English translations of the Spanish Letter have a comparatively young history. Before the Simancas manuscript came to light early in the nineteenth century and the Spanish Quarto and Folio were unearthed from their respective hiding places in the second half of the century, the Latin translation of the “Sánchez” Letter was the basis of the earliest known English version of the Letter, which appeared in the Edinburgh Review in 1816.1 Shortly after, the Simancas manuscript was edited in Martín Fernández de Navarrete’s Viages (1825), providing Samuel Kettell the raw material for his 1827 English translation of the Santángel Letter, the first of the Spanish Letter translations known.2 Richard Henry Major presented an English translation of the Latin Letter in his 1847 edition of Select Letters (1870), and in his second edition (1870), he added his English translation of “the Ambrosian text” — the Spanish Quarto — that had been discovered in the meantime and set a semi-diplomatic transcription of the Quarto below the corresponding English text, using Fernández de Navarrete’s text of the Simancas manuscript (“S”) to record variants.3
Following the discovery of the Folio, Michael Kerney’s “literal” English translation of the Letter appeared in the Quaritch editions of 1891 and 1893, and J. B. Thacher’s Folio translation in the second volume of Christopher Columbus (1903) followed Kerney’s with little variation. Cecil Jane first published a translation of the Letter in 1930 (259–265), and for his two-volume study of Columbian documents (1930, 1933), he included an extensively annotated translation set facing his Spanish edition of the Letter. Samuel Eliot Morison made his translation of the Letter for Christopher Columbus, Mariner, published in 1955.
Translation notes are meant to provide alternative interpretations of sense or syntax and to illustrate areas of problematic translation and their resolutions. Notes come from translations that were prepared more or less independently of one another, generally at widely separated points in time, and most come from Major, Kerney, and Morison, whose translations were produced at important moments in cultural and documentary history, and others are of some interest as well. All require some justification for their use.
Kettell’s 1827 translation, for example, is the only one to be based on the Simancas manuscript, and Kettell’s “period English” phrasing of the material is sometimes quite apt (255–264). Major’s 1870 edition (1–18), the first translation based on the Quarto, is used here unless the 1847 edition is noted. Michael Kerney’s 1891 translation (Quaritch) is the first based on the Folio, and most early-twentieth-century efforts appear to have relied on it (22–27). Edward Gaylord Bourne, editing Columbus documents in the volume The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot (1906), provides an image of 1r of the Folio and Kerney’s 1893 English translation of the Letter (Quaritch), but Bourne’s conscientious notes to the translation provide much additional interest (259–272). Cecil Jane’s translation of the Letter in Select Documents, set facing his Spanish edition of the Letter, attempts to correct views of nineteenth-century scholars (2–19).4 Morison brings his naval scholar’s critical perspective and his preparedness in Spanish documents of the period to the task, and his translation, edited for the last time, I believe, in Journals and Other Documents (182–186), has been reprinted several times on both sides of the Atlantic.5 The chronology of notes to the Letter’s translations has importance, especially where monetary values and developing fields of knowledge form the context. I include notes and editorial clarifications that bear on the translation from what I believe to be the most informed Spanish edition of the Letter in the late twentieth century, namely that prepared by Consuelo Varela, along with material from Juan Gil’s extensive introduction to the volume.6
References to passages in the Diario are cited by date, making them accessible in any edition or translation, and recto and verso numbers are given in instances where researchers may want to consult the original facsimile in Carlos Sanz’s two-volume facsimile edition or the diplomatic transcription in Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelley’s edition.7
This annotated translation is based on the results of the variorum edition and its supporting documents and presents a reliable text for the general reader that is true to the ideas, images, events, and authorial tone of the Spanish Letter, mediating word-for-word and sense-for-sense translation to achieve that end. In an effort to smooth the reading in English, parenthetical words and phrases provide clarification where the reference may not be clear in the original, and the translation occasionally makes explicit the referent suggested by a pronoun where the antecedent tends to be unclear in a word-for-word translation.8 These clarifications rank as interpretations of the text with which some readers may disagree.
For critical transparency and teaching purposes, the translation text provides tracking through the Folio at five-line intervals, though some indications may be approximate, placed with an eye to the reading as well as to textual correspondence. Translation notes contain comparative translations and grammatical interpretations, critical commentary, and selective phrases from the Letter that are directly annotated. Quotations from the Letter are silent on word extensions and on print and textual matters that may be consulted in the edition.
Where a reading is anacoluthonic or the material is damaged, the translation resorts to the Letter’s earliest facsimiles, to other contemporary texts of the Letter, and to accounts of the first voyage whose writers had resort to Columbus autographs or to contemporary copies of them. These instances, like the translation as a whole, aim to maintain the integrity and spirit of the text while smoothing its reception in English though in a few spots, the reading is decidedly sketchy. All references in the notes and text to folios and lines come from the Folio (Letter) unless otherwise stated.
My Lord,9 because I know that you will be pleased by the great victory that Our Lord has given me in my voyage, I write you10 this letter by which you may know how in twenty days I reached the Indies, with the fleet11 that the illustrious King and Queen, our lords gave me, where I found a great many islands populated with countless people; and of all these islands, (1r.5) I have taken possession for their highnesses with royal proclamation and the royal banner unfurled, and I was not challenged. The first island I found I gave the name St. Salvador in commemoration of His Great Majesty who wondrously all this has given. The Indians12 call it Guanaham.13 To the second I gave the name Santa María de la Concepción; to the third, Isla Ferrandina; to the fourth, Isla Bella;14 to the fifth Isla Juana,15 and so to each a new name.16 When I arrived at Juana, I followed (1r.10) the coast of the (island) westward and found it so extensive that I thought it must be a mainland, the Province of Cathay,17 and since I did not find villages and hamlets18 along the coast — except for small settlements19 of people with whom I could not speak because they all fled straightaway20 — I proceeded along the same course, intending not to miss great cities or towns, and at the end of many leagues, having seen that there was no change and that the coast was bearing me toward the north (1r.15), to which my will was contrary because winter was already coming in21, I was intending22 to make haste away from there23 toward the south, and in addition, the wind pushed me forward,24 (so) I decided not to wait there for the weather to turn25 and reversed course26 as far as a harbor that I had already charted27 from which I sent two men inland to find out if there were a king or great cities. They walked three days’ journey and found numberless small villages28 and people, but no sign of government,29 owing to which, they returned.30 I understood enough from the other Indians31 that I already had captured how (1r.20) this land was a single island,32 and so I followed the coast of it east for 107 leagues until it came to a cape33 from which I spotted another island to the east, (an island) separate from this34 by eighteen leagues,35 to which I then gave the name La (Isla) Española36 and sailed to it and followed the northern coast as with Juana to the east 178 great leagues in a straight line from the east, as with Juana,37 which, along with all the others, is most fortified38 to an extraordinary degree, and this one (i.e., Juana), particularly so.39 Here are many harbors on the coast of (1r.25) the sea without comparison among others that I know of in Christian lands40 and plenty of rivers — running so fresh and deep that it is wonderful.41 Her (i.e., Juana’s) lands are high, and she has many mountain ranges, and her highest mountains are without comparison among those at the island of Tenerife42 — all most beautiful, in a thousand shapes, and all accessible43 and filled with trees of a thousand varieties, so tall they seem to reach the sky, and I take it for truth that they never lose their leaves, according to what I can44 understand45 for I saw them so green and so handsome as they are around May in Spain, and some of them in flower, others with fruit, and others in another phase according to their species, and the nightingale was singing, along with a thousand varieties of other little birds in the month of November.46 Around where I sailed47 were palms of six or eight kinds, wonderful to see for their beautiful diversity, just as with the other trees and fruits and plants. On the island (i.e., Juana)48 are wondrous pine forests,49 and there are great meadowlands,50 and there is honey and many kinds of birds and a great variety of fruits. In the interior,51 there are many mines containing metal, and there are people of inestimable number.52 (1r.35) Española is a wonder: the mountains and green valleys,53 the meadows and fields, the earth so beautiful and substantial54 for planting and sowing, for raising livestock of all kinds, (and) for the buildings of villages and settlements. The harbors of the sea must be seen to be believed, and among the many large fresh-water rivers, the greater part of them bear gold.55 Among the trees and fruits and plants of Española there is great diversity compared with those yonder at Juana.56 On this island (Española),57 there are many fields of spices and large mines of gold and of other metals. (1r.40) The people of this island (Española) and of all the others that I have found and possessed or have had news of 58 all go naked, men and women, just as their mothers bore them59 although some women cover only one area with60 a plant leaf or piece of cotton61 that they make for it.62 They do not have iron nor steel nor weapons, nor are they suited for such, not because they are not well-proportioned and of fine stature,63 but because they are quite timorous — unbelievably so. (1r.45) They have no other weapons than those fashioned from canes gone to seed,64 onto which they set at the end a little sharpened stick,65 and they do not dare to make use of those, as I know, for many times it has occurred to me to send ashore two or three men (to) some settlement to try to talk to them,66 and people come out in droves to observe them (approach) (2v.1), but as soon as the men land, the natives flee (in such haste) that a father does not wait for his child,67 and this (reaction) is not because there has been any ill done to anyone before. At every cape68 where I have been and have been able to speak to them, I have given them everything I had — cloth, as well as many other things — without receiving for it a single thing in exchange, but they are that way, incorrigibly fearful.69 The truth is that after they reassure themselves and lose this fear,70 they are (1v.5) so guileless and so free with what they have71 that men would not believe it, except one who had seen it.72 Asked for something that they have, they never say, “No,” but rather accommodate the person with the thing73 and show so much love that they would give their hearts,74 no matter whether it be a thing of value or whether it be rather worthless, and for whatever trifling thing in any sort of condition that is given them in exchange for that item, they seem to be pleased.75 I prohibited76 the sailors from giving the islanders things so vile as shards of broken bowls and bits of broken glass and the (broken) ends of (1v.10) laces,77 although when they could end up with some of this stuff, it seemed to them to be the best jewel in the world. I know for a fact that a sailor in exchange for a strap78 (got) the weight of two and a half castellanos in gold,79 and others, for things of much lower value, got even more. Thus far, in exchange for new blancas80 they (the islanders) have given whatever they had, though (it) might be two or three castellanos in gold (given) for an arroba81 or two of spun cotton.82 Even the pieces of the broken hoops of the casks,83 the natives accepted and gave all they had, as if they were beasts,84 (1v.15) to the point that it seemed evil to me. I forbade it85 and personally have given the islanders a thousand good things86 that I had brought in order that they may accept our friendship,87 and above all,88 that they may become Christians who devote themselves to the love and service of their majesties and of all the Spanish people.89 Besides, they make an effort to support us, giving us things that they have in abundance that to us are essentials.90 Nor do they follow any cult or idolatry,91 save that they believe that the power and the good come from the heavens,92 and they would maintain steadfastly that I, with these ships and people,93 came from the heavens,94 and with such (1v.20) reverence,95 they would receive me in every place — after having lost their fear — though this fear does not arise because they lack knowledge or understanding, but on the contrary (they are) of very fine intelligence96 and men who sail all these seas, so that it is marvelous the careful account that they give of everything.97 Nay, (their timorousness) owes to their never having seen people clothed nor such ships as these.98 So as soon as I arrived in the Indies, at the first island that I found, I took some of them by force so that they might confide in us99 and tell me news of the things that were in those parts, and thus it was that soon they understood (us) (1v.25), and we them, whether by language or signs,100 and these people have given (us) much advantage.101 Even now I carry them with us, always holding to their notion that I come from the sky, (as I know) by means of many conversations they have held