Events Of The First Voyage - 2

Events Of The First Voyage - 2

 The first mishap occurred on Monday, August 6th, when the Pinta carried away her

rudder. The Pinta, it will be remembered, was commanded by Martin Alonso Pinzon, and

was owned by Gomaz Rascon and Christoval Quintero, who had been at the bottom of

some of the troubles ashore; and it was thought highly probable that these two rascals had

something to do with the mishap, which they had engineered in the hope that their vessel

would be left behind at the Canaries. Martin Alonso, however, proved a man of resource,

and rigged up a sort of steering gear with ropes. There was a choppy sea, and Columbus

could not bring his own vessel near enough to render any assistance, though he doubtless

bawled his directions to Pinzon, and looked with a troubled eye on the commotion going

on on board the Pinta. On the next day the jury-rigged rudder carried away again, and

was again repaired, but it was decided to try and make the island of Lanzarote in the

Canaries, and to get another caravel to replace the Pinta. All through the next day the

Santa Maria and the Nina had to shorten sail in order not to leave the damaged Pinta

behind; the three captains had a discussion and difference of opinion as to where they

were; but Columbus, who was a genius at dead-reckoning, proved to be right in his

surmise, and they came in sight of the Canaries on Thursday morning, August 9th.

Columbus left Pinzon on the Grand Canary with orders to try to obtain a caravel there,

while he sailed on to Gomera, which he reached on Sunday night, with a similar purpose.

As he was unsuccessful he sent a message by a boat that was going back to tell Pinzon to

beach the Pinta and repair her rudder; and having spent more days in fruitless search for a

vessel, he started back to join Pinzon on August 23rd. During the night he passed the

Peak of Teneriffe, which was then in eruption. The repairs to the Pinta, doubtless in no

way expedited by Messrs. Rascon and Quintera, took longer than had been expected; it

was found necessary to make an entirely new rudder for her; and advantage was taken of

the delay to make some alterations in the rig of the Nina, which was changed from a

latine rig to a square rig, so that she might be better able to keep up with the others.

September had come before these two jobs were completed; and on the 2nd of September

the three ships sailed for Gomera, the most westerly of the islands, where they anchored

in the north-east bay. The Admiral was in a great hurry to get away from the islands and

from the track of merchant ships, for he had none too much confidence in the integrity of

his crews, which were already murmuring and finding every mishap a warning sign from

God. He therefore only stayed long enough at Gomera to take in wood and water and

provisions, and set sail from that island on the 6th of September.

The wind fell lighter and lighter, and on Friday the little fleet lay becalmed within sight

of Ferro. But on Saturday evening north-east airs sprang up again, and they were able to

make nine leagues of westing. On Sunday they had lost sight of land; and at thus finding

their ships three lonely specks in the waste of ocean the crew lost heart and began to

lament. There was something like a panic, many of the sailors bursting into tears and

imploring Columbus to take them home again. To us it may seem a rather childish

exhibition; but it must be remembered that these sailors were unwillingly embarked upon

a voyage which they believed would only lead to death and disaster. The bravest of us today,

if he found himself press-ganged on board a balloon and embarked upon a journey,

the object of which was to land upon Mars or the moon, might find it difficult to preserve

his composure on losing sight of the earth; and the parallel is not too extreme to indicate

the light in which their present enterprise must have appeared to many of the Admiral's

crew.

Columbus gave orders to the captains of the other two ships that, in case of separation,

they were to sail westward for 700 leagues-that being the distance at which he evidently

expected to find land—and there to lie-to from midnight until morning. On this day also,

seeing the temper of the sailors, he began one of the crafty stratagems upon which he

prided himself, and which were often undoubtedly of great use to him; he kept two

reckonings, one a true one, which he entered in his log, and one a false one, by means of

which the distance run was made out to be less than what it actually was, so that in case

he could not make land as soon as he hoped the crew would not be unduly discouraged.

