[340-1] Las Casas here quotes Columbus’s letter to Ferdinand and Isabella on this voyage. See Major, Select Letters of Columbus, p. 123.
[340-2] Serpent’s mouth. The name is still retained.
[340-3] Lapa means barnacle; caracol, periwinkle; and delfin, dolphin.
[340-4] Dragon’s mouth. The name is still retained.
[340-5] I.e., along the south shore of the peninsula of Paria in the Gulf of Paria.
[341-1] The grammatical form of this sentence follows the original, which is irregular.
[341-2] See [p. 311, note 2].
[341-3] Galos paules (Cat-Pauls). A species of African monkey was so called in Spain. The name occurs in Marco Polo. On its history and meaning, see Yule’s Marco Polo, II. 372.
[342-1] Im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana, p. 193, says, “Indians after babyhood are never seen perfectly naked.”
[343-1] Flechas con hierba muy á punto, literally, arrows with grass very sharp. Gaffarel, Histoire de la Découverte de l’Amérique, II. 196, interprets this to mean arrows feathered with grass; but hierba used in connection with arrows usually means poison. Cf. Oviedo, lib. IX., title of cap. XII., “Del árbol ó mançanillo con cuya fructa los indios caribes flecheros haçen la hierba con que tiran é pélean.”