154 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



of chaos, if not the seat of Erebus. Upon the maps of the 

 world designed at this period, the words Mare Tenebrosum were 

 surrounded with figures of imps and devils, compared to which 

 the Cyclops, griffins, and centaurs of mythology were modest 

 and benign creations. The Arabians, who were forbidden by 

 the Koran to depict the forms of animals, gave, as they thought, 

 a fitting character to the sea, by representing the hand of Satan 

 upon their charts, ready to clutch and drag beneath the waves 

 all who should be so rash as to brave the displeasure of Bahr-al- 

 Talmet. Besides Satan, besides the Leviathan and Behemoth, and 

 other similar submarine terrors, the adventurer upon the open 

 sea would find adversaries in the air ; and, if he escaped the blast 

 and the thunderbolt, it would be to fall a victim to the roc, that 

 gigantic bird which lifted ships into the air and crunched them 

 in the clouds. This roc, from terrifying the companions of 

 Columbus, has descended to amuse children in the nautical 

 romance of Sinbad the Sailor. 



Time passed, and the authorities of Palos had yet furnished 

 nothing towards the voyage. Owners of vessels hid them in 

 distant creeks, and the port became gradually a desert. The 

 court ordered stringent measures, and at last a caravel named 

 the Pinta was seized and laid up for repairs. All the carpenters 

 turned sick, and neither rope, wood, nor tar were to be found. In 

 vain did Marchena, the zealous Franciscan of Palos, who was 

 beloved by all its inhabitants, undertake a crusade among the 

 seafaring population in favor of the project: the whole Anda- 

 lusian coast considered it chimerical and a temptation of Pro- 

 vidence. 



Martin Alonzo Pinzon, one of three brothers, all seamen, and 

 who had at this period lately returned from Rome, where the 

 Pope's librarian had shown him a map bearing the representa- 

 tion of land in the Atlantic to the west, was introduced by Mar- 

 chena to Columbus. The report soon became current that the 

 brothers, whose credit and influence at Palos were very great, 