In other words, he wished to have a margin at the other end, for he did not want a mutiny

when he was perhaps within a few leagues of his destination. On this day he notes that

the raw and inexperienced seamen were giving trouble in other ways, and steering very

badly, continually letting the ship's head-fall off to the north; and many must have been

the angry remonstrances from the captain to the man at the wheel. Altogether rather a

trying day for Christopher, who surely has about as much on his hands as ever mortal

had; but he knows how to handle ships and how to handle sailors, and so long as this tenknot

breeze lasts, he can walk the high poop of the Santa Maria with serenity, and snap

his fingers at the dirty rabble below.

On Monday they made sixty leagues, the Admiral duly announcing forty-eight; on

Tuesday twenty leagues, published as sixteen; and on this day they saw a large piece of a

mast which had evidently belonged to a ship of at least 120 tons burden. This was not an

altogether cheerful sight for the eighteen souls on board the little Nina, who wondered

ruefully what was going to happen to them of forty tons when ships three times their size

had evidently been unable to live in this abominable sea!

On Thursday, September 13th, when Columbus took his observations, he made a great

scientific discovery, although he did not know it at the time. He noticed that the needle of

the compass was declining to the west of north instead of having a slight declination to

the east of north, as all mariners knew it to have. In other words, he had passed the line of

true north and of no variation, and must therefore have been in latitude 28 deg. N. and

longitude 29 deg. 37' W. of Greenwich. With his usual secrecy he said nothing about it;

perhaps he was waiting to see if the pilots on the other ships had noticed it, but apparently

they were not so exact in their observations as he was. On the next day, Friday, the wind

falling a little lighter, they, made only twenty leagues. "Here the persons on the caravel

Nina said they had seen a jay and a ringtail, and these birds never come more than

twenty-five leagues from land at most." —Unhappy "persons on the Nina"! Nineteen

souls, including the captain, afloat in a very small boat, and arguing God knows what

from the fact that a jay and a ringtail never went more than twenty-five leagues from

land!—The next day also was not without its incident; for on Saturday evening they saw

a meteor, or "marvellous branch of fire" falling from the serene violet of the sky into the

sea.

They were now well within the influence of the trade-wind, which in these months blows

steadily from the east, and maintains an exquisite and balmy climate. Even the Admiral,

never very communicative about his sensations, deigns to mention them here, and is

reported to have said that "it was a great pleasure to enjoy the morning; that nothing was

lacking except to hear the nightingales, and that the weather was like April in Andalusia."

On this day they saw some green grasses, which the Admiral considered must have

floated off from some island; "not the continent," says the Admiral, whose theories are

not to be disturbed by a piece of grass, "because I make the continental land farther

onward." The crew, ready to take the most depressing and pessimistic view of everything,

considered that the lumps of grass belonged to rocks or submerged lands, and murmured

disparaging things about the Admiral. As a matter of fact these grasses were masses of

seaweed detached from the Sargasso Sea, which they were soon to enter.

On Monday, September 17th, four days after Columbus had noted it, the other pilots

noted the declination of the needle, which they had found on taking the position of the

North star. They did not like it; and Columbus, whose knowledge of astronomy came to

his aid, ordered them to take the position of the North star at dawn again, which they did,

and found that the needles were true. He evidently thought it useless to communicate to

them his scientific speculations, so he explained to them that it was the North star which

was moving in its circle, and not the compass. One is compelled to admit that in these

little matters of deceit the Admiral always shone. To-day, among the seaweed on the

ship's side, he picked up a little crayfish, which he kept for several days, presumably in a

bottle in his cabin; and perhaps afterwards ate.

So for several days this calm and serene progress westward was maintained. The tradewind

blew steady and true, balmy and warm also; the sky was cloudless, except at

morning and evening dusk; and there were for scenery those dazzling expanses of sea and

sky, and those gorgeous hues of dawn and sunset, which are only to be found in the

happy latitudes. The things that happened to them, the bits of seaweed and fishes that

they saw in the water, the birds that flew around them, were observed with a wondering

attention and wistful yearning after their meaning such as is known only to children and

to sailors adventuring on uncharted seas. The breezes were milder even than those of the

