Events Of The First Voyage - 1

Events Of The First Voyage - 1

"In nomine D.N. Jesu Christi—Friday, August 3, 1492, at eight o'clock we started from
the bar of Saltes. We went with a strong sea breeze sixty miles,—[Columbus reckoned in
Italian miles, of which four = one league.]—which are fifteen leagues, towards the south,
until sunset: afterwards to the south-west and to the south, quarter south-west, which was
the way to the Canaries."
With these rousing words the Journal
[The account of Columbus's first voyage is taken from a Journal written by himself, but
which in its original form does not exist. Las Casas had it in his possession, but as he
regarded it (no doubt with justice) as too voluminous and discursive to be interesting, he
made an abridged edition, in which the exact words of Columbus were sometimes
quoted, but which for the most part is condensed into a narrative in the third person. This
abridged Journal, consisting of seventy-six closely written folios, was first published by
Navarrette in 1825. When Las Casas wrote his 'Historie,' however, he appears here and
there to have restored sections of the original Journal into the abridged one; and many of
these restorations are of importance. If the whole account of his voyage written by
Columbus himself were available in its exact form I would print it here; but as it is not, I
think it better to continue my narrative, simply using the Journal of Las Casas as a
document.]
of Columbus's voyage begins; and they sound a salt and mighty chord which contains the
true diapason of the symphony of his voyages. There could not have been a more
fortunate beginning, with clear weather and a calm sea, and the wind in exactly the right
quarter. On Saturday and Sunday the same conditions held, so there was time and
opportunity for the three very miscellaneous ships' companies to shake down into
something like order, and for all the elaborate discipline of sea life to be arranged and
established; and we may employ the interval by noting what aids to navigation Columbus
had at his disposal.
The chief instrument was the astrolabe, which was an improvement on the primitive
quadrant then in use for taking the altitude of the sun. The astrolabe, it will be
remembered, had been greatly improved, by Martin Behaim and the Portuguese
Commission in 1840—[1440 D.W.]; and it was this instrument, a simplification of the
astrolabe used in astronomy ashore, that Columbus chiefly used in getting his solar
altitudes. As will be seen from the illustration, its broad principle was that of a metal
circle with a graduated circumference and two arms pivoted in the centre. It was made as
heavy as possible; and in using it the observer sat on deck with his back against the
mainmast and with his left hand held up the instrument by the ring at the top. The long
arm was moved round until the two sights fixed upon it were on with the sun. The point
where the other arm then cut the circle gave the altitude. In conjunction with this
instrument were used the tables of solar declination compiled by Regiomontanus, and
covering the sun's declination between the years 1475 and 1566.
The compass in Columbus's day existed, so far as all essentials are concerned, as it exists
to-day. Although it lacked the refinements introduced by Lord Kelvin it was swung in
double-cradles, and had the thirty-two points painted upon a card. The discovery of the
compass, and even of the lodestone, are things wrapt in obscurity; but the lodestone had
been known since at least the eleventh century, and the compass certainly since the
thirteenth. With the compass were used the sea charts, which were simply maps on a
rather larger and more exact scale than the land maps of the period. There were no
soundings or currents marked on the old charts, which were drawn on a plane projection;
and they can have been of little—practical use to navigators except in the case of coasts
which were elaborately charted on a large scale. The chart of Columbus, in so far as it
was concerned with the ocean westward of the Azores, can of course have contained
nothing except the conjectured islands or lands which he hoped to find; possibly the land
seen by the shipwrecked pilot may have been marked on it, and his failure to find that
land may have been the reason why, as we shall see, he changed his course to the
southward on the 7th of October. It must be remembered that Columbus's conception of
the world was that of the Portuguese Mappemonde of 1490, a sketch of which is here
reproduced.
This conception of the world excluded the Pacific Ocean and the continent of North and
South America, and made it reasonable to suppose that any one who sailed westward
long enough from Spain would ultimately reach Cathay and the Indies. Behaim's globe,
which was completed in the year 1492, represented the farthest point that geographical
knowledge had reached previous to the discoveries of Columbus, and on it is shown the
island of Cipango or Japan.
By far the most important element in the navigation of Columbus, in so far as estimating
his position was concerned, was what is known as "dead-reckoning" that is to say, the
computation of the distance travelled by the ship through the water. At present this
distance is measured by a patent log, which in its commonest form is a propeller-shaped
instrument trailed through the water at the end of a long wire or cord the inboard end of
which is attached to a registering clock. On being dragged through the water the propeller
spins round and the twisting action is communicated by the cord to the clock-work
machinery which counts the miles. In the case of powerful steamers and in ordinary
weather dead-reckoning is very accurately calculated by the number of revolutions of the
propellers recorded in the engine-room; and a device not unlike this was known to the
Romans in the time of the Republic. They attached small wheels about four feet in
diameter to the sides of their ships; the passage of the water turned the wheels, and a very
simple gearing was arranged which threw a pebble into a tallypot at each revolution. This
device, however, seems to have been abandoned or forgotten in Columbus's day, when
there was no more exact method of estimating dead-reckoning than the primitive one of
spitting over the side in calm weather, or at other times throwing some object into the
water and estimating the rate of progress by its speed in passing the ship's side. The hourglass,
which was used to get the multiple for long distances, was of course the only
portable time measurer available for Columbus. These, with a rough knowledge of
astronomy, and the taking of the altitude of the polar star, were the only known means for
ascertaining the position of his ship at sea.