"The sails were filled, and fair the light winds blew,
As glad to waft him from his native home;
And fast the white rocks faded from his view,
And soon were lost in circumambient foam:
And then, it may be, of his wish to roam
Repented he, but in his bosom slept
The silent thought, nor from his lips did come
One word of wail, whilst others sate and wept,
And to the reckless gales unmanly moaning kept."
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
As night drew near, the Pinta shortened sail, permitting her consorts to
close. All eyes now turned anxiously to the west, where it was hoped
that land might at any moment appear. The last tint, however, vanished
from the horizon, and darkness enveloped the ocean without bringing any
material change. The wind still blew a pleasant breeze from the
south-east, and the surface of the ocean offered little more inequality
than is usually met on the bosoms of large rivers. The compasses showed
a slightly increasing deviation from their old coincidence with the
polar star, and no one doubted, any longer, that the fault was in the
heavenly body. All this time the vessels were getting to the southward,
steering, in fact, west and by south, when they thought they were
steering west--a circumstance that alone prevented Columbus from first
reaching the coast of Georgia, or that of the Carolinas, since, had he
missed the Bermudas, the current of the Gulf Stream meeting him on his
weather bow, he would have infallibly been set well to the northward, as
he neared the continent.
The night passed as usual, and at noon of the 17th, or at the
termination of the nautical day, the fleet had left another long track
of ocean between it and the old world. The weeds were disappearing, and
with them the tunny fish, which were, in truth, feeding on the products
of shoals that mounted several thousands of feet nearer to the surface
of the water, than was the case with the general bed of the Atlantic.
The vessels usually kept near each other at noon, in order to compare
their observations; but the Pinta, which, like a swift steed, was with
difficulty restrained, shot ahead, until the middle of the afternoon,
when, as usual, she lay-by for the admiral to close. As the Santa Maria
came sweeping on, the elder Pinzon stood, cap in hand, ready to speak
her, waiting only for her to come within sound of his voice.
"God increaseth the signs of land, and the motives of encouragement,
Senor Don Christopher," he called out, cheerfully, while the Pinta
filled her sails in order to keep way with the admiral. "We have seen
large flights of birds ahead, and the clouds at the north look heavy and
dense, as if hovering over some island, or continent, in that quarter."
"Thou art a welcome messenger, worthy Martin Alonzo; though I wish thee
to remember, that the most I expect to meet with in this longitude is
some cluster of pleasant islands, Asia being yet several days' sail more
distant. As the night approacheth, thou wilt see thy clouds take still
more of the form of the land, and I doubt that groups may be found on
each side of us; but our high destination is Cathay, and men with such
an object before them, may not turn aside for any lesser errand."
"Have I your leave, noble admiral, to push ahead in the Pinta, that our
eyes may first be greeted with the grateful sight of Asia? I nothing
doubt of seeing it ere morning."
"Go, of God's sake, good pilot, if thou thinkest this; though I warn
thee that no continent can yet meet thine eyes. Nevertheless, as any
land in these distant and unknown seas must be a discovery, and bring
credit on Castile, as well as on ourselves, he who first perceiveth it
will merit the reward. Thou, or any one else, hath my full permission to
discover islands, or continents, in thousands."
The people laughed at this sally, for the light-hearted are easily
excited to mirth; and then the Pinta shot ahead. As the sun set, she was
seen again lying-to for her companions--a dark speck on the rainbow
colors of the glorious sky. The horizon at the north presented masses of
clouds, in which it was not difficult to fancy the summits of ragged
mountains, receding valleys, with headlands, and promontories,
foreshortened by distance.
The following day the wind baffled, for the first time since
encountering the trades; and the clouds collected over-head, dispersing
drizzling showers on the navigators. The vessels now lay near each
other, and conversation flew from one to the other--boats passing and
repassing, constantly.
"I have come, Senor Almirante," said the elder Pinzon, as he reached the
deck of the Santa Maria, "at the united request of my people, to beg
that we may steer to the north, in quest of land, islands and continent,
that no doubt lie there, and thus crown this great enterprise with the
glory that is due to our illustrious sovereigns, and your own
forethought."