Canaries, and the waters always less salt; and the men, forgetting their fears of the

monsters of the Sea of Darkness, would bathe alongside in the limpid blue. The little

crayfish was a "sure indication of land"; a tunny fish, killed by the company on the Nina,

was taken to be an indication from the west, "where I hope in that exalted God, in whose

hands are all victories, that land will very soon appear"; they saw another ringtail, "which

is not accustomed to sleep on the sea"; two pelicans came to the ship, "which was an

indication that land was near"; a large dark cloud appeared to the north, "which is a sign

that land is near"; they saw one day a great deal of grass, "although the previous day they

had not seen any"; they took a bird with their hands which was like a jay; "it was a river

bird and not a sea bird"; they saw a whale, "which is an indication that they are near land,

because they always remain near it"; afterwards a pelican came from the west-north-west

and went to the south-east, "which was an indication that it left land to the west-northwest,

because these birds sleep on land and in the morning they come to the sea in search

of food, and do not go twenty leagues from land." And "at dawn two or three small land

birds came singing to the ships; and afterwards disappeared before sunrise."

Such beautiful signs, interpreted by the light of their wishes, were the events of this part

of the voyage. In the meantime, they have their little differences. Martin Alonso Pinzon,

on Tuesday, September 18th, speaks from the Pinta to the Santa Maria, and says that he

will not wait for the others, but will go and make the land, since it is so near; but

apparently he does not get very far out of the way, the wind which wafts him wafting also

the Santa Maria and the Nina.

On September the 19th there was a comparison of dead-reckonings. The Nina's pilot

made it 440 leagues from the Canaries, the Pinta's 420 leagues, and the Admiral's pilot,

doubtless instructed by the Admiral, made it 400. On Sunday the 23rd they were getting

into the seaweed and finding crayfish again; and there being no reasonable cause for

complaint a scare was got up among the crew on an exceedingly ingenious point. The

wind having blown steadily from the east for a matter of three weeks, they said that it

would never blow in any other direction, and that they would never be able to get back to

Spain; but later in the afternoon the sea got up from the westward, as though in answer to

their fears, and as if to prove that somewhere or other ahead of them there was a west

wind blowing; and the Admiral remarks that "the high sea was very necessary to me, as it

came to pass once before in the time when the Jews went out of Egypt with Moses, who

took them from captivity." And indeed there was something of Moses in this man, who

thus led his little rabble from a Spanish seaport out across the salt wilderness of the

ocean, and interpreted the signs for them, and stood between them and the powers of

vengeance and terror that were set about their uncharted path.

But it appears that the good Admiral had gone just a little too far in interpreting

everything they saw as a sign that they were approaching land; for his miserable crew,

instead of being comforted by this fact, now took the opportunity to be angry because the

signs were not fulfilled. The more the signs pointed to their nearness to land, the more

they began to murmur and complain because they did not see it. They began to form

together in little groups—always an ominous sign at sea—and even at night those who

were not on deck got together in murmuring companies. Some, of the things that they

said, indeed, were not very far from the truth; among others, that it was "a great madness

on their part to venture their lives in following out the madness of a foreigner who to

make himself a great lord had risked his life, and now saw himself and all of them in

great exigency and was deceiving so many people." They remembered that his

proposition, or "dream" as they not inaptly call it, had been contradicted by many great

and lettered men; and then followed some very ominous words indeed. They held

[The substance of these murmurings is not in the abridged Journal, but is given by Las

Casas under the date of September 24.]

that "it was enough to excuse them from whatever might be done in the matter that they

had arrived where man had never dared to navigate, and that they were not obliged to go

to the end of the world, especially as, if they delayed more, they would not be able to

have provisions to return." In short, the best thing would be to throw him into the sea

some night, and make a story that he had fallen, into the water while taking the position

of a star with his astrolabe; and no one would ask any questions, as he was a foreigner.

They carried this talk to the Pinzons, who listened to them; after all, we have not had to

wait long for trouble with the Pinzons! "Of these Pinzons Christopher Columbus

complains greatly, and of the trouble they had given him."