with me,102 and they would be the first to declare it wherever I would come ashore, and the others would go running from house to house and to nearby settlements, shouting, “Come! Come to see the people from the sky!”103 Thus all the men as well as women, after reassuring themselves of us,104 would come so that neither the greatest nor the smallest remained behind (1v.30), and everyone would come bringing things to eat and things to drink that they would offer (to us) with the greatest show of affection. They have in all the islands a great many canoes like rowing galleys,105 some larger, some smaller, and many larger than a galley of eighteen benches. They are not so wide (as rowing galleys) because each is made of only one timber,106 but a galley will not overtake them rowing107 because they move so fast that it is unbelievable,108 and with these they sail around all these islands — which are of infinite number — and deal in their goods.109 (1v.35) Some of these canoes I have seen with seventy and eighty men in them, each man with his oar. In all these110 islands, I didn’t see much difference in the physical features of the people,111 nor among the customs, nor in the languages. To the contrary, they all understand each other, a thing very noteworthy,112 owing to which I anticipate that their majesties will decide in favor of their conversion to113 our Holy Faith, to which they are very much disposed.114 Already I reported how I had gone 107 leagues along the coast of the sea, sailing a straight line from the west to the east around Isla Juana,115 according to (1v.40) which route, I can say that this island (Juana) is larger than England and Scotland taken together116 because beyond these 107 leagues, two provinces remain on the west side where I have not sailed,117 one of which they call Anau,118 where people are born with tails;119 these same provinces cannot be in extent fewer than 50 or 60 leagues, according to what one can understand from those Indians that I have (with me), who know all the islands.120 This other island, Española, in circumference measures greater than all of Spain from Col[ibre in Cata]lunya121 along the coast (1v.45) of the sea to Fuente Rauia in Viscaya,122 for I sailed around a quarter of it in a straight line for 188 great leagues west to east.123 This island is desirable, and once seen, never to be abandoned.124 On this island, as with all of them, I have taken possession on behalf of their majesties125; and all the islands may have greater resources126 (2r.1) than I know and am able to relate,127 and all the islands I have claimed for their majesties who may rule in them in the same way and as fully as in the kingdoms of Castilla.128 On this island of Española is129 the most manageable and best point of access130 to the gold mines and for all kinds of commerce, whether from the mainland here131 as from that yonder of the Great Khan, from whence there will be great trade and profits.132 I have taken possession of a large village (in Española) (2r.5) to which I have given the name La Navidad,133 and in this village, I have built fortifications and defenses134 that by now will be entirely finished, and I have left there people who will be sufficient for such a project, with arms and artillery and provisions for more than a year and a boat135 and a master in all the arts of the sea in order to make more.136 I have developed a great friendship137 with the King of that land to such degree that he would exalt himself138 by calling me and having me for a brother, and even though his will might move him to assault139 these people (at Navidad), neither he nor his people (2r.10) know what weapons are and go about naked.140 As I have already said, they are the most timorous people in the world, so that no more than the people remaining there are enough to destroy all that land, and it is an island without danger for their persons, so long as they know141 how to govern themselves. In all these islands, it seems to me that all the men are content with one wife, and to their overlord or king they give as many as twenty. It seems to me that the women work more than the men. Nor am I able to determine whether they have private property, in that it seemed to me that I noticed that of a thing (2r.15) that one had, all partook, especially of foodstuffs.142 In these islands up to now, I have not found misshapen men143 as some people might have expected. On the other hand,144 all the people are of very pleasant bearing,145 nor are they black as (people are) in Guinea, except for their straight, flowing hair,146 nor do they settle147 where there is excessive heat from the sun’s rays.148 It is true that the sun is very hot there since there is only a difference of twenty-six degrees from the Equator.149 In these islands where there are great mountains, there was150 (2r.20) intense cold this winter, but the people bear the cold by the custom of eating dishes with an abundance of many spices and quite excessively hot ones.151 So it is that of monsters, I haven’t had the slightest report,152 except for one island that is here, the second island in the gateway to the Indian Islands,153 that is settled by a people who are held among all the islands to be very fearsome; these people eat human flesh and have many canoes with which they go around all the Indian Islands robbing and carrying off however much they can. (2r.25) They are no more strange looking than the other islanders,154 except that these follow the custom of wearing their hair long like women,155 and they use bows and arrows like the other weapons of cane with a little stick at the end156 in the absence of iron, which they lack. They are fierce compared to the other nations157 that are cowardly to the greatest degree, but I hold them as no greater a threat than the others. These people are the ones who have dealings with the women of Matremonio,158 which is the first island one finds sailing from Spain to the Indies, wherein one encounters (2r.30) no men at all. The women do not practice feminine pursuits but use bows and arrows, like those aforementioned ones made of cane, and they arm themselves (with bows and arrows) and defend themselves with sheets of copper,159 of which they have a great deal. (There is) another island larger than La Española, they assure me, where the people have no hair on their heads.160 In this island there is endless gold, and from these islands and from the others,161 I am bringing with me Indians162 to give testimony. In conclusion, then, to speak only of things accomplished by this voyage — that was done, as you see, much on the run163 — so that their highnesses can see that I will give them gold in whatever quantity as may be necessary with (2r.35) the very small help that their majesties shall give me now; also many spices164 and cotton, as much as their majesties command to be shipped, and mastic165 — as much as they will have shipped — of which until today none has been found except in Greece on the island of Chios, and the Señorio sells it at whatever price they care to set,166 and liguñaloe167 in whatever quantity they will order it shipped, and slaves — as many as they will order shipped from among the idolaters.168 Further, I believe to have found rhubarb and cinnamon, and a thousand other things of value I will find because the people whom I am leaving there (at Navidad) will have found them.169 Because (2r.40) I have not lingered at any point as soon as the wind blew with me,170 but only in the village of Navidad (did I delay) until I might leave it secure and well established;171 the truth is that there is much more I might have done had the ships served me as one might have expected.172 This is enough,173 and [glory to]174 eternal God our Lord, who gives to all those who follow in His path victory over things that seem impossible. For this most assuredly was one such (victory) because in spite of men’s having spoken or written about these lands,175 it is all by means (2r.45) of conjecture without direct witness — people only grasping just so much as they would most often hear, and they would take it mainly for talk rather than for little grains of truth about (those lands).176 So it is, our Redeemer gave to our most enlightened king and queen and to their renowned kingdoms this victory, so noble a thing,177 wherein all (2v.1) Christians ought to take joy and hold great feast days and offer solemn prayers of thanksgiving to the Holy Trinity with many solemn prayers for the great glory that they will have in converting so many nations to our Holy Faith and afterwards, for material riches, for which not only Spain but all Christian lands, henceforward178 will have179 consolation and profit.180 This according to what was done, thus briefly. (2v.5) Done181 in the caravel182 off the Canary Islands183 on the fifteenth of February, the year 1493.184
Thy will be done,185 The Admiral
An attachment186 that came inside the Letter
After having written this letter, as we were sailing in the sea of Castilla,187 such a wind arose188 from the south and southwest that I was forced to lighten ship,189 but I have run in here today into this port of Lisbon, which was the greatest (2v.10) wonder in the world, and here I determined to write to their majesties. In all the Indies, I always found the weather190 there191 like in May (in Spain). I went there in thirty-three days and returned in twenty-eight, except for the storms that have detained me running for twenty-three days around this sea.192 All the men of the sea around here are saying that (2v.13) never has there been such a bad winter, nor such a great loss of vessels. Done on the fourteenth day of March.193
This letter Columbus sent to the Escribano de ración194 (2v.15) about the islands found in the Indies; enclosed with another to their majesties.195
Notes
1 It would seem that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries some English translation of the Latin Letter was likely to have been published, but I have not located one. Major, in the mid-nineteenth century, writes that the Edinburgh translation is the first English translation of the Letter and describes it as done “very loosely and without comment” (Select 1847 ii). Winsor also marks it as the first English translation (Christopher 17). A separate printing of the Edinburgh Review translation (having no print data) is collated with a Latin quarto held at the Library of Congress, whose catalog records the Edinburgh printing as the first English version of the Letter and says that it is based on the 1493 Basel edition. Because the translation omits the introductory and closing honorifics, it is virtually impossible to set the basis of the translation as a particular Latin version, so the statement may be based on a contemporary source. At the time of the translation, the British Museum may have owned the copy of the 1493 Basle edition that is now in the British Library.
2 Kettell’s Personal Narrative of the First Voyage contains his English translation of the Diario along with Fernández de Navarrete’s Simancas transcript translated into English (253–264). Kettell’s translation of the Latin Letter in his edition also appears to be based on the Latin version given in Fernández de Navarrete’s Viages. Bergenroth, mentioned elsewhere, made available an English-language summary of the manuscript in his Calendar (1862). Morison comments on the quality of the English translations of the Diario and cites their publication dates and venues (Journals 43). He wrote in 1939 that the best text of the Diario to that time was De Lollis’s in the Raccolta of 1892 (Texts 235). See “Columbus” in Works Cited and Publications of the Columbus Letter.
3 Major separates items perceived as agglutinated and imposes punctuation in the Spanish text; his translation notes are often helpful in their use of Dati’s Italian version to clarify the Quarto.
4 Jane’s comments on the Folio and other versions of the Letter are found in his introduction (cxxiii– cxliii). Morison, borrowing Jane’s description of others’ translations, writes that Jane’s translation of the Letter is “disfigured by numerous blunders” (181), yet it is useful for its notes and its reflection of its historical, critical, and linguistic milieu.
5 Citations from Morison’s translation here come from Journals (1963 182 ff.). His translation of the Letter is also found in Sanz (Secreto), and it was again published in Spain in 1959 and in a 1989 book published by USC Fine Arts, listed here in Publications of the Columbus Letter.
Morison’s expertise as a discovery period scholar and naval officer and historian, along with the Harvard Columbus Expedition of 1939–1940, which he planned and led (U.S. Navy), suggest that his work on the Letter’s maritime passages will be particularly attentive and grounded. In addition, Morison’s translation of the Letter had the support of J. D. M. Ford, a recognized authority on Old Spanish. Morison credits La parla marinera en el Diario del primer viage de Cristóbal Colón by Admiral Julio F. Guillén Tato, then director of Madrid’s Naval Museum, for insights into the Diario’s nautical terms (Journals 43). Fernández de Navarrete and Mauricio Obregón brought maritime perspectives to their respective studies of Columbus’s first voyage, and Jane’s translation notes to the Letter and the Diario show his efforts to be informed in marine contexts — though Morison observes that Jane’s “superior” work is, nevertheless, “careless on navigational matters” (Journals 43). Luis Marden, who wrote the “Foreword” to Fuson’s translation of the Diario, also traveled Columbus’s route. The translation notes here do not include the results of more recent translations, including that given in the English anniversary edition of the Raccolta, because these offer few distinctions that would contribute to the translation study.
6 Since 1982, Gil’s commentary and Varela’s text of the Letter (Textos y documentos) have been formative for most critical work on the Letter — or should have been. I cite, as usual, from the second printing of the second edition (1997). Recent translations such as that of Lucia Graves (Obregón) do not figure into the notes.
7 Translations, readings, and summaries of longer Diario passages are also cited here by folio number to be consulted in Sanz’s facsimile and/or in Dunn and Kelley.
8 For example, the word la referring to an island may be rendered as “the island,” or los referring to the inhabitants of the islands may be rendered “the natives” or “the islanders,” whom Columbus calls indios. Along with other works cited here, standard etymological dictionaries, like those compiled by Martín Alonso, Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke, and Joan Coromines, have served this translation. Also see Guillén Tato’s La parla marinera, referred to above, and Foster Provost’s specialized Columbus word list.
