THE DISCOVERY 



11 



merely endless water? There were whispers 

 of a vast sea to the west where ships, entrapped 

 in fields of sea weed — caught like flies within 

 a mesh — could neither go forward nor back- 

 ward, but perished miserably. Was all the 

 waste where the sun went down of that com- 

 plexion? No one knew; no one could say. 

 And no one cared to be the first to venture. 

 The sea had grown familiar since Phoenician 

 days, but it still had its terrors. 



At last Columbus ! Whatever else he was or 

 was not, however just the criticisms of those 

 scientific historians who would read flaws in 

 his title to fame, at least he was no coward. 

 He put courage in his purse the day he faced 

 the western ocean. Calmly he sailed beyond 

 the " Blessed Islands " of the Greeks, beyond 

 " the extremities of the West and East " of 

 Aratus, beyond " the green earth's utmost 

 bounds " of Homer. He did not know what 

 perils might confront him. Dangers of tem- 

 pest, of maelstrom, of evil spirits, of the 

 world's ending-place were about him; but he 

 held his course. The Sargasso Sea enmeshed 

 him, his guiding stars forsook him, his com- 

 pass apparently swerved from the pole, his crew 

 grew mutinous; but he would not turn back. 

 Ah ! the supreme fortitude of that man sailing 



Tales of the 



Western 



Ocean. 



First voyage 

 of Colum- 

 bus. 



Courape of 

 Columbus. 



