Sunday, 30 December 1492 (Part 2)
In the midst of these festivities, an Indian arrived with the news that two days ago he had left the caravel Pinta in a harbor to the east. I returned to the Nina with this information, and while there, the Nina’s captain, Vincente Yanez Pinzon, told me that he had seen rhubarb on the island of Amiga, which is at the entrance of La Mer de Santo Tomas, 18 miles from here; he recognized the leaves and roots. They say that rhubarb sends small shoots out of the ground and bears fruit that look like green mulberries, almost dry. The stalk that grows from the root is yellow and as fine as the best color there can be to paint. Underground the root grows like a large pear.
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This picture was found on the Internet.
It shows the different levels of a CARAVEL type sailing vessel. La Pinta, mentioned in today's Log entry, was a caravel. It was much smaller, and faster, than the Santa Maria. The Santa Maria wrecked on Christmas Day, which meant that the 39 sailors who had been aboard it could not all fit on the two remaining boats (Nina & Pinta) to return to Spain - but also, the Pinta had gone on a rogue mission of discovery of her own and hadn't been seen in 5 weeks.
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