9 While “sir” is the current equivalent of señor, the medieval Sennor may be correctly translated as “Lord,” denoting a man of noble station; therefore, translating sennor into English as “My Lord” seems to reflect more clearly the nature of the addressee’s social and political status in 1493.
10 Though English does not reflect the distinction between “familiar” and deferential or formal modes of address, I take Columbus’s vos as a deferential rather than a familiar form of address to Santángel. Vos is used here with the second person plural form of address, recognized as deferential though its appearance here is considered a holdover from earlier usage, antiquated at this date.
11 Armada suggests a fleet fitted with guns. In his study of the sixteenth-century “Spanish Armada,” Garrett Mattingly writes that caravels were among “types of small coasters, sometimes used in war” (xvii), and he notes that merchant ships could be armed (xvi).
12 The first naming in print of the people of the present-day Caribbean islands as “Indios.” Indios appears three more times in the Letter, at 1r.19, 1v.43, and 2r.33.
13 Guanaham is probably a misreading of the original manuscript’s minims or those of the printer’s fair copy. Kerney: Guanahanî (15). Thacher: Guanahani (21). Morison: Guanahani (sic 182a).
Efforts to set the first landfall generally begin with the Diario. Major notes that at his time (1870), Santa María de la Concepción is “Long Island”; that Ferrandina is “Great Exuma”; that Isla Bella is “Saometo or Crooked Island”; and that Juana is “Cuba” (2, notes 2–5). A map attributed to G. W. Colton and based on German journalist and artist Rudolf Cronau’s replication voyage accompanies Emilio Castelar’s essay and shows Columbus’s Santa María de la Concepción as Rum Cay and “Yuma Fernandina” as Long Island, along with other distinctions, though some of the designations are ambiguous because of the size of the reproduction. Cronau undertook the mapping project in 1890 in anticipation of the anniversary, and he shows Columbus’s first landing at Watlings Island (Castelar 683; Cronau 10–11, 13 ff.). Cronau eliminates other nominations for the first landing — Samana Cay, Mariguana (Varnhagen), and Grand Turk (Fernández de Navarrete) — that others also considered (14-15). A similiar map is given in Cronau’s monograph (33).
Morison notes (Journals 65–66 n. 5) that the Spanish had no reason to make “good charts” of the Bahamas and that the consensus that Watlings Island was Guanahani was disrupted by twentieth-century voyages, but the Harvard Expedition of 1939-1940, Edzer Roukema’s study (1959), the Morison-Obregon expedition (Morison and Obregón 1964), and Obregón, working solo after Morison’s death in 1976, again confirmed Watlings. See Morison (ibid.) and Obregon (Papers 16– 24). Morison describes Captain Roukema as a “Dutch master mariner” (Journals 66 n. 5).
While subsequent determinations, based on computer models, sailing the route, and archeology, have settled on Samana Cay — a NG expedition resulted in Luis Marden’s and Joseph Judge’s tentative conclusion of Samana Cay in 1986 — a reconstruction whose results were published in 1987, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, again nominated Watlings (Goldsmith and Richardson). See articles by Marden and Judge, mentioned above, along with two brief features on the landfall in the same issue of the magazine; for the latter, no authors are given, and both are attributed here with “(?)” to Judge and Marden. See also America before Columbus (National Geographic Channel) for a useful “bonus program” on the computer-aided landfall search; the feature does not identify its participants, but Judge provides narration, and (I believe) anthropologist Charles Andrew Hoffman, who studied the landfall, and Nancy Watford Hoffman also appear in the video.
14 Kerney: Fair Island [sic] (22); Thacher notes that the “Catalonian printer” has made what must have been La Ysabella in the original copy text (as it is in the Quarto printing) into La Isla Bella (21 n.1). Morison notes that this is a “[m]isprint for Isabela, the name [Columbus] gave to Crooked Island” (187 n. 2).
15 Bernáldez stipulates, “Joana en memoria del Principe D. Joan” (271).
16 Note that punctuation and one of the capitals to this point have reading or grammatical logic behind them, but this logic is soon abandoned.
Literal English translations of the islands’ names are as follows: San Salvador = Holy Savior; Santa María de la Concepción = St. Mary of the (Immaculate) Conception; Isla Bella = Beautiful Island. Isla Bella creates a play on the queen’s name that is mostly lost in English, and Ferrandina and Juana are feminized forms (accommodating isla) to honor the king and Prince Juan.
17 Clements R. Markham suggests that Columbus remained in some disbelief that this land was an island in spite of the assurance from natives he had taken that it was so life (98).
18 Based on villas y lugares (1r.11). Among the more than two thousand instances of villa found in the fifteenth-century documents featured in Mark Davies’s Corpus (Español), are many examples like villa o lugar, villa o posada, villa o ciudad, and similar doublets and triplets with the same elements, along with villa de Madrid and villa de Ualladolid so that “town” appears to be a sound translation. In the same chronological context in Davies’s Corpus, the phrase un lugar, often used in a more general sense as it is today, also may describe some organized, named locale, and suggests a smaller (un lugar o rincón) civic entity, whose name may not be known outside the locale, a “hamlet” or “village” or “small settlement.”
19 Among the fifteenth-century uses of the word poblaciones featured in Davies’s Corpus, Columbus documents comprise about half the instances. Expressions like villas o poblaciones and ciudades y [et, e] poblaciones suggest its loose — but perhaps comparative — parameters of usage. The Moors, for example, won poblaciones y tierras, and poblaciones may be “large” as well as “small.” The sixteenth-century citations of poblaciones (Davies, Corpus) show a significant increase in frequency (262 citations) even with duplications considered, and the overwhelming majority are located in writings connected with the New World. Kerney: “hamlets” (22).
20 1r.12: “All fled straightaway,” i.e. as soon as we were sighted.
21 Kerney: “winter was already confronting us” (22) with the corresponding note on encarado or encarando as correcting the Folio’s encarnado. Varnhagen suggested entrado for encarnado (Major 2 n. 8).
22 1r.15: tenía propósito: “I had the intention.” Aspectually tenía indicates a state of mind whose outcome is uncertain as presented in the moment of speech or writing.
23 i.e., “from it,” with “it”as “the North,” or “the winter.”
24 1r.16: me dio adelante: i.e., pushed me to the North. Major: “the winds were contrary” (3). Kerney: “the wind also blew against me” (22). Morison: “the wind was favorable” (182b). Varela interprets: “En el sentido que el viento le empujó” [In the sense that the wind pushed him] (220 n. 4). It seems that the wind is favorable in the moment, but Columbus’s sense is that it is likely to change direction and go against him.
25 1r.16: determine deno aguardar otro tiempo: I decided not to stay there (waiting for) other (a turning of) weather (wind).
26 Kettell: “and accordingly put about” (254).
27 1r.16–17: un señaldo puerto = indicated, notable, a port already known. Kerney: “a port agreed upon” (22). The two interpretations are complementary in that the expedition’s leaders might have agreed upon returning to a certain (natural) port they had noted. Columbus cites a good many fine ports in the Diario in these days.
28 Bernáldez’s account elaborates the word poblaciones as made “todas de madera o paja” [all (made) of wood or straw], indicating that poblaciones might intend here a small, informal (appearing) settlement or community of people (27), as Major writes, “hamlets” (3).
29 1r.18–19: regimiento: implying a “regulated” settlement, a community with some form of “civic organization.” Kerney: “nought of ruling authority” (22). Varela concurs: “En el sentido de que no tenían ninguna organización ni gobierno” [In the sense that they didn’t have (civic) organization or government] (220 n. 6).
30 See the Diario for reference to a two-man expedition that leaves on 2 November, is referred to on November 4, and returns on November 6.
31 1r.19: otros in the sense that they are not among those found on the land. These captive islanders probably come from Guanahaní (San Salvador). See the Diario entries from October 11 (that includes events of 12 October)–16 for pertinent references.
32 1r.19–20: como continuamente esta tierra era Isla, i.e., there is no break dividing the land along the coast; continuamente seems to be emphatic here to demonstrate perhaps that Columbus’s original hope for a large island is answered. Morison writes that the syntax leaves the question of what continuamente modifies open to interpretation (187 n.5).
33 1r.21: cabo: “lugar lateral o extremo” or “fin, término.” Martín Alonso (Diccionario) shows this use in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
34 Editors and translators since Kerney (22) have emended distinta to distante (1r.21). Distinta, might be rationalized as a contrast with continuamente era Isla just above, with which Columbus perhaps suggests that he is hoping for large islands and is gratified to find one, but at this point, there is another visible but “distinct” (unconnected) body of land lying in the distance. Supporting this idea, one finds that in Bartolomé’s Historia, he writes that on the second voyage, Columbus names an island “creyendo que era otra isla distincta” (chapter CXXXIV). Cronau’s comments on his progressive views of Concepción and Rum Cay from the schooner Richmond in the fall of 1890 are of interest in this matter: he writes that Concepción “appeared sometimes like three, at other times like four, five, and even like six separate islands, no connection being visible between them. The same illusion forced itself upon me in regard to Rum Cay” (20–21). Cronau makes reference to the Juan de la Cosa map as corroborating Columbus’s view of Concepción (21). See 2r.19 for the passage recording that the islands are distinta from the equator by twenty-six degrees.
35 Emending the reading from eight or ten to accord with the MS 1r.21, dies e ocho [eighteen], and Plannck F (1v ) seems to make better sense than the Folio’s range of reversed numbers. Kerney’s 1891 translation emends (o > y ) for “eighteen” (22). From points at and south of Punta de Maisi, Cuba, along the cape, the nearest landings directly across to Haiti (along the cape around Jean-Rabel), for example, might be around 100 kilometers — or 18 leagues — distant.
36 Translated into English as “Spanish Island” (from la [isla] spañola) and transcribed from the Letter by various interpreters as “Española,” “Hispañola,” or “Hispaniola,” the name appears here, as it does in Bartolomé’s mediation (la isla española), as “Española,” but I do not extend ñ for obvious reasons. Peter Martyr Latinizes it to “Hispaniola” (78).
37 This repetition appears in each of the Spanish texts though with a possible distinction in pointing (punctuation) in the MS at 1r.23. Recent commentators such as Varela (221) have noted that como dela iuana (1r.22–23) is probably an inadvertent duplication. Note that al oriente (1r.22) and del oriente (1r.23) stand in contrast. The Latin quae dicta Iohana following the number of miles offers the possibility of a new clause: “the aforementioned Juana” (and the other islands there …).
38 1r.24: fortissimas has created difficulties for the Spanish Letter’s editors and translators, and most alter to fertilissimas in concert with Plannck F’s fertilissime (1v). Either way, Columbus’s series of three superlative/comparative modifying phrases also creates problems.
The Spanish texts of the Letter agree on this word (Q. 1v.5: fortissimas; MS 1r.24: fortissimas), and González and Fernández de Navarrete keep it. Major: “extraordinarily large” (4). Kerney: “most strong to an excessive degree” with the note that fortissimos “should be fertilisimos [sic]: most fertile” (22). Thacher: “very large to an excessive degree” (21). Morison: “very fertile to an excessive degree” (182b). Ramos suggests that fortissimas (MS.) should be taken as “abruptas” or “escabrosas” (without mention of degree) and observes that “fertil” would be an unlikely way to describe a coast (Primera 125), and I concur with Ramos’s latter statement.
Though “fertile” does not seem to suggest a coastal description, Columbus uses it in the Diario to describe his view of the islands, perhaps because they are “lush” with vegetation. Fortissimas is more Latin than Spanish; in Latin, it means the “strongest” or “rockiest” or “most stalwart/steadfast” or, more literally in this context, the “most fortified” coast, suggesting a favorable configuration for coastal defenses and for the “stability” of foundations in building and settlement. Flat, sandy beaches could not offer these immediate advantages. Fortifications and building are matters with which Columbus concerns himself in the Letter (1r. 36–37) and in many passages of the Diario; see 4, 12, 16, 27 November, based on sailing around Juana, for example.
