[107-2] A remark by the abridger who noted the inconsistency between a total of 48 miles for a day and night and even an occasional 15 miles per hour.
[107-3] Grajaos. The translator assumed this to be the same as garjao; the French translators, on the other hand, took it to be the same as grajos, crows. In Portuguese dictionaries the word grajão is found as the name of “an Indian bird.”
[108-1] The trouble with the captains and the sailors is told in greatest detail by Oviedo, Historia de las Indias, lib. II., cap. V. He is the source of the story that the captains finally declared they would go on three days longer and not another hour. Oviedo does not say that Columbus acquiesced in this arrangement. Modern critics have been disposed to reject Oviedo’s account, but strictly interpreted, it is not inconsistent with our other sources. Columbus recalls in his Journal, February 14, 1493, the terror of the situation which was evidently more serious than the entry of October 10 would imply. Peter Martyr too says that the sailors plotted to throw Columbus overboard and adds: “After the thirtieth day roused by madness they declared they were going back,” but that Columbus pacified them. De Rebus Oceanicis, Dec. lib. I., fol. 2, ed. of 1574. Oviedo says that he derived information from Vicente Yañez Pinzon, “since with him I had a friendship up to the year 1514 when he died.” Historia de las Indias, II., cap. XIII.
[108-2] Escaramojos. Wild roses.
[109-1] It was full moon on October 5. On the night of the 11th the moon rose at 11 P.M. and at 2 A.M. on the morning of the 12th it was 39° above the horizon. It would be shining brightly on the sandy shores of an island some miles ahead, being in its third quarter, and a little behind Rodrigo de Triana, when he sighted land at 2 A.M. (Markham.)
[109-2] The high decks fore and aft were called castles. The name survives in the English forecastle. Stevens gives poop alone as the English for Castilla de popa.
[109-3] Oviedo, lib. II., cap. V., says that, as they were sailing along, a sailor, a native of Lepe, cried out, “Light,” “Land,” but was immediately told that the admiral had already seen it and remarked upon it.
[109-4] Columbus received this award. His claiming or accepting it under the circumstances has been considered discreditable and a breach of faith by many modern writers. Oviedo says the native of Lepe was so indignant at not getting the reward that “he went over into Africa and denied the faith,” i.e., became a Mohammedan. Las Casas seems to have seen no impropriety in Columbus’ accepting the award. He tells us, I. 289, that this annuity was paid to Columbus throughout his life and was levied from the butcher shops of Seville. A maravedi was equal to two-thirds of a cent.
[110-1] Pronounced originally, according to Las Casas, I. 291, with the accent on the last syllable. Guanahani is now generally accepted to have been Watling Island. See Markham, Christopher Columbus, pp. 89-107, for a lucid discussion of the landfall.
[110-2] Fernando and Ysabel.