 | CHAPTER III. Mercedes of Castile, or, The voyage to Cathay |  |
3. CHAPTER III.
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 to close. All eyes now turned anxiously to
the west, where it was hoped that land might at any moment
appear. The last tint, however, vanished from the
horizon, and darkness enveloped the ocean without bringing
any material change. The wind still blew a pleasant
breeze from the south-east, and the surface of the ocean
offered little more inequality than is usually met on the
bosoms of large rivers. The compasses showed a slightly
increasing deviation from their old coincidence with the
polar star, and no one doubted, any longer, that the fault
was in the heavenly body. All this time the vessels were
when they thought they were steering west,—a circumstance
that alone prevented Columbus from first reaching
the coast of Georgia, or that of the Carolinas, since, had
he missed the Bermudas, the current of the Gulf Stream,
meeting him on his weather bow, he would have infallibly
been set well to the northward, as he neared the continent.
The night passed as usual, and at noon of the 17th, or
at the termination of the nautical day, the fleet had left
another long track of ocean between it and the old world.
The weeds were disappearing, and with them the tunny-fish,
which were in truth feeding on the products of shoals
that mounted several thousands of feet nearer to the surface
of 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 compare their observations; but the
Pinta, which, like a swift steed, was with difficulty restrained,
shot ahead, until the middle of the afternoon, when, as
usual, she lay-by for the admiral to close. As the Santa
Maria came sweeping on, the elder Pinzon stood, cap in
hand, ready to speak her, waiting only for her to come
within sound of his voice.
“God increaseth the signs of land, and the motives of
encouragement, Señor Don Christopher;” he called out,
cheerfully, while the Pinta filled her sails in order to keep
way with the admiral. “We have seen large flights of
birds ahead, and the clouds at the north look heavy and
dense, as if hovering over some island, or continent, in that
quarter.”
“Thou art a welcome messenger, worthy Martin Alonzo,
though I wish thee to remember, that the most I expect to
meet with in this longitude is some cluster of pleasant
islands, Asia being yet several days' sail more distant. As
the night approacheth, thou wilt see thy clouds take still
more of the form of the land, and I doubt that groups may
be found on each side of us; but our high destination is
Cathay, and men with such an object before them, may not
turn aside for any lesser errand.”
“Have I your leave, noble admiral, to push ahead in
the Pinta, that our eyes may first be greeted with the grateful
sight of Asia? I nothing doubt of seeing it ere morning.”
“Go, of God's sake, good pilot, if thou thinkest this;
though I warn thee, that no continent can yet meet thine
eyes. Nevertheless, as any land in these distant and unknown
seas must be a discovery, and bring credit on Castile,
as well as on ourselves, he who first perceiveth it will
merit the reward. Thou, or any one else, hath my full
permission to discover islands, or continents, in thousands.”
The people laughed at this sally, for the light-hearted are
easily excited to mirth; and then the Pinta shot ahead. As
the sun set, she was seen again lying-to for her companions
—a dark speck on the rainbow colours of the glorious sky.
The horizon at the north presented masses of clouds, in
which it was not difficult to fancy the summits of ragged
mountains, receding valleys, with headlands, and promontories,
foreshortened by distance.
The following day the wind baffled, for the first time
since encountering the trades; and the clouds collected
over-head, dispersing drizzling showers on the navigators.
The vessels now lay near each other, and conversation flew
from one to the other—boats passing and repassing, constantly.
“I have come, Señor Almirante,” said the elder Pinzon,
as he reached the deck of the Santa Maria, “at the united
request of my people, to beg that 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 the
glory that is due to our illustrious sovereigns, and your
own forethought.”
“The wish is just, good Martin Alonzo, and fairly expressed,
but it may not be granted. That we should make
creditable discoveries, by thus steering, is highly probable,
but in so doing we should fall far short of 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 the
knowledge of man, but to complete the circle of the earth,
and to open the way for the setting up of the cross in the
regions that have so long been the property of infidels.”
“Hast thou nothing to say, Señor de Muños, in support
of our petition? Thou hast favour with his Excellency,
and may prevail on him to grant us this small behest?”
