steered, and all the three vessels reached it before 

 midday, at its northern point, where there is an islet 

 and a ridge of rocks on its outside, to the north, and 

 another between it and the main island . . . there 

 was a north wind, and the said islet lay on the course 

 of the island of Femandina from which I had navi- 

 gated east-west . . . 



Yet we had found eighty-seven miles of open sea 

 between Castle light at the southwest point of Acklin 

 and the northeast point of Great Inagua. At Sea Diver's 

 cruising speed of eight knots it had taken us over eleven 

 hours to cover this distance. Although we had left Castle 

 light behind at four thirty in the morning, it was past 

 three in the afternoon before Captain Weems first glimpsed 

 the tops of the hills on Great Inagua from the crow's-nest, 

 and it was five thirty before we finally reached the north- 

 east cape of the island. 



"How come Columbus got here before noon in those 

 old tubs of his," Clayton queried disrespectfully, "when 

 it's taken us a whole day with Sea Diver?" 



"Yes," returned Ed, "and in order to get Columbus to 

 Cape Hermoso, where they anchored for the night, Ver- 

 hoog says they sailed another forty-four miles from here 

 to Northwest point, on the other side of the island." 



"And what about the direction?" I put in. "Columbus 

 navigated east-west to reach the northern point of Isa- 

 bella. We've been sailing almost southeast to follow 

 Verhoog's theory." 



We cut and slashed at Verhoog's arguments. Before 

 we were finished, we felt we had pretty thoroughly dis- 

 proved the course he had advanced. Yet his arguments for 

 Caicos as the first landfall still seemed sound. We were 

 impatient to test out if Columbus might have landed at 

 Caicos, and then, by following Ed's suggested track, might 



On the Track of Columbus 317 