As to Juana’s coast being “particularly so” (1r.24 esta enestremo), Columbus’s observations on Juana in the Diario entries for 16 and 27 November especially suggest that fortissimas may be intentional though, certainly, Columbus also remarks the “fertile” land of Juana and other islands in the Diario, as has been noted. On the matter of a “most fortified” coast at Juana, Bartolomé’s summary in the 16 November entry reads, “there, a height of stone and a rock for[m] a cape, at whose foot it was very deep so that the biggest carrack in the world could set its deck alongside the land [… and] it seemed to him that a fortress could be made there with little effort” (25r.1-7). “A height of stone “is a literal translation, but a word may be missing; el bordo appears in the 15th century, according to results so far recorded in Mark Davies’s Corpus, only in Columbian documents, but in the sixteenth century el bordo appears several times where the sense of “the ship’s deck” seems accurate. I suggest that Columbus is creating an image of the height of the “rock” as well as of the depth of the water and lack of impediments at its edge allowing the ship’s deck and land to meet. The problems here are similar to those that Eleanor Cook points to in translating Dante’s description in Canto 28 of a fountain as “salda e certa” (28:124), rendered in various effective ways through the history of Dante translation; Cook takes the Vulgate Hebrews 6:19 “tutam ac firmam” as the spirit of the phrase and Tyndale’s “sure and steadfast” English translation as a telling rendering of Dante’s phrase (Cook 9), and one that finds an echo in fortissimas.
39 The descriptive narrative digression that follows (1r.24–35), I take to be concerned with Juana rather than Española. Bernáldez takes these passages as referring to Española (272) and without being explicit, Morison casts them as meant for Juana.
40 Bernáldez writes, “en ella ai muchos Puertos de mar muy singulares sin conparación de buenos, e los mejores que en tierra de Christianos se pueden hallar …” [on (the island) are many sea ports, quite striking, without equal among good ones, and (even) the best ones (that) can be found in Christian lands] (Memorias I 272).
41 Columbus describes the rivers as buenos y grandes. Kettell: “large and beautiful” (255). Kerney: “good and great” (22).
I interpret these adjectives as I have because what would make rivers on islands “good” is their waters being fresh (rather than salt or brackish). The literal “good” and “large,” as Morison translates (182b) may suggest that their width and depth indicates year-round waters, suitable for barges and boats; useful, then, in establishing settlements, conducting agriculture, and raising animals, and in mining and commerce.
42 1r.27: centre frei. This result has been universally adopted as intended to be “Tenerife,” owing to several comparisons with Tenerife given in the Diario. Varnhagen’s transcription of his Sanfelices MS gives “Teneryfe” (6). Someone — the copyist of the original or the compositor from his fair copy — apparently saw an unfamiliar word and took t for c and eri as tre and saw the f as sufficiently separate to suggest a new word. Tenerife is quite mountainous, with hills descending onto the beach or into the sea. Major: “Cetefrey,” noting variants (4). Kerney: “very many ranges of hills, and most lofty mountains incomparably beyond the Island of Centrefrei,” noting that it “Ought to be Tenerife” (22–23). Also see Thacher’s interesting note (22 n. 1).
43 1r.27: mil fechuras refers to the shapes of the mountains.
44 1r.29: taking puede [he can] > puedo [I can] rather than puede for pude [I could], with the logic of the rest of the passage and the slender basis of the manuscript reading, for which see the line in the edition. Varela records “pu[e]de” reading as preterit, “I could” (223). In considering a composing error, puede for pude, note pueden a few words before.
45 Kerney: “And I am assured that they never lose their foliage; as may be imagined …” (23). Morison: “; and I am told that they never lose their foliage, which I can believe” (183a).
46 Bernáldez clarifies: e alli … cantaban Ruiseñores e otros Pájaros en el mes de Noviembre como hacen acá en Mayo [and there … the nightingales and other birds were singing in the month of November as they do here in May] (I 272). See the Diario entries for 17 and 23 October for similar declarations. Columbus ends the entry for 11 (–12) October by writing that he has seen no “beasts” at Guanahaní except for papagayos.
47 Morison: “… in the month of November there where I went. There are palm trees …” (183a).
48 1r.33: en ella = on the island, i.e., Juana. Kerney: “… plants therein. There are …” (23). Morison: “plants; therein are …” (183a). I continue to interpret this section as referring to Juana.
49 1r.33: pinares, as a grove or forest of pine trees appears twice in the Letter and signifies a tree that Columbus was able to compare to an Old World species.
50 1r.33: canpiñas is a variant of campo (Coromines), attested as early as 1295. Penny gives campiña [area of cultivated land] as a Latin-based “probable” Mozarabic word adopted by Castilian (History 271). Kerney: “very large plains of verdure” (23). Morison: “extensive meadow country” (183a).
51 1r.34: en las tierras refers, I think, to the “interior lands.” Bernáldez’s tierra firme is reasonably read in the sense of inland areas used for farming, industry, settlement, and transportation (275). Kerney: “In the earth there are” (23). Morison: “Upcountry there are” (183a). Just below, at Folio 1r.36, Columbus refers to fields to be planted as tierras.
52 Varela notes that the final words of the phrase at 1r.35 (instimabile numero) are a Latin expression from Job 36: 26 (221 n.11). The passage reads, “Ecce Deus magnus vincens scientiam nostram numerus annorum eius inaestimabilis” [Behold God is great beyond our knowledge, the number of his years inestimable]. The Latin phrase without the intervening text is, then, numerus inaestimabilis. Material objects (islands, ships, settlements, people, fine things) are frequently “beyond counting” in medieval travel literature.
53 1r.35: uegas (vegas), fertile land, probably the level land (plains) in the mountain valleys, green, with lush vegetation and, because of the level terrain and sheltering mountains, convenient for planting or grazing.
54 1.36: gruesa here seems to refer to the soil type and implies coarseness or heaviness, probably as opposed to the sand that one would expect near the shores of an island and that would be inhospitable to some crops essential to Spanish culture and to foundations for substantial buildings. Gruesa might be translated (optimistically) as “loamy,” indicating a soil having substance. Kerney, Thacher, Jane, and Morison give “rich.” Columbus’s gruesa (L. grossus) is Spanish (Portuguese, grosso; Catalan, gros; Italian grosso), according to Meyer-Lübke. I find no use of gruesa describing land for farming or building cited by Coromines, Meyer-Lübke, or others.
55 Kerney: “as well as the many and great rivers, and excellent waters, most of which contain gold” (23). Morison: “and so the rivers, many and great, and good streams, the most of which bear gold” (183-a).
56 This might be translated as “with Juana’s (over) there.”
57 1r.39 en esta, I suggest, refers to Española (rather than to Juana, the nearest noun to esta), and using aquellas in this clause to refer to Juana’s flora, along with a repeated use of esta at the head of the next clause (La gente desta isla), tends to back up that reading. These deictics perhaps point to Columbus’s spatial location at the writing: “on this (island).” Kerney: “In this, [comma],” noting, “i.e. Hispaniola” (23). Morison: “; in this [island]” [sic] (183a).
58 This reading is problematic, and most translators read the first hauido as a part of a doublet with the phrase ni aya hauido (1r.40–41). Major: “I have found or gained intelligence of” (5). Kerney: “that I have found and seen, or not seen” (23). Morison: “I have found and seen, or have not seen” (183a). See the notes to Folio 1r.40–41.
59 See Gil’s discussion of Columbus’s vacillations with plurals, especially those in the Diario as recorded by Bartolomé and the Letter (54–55, esp. 54, ¶ 2). Kerney: “just as their mothers bring them forth” (23).
60 Kettell: “wear at the loins” (256).
61 Kerney: “or a cotton something” (23). Morison: “or with a net of cotton” (183a).
62 1r.43: para ello = for it, i.e., for the place they are covering, or else for the purpose of covering it. Bernáldez elaborates this section, demonstrating more curiosity than is in evidence here (272– 273): Las gentes…andaban todos desnudos, asi hombres como mugeres como nacieron tan sin empacho, e tan sin verguenza, como las gentes de Castilla vestidos [sic]: algunas mugeres traian cogido un solo lugar abajo con una hondilla de Algodon. e [sic] con una cuerda a la cintura por entre las piernas, que cubrian no mas de lo bajo por honestidad, otros traian tapado aquello con una oja de árbol que era larga e propio para ello: otras traian una mantilla texida con algodon, recinchada que cubria las caderas, e fasta medio muslo, e creo que esto traian quando parian [The people all went about naked, men and women alike as they were born without embarrassment or shame, as do the people of Castilla (when they are) dressed; some women wore over one place down below a little sling of cotton with which they cover no more than the lower part for shame; others covered that (lower area) with a tree leaf that was long and rightly shaped for it; others wore a small cloth woven of cotton fastened around that covered the hips to the mid-thigh, and I think that they wore this when they were pregnant] (272–273). See the “words of the Admiral” section at the end of the Diario entry for 11 October, which covers in the majority of its text 12 October at Guanahaní (San Salvador). In this entry, Columbus writes (through Bartolomé’s transcript) his impressions of the natives, remarking that “it seemed to him” that the people were lacking in everything — pobre de todo — and he immediately describes their complete lack of clothing as if to give a proof of their poverty. On 16 October, he writes that the women of Fernandina wear “in the front” a little cotton that barely covers their private parts (su natural). Consult Lardicci’s Synoptic edition, which will lead the researcher through passages of interest in the several treatments. See, for example, the Historia’s chapter XLII for Bartolomé’s treatment of this theme.
63 Columbus conveys the idea that they are indeed sufficiently “athletic,” fit for war and physical conflict; bien dispuesta = well-proportioned, as opposed to put together in some “monstrous” way. Major: “well-formed and of handsome stature” (6). Kerney: “well-formed people and of fair stature” (23). Morison: “well-built people of handsome stature” (183b). Also see the Diario for 11 and 13 October, for example, for related expressions.
64 1r.45: las cannas quando estan conla simiente: “when they are gone to seed.”
65 Bernáldez describes these weapons as “canes and sticks without iron and with a sharpened thing at the end: de cañas y de varas sin fierro, con alguna cosa aguda en el cabo (1962 274). Kettell: “They have an instrument consisting of a cane, taken while in seed, and headed with a sharp stick, but they never venture to use it” (256). Major: “reeds cut in seeding time,” noting a probable comparison to similar plants used by “the natives of Guiana” (6).
66 1r.47: hauer fabla = to hold speech/conversation, to gather information; these men would make contact with the natives and attempt to communicate with them to obtain ideas about the land and people and to note the nature of settlements and civic organization to report those matters to Columbus.
67 Bernáldez: e salir a ellos gente sin numero, e despues que los vían [sic] llegar a cerca fuían todos, e no parava uno con otro [Countless people would emerge, but seeing (the Spaniards) draw near, all would flee, none stopping (to aid) another] (ibid. ). Kettell: “whole multitudes have taken to flight at the sight of them” (256). Major: they “would flee with such precipitation that a father would not even stop to protect his son” (6).
68 Major: “wherever I went” (6). Kerney: “At every headland” (23). Morison: “At every point” (183b).
69 Major (7) and Kerney (23): “incurably timid.”
70 Kettell: “After they have shaken off their fear of us” (257).
71 Kettell: “they display a frankness and liberality in their behavior” (257).
72 Note the move from a plural (creerian; Mod. Sp. creerían) implying a nonspecific plural like “men” as its subject in the first clause to el, a singular subject like “one” or “he” in the second clause. Varela suggests that creerian may be an error for the singular (222).
