122 CONCEPTIONS OF COLUMBUS 



of Cuba and finding the Indians preparing a meal of 

 fish and serpents, which latter Bernaldez describes in 

 such a way as to make certain that they were iguanas. 

 Peter Martyr describes the serpents as eight feet 

 long and in no wise different from the crocodiles of 

 the Nile except in point of size. Lagarto (from the 

 Latin lacertus) is the Spanish form of the w^ord lizard. 

 The iguana belongs to the lizard family. The name 

 **Rio de los largartos," if due to the above incident 

 on the second voyage, may have been transferred to 

 the northern coast by being written over the land in- 

 stead of the sea, on some local chart of one of the 

 sailors. An instance of how such placing might 

 transfer a name from one coast to the other may be 

 seen in the La Cosa map: of the names relating to 

 Cuba it is impossible to determine to which coast 

 many of them belong (see Fig. ii). 



Cabo Sa7ito: Columbus gave the name ''Puerto 

 Sancto" to a harbor near the eastern end of Cuba.^^ 

 If this name had been written by some unknown 

 cartographer 'T. Santo," it would not be an un- 

 likely change for the Cantino draftsman to interpret 

 "P. Santo" as "Punta Santo" or "Cabo Santo." 



Rio de las almadias: This is another descriptive 

 term. Columbus did not give the name to any place 

 on the coast according to any list we have; but, on 



" Journal under date of Dec. i. 1492 (Raccolta, Part I, Vol. i, p. 52; 

 Markham, op. cit., p. 93); Las Casas, op. cit.. Book I. Ch. 49 (Vol. i, 

 P- 355). 



