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COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER. 



ncnts which I might discover and acquire, or which 

 may hereafter be discovered and acquired in the ocean ; 

 and that this dignity should be inherited by my eldest 

 son, and thus descend from degree to degree forever. 

 Hereupon I left the city of Granada, on Saturday, the 

 twelfth day of May, 1492, and proceeded to Palos, a 

 seaport, where I armed 3 vessels, very tit for such an 

 enterprise, and having provided myself with abun- 

 dance of stores and seamen, I set sail from the port on 

 Friday, the 3d of August, half an hour before sun- 

 rise, and steered for the Canary islands of your high- 

 nesses, which are in the said ocean, thence to take 

 my departure and proceed till I arrived at the Indies, 

 and perform the embassy of your highnesses to the 

 princes there, and discharge the orders given me. 

 For this purpose I determined to keep an account of 

 the voyage, and to write down punctually everything 

 we performed or saw from day to day, as will here- 

 after appear. Moreover, Sovereign Princes, besides 

 describing every night the occurrences of the day, 

 and every day those of the preceding night, I intend 

 to draw up a nautical chart, which shall contain the 

 several parts of the ocean and land in their proper 

 situations ; and also to compose a book to represent 

 the whole by picture, with latitudes and longitudes, 

 on all which accounts it behooves me to abstain from 

 my sleep and make many trials in navigation, which 

 things will demand much labor. 



On the third day out the " Pinta " made a 

 signal of distress, and reported that her rudder 

 had been found broken and unshipped. The 

 wind was blowing too hard to allow of the other 

 vessels rendering any assistance to Pinzon, who 

 had been put into this difficulty by the evident 

 intention of the owners to unfit their caravel for 

 the voyage, and thus secure their return before 

 she had gone too far for their experience to be 

 of avail in navigating her to Palos. But Pinzon 

 had the broken rudder mended so that they 

 could manage the vessel. The next day his de- 

 vice gave way, and the other ships were com- 

 pelled to shorten sail while he secured the rud- 

 der firmly. Meantime, she had been found to 

 be in such a leaky condition that Columbus re- 

 solved to leave her at the Canary islands and 

 procure another caravel, and he announced that 

 they were near those islands, from which opin- 

 ion all the pilots dissented. On the morning of 

 Aug. 9 they were sighted. For three weeks 

 Columbus tried in vain to secure a ship ; then a 

 new rudder was made for the " Pinta," the la- 

 teen sails of the " Nina " were changed to square 

 sails, and the little squadron again hoisted its 

 canvas. While they were at the Canaries two 

 events troubled Columbus. In sailing among 

 the islands the crews came in sight of Teneriffe 

 in active eruption, and were so filled with terror 

 and gloomy predictions that it required the ut- 

 most effort to keep them from desertion. Co- 

 lumbus explained to them the supposed cause, 

 and recalled descriptions of Mount Etna and 

 other volcanoes. A far more serious danger 

 presented itself in the report that reached him 

 of Portuguese vessels that were waiting to at- 

 tack his ships. He set out once more, on Sept. 6, 

 but for three days his canvas fluttered idly. On 

 Sept. 9 a breeze sprang up at sunrise, and soon 

 the only enemy he had to fear was the one with 

 whom he was embarked. After land was really 

 lost to sight the hardiest among the crew shed 

 tears like children, and filled the air with wail- 

 ing. Their commander drew for their comfort 

 the pictures that had so long warmed his own 

 imagination of vast splendor, gold, gems, and 



COLUMBUS S ARMOR. 



precious stones to be found in the islands of 

 the Indian sea. He sent orders to the Pinzons 

 that, in case any accident should separate the ves- 

 sels, they were to sail due westward for 700 leagues 

 and then lie by from midnight until daylight, 

 as at that distance 

 they might look for 

 land. At the same 

 time, in order to 

 guard against the 

 effect of disappoint- 

 ment if his hopes 

 failed of realiza- 

 tion, he began to 

 keep two reckon- 

 ings, one giving the 

 real distance trav- 

 eled, the other mak- 

 ing each day's jour- 

 ney shorter by some 

 leagues, that the 

 minds of his men 

 might be less ap- 

 palled as darkness 

 fell and they real- 

 ized each night the 

 spaces that lay be- 

 tween them and 

 home. On Sept. 11, 

 the sight of the 

 floating mast of a 

 wrecked vessel alarmed them, and on the 13th 

 Columbus himself was agitated on seeing that 

 there was a variation in the needle ; at night- 

 fall it varied half a point from the north star, 

 and still more on the following morning. For 

 three days he watched the increasing change 

 with wondering silence before the pilots of the 

 other vessels observed it. Their terror was ex- 

 treme ; they had lost the one guide in the track- 

 less waste. Tasking his utmost grasp of science 

 for an explanation, he told them that the direc- 

 tion of the needle was not to the north star, 

 which really had its revolutions and changes, 

 going daily in a circle round the pole. They 

 had such faith in his knowledge, that this de- 

 scription of the phenomenon quieted them, and 

 he seems himself to have permanently accepted 

 it. On the 14th a heron and a water wagtail 

 hung about the ships, to the great delight 

 of the sailors, who thought that neither of 

 these birds ventured far out to sea. On the 

 night of the 15th a meteor, which Columbus de- 

 scribes as a great flame of fire that seemed to 

 fall from the sky into the sea a few leagues dis- 

 tant, startled and frightened the sailors. 



They were now come to the region of the 

 trade winds, and were carried swiftly and stead- 

 ily on, without changing sail for many days. 

 They began to see great fields of weeds of vari- 

 ous colors, drifting westward. From one patch 

 Columbus captured a live crab. They saw 

 white birds and tunny fish, and Columbus called 

 to mind Aristotle's description of the weedy sea 

 from which mariners had turned back. On 

 Sept. 18 the soft breeze from the east was fill- 

 ing every sail, and the crews, who had believed 

 that the weeds indicated land, were more cheer- 

 ful, when a hail from the " Pinto " brought 

 news that Pinzon felt sure, from the bird flights, 

 that there was land to the north. At sunset 