73 Kettell: “No request of anything from them is ever refused, but they rather invite acceptance of what they possess” (257).
74 According to Morison and Obregón, these generous and trusting natives were the Bahamian Arawaks (22).
75 Kettell: “[they] receive anything which is tendered in return with perfect content” (257). Kerney: “they are straightways content with whatsoever trifle of whatsoever kind may be given them” (23). See the entries for 17, 21, and 22 October in the Diario for some of the items the Spanish used for gifts and for bartering with the natives.
76 This is first instance of defendi, which might be translated as “I shielded —” or “I protected —,” but here (and below) it is used in the sense of “I forbade —” or “prohibited —”; therefore, in the sense of shielding the innocent from a practice perceived as unethical. See 1v.15 as well.
77 Major: “pieces of broken porringers … and ends of straps” (7). Kerney: “fragments of broken platters, … and strap-buckles” (23). Morison: “pieces of broken crockery … and lace points” (183b).
1v.9–10: dagugetas < de + agugetas, as laces or strips of leather (or woven material) used to hold shoes or articles of clothing on the body (Mod. Sp. agujetas). Bourne (1906) gives agugetas and defines it as “a leather lacing or strap” and the translation of the “ends” as “the metallic tips of lacings or straps” (266 n. 1). See the following note.
78 1v.11: agugeta. Major: “a leather strap” (7). Morison: “a lace point” (183b). An interpolation (underscored) seems to clarify the event: se acerto hauer vn marinero por una agugeta [algo] de oro de peso de dos castellanos y medio. The wording of this phrase in the Letter may be ambiguous, but Bernáldez is clear: Alli acaescio a un marinero, por una agujeta, aver peso de dos castellanos de oro e mas [There it happened that one sailor for a strap got the weight of two castellanos and more of gold] (ibid.).
79 1v.11: castellanos: Bourne (1906) writes that the castellano “was one-sixth of an ounce of gold” (266 n. 2). Jane notes in 1492, the castellano “was worth 490 silver maravedis” and that its weight “has been estimated at 46 decigrammes” (9 n. 1). See also the note to 1v.13, below.
80 1v.12: blancas, according to Major, are “[s]mall copper coins, equal to about the quarter of a farthing” (7 n. 2). Bourne records that “Blancas were little coins worth about one-third of a cent” (266 n. 3). Jane notes that the blanca is a “copper coin, worth half a maravedi” (9), as does Morison, adding (in the 1960s) that the value was “about a third of a cent” (187 n. 8).
81 1v.13: castellanos and arroua (from Arabic) represent units of weight in gold and in (agricultural or manufactured) goods, respectively. Major in 1870 identifies the castellano as an “old Spanish coin, equal to the fiftieth part of a mark of gold” (7 n. 1). Martín Alonso writes that an arroba was 11 kg., 502 gm., roughly eleven-and-a-half kilograms or 25 pounds (Diccionario). The 25-pound measurement may come from a source like the Ordenanzas reales of Alonso Díaz de Montalvo printed in 1484 (text, John O’Neill), recorded in Davies’s Corpus: “en la libra dos marcos & en el arroua veynte & çinco libras destas & en el quintal çien libras destas [in the pound, two marks & in the arroba 25 of these pounds & in the hundredweight (centner) 100 of these pounds] (see Incunabula Cited under Álvaro de Castro). Jane stipulates that these are “pounds” of 14 ounces (Voyages 9). Fernández Armesto translates as “bushel,” a unit of volume rather than a unit of weight, though the U.S. has standard bushel weights for certain agricultural products. The cargo lists given in Enrique Otte Sander’s Sevilla, siglo VI include the entries 106 pipas de 25 arrobas (149–150 for example) and 20 pipas y 40 arrobas de aceite (137).
82 Kettell: “The whole of an indian’s [sic] property might be purchased of him for a few blancas, this would amount to two or three castellanos’ value of gold, or the same of cotton thread” (257).
83 Morison is more specific, writing “wine casks” (184a). A pipa might contain water, vinegar, or oil as well. The phrases pipas de vino, pipas de aceite, and pipas de harina appear frequently in cargo lists given by Otte Sander in Sevilla, siglo XV (146, 158, for examples). Otte Sander explains that pipa is a unit of cargo (56). See Otte Sander’s chapter 3 (“El comercio exterior”) for exports of wine and other products (158–162). Besides a citation from Otte Sander (160), “arcos de hierro” appears in Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa’s Compendio y descripción de las Indias Occidentales (originally published in 1600): dos pipas con arcos de hierro (Davies’s Corpus). Otte Sander points to wooden hoops made of hazel and chestnut in one instance (116) while other citations (118, for example) are not specific about the material.
84 Kettell: “with the greatest simplicity” (257). Major: “like fools” (8). Kerney: “like senseless brutes” (24).
85 The reading of the Diario entry for 4 November where Martín Alonso Pinzón is recorded as bringing Columbus two bits of a spice that the Spaniards were supposing to be cinnamon (canela) implies that Columbus had entirely banned the Spaniards’ taking anything from the natives. Pinzón reports that one of the Portuguese men on his ship had seen a native with two big bunches (handfuls) of this spice, but that the sailor was afraid to try to trade [Por. resgatar as “redeem, recover”] for it because of “the penalty the admiral had imposed [por la pena quel almirante tenia puesta], that none of them should trade” [que nadie resgatase] (Diario f. 20v). On December 22, in “the words of the Admiral,” Columbus mandates a practice of giving “something in exchange” because the natives are generous (and guileness).
86 Major: “a thousand good and pretty articles” (8). Kerney: “a thousand useful things” (24).
87 1v.15–16: por que tomen amor might be “that they might accept our goodwill.” Major: “in order to win their affection” (8). Kerney (seconded by Thacher and Jane): “that they may conceive affection” (24). Morison: “that they might be fond of us” (184a).
88 1v.16: allend a desto is used figuratively: “beyond or above this.” See below, at the comparison using “England and Scotland together,” for the literal sense of allende (1v.40) to describe distance. Also see the Diario entry for 14 February for another figurative use: Allende los votos generales o comunes [Beyond the general vows or those shared in common].
89 Major: “the whole Spanish nation” (8). Kerney: “all the Castilian nation” (24).
Like Major (8), Jane continues the sense of this sentence into the next, with the natives “striv[ing] to aid us [Spain] and to give us of the things …” (8 sic). See the following note as well.
90 Kerney: “they strive to combine in giving us things which they have in abundance, and of which we are in need” (24). Morison: “in order that they … furthermore might … try to help us and to give us of the things which they have in abundance and which are necessary to us” (184a). It is reasonable to extrapolate that native coöperation with Columbus in the moment is seen as a portent of future serviceability because Columbus has the intention early in his contact with the natives to win their goodwill with kindness and generosity so that they will give good reports of the Spanish as Columbus sails the islands and in later times, will receive the Spanish well and aid them. See, for example, the Diario entry for October 15th, about three days after the first landfall and before Columbus has landed at Fernandina.
91 While idolatría (1v.18) carries a fairly clear meaning, secta is interpreted here in the sense of there being a system of religious practices that Columbus would have found unacceptable in the context of his Christian beliefs, an impression he would have formed from visual and/or aural witness. The idea of secta as a subgroup of a wider religious community, as we may think of the word used in the context of the medieval Church, would have been impossible in this context. In English “sect” and “cult” are somewhat ambiguously differentiated today, and a truer translation here might be merely “religion. “The Diario qualifies the observation (1 November): they follow no secta que yo conozca [sect that I know of], but on 12 November, the observation shows greater certainty: yo vi y conozco … que esta gente no tiene secta ninguna [I saw (witnessed) and know … that this people follow no sect at all]. Columbus first mentions their apparent lack of a religious system in the entry for 11 October (“the Admiral’s words). Also see the following note.
92 This section on the beliefs of the natives precedes the reassurance of their intelligence in Bernáldez’s account. Bernáldez elaborates slightly: “les parescio que todos creian en dios de los cielos … y creian que alli era la fuerça y santidad toda” [to them (Columbus’s people) it seemed that they all (the natives) believed in the God of Heaven … and they believed that there lay all power and holiness] (ibid.).
José J. Arrom’s groundbreaking study of the linguistic roots of the naming and nature of the Taíno’s Supreme Spirit (1980) supports Columbus’s conclusion that the people associated their “Great Lord” as the “source of good” with the heavens. Arrom’s analysis takes accounts written by monks Ramón Pané (whose historical study of the natives Arrom edited) and Bartolomé, both contemporaries of Columbus, as its starting points. According to Pané, Taíno comes from the native word nitaíno, a term used to refer to an elite class among them; for a densely informative discussion on the topic and a thorough bibliographic background on Taíno social stratification and culture at the time of their contact with the Spaniards based on archeological and documentary records, see Kathleen Deagan’s 2004 article (esp. 600 –603). Also see Raymond Breton’s Caribbean language dictionary.
93 Kerney: “crew” (24).
94 Kerney (24) and Morison (184a): “sky.”
95 Major: “with this belief” (8); Kerney: “in such opinion” (24). Morison: “in this belief” (184a). At 1v.26, Columbus begins decribing the Spaniards’ reception by the natives in more detail. See also the Diario entry for 6 November describing the reverential ceremony of hand-kissing and hospitality with which Columbus’s landing party described their being received.
96 Bernáldez: E esto non porque ellos fuesen tan inocentes e de tan poco entender; que sabed que es gente muy aguda e de sotil ingenio [And this was not because they might be so naïve or of such slight capacity; may you know that these are people of very discerning and subtle intellect] (ibid. 274–275).
97 Arrom characterizes the Taíno (people) as “skilled farmers,” “excellent fishermen,” and “bold seamen” (22). In addition to his statements about their skill on the water, Columbus also notes several times in the Diario that the lands are “worked” (13 December on Española, for example).
98 Kettell: “giving a remarkably good account of every part, but do not state that they have met with people in clothes, or ships like ours” (258).
99 The “first island” Columbus records, he calls San Salvador. 1v.24: desprendiesen is interpreted here in the sense of “they might disburden themselves,” a figurative sense that one find elsewhere in Spanish for prender. This sense is consistent with the second member of the doublet “me diesen notia.” Martín Alonso (Diccionario) gives prender as agarrar, sujetar una cosa, coger, tomar, recibir. Penny (Ife) notes that prender meaning “‘steal, seize’” (agarrar, coger) was “probably obsolete by the end of the fifteenth century,” but that Columbus uses it “in this sense” perhaps because prender retains that meaning in Portuguese and Genoese (xxx). This point may deserve further study in that conjugated forms of prender appear to be used frequently in this very sense, literally or figuratively, in various kinds of discourse into the seventeenth century, for which see entries for prende, prenden, etc., in Davies’s Corpus. Latin prendere, too, has the sense of “grasp” or “seize,” and the Spanish prefix des-, expressing a reversal of action, like “away from, break from,” attached to Spanish prender is consistent with contemporary and later usage, here suggesting that the Indians “might ‘give up’ what they know” of the islands. Note also examples like desayunar, deshacer, despedir, and others with prefixes of des- and dis- from Menéndez Pidal’s Manual (§126 and 347–348). Varela has desprender equivalent to aprender. Morison: “in order that they might learn [Castilian] and give me information of what they had in those parts” (184a).
100 Kettell: “We succeeded ere long, in understanding one another, by signs and words” (258). Kerney: “what by speech and what by signs” (24). The Diario entry of 27 November speaks of Columbus’s impression that there is a common language, of the language barrier, of his misunderstanding the natives on board, and of his intention to learn the language and to have it taught to others.
