ars; wherefore I wrote on a
parchment with the brevity that the time demanded how I had discovered
the lands that I had promised to, and in how many days; and the route I
had followed; and the goodness of the countries, and the quality of their
inhabitants and how they were the vassals of your Highnesses who had
possession of all that had been found by me. This writing folded and
sealed I directed to your Highnesses with the superscription or promise
of a thousand ducats to him who should deliver it unopened, in order
that, if some foreigners should find it, the truth of superscription
might prevent them from disposing of the information which was inside.
And I straightway had a large cask brought and having wrapped the writing
in a waxed cloth and put it into a kind of tart or cake of wax I placed
it in the barrel which, stoutly hooped, I then threw into the sea. All
believed that it was some act of devotion. Then because I thought it
might not arrive safely and the ships were all the while approaching
Castile I made another package like that and placed it on the upper part
of the poop in order that if the ship should sink the barrel might float
at the will of fate."

[243-1] The bonnet was a small sail usually cut to a third the size of
the mizzen, or a fourth of the mainsail. It was secured through
eyelet-holes to the leech of the mainsail, in the manner of a studding
sail. (Navarrete.)

[243-2] On this day the Admiral dated the letter to Santangel, the
_escribano de racion_, which is given below on pp. 263-272.

[244-1] This was on Sunday, 17th of February. (Navarrete.)

[244-2] The port of San Lorenzo. (_Id._).

[246-1] The incredulity of the Portuguese governor as to these assertions
was natural. The title Admiral of the Ocean Sea was novel and this was
the first time it was announced that Spain or any other European power
had possessions in the Indies.

[247-1] Half the crew were still detained on shore.

[248-1] That the site of the Garden of Eden was to be found in the Orient
was a common belief in the Middle Ages and later. _Cf._ the _Book of Sir
John Mandeville_, ch. XXX.

[249-1] The last of the canonical hours of prayer, about nine in the
evening.

[252-1] On this day the Admiral probably wrote the postscript to his
letter Santangel written at sea on February 15.

[253-1] Modern scholars have too hastily identified this Bartolome Diaz
with the discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope. There is no evi