 | CHAPTER II. Mercedes of Castile, or, The voyage to Cathay |  |
2. CHAPTER II.
The half-wrecked mariner, his compass lost,
Fixes his steady gaze,
And steers, undoubting, to the friendly coast;
And they who stray in perilous wastes, by night,
Are glad when thou dost shine to guide their footsteps right.”
Hymn to the North Star.
The following day was Saturday, the 15th, when the
title fleet was ten days from Gomera, or it was the sixth
morning since the adventurers had lost sight of the land.
The last week had been one of melancholy forebodings,
though habit was beginning to assert its influence, and the
men manifested openly less uneasiness than they had done
in the three or four previous days. Their apprehensions
were getting to be dormant for want of any exciting and
apparent stimulus, though they existed as latent impulses,
in readiness to be roused at the occurrence of any untoward
event. The wind continued fair, though light—the whole
twenty-four hours' work showing considerably less than a
hundred miles, as the true progress west. All this time
Columbus kept his attention fastened on the needles, and
he perceived that as the vessels slowly made their westing,
the magnets pointed more and more, though by scarcely
palpable changes, in the same direction.
The admiral and Luis, by this time, had fallen into such
habits of close communication, that they usually rose and
slept at the same time. Though far too ignorant of the
hazards he ran to feel uneasiness, and constitutionally, as
well as morally, superior to idle alarms, the young man had
got to feel a sort of sportsman's excitement in the result;
and, by this time, had not Mercedes existed, he would have
been as reluctant to return without seeing Cathay, as Columbus
himself. They conversed together of their progress
and their hopes, without ceasing, and Luis took so
much interest in his situation as to begin to learn how to
duration and ends.
On the night of the Saturday just mentioned, Columbus
and his reputed secretary were alone on the poop, conversing,
as usual, on the signs of the times, and of the events
of the day.
“The Niña had something to say to you, last evening,
Don Christopher,” observed the young man; “I was occupied
in the cabin, with my journal, and had no opportunity
of knowing what passed.”
“Her people had seen a bird or two, that are thought
never to go far from the land. It is possible that islands
are at no great distance, for man hath nowhere passed over
any very great extent of sea without meeting with them.
We cannot, however, waste the time necessary for a search,
since the glory and profit of ascertaining the situation of a
group of islands would be but a poor compensation for the
loss of a continent.”
“Do you still remark those unaccountable changes in
the needles, Señor?”
“In this respect there is no change, except that which
goeth to corroborate the phenomenon. My chief apprehension
is of the effect on the people, when the circumstance
shall be known.”
“Are there no means to persuade them that the needle
pointeth thus west, as a sign Providence willeth they should
pursue that course, by persevering in the voyage.”
“This might do, Luis,” answered the admiral, smiling,
“had not fear so sharpened their wits, that their first question
would be an inquiry why Providence should deprive us
of the means of knowing whither we are travelling, when
it so much wisheth us to go in any particular direction.”
A cry from the watch on deck arrested the discourse,
while a sudden brightness broke on the night, illuminating
the vessels and the ocean, as if a thousand lamps were
shedding their brilliancy upon the surrounding portion of
the sphere. A ball of fire was glancing athwart the heavens,
and seemed to fall into the sea, at the distance of a
few leagues, or at the limits of the visible horizon. Its disappearance
was followed by a gloom as profound as the
extraordinary and fleeting light had been brilliant. This
as men do not see more than once in their lives—if it
is seen as often; and the superstitious mariners did not
fail to note the incident among the extraordinary omens
that accompanied the voyage; some auguring good, and
others evil, from the event.
“By St. Iago!” exclaimed Luis, as soon as the light
had vanished, “Señor Don Christopher, this voyage of ours
doth not seem fated to pass away unheeded by the elements
and other notable powers! Whether these portents speak
in our favour, or not, they speak us any thing but men engaged
in an every-day occupation.”
“Thus it is with the human mind!” returned Columbus.
“Let but its owner pass beyond the limits of his ordinary
habits and duties, and he sees marvels in the most simple
changes of the weather—in a flash of lightning—a blast
of air—or the passage of a meteor; little heeding that these
miracles exist in his own consciousness, and have no connexion
with the every-day laws of nature. These sights
are by no means uncommon, especially in low latitudes;
and they augur neither for nor against our enterprise.”
