THE TREASURE REVEALED 207 



the Ocean River, that sped his caravels onward to the Carib- 

 bean. 



There were late grumblings by the crew and a growing jeal- 

 ousy on the part of the lesser sea captains of his small fleet, 

 but the first transatlantic crossing in the south was favored 

 by wind and weather beyond the Canaries. As his craft slith- 

 ered through the brown wrinkle of the Sargasso weed, Colum- 

 bus records that the savor of the morning was like April in 

 Andalusia. Eventually, by the subterfuge of false reckonings 

 to calm the crew, and an astute change of course to follow 

 the lead of migrating birds, the ships sighted Guanahani, now 

 San Salvador, in the Bahamas, and after standing off all night 

 they made a landing at daybreak. The story so often told need 

 not be elaborated here. What was great good fortune for 

 Columbus was the fact that he missed the ocean passage 

 through the Bahamas which would have led his vessels into 

 the full flood of the Florida stream and very likely left them 

 wrecks beyond Cape Canaveral. No vessels of that time could 

 readily sail against the Stream where the current off Florida 

 makes as much as six knots. It was bad enough elsewhere 

 in the Caribbean, as the Admiral himself recorded in his 

 journal as follows: 'Tou must not suppose there is anything 

 wrong with the ships in the Indies because they can only 

 sail down wind. The mighty currents running with the wind 

 are such that nobody can sail on a bowline [point] in these 

 waters . . . even lateen rigged Portuguese caravels can not 

 do so. That is why vessels wait months in harbor for a fair 

 wind.'' 



What kind of a world slowly unfolded to Columbus in the 

 course of his fourteen years of explorations? Certainly nothing 

 that could resemble the Cathay of Marco Polo that he felt 

 so sure was somewhere just down wind around the next head- 

 land. Instead of great cities rich in gold and alive with com- 

 merce, instead of learned dignitaries and well-organized civil 



