THE PILGRIMAGE BY LOT. 



169 



reasons for his abandonment of the fleet. The two vessels now 

 turned their heads east, Columbus hoping to discover a cannibal 

 island on his way, as he wished to carry a professor of the dis- 

 gusting practice to Spain. 



No event of moment happened until the 12th of February, a 

 month afterwards, when a terrible storm burst over the hitherto 

 tranquil waters. Its violence increased to such a degree that 

 nothing remained but a desperate appeal to "Mary, the Mother 

 of God." A quantity of dried peas, equal in number to the 

 number of men on board the Nina, were placed in a sailor's 

 woollen cap, one of them being marked with a cross. He who 

 should draw this pea, was to go on a pilgrimage to the church 

 of Saint Mary at Guadeloupe, bearing a candle weighing five 

 pounds, in case the ship were saved. Columbus was the first to 

 draw, and he drew the marked pea. Other vows of this sort 

 were made, and, finally, one to go in procession, and with bare 

 feet, to the nearest cathedral of whatever land they should first 

 reach. The admiral, fearing that his discovery would perish 

 with him, withdrew to his cabin, during the fiercest period of 

 the tumult, and wrote upon parchment two separate and concise 

 narratives of his discoveries. He enclosed them both in wax, 

 and, placing one in an empty barrel, threw it into the sea. The 

 other, similarly enclosed, he attached to the poop of the Nina, 

 intending to cut it loose at the moment of going down. Hap- 

 pily, the storm subsided ; and, on the 17th, the shattered vessels 

 arrived at the southernmost island of the Azores, belonging to 

 the King of Portugal. Here half the crew went in procession 

 to the chapel, to discharge their vow ; and, while Columbus was 

 waiting to go with the other half, the Portuguese made a sally, 

 surrounded the first portion, and made them prisoners. After a 

 useless protest, Columbus departed with the men that remained, 

 having with him, in the Nina, but three able-bodied seamen. 

 Another storm now threw him upon the coast of Portugal, at 

 the mouth of the Tagus. Here he narrowly escaped shipwreck 



