ct their Highnesses' grandson, Charles I. (V. as
Emperor), was during his long reign, and such during a part of his reign
if not the whole, was their great-grandson Philip II. See Oviedo's
reflections upon Columbus's career. Bourne, _Spain in America_, p. 82.

[353-1] Las Casas here comments at some length on these remarks of
Columbus and the great significance of his discoveries. The passage
omitted takes up pp. 255 (line six from bottom) to 258.

[353-2] Las Casas explains _leste_, which would seem to have been either
peculiar to sailors or at least not in common usage then for "east."

[353-3] Probably _gatos_ in the sense of _gatos paules_, monkeys, noted
above, p. 341, as very plentiful.

[353-4] Port of the Cabins.

[353-5] The _Catholicon_ was one of the earliest Latin lexicons of modern
times and the first to be printed. It was compiled by Johannes de Janua
(Giovanni Balbi of Genoa) toward the end of the thirteenth century and
first printed at Mainz in 1460, and very frequently later.

[354-1] The third of the canonical hours of prayer, about nine o'clock in
the morning.

[355-1] _El agua les es medicina_, _i.e._, a means of curing the ill.

[355-2] _Abajo._ Las Casas views the mainland as extending up from the
sea. Columbus was going west along the north shore of the peninsula of
Paria.

[355-3] _I.e._, to go west along the north shore of this supposed island
until looking south he was to the right of it and abreast of the Gulf of
Pearls.

[355-4] Three of the greatest known rivers, each of which drained a vast
range of territory. This narrative reveals the gradual dawning upon
Columbus of the fact that he had discovered a hitherto unknown
continental mass. In his letter to the sovereigns his conviction is
settled and his efforts to adjust it with previous knowledge and the
geographical traditions of the ages are most interesting. See Major,
_Select Letters of Columbus_, pp. 134 _et seqq._ "Ptolemy," he says, on
p. 136, "and the others who have written upon the globe had no
information respecting this part of the world, for it was most unknown."

[356-1] The Witnesses.

[358-1] The reference is to _II. Esdras_, VI. 42, in the Apocrypha of the
English Bible. The Apocryphal books of I. and II. Esdras were known as
III. and IV. Esdras in the Middle Ages, and the canonical books in the
Vulgate called I. and II. Esdras are called Ezra and Nehemiah in the
English Bible. II. Esdras is an apocalyptic work