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1 Dec. 1, Lib. IX, Cap. 10.

2 1513 is the date given by Garcilaso de la Vega, and Peschel, in his Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, p. 521, has proved that this is the date that should be accepted.

3 The History of Hernando de Soto and Florida; or Record of the Events of Fifty-six Years, from 1512 to 1568, p. 111, 78 and passim, Philadelphia, 1881.

4 “Floridamque appelaverat quia Resurectionis die eam insulam repererint; vocat Hispanus pascha floridum resurectionis diem.” Dec. IV, Cap. 5.

5 Les Cortereal et leur Voyage au Nouveau Monde, pp. 111, 151.

6 Le Premier Voyage de Amerigo Vespucci, par F. A. de Varnhagan, Vienne, 1869, p. 34.

7 Historia General de las Indias, Tom. XXII de Autores Españoles, Madrid, M. Rivadeneyra, Editor, 1877—I have reproduced the passage in the quaint translation of Richard Eden, as given in The first three books on America, p. 345, edited by Edward Arber, Westminster, 1895.

8 Colección de documentos inéditos del archivo de Indias, Tom. V, pp. 536, 537.

9 Elegias de Varones Ilustres de Indias, in the Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Tom. IV, p. 69, Collection Rivadeneyra, Madrid, 1850.

In spite, however, of the scepticism of Martyr and of the ridicule of Castellanos and the denunciation of Oviedo, the quest for the Fountain of Youth was, according to Herrera, continued until the end of the sixteenth century, and probably longer.

10 The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight, chap. LII.

11 Richard Eden, op, cit., p. 34.

12 For an illuminating discussion of this subject, with citation of authorities, see M. Beauvois’ article, La Fontaine de Jouvence et le Jourdain dans les Traditions des Antilles et de la Floride, Le Muséon, Tom. III, No. 3.

13 “By projecting our modern knowledge into the past,” to employ a favorite phrase of John Fiske, many, even among recent writers, speak as if the early explorers knew for a certainty that the land discovered by Columbus was actually distinct from Asia. None of them, however, go to the extreme of Lope de Vega, who, in one of his dramas, El Nuevo Mundo Descubierto, makes the Genoese mariner, in a talk with his brother Bartholomew, ask why is it, that I, “a poor pilot, broken in fortune, yearn to add to this world another and one so remote?”—

“Un hombre pobre, y aun roto,

Que casi lo puedo decir,

Y que vive de piloto

Quiere á éste mundo añadir

Otro mundo tan remoto.”

14 Writings of Columbus, edited by P. L. Ford, New York, 1892.

15 Relaciones y Cartas de Cristobal Colón in the Biblioteca Clásica, Tom. CLXIV, Madrid, 1892.

16 Relaciones y Cartas, ut sup., pp. 57, 58.

17 Hakluyt’s Early Voyage, Vol. III, p. 615, London, 1810. The introduction of tobacco into England is by some attributed to Hawkins rather than to Lord Raleigh, who is generally supposed to have introduced it.

18 “Vedete che pestifero e maluagio ueleno del diaulo e questo.” La Historia del Mondo Nuovo, p. 54, Venezia, 1555.

19 Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de L’Amérique, Vol. II, p. 120, par Jean Baptiste Labat, à la Haye, 1724.

20 Even royalty took part in the controversy. In A Counterblaste to Tobacco King James concludes his argument against the use of the weed as follows:—

“A custome loathsome to the eye, hatefull to the nose, harmfull to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse.” The Works of the Most High and Mightie Prince James, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britaine, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc., p. 222, London, 1616.

21 “Hail, happy soil, whence Mother Nature lavishes in abundance the odoriferous, smokable plant! Hail, happy Havana.”

22 Vida y Escritos de Don Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Obispo de Chiapa, por Don Antonio Maria Fabié, Tom. I, pp. 235, 236, Madrid, 1879.

23 Fray Bartolemé de las Casas, Sus Tiempos y Su Apostolado, por Carlos Gutierres, pp. 351, 352, 368, 369, Madrid, 1878.

24 Étude sur les Rapports de L’Amérique et de L’Ancien Continent avant Christophe Colomb, par Paul Gaffarel. p. 124 et seq., Paris, 1869.

25 The diminutive of España, and signifying little Spain. Also known by the Latinized name Hispaniola, and as Isabella, in honor of the illustrious patron of the discoverer. Haiti is an Indian word meaning “craggy land,” or “land of mountains.”

26 Historia de las Indias, Dec. II, Lib. 3, Cap. 14.

27 Southey’s History of Brazil, Vol. III, Chap. XXXIII.

28 Sir Clements R. Markham in his introduction to Hawkins’ Voyages, says, speaking of this subject, “It is not therefore John Hawkins alone who can justly be blamed for the slave trade, but the whole English people during 250 years, who must all divide the blame with him.”

29 The Spanish Conquest in America, by Sir Arthur Helps, Vol. I, p. 350, London and New York, 1900. See also Girolamo Benzoni, Historia del Mondo Nuovo, p. 65, Venezia, 1565, in which he says many Spaniards of Española predicted that the island would surely, within a short time, fall into the hands of the blacks. “Vi sono molti Spagnuoli que tengono per cosa certa que quest’ Isola in breue tempo sara posseduta da questi Mori.”

