CHAPTER XIX.
"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 toclose. All eyes now turned anxiously to the west, where it was hopedthat land might at any moment appear. The last tint, however, vanishedfrom the horizon, and darkness enveloped the ocean without bringing anymaterial change. The wind still blew a pleasant breeze from thesouth-east, and the surface of the ocean offered little more inequalitythan is usually met on the bosoms of large rivers. The compasses showeda slightly increasing deviation from their old coincidence with thepolar star, and no one doubted, any longer, that the fault was in theheavenly body. All this time the vessels were getting to the southward,steering, in fact, west and by south, when they thought they weresteering west--a circumstance that alone prevented Columbus from firstreaching the coast of Georgia, or that of the Carolinas, since, had hemissed the Bermudas, the current of the Gulf Stream meeting him on hisweather bow, he would have infallibly been set well to the northward, ashe neared the continent.
The night passed as usual, and at noon of the 17th, or at thetermination of the nautical day, the fleet had left another long trackof ocean between it and the old world. The weeds were disappearing, andwith them the tunny fish, which were, in truth, feeding on the productsof shoals that mounted several thousands of feet nearer to the surfaceof 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 comparetheir observations; but the Pinta, which, like a swift steed, was withdifficulty restrained, shot ahead, until the middle of the afternoon,when, as usual, she lay-by for the admiral to close. As the Santa Mariacame sweeping on, the elder Pinzon stood, cap in hand, ready to speakher, 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 Pintafilled her sails in order to keep way with the admiral. "We have seenlarge flights of birds ahead, and the clouds at the north look heavy anddense, as if hovering over some island, or continent, in that quarter."
"Thou art a welcome messenger, worthy Martin Alonzo; though I wish theeto remember, that the most I expect to meet with in this longitude issome cluster of pleasant islands, Asia being yet several days' sail moredistant. As the night approacheth, thou wilt see thy clouds take stillmore of the form of the land, and I doubt that groups may be found oneach side of us; but our high destination is Cathay, and men with suchan object before them, may not turn aside for any lesser errand."
"Have I your leave, noble admiral, to push ahead in the Pinta, that oureyes may first be greeted with the grateful sight of Asia? I nothingdoubt of seeing it ere morning."
"Go, of God's sake, good pilot, if thou thinkest this; though I warnthee that no continent can yet meet thine eyes. Nevertheless, as anyland in these distant and unknown seas must be a discovery, and bringcredit on Castile, as well as on ourselves, he who first perceiveth itwill merit the reward. Thou, or any one else, hath my full permission todiscover islands, or continents, in thousands."
The people laughed at this sally, for the light-hearted are easilyexcited to mirth; and then the Pinta shot ahead. As the sun set, she wasseen again lying-to for her companions--a dark speck on the rainbowcolors of the glorious sky. The horizon at the north presented masses ofclouds, in which it was not difficult to fancy the summits of raggedmountains, receding valleys, with headlands, and promontories,foreshortened by distance.
The following day the wind baffled, for the first time sinceencountering the trades; and the clouds collected over-head, dispersingdrizzling showers on the navigators. The vessels now lay near eachother, and conversation flew from one to the other--boats passing andrepassing, constantly.
"I have come, Senor Almirante," said the elder Pinzon, as he reached thedeck of the Santa Maria, "at the united request of my people, to begthat 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 theglory that is due to our illustrious sovereigns, and your ownforethought."
"The wish is just, good Martin Alonzo, and fairly expressed, but it maynot be granted. That we should make creditable discoveries, by thussteering, is highly probable, but in so doing we should fall far shortof 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 theknowledge of man, but to complete the circle of the earth, and to openthe way for the setting up of the cross in the regions that have so longbeen 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 usthis small behest!"
"To tell thee the truth, good Martin Alonzo," answered Luis, with moreof the indifference of manner that might have been expected from thegrandee to the pilot, than the respect that would become the secretaryto the second person of the expedition--"to tell thee the truth goodMartin 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 gloriousachievement be sufficiently secure. I have observed that Satan effectethlittle against those who keep in the direct path, while his success withthose who turn aside is so material, as to people his dominions witherrants."
