. 430). Amomum Melequeta, an herbaceous, reedlike plant, three to five feet high, is found along the coast of Africa, from Sierra Leone to the Congo. Its seeds were called “Grains of Paradise,” or maniguetta, and the coast alluded to by Columbus, between Liberia and Cape Palmas, was hence called the Grain Coast. The grains were used as a condiment, like pepper, and in making the spiced wine called hippocras. (Markham.)
[219-1] Rio Chuzona chica. (Navarrete.)
[219-2] Reading broma (“ship worm”) for bruma (“mist”) in the sentence: sino que tiene mucha bruma. De la Roquette in the French translation gives bruma the meaning of “shipworm,” supposing it to be a variant form of broma. The Italian translator of the letter on the fourth voyage took broma to be bruma, translated it pruina e bruma, and consequently had Columbus’s ship injured by frost near Panama in April! Cf. Thacher, Christopher Columbus, II. 625, 790.
[220-1] So called because the summit is always covered with white or silver clouds. Las Casas, I. 432. A monastery of Dominicans was afterwards built on Monte de Plata, in which Las Casas began to write his history of the Indies in the year 1527. Las Casas, IV. 254. (Markham.)
[220-2] Puerto de Plata, where a flourishing seaport town was afterwards established; founded by Ovando in 1502. It had fallen to decay in 1606. (Markham.)
[220-3] Punta Macuris. The distance is 3, not 4 leagues. (Navarrete.)
[220-4] Punta Sesua. The distance is only one league. (Id.)
[220-5] Cabo de la Roca. It should be 5, not 6 leagues. (Id.)
[220-6] Bahia Escocesa. (Id.)