“Except, Señor Almirante, as they may beset the spirits
and haunt the imaginations of the men. Sancho telleth
me, that a brooding discontent is growing among them;
and, that while they seem so tranquil, their disrelish of the
voyage is hourly getting to be more and more decided.”
Notwithstanding this opinion of the admiral, and some
pains that he afterwards took to explain the phenomenon to
the people on deck, the passage of the meteor had, indeed,
not only produced a deep impression on them, but its history
went from watch to watch, and was the subject of earnest
discourse throughout the night. But the incident produced
no open manifestation of discontent; a few deeming
it a propitious omen, though most secretly considered it an
admonition from heaven against any impious attempts to
pry into those mysteries of nature that, according to their
notions, God, in his providence, had not seen fit to reveal
to man.
All this time the vessels were making a steady progress
towards the west. The wind had often varied, both
in force and direction, but never in a manner to compel the
believed to be the proper course. They supposed themselves
to be steering due west, but, owing to the variation,
were in fact now holding a west-and-by-south course, and
were gradually getting nearer to the trades; a movement
in which they had also been materially aided by the force
of the currents. In the course of the 15th and 16th of the
month, the fleet had got about two hundred miles farther
from Europe, Columbus taking the usual precaution to
lessen the distance in the public reckoning. The latter day
was a Sunday; and the religious offices, which were then
seldom neglected in a Christian ship, produced a deep and
sublime effect on the feelings of the adventurers. Hitherto
the weather had partaken of the usual character of the season,
and a few clouds, with a slight drizzling rain, had relieved
the heat; but these soon passed away, and were succeeded
by a soft south-east wind, that seemed to come
charged with the fragrance of the land. The men united
in the evening chants, under these propitious circumstances;
the vessels drawing near each other, as if it might be to
form one temple in honour of God, amid the vast solitudes
of an ocean that had seldom, if ever, been whitened by a
sail. Cheerfulness and hope succeeded to this act of devotion,
and both were speedily heightened by a cry from the
look-out aloft, who pointed ahead and to leeward, as if he
beheld some object of peculiar interest in that quarter.
The helms were varied a little; and in a few minutes the
vessels entered into a field of sea-weed, that covered the
ocean for miles. This sign of the vicinity of land was received
by the mariners with a shout; and the very beings
who had so shortly before been balancing on the verge of
despair, now became elate with joy.
These weeds were indeed of a character to awaken hope
in the bosom of the most experienced mariner. Although
some had lost their freshness, a great proportion of them
were still green, and had the appearance of having been
quite recently separated from their parent rocks, or the
earth that had nourished them. No doubt was now entertained
even by the pilots, of the vicinity of land. Tunny-fish
were also seen in numbers, and the people of the Niña
were sufficiently fortunate to strike one. The seamen embraced
hand was squeezed in friendly congratulation, that the previous
day would have been withheld in surly misanthropy.
“And do you partake of all this hope, Don Christopher?”
demanded Luis; “are we really to expect the Indies as a
consequence of these marine plants, or is the expectation
idle?”
“The people deceive themselves in supposing our voyage
near an end. Cathay must yet be very distant from us.
We have come but three hundred and sixty leagues since
losing sight of Ferro, which, according to my computations,
cannot be much more than a third of our journey. Aristotle
mentioneth that certain vessels of Cadiz were forced
westward by heavy gales, until they reached a sea covered
with weeds, a spot where the tunny-fish abounded. This
is the fish, thou must know, Luis, that the ancients fancied
could see better with the right eye than with the left, because
it hath been noted that, in passing the Bosphorus,
they ever take the right shore in proceeding towards the
Euxine, and the left in returning—”
“By St. Francis! there can be no wonder if creatures
so one-sided in their vision, should have strayed thus far
from home,” interrupted the light-hearted Luis, laughing.
“Doth Aristotle, or the other ancients, tell us how they regarded
beauty; or whether their notions of justice were like
those of the magistrate who hath been fed by both parties?”
“Aristotle speaketh only of the presence of the fish in
the weedy ocean, as we see them before us. The mariners
of Cadiz fancied themselves in the neighbourhood of sunken
islands, and, the wind permitting, made the best of their
way back to their own shores. This place, in my judgment,
we have now reached; but I expect to meet with no
land, unless, indeed, we may happen to fall in with some
island that lieth off here in the ocean, as a sort of beacon
between the shore of Europe and that of Asia. Doubtless
land is not distant, whence these weeds have drifted, but I
attach little importance to its sight, or discovery. Cathay
is my aim, Don Luis, and I am a searcher for continents,
not islands.”