30 Eden’s First Three English Books on America, p. 240.

31 For a complete discussion of this subject, see Christopher Columbus, His Life, His Works, His Remains, pp. 507–613, by J. B. Thatcher, New York, 1904. According to this author, very small portions of the precious ashes of the great discoverer exist in the Vatican, in the University of Pavia, where Columbus was a student, in The Municipal Hall of Genoa, in the Lenox Library, New York, and in the possession of four different private individuals whom he names.

32 “To Earth he gave immense riches, to Heaven souls innumerable.”

33 Histoire de la Géographie du Nouveau Continent, par Alexander de Humboldt, Vol. V, pp. 177, 178, Paris, 1839.

34 “This narrow space is a sepulchre of the man who was a Lion in name and much more one in deed.”

35 Historia de la Conquista y población de la Provincia de Venezuela, Tom. II, p. 36, Madrid, 1885.

36 The Romans declare that those who cast a coin into the fountain of Trevi are sure to return to the Eternal City. The Caraquenians have a similar saying, viz., that he who drinks of the water of the Catuche, a stream flowing through the city, will return to Caracas. El que bebe de Catuche vuelve á Caracas.

37 Historia de las Indias, Dec. II, Lib. 3, Cap. 14.

38 The Pearl Coast extends from Coro to the Gulf of Paria, a distance of more than five hundred miles.

39 Padre A. Caulin, Historia coro-grafica, natural y evangelica de la Nueva Andalucia, Madrid, 1779, and Conversion en Piritu de Indios Cumanogotos y Palenques, por el P. Fr. Matias Ruiz Blanco O. S. F. seguido de Los Franciscanos en las Indias, por Fr. Francisco Alvarez de Vilanueva, O. S. F., Madrid, 1892.

40 Even Captain John Hawkins, “an atrocious slave dealer,” is forced to pay his tribute of praise to the gentle and peaceful character of the Indians of this part of Venezuela, for of them he writes: “The people bee surely gentle and tractable, and such as desire to liue peaceablie, or else had it been vnpossible for the Spaniards to haue conquered them as they did, and the more to liue now peaceable, they being many in number, and the Spaniards of few.” Op. cit., Vol. III, p. 28.

41 F. A. MacNutt’s Bartholomew de las Casas, His Life, His Apostolate and His Writings, Chaps. VIII, XI, XII, New York, 1909.

42 Antonio de Remesal, Historia de la Provincia de Son Vicente de Chyapa, 1619.

43 In his last will he writes “Inasmuch as the goodness and the mercy of God, whose unworthy minister I am, called me to be the protector of the inhabitants of the countries, which we call the Indies, who were once the lords of those lands and kingdoms, ... I have labored in the court of the Kings of Castile, going and coming from the Indies to Castile and from Castile to the Indies many times for about fifty years—i. e., from the year 1540, for the love of God alone and through compassion seeing those great multitudes of rational men perish, who originally were approachable, humble, meek and simple, and well fitted to receive the Catholic faith and practice all manner of Christian virtues.” Fabié, op. cit., Tom. I, pp. 234, 235.

44 “In contemplating such a life,” writes Fiske, “as that of Las Casas, all words of eulogy seem weak and frivolous. The historian can only bow in reverent awe before a figure which is in some respects the most beautiful and sublime in the annals of Christianity since the Apostolic age. When now and then in the course of the centuries God’s providence brings such a life into this world, the memory of it must be cherished by mankind as one of its most precious and sacred possessions. For the thoughts, the words, the deeds of such a man, there is no death. The sphere of their influence goes on widening forever. They bud, they blossom, they bear fruit, from age to age.”—The Discovery of America, Vol. II, p. 482.

45 Dec. 1, Book 8. The same writer informs us that the sailors of Pedro Alonzo Niño, on leaving Curiana to return to Spain, “had three score and XVI poundes weight (after VIII vnces to the pownde) of perles, which they bought for exchange of owre thynges, amountinge to the value of fyve shyllinges.”

46 Of these gems of the ocean, “tears by Naiads wept,” one could then repeat, as well as now, the words of Pliny, “The richest merchandise of all, and the most soveraigne comoditie throughout the whole world, are these perles.”—Naturalis Historia, Lib. IX, Cap. 35.

47 The Venezuelan pearl-oyster—Margaritifera Radiata—is related to the Ceylon species, Margaritifera vulgaris, and ranges in color from white to bronze and, sometimes, black. It is slightly larger than the Ceylonese gem, and is occasionally of excellent quality.

About three hundred and fifty boats, each manned by five or six men, are now engaged in the pearl fishery of Venezuela. Most of them are from the ports of Cumana, Juan Griego and Carupano.

The reader who is interested in the pearls of Margarita and of the Pearl Coast, may consult with profit the very elaborate work, The Book of the Pearl, by George F. Kunz and Chas. H. Stevenson, New York, 1908, and The Pearl, by W. R. Castelle, Philadelphia and London, 1907.

Up the Orinoco and down the Magdalena

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