With some he reasoned in short, telling words; others he caught in his powerful hands and put upon their feet and shook them, bidding them be men or he would do such things as would turn their thoughts in a great hurry. And when he had brought them into some semblance of order, he mounted the poop again and talked to them, telling them of the marvels of the land they were going to.
“Gold, silver, precious stones, silks and satins,” he said, among other things, to them, “are to be had there for the taking. Every man among you, to the meanest, shall have his fill of riches. What shall prevent every one of you from going back to Spain so rich that you may purchase any title in the kingdom? You will all be princes. What! do you think I only say these things? I know them. Why, men have been to this land of Zipangu and to Cathay, which lies beyond it, and they have so wearied of the wealth they might have there that they have left a great part behind them on returning to their own country; and yet had they so much with them that they were enabled to live in palaces and be served by nobles. But we shall leave nothing behind that any man cares to take. Here is the Pinta, which shall be loaded to the last line with her precious freight, and we shall come home rejoicing, and you will all despise yourselves for the childish terror which you let conquer you this day.”
Since he believed everything he said, to the very last word, it was not strange that he should make the men believe him, even in spite of their fears, which they could not dispel, though they kept them hidden from him.
“ALL OVER THE VESSEL COULD BE SEEN THOSE STRONG MEN WEEPING.”
That is, they hid them for the time; but as they kept going farther and farther from the land, their fears would return to them, and they would construe the simplest occurrence into an omen of evil, and there would follow a panic, which Martin Alonzo would soothe as best he could, displaying a patience that no one would have looked for in him; though sometimes breaking out in a great fury when his words seemed to have no effect.
But it was seldom that the cupidity that was in the poor, ignorant men would not become inflamed by his promises of gold and jewels; and so it was on that theme that he talked the most often. And indeed it was the theme that occupied his own mind the most; for it was only the admiral who had any lofty thoughts concerning the discoveries he hoped to make. He, indeed, cared for the wealth, too; but it can truly be said that what was more in his mind than riches was the thought of carrying the gospel to the heathen of Zipangu and Cathay.
But it was a terrible voyage in view of the fears of the sailors, their imaginations becoming so diseased after a while that a sudden cry from any one of them would create a panic among the others.
One day it was a floating mast, from some unfortunate wreck, that disturbed them and made them pass the rest of the day in whispered stories of disaster, and with suggestions of destruction to themselves. At another time it was the variation of the compass; at another time it was the fact that the wind blew steadily from the same quarter, convincing them that it was wafting them designedly to that abyss over which the ocean flowed; at another time it was a calm; at another a great area of sea-weed, the extent of which they could not see.