101 Fernández de Navarrete, Kerney, Jane, and others break the sentence following mucho. Folio 1v.25 and Quarto 2v.19 show no punctuation at this point; MS 1v.75 indicates a break.
102 Morison interprets por las muchas conversaciones que hayan hauido conmigo (1v.26) as “in spite of all the intercourse which they have had with me” (184a).
103 This narrative appears in the Diario entry for 14 October.
104 Kettell: “having gathered confidence” (259).
105 1v.31, etc.: fusta. Guillén Tato defines fusta as a small type of galley [galera], a long craft propelled by oars and sometimes with lateen sails (69–70). Mattingly writes that galleys “were warships purely” and that “they usually cruised under sail, but used oars in battle” (xvii). Here, Columbus distinguishes the canoa from a European galley with both sail and oar as fusta de remo in that it works by oar only. Major: “row-boats” (9). Kerney: “rowing-galleys” (24). Jane describes a fusta as a “light-oared vessel of not more than three hundred tons” (11). The Latin gives scaphas solidi ligni; scapha (f.), as a skiff (though a skiff has a flat bottom), launch (pre-motorized), or rowboat; solidi (sing. n. gen.), here meaning “entirely” may be taken by editors to mean “solid”; and ligni (sing. n. gen.), here, as hewn wood. Concerning the building of native canoes, Bernáldez adds the detail that they are held together by very sharp pieces of flint rock: … fazen [las canoas] con piedras de pedernales muy agudos (ibid. 275).
106 1v.33: canoa made of a single, large “beam” or tree. Kettell: “although [they are] narrow, on account of the material” (259). Major: “one single piece of timber” (9). Kerney “a single log of timber” (24). Morison: “a single log” (184b). See the Diario for 27 November: Columbus reported that in exploring a river he found a large canoe as big as a fusta of twelve benches made of a single tree (as a “dugout”) that lay sheltered from the elements under a wooden shed roofed with palm leaves (f. 30r).
107 1v.33: terna as future is considered a syncopated, metathesized form of tener + ha [will have/hold/possess]. For linguistic details, see Menéndez Pidal (Manual 323 §123 2.b ), Gifford and Hodcroft’s texts No. 15 (12th c.) and No. 18 (13th c.), and Penny, giving terné from tener(lo) he (212). See the Letter’s second instance, ternan, at 2v.4. Varela edits as terná (223) and ternán (226), repsectively, indicating inflection as future tense.
Al remo (1v.33) is interpreted as “at the oar” or “in oarsmanship,” referring to the skill and speed of the oarsmen working without the aid of sail. Kerney: “a galley could not keep up with them in rowing” (24). Morison: “a fusta could not keep up with them by rowing” (184b). This section appears compressed or otherwise mediated in the Latin translation. Bartolomé’s transcript of the Diario uses tornasen (30 March) as “they might return.”
108 Kerney: “their motion is a thing beyond belief” (24). Morison: “they make incredible speed” (184b).
109 Kerney: “ply their traffic” (24). Morison: “carry their merchandise” (184b).
110 Kerney: “those” (24).
111 Bernáldez elaborates: non vieron diversidad en la fechura e color e costumbres de las gentes ni en la lengua, salvo que todos eran las caras e las frentes anchas, las cabeças redondas … los cabellos prietos e correntios; gente de medianos cuerpos, de color loros, blancos, mas que negros … [they did not see differences in the form and color and customs of the people, nor in the language, but that all had broad faces and foreheads, round heads … dark and flowing hair; (they were) people of medium build, tawny in color, white more than black] (ibid. 275–276). See loro in Davies’s Corpus, where it is cited from Alfonso (Alphonsus) de Palencia’s Universal vocabulario de latín en romance (Sevilla: Compañeros alemanes, 1490).
112 Kerney: “which is a thing of singular towardness” (24–25). Morison: “which is a very singular thing” (184b).
113 Kerney: “as to making them conversant with” (25).
114 Columbus writes of the natives’ aptness for imitating the Spaniards’ prayers and religious gestures at several points in the Diario: see entries for 1 and 5 November, for example. Again, in the 12 November entry, he is earnest about the conversion of the natives and their docile nature. In this entry, he voices his amazement that the islanders all use one language in contrast to Guinea where he says there are “a thousand” languages. On this question, Bernáldez optimistically repeats the Letter’s conclusion but adds detail: se entendian e eran de una lengua [they understood one another and were of one language], and further on: es cosa maravillosa en tantas islas no aver diversidad de lenguas [it is a wondrous thing among so many islands not to have (or “see”) a variety of languages] (ibid. 276). Douglas Taylor, a prolific scholar of Caribbean language who often used comparative methods, provides a brief overview of lexical and phonological similarities and distinctions between Taíno and other Arawak languages from a mid-twentieth-century perspective (1954) that is enlightening in the context of Columbus’s claims, and Michael Tennesen summarizes more recent archaeological findings (2010) on the culture and language of the Arawaks. Both “Arawak” and “Taíno” designate languages, peoples, and cultures.
115 Kerney: “along the sea-coast of the Island of Juana” (25). Morison: “along the coast of the island Juana” (184b).
116 Jane writes that England alone measures 50, 874 square miles and Cuba, 43,000 (12).
117 Kettell: “for besides the extent of it which I coasted, there are two unexplored provinces to the W.” [sic] (259–260).
118 Kettell (MS 1v.93): “Cibau” (260). Major: “Avan” (10). The name recalls “Havana.” Morison (184b) vnotes this word should have read Avan. Bernáldez: Nahan or Hanan (ibid.).
119 Morison suggests that the “men born with tails” must have been monkeys rather than men, a distinction lost somehow in the translation process between Columbus and his informants (CCM 154), one that would have included drawing or signing. See Wilford’s article in the NYT (1990) for a popular press report on evidence of “monkeys” in Cuba based on a cooperative research project between U.S. and Cuban scientists, led by Ross D. E. MacPhee, and see also MacPhee (2005) and MacPhee and Don Jeffrey Meldrum (2006).
120 Or “all of whom know the islands.” 1v.43: todos probably refers to islas in spite of its gender.
121 Major sees the nature of the problem — a misreading “from an abridged word in the original” — and records Varnhagen’s “Colibre” and “Catalonia” (11 n. 1). Kerney’s notes to this section in his edition and translation (18, 25) are supported by Bernáldez’s text: tiene un circuito mas que toda España desde Colibre en Cataluña … e fasta Fuente rabia ( 275). Jane interprets Colivre as Collioure and notes that the circumference of Española is about 1500 miles, and the coastline of Spain and Portugal, about 1900 miles (13 n. 4–5). Morison: “from Colonya by the coast to Fuenterauia” (185a).
122 Viscaya, Eng., Biscay.
123 1v.45: pues en vna quadra anduue. Major: “since on one of its four sides I made [188] great leagues” (11). Morison translates: “since I went along one side … in a straight line from west to east” (185a). Bernáldez: anduvieron … en quadra por derecha linea de Occidente, e Oriente [they sailed in a square along a straight line from west to east] (275).
124 Major: “never to be lost sight of” (11).
125 1v.46–47: en la cual puesto que de todas tenga tomada posesión por sus altezas has presented continuing problems in translation (and in reading because of the loss to the surface). Kerney sets this section through “the kingdoms of Castile” (2r.2) in parentheses (25).
126 “Resources” is used in the sense of the islands’ having topography, soil types, and mineral, animal, and plant resources that will lend themselves to settlement, agriculture, and exploitation of precious metals. Major: “more abundant in wealth” (11); Major casts this series as dependent clauses with “although” leading up to the “yet” of Columbus’s taking possession of Navidad. Kerney: “more richly endowed” (25). Morison: “more richly supplied” (185a).
127 1v.47–2r.1: may appear to read de lo querio se y puedo dezir. The reading is plausible as de lo que io se y puedo dezir. See notes to 1v.47 in the edition. Kerney: “than I have skill and power to say” (25). Morison: “than I know or could tell” (185a).
128 The Latin narrates possession taken on behalf of “our most invincible king” [inuictissimo Rege nostro] and all is “at the command of the said king” [dicto Rege] (3r). These elements remain in the F&I issues.
129 2r.2: reading es for the Folio’s en.
130 2r.3: comarca: in Medieval Latin, “boundary” or “border land” from cum + Germanic marka [boundary] (J. D. M. Ford 199). Martín Alonso cites uses in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as “región fronteriza” in Nebrija.
131 I suggest that this tierra firme signifies the continent or mainland that Columbus believes that he will return to find, and that he supposes the land of the Great Khan to be some distance from his writing location as well. Although I have not studied all their examples, I note that Dunn and Kelley translate terra firme (f. 19r, 30 October) as “landmass.”
132 This section evokes diverse interpretations, as the following translations indicate.
Kettell: “as much at their disposal as the kingdoms of Castile, … yet the preference must be given to Espanola [sic], on account of the mines of gold which it possesses, and the facilities it offers for trade with the continent, and countries this side, and beyond that of the Great Can, which traffic will be great and profitable” (260).
Kerney: “(— … as completely as of the kingdoms of Castile —) in this Española, in the place most suitable and best for its proximity to the gold mines, and for traffic with the continent, as well as on this side as on the further side of the Great Can, where there will be great commerce and profit — I took possession of a large town …” (25 sic).
Bourne: “That is, with the mainland of Europe on this [aqua] side of the Atlantic and with the mainland on that [aquella] side of the ocean belonging to the Great Can, i.e., China” (268 n. 4).
Jane: “in this Española, in the situation most convenient and in the best position for the mines of gold and for all intercourse as well with the mainland here as with that there belonging to the Grand Khan, where will be great trade and gain” (12).
Morison: “In this Española, in the most convenient place and in the best district for the gold mines and for all trade both with this continent and with that over there belong to the Grand Khan, where there will be great trade and profit” (185a).
Alexandre Cioranescu’s French translation, whose principle of reference is adopted by Varela, must be quoted beyond this phrase to illustrate the latitude with which he interprets the Spanish: “Cependant, ce n’est que dans cette Ile Espagnole que j’ai pu prendre possession d’une grande ville, a laquelle j’ai mis nom ville de la Nativité. Elle [referring back to Navidad] est située dans un endroit des plus convenables, et le meilleur du point de vue des mines d’or, aussi bien que de celui du trafic avec la terre ferme d’Europe et avec celle du Grand Khan, avec laquelle on pourra établir de très utiles relations” [However, it is only on Española that I was able to take possession of a large city, which I have named City of the Nativity. It is located in a most suitable place, and best from the point of view of the gold mines, as well as of that for the traffic with the continent (or “mainland”) of Europe and that of the Grand Khan, with which Spain will be able to establish very profitable relations] (185).
In Plannck F, the comparison of circumferences and Columbus’s assurances of Spain’s possession and disposition of the lands is immediately followed by the narrative of “taking” Navidad (3r). The original omits or the translator suppresses this section.
133 Literally, “The Nativity [of Christ],” due to its founding on or around Christmas Day, 1492. The Diario for Tuesday December 25 contains an entry for “yesterday …. at the twelfth hour” after which time, the nao ran aground on reefs. Bernáldez (Memorias) writes that this settlement was established in “Hayti” and clarifies the point, here obscured, that Columbus founded and named it and left forty men there after the loss of the ship (ibid. 275–276). In Memorias, as in the Diario, the rationale for this settlement — the loss of Santa María that made it impossible to return to Spain with those men — is made clear (Bernáldez 276). Morison calls the episode of the loss of Santa María “The Tragic Christmas” and accords Columbus a share of the blame (“Route” 257–261). See Markham for the listing of men left in the fort (144–145); per Markham, the names are derived from accounts written by Fernández de Navarrete, Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés. See Deagan’s discussion of En Bas Saline, “a large classic Taíno town” thought to have been Guacanagarí’s town, based on accounts of the loss of the ship and the town’s “size and prominence” in the region (605 ff.).
