CHAPTEE XV. 



THE PORT OF PALOS — THE SUPERSTITION OF ITS MARINERS — THE HAND OT 



SATAN A BIRD WHICH LIFTED VESSELS TO THE CLOUDS THE PINTA ANB 



THE NINA THE SANTA MARIA — CAPACITY OF A SPANISH CARAVEL THE 



THREE PINZONS — THE DEPARTURE — COLUMBUS' JOURNAL — THE HELM OF 



THE PINTA UNSHIPPED — THE VARIATION OF THE NEEDLE THE APPEARANCE 



OF THE TROPICAL ATLANTIC — FLOATING VEGETATION — THE SARGASSO SEA 



ALARM, AND THREATENED MUTINY, OF THE SAILORS — PERPLEXITIES OF CO- 

 LUMBUS — land! land! A FALSE ALARM — INDICATIONS OF THE VICINITY OF 



LAND MURMURS OF THE CREWS — OPEN REVOLT QUELLED BY COLUMBUS 



FLOATING REEDS AND TUFTS OF GRASS — LAND AT LAST — THE VESSELS 

 ANCHOR OVER-NIGHT. 



Columbus received his letters-patent, granting him all the 

 privileges and titles he had demanded, on the 30th of April, 

 1492. His son Diego was made page to the prince-royal, — 

 a favor only accorded to children of noble families. The 

 harbor of Palos was chosen as the port of departure ; and its 

 inhabitants, whose annual taxes consisted in furnishing two 

 caravels, armed and manned, to the Government, were in- 

 structed to place them, within ten days, at the orders of 

 Columbus. Persons awaiting trial or condemnation were to 

 have the privilege of escaping verdict and punishment by 

 embarking upon this terrible and perhaps fatal voyage. 



The mariners of Palos received these tidings with dismay. 

 Nothing was certainly in those days more calculated to strike 

 with terror the cautious coaster than a voyage upon the bound- 

 less, endless Mare Tenebrosum, which, in the imagination not 

 only of the ignorant, but even of the educated, was the home 



153 



