Notable Voyagers | Page 7

to the commanders of the other vessels that, in
the event of separation, they should continue directly westward; but
that, after sailing seven hundred leagues, they should lay by from
midnight to daylight, as about that distance he confidently expected to
find land.
As he foresaw the farther they sailed the more their vague terrors would
increase, to deceive them, he kept two logs; one correct, retained for his
own government, and the other open to general inspection, from which
a certain number of leagues were daily subtracted from the sailing of
the ships.
The crews, though no faint-hearted fellows, had not as yet learned to
place confidence in him. The slightest thing alarmed them. When about
one hundred and fifty leagues west of Ferro, they picked up part of the
mast of a large vessel, and the crews fancied that she must have been
wrecked drifting ominously to the entrance of those unknown seas.
About nightfall, on the 13th of September, he for the first time noticed
the variation of the needle, which, instead of pointing to the north star,

varied about half a point. He remarked that this variation of the needle
increased as he advanced. He quieted the alarm of his pilots, when they
observed this, by assuring them that the variation was not caused by
any fallacy in the compass, but by the movement of the north star itself,
which, like the other heavenly bodies, described a circle round the pole.
The explanation appeared so highly plausible and ingenious that it was
readily received. On the 14th of September they believed that they were
near land, from seeing a heron and a tropical bird, neither of which
were supposed to venture far out to sea.
The following night the mariners were awestruck by beholding a
meteor of great brilliancy--a common phenomenon in those latitudes.
With a favourable breeze, day after day, the squadron was wafted on,
so that it was unnecessary to shift a single sail.
They now began to observe patches of weeds drifting from the west,
which increased in size as they advanced. These, together with a white
tropical bird which never sleeps on the water, made Columbus hope
that he was approaching some island; for, as he had come but three
hundred and sixty leagues since leaving the Canary Islands, he
supposed the mainland still to be far off.
The breeze was soft and steady, the water smooth. The crews were in
high spirits, and every seaman was on the look-out, for a pension of ten
thousand maravedis had been promised to him who should first
discover land.
Alonzo Pinzon in the Pinta took the lead. On the afternoon of the 13th
of September he hailed the Admiral, saying that from the flight of
numerous birds and the appearance of the northern horizon, he thought
there was land in that direction; but Columbus replied that it was
merely a deception of the clouds, and would not alter his course.
The following day there were drizzling showers, and two boobies flew
on board the Santa Maria, birds which seldom wander more than
twenty leagues from land. Sounding, however, no bottom was found.
Unwilling to waste the present fair breeze, he resolved, whatever others

thought, to keep one bold course until the coast of India was reached.
Notwithstanding, even the favourable breeze began to frighten the
seamen, who imagined that the wind in those regions might always
blow from the east, and if so, would prevent their return to Spain.
Not long after the wind shifted to the south-west, and restored their
courage, proving to them that the wind did not always prevail from the
east. Several small birds also visited the ships, singing as they perched
on the rigging, thus showing that they were not exhausted by their
flight. Again the squadron passed among numerous patches of seaweed,
and the crews, ever ready to take alarm, having heard that ships were
sometimes frozen in by ice, fancied that they might be fixed in the
same manner, until they were caught by the nipping hand of winter.
Then they took it into their heads that the water was growing shoaler,
and expressed their fears that they might run on some sand-banks and
be lost. Then a whale was seen, which creature Columbus assured them
never went far from land. Notwithstanding, they became uneasy at the
calmness of the weather, declaring that as the prevailing winds were
from the east, and had not power to disturb the torpid stillness of the
ocean, there was the risk of perishing amidst stagnant and shoreless
waters, and being prevented by contrary winds from ever returning to
Spain.
Next a swell got up, which showed that their terrors caused by the calm
were imaginary. Notwithstanding this, and the favourable signs which
increased