the larger vessel. As I climbed over the rail, I was startled 

 by a sudden boom almost in my ear. The sound came from 

 a neat, small gun mounted on a handmade carriage on 

 the aft deck. The men eagerly explained that it was a 

 cannon they had picked up from a wreck off the shore 

 of East Caicos, and that Pete had since built the carriage, 

 a perfect model of the original ones of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. It was he who had rammed in some gunpowder and 

 discharged it just as Clayton and I climbed aboard. 



I found that Captain Weems was off on a trip in a 

 sailboat with two of the town fishermen, to investigate 

 at first hand the shores and inner waters where Columbus 

 might have preceded him. Pete and Ed were in enthusias- 

 tic agreement that Columbus might have landed at South 

 Caicos island. In several trips between Turks island and 

 Caicos they had had every opportunity to check the 

 course which Columbus might have pursued. And in a 

 cruise to the northeast, they had rounded the islands clear 

 to the western side, landing and inspecting various areas 

 as they went. 



Attempting to bring the story of Columbus's first 

 glimpse of the New World into focus in my mind, I re- 

 called having read that on the night of October 11, 1492, 

 Columbus's little fleet of three ships was boiling along 

 toward the west with sails full set. For several days the 

 crew had seen evidences of land, including a variety of 

 birds, broken branches, even a carved stick; and the 

 sailors were watching eagerly for their first glimpse of 

 the Indies. They were particularly keen because Colum- 

 bus had offered a reward to the first one who sighted land. 



Columbus, too, was on the alert, and at ten o'clock 

 that night he called Pero Guierrez to verffy the sight of a 

 light which he descried on the horizon. Soon after, a 

 sailor on the forecastle called out that he, too, saw a light. 

 They increased the vigilance of their watch, and at two 



310 Sea Diver 



