Note 324-2 — NARRATIVE OF THE THIRD VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS AS CONTAINED IN LAS CASAS’S HISTORY

Escribano de la hacienda. In 1497 Rodrigo Affonso, a member of the king’s council, was granted the northern of the two captaincies into which São Thiago was divided and also the wild cattle on the island of Boavista (Buenavista in Spanish). D’Avezac, Ils de l’Afrique (Paris, 1848), p. 218. The word mayordomo, translated “steward,” here stands for the high Portuguese title of honor Mordomo môr da Casa Real, a title in its origin similar to the majores domus or mayors of the palace of the early French kings. Escribano de la hacienda del Rey means rather the king’s treasurer.