112 THE CALL OF THE SEA 



The Last Voyage of Christopher Columbus 

 (From Christopher Columbus) 



'X'HE Admiral lay crippled in his cabin listening 

 to the rush and bubble of the water, feeling 

 the blows and recoils of the unending battle, 

 hearkening anxiously to the straining of the 

 timbers and the vessel's agonized complainings 

 under the pounding of the sea. We do not know 

 what his thoughts were ; but we may guess that 

 they looked backward rather than forward, and 

 that often they must have been prayers that the 

 present misery would come somehow or other to 

 an end. Up on deck brother Bartholomew, who 

 has developed some grievous complaint of the 

 jaws and teeth — complaint not known to us more 

 particularly, but dreadful enough from that descrip- 

 tion — does his duty also, with that heroic manful- 

 ness that has marked his whole career ; and some- 

 where in the ship young Ferdinand is sheltering 

 from the sprays and breaking seas, finding his 

 world of adventure grown somewhat gloomy and 

 sordid of late, and feeling that he has now had his 

 fill of the sea. . . . Shut your eyes and let the illu- 

 sions of time and place fade from you ; be with 

 them for a moment on this last voyage ; hear that 

 eternal foaming and crashing of great waves, the 

 shrieking of wind in cordage, the cracking and 