“To tell thee the truth, good Martin Alonzo,” answered
have been expected from the grandee to the pilot, than the
respect that would become the secretary to the second person
of the expedition—“to tell thee truth, good Martin 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
glorious achievement be sufficiently secure. I have observed
that Satan effecteth little against those who keep in
the direct path, while his success with those who turn aside
is so material, as to people his dominions with errants.”
“Is there no hope, noble admiral? and must we quit all
these cheering signs, without endeavouring to trace them
to some advantageous conclusion?”
“I see no better course, worthy friend. This rain indicateth
land; also this calm; and here is a visiter that denoteth
more than either — yonder, in the direction of thy
Pinta, where it seemeth disposed to rest its wings.”
Pinzon, and all near him, turned, and to their common
delight and astonishment they saw a pelican, with extended
wings that spread for ten feet, sailing a few fathoms
above the sea, and apparently aiming at the vessel named.
The adventurous bird, however, as if disdaining to visit one
of inferior rank, passed the Pinta, and, sweeping up grandly
towards the admiral, alighted on a yard of the Santa Maria.
“If this be not a certain sign of the vicinity of land,”
said Columbus, gravely, “it is what is far better, a sure
omen that God is with us. He is sending these encouraging
calls to confirm us in our intention to serve 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 upon this visit as a most propitious omen. May
it not be a hint to turn aside, and to look farther in this
quarter?”
“I accept it not as such, but rather as a motive to proceed.
At our return from the Indies we may examine this
part of the ocean with greater scrutiny, though I shall think
nought accomplished until India be fairly reached, and
India is still hundreds of leagues distant. As the time is
favourable, however, we will call together our pilots, and
see how each man placeth his vessel on the chart.”
At this suggestion, all the navigators assembled on board
the Santa Maria, and each man made his calculations,
sticking a pin in the rude chart—rude as to accuracy, but
beautiful as to execution—that the admiral, with the lights
he then possessed, had made of the Atlantic ocean. Vicente
Yañez, and his companions of the Niña, placed their
pin most in advance, after measuring off four hundred and
forty marine leagues from Gomera. Martin Alonzo varied
a little from this, setting his pin some twenty leagues
farther east. When it was the turn of Columbus, he stuck
a pin twenty leagues still short of that of Martin Alonzo,
his companions having, to all appearance, like less skilful
calculators, thus much advanced ahead of their true distance.
It was then determined what was to be stated
to the crews, and the pilots returned to their respective vessels.
It would seem that Columbus really believed he was then
passing between islands, and his historian, Las Casas, affirms
that he was actually right in his conjecture; but if
islands ever existed in that part of the ocean, they have
long since disappeared; a phenomenon which, while it is
not impossible, can scarcely be deemed probable. It is said
that breakers have been seen, even within the present century,
in this vicinity, and it is not unlikely that extensive
banks do exist, though Columbus found no bottom with two
hundred fathoms of line. The great collection of weeds,
is a fact authenticated by some of the oldest records of
human investigations, and is most probably owing to some
effect of the currents which has a tendency to bring about
such an end; while the birds must be considered as stragglers
lured from their usual haunts by the food that would be
apt to be collected by the union of weeds and fish. Aquatic
birds can always rest on the water, and the animal that can
wing its way through the air at the rate of thirty or even
fifty miles the hour, needs only sufficient strength, to cross
the entire Atlantic in four days and nights.
Notwithstanding all these cheering signs, the different
crews soon began to feel again the weight of a renewed despondency.
Sancho, who was in constant but secret communication
with the admiral, kept the latter properly advised
of the state of the people, and reported that more
by the suddenness of the reaction, from the most elastic
hope, nearly to the verge of despair. This fact was told
Columbus just at sunset on the evening of the 20th, or on
that of the eleventh day after the fleet lost sight of land,
and while the seaman was affecting to be busy on the poop,
where he made most of his communications.
“They complain, your Excellency,” continued Sancho,
“of the smoothness of the water; and they say that when
the winds blow at all, in these seas, they come only from
the eastward, having no power to blow from any other
quarter. The calms, they think, prove that we are getting
into a part of the ocean where there is no wind; and the
east winds, they fancy, are sent by Providence to drive
those there who have displeased Heaven by a curiosity that
it was never intended that any who wear beards should
possess.”
