d-forms is not strange. More varieties of
this bean are indigenous in America than were known in Europe at the time
of the discoveries. Cf. De Candolle, _Origin of Cultivated Plants_, pp.
338 ff.

[139-2] The word is _contramaestre_, boatswain.

[141-1] The last line should read, "but that they did not know whether
there was any in the place where they were."

[141-2] The last line should read, "with a brand in their hand, [and]
herbs to smoke as they are accustomed to do." This is the earliest
reference to smoking tobacco. Las Casas, I. 332, describes the process as
the natives practised it: "These two Christians found on their way many
people, men and women, going to and from their villages and always the
men with a brand in their hands and certain herbs to take their smoke,
which are dry herbs placed in a certain leaf, also dry like the paper
muskets which boys make at Easter time. Having lighted one end of it,
they suck at the other end or draw in with the breath that smoke which
they make themselves drowsy and as if drunk, and in that way, they say,
cease to feel fatigue. These muskets, or whatever we call them, they call
_tabacos_. I knew Spaniards in this island of Espanola who were
accustomed to take them, who, when they were rebuked for it as a vice,
replied they could not give it up. I do not know what pleasant taste or
profit they found in them." Las Casas' last remarks show that smoking was
not yet common in his later life in Spain. The paper muskets of Las Casas
are blow-pipes. Oviedo, lib. V., cap. II., gives a detailed description
of the use of tobacco. He says that the Indians smoked by inserting these
tubes in the nostrils and that after two or three inhalations they lost
consciousness. He knew some Christians who used it as an anesthetic when
in great pain.

[142-1] On this indigenous species of dumb dogs, _cf._ Oviedo, lib. XII.
cap. V. They have long been extinct in the Antilles. Oviedo says there
were none in Espanola when he wrote. He left the island in 1546.

[142-2] This last part of this sentence should read, "and is cultivated
with _mames_, kidney beans, other beans, this same panic [_i.e._, Indian
corn], etc." The corresponding passage in the _Historie_ of Ferdinand
Columbus reads, "and another grain like panic called by them _mahiz_ of
very excellent flavor cooked or roasted or pounded in porridge
(polenta)," p. 87.

[142-3] The _arroba_ was 25 pounds and the _quintal_ one hundred weigh