Quiros "Voyages" (1595-1606); Banana Sculptor

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

THE BANANA SCULPTOR, THE PURPLE LADY, AND THE ALL-NIGHT SWIMMER:
HOBBIES, COLLECTING, AND OTHER PASSIONATE PURSUITS
by Susan Sheehan and Howard Means
Simon & Schuster, NY
299 pages, hardcover, $25
2002

   The acknowledgments page 298 mentions two ADS members:

   From the prolific author Paul Dickson came the prolific word-sleuth Barry Popik.

(I hope we're not talking the Biblical sense here--ed.)

--------------------------------------------------------
THE VOYAGES OF PEDRO FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS,
1595 TO 1606
Translated and edited by Sir Clements Markham
in two volumes
Hakluyt Society, 1904
Kraus Reprint Limited,
Nendeln/Liechtenstein
1967

   OED missed a another goldmine.
   The translation shouldn't be trusted.  It possibly has an anachronism (like "banana"); the original must be examined.
   Checks for "Quiros" and "C. Markham" in the online OED don't show this book.  I went through it briefly today, but it must be read again.  It's worth the trouble, as you're about to see.

Pg. 28:  The leaves of (Pg. 29--ed.) the tree are large, and much serrated, like those of the papay.*
*The earliest description of the bread fruit.
(OED has 1697--ed.)

Pg. 49:  There are great numbers of cocoa-nut trees and very large sweet canes.
(OED has 1613 for "cocoa-nut"--ed.)

Pg. 52:  In each village there is a long house, used as an oracle, with human figures in half relief, badly carved, and another long house, which appeared to be for the community.  In the centre of them there were _barbacoas_ of cane.
(OED has 1660s and 1690s for "barbecue"--ed.)

Pg. 122:  The natives here are of a brown colour, not very tall, and their bodies tattooed.
(OED has 1777 for "tattoo."  Is this word in the original manuscript, or was it added by the translator?  Why would the translator use "tattoo" without any footnote, as with "bread fruit"?--ed.)

Pg. 154:  What was seen in the way of victuals in this port consisted of pigs, hens, plaintains, sweet canes, one, two, or three kinds of roots like sweet potatoes, which they eat roast and boiled, and make biscuit with it, _buyos_, two kinds of good almonds, and two kinds of pine nuts, wood-pigeons, doves, ducks, grey and white herons, swallows, pot-herbs, pumpkins of Castille, the fruit which I mentioned in the first islands, and chestnuts and nuts.
(OED has 1647 for "pumpkin."  OED has 1750 for "sweet potatoe"--ed.)

Pg. 181:  ...Galapagos Islands...
(I was just there.  I don't recall that they were called "Galapagos" in 1600, but I'll check--ed.)

Pg. 187:  ..._camarones_...
(OED has 1880--ed.)

Pg. 239:  The Chief gave us another, and a bunch of curious plantains, their shape being like that of moderate-sized egg-plants* without points, the pulp orange colour, sweet and tender.
*Egg-plant nightshade, _Solanum melongena_, L.
(OED has 1767 for "egg-plant"--ed.)

Pg. 265:  The natives generally seen here are corpulent, not quite black nor mulatto.
(OED has 1595 for "mulatto"--ed.)

Pg. 267:  There are many swallows; we saw a macaw and flocks of paroquets;...
(The revised OED has 1625 for "macaw"--ed.)

Pg. 269:  As regards vegetables, I only knew of amaranth, purslane, and calabashes.
(OED has 1596 for "calabash"--ed.)


Pg. 289:  Certain _albacore_ and _bonito_, in a large shoal, had hitherto followed the ship, and every day the men fished with nets, fizgigs, and harpoons, catching ten, twenty, thirty, even fifty, some of them weighing 3, 4, and 5 _arrobas_.
(OED has 1579 for "alabacore, 1599 for "bonito."  OED has 1598 for "arroba"--ed.)

Pg. 291:  ...and, not content with that, they should give to these people dishes cooked in many ways in the braziers of enlightened charity being the pots and pans of piety and pity, and the table-service of all equity...
(OED has 1690 for "brazier"--ed.)

Pg. 308:  The Captain sent a messenger in the dingey, and ordered the boat to keep off until we anchored in the port of Acapulco, on the 23rd of November, 1606.
(OED has 1794 for "dinghy."  Again, this could be an anachronism--ed.)

Pg. 329:  This day we saw many birds of different kinds at about night, gulls, frigate birds, boobies and terns, and at noon we sighted land...
(OED has 1738 for "frigate bird."  OED has 1634 for "booby."  OED has 1678 for "tern"--ed.)

Pg. 367:  His colour was that of a Zambo,* with great beard and long hair, not very curly, and red.
*A cross between an Indian and Negro.
(I posted a 1684 "Sambo," perhaps a related name--ed.)

Pg. 376:  They found here many cocoanuts, plantains, nuts tasting like those of Castille, though not so large, and the shell harder; many _obos_, very large and good, like the pears of Castille, and with a delicious smell and taste; many large oranges, camotes and yams--or, rather, another smaller kind of yam, which serves them as their chief food; for all the houses were full of them, placed on shelves to preserve them from the damp, that would cause them to get rotten.
(OED has 1657 for "yam."  OED has 1842 for "camote"--ed.)

Pg. 481:
   The fish are abundant:
_Pargos._  _Peces Reyes_.
_Lizas_ (skait).
_Lenguados_ (soles).
_Salmonetes_ (mullets).
_Meros_ (whitings).
_Zabalos_ (shads).
_Macabis_ (?).
_Casones_ (cuttle-fish).
_Pampanos_ (gilt-heads).
_Sardinas_ (sardines).
_Rayas_ (thorn-fish).
_Palometes_ (gurnets).
_Chitos_ (mussels).
_Viejas_ (?).
_Anguillas_ (eels).
_Peces puercos_ (pig-fish).
_Chapines_ (?).
_Rubias_ (?).
_Almejas_ (?).
_Camarones_ (shrimps).