Note 69 — Chapter I

There is a wide difference as reported by the early writers as to the number of men which Columbus had with him on this voyage. Ferdinand Columbus says ninety; Peter Martyr, one hundred and twenty; others say one hundred and eighty. The men he left at Hayti are reckoned variously at thirty-nine, forty-three, forty-eight, fifty-five, etc. Major, Select Letters, p. 12, reckons them as from thirty-seven to forty. The lists show among them an Irishman, “Guillermo Ires, natural de Galney, en Irlanda,” and an Englishman, “Tallarte de Lajes, Ingles.” These are interpreted to mean William Herries—probably “a namesake of ours,” says Harrisse—and Arthur Lake. Bernaldez says he carried back with him to Spain ten of the natives.