"Is there no hope, noble admiral? and must we quit all these cheeringsigns, without endeavoring to trace them to some advantageousconclusion?"
"I see no better course, worthy friend. This rain indicateth land; alsothis calm; and here is a visitor that denoteth more than either--yonder,in the direction of thy Pinta, where it seemeth disposed to rest itswings."
Pinzon, and all near him, turned, and, to their common delight andastonishment, they saw a pelican, with extended wings that spread forten feet, sailing a few fathoms above the sea, and apparently aiming atthe vessel named. The adventurous bird, however, as if disdaining tovisit one of inferior rank, passed the Pinta, and, sweeping up grandlytoward the admiral, alighted on a yard of the Santa Maria.
"If this be not a certain sign of the vicinity of land," said Columbusgravely, "it is what is far better, a sure omen that God is with us. Heis sending these encouraging calls to confirm us in our intention toserve 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 uponthis visit as a most propitious omen. May it not be a hint to turnaside, and to look further in this quarter?"
"I accept it not as such, but rather as a motive to proceed. At ourreturn from the Indies, we may examine this part of the ocean withgreater security, though I shall think naught accomplished until Indiabe fairly reached, and India is still hundreds of leagues distant. Asthe time is favorable, however, we will call together our pilots, andsee how each man placeth his vessel on the chart."
At this suggestion, all the navigators assembled on board the SantaMaria, and each man made his calculations, sticking a pin in the rudechart--rude as to accuracy, but beautiful as to execution--that theadmiral, with the lights he then possessed, had made of the Atlanticocean. Vicente Yanez, and his companions of the Nina, placed their pinmost in advance, after measuring off four hundred and forty marineleagues from Gomera. Martin Alonzo varied a little from this, settinghis pin some twenty leagues farther east. When it was the turn ofColumbus, he stuck a pin twenty leagues still short of that of MartinAlonzo, his companions having, to all appearance, like less skilfulcalculators, thus much advanced ahead of the
ir true distance. It wasthen determined what was to be stated to the crews, and the pilotsreturned to their respective vessels.
It would seem that Columbus really believed he was then passing betweenislands, and his historian, Las Casas, affirms that he was actuallyright in his conjecture; but if islands ever existed in that part of theocean, they have long since disappeared; a phenomenon which, while it isnot impossible, can scarcely be deemed probable. It is said thatbreakers have been seen, even within the present century, in thisvicinity, and it is not unlikely that extensive banks do exist, thoughColumbus found no bottom with two hundred fathoms of line. The greatcollection of weeds, is a fact authenticated by some of the oldestrecords of human investigations, and is most probably owing to someeffect of the currents which has a tendency to bring about such an end;while the birds must be considered as stragglers lured from their usualhaunts by the food that would be apt to be collected by the union ofweeds and fish. Aquatic birds can always rest on the water, and theanimal that can wing its way through the air at the rate of thirty, oreven fifty miles the hour, needs only sufficient strength, to cross theentire Atlantic in four days and nights.
Notwithstanding all these cheering signs, the different crews soon beganto feel again the weight of a renewed despondency. Sancho, who was inconstant but secret communication with the admiral, kept the latterproperly advised of the state of the people, and reported that moremurmurs than usual prevailed, the men having passed again, by thesuddenness of the reaction, from the most elastic hope, nearly to theverge of despair. This fact was told Columbus just at sunset on theevening of the 20th, or on that of the eleventh day after the fleet lostsight of land, and while the seaman was affecting to be busy on thepoop, where he made most of his communications.
"They complain, your Excellency," continued Sancho, "of the smoothnessof the water; and they say that when the winds blow at all, in theseseas, they come only from the eastward, having no power to blow from anyother quarter. The calms, they think, prove that we are getting into apart of the ocean where there is no wind; and the east winds, theyfancy, are sent by Providence to drive those there who have displeasedHeaven by a curiosity that it was never intended that any who wearbeards should possess."
