Manatees and Dugongs

There are only three species of manite, west african, amazonian and west indian. Columbus noted that he saw the three mermaids while on his way to rio del oro,. That means his mermaids were most likely west indian manitees. But the journal entry goes on to say that columbus had actually seen some of the creatures before while travelling along the coasts of guinea and liberia. On that earlier occasion, he most likely saw a dugong, a close cousin of the manitee and the only other member of the sirenia order of fully aquatic mammals. If the word cirenia rings a that's because it