Note 337-3 — NARRATIVE OF THE THIRD VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS AS CONTAINED IN LAS CASAS’S HISTORY

Poner á monte carracas. Poner á monte is not given in the Spanish dictionaries, and is apparently a sea phrase identical with the Portuguese “pôr um navio a monte,” to beach or ground a vessel. The translator went entirely astray in this passage. See Thacher’s Columbus, II. 388. The figure here given and the use of word pasos, normally, a land measure of length, instead of braza, “fathom,” would seem to indicate that the 65 paces refers to the extent of shore laid bare, and not to the height of the tide. The corresponding passage in the Historie reads: “so that it seemed a rapid river both day and night and at all hours, notwithstanding the fact that the water rose and fell along the shore (per la spiaggia) more than sixty paces between the waves (alle marette) as it is wont to do in San Lucar di Barrameda where the waters [of the river] are high since although the water rises and falls it never ceases to run toward the sea,” Historie (London ed.), p. 229. In this passage maree, “tides,” should be read instead of marette.