[218-2] Las Casas has "on the coast of Guinea where manequeta is gathered" (I. 430). _Amomum Melequeta_, an herbaceous, reedlike plant, three to five feet high, is found along the coast of Africa, from Sierra Leone to the Congo. Its seeds were called "Grains of Paradise," or _maniguetta_, and the coast alluded to by Columbus, between Liberia and Cape Palmas, was hence called the Grain Coast. The grains were used as a condiment, like pepper, and in making the spiced wine called _hippocras_. (Markham.)
[219-2] Reading _broma_ ("ship worm") for _bruma_ ("mist") in the sentence: _sino que tiene mucha bruma_. De la Roquette in the French translation gives _bruma_ the meaning of "shipworm," supposing it to be a variant form of _broma_. The Italian translator of the letter on the fourth voyage took _broma_ to be _bruma_, translated it _pruina e bruma_, and consequently had Columbus's ship injured by frost near Panama in April! _Cf._ Thacher, _Christopher Columbus_, II. 625, 790.
[220-1] So called because the summit is always covered with white or silver clouds. Las Casas, I. 432. A monastery of Dominicans was afterwards built on Monte de Plata, in which Las Casas began to write his history of the Indies in the year 1527. Las Casas, IV. 254. (Markham.)
[220-2] Puerto de Plata, where a flourishing seaport town was afterwards established; founded by Ovando in 1502. It had fallen to decay in 1606. (Markham.)
[220-3] Punta Macuris. The distance is 3, not 4 leagues. (Navarrete.)
[220-4] Punta Sesua. The distance is only one league. (_Id._)
[220-5] Cabo de la Roca. It should be 5, not 6 leagues. (_Id._)
[220-7] Las Casas says that none of these names remained even in his time. I. 432.
[221-1] This was the Peninsula of Samana. (Navarrete.)
[221-3] Cabo Cabron, or Lover's Cape; the extreme N.E. point of the island, rising nearly 2000 feet above the sea. (Markham.)
[221-5] Cabo Samana; called Cabo de San Theramo afterwards by Columbus (Markham.)[TN-3]
[222-1] This should be, "who says that he was very ugly of countenance, more so than the others that he had seen."
[222-2] Las Casas says, I. 433, "Not charcoal but a certain dye they make from a certain fruit."
[222-3] Las Casas, I. 434, says there never were any cannibals in Española.