"Do thou encourage them, Sancho, by reminding the poor fellows thatcalms prevail, at times, in all seas; and, as for the east winds, is itnot well known that they blow from off the African shores, in lowlatitudes, at all seasons of the year, following the sun in his dailytrack around the earth? I trust thou hast none of this sillyapprehension?"
"I endeavor to keep a stout heart, Senor Don Almirante, having no onebefore me to disgrace, and leaving no one behind me to mourn over myloss. Still, I should like to hear a little about the riches of thosedistant lands, as I find the thoughts of their gold and precious stoneshave a sort of religious charm over my weakness, when I begin to museupon Moguer and its good cheer."
"Go to, knave; thy appetite for money is insatiable; take yet anotherdobla, and as thou gazest on it thou mayst fancy what thou wilt of thecoin of the Great Khan; resting certain that so great a monarch is notwithout gold, any more than he is probably without the disposition topart 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, "werebest quelled, Senor, by an application of the flat of the sword, or, atneed, of its edge."
"This may not be, my young friend, without, at least, far more occasionthan yet existeth for the severity. Think not that I have passed so manyyears 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 tobe easily turned aside from my purpose. But God hath not created allalike; neither hath he afforded equal chances for knowledge to thepeasant and the noble. I have vexed my spirit too often, with argumentson this very subject, with the great and learned, not to bear a littlewith the ignorance of the vulgar. Fancy how much fear would havequickened the wits of the sages of Salamanca, had our discussion beenheld in the middle of the Atlantic, where man never had been, and whenceno eyes but those of logic and science could discover a safe passage."
"This is most true, Senor Almirante; and yet, methinks the knights thatwere 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 areno 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 asingle onset of the Moors, than these caravels could hold in bodies, andblood enough spilt to float them!"
"The dangers our people dread may be less turbulent than those of aMoorish fray, Don Luis, but they are not the less terrible. Where is thespring that is to furnish water to the parched lip, when our storesshall fail; and where the field to give us its bread and nourishment? Itis a fearful thing to be brought down to the dregs of life, by thefailure of food and water, on the surface of the wide ocean, dying byinches, often without the consolations of the church, and ever withoutChristian sepulture. These are the fancies of the seaman, and he is onlyto be driven from them violently when duty demands extreme remedies forhis 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, ofwhich I much question the capacity to hold any good."
Columbus too well understood the hot nature of the young noble to make aserious reply; and they both stood some time leaning against themizen-mast, watching the scene before them, and musing on the chances oftheir situation. It was night, and the figures of the watch, on the deckbeneath, were visible only by a light that rendered it difficult todistinguish countenances. The men were grouped; and it was evident bythe low but eager tones in which they conversed, that they discussedmatters connected with the calm, and the risks they ran. The outlines ofthe Pinta and Nina were visible, beneath a firmament that was studdedwith brilliants, their lazy sails hanging in festoons, like the draperyof curtains, and their black hulls were as stationary as if they bothlay moored in one of the rivers of Spain. It was a bland and gentlenight, but the immensity of the solitude, the deep calm of theslumbering ocean, and even the occasional creaking of a spar, byrecalling 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 admiralcautiously inquired. "My ear deceiveth me, or I hear something on thewing. The sounds, moreover, are quick and slight, like those produced bybirds of indifferent size."
"Don Christopher, you are right. There are little creatures perched onthe upper yards, and that of a size like the smaller songsters of theland."
"Hark!" interrupted the admiral. "That is a joyous note, and of such amelody 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 asthese, have so lately taken their flight from it!"
The presence of these birds soon became known to all on deck, and theirsongs brought more comfort than the most able mathematicaldemonstration, even though founded on modern learning, could haveproduced on the sensitive feelings of the common men.
"I told thee land was near," cried Sancho, turning with exultation toMartin Martinez, his constant disputant; "here thou hast the proof ofit, in a manner that none but the traitor will deny. Thou hearest thesongs of orchard birds--notes that would never come from the throats ofthe tired; and which sound as gaily as if the dear little featheredrogues 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 hisHoly name--and honor to our lord the king, and to our gracious mistress,Dona Isa
bella!"
