The largest of 70 tons and the smallest 50, with
a complement of 140 men and boys, of whom I was one.
[1] Certainly alluding to D. Juan de Fonseca, archdeacon of Castile, and
bishop of Burgos, formerly mentioned as obstructing the equipment of
the admirals ship, and afterwards as the principal mover of the
injurious treatment experienced by the admiral. - E.
[2] This article is nowhere explained, but was said on a former occasion
to be made of very low or impure gold. - E.
[3] This reported produce is prodigious, and must have only been temporary
or accidental. Forty ounces of gold a-day, allowing but L.4 the ounce,
as perhaps inferior to standard, amount to L.160. The piece of gold,
mentioned in the text was worth about L.88. These mines, once so rich,
have been long abandoned. The original natives of Hispaniola died out,
and negroes have been found unequal to the hardships of mining.
Hispaniola long remained a mere depot of adventurers, whence the great
conquests of Mexico and Peru were supplied with men and arms. - E.
[4] The original, or rather the old translation, is most miserably
defective and confused in its dates about this period, bandying 1499
and 1500 backwards and forwards most ridiculously.
