As He Was Ignorant Of Latin, He Was Obliged To Take Such Interpretation Of This Story As He Could Procure From Some Other Person, Who Certainly Was Very Ill Qualified For The Task, Since The Latin Text Has Been Altered And Misinterpreted In Several Particulars.

This may have misled Oviedo, and induced him to believe that the foregoing quotation referred to some island in the West Indies.

In the Latin text we do not read of the Carthaginian merchants going out of the straits of Gibraltar as Oviedo writes[9]. Neither is it said that the island was extensive, or its trees large, but only that it was much wooded. Nor do we find that the rivers were wonderful, or the soil fat, or that the island was more remote from Africa than from Europe; but merely that it was remote from the continent. It is not said in the original that any towns were built here, and indeed it is not likely that these traders should build much; neither is the place said to have become famous, as we see on the contrary that the Carthaginians were careful to prevent its fame from spreading among the nations. Thus the translator being ignorant, led Oviedo to believe quite a different story from the reality[10].

It is quite ridiculous to suppose that Carthaginian merchants could possibly be carried so far out of their way as Hispaniola or Cuba; neither could they have arrived at either of those islands without meeting with the many other islands which surround them.

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