134 Morison: “a fort and defenses” (185a).
135 2r.7: fusta. Plannck F 3r: carauellam [caravel].
136 What more will be made is not entirely clear, but producing fustas comports with the logic suggested by the “master of the sea.”
137 2r.8: an anacoluthon? I take ygrandeamistad as possibly existential: ay grande amistad > there exists great friendship > “I have made a great friend,” or the like. See Bernáldez (276).
138 Kerney: “prided himself” (25). Morison: “he took pride” (185a).
139 2r.9: hofender [to give offense], is taken in the sense of the islanders’ attacking the Spaniards — though they have no competitive weapons. Kettell: “should their friendly inclinations change, and become hostile” (261). Morison: “if he were to change his mind and offer insult” (185a).
140 The sentence might be broken following this phrase instead of at this point. Deagan describes the Taíno cacique Guacanagarí as “the principal chief of the province of Marien at the time of contact” in what is “today northern Haiti and northwestern Dominican Republic,” and the site thought to be “his town” is identified as En Bas Saline (605).
141 2r.12: this rendering is from the gerundive: sabiendose regir. Kettell: “they may remain there with perfect safety, taking proper care of themselves” (261). According to reports, they did not govern their passions well and due to some offensive behavior, were all dead, whether at one another’s hands or at the Indians’, when the Spanish returned on the second voyage (Morison CCM 153).
142 Major: “eatables” (13). Morison: “victuals” (185b).
143 2r.16: hombres monstrudos = misshapen men, men created as monsters. Kettell: “people of monstrous appearance” (261). Kerney: “monstrous men” (25). Morison: “human monstrosities” (185b). The Diario entry of 26 November describes Columbus as disbelieving when the natives “tell” him about people who have only one eye and the snouts of dogs.
144 Columbus uses this phrase frequently to set up a contrast between ideas, and it may be translated as moreover, on the other hand, to the contrary, and so forth.
145 Plannck F (3v): sed homines magne reuerentiae [sic] atque benignos [but men in great awe (very timid) and harmless]. Kerney: “on the contrary all the people are very comely” (25). Morison: “among all these people good looks are esteemed” (185b).
146 Kettell: “not resembling the blacks of Guinea, as their [the islanders’] hair is straight, and their colour lighter” (261).
147 2v.17: no se crian = they don’t grow up, they’re not raised. Kerney: “they are not begotten” (26). Morison” they are not born” (185b).
148 Fernández de Navarrete notes that espeto in the “old language” meant asador and that Columbus uses it here to mean calor [heat] (172). Inpeto (impeto) may mean “force” or “power,” here referring to the intensity of the sun near the equator.
149 2r.18–19: distincta dela linna inqui nocial. Kerney in his translation (26) emends, reflecting his editing of the Folio: distante. Mauricio Obregón, in his essays on matters pertaining to the Letter, writes that Columbus “corrects the [Diario’s] major errors in latitude by saying that the latitude of the north coast of Hispaniola was twenty-six degrees north, which leaves an error of only five degrees” (Barcelona 12). See n. 34 above for a corresponding phrase with a reading of distincta that is routinely emended to distante.
150 Reading ay tenia speculatively as allí tenía.
151 The translation is mediated by the Quarto reading at 3v.23 (de las viandas que comen con especias muchas) and the Simancas manuscript reading at MS 2r.121 (viandas como son especias muchas). I suggest interpolating que in por la costumbre que con la ayuda as que e[s], so that the custom they follow is the use of their highly spiced foods; otherwise, they bear the cold “through custom/habit” in addition to “the help of spicy foods.”
The translation variants have points of syntactic and semantic interest. Kettell: “which the inhabitants endure from habit, and the use of hot spices with their food” (261). Major: “not only from being habituated to it, but by eating meat with a variety of excessively hot spices” (13). Kerney: “but they endure it by being accustomed thereto, and by the help of the meats which they eat with many and inordinately hot spices” (26). Morison: “they endure it through habit and with the help of food which they eat with many and excessively hot spices” (185b). Based on uses of the word at the period, I suggest that viandas has a broad application as raw or basic elements of diet, like English “foodstuffs” and “meat” in the broadest sense of “food.” See also Davies’s Corpus for viandas and n. 142, above.
152 2r.21: the original may be corrupt. Major: “As to savages” (13). Kerney: “Thus I have not found, nor had any information of monsters” (26). Morison: “Thus I have neither found monsters nor had report of any” (185b). See Austin Whittall’s Patagonian Monsters online for an intriguing image of “dog-headed creatures” on a Turkish mappa mundi of 1513. See also Frances W. Pritchett’s online collection at Cosmographia, by Sebastian Münster, 1544, particularly for “Münster on India” where types of men/monsters assigned to India (1080) comport with types mentioned in the Letter and the Diario (Münster). See Heinrich Petri for Münster in the listing of incunabula and early sixteenth-century printings cited.
153 i.e., the second island that one comes to upon entering the Indies.
154 Major: “They are no worse formed than the rest” (14). Kerney: “They are no more ill-shapen than the others” (26). Morison: “[T]hey are no more malformed than the others” (185b). Penny observes that Columbus uses diforme and disforme as meaning “different” (xxx). The use of más [more] as comparative argues against “different” in this instance, though an elliptical expression like “they are no more different [from us] than the others” might work as a translation employing “different.” Since these writings, Davies’s Corpus has shed new light on questions of dating, frequency, and semantics whose answers were previously limited to information held in two voluminous dictionaries and studies in Old Spanish based on selected literary texts and legal and religious texts. The Corpus entries for diforme and disforme argue more often for a pejorative sense of the adjective rather than the more neutral sense of “different.” Diforme is in several instances linked with feo [ugly] and instances of disforme are linked with ideas of “broken,” “frightening,” or “disfigured,” suggesting the Latin idea of deformis as “misshapen” or “malformed.” In the Letter, the “other” inhabitants have already been described as physically attractive in comparative contexts; here, in a phrase that damns with slight praise, the Caribs are described as no more “ugly” or “misshapen” than they. How Columbus’s writing Carib interpreted his native informants’ speech and what the word may have meant to the Taíno and Caribs is of interest. Taylor writes that “Carib” is accepted by both the Caribs and their enemies, indicating that the name was not felt to be pejorative and that these “archenemies” were once friendly. Taylor supposed that Carib might be interpreted literally as “manioc people” (157), perhaps an identification of the people with the cultivation and use of manioc (1958). See William F. Keegan’s The People Who Discovered Columbus for his view of the Columbian Taíno and Carib dichotomy.
155 Implying, then, that the islanders of Juana and Española do not “wear their hair long, as women do.”
156 Major: “made of reeds, with a small stick at the end” (14). Kerney: “of the same reed-stems, with a point of wood at the top” (26). Morison: “of the same stems of cane with a little piece of wood at the tip” (185b).
157 Major: “They are ferocious amongst these exceedingly timid people” (14). Kerney: “Amongst those other tribes who are excessively cowardly, these are ferocious” (26). Morison: “They are ferocious toward these other people, who are exceedingly great cowards” (185b). Ramón Pané, a monk who accompanied Columbus on the second voyage, attests to the fear with which the Taíno regarded the “cannibals” (34–35).
158 2r.7: tratan might mean “they have dealings/relations with” in a commercial or social sense, but the intimation in the orginal and in translations that the “fierce” Caribs act as the procreative partners of these warrior women adds to the mystique attached to both groups and the awe with which they are regarded. Plannck F 3v: qui coheunt cum quibusdam feminis: quae solae insulam Mateunin … habitant [who meet/mate with certain women who alone on the island of Mateunin … live]. Varnhagen records: “que tomaban las mugeres de Matinino” [who take the women of Matinino]. Kettell: “They exchange their wives” (262). Major: “These are they which have intercourse with the women of Matenino” (14). Morison: “These are those who have intercourse with the women of Matremomio” (185b). Major’s “intercourse” probably refers to trade though the earliest uses of “intercourse” as a sexual connection cited by the OED appear in scientific treatises in 1803 and 1804. Note that Morison uses “intercourse” in the sense of “contact” or “conversation” elsewhere in his translation, but his translation of the Diario means that he knew the facts of Columbus’s understanding. See the Diario entry for 16 January where Columbus gives details of the procreative practices between the Caribs and women of Matinino. Concerning the geography, Bourne writes that this “island is identified with Martinique” (270 n. 1). Varela notes, “se identifica con la actual Martinica” [Martinique] (Textos 225).
159 1r.31: arambre > alambre, owing to a slippage of the liquid consonants /r/ and /l/. Alambre was apparently interpreted as “copper” by Leandro, to whom the Roman Latin translations are attributed, as aeneis (Plannck F 3v; L. aeneus, of copper, of bronze). Kettell writes “copper” (262) and is seconded by Kerney (26). Bartolomé’s transcript of the Diario for 13 January includes relevant passages: “al alambre o a un oro bajo llaman en la Española tuob” [they call alambre or a base gold tuob] and in the same entry, “en [Matinino] hay mucho tuob, que es oro ó alambre” [in Matinino there is much tuob, which is gold or alambre]. Bartolomé’s Historia (LXVII) records, “[H]abía mucho alambre; yo creo que quiere decir cobre” [there was a great deal of alambre; I believe he means to say copper]. See Varela’s note to the Letter (225 n. 18).
160 What “bald” Indians might have meant puzzled Morison (CCM 154).
161 Kerney: “concerning these and the rest” (26).
162 Morison remarks that this Indios is “the first appearance in print of this name” that Columbus gave to the islanders of the Caribbean (187 n. 15), but this is the fourth instance in the Letter. See also n. 12, above.
163 Kerney: “which has been so hastily performed” (26). Major: “which has been so hasty” (15). Morison: “which was so hasty” (186a).
164 2r.35: speciaria uses a Latin [a female spice dealer] or a non-Spanish Romance spelling, plausibly Portuguese or Italian [light-weight goods; spice shop, spicery]. González and Fernández de Navarrete render with Spanish epenthetic e- as “spicery.” Bernáldez: “muchas especias, como Pimienta que quema” [lit. many spices like Pepper that burns] (ibid. 276). Kerney (26) and Major (15): “spices.” Morison: “spice” (186a).
165 Morison: “gum mastic” (186a). See the reference to gathering “mastic” in the Diario entry for 5 November.
166 2r.37 el señorio = Genoese government. Kerney: “Seignory,” noting “Of Genoa” (26 n. 5). Bourne explains that el señorio “was the government of Genoa to which Chios [Scio] belonged at the time” (270 n. 2). In Journals, Morison remarks that Columbus had sailed to Chios one or more times (187 n. 16). See the Diario entry for 12 November for another discussion of the potential for harvesting mastic.
