[89-2] This information Columbus is ordinarily supposed to have derived from Toscanelli's letter which may be found in Fiske, _Discovery of America_, I. 356 ff. and II. App. The original source of the information, however, is Marco Polo, and Columbus summarized the passage on the margin in his copy of Marco Polo, Lib. I., ch. IV., as follows: "Magnus Kam misit legatos ad pontificem:" _Raccolta Colombiana_, Part I, Tomo 2, p. 446. That he read and annotated these passages before 1492 seems most probable. See Bourne, _Spain in America_, pp. 10-15, and Vignaud, _Toscanelli and Columbus_, p. 284.
[90-1] It is interesting to notice the emphasis of the missionary motive in this preamble. Nothing is said in regard to the search for a new route to the Indies for commercial reasons. Nor is reference made to the expectation of new discoveries which is prominent in the royal patent granted to Columbus, see above p. 78.
[90-2] The edict of expulsion bears the date of March 30.
[91-1] Columbus reckoned in Italian miles, four of which make a league. (Navarrete.)
[93-1] On June 30, 1484, King John II. of Portugal granted to Fernam Domimguez do Arco, "resident in the island of Madeyra, if he finds it, an island which he is now going in search of." _Alguns Documentos do Archivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo_, p. 56.
[94-1] _Tres horas de noche_ means three hours after sunset.
[94-2] "On this day [Sunday, Sept. 9] they lost sight of land; and many, fearful of not being able to return for a long time to see it, sighed and shed tears. But the admiral, after he had comforted all with big offers of much land and wealth to keep them in hope and to lessen their fear which they had of the long way, when that day the sailors reckoned the distance 18 leagues, said he had counted only 15, having decided to lessen the record so that the crew would not think they were as far from Spain as in fact they were." _Historie del Signor Don Fernando Colombo_ (London ed., 1867), pp. 61-62.
[95-1] Las Casas in his _Historia_, I. 267, says "on that day at nightfall the needles northwested that is to say the fleur de lis which marks the north was not pointing directly at it but verged somewhat to the left of north and in the morning northeasted that is to say the fleur de lis pointed to right of the north until sunset."