It is now known that while Columbus was right in his
expectations of not finding a continent so early, he was
Whether these weeds are collected by the course of the currents,
or whether they rise from the bottom, torn from their
beds by the action of the water, is not yet absolutely ascertained,
though the latter is the most common opinion, extensive
shoals existing in this quarter of the ocean. Under
the latter supposition, the mariners of Cadiz were nearer the
truth than is first apparent, a sunken island having all the
characteristics of a shoal, but those which may be supposed
to be connected with the mode of formation.
No land was seen. The vessels continued their progress
at a rate but little varying from five miles the hour, shoving
aside the weeds, which at times accumulated in masses under
their bows, but which could offer no serious obstacle to
their progress. As for the admiral, so lofty were his views,
so steady his opinions concerning the great geographical
problem he was about to solve, and so determined his resolution
to persevere to the end, that he rather hoped to miss
than to fall in with the islands, that he fancied could be at
no great distance. The day and night carried the vessels
rather more than one hundred miles to the westward,
placing the fleet not far from midway between the meridians
that bounded the extreme western and eastern margins of
the two continents, though still much nearer to Africa than
to America, following the parallel of latitude on which it
was sailing. As the wind continued steady, and the sea
was as smooth as a river, the three vessels kept close together,
the Pinta, the swiftest craft, reducing her canvass for
that purpose. During the afternoon's watch of the day
that succeeded that of the meeting with the weeds, which
was Monday, the 17th September, or the eighth day after
losing sight of Ferro, Martin Alonzo Pinzon hailed the
Santa Maria, and acquainted the pilot on deck of his intention
to get the amplitude of the sun, as soon as the
luminary should be low enough, with a view to ascertain
how far his needles retained their virtue. This observation,
one of no unusual occurrence among mariners, it was
thought had better be made in all the caravels simultaneously,
that any error of one might be corrected by the
greater accuracy of the rest.
Columbus and Luis were in a profound sleep, in their
by such a shake of the shoulder as seamen are wont to
give, and are content to receive. It never required more
than a minute to arouse the great navigator from his deepest
slumbers to the fullest possession of his faculties, and
he was awake in an instant.
“Señor Don Almirante,” said Sancho, who was the intruder,
“it is time to be stirring: all the pilots are on deck
in readiness to measure the amplitude of the sun, as soon
as the heavenly bodies are in their right places. The west
is already beginning to look like a dying dolphin, and ere
many minutes it will be gilded like the helmet of a Moorish
Sultan.”
“An amplitude measured!” exclaimed Columbus, quitting
his cot on the instant. “This is news, indeed! Now
we may look for such a stir among the people, as hath not
been witnessed since we left Cadiz!”
“So it hath appeared to me, your Excellency, for the
mariner hath some such faith in the needle as the churchman
bestoweth on the goodness of the Son of God. The
people are in a happy humour at this moment, but the saints
only know what is to come!”
The admiral awoke Luis, and in five minutes both were
at their customary station on the poop. Columbus had
gained so high a reputation for skill in navigation, his judgment
invariably proving right, even when opposed to those
of all the pilots in the fleet, that the latter were not sorry
to perceive he had no intention to take an instrument in
hand, but seemed disposed to leave the issue to their own
skill and practice. The sun slowly settled, the proper time
was watched, and then these rude mariners set about their
task, in the mode that was practised in their time. Martin
Alonzo Pinzon, the most ready and best-taught of them all,
was soonest through with his task. From his lofty stand,
the admiral could overlook the deck of the Pinta, which
vessel was sailing but a hundred yards from the Santa
Maria, and it was not long before he observed her commander
moving from one compass to another, in the manner
of a man who was disturbed. Another minute or
two elapsed, when the skiff of the caravel was launched;
a sign was made for the admiral's vessel to shorten sail,
weeds that still covered the surface of the ocean towards
the Santa Maria. As he gained the deck of the latter ship,
on one of her sides, his kinsman, Vicente Yañez, the commander
of the Niña, did the same thing on the other. In
the next instant both were at the side of the great navigator,
on the poop, whither they had been followed by Sancho
Ruiz and Bartolemeo Roldan, the two pilots of the admiral.