From this moment concern seemed to leave the vessel, again. It wasthought, even by the admiral himself, that the presence of birds sosmall, and which were judged to be so feeble of wing, was an unerringevidence that land was nigh; and land, too, of generous productions, anda mild, gentle climate; for these warblers, like the softer sex of thehuman family, best love scenes that most favor their gentle propensitiesand delicate habits.
Investigation has since proved that, in this particular, howeverplausible the grounds of error, Columbus was deceived. Men often mistakethe powers of the inferior animals of creation, and at other times theyoverrate the extent of their instinct. In point of fact, a bird of lightweight would be less liable to perish on the ocean, and in that lowlatitude, than a bird of more size, neither being aquatic. The sea-weeditself would furnish resting-places without number for the smalleranimals, and, in some instances, it would probably furnish food. Thatbirds, purely of the land, should take long flights at sea, is certainlyimprobable; but, apart from the consequence of gales, which often forceeven that heavy-winged animal the owl, hundreds of miles from the land,instinct is not infallible; whales being frequently found embayed inshallow waters, and birds sailing beyond the just limits of theirhabits. Whatever may have been the cause of the opportune appearance ofthese 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. Aslong as they sang, no amateurs ever listened to the most brilliantpassages from the orchestra with greater delight than those rude seamenlistened to their warbling; and while they slept, it was with a securitythat had its existence in veneration and gratitude. The songs wererenewed 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 maketheir way through the dense masses of weeds, that actually gave theocean the appearance of vast inundated meadows. The current was nowfound to be from the west, and shortly after daylight a new source ofalarm was reported by Sancho.
"The people have got a notion in their heads, Senor Almirante, whichpartaketh so much of the marvellous, that it findeth exceeding favorwith such as love miracles more than they love God. Martin Martinez, whois a philosopher in the way of terror, maintaineth that this sea, intowhich we seem to be entering deeper and deeper, lieth over sunkenislands, and that the weeds, which it would be idle to deny grow moreabundant as we proceed, will shortly get to be so plentiful on thesurface of the water, that the caravels will become unable to advance orto retreat."
"Doth Martin find any to believe this silly notion?"
"Senor Don Almirante, he doth; and for the plain reason that it iseasier to find those who are ready to believe an absurdity, than to findthose who will only believe truth. But the man is backed by some unluckychances, that must come of the Powers of Darkness, more particularly asthey can have no great wish to see your Excellency reach Cathay, withthe intention of making a Christian of the Great Khan, and of plantingthe tree of the cross in his dominions. This calm sorely troubleth many,moreover, and the birds are beginning to be looked upon as creaturessent by Satan himself, to lead us whither we can never return. Some evenbelieve we shall tread on shoals, and lie forever stranded wrecks in themidst of the wide ocean!"
"Go, bid the men prepare to sound; I will show them the folly of thisidea, at least; and see that all are summoned to witness theexperiment."
Columbus now repeated this order to the pilots, and the deep-sea was letgo in the usual manner. Fathom after fathom of the line glided over therail, the lead taking its unerring way toward the bottom, until solittle was left as to compel the downward course to be arrested.
"Ye see, my friends, that we are yet full two hundred fathoms from theshoals ye so much dread, and as much more as the sea is deeper than ourmeasurement. Lo! yonder, too, is a whale, spouting the water beforehim--a creature never seen except on the coasts of large islands orcontinents."
This appeal of Columbus, which was in conformity with the notions of theday, had its weight--his crew being naturally most under the influenceof notions that were popular. It is now known, however, that whalesfrequent those parts of the ocean where their food is most abundant, andone of the best grounds for taking them, of late years, has been what iscalled the False Brazil Banks, which lie near the centre of the ocean.In a word, all those signs, that were connected with the movements ofbirds and fishes, and which appear to have had so much effect, not onlyon the common men of this great enterprise, but on Columbus himself,were of far less real importance than was then believed; navigatorsbeing so little accustomed to venture far from the land themselves, thatthey 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 prevailingfeelings among the mariners. Those who had been most disaffected fromthe first, seized every occasion to increase these apprehensions; andwhen the sun rose, Saturday, September 22d, on a calm sea, there werenot a few in the vessels who were disposed to unite in making anotherdemand 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 seathat is entirely unknown to man, until we have reached a part of theocean where the wind seems altogether to fail us, and where there isdanger of our being bound up in immovable weeds, or stranded on sunkenislands, without the means of procuring food or water!"
