men, commanded by the Admiral in person; and of two caravels the Pinta, with thirty men, under Martin Pinzon, and the Niña, with twenty-four men, under his brother, Vicente Yañez Pinzon, afterward (1499) the first to cross the line in the American Atlantic. The adventurers numbered 120 souls, and on Friday, August 3, 1492, at 8 in the morning, the little fleet weighed anchor and stood out for the Canary Islands, sailing as it were "into a world unknown-the corner-stone of a nation.” Deeply significant was one incident of their first few days' sail. Emilio Castelar tells us that these barks, laden with bright promises for the future, were sighted by other ships, laden with the hatreds and rancors of the past, for it chanced that one of the last vessels transporting into exile the Jews, expelled from Spain by the religious intolerance of which the recently created and odious Tribunal of the Faith was the embodiment, passed by the little fleet bound in search of another world, where creation should be newborn, a haven be afforded to the quickening principle of human liberty, and a temple be reared to the God of enfranchised and redeemed consciences. An abstract of the Admiral's diary made by the Bishop Las Casas is yet extant; and from it many particulars may be gleaned concerning this first voyage. Three days after the ships had set sail the Pinta lost her rudder. The Admiral was in some alarm, but comforted himself with the reflection that Martin Pinzon was energetic and readywitted; they had, however, to put in (August 9th) at Teneriffe to refit the caravel. On September 6th they weighed anchor once more with all haste, Columbus having been informed that three Portuguese caravels were on the lookout for him. On September 13th the variations of the magnetic needle were for the first time observed; and on 'The invention of the mariner's compass is claimed by the Chinese the 15th a wonderful meteor fell into the sea at four or five leagues distance. On the 16th they arrived at those vast plains of seaweed called the Sargasso Sea; and thenceforward, writes the Admiral, they had most temperate breezes, the sweetness of the mornings being most delightful, the weather like an Andalusian April, and only the song of the nightingale wanting. On the 17th the men began to murmur. They were frightened by the strange phenomena of the variations of the compass, but the explanation Columbus gave restored their tranquillity. On the 18th they saw many birds and a great ridge of low-lying cloud, and they expected to see land. On the 20th they saw two pelicans, and they were sure the land must be near. In this, however, they were disappointed, and the men began to be afraid and discontented; and thenceforth Columbus, who was keeping all the while a double reckoning-one for the crew and one for himself-had great difficulty in restraining the men from the excesses which they meditated. On the 25th Alonzo Pinzon raised the cry of land, but it proved a false alarm; as did the rumor to the same effect on October 7th, when the Niña hoisted a flag and fired a gun. On the 11th the Pinta fished up a cane, a log of wood, a stick wrought with iron, and a board, and the Niña sighted a branch of hawthorne laden with ripe luscious berries, "and with these signs all of them breathed for the Emperor Hong-ti, a grandson of Noah, about 2634 B. C. A compass was brought from China to Queen Elizabeth A. D. 1260 by P. Venutus. By some the invention is ascribed to Marcus Paulus, a Venetian, A. D. 1260. The discovery of the compass was long attributed to Flavio Gioja, a Neapolitan sailor, A. D. 1302, who in reality made improvements on then existing patterns and brought them to the form now used. The variation of the needle was known to the Chinese, being mentioned in the works of the Chinese philosopher Keon-tsoungchy, who flourished about A. D. 111. The dip of the needle was discovered A. D. 1576 by Robert Norman of London. Time was measured on voyages by the hour-glass. Compare Shakespere: Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass and were glad." At 8 o'clock on that night, Columbus perceived and pointed out a light ahead, Pedro Gutierrez also seeing it; and at 2 in the morning of Friday, October 12, 1492, Rodrigo de Triana, a sailor aboard the Niña, a native of Seville, announced the appearance of what proved to be the New World. The land sighted was Capt. Parker, in Goldthwaithe's Geographical Monthly, argues ably that the myth that a light was seen by Columbus at 8 P. M. of the night of the discovery should be dropped simply as rubbish; it is incredible. More than one hundred men in the three vessels were anxiously looking for signs of land, and two "think they see a light. To say that Columbus felt sure that he saw a light is to pronounce him an imbecile. For if ahead, he would have stopped; if abeam, stood for it. His log does not say where or in what direction the light was-an important omissionand Columbus ran forty sea miles after he saw this mythical light. We may safely decide that Watling Island, named after a buccaneer or pirate of the seventeenth century, is best supported by investigation as the landfall of Columbus. Cronau, who visited Watling Island in 1890, supposes that Columbus' ships, after making the land, continued on their course, under the reduced sail, at the rate of four or five miles an hour; and at daylight found themselves off the northwest end of the island. Mr. Cronau evidently is not a seafaring man or he would know that no navigator off an unknown island at night would stand on, even at the rate of one mile an hour, ignorant of what shoal or reefs might lie off the end of the island. The following from Las Casas' epitome of the log is all the information we have concerning the "sighting" of the New World: "THURSDAY, October 11, 1492.