"The wish is just, good Martin Alonzo, and fairly expressed, but it may
not be granted. That we should make creditable discoveries, by thus
steering, is highly probable, but in so doing we should fall far short
of our aim. Cathay and the Great Khan still lie west; and we are here,
not to add another group, like the Canaries, or the Azores, to the
knowledge of man, but to complete the circle of the earth, and to open
the way for the setting up of the cross in the regions that have so long
been the property of infidels."
"Hast thou nothing to say, Senor de Munos, in support of our petition?
Thou hast favor with his Excellency, and may prevail on him to grant us
this small behest!"
"To tell thee the truth, good Martin Alonzo," answered Luis, with more
of the indifference of manner that might have been expected from the
grandee to the pilot, than the respect that would become the secretary
to the second person of the expedition--"to tell thee the truth good
Martin Alonzo, my heart is so set on the conversion of the Great Khan,
that I wish not to turn either to the right or left, until that glorious
achievement be sufficiently secure. I have observed that Satan effecteth
little against those who keep in the direct path, while his success with
those who turn aside is so material, as to people his dominions with
errants."
"Is there no hope, noble admiral? and must we quit all these cheering
signs, without endeavoring to trace them to some advantageous
conclusion?"
"I see no better course, worthy friend. This rain indicateth land; also
this calm; and here is a visitor that denoteth more than either--yonder,
in the direction of thy Pinta, where it seemeth disposed to rest its
wings."
Pinzon, and all near him, turned, and, to their common delight and
astonishment, they saw a pelican, with extended wings that spread for
ten feet, sailing a few fathoms above the sea, and apparently aiming at
the vessel named. The adventurous bird, however, as if disdaining to
visit one of inferior rank, passed the Pinta, and, sweeping up grandly
toward the admiral, alighted on a yard of the Santa Maria.
"If this be not a certain sign of the vicinity of land," said Columbus
gravely, "it is what is far better, a sure omen that God is with us. He
is sending these encouraging calls to confirm us in our intention to
serve him, and to persevere to the end. Never before, Martin Alonzo,
have I seen a bird of this species a day's sail from the shore!"
"Such is my experience, too, noble admiral; and, with you, I look upon
this visit as a most propitious omen. May it not be a hint to turn
aside, and to look further in this quarter?"
"I accept it not as such, but rather as a motive to proceed. At our
return from the Indies, we may examine this part of the ocean with
greater security, though I shall think naught accomplished until India
be fairly reached, and India is still hundreds of leagues distant. As
the time is favorable, however, we will call together our pilots, and
see how each man placeth his vessel on the chart."
At this suggestion, all the navigators assembled on board the Santa
Maria, and each man made his calculations, sticking a pin in the rude
chart--rude as to accuracy, but beautiful as to execution--that the
admiral, with the lights he then possessed, had made of the Atlantic
ocean. Vicente Yanez, and his companions of the Nina, placed their pin
most in advance, after measuring off four hundred and forty marine
leagues from Gomera. Martin Alonzo varied a little from this, setting
his pin some twenty leagues farther east. When it was the turn of
Columbus, he stuck a pin twenty leagues still short of that of Martin
Alonzo, his companions having, to all appearance, like less skilful
calculators, thus much advanced ahead of their true distance. It was
then determined what was to be stated to the crews, and the pilots
returned to their respective vessels.
It would seem that Columbus really believed he was then passing between
islands, and his historian, Las Casas, affirms that he was actually
right in his conjecture; but if islands ever existed in that part of the
ocean, they have long since disappeared; a phenomenon which, while it is
not impossible, can scarcely be deemed probable. It is said that
breakers have been seen, even within the present century, in this
vicinity, and it is not unlikely that extensive banks do exist, though
Columbus found no bottom with two hundred fathoms of line. The great
collection of weeds, is a fact authenticated by some of the oldest
records of human investigations, and is most probably owing to some
effect of the currents which has a tendency to bring about such an end;
while the birds must be considered as stragglers lured from their usual
haunts by the food that would be apt to be collected by the union of
weeds and fish. Aquatic birds can always rest on the water, and the
animal that can wing its way through the air at the rate of thirty, or
even fifty miles the hour, needs only sufficient strength, to cross the
entire Atlantic in four days and nights.