“Do thou encourage them, Sancho, by reminding the
poor fellows that calms prevail, at times, in all seas; and,
as for the east winds, is it not well known that they blow
from off the African shores, in low latitudes, at all seasons
of the year, following the sun in his daily track around the
earth? I trust thou hast none of this silly apprehension?”
“I endeavour to keep a stout heart, Señor Don Almirante,
having no one before me to disgrace, and leaving no
one behind me to mourn over my loss. Still, I should like
to hear a little about the riches of those distant lands, as I
find the thoughts of their gold and precious stones have a
sort of religious charm over my weakness, when I begin
to muse upon Moguer and its good cheer.”
“Go to, knave, thy appetite for money is insatiable; take
yet another dobla, and as thou gazest on it thou may'st
fancy what thou wilt of the coin of the Great Khan; resting
certain that so great a monarch is not without gold,
any more than he is probably without the disposition to
part 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, “were best quelled, Señor, by an application
of the flat of the sword, or, at need, of its edge.”
“This may not be, my young friend, without at least far
more occasion than yet existeth for the severity. Think
not that I have passed so many years of my life in soliciting
the means to effect so great a purpose, and have got
this far on my way, in unknown seas, with a disposition to
be easily turned aside from my purpose. But God hath
not created all alike; neither hath he afforded equal chances
for knowledge to the peasant and the noble. I have vexed
my spirit too often, with arguments on this very subject,
with the great and learned, not to bear a little with the ignorance
of the vulgar. Fancy how much fear would have
quickened the wits of the sages of Salamanca, had our
discussion been held in the middle of the Atlantic, where
man never had been, and whence no eyes but those of logic
and science, could discover a safe passage.”
“This is most true, Señor Almirante; and yet, methinks
the knights that were 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 are no 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 a single onset of the Moors, than these
caravels could hold in bodies, and blood enough spilt to
float them!”
“The dangers our people dread may be less turbulent
than those of a Moorish fray, Don Luis, but they are not
the less terrible. Where is the spring that is to furnish
water to the parched lip, when our stores shall fail, and
where the field to give us its bread and nourishment? It is
a fearful thing to be brought down to the dregs of life, by
the failure of food and water, on the surface of the wide
ocean, dying by inches, often without the consolations of
the church, and ever without Christian sepulture. These
are the fancies of the seaman, and he is only to be driven
from them violently when duty demands extreme remedies
for his 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
much question the capacity to hold any good.”
Columbus too well understood the hot nature of the
young noble to make a serious reply; and they both stood
sometime leaning against the mizen-mast, watching the
scene before them, and musing on the chances of their
situation. It was night, and the figures of the watch, on the
deck beneath, were visible only by a light that rendered it
difficult to distinguish countenances. The men were
grouped; and it was evident by the low but eager tones
in which they conversed, that they discussed matters connected
with the calm, and the risks they ran. The outlines of
the Pinta and Niña were visible, beneath a firmament that
was studded with brilliants, their lazy sails hanging in festoons,
like the drapery of curtains, and their black hulls were
as stationary, as if they both lay moored in one of the rivers
of Spain. It was a bland and gentle night, but the immensity
of the solitude, the deep calm of the slumbering ocean,
and even the occasional creaking of a spar, by recalling 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 admiral cautiously inquired. “My ear deceiveth me,
or I hear something on the wing. The sounds, moreover,
are quick and slight, like those produced by birds of indifferent
size.”
“Don Christopher, you are right. There are little creatures
perched on the upper yards, and that of a size like the
smaller songsters of the land.”
“Hark!” interrupted the admiral. “That is a joyous
note, and of such a melody 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 as
these, have so lately taken their flight from it!”
The presence of these birds soon became known to all
on deck, and their songs brought more comfort than the
most able mathematical demonstration, even though founded
on modern learning, could have produced on the sensitive
feelings of the common men.
“I told thee, land was near,” cried Sancho, turning with
“here thou hast the proof of it, in a manner that none but
the traitor will deny. Thou hearest the songs of orchard
birds—notes that would never come from the throats of the
tired; and which sound as gaily as if the dear little feathered
rogues were pecking at a fig or a grape in a field of
Spain.
“Sancho is right!” exclaimed the seamen. “The air
savours of land, too—and the sea hath a look of the land;
and God is with us—blessed be his Holy name—and honour
to our lord the king, and to our gracious mistress,
Doña Isabella!”
