[322-1] “This Española,” so frequently repeated, is one of the indications that Las Casas was writing in Española.
[322-2] Canibales, here used still as a tribal name equivalent to Caribbees.
[322-3] The correct form of this name is Gargades. Columbus’s knowledge of them was derived indirectly from Pliny’s Natural History, book VI., XXXVII., through Cardinal d’Ailly’s Imago Mundi. Cf. Columbus’s marginal note to ch. XXXXI. of that work: “De situ Gorgodum insule nunc de Capite Viride vel Antonii dicitur.” Raccolta Colombiana, parte I., vol. II., p. 395. According to Pliny’s location of them they were probably the Canaries. Pliny’s knowledge of the location of the Hesperides is naturally vague, but his text would support their identification with the Cape Verde Islands.
[323-1] In this Columbus was mistaken, although he had no means of knowing it in 1498. Vasco da Gama had sailed in that sea the preceding summer. Cf. Bourne, Spain in America, p. 72.
[323-2] Ferro.
[323-3] August 16, 1494, the sovereigns included in the letter despatched to Columbus by Torres the essential articles of the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed June 7, 1494, and asked him if he could not co-operate in locating the Demarcation Line. Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, II. 155; Harrisse, Diplomatic History of America, pp. 80-81.
[323-4] Columbus’s illness began in September, 1494, and it was five months before he was fully recovered. Ferdinand Columbus, Historie, ed. 1867, p. 177. The death of Prince John took place October 4, 1497. No actual scientific conference to locate the line took place till that at Badajoz in 1524. See Bourne, Essays in Historical Criticism, pp. 205-211.
[324-1] Mayordomo.
[324-2] Escribano de la hacienda. In 1497 Rodrigo Affonso, a member of the king’s council, was granted the northern of the two captaincies into which São Thiago was divided and also the wild cattle on the island of Boavista (Buenavista in Spanish). D’Avezac, Ils de l’Afrique (Paris, 1848), p. 218. The word mayordomo, translated “steward,” here stands for the high Portuguese title of honor Mordomo môr da Casa Real, a title in its origin similar to the majores domus or mayors of the palace of the early French kings. Escribano de la hacienda del Rey means rather the king’s treasurer.
[324-3] This account of Boavista and its lepers is not noticed in the histories of the Cape Verde Islands so far as I know.