“What meaneth this haste, good Martin Alonzo?” calmly
asked Columbus: “thou and thy brother, Vicente Yañez,
and these honest pilots, hurry towards me as if ye had
cheering tidings from Cathay.”
“God only knoweth, Señor Almirante, if any of us are
ever to be permitted to see that distant land, or any shore
that is only to be reached by mariners through the aid of a
needle,” answered the elder Pinzon, with a haste that almost
rendered him breathless. “Here have we all been at the
comparison of the instruments, and we find them, without
a single exception, varying from the true north, by, at least,
a full point!”
“That would be a marvel, truly! Ye have made some
oversight in your observations, or have been heedless in the
estimates.”
“Not so, noble admiral,” put in Vicente Yañez, to sustain
his brother. “Even the magnets are becoming false
to us; and as I mentioned the circumstance to the oldest
steersman of my craft, he assures me that the North Star
did not tally with his instrument throughout the night!”
“Others say the same, here,” added Ruiz—“Nay, some
are ready to swear that the wonder hath been noted ever
since we entered the sea of weeds!”
“This may be so, Señores,” answered Columbus, with
an undisturbed mien, “and yet no evil follow. We all
know that the heavenly bodies have their revolutions, some
of which no doubt are irregular, while others are more in
conformity with certain settled rules. Thus it is with the
sun himself, which passeth once round the earth in the short
space of twenty-four hours, while no doubt he hath other,
and more subtle movements, that are unknown to us, on
account of the exceeding distance at which he is placed in
the heavens. Many astronomers have thought that they
seen on the disk of the orb at times, which have disappeared,
as if hid behind the body of the luminary. I think it will
be found that the North Star hath made some slight deviation
in its position, and that it will continue thus to move
for some short period, after which, no doubt, it will be found
returning to its customary position, when it will be seen that
its temporary eccentricity hath in no manner disturbed its
usual harmony with the needles. Note the star well throughout
the night, and in the morning let the amplitude be again
taken, when I think the truth of my conjecture will be
proved by the regularity of the movement of the heavenly
body. So far from being discouraged by this sign, we
ought rather to rejoice that we have made a discovery,
which, of itself, will entitle the expedition to the credit of
having added materially to the stores of science!”
The pilots were fain to be satisfied with this solution of
their doubts, in the absence of any other means of accounting
for them. They remained long on the poop discoursing
of the strange occurrence, and, as men even in their blindest
moods, usually reason themselves into either tranquillity
or apprehension, they fortunately succeeded in doing the
first on this occasion. With the men there was more difficulty,
for when it became known to the crews of the three
vessels that the needles had begun to deviate from their
usual direction, a feeling akin to despair seized on them,
almost without exception. Here Sancho was of material
service. When the panic was at its height, and the people
were on the point of presenting themselves to the admiral,
with a demand that the heads of the caravels should be immediately
turned towards the north-east, he interposed with
his knowledge and influence to calm the tumult. The first
means this trusty follower had recourse to, in order to bring
his shipmates back to reason, was to swear, without reservation,
that he had frequently known the needle and the
North Star to vary, having witnessed the fact with his own
eyes on twenty previous occasions, and no harm to come
of it. He invited the elder and more experienced seamen
to make an accurate observation of the difference which
already existed, which was quite a point of the compass,
increased in the same direction.
“This,” he continued, “will be a certain sign, my
friends, that the star is in motion, since we can all see
that the compasses are just where they have been ever
since we left Palos de Moguer. When one of two things
is in motion, and it is certain which stands still, there
can be no great difficulty in saying which is the uneasy
one. Now, look thou here, Martin Martinez,”—who was
one of the most factious of the disaffected—“words are of
little use when men can prove their meaning by experiments
like this. Thou seest two balls of spun-yarn on this
windlass; well, it is wanted to be known which of them
remains there, and which is taken away. I remove the
smallest ball, thou perceivest, and the largest remains; from
which it followeth, as only one can remain, and that one is
the larger ball, why the smaller must be taken away. I
hold no man fit to steer a caravel, by needle or by star,
who will deny a thing that is proven as plainly and as
simply as this!”
Martin Martinez, though a singularly disaffected man,
was no logician; and, Sancho's oaths backing his demonstrations
to the letter, his party soon became the most numerous.
