CHARACTER OP COLUMBUS. 389 



general inspection, some leagues were daily subtracted 

 from the ship's sailing, that the crews might be ignorant 

 of the real distance they had advanced. With the same 

 readiness he explained to them the explosions of the 

 Teneriffe peaks the variations of the needle the 

 sudden swells and calms of the ocean (the causes of some 

 of which he did not himself understand) while, on 

 many of these occasions, his fanatical and frightened 

 companions were muttering threats, in his hearing, of 

 despatching him with violent hands. Another memor- 

 able instance of his coolness occurred on the return 

 voyage, when, amidst the roar of a terrific storm while 

 the ocean foamed over his ship, and the mariners lay 

 prostrate around him, trembling, praying, and buried in 

 tears he found leisure to write an account of his voy- 

 age and discovery. This he sealed, directed it to his 

 sovereigns, and superscribed a promise of 1000 ducats to 

 whomsoever should deliver it safe. He then wrapped it 

 in a waxed cloth, which he placed in the centre of a cake 

 of wax, and inclosing the whole in a barrel, threw it into 

 the sea. Nor was this sufficient. For fear a single copy 

 might be lost, he prepared another in precisely the same 

 elaborate manner, to be placed in another situation ; and 

 all this, which he did for the satisfaction of his own am- 

 bition, and the good of his country, he had the sagacity 

 to use as a means of quieting the fears of the seamen, 

 under the pretext of having performed a solemn religious 

 vow for the laying of the storm. 



In another case, his astronomical science was the 

 means of his safety. He, and a few of his crew wh 

 had not mutinied and deserted him, were confined on the 

 desolate shores of the Island of Jamaica, while the na- 

 tives around him would neither sell them food, nor suffer 

 them to procure it. They were, in fact, in imminent 

 danger of starvation, besides apprehending a still more 

 dreaded hostility on the part of the natives. Columbus, 

 knowing that there would be a total eclipse of the moon 

 in three days, sent an Indian to summon all the chiefs 

 of the neighborhood to a grand council, on the day of 

 the eclipse. Having got them together, he gave them a 

 solemn warning of the fate which awaited them, if they 



VOL. i. NO. xvi. 35 