Notwithstanding all these cheering signs, the different crews soon began
to feel again the weight of a renewed despondency. Sancho, who was in
constant but secret communication with the admiral, kept the latter
properly advised of the state of the people, and reported that more
murmurs than usual prevailed, the men having passed again, by the
suddenness of the reaction, from the most elastic hope, nearly to the
verge of despair. This fact was told Columbus just at sunset on the
evening of the 20th, or on that of the eleventh day after the fleet lost
sight of land, and while the seaman was affecting to be busy on the
poop, where he made most of his communications.
"They complain, your Excellency," continued Sancho, "of the smoothness
of the water; and they say that when the winds blow at all, in these
seas, they come only from the eastward, having no power to blow from any
other quarter. The calms, they think, prove that we are getting into a
part of the ocean where there is no wind; and the east winds, they
fancy, are sent by Providence to drive those there who have displeased
Heaven by a curiosity that it was never intended that any who wear
beards should possess."
"Do thou encourage them, Sancho, by reminding the poor fellows that
calms prevail, at times, in all seas; and, as for the east winds, is it
not well known that they blow from off the African shores, in low
latitudes, at all seasons of the year, following the sun in his daily
track around the earth? I trust thou hast none of this silly
apprehension?"
"I endeavor to keep a stout heart, Senor Don Almirante, having no one
before me to disgrace, and leaving no one behind me to mourn over my
loss. Still, I should like to hear a little about the riches of those
distant lands, as I find the thoughts of their gold and precious stones
have a sort of religious charm over my weakness, when I begin to muse
upon Moguer and its good cheer."
"Go to, knave; thy appetite for money is insatiable; take yet another
dobla, and as thou gazest on it thou mayst fancy what thou wilt of the
coin of the Great Khan; resting certain that so great a monarch is not
without gold, any more than he is probably without the disposition to
part with it, when there is occasion."
Sancho received his fee, and left the poop to Columbus and our hero.
"These ups and downs among the knaves," said Luis, impatiently, "were
best quelled, Senor, by an application of the flat of the sword, or, at
need, of its edge."
"This may not be, my young friend, without, at least, far more occasion
than yet existeth for the severity. Think not that I have passed so many
years of my life in soliciting the means to effect so great a purpose,
and have got thus far on my way, in unknown seas, with a disposition to
be easily turned aside from my purpose. But God hath not created all
alike; neither hath he afforded equal chances for knowledge to the
peasant and the noble. I have vexed my spirit too often, with arguments
on this very subject, with the great and learned, not to bear a little
with the ignorance of the vulgar. Fancy how much fear would have
quickened the wits of the sages of Salamanca, had our discussion been
held in the middle of the Atlantic, where man never had been, and whence
no eyes but those of logic and science could discover a safe passage."
"This is most true, Senor Almirante; and yet, methinks the knights that
were of your antagonists should not have been wholly unmanned by fear.
What danger have we here? this is the wide ocean, it is true, and we are
no doubt distant some hundreds of leagues from the known islands, but,
we are not the less safe. By San Pedro! I have seen more lives lost in a
single onset of the Moors, than these caravels could hold in bodies, and
blood enough spilt to float them!"
"The dangers our people dread may be less turbulent than those of a
Moorish fray, Don Luis, but they are not the less terrible. Where is the
spring that is to furnish water to the parched lip, when our stores
shall fail; and where the field to give us its bread and nourishment? It
is a fearful thing to be brought down to the dregs of life, by the
failure of food and water, on the surface of the wide ocean, dying by
inches, often without the consolations of the church, and ever without
Christian sepulture. These are the fancies of the seaman, and he is only
to be driven from them violently when duty demands extreme remedies for
his disease."
"To me it seemeth, Don Christopher, that it will be time to reason thus,
when our casks are drained, and the last biscuit is broken. Until then,
I ask leave of your Excellency to apply the necessary logic to the
_outside_ of the heads of these varlets, instead of their insides, of
which I much question the capacity to hold any good."