Arguments like these were suited to an age in which even the mostlearned were obliged to grope their way to accurate knowledge, throughthe mists of superstition and ignorance, and in which it was aprevailing weakness to put faith, on the one hand, in visible proofs ofthe miraculous power of God, and, on the other, in substantial evidencesof the ascendency of evil spirits, as they were permitted to affect thetemporal 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 earlypart of the day just mentioned, enabling the vessels to gather way, andto move beyond the vast fields of weeds, that equally obstructed theprogress of the caravels, and awakened the fears of their people. As itwas an object to get clear of the floating obstacles that surrounded thevessels, the first large opening that offered was entered, and then thefleet was brought close upon a wind, heading as near as possible to thedesired course. Columbus now believed himself to be steeringwest-north-west, when, in fact, he was sailing in a direction far nearerto his true course, than when his ships headed west by compass; thedeparture from the desired line of sailing, being owing to the variationin the needle. This circumstance alone, would seem to establish thefact, that Columbus believed in his own theory of the moving star, sincehe would hardly have steered west-and-by-south-half-south, with a fairwind, for many days in succession, as he is known to have done, when itwas 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 somuch desired direction.
But these little variations were trifles as compared with the advantagethat the admiral obtained over the fears of his followers by the shiftof the wind, and the liberation from the weeds. By the first, the mensaw 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 apoint where the ocean had become impassable. Although the wind was nowfavorable to return to the Canaries, no one any longer demanded thatsuch a course should be adopted, so apt are we all to desire that whichappears to be denied to us, and so ready to despise that which liesperfectly at our disposal.
This, indeed, was a moment when the feelings of the peopleappeared to be as variable as the light and baffling winds themselves.The Saturday passed away in the manner just mentioned, the vessels oncemore entering into large fields of weeds, just as the sun set. When thelight
returned, the airs headed them off to north-west andnorth-west-by-north, by compass, which was, in truth, steeringnorth-west-by-west-half-west, and north-west-half-west. Birds aboundedagain, among which was a turtle-dove, and many living crabs were seencrawling among the weeds. All these signs would have encouraged thecommon men, had they not already so often proved deceptive.
"Senor," said Martin Martinez, to the admiral, when Columbus went amongthe 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 itmight be, to our ruin; and then it hath deserted us in such a sea asmariners in the Santa Maria never before saw. A sea, looking likemeadows on a river side, and which wanteth only kine and cow-herds, tobe mistaken for fields a little overflowed by a rise of the water, is afearful thing!"
"Thy meadows are the weeds of the ocean, and prove the richness of thenature that hath produced them; while thy breezes from the east, arewhat all who have ever made the Guinea voyage, well know to exist inlatitudes so low. I see naught in either to alarm a bold seaman; and asfor the bottom, we all know it hath not yet been found by many a longand weary fathom of line. Pepe, thou hast none of these weaknesses; buthast set thy heart on Cathay and a sight of the Great Khan?"
"Senor Almirante, as I swore to Monica, so do I swear to yourExcellency; and that is to be true and obedient. If the cross is to beraised among the Infidels, my hand shall not be backward in doing itsshare toward the holy act. Still, Senor, none of us like this longunnatural calm. Here is an ocean that hath no waves, but a surface sosmooth that we much distrust whether the waters obey the same laws, asthey are known to do near Spain; for never before have I beheld a seathat hath so much the air of the dead! May it not be, Senor, that Godhath placed a belt of this calm and stagnant water around the outeredges of the earth, in order to prevent the unheedy from looking intosome 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 beits master, and to serve him by extending the dominion of his church, aswell as by turning to the best account all the numberless blessings thataccompany the great gift. As to the limits, of which thou speakest, theyexist only in idea, the earth being a sphere, or a ball, to which thereare no other edges than those thou seest everywhere on its surface."