There is only one method of keeping down mutiny at sea, and of preserving discipline. It

is hard enough where the mutineers are all on one ship and the commander's officers are

loyal to him; but when they are distributed over three ships, the captains of two of which

are willing to listen to them, the problem becomes grave indeed. We have no details of

how Columbus quieted them; but it is probable that his strong personality awed them,

while his clever and plausible words persuaded them. He was the best sailor of them all

and they knew it; and in a matter of this kind the best and strongest man always wins, and

can only in a pass of this kind maintain his authority by proving his absolute right to it.

So he talked and persuaded and bullied and encouraged and cheered them; "laughing with

them," as Las Casas says, "while he was weeping at heart."

Probably as a result of this unpleasantness there was on the following day, Tuesday,

September 25th, a consultation between: Martin Alonso Pinzon and the Admiral. The

Santa Maria closed up with the Pinta, and a chart was passed over on a cord. There were

islands marked on the chart in this region, possibly the islands reported by the

shipwrecked pilot, possibly the island of Antilla; and Pinzon said he thought that they

were somewhere in the region of them, and the Admiral said that he thought so too. There

was a deal of talk and pricking of positions on charts; and then, just as the sun was

setting, Martin Alonso, standing on the stern of the Pinta, raised a shout and said that he

saw land; asking (business-like Martin) at the same time for the reward which had been

promised to the first one who should see land: They all saw it, a low cloud to the

southwest, apparently about twenty-five leagues distant; and honest Christopher, in the

emotion of the moment, fell on his knees in gratitude to God. The crimson sunset of that

evening saw the rigging of the three ships black with eager figures, and on the quiet air

were borne the sounds of the Gloria in Excelsis, which was repeated by each ship's

company.

The course was altered to the south-west, and they sailed in that direction seventeen

leagues during the night; but in the morning there was no land to be seen. The sunset

clouds that had so often deceived the dwellers in the Canaries and the Azores, and that in

some form or other hover at times upon all eagerly scanned horizons, had also deceived

Columbus and every one of his people; but they created a diversion which was of help to

the Admiral in getting things quiet again, for which in his devout soul he thanked the

merciful providence of God.

And so they sailed on again on a westward course. They were still in the Sargasso Sea,

and could watch the beautiful golden floating mass of the gulf-weed, covered with berries

and showing, a little way under the clear water, bright green leaves. The sea was as

smooth as the river in Seville; there were frigate pelicans flying about, and John Dorys in

the water; several gulls were seen; and a youth on board the Nina killed a pelican with a

stone. On Monday, October 1st, there was a heavy shower of rain; and Juan de la Cosa,

Columbus's pilot, came up to him with the doleful information that they had run 578

leagues from the island of Ferro. According to Christopher's doctored reckoning the

distance published was 584 leagues; but his true reckoning, about which he said nothing

to a soul, showed that they had gone 707 leagues. The breeze still kept steady and the sea

calm; and day after day, with the temper of the crews getting uglier and uglier, the three

little vessels forged westward through the blue, weed-strewn waters, their tracks lying

undisturbed far behind them. On Saturday, October 6th, the Admiral was signalled by

Alonso Pinzon, who wanted to change the course to the south-west. It appears that,

having failed to find the, islands of the shipwrecked pilot, they were now making for the

island of Cipango, and that this request of Pinzon had something to do with some theory

of his that they had better turn to the south to reach that island; while Columbus's idea

now evidently was—to push straight on to the mainland of Cathay. Columbus had his

way; but the grumbling and murmuring in creased among the crew.

On the next day, Sunday, and perhaps just in time to avert another outbreak, there was

heard the sound of a gun, and the watchers on the Santa Maria and the Pinta saw a puff of

smoke coming from the Nina, which was sailing ahead, and hoisting a flag on her

masthead. This was the signal agreed upon for the discovery of land, and it seemed as

though their search was at last at an end. But it was a mistake. In the afternoon the land

that the people of the Nina thought they had seen had disappeared, and the horizon was

empty except for a great flight of birds that was seen passing from the north to the southwest.