Columbus too well understood the hot nature of the young noble to make a
serious reply; and they both stood some time leaning against the
mizen-mast, watching the scene before them, and musing on the chances of
their situation. It was night, and the figures of the watch, on the deck
beneath, were visible only by a light that rendered it difficult to
distinguish countenances. The men were grouped; and it was evident by
the low but eager tones in which they conversed, that they discussed
matters connected with the calm, and the risks they ran. The outlines of
the Pinta and Nina were visible, beneath a firmament that was studded
with brilliants, their lazy sails hanging in festoons, like the drapery
of curtains, and their black hulls were as stationary as if they both
lay moored in one of the rivers of Spain. It was a bland and gentle
night, but the immensity of the solitude, the deep calm of the
slumbering ocean, and even the occasional creaking of a spar, by
recalling to the mind the actual presence of vessels so situated,
rendered the scene solemn, almost to sublimity.
"Dost thou detect aught fluttering in the rigging, Luis?" the admiral
cautiously inquired. "My ear deceiveth me, or I hear something on the
wing. The sounds, moreover, are quick and slight, like those produced by
birds of indifferent size."
"Don Christopher, you are right. There are little creatures perched on
the upper yards, and that of a size like the smaller songsters of the
land."
"Hark!" interrupted the admiral. "That is a joyous note, and of such a
melody as might be met in one of the orange groves of Seville, itself!
God be praised for this sign of the extent and unity of his kingdom,
since land cannot well be distant, when creatures, gentle and frail as
these, have so lately taken their flight from it!"
The presence of these birds soon became known to all on deck, and their
songs brought more comfort than the most able mathematical
demonstration, even though founded on modern learning, could have
produced on the sensitive feelings of the common men.
"I told thee land was near," cried Sancho, turning with exultation to
Martin Martinez, his constant disputant; "here thou hast the proof of
it, in a manner that none but the traitor will deny. Thou hearest the
songs of orchard birds--notes that would never come from the throats of
the tired; and which sound as gaily as if the dear little feathered
rogues were pecking at a fig or a grape in a field of Spain."
"Sancho is right!" exclaimed the seamen. "The air savors of land, too;
and the sea hath a look of the land; and God is with us--blessed be his
Holy name--and honor to our lord the king, and to our gracious mistress,
Dona Isabella!"
From this moment concern seemed to leave the vessel, again. It was
thought, even by the admiral himself, that the presence of birds so
small, and which were judged to be so feeble of wing, was an unerring
evidence that land was nigh; and land, too, of generous productions, and
a mild, gentle climate; for these warblers, like the softer sex of the
human family, best love scenes that most favor their gentle propensities
and delicate habits.
Investigation has since proved that, in this particular, however
plausible the grounds of error, Columbus was deceived. Men often mistake
the powers of the inferior animals of creation, and at other times they
overrate the extent of their instinct. In point of fact, a bird of light
weight would be less liable to perish on the ocean, and in that low
latitude, than a bird of more size, neither being aquatic. The sea-weed
itself would furnish resting-places without number for the smaller
animals, and, in some instances, it would probably furnish food. That
birds, purely of the land, should take long flights at sea, is certainly
improbable; but, apart from the consequence of gales, which often force
even that heavy-winged animal the owl, hundreds of miles from the land,
instinct is not infallible; whales being frequently found embayed in
shallow waters, and birds sailing beyond the just limits of their
habits. Whatever may have been the cause of the opportune appearance of
these little inhabitants of the orchard on the spars of the Santa Maria,
the effect was of the most auspicious kind on the spirits of the men. As
long as they sang, no amateurs ever listened to the most brilliant
passages from the orchestra with greater delight than those rude seamen
listened to their warbling; and while they slept, it was with a security
that had its existence in veneration and gratitude. The songs were
renewed with the dawn, shortly after which the whole went off in a body,
taking their flight toward the south-west. The next day brought a calm,
and then an air so light, that the vessels could with difficulty make
their way through the dense masses of weeds, that actually gave the
ocean the appearance of vast inundated meadows. The current was now
found to be from the west, and shortly after daylight a new source of
alarm was reported by Sancho.
