* This digest was made by the historian Bartolomé de las Casas from the log-book of the Admiral, which has since disappeared. The frequent quotation of the Adrnirars actual phrases makes it the prime authority for the voyage itself, and it is used here up to the landfall on Cuba, from which point the narrative is taken up by Columbus’s report written on his homeward voyage, copies of which he sent to various important persons. Where the narrative is in the first person Las Casas is using the Admiral’s words. Where it is in the third he is giving his own rendering.
* After the fall of Granada the sovereigns gave their Jewish subjects the choice of conversion or exile.
* Columbus’s league was of four Roman miles, approximately three nautical miles.
† Columbus’s three ships were the Santa Maria, his flagship, the Pinta and the Niña.
* The dolphin, birds and weed.
* It was the Spanish custom at the time to celebrate all good news by a present. The contemporary English word for such a present, now obsolete, was a Handsel.
* The dorado is the Coriphaena, a tropical fish about four feet long. It is bright gold in colour and feeds on flying fish.
* The position of these stars was used to tell the time at night. For this purpose an imaginary figure was drawn with outstretched arms and legs together, with the Pole Star on his breast. The reckoning was by ‘lines’ drawn on this figure.
* I accept Salvador de Madariaga’s opinion that Columbus also wanted to find Chipangu (Japan) first, but on this occasion rejected Pinzón’s advice, at least in his log-book entry, out of jealousy.
* Columbus says, according to Las Casas’ History, Bk I, Chap. 39, ‘reached’. This suggests that he was confident of having reached them, even though he had discovered no land.
* This was probably Juan Rodriguez Bermeo.
† Pero Gutierrez was actually a steward, not a butler in the literal sense.
‡ Rodrigo Sanchez de Segovia was a high official whose duties as accountant or veedor were to keep count of the gold, treasure or spices, and see that the sovereigns got their share.
* A small copper coin.
† This is generally assumed to be Watling Island in the Bahamas.
‡ The contemporary spelling was Ysabela.
* Las Casas appears to have quoted from two parallel accounts of the landing - the first being the Admiral’s lost ‘Book’ which he perhaps found in the library of his son Hernando and the second from the logbook (also lost).
* Rum Kay.
* The text is obscure at this point, but this appears to be the meaning.
† Here the text speaks of one man only but, as far as can be seen from the defective manuscript, two men escaped.
* Long Island.
* There were in fact two islands close together.
* Long Island.
* This is Crooked Island.
* This was Hangchow – the capital of the Grand Khan – described by Marco Polo. Columbus’s information about Cathay was based on the stories of old travellers, so he did not know that there had been no Grand Khan since the thirteenth century.
* The Ragged Islands.
* This is Bariay Bay in the island of Cuba.