From this moment concern seemed to leave the vessel,
again. It was thought, even by the admiral himself, that
the presence of birds so small, and which were judged to
be so feeble of wing, was an unerring evidence that land
was nigh; and land, too, of generous productions, and a
mild, gentle climate; for these warblers, like the softer sex
of the human family, best love scenes that most favour
their gentle propensities and delicate habits.
Investigation has since proved, that, in this particular,
however plausible the grounds of error, Columbus was deceived.
Men often mistake the powers of the inferior animals
of creation, and at other times they overrate the extent
of their instinct. In point of fact, a bird of light weight
would be less liable to perish on the ocean, and in that low
latitude, than a bird of more size, neither being aquatic.
The sea-weed itself would furnish resting-places out of number
for the smaller animals, and in some instances it would
probably furnish food. That birds, purely of the land,
should take long flights at sea, is certainly improbable;
but, apart from the consequence of gales, which often force
even that heavy-winged animal the owl, hundreds of miles
from the land, instinct is not infallible; whales being frequently
found embayed in shallow waters, and birds sailing
beyond the just limits of their habits. Whatever may have
been the cause of the opportune appearance of these 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. As long as they sang, no amateurs ever listened
to the most brilliant passages from the orchestra, with
warbling, and while they slept it was with a security that
had its existence in veneration and gratitude. The songs
were renewed with the dawn, shortly after which the whole
went off in a body, taking their flight towards the south-west.
The next day brought a calm, and then an air so
light, that the vessels could with difficulty make their way
through the dense masses of weeds that actually gave the
ocean the appearance of vast inundated meadows. The
current was now found to be from the west, and shortly
after day-light a new source of alarm was reported by
Sancho.
“The people have got a notion in their heads, Señor Almirante,
which partaketh so much of the marvellous, that it
findeth exceeding favour with such as love miracles more
than they love God. Martin Martinez, who is a philosopher
in the way of terror, maintaineth that this sea into
which we seem to be entering deeper and deeper, lieth over
sunken islands, and that the weeds, which it would be
idle to deny grow more abundant as we proceed, will
shortly get to be so plentiful on the surface of the water,
that the caravels will become unable to advance, or to retreat.”
“Doth Martin find any to believe this silly notion?”
“Señor Don Almirante, he doth; and for the plain reason
that it is easier to find those who are ready to believe an
absurdity, than to find those who will only believe truth.
But the man is backed by some unlucky chances, that must
come of the Powers of Darkness, more particularly as they
can have no great wish to see your Excellency reach Cathay,
with the intention of making a Christian of the Great
Khan, and of planting the tree of the cross in his dominions.
This calm sorely troubleth many, moreover, and the birds
are beginning to be looked upon as creatures sent by Satan
himself, to lead us whither we can never return. Some
even believe we shall tread on shoals, and lie for ever
stranded wrecks in the midst of the wide ocean!”
“Go bid the men prepare to sound; I will show them the
folly of this idea, at least; and see that all are summoned
to witness the experiment.”
Columbus now repeated this order to the pilots, and the
deep-sea was let go, in the usual manner. Fathom after
fathom of the line glided over the rail, the lead taking its
unerring way towards the bottom, until so little was left as
to compel the downward course to be arrested.
“Ye see, my friends, that we are yet full two hundred
fathoms from the shoals ye so much dread, and as much
more as the sea is deeper than our measurement. Lo!
yonder, too, is a whale, spouting the water before him, a
creature never seen, except on the coasts of large islands,
or continents.”
This appeal of Columbus, which was in conformity
with the notions of the day, had its weight—his crew being
naturally most under the influence of notions that were
popular. It is now known, however, that whales frequent
those parts of the ocean where their food is most abundant;
and one of the best grounds for taking them, of late years,
has been what is called the the False Brazil Banks, which
lie near the centre of the ocean. In a word, all those signs,
that were connected with the movements of birds and fishes,
and which appear to have had so much effect, not only on
the common men of this great enterprise, but on Columbus
himself, were of far less real importance than was then believed;
navigators being so little accustomed to venture far
from the land themselves, that they 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 prevailing feelings among the mariners.
Those who had been most disaffected from the first, seized
every occasion to increase these apprehensions; and when
the sun arose, Saturday, September 22d, on a calm sea,
there were not a few in the vessels who were disposed to
unite in making another demand on the admiral to turn the
heads of the caravels towards the east.