"The people have got a notion in their heads, Senor Almirante, which
partaketh so much of the marvellous, that it findeth exceeding favor
with such as love miracles more than they love God. Martin Martinez, who
is a philosopher in the way of terror, maintaineth that this sea, into
which we seem to be entering deeper and deeper, lieth over sunken
islands, and that the weeds, which it would be idle to deny grow more
abundant as we proceed, will shortly get to be so plentiful on the
surface of the water, that the caravels will become unable to advance or
to retreat."
"Doth Martin find any to believe this silly notion?"
"Senor Don Almirante, he doth; and for the plain reason that it is
easier to find those who are ready to believe an absurdity, than to find
those who will only believe truth. But the man is backed by some unlucky
chances, that must come of the Powers of Darkness, more particularly as
they can have no great wish to see your Excellency reach Cathay, with
the intention of making a Christian of the Great Khan, and of planting
the tree of the cross in his dominions. This calm sorely troubleth many,
moreover, and the birds are beginning to be looked upon as creatures
sent by Satan himself, to lead us whither we can never return. Some even
believe we shall tread on shoals, and lie forever stranded wrecks in the
midst of the wide ocean!"
"Go, bid the men prepare to sound; I will show them the folly of this
idea, at least; and see that all are summoned to witness the
experiment."
Columbus now repeated this order to the pilots, and the deep-sea was let
go in the usual manner. Fathom after fathom of the line glided over the
rail, the lead taking its unerring way toward the bottom, until so
little was left as to compel the downward course to be arrested.
"Ye see, my friends, that we are yet full two hundred fathoms from the
shoals ye so much dread, and as much more as the sea is deeper than our
measurement. Lo! yonder, too, is a whale, spouting the water before
him--a creature never seen except on the coasts of large islands or
continents."
This appeal of Columbus, which was in conformity with the notions of the
day, had its weight--his crew being naturally most under the influence
of notions that were popular. It is now known, however, that whales
frequent those parts of the ocean where their food is most abundant, and
one of the best grounds for taking them, of late years, has been what is
called the False Brazil Banks, which lie near the centre of the ocean.
In a word, all those signs, that were connected with the movements of
birds and fishes, and which appear to have had so much effect, not only
on the common men of this great enterprise, but on Columbus himself,
were of far less real importance than was then believed; navigators
being so little accustomed to venture far from the land themselves, that
they were not duly acquainted with the mysteries of the open ocean.
Notwithstanding the moments of cheerfulness and hope that intervened,
distrust and apprehension were fast getting to be again the prevailing
feelings among the mariners. Those who had been most disaffected from
the first, seized every occasion to increase these apprehensions; and
when the sun rose, Saturday, September 22d, on a calm sea, there were
not a few in the vessels who were disposed to unite in making another
demand on the admiral to turn the heads of the caravels toward the east.
"We have come some hundreds of leagues before a fair wind, into a sea
that is entirely unknown to man, until we have reached a part of the
ocean where the wind seems altogether to fail us, and where there is
danger of our being bound up in immovable weeds, or stranded on sunken
islands, without the means of procuring food or water!"
Arguments like these were suited to an age in which even the most
learned were obliged to grope their way to accurate knowledge, through
the mists of superstition and ignorance, and in which it was a
prevailing weakness to put faith, on the one hand, in visible proofs of
the miraculous power of God, and, on the other, in substantial evidences
of the ascendency of evil spirits, as they were permitted to affect the
temporal affairs of those they persecuted.
It was, therefore, most fortunate for the success of the expedition,
that a light breeze sprang up from southward and westward, in the early
part of the day just mentioned, enabling the vessels to gather way, and
to move beyond the vast fields of weeds, that equally obstructed the
progress of the caravels, and awakened the fears of their people. As it
was an object to get clear of the floating obstacles that surrounded the
vessels, the first large opening that offered was entered, and then the
fleet was brought close upon a wind, heading as near as possible to the
desired course. Columbus now believed himself to be steering
west-north-west, when, in fact, he was sailing in a direction far nearer
to his true course, than when his ships headed west by compass; the
departure from the desired line of sailing, being owing to the variation
in the needle. This circumstance alone, would seem to establish the
fact, that Columbus believed in his own theory of the moving star, since
he would hardly have steered west-and-by-south-half-south, with a fair
wind, for many days in succession, as he is known to have done, when it
was his strongest wish to proceed directly west. He was now heading up,
within half a point of the latter course, though he and all with him,
fancied they were running off nearly two points to leeward of the so
much desired direction.
