No pomp and display marked their departure. On the contrary, when Columbus set sail, he and his crew were so impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, that they confessed before their priests, as if they had been doomed men, partook of the communion, and committed themselves to the especial guidance and protection of heaven, while a deep gloom spread over the whole community of Palos.
Arrival at the Canary Islands.
Columbus is supposed to have taken with him for his guidance a conjectural chart prepared by Toscanelli of what he presumed to be the position of the continent of which he was in search. On this map the coasts of Europe and Africa, from the south of Ireland to the end of Guinea; and opposite to them, on the other side of the Atlantic, the supposed extremity of Asia, or, as it was termed, India, are believed to have been delineated. Marco Polo had, as we have stated, placed the island of Japan (Zipango) fifteen hundred miles distant from the Asiatic coast; and Columbus had somehow advanced this island a thousand leagues further to the East, supposing it to lie in nearly the same position as Florida.[749] With this view he shaped his course from the Canary Islands, where he had called for fresh supplies and remained for three weeks, refitting the Pinta, which had lost her rudder and was otherwise disabled.
From the Canaries, Columbus set sail early on the morning of the 6th of September, bidding farewell to these frontier islands of the Old World, and striking out into unknown seas to discover a New World which seems destined to eclipse every other nation of ancient or of modern times. For three days he lay becalmed, and it was not until Tuesday, the 9th of September, that he lost sight of land. Then the hearts of the sailors failed them; behind them lay everything dear to them on earth; before them all was mystery, chaos, and peril.
Great fear and discontent amongst the crews.
The cheering hopes held out by Columbus, with the certainty of great rewards when they reached the land of Cathay, where gold and precious stones were said to be found in vast abundance, had no effect on these disconsolate men, many of whom shed tears, while others broke into loud lamentations, refusing to be comforted. Two days after, they had lost sight of the Canaries, and when, about one hundred and fifty leagues to the westward of Ferro, they fell in with the part of a mast, covered with shells and seaweed, the fears of the trembling crew were increased; till at length, when, on the 13th of September, Columbus, for the first time, noticed that the variation of the needle increased as he advanced to the westward, the great navigator himself became really alarmed, though he did not make known his doubts and fears. But the variation of the compass soon attracted the attention of the pilots and filled them with consternation. The very laws of nature they thought were changing as they proceeded westward. That instrument they felt was about to lose its mysterious virtues, and without it they would, on such a vast and trackless ocean, be lost for ever. Though Columbus was able to give a plausible if not the correct reason for the variation, it sufficed to satisfy the pilots and masters, who had great confidence in his skill and genius, but the ordinary seamen were not so easily pacified, and it was only when they reached the favourable trade winds that their fears were somewhat allayed.
Day by day they became more resigned, and as the fine weather and fair winds continued until they reached the course of the Gulf stream, their spirits rose almost exultingly, under the impression that the numerous weeds floating about betokened a near approach to the rich lands of Cathay. Pilot and seamen alike vied with each other as to who should catch the first sight of land; and though Columbus felt that they must still be a great distance from the Florida of which he was in search, he kept his own counsel. Frequently deceived by the dark clouds which just before the rising or setting sun in these latitudes often exhibit the appearance of distant land, the spirits of the seamen began again to droop. They had advanced farther West than ever man had done before; still they continued leaving home far away, and pressing onwards into an apparently boundless abyss of ocean, through which they felt they should never be able to retrace their course, till at last the fair wind became in itself a source of the greatest alarm, from a notion that it always blew from east to west, and that if they attempted to return, they would never be able to reach the coast of Spain. At last the seaweed, from being a source of joy and hope, became an object of alarm. They considered these weeds as proof that the sea was growing shallower, and then they talked of unseen rocks and shoals or quicksands, on to which they might be drifted, and be for ever lost far from any habitable land and beyond the reach of human aid. Then when Columbus took soundings to appease their fears, and found no bottom with a deep sea lead, the fact of no depth being found in water where the surface was covered with weeds, which they supposed grew only on shore or near land, increased their vague terrors and superstitious fancies; everything differed, they said, in these strange regions from the world to which they had been accustomed, and nothing but a return to their fatherland would abate their terror and discontent.
Matters become serious.
Contemplated mutiny.
Matters now became very serious. In proportion as they approached the regions where land should have been found, their impatience and their fears increased. An open mutiny was feared, and plans were even arranged that if Columbus should not meet their demands to return to Spain, they should throw him overboard, and on their arrival at home spread the report that he had fallen into the sea while engaged in surveying the stars and signs of heaven with his astronomical instruments. Though Columbus was not ignorant of these mutinous intentions, he kept perfectly composed, but consulted seriously with his pilots as to their position. In the midst of these consultations they were aroused by a cheering shout from the Pinta of land to the south-west. Every eye was stretched in that direction, and every voice confirmed the sight of land. So impressed was Columbus with the fact, that he threw himself on his knees, and devoutly thanked God for guiding him in safety to the long-hoped-for shores. But alas, the morning sun soon put an end to all their hopes. The Cathay of their dreams was but another evening cloud.