Part 5 (1/2)
The world was all before hiuide
His choice was made, however; and his Guide did not fail hie the long-continued, weary, disgle in which there was no alternative to success but deplorable, ridiculous, fatal failure Speaking afterwards of the tiht years I was torn with disputes, and in a word,for mockery” It was now to be seen what e is ment of Coluives the admiral's oords
The little squadron reached the Canary Islands in a few days, with no event worth recording, except that the caravel ”Pinta,” commanded Martin Alonzo Pinzon, unshi+pped her rudder This was supposed to be no accident, but to have been contrived by the owners of the vessel, who did not like the voyage The admiral (froed to stay some time at the Canary Islands, to refit the ”Pinta,” and todone, neas brought that three Portuguese govern with the intention of preventing the expedition
However, on the 6th of September, Columbus set sail fro with any of his supposed eneust, the admiral remarks that many Spaniards of these islands, ”respectable men,”
swear that each year they see land; and he remembers how, in the year 1484, soal to beg a caravel in order to go and discover that land which he declared he could see each year, and in the same manner Had not the adinality of his proceedings, he would hardly have been careful to collect these scattered notices which ht afterwards be used, as inality There is no further entry in the diary until the 6th of September, when they set out from Gomera (one of the Canary Islands), on their unknoay For -book, giving the rate of sailing, or rather two rates, one for Columbus's own private heed, and the other for the sailors On the 13th of Septe to the north-west, and on the ensuing , to the north-east, the first time that such a variation had been observed, or, at least recorded by Europeans On the 14th, the sailors of the caravel ”Nina” sao tropical birds, which they said were never wont to be seen at ues from shore On the 15th they all saw a meteor fall from heaven, which made them very sad
PLAINS OF SEAWEED
On the 16th, they first came upon those immense plains of seaweed (the fucus natans), which constitute the Mar de Sargasso, and which occupy a space in the Atlantic almost equal to seven tireatly terrified the sailors, who thought theythat the vessels cut their ell through this seaweed, the sailors thereupon took heart On the 17th, they seetheood spirits, when finding that the needle declines to the west a whole point of the coin ”to murmur between their teeth,” and to wonder whether they are not in another world
Columbus, however, orders an observation to be taken at day-break, when the needle is found to point to the north again; enious for that time, to account for the phenomenon of variation which had so disturbed the sailors, na round the pole The sailors are, therefore, quieted upon this head
SIGNS OF LAND
In theof the same day they catch a crab, frohty leagues distant from land The 18th, they see ht they expect to see land On the 19th, in the ues fro rain without wind, a certain sign, as the diary says, of proximity to land
The admiral, however, will not beat about for land, as he concludes that the land which these various natural phenoive token of, can only be islands, as indeed it proved to be He will see them on his return; but now he must press on to the Indies This deterth of reat resolve reposed
CONSPIRACY AMONG THE MEN
Accordingly, he was not to be diverted froh by this time he kneell the fears of his men, some of whom had already come to the conclusion, ”that it would be their best plan to throw him quietly into the sea, and say he unfortunately fell in, while he stood absorbed in looking at the stars” Indeed, three days after he had resolved to pass on to the Indies, we find hiives his words, ”Very needful for me was this contrary wind, for the people were very much tormented with the idea that there were no winds on these seas that could take them back to Spain”
HIS DETERMINATION TO PROCEED
On they go, having signs occasionally in the presence of birds and grass and fish that land must be near; but land does not come Once, too, they are all convinced that they see land: they sing the ”Gloria in excelsis;”
and even the adoes out of his course towards this land, which turns out to be no land They are liketo a dreadful discourse or oration, that sees which end not: so that the hearer listens at last in gri, and that ending is but another for
Theseit was to plunge, down-hill as it were, into
A world of waves, a sea without a shore, Trackless, and vast, and wild, [Rogers]
ns of land that neared not And these men had left at horeat idea to uphold theh to make them important s of their lives Still we find Colu, ”that he did not choose to stop beating about last week during those days that they had such signs of land, although he had knowledge of there being certain islands in that neighbourhood, because he would not suffer any detention, since his object was to go to the Indies; and if he should stop on the way, it would shoant of mind”