But these little variations were trifles as compared with the advantage
that the admiral obtained over the fears of his followers by the shift
of the wind, and the liberation from the weeds. By the first, the men
saw a proof that the breezes did not always blow from the same quarter;
and by the last, they ascertained that they had not actually reached a
point where the ocean had become impassable. Although the wind was now
favorable to return to the Canaries, no one any longer demanded that
such a course should be adopted, so apt are we all to desire that which
appears to be denied to us, and so ready to despise that which lies
perfectly at our disposal.
This, indeed, was a moment when the feelings of the people
appeared to be as variable as the light and baffling winds themselves.
The Saturday passed away in the manner just mentioned, the vessels once
more entering into large fields of weeds, just as the sun set. When the
light returned, the airs headed them off to north-west and
north-west-by-north, by compass, which was, in truth, steering
north-west-by-west-half-west, and north-west-half-west. Birds abounded
again, among which was a turtle-dove, and many living crabs were seen
crawling among the weeds. All these signs would have encouraged the
common men, had they not already so often proved deceptive.
"Senor," said Martin Martinez, to the admiral, when Columbus went among
the crew to raise their drooping spirits, "we know not what to think!
For days did the wind blow in the same direction, leading us on, as it
might be, to our ruin; and then it hath deserted us in such a sea as
mariners in the Santa Maria never before saw. A sea, looking like
meadows on a river side, and which wanteth only kine and cow-herds, to
be mistaken for fields a little overflowed by a rise of the water, is a
fearful thing!"
"Thy meadows are the weeds of the ocean, and prove the richness of the
nature that hath produced them; while thy breezes from the east, are
what all who have ever made the Guinea voyage, well know to exist in
latitudes so low. I see naught in either to alarm a bold seaman; and as
for the bottom, we all know it hath not yet been found by many a long
and weary fathom of line. Pepe, thou hast none of these weaknesses; but
hast set thy heart on Cathay and a sight of the Great Khan?"
"Senor Almirante, as I swore to Monica, so do I swear to your
Excellency; and that is to be true and obedient. If the cross is to be
raised among the Infidels, my hand shall not be backward in doing its
share toward the holy act. Still, Senor, none of us like this long
unnatural calm. Here is an ocean that hath no waves, but a surface so
smooth that we much distrust whether the waters obey the same laws, as
they are known to do near Spain; for never before have I beheld a sea
that hath so much the air of the dead! May it not be, Senor, that God
hath placed a belt of this calm and stagnant water around the outer
edges of the earth, in order to prevent the unheedy from looking into
some of his sacred secrets?"
"Thy reasoning hath, at least, a savor of religion; and, though faulty,
can scarce be condemned. God hath placed man on this earth, Pepe, to be
its master, and to serve him by extending the dominion of his church, as
well as by turning to the best account all the numberless blessings that
accompany the great gift. As to the limits, of which thou speakest, they
exist only in idea, the earth being a sphere, or a ball, to which there
are no other edges than those thou seest everywhere on its surface."
"And as for what Martin saith," put in Sancho, who was never at fault
for a fact, or for a reason, "concerning the winds, and the weeds, and
the calms, I can only wonder where a seaman of his years hath been
navigating so long, that these things should be novelties. To me, all
this is as common as dish-water at Moguer, and so much a matter of
course, that I should not have remarked it, but for the whinings of
Martin and his fellows. When the Santa Catalina made the voyage to that
far-off region, Ireland, we landed on the sea-weed, a distance of half a
league or so from the coast; and as for the wind, it blew regularly four
weeks from one quarter, and four weeks from the other; after which the
people of the country said it would blow four weeks each way,
transversely; but we did not remain long enough in those seas to enable
me to swear to the two last facts."
