48 CONCEPTIONS OF COLUMBUS 



Spain and North Africa. It comports with the 

 knowledge we have shown was had of the Atlantic 

 for over a thousand miles west of the Canaries. 

 Moreover, it is in perfect consonance with the return 

 voyage to credit Columbus with an understanding 

 of the problems of navigating the Atlantic. In fact, 

 the return voyage constitutes an unanswerable argu- 

 ment against the contention that the discovery was 

 all a happy chance or was based on the story of an 

 unknown pilot. 



The choice of the Canary parallel resulted in such 

 success that after a time it brought its own troubles. 

 The sailors began to complain that they never could 

 get back to Spain because of the prevalence of both 

 winds and currents from the east. On September 

 22 Columbus noted :-^ "This contrary wind was very 

 necessary to me, because my people were much ex- 

 cited at the thought that in these seas no wind ever 

 blew in the direction of Spain." And the next day 

 the Admiral remarked:-^ 'The high sea was very nec- 

 essary to me, such as had not appeared but in the 

 time of the Jews when they went out of Egypt and 

 murmured against IMoses, who deli\'ered them out 

 of captivity." In the lawsuit of Diego Columbus 

 against the Crown, Francisco IMorales, the eighth 

 witness, answered the eighth question saying:-^ "The 



23 Markham, Journal, p. 27. 



24 Ibid., p. 28. 



25 Deposition of Francisco Morales in Porto Rico, Sept. 14, 1514: "se 

 juntaron los maestres de tres navios que trayan el dicho primer viage, e 

 que se pusyeron en requerir al dicho Almirante que se bolviese a Castilla, 

 porque segund los tienpos reynavan levantes en el golfo que no creyan 



