"LAND! LAND!"
On the fourth day out from Palos the _Pinta's_ rudder became loose,
and unless the damage could be speedily repaired the ship would soon be
a prey to current and wind. The _Pinta_ was the vessel whose owners
repented having sold her. No wonder then that Columbus suspected the
rascals of having bribed the crew to tamper with the rudder, in the hope
of forcing their ship to put back into Palos. But he would not put back,
he declared. Martin Pinzon was commanding the _Pinta_, and Martin
knew what to do with perverse rudders and perverse men. He immediately
set to work to have the damage repaired. The ship's carpenter must have
done his work very badly, however, for the following day the rudder was
again disabled. Still Columbus would not turn back and risk the chance
of all his crew deserting him. Instead, he continued sailing southwest
to the Canaries--the point from which the shipwrecked pilot was supposed
to have started on his unexpected trip across the Atlantic. These
beautiful islands, from which the imposing peak of Teneriffe rises, had
been known to the ancients as "The Fortunate Isles"; Spain now owned
them and had colonized them, and after the great discovery they became a
regular stopping-place for western-bound vessels.
When Columbus came to repair the rudder, he found the entire ship to be
in even worse order than he had supposed. She was full of leaks, and her
poor sails were not of the right shape to respond to heavy ocean
breezes. He would have given her up altogether could he have found
another boat to take her place; but the sparsely settled Canaries of
1492 were not the much-visited winter resort that they are to-day; no
big ships were then in the harbors; and so there was nothing to do but
patch up the _Pinta_ and change the shape of her sails.
While this was being done, Columbus's waiting crew became acquainted
with the Spanish colonists, and with very good results; for these
islanders had a curious delusion to the effect that every year, at a
certain season, they _saw_ land far off to the west. Men were very
credulous in those days. It is probable that their "land" was nothing
more than clouds which, owing to certain winds of that particular
region, lie low on the horizon for a long time; but the people of the
Canaries, and of the Madeiras too, all firmly believed they saw Antilla
and the other "western lands" of legend; and Columbus, nodding his head
wisely, told how the king of Portugal had shown him some reeds, as large
as those of India, that had been washed up on the western shore of the
Azores. "We shall find land seven hundred and fifty leagues from here,"
he repeated over and over, for that was the distance the pilot said he
had gone. So sure was Columbus that, on leaving the islands, he handed
each pilot sealed instructions to cease navigating during the night
after they had gone seven hundred leagues.
The tales and delusions that flourished in the Canaries put heart into
the crew, so when the little squadron again set forth on September 6 the
men were less hostile to the expedition.
Some excitement was given to this fresh start by a rumor, brought from
one of the islands, that Portuguese ships were seeking the Spanish
fleet, in order to punish Columbus for having sailed in the service of
Spain instead of Portugal. As the pursuers never were seen by the
Spanish ships, that story, too, may have been some islander's delusion;
but it made the crew believe that Columbus's undertaking must look
promising to the great navigating Portuguese nation, or they would not
be jealous of Spain's enterprise.
More than a month had now passed since Columbus had left Palos, and only
a hundred miles out from the African coast were accomplished! Was ever a
man subjected to more delays than our patient discoverer! And now, when
at last he was ready to start due west, a strong head sea prevailed for
two days and would not let them push forward. So that it was actually
not until September 8 that the voyage toward the "western lands" may be
said to have begun.
We have mentioned that Columbus kept a diary on this voyage. He was, in
fact, a prodigious writer, having left behind him when he died a vast
quantity of memoirs, letters, and even good verse; and besides these,
maps and charts in great numbers. No matter how trying the day had been,
with fractious crews and boisterous ocean, no matter how little sleep
the anxious commander had had the night before, no matter how much the
ill-smelling swinging lamp in his cabin rocked about, he never failed to
write in his journal.
This precious manuscript was long in the possession of Columbus's friend
Bartolome de las Casas, who borrowed it because he was writing a history
of Columbus and wished to get all the information, possible in the
navigator's own words.
Las Casas was a monk who spent his life in befriending the Indians. When
quite old, he ceased journeying to the New World and stayed at home
writing history. He copied a great deal of Columbus's diary word for
word, and what he did not actually copy he put into other words. In this
way, although the original log of the _Santa Maria_ no longer
exists, its contents have been saved for us, and we know the daily
happenings on that first trip across the Atlantic.
Nearly every day some little phenomenon was observed which kept up the
spirits of the crew. On September 13 one of them saw a bright-colored
bird, and the sight encouraged everybody; for instead of thinking that
it had flown unusually far out from its African home, they thought it
belonged to the new land they were soon to see. Three days later they
saw large patches of seaweed and judged they would soon see at least a
tiny island. On the 18th the mended _Pinta_, which had run ahead of
the other two boats, reported that a large flock of birds had flown
past; next day two pelicans hovered around, and all the sailors declared
that a pelican never flew more than sixty or seventy miles from home. On
September 21 a whale was seen--"an indication of land," wrote the
commander, "as whales always keep near the coast." The next day there
was a strong head wind, and though it kept them back from the promised
land, Columbus was glad it blew. "This head wind was very necessary for
me," he wrote, "because the crew dreaded that they might never meet in
these seas with a fair wind to drive them back to Spain."
Soon they were passing through the Sargasso Sea (named from the
Portuguese word meaning "floating seaweed"). Its thick masses of
drifting vegetation reassured them, for the silly legend that it could
surround and embed a ship had not then found believers. Many years after
it was discovered that several undercurrents met there and died down,
leaving all their seaweed to linger on the calm, currentless surface.
But back in 1492 the thicker the seaweed, the surer were those sailors
that it indicated land.
