ROUTE ON FIRST VOYAGE 45 



now be subjected to study for any internal evidences 

 it may furnish. 



The first fact that confronts one is that the voyage 

 was made westward from the Canaries and not from 

 Spain. It is probably true that even in 1492 the 

 physical difficulties of the passage of the Atlantic 

 could have been overcome anywhere between Nor- 

 way and Guinea were it not for the psychological 

 difficulties. In the first crossing the psychology of 

 the common sailor was a matter of extreme impor- 

 tance. In dealing with this element it was indispen- 

 sable that the passage should be accomplished in the 

 shortest possible time. Columbus understood this 

 perfectly. He had promised his crews that they 

 would find land when they had gone about 750 leagues 

 west of the island of Ferro.^^ Then from the 9th of 

 September, the third day out of Gomera, Columbus 

 systematically falsified the day's run as told to the 

 crew, because, as he tells us in the Journal, ^^ ''if the 

 voyage was of long duration, the people would not be 

 so terrified and disheartened." He noted the same 

 reason^^ again on September 25, when 21 leagues were 

 sailed, ''but the people were told that 13 was the dis- 



1' Las Casas, op. cil.. Book i, Ch. 39 (Vol. i, p. 287): "por cualquiera 

 ocasion 6 conjetura que le hobiese a su opinion venido, que, habiendo na- 

 vegado de la isla del Hierro por eiste mar Oceano 750 leguas, pocas mas 6 

 menos, habia de hallar tierra." See also Vignaud, op. cit.. Vol. 2, p. 282. 

 Reckoning at 1480 meters each (see above, p. 18, footnote 23) the four 

 Italian nautical miles that constitute a league, this would work out to 

 about 63° longitude west of Greenwich on the 28th parallel, or about 300 

 English statute miles south-southeast of Bermuda. 



1* Markham, Journal, p. 22, under date of Sunday, 9th of September. 



19 Ibid., p. 29, under 25th of September. 