The Admiral, remembering how often birds had guided the Portuguese in the

islands in their possessions, argued that the birds were either going to sleep on land or

were perhaps flying from winter, which he assumed to be approaching in the land from

whence they came. He therefore altered. his course from west to west-south-west. This

course was entered upon an hour before sunset and continued throughout the night and

the next day. "The sea was like the river of Seville," says the Admiral; "the breezes as

soft as at Seville in April, and very fragrant." More birds were to be seen, and there were

many signs of land; but the crew, so often disappointed in their hopeful interpretations of

the phenomena surrounding them, kept on murmuring and complaining. On Tuesday,

October 9th, the wind chopped round a little and the course was altered, first to southwest

and then at evening to a point north of west; and the journal records that "all night

they heard birds passing." The next day Columbus resumed the west-southwesterly

course and made a run of fifty-nine leagues; but the mariners broke out afresh in their

discontent, and declined to go any farther. They complained of the long voyage, and

expressed their views strongly to the commander. But they had to deal with a man who

was determined to begin with, and who saw in the many signs of land that they had met

with only an additional inducement to go on. He told them firmly that with or without

their consent he intended to go on until he had found the land he had come to seek.

The next day, Thursday, October 11th, was destined to be for ever memorable in the

history of the world. It began ordinarily enough, with a west-south-west wind blowing

fresh, and on a sea rather rougher than they had had lately. The people on the Santa Maria

saw some petrels and a green branch in the water; the Pinta saw a reed and two small

sticks carved with iron, and one or two other pieces of reeds and grasses that had been

grown on shore, as well as a small board. Most wonderful of all, the people of the Nina

saw "a little branch full of dog roses"; and it would be hard to estimate the sweet

significance of this fragment of a wild plant from land to the senses of men who had been

so long upon a sea from which they had thought never to land alive. The day drew to its

close; and after nightfall, according to their custom, the crew of the ships repeated the

Salve Regina. Afterwards the Admiral addressed the people and sailors of his ship, "very

merry and pleasant," reminding them of the favours God had shown them with regard to

the weather, and begging them, as they hoped to see land very soon, within an hour or so,

to keep an extra good look-out that night from the forward forecastle; and adding to the

reward of an annuity of 10,000 maravedis, offered by the Queen to whoever should sight

land first, a gift on his own account of a silk doublet.

The moon was in its third quarter, and did not rise until eleven o'clock. The first part of

the night was dark, and there was only a faint starlight into which the anxious eyes of the

look-out men peered from the forecastles of the three ships. At ten o'clock Columbus was

walking on the poop of his vessel, when he suddenly saw a light right ahead. The light

seemed to rise and fall as though it were a candle or a lantern held in some one's hand and

waved up and down. The Admiral called Pedro Gutierrez to him and asked him whether

he saw anything; and he also saw the light. Then he sent for Rodrigo Sanchez and asked

him if he saw the light; but he did not, perhaps because from where he was standing it

was occulted. But the others were left in no doubt, for the light was seen once or twice

more, and to the eyes of the anxious little group standing on the high stern deck of the

Santa Maria it appeared unmistakably. The Nina was not close at hand, and the Pinta had

gone on in front hoping to make good her mistake; but there was no doubt on board the

Santa Maria that the light which they had seen was a light like a candle or a torch waved

slowly up and down. They lost the light again; and as the hours in that night stole away

and the moon rose slowly in the sky the seamen on the Santa Maria must have almost

held their breath.

At about two o'clock in the morning the sound of a gun was heard from the Pinta, who

could be seen hoisting her flags; Rodrigo de Triana, the look-out on board of her, having

reported land in sight; and there sure enough in the dim light lay the low shores of an

island a few miles ahead of them.

Immediately all sails were lowered, except a small trysail which enabled the ships to lieto

and stand slowly off and on, waiting for the daylight. I suppose there was never a

longer night than that; but dawn came at last, flooding the sky with lemon and saffron

and scarlet and orange, until at last the pure gold of the sun glittered on the water. And

when it rose it showed the sea-weary mariners an island lying in the blue sea ahead of

them: the island of Guanahani; San Salvador, as it was christened by Columbus; or, to

give it its modern name, Watling's Island.