-Navegó al Ouesudueste, turvieron mucho mar mas que en todo el viage habian tenido. Despues del sol puesto navegó á su primer Camino al Oueste; andarian doce millas cada hora. A las dos horas despues de media noche pareció la tierra, de la cual estarian dos leguas. Amainaron todas las velas y quedaron con el treo que es la vela grande sin bonetas, y pusiérouse á la corda temporizando hasta el dia viernes que llegaron á una isleta de los Lucayos que se llamaba en lengua de indios Guanahani.” That is: They steered west-southwest and experienced a much heavier sea than they had had before in the whole voyage. After sunset they resumed their former course west, and sailed twelve miles an hour. At 2 o'clock in the morning the land appeared (was sighted), two leagues off. They lowered all the sails and remained under the storm sail, which is the main sail without bonnets, and hove to, waiting for daylight; and Friday [found they had] arrived at a small island of the Lucayos which the Indians called Guanahani.” It will be observed that these are the words of Las Casas, and they were evidently written some years after the event. an island called by the Indians Guanahani, and named by Columbus San Salvador.5 The same morning Columbus landed, richly clad, and bearing the royal banner of Spain. He was accompanied by the brothers Pinzon, bearing banners of the Green Cross, a device of his own, and by great part of the crew. When they had all "given thanks to God, kneeling down upon the shore, and kissed the ground with tears of joy, for the great mercy received," the Admiral named the island, and took solemn possession of it for their Catholic Majesties of Castille and Leon. At the same time such of the crews as had shown themselves doubtful and mutinous sought his pardon weeping, and prostrated themselves at his feet. Had Columbus kept the course he laid on leaving Ferrol, says Castelar, his landfall would have been in the Florida of to-day, that is, upon the main continent; but, owing to the deflection suggested by the Pinzons, and tardily accepted by him, it was his hap to strike an island, very fair to look upon, but small and insignificant when compared with the vast island-world in whose waters he was already sailing. Into the details of this voyage, of highest interest as it is, it is impossible to go further. The letter of Columbus, hereinafter printed, gives further and most interesting details. It will be enough to say here that it resulted in the discovery of the islands of Santa Maria del Concepcion, Exuma, Isabella, Juana or Cuba, Bohio, the Cuban Archipelago (named by its finder the Jardin del Rey), the island of Santa Catalina, and that of Española, now called Haiti 5 Helps refers to the island as "one of the Bahamas." It has been variously identified with Turks Island, by Navarette (1825); with Cat Island, by Irving (1828) and Humboldt (1836); with Mayaguara, by Varnhagen (1864); and finally, with greatest show of probability, with Watling Island, by Muñoz (1798), supported by Becher (1856), Peschel (1857), and Major (1871), or San Domingo. Off the last of these the Santa Maria went aground, owing to the carelessness of the steersman. No lives were lost, but the ship had to be unloaded and abandoned; and Columbus, who was anxious to return to Europe with the news of his achievement, resolved to plant a colony on the island, to build a fort out of the material of the stranded hulk, and to leave the crew. The fort was called La Navidad; forty-three Europeans were placed in charge, including the Governor Diego de Arana; two lieutenants, Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo de Escobedo; an Irishman named William Ires (?Harris), a native of Galway; an Englishman whose name is given as Tallarte de Lajes, and the remainder being Spaniards. * On January 16, 1493, Columbus, who had lost sight of Martin Pinzon, set sail alone in the Niña for the east; and four days afterward the Pinta joined her sister ship off Monte Christo. A storm, however, separated the vessels, during which (according to Las Casas) Columbus, fearing the vessel would founder, cast his duplicate log-book, which was written on parchment and inclosed in a cake of wax, inside a barrel, into the sea. The log contained a promise of a thousand ducats to the finder on delivering it to the King of Spain. Then a long battle with the trade winds caused great delay, and it was not until February 18th that Columbus reached the Island of Santa Maria in the Azores. Here he was threatened with capture by the Portuguese governor, who could not for some time be brought to recognize his commission. On February 24th, however, he was allowed to proceed, and on March 4th the Niña dropped anchor off Lisbon. The King of Portugal received the Admiral with the highest honors; and on March 13th the Niña put out from the Tagus, and two days afterward, Friday, March 15th, dropped anchor off Palos. * See page 217, post. |