"And as for what Martin saith," put in Sancho, who was never at faultfor a fact, or for a reason, "concerning the winds, and the weeds, andthe calms, I can only wonder where a seaman of his years hath beennavigating so long, that these things should be novelties. To me, allthis is as common as dish-water at Moguer, and so much a matter ofcourse, that I should not have remarked it, but for the whinings ofMartin and his fellows. When the Santa Catalina made the voyage to thatfar-off region, Ireland, we landed on the sea-weed, a distance of half aleague or so from the coast; and as for the wind, it blew regularly fourweeks from one quarter, and four weeks from the other; after which thepeople of the country said it would blow four weeks each way,transversely; but we did not remain long enough in those seas to enableme to swear to the two last facts."
"Hast thou not heard of shoals so wide that a caravel could never findits way out of them, if it once entered?" demanded Martinez, fiercely,for, much addicted to gross exaggerations himself, he little liked to beoutdone; "and do not these weeds bespeak our near approach to such adanger, when the weeds themselves often are so closely packed as to comenear to stop the ship?"
"Enough of this," said the admiral: "at times we have weeds, and then weare 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 clearwater again."
"But the calm, Senor Almirante," exclaimed a dozen voices. "Thisunnatural smoothness of the ocean frighteneth us! Never before did wesee water so stagnant and immovable!"
"Call ye this stagnant and immovable?" exclaimed the admiral. "Natureherself arises to reproach your senseless fears, and to contradict yourmistaken reasoning, by her own signs and portents!"
This was said as the Santa Maria's bows rose on a long low swell, everyspar creaking at the motion, and the whole hull heaving and setting asthe billow passed beneath it, washing the sides of the ship from thewater line to its channels. At this moment there was not even a breathof air, and the seamen gazed about them with an astonishment that wasincreased and rendered extreme by dread. The ship had scarcely settledheavily into the long trough when a second wave lifted her againforward, and billow succeeded billow, each successive wave increasing inheight, until the entire ocean was undulating, though only marked atdistant intervals, and that slightly, by the foam of crests or combingseas. 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 waterfairly spouted from their low scuppers, as each rose by her buoyancyfrom some roll deeper than common. Fancying that this occurrencepromised to be either a source of new alarm, or a means of appeasing theold one, Columbus took early measures to turn it to account, in thelatter 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 thatsource. I might impose on your ignorance, and insist that this suddenrising of the sea is a miracle wrought to sustain me against yourrebellious repinings and unthinking alarms; but the cause in which I amengaged needs no support of this nature, that doth not truly come fromheaven. The calms, and the smoothness of the water, and even the weedsof 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 ofislands, 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 oftensee them, and which send out their dying efforts, even beyond the limitsof 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 fullybelieve, and for it am I fully grateful; but it cometh through theagencies of nature, and can in no sense be deemed providential, exceptas it demonstrateth the continuance of the divine care, as well as itssurpassing goodness. Go, then, and be tranquil. Remember, if Spain befar behind ye, that Cathay now lieth at no great distance before ye;that each hour shorteneth that distance, as well as the time necessaryto reach our goal. He that remaineth true and faithful, shall not repenthis confidence; while he who unnecessarily disturbeth either himself orothers, with silly doubts, may look forward to an exercise of authoritythat shall maintain the rights of their Highnesses to the duty of alltheir servants."
We record this speech of the great navigator with so much the morepleasure, as it goes fully to establish the fact that he did not believethe sudden rising of the seas, on this occasion, was owing to a directmiracle, as some of the historians and biographers seem inclined tobelieve; but rather to a providential interference of Divine Power,through natural means, in order to protect him against the consequencesof the blind apprehensions of his followers. It is not easy, indeed, tosuppose that a seaman as experienced as Columbus, could be ignorant ofthe natural cause of a circumstance so very common on the ocean, thatthose who dwell on its coast have frequent occasion to witness itsoccurrence.