CHARTING THE RIVER 103 



of the Ocean River was probably made by Columbus during 

 his first voyage, when on September 19, 1492, he became 

 aware of a westerly drift — the Canaries Current. The voyage 

 might easily have resulted in disaster and the entire history 

 of the Atlantic communities might have been changed had 

 it not been for the benign flow of the River. The death of 

 all hands from lack of food and water due to an overextended 

 voyage was prevented by the fact that the Canaries Current 

 and the equatorial current added at times as much as forty 

 miles in a day to his passage. 



During the later voyages of Columbus he discovered the 

 Atlantic Stream where it flows into the Caribbean Sea be- 

 tween the Windward Islands and again where it leaves this 

 sea through the Yucatan Channel. He was greatly impressed 

 by the Windward Island currents, and considered them suffi- 

 ciently powerful to have formed the islands by washing away 

 the land between them: '*...! hold it for certain that the 

 waters of the sea move from East to West with the sky and 

 that in passing this track they hold a more rapid course and 

 have thus carried away large tracts of land and that from 

 here has resulted the great number of islands." The current 

 flowing along the Honduras coast was a specially difficult one 

 to navigate, and, according to Peter Martyr, he found ''. . . the 

 course of the waters so vehement and furious against the fore 

 part of his ship that he could at no time touch the ground 

 with his sounding plummet, but that the contrary violence of 

 the waters would bear it up from the bottom. He affirmeth 

 also that he could never in one day with a good wynde wynn 

 one mile of the course of the waters." 



While Columbus was discovering the Caribbean currents, 

 John and Sebastian Cabot crossed the Atlantic in 1497. They 

 rediscovered the coast of Labrador, and then sailed southwest 

 until they reached land somewhere in the vicinity of Delaware. 

 It was here that they noticed the countercurrent running 



