Notable Voyagers | Page 8

his confidence, he feared that after all, breaking into mutiny,
they would compel him to return.
The sailors fancied that their ships were too weak for so long a voyage,
and held secret consultations, exciting each other's discontent. They
had gone farther than any one before had done. Who could blame them,
should they, consulting their safety, turn back?
Columbus, though aware of the mutinous disposition of his crew,
maintained a serene and steady countenance, using gentle words with
some, stimulating the pride and avarice of others, and threatening the

refractory.
On the 25th of September the wind again became favourable, and the
squadron resumed its westerly course. Pinzon now, on examining the
chart, supposed that they must be approaching Cipango. Columbus
desired to have it returned, and it was thrown on board at the end of a
line.
While Columbus and his pilot were studying it, they heard a shout, and
looking up saw Pinzon standing at the stern of the Pinta, crying, "Land!
land! Senor, I claim my reward!"
There was indeed an appearance of land to the south-west. Columbus
and the other officers threw themselves on their knees, and returned
thanks to God. The seamen, mounting the rigging, strained their eyes in
the direction pointed out, but the morning light put an end to their
hopes.
Again with dejected hearts they proceeded, the sea, as before, tranquil,
the breeze propitious, and the weather mild and delightful. In a day or
two more weeds were seen floating from east to west, but no birds were
visible. The people again expressed their fears that they had passed
between two islands; but after the lapse of another day the ships were
visited by numberless birds, and various indications of land became
more numerous. Full of hope, the seamen ascended the rigging, and
were continually crying out that they saw land.
Columbus put a stop to these false alarms, declaring that should any
one assert that they saw land, and it was not discovered within three
days, he should forfeit all claim to the reward.
Pinzon now proposed that they should steer south-west, but Columbus
persisted in keeping a westerly course. On the 7th of October, at sunrise,
several of the Admiral's crew fancied that they saw land; the Nina
pressing forward, a flag was run up at her masthead, and a gun was
fired,--the preconcerted signal for land.
The captain and his crew were mistaken notwithstanding. The clouds

which had deceived them melted away. The crews again became
dejected. But once more flocks of field birds were seen flying through
the air to the south-west, and Columbus, having already run the
distance at the termination of which he had expected to find the island
of Cipango, fancied he might have missed it. He therefore altered his
course to the south-west.
As the ships advanced the signs of land increased: a heron, a pelican,
and a duck were seen bound in the same direction. Branches of trees,
and grass, fresh and green, were observed. The crews, however,
believing these to be mere delusions for leading them on to destruction,
insisted on abandoning the voyage.
Columbus sternly resisted their importunities, and the following day a
branch of thorn, with berries on it, and a staff artificially carved, with
other articles, were picked up, showing that land must be close at hand.
All gloom and mutiny now gave way to sanguine expectations, and
Columbus promised a doublet of velvet, in addition to the pension to be
given by the sovereign, to whosoever should first see the longed-for
shore.
As he walked the high poop of his ship at night, his eye continually
ranging along the horizon, he thought he saw a light glimmering at a
great distance. Fearing that his hopes might deceive him, he
successively called up two of his officers. They both saw it, apparently
proceeding from a torch in the bark of a fisherman, or held in the hand
of some person on shore, borne up as he walked.
So uncertain were these gleams that few attached any importance to
them. The ships continued their course until two in the morning, when
Rodrigo de Triana, a seaman on board the Pinta, descried land at two
leagues ahead. A gun was fired from the Santa Maria, to give the
joyful news. When all doubt on the subject was banished the ships lay
to.
Who can picture the thoughts and feelings of Columbus, as he walked
the deck, impatiently waiting for dawn, which was to show him clearly

the long-sought-for land, with, as he hoped, its spicy groves, its
glittering temples, its gilded cities, and all the splendour of Oriental
civilisation!
As the dawn of the 12th of October, 1492, increased, Columbus first
observed one of the outlying islands of the New World. It was