[137] Columbus, speaking of the progress of the ship, on the twenty-fourth of October, remarks: “I carried all the sail of the ship, the mainsail, and two bonnets, the foresail, and the spritsail, and the mizzen and the main-top-sail. Llevaba todas mis velas de la nao, maestra, y dos bonetas, y trinquete, y cebadera, y mezana, y vela de gavia.” A bonnet was a sail placed beneath the mainsail in fine weather to increase the speed of a ship.
[138] On the pavement of the cathedral of Seville is inscribed: “Con tres galeras y 90 personas,” with three galleys and ninety persons.
[139] Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo. cap. xvi, xvii.
[140] The island of Ferro is the most westerly of the Canary group. The Canaries lie off the west coast of Africa, between 27° and 30° north latitude and 13° and 19° west longitude. The principal islands are: Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Palma, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gomera, and Ferro. Through the last island the ancient geographers drew the first meridian of longitude.
[141] According to Columbus’s statement, 56⅔ miles were equal to a degree, and four miles to a marine league. It has been assumed that the Italian mile used in measurements by Columbus equalled 4,842 English feet, and the Italian marine league 19,368 English feet.—Vide An attempt to solve the problem of the first landing-place of Columbus in the New World. By Captain G. V. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy. United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Appendix No. 18. Report for 1880. Washington, 1882. pp. 58, 59.
[142] “On September 13, 1492, he had reached far enough to the westward to come from a previously eastern declination within a region of westerly declination, and that on September 17 it amounted to a whole point (11¼°).” This constitutes his well-known discovery of a part of a line of no-declination. “Two hundred and twenty-four leagues or, near enough for our purpose, 672 nautical miles, west of the island of Gomera would place him on September 13, in latitude 28° 06´ north, and in longitude 12° 42´ + 17° 08´ = 29° 50´, according to Bowditch, or if we take the position of the harbor of Sebastian near the eastern point of Gomera Island, according to admiralty chart No. 1873, viz.: latitude 28° 05´ 5 and longitude 17° 06´ 3 and considering that 11° 12´ correspond to 12° 42´ of difference of longitude in that latitude, we have for a point in the line of no-declination the latitude of 28° 05´ and longitude 29° 48´. In E. Walker’s treatise on Terrestrial and Cosmical Magnetism, Cambridge (England), 1866, p. 300, we read: ‘The history of this line dates from the 13th of September, 1492, when Columbus observed the needle pass from the east to the west of the meridian, in latitude 28° N. longitude 28° W. (probably roughly adding 11° of difference of longitude to 17° for longitude of Gomera). According to my computation of the daily position of the Admiral’s flagship, and based upon his log-book, he was on September 13 in latitude 28° 21´ longitude 29° 16´.... According to my computation of the daily track, Columbus was on September 17, 1492, in latitude 27° 38´ and in longitude 36° 30´, when he noted 11° west declination.”—An inquiry into the variation of the compass off the Bahama Islands, at the time of the landfall of Columbus in 1492. By Charles A. Schott. United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Appendix No. 19. Report for 1880. Washington, 1882. p. 5.
“Christopher Columbus has not only the merit of being the first to discover a line without magnetic variation, but also of having excited a taste for the study of terrestrial magnetism in Europe, by means of his observations on the progressive increase of western declination in receding from that line.”—Humboldt: Cosmos. Otté’s trans. vol. ii. p. 656.
[143] “Men also became acquainted with those great banks of sea-weed (Fucus natans),—the oceanic meadows which presented the singular spectacle of the accumulation of a social plant over an extent of space almost seven times greater than the area of France. The great Fucus Bank, the Mar de Sargasso, extends between 19° and 34° north latitude. The major axis is situated about 7° west of the island of Corvo. The lesser Fucus Bank lies in a space between the Bermudas and the Bahamas. Winds and partial currents variously affect, according to the character of the season, the length and circumference of these Atlantic fucoid meadows.”—Humboldt: Cosmos. Otté’s trans. vol. ii. p. 663.
[144] Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo. cap. xviii, xix.
[145] Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo. cap. xx, xxii.