“We have come some hundreds of leagues before a fair
wind, into a sea that is entirely unknown to man, until we
have reached a part of the ocean where the winds seem
altogether to fail us, and where there is danger of our being
bound up in immovable weeds, or stranded on sunken
islands, without the means of procuring food or water!”
Arguments like these, were suited to an age in which
even the most learned were obliged to grope their way to
accurate knowledge, through the mists of superstition and
ignorance, and in which it was a prevailing weakness to
put faith, on the one hand, in visible proofs of the miraculous
power of God, and, on the other, in substantial evidences
of the ascendency of evil spirits, as they were permitted
to affect the temporal affairs of those they persecuted.
It was, therefore, most fortunate for the success of the
expedition, that a light breeze sprang up from the southward
and westward, in the early part of the day just mentioned,
enabling the vessels to gather way, and to move
beyond the vast fields of weeds, that equally obstructed the
progress of the caravels, and awakened the fears of their
people. As it was an object to get clear of the floating
obstacles that surrounded the vessels, the first large opening
that offered was entered, and then the fleet was brought
close upon a wind, heading as near as possible to the desired
course. Columbus now believed himself to be steering
west-north-west, when, in fact, he was sailing in a direction
far nearer to his true course, than when his ships headed
west, by compass; the departure from the desired line of
sailing, being owing to the variation in the needle. This
circumstance alone, would seem to establish the fact, that
Columbus believed in his own theory of the moving star,
since he would hardly have steered west-and-by-south-half-south,
with a fair wind, for many days in succession, as he
is known to have done, when it was 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 so much desired direction.
But these little variations were trifles as compared with
the advantage that the admiral obtained over the fears of
his followers by the shift of the wind, and the liberation
from the weeds. By the first, the men saw 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 a point where the ocean had become impassable.
Although the wind was now favourable to return to the
should be adopted, so apt are we all to desire that which
appears to be denied to us, and so ready to despise that
which lies perfectly at our disposal.
This, indeed, was a moment when the feelings of the
people appeared to be as variable as the light and baffling
winds themselves. The Saturday passed away, in the
manner just mentioned, the vessels once more entering into
large fields of weeds, just as the sun set. When the light
returned, the airs headed them off to north-west and north-west-by-north,
by compass, which was, in truth, steering
north-west-by-west-half-west, and north-west-half-west.
Birds abounded again, among which were a turtle-dove, and
many living crabs were seen crawling among the weeds.
All these signs would have encouraged the common men,
had they not already so often proved deceptive.
“Señor,” said Martin Martinez, to the admiral, when
Columbus went among the 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 it might
be, to our ruin; and then it hath deserted us in such a sea,
as mariners in the Santa Maria never before saw. A sea,
looking like meadows on a river side, and which wanteth
only kine and cow-herds, to be mistaken for fields a little
overflowed by a rise of the water, is a fearful thing!”
“Thy meadows are the weeds of the ocean, and prove
the richness of the nature that hath produced them; while
thy breezes from the east, are what all who have ever made
the Guinea voyage, well know to exist in latitudes so low.
I see nought in either to alarm a bold seaman; and as for
the bottom, ye all know it hath not yet been found by many
a long and weary fathom of line. Pepe, thou hast none
of these weaknesses; but hast set thy heart on Cathay,
and a sight of the Great Khan?”
“Señor Almirante, as I swore to Monica, so do I swear
to your Excellency; and that is to be true and obedient.
If the cross is to be raised among the infidels, my hand
shall not be backward in doing its share towards the holy
act. Still, Señor, none of us like this long unnatural
calm. Here is an ocean that hath no waves, but a surface
so smooth that we much distrust whether the waters obey
never before have I beheld a sea that hath so much the air
of the dead! May it not be, Señor, that God hath placed
a belt of this calm and stagnant water around the outer
edges of the earth, in order to prevent the unheedy from
looking into some of his sacred secrets?”
“Thy reasoning hath, at least, a savour of religion; and,
though faulty, can scarce be condemned. God hath placed
man on this earth, Pepe, to be its master, and to serve him
by extending the dominion of his church, as well as by
turning to the best account all the numberless blessings that
accompany the great gift. As to the limits, of which thou
speakest, they exist only in idea, the earth being a sphere,
or a ball, to which there are no other edges than those thou
seest everywhere on its surface.”