As there is nothing so encouraging to the dull-minded
and discontented mutineer, as to perceive that he is
of the strongest side, so is there nothing so discouraging as
to find himself in the minority; and Sancho so far prevailed
as to bring most of his fellows round to a belief in
the expediency of waiting to ascertain the state of things in
the morning, before they committed themselves by any act
of rashness.
“Thou hast done well, Sancho,” said Columbus, an
hour later, when the mariner came secretly to make his
nightly report of the state of feeling among the people.
“Thou hast done well in all but these oaths, taken to prove
that thou hast witnessed this phenomenon before. Much as
I have navigated the earth, and careful as have been my
observations, and ample as have been my means, never before
have I known the needle to vary from its direction towards
the North Star: and I think that which hath escaped
my notice would not be apt to attract thine.”
“You do me injustice, Señor Don Almirante, and have
inflicted a wound touching my honesty, that a dobla only
can cure—”
“Thou knowest, Sancho, that no one felt more alarm
when the deviation of the needle was first noted, than thyself.
So great, in sooth, was thy apprehension, that thou
even refused to receive gold, a weakness of which thou art
usually exceedingly innocent.”
“When the deviation was first noted, your Excellency,
this was true enough; for, not to attempt to mislead one
who hath more penetration than befalleth ordinary men, I
did fancy that our hopes of ever seeing Spain or St. Clara
de Moguer, again, were so trifling as to make it of no great
consequence who was admiral, and who a simple helmsman.”
“And yet thou would'st now brazen it out, and deny thy
terror! Didst thou not swear to thy fellows, that thou
hadst often seen this deviation before; ay, even on as many
as twenty occasions?”
“Well, Excellency, this is a proof that a cavalier may
make a very capital viceroy and admiral, and know all
about Cathay, without having the clearest notions of history!
I told my shipmates, Don Christopher, that I had
noted these changes before this night, and if tied to the
stake to be burnt as a martyr, as I sometimes think will
one day be the fate of all of us superfluously honest men,
I would call on yourself, Señor Almirante, as the witness of
the truth of what I had sworn to.”
“Thou would'st, then, summon a most unfortunate witness,
Sancho, since I neither practise false oaths myself,
nor encourage their use in others.”
“Don Luis de Bobadilla y Pedro de Muños, here, would
then be my reliance,” said the imperturbable Sancho; “for
proof a man hath a right to, when wrongfully accused, and
proof I will have. Your Excellency will please to remember
that it was on the night of Saturday the 15th, that I
first notified your worship of this very change, and that we
are now at the night of Monday the 17th. I swore to
twenty times noting this phenomenon, as it is called, in
those eight-and-forty hours, when it would have been nearer
did nothing but note it for the first few hours!”
“Go to, Sancho, thy conscience hath its latitude as well
as its longitude; but thou hast thy uses. Now, that thou
understandest the reason of the variation, however, thou
wilt encourage thy fellows, as well as keep up thy spirits.”
“I make no question that it is all as your Excellency
sayeth about the star's travelling,” returned Sancho, “and
it hath crossed my mind that it is possible we are nearer
Cathay than we have thought; this movement being made
by some evil-disposed spirits on purpose to make us lose
the way.”
“Go to thy hammock, knave, and bethink thee of thy
sins; leaving the reasons of these mysteries to those who
are better taught. There is thy dobla, and see that thou
art discreet.”
In the morning every being in the three caravels waited
impatiently for the results of the new observations. As the
wind continued favourable, though far from fresh, and a
current was found setting to the westward, the vessels had
made, in the course of twenty-four hours, more than a hundred
and fifty miles, which rendered the increase in the variation
perceptible, thus corroborating a propheey of Columbus,
that had been ventured on previous observation. So
easily are the ignorant the dupes of the plausible, that this
solution temporarily satisfied all doubts, and it was generally
believed that the star had moved, while the needle
remained true.
