COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER. 



135 



rum polling their officers and crews to sail under 

 tin- new mlininil. The executor of this command 

 was lo ivrt-hr ^00 maravedis a duy while carry- 

 ing it out, payment to come from those who re- 

 fined to obey it. This order produced as little 

 Hl< < -t as the other. After eighteen years of effort 

 to prevail upon governments 

 to allow him to collect men 

 ami vessels, Columbus was 

 likely to fail utterly because 

 not a man was willing to risk 

 life or treasure. He had 

 hoped to borrow the eighth 

 part which he had assumed 

 to bear in the expense from 

 Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the 

 rich mariner who had es- 

 poused his cause so warmly 

 in t he convent. Finally, this 

 man came forward with an 

 oiler to add to the loan Co- 

 lumhus asked :i second vessel 

 and his personal service as 

 its commander. This put a 

 somewhat new face on the 

 matter. Two vessels were 

 fitted out, one by Columbus 

 and a second by Pinzon. A 

 third was impressed by the 

 authorities, under the royal 

 mandate. But the trouble 

 was not ended. The calkers, 

 on being compelled to do 

 over again work which they 

 had purposely slighted, ran 

 away, seamen deserted and 

 hid, and ingenuity was taxed 

 to evade the law and hinder 

 the expedition. It was Au- 

 gust before 3 little vessels, 

 the size of river steamers of 

 our day, only one of them 

 decked, were ready to set 

 sail, with 120 persons on 

 board, all told. 



When they crossed the bar 

 of Suites, Columbus was up- 

 on his flagship, the decked 

 vessel he had fitted out, 

 which he named the " Santa 

 Maria," Martin Alonzo Pin- 

 zon commanded the "Pinta," 

 the impressed vessel, while 

 his brother, Francisco Martin, acted as pilot. 

 The third vessel, the " NiBa," furnished by the 

 Pinzons, was commanded by a third brother, 

 Vicente Yafiez Pinzon. 



On the first day out, Columbus began a descrip- 

 tion of the journey, in the following manner : 



In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Where- 

 as Most Christian, High, Excellent, and Powerful 

 1'riiii'cs, Kinj; and Queen of Spain and of the Islands 

 of the Sea, our Sovereign.*, this present year, 1492, 

 after your highnesses had terminated the war with 

 the Moors reigning in Europe, the same having been 

 brought to an end in the great city of Granada, where, 

 on the second day of January, this present year, I saw 

 the royal banners upon the towers of the Alhambra, 

 which is the fortress of that city, and saw the Moorish 

 king come out at the gate or the city and kiss the 

 hand of your highnesses, and of the Pnnce, my sover- 

 eign ; and in the present month, in consequence of 



the infnniiution which I hud given your highne 

 respecting the countries of India and of a prince 

 called Great Khan, which in our language signifie* 

 King of Kings ; how, at many times, he and his prede- 

 cessors hud sent to Rome soliciting instructors who 

 might teach him our holy faith, and the Holy Father 

 had never granted his request, whereby great numbers 



THE SANTA MARIA. 



of people were lost, believing in idolatry and doctrines 

 of perdition. Your highnesses, as Catholic Christians 

 and princes who love and promote the holy Christina 

 faith, and are enemies of the doctrine of Mahomet and 

 of all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, 

 Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned coun- 

 tries of India, to see the said princes, people, and ter- 

 ritories, and to learn their disposition and the proper 

 method of converting them to our holy faith ; and, 

 furthermore, directed that I should not proceed by 

 land to the east, as is customary, but by a westerly 

 route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain 

 evidence that any one has gone. So, after having ex- 

 pelled the Jews from your dominions, your high- 

 nesses, in the same month of January, ordered me to 

 proceed with a sufficient armament to the said regions 

 of India, and for that purpose granted me great favors, 

 and ennobled me that thenceforth I might call myself 

 Don, and be high admiral of the sea, and perpetual 

 viceroy and governor in all the islands and conti- 



