Page 272 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

272 from Italy to the Canary Islands

aquam potantes. Comedunt similiter frementum et ordea plenis manibus
et caseum et carnes quarum his, et bonarum, permaxina copia est. BovÈs
autem aut camelos vel asinos non habent, sed capras plerimum et pecu-
des et silvestres apros. Ostensa sunt eis aurea et argentea numismata,
omnino eis incognita. Similiter et aromata nullius materiei cognoscunt.
Monilia aurea, vasa celata, enses, gladii ostensi eis non apparet ut
viderint umquam vel se penes habeant.
Fidei et legalitatis videntur permaxime: nil enim esibile datur uni
quin antequam gustet equis portionibus diviserit ceterisque portionem
suam dederit.
Mulieres eorum nubunt, et que homines noverunt more virorum fe-
moralia gerunt: virgines autem omnino nude incedunt, nullam verecun-
diam ducentes sic incidere.
Hii autem habent prout nos numeros unitates decinis proponentes
hoc modo :
1. vait, 2. smetti, 3. amelotti, 4. acodetti, 5. simusetti, 6. sesetti, 7. sat-
ti, 8.tamatti, 9. aldamorana, 10. marava, 11. vait-marava, 12. smatta-
marava, 13. amierat-marava, 14. acodat-marava, 15. simusat- marava ,
16. sesatti-marava.

“It was the year of our Lord MCCCXLI when letters arrived in
Florence from Florentine merchants who were in Seville, a city in
Further Spain; the letters were sealed there on the 15 of November,
th
and here is what they said.
The letters say that on 1 July of the aforesaid year, two ships provided
st
by the king of Portugal and supplied with all things needed for their trip,
and with them another smaller ship also well provided for, carrying peo-
ple from Florence, Genoa, and Catalans and other people from Hispania,
set sail for the high seas from the city of Lisbon, taking with them horses,
weapons and war machines fit to take down cities and castles, and went in
search of those islands that were rumoured to have been found. All such
ships, sailing before the wind, returned after getting there on the fifth day,
reaching home in November, bearing the loot that now we shall describe;
first of all, they brought back four men from the inhabitants of those is-
lands, and then many goat hides, and tallow, fish oil, bodies of seals, and
also red timbers, staining as if they were verzino and similarly made; they
also brought barks of trees similarly good for making red dyes, red soil, and
similar items. One of the captains of the ships, named Niccoloso, Genoese