"Hast thou not heard of shoals so wide that a caravel could never find
its way out of them, if it once entered?" demanded Martinez, fiercely,
for, much addicted to gross exaggerations himself, he little liked to be
outdone; "and do not these weeds bespeak our near approach to such a
danger, when the weeds themselves often are so closely packed as to come
near to stop the ship?"
"Enough of this," said the admiral: "at times we have weeds, and then we
are altogether free from them; these changes are owing to the currents;
no doubt as soon as we have passed this meridian, we shall come to clear
water again."
"But the calm, Senor Almirante," exclaimed a dozen voices. "This
unnatural smoothness of the ocean frighteneth us! Never before did we
see water so stagnant and immovable!"
"Call ye this stagnant and immovable?" exclaimed the admiral. "Nature
herself arises to reproach your senseless fears, and to contradict your
mistaken reasoning, by her own signs and portents!"
This was said as the Santa Maria's bows rose on a long low swell, every
spar creaking at the motion, and the whole hull heaving and setting as
the billow passed beneath it, washing the sides of the ship from the
water line to its channels. At this moment there was not even a breath
of air, and the seamen gazed about them with an astonishment that was
increased and rendered extreme by dread. The ship had scarcely settled
heavily into the long trough when a second wave lifted her again
forward, and billow succeeded billow, each successive wave increasing in
height, until the entire ocean was undulating, though only marked at
distant intervals, and that slightly, by the foam of crests or combing
seas. It took half an hour to bring this phenomenon up to its height,
when all three vessels were wallowing in the seas, as mariners term it,
their hulls falling off helplessly into the troughs, until the water
fairly spouted from their low scuppers, as each rose by her buoyancy
from some roll deeper than common. Fancying that this occurrence
promised to be either a source of new alarm, or a means of appeasing the
old one, Columbus took early measures to turn it to account, in the
latter mode. Causing all the crew to assemble at the break of the poop,
he addressed them, briefly, in the following words:
"Ye see, men, that your late fears about the stagnant ocean are rebuked,
in this sudden manner, as it might be, by the hand of God himself,
proving, beyond dispute, that no danger is to be apprehended from that
source. I might impose on your ignorance, and insist that this sudden
rising of the sea is a miracle wrought to sustain me against your
rebellious repinings and unthinking alarms; but the cause in which I am
engaged needs no support of this nature, that doth not truly come from
heaven. The calms, and the smoothness of the water, and even the weeds
of which ye complain, come from the vicinity of some great body of land;
I think not a continent, as that must lie still further west, but of
islands, either so large or so numerous, as to make a far-extended lee;
while these swells are probably the evidence of wind at a distance,
which hath driven up the ocean into mountainous waves, such as we often
see them, and which send out their dying efforts, even beyond the limits
of the gale. I do not say that this intervention, to appease your fears,
doth not come of God, in whose hands I am; for this last do I fully
believe, and for it am I fully grateful; but it cometh through the
agencies of nature, and can in no sense be deemed providential, except
as it demonstrateth the continuance of the divine care, as well as its
surpassing goodness. Go, then, and be tranquil. Remember, if Spain be
far behind ye, that Cathay now lieth at no great distance before ye;
that each hour shorteneth that distance, as well as the time necessary
to reach our goal. He that remaineth true and faithful, shall not repent
his confidence; while he who unnecessarily disturbeth either himself or
others, with silly doubts, may look forward to an exercise of authority
that shall maintain the rights of their Highnesses to the duty of all
their servants."
We record this speech of the great navigator with so much the more
pleasure, as it goes fully to establish the fact that he did not believe
the sudden rising of the seas, on this occasion, was owing to a direct
miracle, as some of the historians and biographers seem inclined to
believe; but rather to a providential interference of Divine Power,
through natural means, in order to protect him against the consequences
of the blind apprehensions of his followers. It is not easy, indeed, to
suppose that a seaman as experienced as Columbus, could be ignorant of
the natural cause of a circumstance so very common on the ocean, that
those who dwell on its coast have frequent occasion to witness its
occurrence.