Clarence, in steel so bright, Warwick in blood did wade, Upon Saint Crispin's Day MICHAEL DRAYTON. Life of Columbus. (ABRIDGED FROM IRVING'S LIFE.) CHAPTER IV. T was early in the morning of Friday, the 3rd of August, 1492, that Columbus set sail, steering for the Canary Islands, from whence he intended to strike due west. When he arrived there he was informed that three Portuguese caravels had been seen hovering off the Island of Ferro. Dreading some hostile stratagem on the part of the King of Portugal, in revenge for his having embarked in the service of Spain, he put to sea early on the morning of the 6th of September; but for three days a profound calm detained the vessels within a short distance of the land. This was a tantalising delay, for Columbus trembled lest something should occur to defeat his expedition, and was impatient to find himself far upon the ocean, out of sight of either land or sail, which, in the pure atmosphere of these latitudes, may be descried at an immense distance. Fortunately, soon after, his wishes were realised, and the heights of Ferro gradually faded from the horizon. On losing sight of this last trace of land the hearts of the crews failed them, for they seemed to have taken leave of the world. Behind them was everything dear to the heart of man-country, family, friends, life itself; before them everything was chaos, mystery, and peril. In the perturbation of the moment they despaired of ever more seeing their homes. Many of the rugged seamen shed tears, and some broke into loud lamentations Columbus tried in every way to soothe their distress, describing the splendid countries to which he expected to conduct them and promising them land, riches, and everything that could arouse their cupidity or inflame their imaginations. Nor were these promises made for purposes of deception; for he certainly believed he should realise them all. When about one hundred and fifty leagues west of Ferro they fell in with part of a mast of a large vessel; and the crews, tremblingly alive to every portent, looked with a rueful eye upon this fragment of a wreck, drifting ominously at the entrance of those unknown seas. On the 13th of September, in the evening, Columbus, for the first time, noticed the variation of the needle, a phenomenon which had never before been remarked. He at first made no mention of it lest his people should be alarmed; but it soon attracted the attention of the pilots, and filled them with consternation. It seemed as if the very laws of nature were changing as they advanced, and that they were entering another world subject to unknown influences. They apprehended that the compass was about to lose its mysterious virtues, and, without this guide, what was to become of them in a vast and trackless ocean? Columbus taxed his science and ingenuity for reasons with which to allay their terrors. He told them that the direction of the needle was not to the polar star, but to some fixed and invisible point. The variation, therefore, was not caused by any fallacy in the compass; but by the movement in the north star itself, which, like other heavenly bodies, had its changes and revolutions, and every day described a circle round the pole. The high opinion they entertained of Columbus as an astronomer gave weight to his theory, and their alarm subsided. They had now arrived within the influence of the trade wind, which, following the sun, blows steadily from east to west between the tropics, and sweeps over a few adjoining degrees of the ocean. With this propitious breeze they were wafted gently, but speedily, over a tranquil sea, so that for many days they did not shift a sail. Columbus in his journal perpetually recurs to the bland and temperate serenity of the weather, and compares the pure and balmy mornings to those of April in Andalusia; observing that the song of the nightingale was alone wanting to complete the illusion. They now began to see large patches of herbs and weeds, all drifting from the west. Some were such as grow about rocks or in rivers, and as green as if recently washed from the land. On one of the patches was a live crab. They saw also a white tropical bird, of a kind which never sleeps upon the sea; and tunny fish played about the ships. Columbus now supposed himself arrived in the weedy sea described by Aristotle, into which certain ships of Cadiz had been driven by an impetuous east wind. As he advanced there were various other signs that gave great animation to the crew: many birds were seen flying from the west; there was a cloudiness in the north, such as often hangs over land; and at sunset the imagination of the seamen, aided by their desires, would shape those clouds into distant islands. Everyone was eager to be the first to behold and announce the wished-for shore; for the sovereigns had promised a pension of thirty crowns to whomsoever should first discover land. Columbus sounded occasionally with a line of two hundred fathoms, but found no bottom. Martin Alonzo Pinzon, as well as others of his officers, were often solicitous for Columbus to alter his course, and steer in the direction of these favourable signs; but he persevered steering to the westward, trusting, by keeping in one steady direction, he should reach the coast of India, even if he should miss the intervening islands, and might then seek them on his return. Notwithstanding the precaution which had been taken to keep the people ignorant of the distance they had sailed, they gradually became uneasy at the length of the voyage. The various indications of land, which occasionally flattered their hopes, passed away one after the other; and the same interminable expanse of sky and sea continued to extend before them. They had advanced much further to the west than ever man had sailed before, and, though already beyond the reach of succour, were still pressing onward and onward into the apparently boundless abyss. Even the favourable wind, which seemed as if providentially sent to waft them to the New World with such bland and gentle breezes, was conjured by their fears into a source of alarm. They feared that the wind in these seas might always blow towards the west, and, if so, would never permit their return to Spain. A few light breezes towards the east allayed for a time their last apprehension, and several small birds, such as keep about groves and orchards, came singing in the morning and flew away at night. Their song was wonderfully cheering to the hearts of the poor mariners, who hailed it as the voice of the land. The birds they had hitherto seen had been large and strong of wing; but such small birds, they observed, were too feeble to fly far, and their singing showed that they were not exhausted by their flight. On the following day there was a profound calm, and the sea, as far as the eye could reach, was covered with weeds, so as to have the appearance of a vast flooded meadow-a phenomenon attributed to the vast quantity of submarine plants, separated by the currents from the bottom of the ocean. The seamen now feared that the sea was growing shallow; they dreaded lurking rocks, and shoals, and quicksands, and that their vessel might run aground, as it were, in the midst of the ocean, far out of the track of human aid, and with no shore where the crews could take refuge. Columbus proved the fallacy of this alarm by sounding with a deep-sea line, and finding no bottom. For three days there was a continuance of light summer airs from the southward and the westward, and the sea was as smooth as a mirror. The crews now became uneasy at the calmness of the weather. They observed that the contrary winds they experienced were transient and unsteady, and so light as not to ruffle the surface of the sea. The only winds of constancy and force were from the west, and even those had not power to disturb the torpid stillness of the ocean. There was a risk, therefore, either of perishing amidst stagnant and shoreless waters or of being prevented by contrary winds from ever returning to their native country. Columbus continued, with admirable patience, to reason with these absurd fancies, but in vain; when, fortunately, there came on a heavy swell of the sea, unaccompanied by wind-a phenomenon that often occurs in the broad ocean, caused by the impulse of some past gale or distant current of wind. It was, nevertheless, regarded with astonishment by the mariners, and dispelled the imaginary terrors occasioned by the calm. Leace. WEET Peace, where dost thou dwell? I humbly crave Let me once know. I sought thee in a secret cave, And asked if Peace were there : A hollow wind did seem to answer, “No ; I did, and going did a rainbow note. "Surely," thought I, "This is the lace of Peace's coat : I will search out the matter." But, while I looked, the clouds immediately Then went I to a garden, and did spy A gallant flower The Crown Imperial. "Sure," said I, But when I digged, I saw a worm devour At length I met a reverend, good old man I did demand he thus began : "There was a prince of old At Salem dwelt, who lived with good increase |