Birds and seaweed, seaweed and birds, for over two weeks. Then on
September 25 the monotony was broken. Captain Martin Pinzon called out
from the _Pinta_ that he saw land. Columbus says that when he heard
this shout, he fell on his knees and thanked God. Scanning the horizon,
he too thought he saw land; all of the next day they sailed with every
eye fixed on a far-off line of mountains which never appeared any
nearer. At last the supposed mountains literally rose and rolled away!
It was nothing but low-lying clouds, such as those the Canary Islanders
had mistaken for _terra firma_.
Christopher's heart must have sunk, for they had come over seven hundred
leagues, and for two days he had supposed he was gazing on the island of
his search.
In spite of this disappointment they kept on, for a plant floated by
that had roots which had grown in the earth; also a piece of wood that
had been rudely carved by man; and the number of birds kept increasing.
One can readily see how even the most skeptical man on the expedition
should have felt sure by this time that the man whom he used to consider
a mild maniac was in truth a very wise person. And perhaps the crew did
feel it; but also they felt angry at those signs that mocked them day
after day by never coming true. They grumbled; and the more the signs
increased the more they grumbled; till finally one morning Columbus came
on deck and found that his own helmsman had turned the _Santa
Maria_ eastward, and all the crew were standing by in menacing
attitudes.
The other two ships, as we have seen, were commanded by the Pinzon
brothers; and they, being natives of Palos, had secured all the
respectable Palos men who were willing to enlist; but Columbus had only
the worst element--the jail-birds and loafers from other towns. And here
they stood, saying plainly by their manner, "We are going back! What are
you going to do about it?"
We don't know exactly what he did do about it; Martin Alonzo Pinzon sent
him advice to "hang a few of the rebels; and if you can't manage to hang
them, I and my brothers will row to your ship and do it." But
Christopher appears to have handled the situation without their help,
and without hanging any one; for soon the helmsman swung the _Santa
Maria_ around again. On October 10 trouble broke out afresh, and
Columbus makes this entry in his diary:--
"The crew, not being able to stand the length of the voyage, complained
to me, but I reanimated them."
By October 10 the voyage had lasted some seventy days! No wonder the
crew needed to be "reanimated." Yet, there were the birds flying out to
them, bringing their message of hope, if only the poor frightened men
could have had more faith! The Pinzons meanwhile were having less
trouble; for when their sailors wished to turn back because nothing had
been found seven hundred and fifty leagues west of the Canaries, Martin
Alonzo told them all the absurd tales he had read about Cipango, and
promised them, if only they went ahead, that its wealth would make their
fortune. This appears to have hushed their murmuring; but Christopher
had no such flowery promises to hold forth.
Martin Pinzon, having observed a few days before that most of the birds
flew from the southwest rather than the exact west, suggested to
Columbus that land probably lay nearer in that direction; and Columbus,
to please him, changed his course. It is interesting to speculate on
what might have happened had Pinzon not interfered, for the fleet, by
continuing due west, would have shortly entered the Gulf Stream, and
this strong current would surely have borne them northward to a landing
on the coast of the future United States. But this was not to be. On
Pinzon's advice the rudders were set for the southwest, and nothing
happened for several days except that same passing of birds. On October
11 a fresh green branch floated by; and Columbus, after dark had fallen,
declared he saw a light moving at a distance.
Calling two of his sailors, he pointed it out to them. One agreed that
there was certainly a light bobbing up and down, but the other insisted
that he could see nothing. Columbus did not feel sure enough of his
"light" to claim that it meant land, so he called the ships together and
reminded the crews that their sovereigns had offered to the one who
should first see the shore a pension of ten thousand maravedis (about
twenty-five dollars) a year. In addition, he himself would give a
further reward of a silk doublet. This caused them all to keep a sharp
watch; but land it surely meant, that fitful light which Columbus saw,
for that very night--or about two o'clock in the morning of October 12
--Rodrigo de Triana, a sailor on the _Pinta_, shouted "_Tierra!
Tierra!_" and sure enough, as the dawn grew brighter, there lay a
lovely little green island stretched before their sea-weary eyes!
Who can imagine the tremendous emotions of that famous October morning!
Here were a hundred men who had just demonstrated that the world was
round; for by sailing west they had reached the east--if, as many were
ready to believe, they had come to Martin Alonzo's Cipango! The world
really _was_ a sphere! and at no point in rounding it had they been
in danger of falling off! Here they stood, that marvelous morning of
October 12, on Cipango or some other island off Asia, as they supposed,
with the soles of their feet against the feet of those back in Palos,
and the fact did not even make them feel dizzy. We who have always known
that the earth is a sphere with a marvelous force in its center drawing
toward it all objects on the surface; we who have always known that
ships by the thousands cross the great oceans from one continent to
another; we who have always known that the whole inhabited earth has
long since been explored,--we who were born to such an accumulation of
knowledge can never realize what was the amazement, the joy, of that
little handful of men who, after three lonely months on the unknown
ocean, at last reached unsuspected land.
And the humble Genoese sailor man,--what were his emotions on the great
morning that transformed him into Don Cristobal Colon, Admiral and
Viceroy under their Highnesses, the king and queen of Spain. Let us hope
that he did not think too much about these titles, for we ourselves
don't think about them at all. We are only trying to grasp the joy it
must have given him to know that he had been true to his grand purpose;
that he had waited and suffered for it; and that now, after declaring he
could find lands in the unknown ocean, he had found them. Quite right
was he to put on his scarlet cloak for going ashore, for he had
conquered the terrors of the deep!
How eagerly they all clambered into the small boats and rowed toward the
shore, Columbus and the Pinzon brothers and the notary in the first boat
load. The new Admiral carried the royal standard, and when they leaped
ashore, he planted it in the ground and took possession of the island
for Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Then on a little hill they put up a
wooden cross and all knelt before it and poured out their gratitude to
God.