167 Bernáldez: “árboles de Linos áloe” [trees of wood aloe (linos from L. lignum rather than “linen[s]” from Sp. lino)] (276). Morison: “aloe wood” (186a). Morison theorizes in his edition of the Diario that Columbus is impressed by this “discovery” of supposed lignaloe because he supposes erroneously that it is a variety of medicinal aloe like those aloes known in the Mediterranean and suggests that Columbus may have seen the agave of the region (78 n. 3). William Seifriz documents varieties of agave found frequently in Cuba but mentions no aloes (1943), while John W. Harshberger (1901) located both agave and Aloe vulgaris in Santo Domingo and Haiti (559), but Aloe vulgaris is not apparently what Columbus describes as “aloe wood.” Bond describes central and south African tree aloes as having a “conspicuous stem 1.5 m or more in height” whose leaves, he implies, are harvested for medicinal purposes (110) and aloe comosa in “succulent shrublands of the north-western cape” (113 qtg. Reynolds 1950). On the presence of aloes in Guinea, which Columbus mentions, see Holland (esp. 215a–b, 216b–217; medicinal aspects 217b–218). Agave might be described as “woody” in comparison with medicinal aloes in that the agave leaves are thinner and more rigid and fibrous compared with the thicker, fleshier leaves of medicinal aloe; furthermore, agave produces a tall, spiky, “woody” flower stem. Columbus’s confusion may have arisen because both plants are similarly configured succulents having spiked leaves. Bond shows that tree aloes (aloe ferox) produce new leaves along a woody stem (“bark”) where older leaves have declined so that the green plant appears at the crown of a tall “tree” formed by “a skirt of persistent dead leaves” along the stem (111). Varieties of agave and medicinal aloes are common in the drier regions of the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico, and Harshberger describes them thriving in similar regions in the Caribbean; such climate and ground conditions, conducive to succulents, do not suggest the lush and fertile views that Columbus emphasized. See the Diario entry for 21 and 23 October and 5 November where Columbus writes of his interest in aloes.
168 Morison observes that by contemporary standards the slave trade will be a “legitimate” enterprise if the slaves are not Christians (187 n. 17).
169 What Columbus thought might be rhubarb was not; he describes it at the close of the Diario entry for 30 December, and Morison provides a note (Journals 141 n. 1). Columbus finds that what was reported to him as cinnamon is not (4 November), but the bark of the “wild cinnamon” tree, native to the Caribbean, yields a similar spice. See Morison’s note (88 n. 1).
170 Major: “so long as the wind allows me to proceed” (15–16). Kerney: “so long as the wind gave me an opportunity of sailing” (26). Morison: “provided the wind allowed me to sail” (186a).
171 Major: “where I took the necessary precautions for the security and settlement of the men I left there” (16). Kerney: “till I had left things safely arranged and well established” (26). Morison: “[to have it] secured and well seated” (186a).
172 Kettell: “had those in the other vessels done their duty” (263). Major: “if my vessels had been in as good a condition as by rights they ought to have been” (16). Morison: “if the vessels had served me as the occasion required.” Morison observes that Columbus might have been referring to Santa María’s loss or, obliquely, to Pinta under Pinzón’s command (187 n. 18).
173 Major: “This is much” (16).
174 2r.42: es harto y eterno dios. The text is anacoluthonic, with an obvious lacuna at the opening. The Latin embellishes the material with several lines of pious exclamations, and Major sorted it out with “and praised be the eternal God” (16. Italics added). Kerney: “and [thanks to] eternal God” (26, brackets, sic. Italics added). Morison (without interpolation): “And the Eternal God” (186).
175 2r.44: fallado O escripto, a doublet usually emended to fablado o escripto, as the first term does not comport with the spirit of the pair, and fallado does not make sense in the context. Major emends (16) and Kerney does the same and so notes (26). See the following note as well.
176 The phrase is problematic, and the translation is tentative. Kerney: “for although men have talked or written of those lands, it was all by conjecture, without confirmation from eyesight, importing just so much that the hearers for the most part listened and judged that there was more fable in it than anything actual, however trifling” (26–27). Morison’s is similar (186a-b).
177 Major: “an event of such high importance” (16). Kerney: “so high a matter” (27). Morison: “so great a matter” (186b). Also possible: “such a noble thing.”
178 2v.4: aqui, interpreted here as an adverb of time rather than an adverb of place.
179 The translation here is based on an indication at MS 2v.154: mas todos, poss. rdg. The scribe writes and strikes a (a), the dative, or else may intend to remodel a into q as an abbreviatura for the relative pronoun (que > mas que todos). Note Plannck F 4r: non solum Hispania sed vniuersa Christianitas est futura particeps [not only Spain but all Christianity is a future sharer/participant]. For ternan, see also n. 107, above.
180 Major: “temporal benefits which will bring great refreshment and gain” (17). Kerney: “temporal benefit which will bring hither refreshment and profit” (27). I read “converting so many nations to our Holy Faith” as offering spiritual “consolation,” and take the second element of the first phrase, “material riches,” as corresponding to the second term, the “profit,” of the second phrase.
181 2v.5: fecha (Mod. Sp. hecho/a [made, done]), as “made” or “executed.”
182 Niña is “the caravel” to which Columbus refers. Jane writes that a caravel was known for its “mobility” and might have either lateen sails only (Portuguese) or both square and lateen, or square only (Castilian), but that the term was used loosely (18). Columbus’s Pinta and Niña were probably square-rigged on the foremast and mainmasts with a lateen sail on the aft-mast (mizzenmast). Santa Maria was not a caravel, but a nao (Morison CCM 30–31, 104), as Bernáldez writes (276). See Obregón on the ships’ types and their names (Barcelona 9–10).
183 2v.5: islas de canaria may have been read for isla de Santa María (in the Azores) written in abbreviation. Consult the note to the edition on this point and the index for discussion in the contexts of the Simancas manuscript and Varnhagen’s Sanfelices manuscript.
184 Storms have given signs of what is to come by February 14 though Columbus writes one of the longest entries in the Diario under that date. The ship makes headway and on the fifteenth, Columbus records the shipboard debate about where they are located. Opinions range from Madeira to Portugal. With a turning of the wind that seems to follow that debate, they can see land “five leagues distant,” and Columbus, according to Bartolomé’s summary, puts them in the Azores while the “pilots and sailors” think they are “already in Castilla.” That night they realize the land is an island.
185 Major: “At your orders” (17). Kerney: “At your command” (27). Morrison: “At your service” (186b). Kettell and Giovanni Battista Torre, following the Simancas transcript, omit this line.
186 Kerney: “Postscript” (27). Morison: “Additional note” (186b). I describe this section as having been recorded from a post-scriptum enclosure written on a separate piece of paper (venía dentro, 2v.7) and associated with the leaves of the Letter. Asensio (1891) notes that the Folio’s Anima is “meaningless” (10), and taken as one word, it probably is. With a as a preposition (Eng., for, to, in, by way/means of) preceding nima (nema, nyma) the phrase may intend something akin to “as a postscript.” The Quarto gives Nyma (Sp., posdata; Eng., postscript; from Greek, NEMA), and the MS., a ny ma. Morison (187 n. 21 [sic]) and Hanke and Rausch (31 n.21 [sic]) propose “Anima (modern nema): a paper wrap[p]ed around a letter after its conclusion, and to which the seal is affixed.” This explanation appears to refer to the medieval version of the “envelope” as a sealed sheet that encased a memorandum and showed directions for delivery.
A nyma (nima) would, in any case, be an additional bit of writing following the “farewell” and dating of the main document and might be written, theoretically, on any size piece of paper and enclosed within the folds of the letter or attached to it in whatever manner came to hand, or it might be written on the inside surface of the enveloping sheet, as Hanke and Rausch appear to suggest. Battista Torre (1864) translates, Qui trovavasi nella lettera il seguente P. S. [Here was found in the letter the following post-script], repeating “P.S.” at the head of the paragraph (221).
187 Kettell: “being at sea near Castile” (264). Jane: “being in the sea of Castile” (18). Columbus is separated from Pinzón on 14 February (see the Diario) and will not see Pinta again on the voyage. See Morison (165–166, n. 2).
188 Major: “there arose a south-west wind” (17). Kerney: “there rose upon me so much wind” (27). Morison: “there rose up on me so great a wind” (186b). Morison notes that sueste is a “misprint” for sudoeste (187 n. 22).
189 2r.9: descargar. I suggest Columbus speaks of rigging because of the violence of the wind and the heaviness of the rain rather than “cargo.” Kerney: “caused me to lighten the vessels” (27). Morison: “I was obliged to ease the ships” (186b), noting the plurals los navios in the Spanish editions (187 n. 23). The idea of jettisoning cargo does not comport with the Diario’s recording that the ship suffered from “want of ballast” [falta de lastre] and that as they were able, the men filled empty casks [henchir las pipas … vazias] with sea water (Spanish text from Varela, “14 de Hebrero”). Columbus does not report that he was forced to dispose of any items from the Indies, which would have composed most of the “cargo” at this point. What the Diario also records is Columbus’s changing or lightening his sail twice on this day, once at the beginning of the entry when he has had the papahigo (Guillén Tato: “la vela mayor sin bonetas” 103; Morison: “main course” 163, 165; Battista Torre: “vela maggiore” 197) lowered before he loses sight of Pinzón’s ship, and in the close of the entry where Columbus describes running with only the popa (Morrison: “he scudded with only the foresail” 165), having taken in the papahigo — Battista Torre here translates (my underscoring): Aveva abbassato l’albero della vela maestra (200) — for fear of losing it altogether; l’albero would in Spanish be árbol, (Eng., tree) and in seaman’s language, l’albero refers to the mastil (mast) or palo (pole) according to Guillén Tato’s entry for árbol. In Italian, Battista Torre uses l’albero, for example, in landsman’s terms to refer to “a single tree” when he describes the dugout or canoa that Columbus finds. In 1939, Morison corrects Jane’s translation of papahigo as “scudding-sail” to “the squaresail” (261).
190 2v.11: temporales appears to refer specifically to the sailing environment he found in the Indies, where he first thought there were no such storms, as he also writes in the Diario (14 February). Note the use of temporales to refer to secular or earthly matters at 2v.3.
191 2v.10–11: hallado y, I read hallado allí [there].
192 Major: “knocking about in this sea” (18). Morison: “beating about in this sea” (186b). Note that in Michele (Miguel) de Cuneo’s account of the second voyage, he writes that they made the crossing from Ferro in the Canary Islands to the first Caribbean islands they saw in twenty-two days, but Michele speculated that the crossing might have been made in sixteen days had they had more favorable weather (Varela Cartas 240; Morison Journals 210–211).
193 Kettell follows Fernández de Navarrete’s reading: “March 4th” (264). Major concludes his translation at this point (cxxxv). See the index for other references to the date of the post-script.
194 Kerney sustains the Spanish (27). Morison: “Keeper of the Privy Purse” (Admiral I 94; Journals 186b). Kettell: “Comptroller of the Treasury of the King and Queen” (253). Cecil Roth: “Secretary of the Royal Household” (22). All agree in implying an officer responsible for managing finances for the royal household. The title is problematic to translate for modern understanding, and “Keeper of the Privy Purse” is a British-English-based translation that may not communicate to other speakers of English while “Secretary” does not imply to modern readers the elevation of the office. Santángel was Aragonese, directly in Fernando’s service, so it may be misleading to describe him as “the Queen’s Keeper of the Privy Purse” as Morison does in his introduction to the Letter (Journals 180). I suggest that the phrase describes the accountant/banker who had financial oversight and management of the royal household, its goods, and accounts.
195 2v.16: a la otra refers to the letter to the sovereigns just cited in the post-script. Varnhagen submits that this line should have read Contenida en otra, but Major argues for Contenida la otra, translating “Contained the other of their Highnesses” (cxxxv), making Santángel the bearer of Columbus’s Letter to the king and queen. Major’s idea is reasonable and comports with the logic suggested by this sentence, that the Santángel Letter and the letter to the sovereigns were enclosed in the same dispatch package, the latter perhaps entrusted to Santángel’s delivery. Morison, with sense that comports with the Spanish: “Contained in another for their highnesses” (186b). The Simancas manuscript lacks the participle (contenida) and reads more directly: and another letter for their highnesses (e otra de sus altezas). Major omits the label, but he discusses its wording in his “Bibliography” essay. Thacher omits this text (26).