How far Columbus was misled by his own logic in this
affair, is still a matter of doubt. That he resorted to deceptions
which might be considered innocent, in order to keep
up the courage of his companions, is seen in the fact of the
false, or public reckoning; but there is no proof that this
was one of the instances in which he had recourse to such
means. No person of any science believed, even when the
variation of the compass was unknown, that the needle
pointed necessarily to the Polar Star; the coincidence in the
direction of the magnetic needle and the position of the heavenly
body, being thought accidental; and there is nothing
extravagant in supposing that the admiral, who had the
instrument in his possession, and was able to ascertain that
from supposed analogy concerning the evolutions of
the star, should imagine that a friend he had ever found so
faithful, had now deserted him, leaving him disposed to
throw the whole mystery of the phenomenon on the more
distant dwellers in space. Two opinions have been ventured
concerning the belief of the celebrated navigator, in
the theory he advanced on this occasion; the one affirming,
and the other denying his good faith in urging the doctrine
he had laid down. Those who assert the latter, however,
would seem to reason a little loosely themselves, their argument
mainly resting on the improbability of a man like
Columbus uttering so gross a scientific error, at a time
when science itself knew no more of the existence of the
phenomenon, than is known to-day of its cause. Still it is
possible that the admiral may not have had any settled notions
on the subject, even while he was half inclined to hope
his explanation was correct; for it is certain, that, in the
midst of the astronomical and geographical ignorance of his
age, this extraordinary man had many accurate and sublime
glimpses of truths that were still in embryo as respected
their development and demonstration by the lights
of precise and inductive reasoning.
Fortunately, if the light brought with it the means of
ascertaining with certainty the variation of the needle, it
also brought the means of perceiving that the sea was still
covered with weeds, and other signs that were thought to
be encouraging as connected with the vicinity of land.
The current being now in the same direction as the wind,
the surface of the ocean was literally as smooth as that of
an inland sheet of water, and the vessels were enabled to
sail, without danger, within a few fathoms of each other.
“This weed, Señor Almirante,” called out the elder Pinzon,
“hath the appearance of that which groweth on the
banks of streams, and I doubt, that we are near to the mouth
of some exceeding great river!”
“This may be so,” returned Columbus, “than which
there can be no more certain sign than may be found in
the taste of the water. Let a bucket be drawn, that we
may know.”
While Pepe was busied in executing this order, waiting
for that purpose, the quick eye of the admiral detected a crab
struggling on the surface of the fresh-looking plants, and
he called to the helmsman in sufficient season, to enable
him so far to vary his course, as to allow the animal to be
taken.
“Here is a most precious prize, good Martin Alonzo,”
said Columbus, holding the crab between a finger and
thumb, that the other might see it. “These animals are
never known to go farther than some eighty leagues from
the land; and see, Señor, yonder is one of the white tropic
birds, which, it is said, never sleep on the water! Truly,
God favoureth us; and what rendereth all these tokens
more grateful, is the circumstance of their coming from the
west, the hidden, unknown, mysterious west!”
A common shout burst from the crews at the appearance
of these signs, and again the beings who lately had been
on the verge of despair, were buoyed up with hope and
ready to see propitious omens in even the most common
occurrences of the ocean. All the vessels had hauled up
buckets of water, and fifty mouths were immediately wet
with the brine; and so general was the infatuation, that
every man declared the sea far less salt than usual. So
complete, indeed, was the delusion created by these cheerful
expectations, and so thoroughly had all concern in connextion
with the moving star been removed by the sophism of
Sancho, that even Columbus, habitually so wary, so reasoning,
so calm, amid his loftiest views, yielded to his native
enthusiasm, and fancied that he was about to discover some
vast island placed midway between Asia and Europe; an
honour not to be despised, though it fell so far short of his
higher expectations.
“Truly, friend Martin Alonzo,” he said, “this water
seemeth to have less of the savour of the sea, than is customary
at a distance from the outlet of large rivers!”
“My palate telleth the same tale, Señor Almirante. As
a further sign, the Niña hath struck another tunny, and
her people are at this moment hoisting it in.”
Shout succeeded shout, as each new encouraging proof
appeared; and the admiral, yielding to the ardour of the
crews, ordered sail to be pressed on all the vessels, that
being the first to discover the expected island. This strife
soon separated the caravels, the Pinta easily outsailing the
other two, while the Santa Maria and the Niña came on
more slowly, in her rear. All was gaiety and mirth, the
livelong day, on board those isolated vessels, that, unknown
to those they held, were navigating the middle of the Atlantic,
with horizon extending beyond horizon, without
change in the watery boundary, as circle would form without
circle, on the same element, were a vast mass of solid
matter suddenly dropped into the sea.
| CHAPTER II. Mercedes of Castile, or, The voyage to Cathay | |