[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 Española 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 Española 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 weight.