“And as for what Martin saith,” put in Sancho, who
was never at fault for a fact, or for a reason, “concerning
the winds, and the weeds, and the calms, I can only wonder
where a seaman of his years hath been navigating so
long, that these things should be novelties. To me, all this
is as common as dish-water at Moguer, and so much a matter
of course, that I should not have remarked it, but for
the whinings of Martin and his fellows. When the Santa
Catalina made the voyage to that far-off region, Ireland,
we landed on the sea-weed, a distance of half a league or
so from the coast; and as for the wind, it blew regularly
four weeks from one quarter, and four weeks from the
other; after which the people of the country said it would
blow four weeks each way, transversely; but we did not
remain long enough in those seas to enable me to swear to
the two last facts.”
“Hast thou not heard of shoals so wide that a caravel
could never find its way out of them, if it once entered?”
demanded Martinez, fiercely, for much addicted to gross
exaggerations himself, he little liked to be outdone; “and
do not these weeds bespeak our near approach to such a
danger, when the weeds themselves often are so closely
packed as to come near to stop the ship?”
“Enough of this,” said the admiral; “at times we have
weeds, and then we are altogether free from them; these
changes are owing to the currents; no doubt as soon as we
again.”
“But the calm, Señor Almirante,” exclaimed a dozen
voices. “This unnatural smoothness of the ocean frighteneth
us! — never before did we see water so stagnant and
immoveable!”
“Call ye this stagnant and immoveable?” exclaimed the
admiral. “Nature herself arises to reproach your senseless
fears, and to contradict your mistaken reasoning, by
her own signs and portents!”
This was said as the Santa Maria's bows rose on a long
low swell, every spar creaking at the motion, and the
whole hull heaving and setting as the billow passed beneath
it, washing the sides of the ship from the water-line to its
channels. At this moment there was not even a breath of
air, and the seamen gazed about them with an astonishment
that was increased and rendered extreme by dread.
The ship had scarcely settled heavily into the long trough,
when a second wave lifted her again forward, and billow succeeded
billow, each successive wave increasing in height,
until the entire ocean was undulating, though only marked
at distant intervals, and that slightly, by the foam of crests
or combing seas. 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 water fairly spouted
from their low scuppers, as each rose by her buoyancy
from some roll deeper than common. Fancying that this
occurrence promised to be either a source of new alarm, or
a means of appeasing the old one, Columbus took early
measures to turn it to account, in the latter 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 that source. I might
impose on your ignorance, and insist that this sudden rising
of the sea is a miracle wrought to sustain me against your
rebellious repinings and unthinking alarms; but the cause
in which I am engaged needs no support of this nature, that
smoothness of the water, and even the weeds of which ye
complain, come from the vicinity of some great body of
land; I think not a continent, as that must lie still farther
west, but of islands, 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 often see
them, and which send out their dying efforts, even beyond
the limits of 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 fully believe, and for it am I
fully grateful; but it cometh through the agencies of nature,
and can in no sense be deemed providential, except as it
demonstrateth the continuance of the divine care, as well
as its surpassing goodness. Go then, and be tranquil.
Remember if Spain be far behind ye, that Cathay now lieth
at no great distance before ye; that each hour shorteneth
that distance, as well as the time necessary to reach our
goal. He that remaineth true and faithful, shall not repent
his confidence; while he who unnecessarily disturbeth
either himself or others, with silly doubts, may look forward
to an exercise of authority that shall maintain the
rights of their Highnesses to the duty of all their servants.”
We record this speech of the great navigator with so
much the more pleasure, as it goes fully to establish the
fact that he did not believe the sudden rising of the seas, on
this occasion, was owing to a direct miracle, as some of the
historians and biographers seem inclined to believe; but
rather to a providential interference of Divine Power,
through natural means, in order to protect him against the
consequences of the blind apprehensions of his followers.
It is not easy, indeed, to suppose, that a seaman as experienced
as Columbus, could be ignorant of the natural
cause of a circumstance so very common on the ocean,
that those who dwell on its coasts have frequent occasion
to witness its occurrence.
| CHAPTER III. Mercedes of Castile, or, The voyage to Cathay | |