[227-1] _Y los mas le ponen allí yerba_, "and the most of them put on poison." The description of these arrows corresponds exactly with that given by Sir E. im Thurn of the poisoned arrows of the Indians of Guiana, which still have "adjustable wooden tips smeared with poison, which are inserted in the socket at the end of a reed shaft." _Among the Indians of Guiana_, p. 242.
[228-1] Gulf of the Arrows. This was the Bay of Samana, into which the river Yuna flows. (Navarrete.)
[228-2] Porto Rico. It would have been distant about 30 leagues. (Navarrete.)
[229-1] "The sons remain with their mothers till the age of fourteen when they go to join their fathers in their separate abode." Marco Polo, pt. III., ch. XXXIII. _Cf._ p. 226, note 4.
[229-2] Now called Cabod el Engaño,[TN-4] the extreme eastern point of Española. It had the same name when Las Casas wrote. (Markham.)
[230-1] The _almadrabas_, or tunny fisheries of Rota, near Cadiz, were inherited by the Duke, as well as those of Conil, a little fishing town 6 leagues east of Cadiz. (Markham.)
[230-2] _Un pescado_ (a fish), called the _rabiforcado_. For _un pescado_, we should probably read _una ave pescadora_, and translate: a fishing bird, called _rabiforcado_. See entry for September 29 and note.
[230-3] _Alcatraces_, _rabos de juncos_, and _rabiforcados_: boobies, boatswain-birds, and frigate-birds. The translator has not been consistent in selecting English equivalents for these names. In the entry of January 18 _rabiforcado_ is frigate-bird; in that of January 19 _rabo de junco_ is frigate-bird; in that of January 21 _rabo de junco_ is _boatswain-bird_. September 14 _garjao_ is the tern, while on January 19 the _rabiforcado_ is the tern. On these birds, see notes 11, 12, 13, and 20. See also Oviedo, _Historia General y natural de las Indias_, lib. XIV., cap. I., for descriptions of these birds.
[231-1] _Rabiforcados y pardelas._ Las Casas, I. 440, has _aves pardelas_. Talhausen, _Neues Spanisch-deutsches Wörterbuch_, defines _pardelas_ as _Peters-vogel_, _i.e._, petrel.
[231-2] _Rabos de juncos y pardelas._ The translator vacillates between sandpipers and terns in rendering _pardelas_. _Cf._ January 28 and 31, but as has just been noted "petrels" is the proper word.