OVALLE*S HISTORICAL RELATION OF CHILE. 1 37 



To fay truth, It cannot be denied but this was an urgent danger, and greater per- 

 haps than can be imagined by thofe who never were in the like trials ; for when no 

 lefs than life is at flake, all dangers appear great, and particularly at fea : befides, thefe 

 allegations were of themfelves of great confideration, and capable of fhaking the greateft 

 conftancy and valour ; yet the courage of the great Columbus was fuch, and fo fmgular 

 his prudence, that fometimes diffembling, and fometimes taking no notice of what he 

 heard, but talking to this man and the other in private, and then comforting them all 

 up in general, and giving them fome account of his well-grounded fpeculations, he fo 

 fed them with hopes and expeftations, (he himfelf fhewing no diftruft of his fuccefs,) 

 that he brought at laft his projeQ: to a happy iffue. They were following their voyage 

 thus, through all the inconveniencies of heat, ready to flifie them, when on a fudden a 

 voice was heard crying. Land, Land : they all flew to the prow and fides of the fliip, 

 and fixed their eyes on the horizon like fo many Argus's, to find out the land which 

 feemed to appear like a cloud upon the fea. The defire of getting to it made fome 

 doubt, if It were land or clouds ; but others were more confident : fome afTure it to be 

 low land; others think they fee rocks, and a large extended Ihore; and all was but 

 guefs, occafioned by the great diftance they were at fea from any land ; for in truth it 

 was not land but clouds. And this was an invention of Columbus, their admiral, 

 who feeing them almoft ready to mutiny, made ufe of this artifice to prevent the 

 ill eftefts of their defpair, caufing this voice to be heard to give them a fhort joy, 

 and amufe them. 



This fucceeded well for that time: he fteered his courfe towards this pretended 

 land till night ; and when they were afleep he fet his prow to the weft, in fearch of 

 the true land : but in the morning when it was day, feeing thofe clouds, which they 

 took for land, vanifhed as it often happens in long navigations, they began to afflid: 

 themfelves anew, and remonftrate to the admiral boldly to his face, which I do 

 not wonder at ; for befides the danger of perilhing with hunger, they found them- 

 felves in a climate fo fcorching and fiery, than in the third voyage that the admiral 

 made, they being becalmed eight days, about the fame place, were afraid the fun 

 would have fet fire to their {hips ; for all his calks flew under decks, the hoops 

 fmoaking as if they had been fet on fire, and the wheat was all in a ferment , 

 and the fait flelh was, as it were, boiled again, and ftunk fo, that, to avoid infeftion, 

 they were forced to throw it overboard. 



The admiral was thus purfuing his voyage, in which patience was his moil 

 neceflfary habit, to endure the terrible perfecution of his own people ; when on the 

 nth day of Oftober of the fame year, it pleafed God to crown all his invincible 

 fufl?erings, and the confidence he had in him, firft, by manifeft figns of land, which 

 in fuch occafions do generally put a ftop to all complaints and afflidions, and are 

 the beginning of joy and content, which is followed with forgetting all paft fufferings. 

 The firft thing they faw was the bough of a tree new cut, with its fruit on it, which 

 though a kind of thorn, was a branch of olive to the inhabitants of this new ark; 

 another had feen green fifli, and fome pieces of wood floating ; all which were 

 clear marks of land not far off, as to the navigators from India are the quantity 

 of fea weeds which meet them about ten leagues from the coaft of Spain. The 

 joys which failors and paflengers Ihew generally at the figns of land, the capers 

 they cut, and embraces they make each other, with their congratulations to the 

 pilot, iheir thanks to heaven, nay, the tears they flied, and devout prayers they make 

 to God and the Virgin Mary, in acknowledgment of their protedion ; all thefe are ' 



VOL. XIV. T not 



