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Two days afterwards, the admiral of that squadron, Lançarot, and nine other caravels arrived. Gram informed Lançarot of his success in making fifty prisoners, whom he had dearly purchased by the loss of seven of his men, who had been murdered by the Moors.
With one ship, therefore, and two caravels, the great admiral made for the Cape Verde islands, "a false name," as he observes, for nothing was to be seen there of a green colour.
The caravels came to anchor beyond this wood, and several almadias came off from the shore towards them. There were two or three naked negroes in each, having sharp pointed sticks in their hands, which our seamen supposed to be darts; some of them had small knives, and they had only two targets and three bows among them all.
Columbus, who had not landed the day before, now sent two caravels, one to the east and southeast and the other to the south-southeast, while he himself, with the Santa Maria, the SHIP, as he calls it, went to the southeast. He ordered the caravels to keep their courses till noon, and then join him.
Making the Spice Islands the centre of their enterprise, under the guidance and governorship of Galvano, the "Apostle and historian of the Moluccas," they sent their caravels in every direction, equipping also native junks and proas for purposes of trade and discovery.
Don Henry, however, was of a different opinion, and adding three other caravels to those which had been at the cape, sent them again next year to make the attempt. They accordingly penetrated about 100 miles beyond that cape, where they found only a sandy coast with no habitations, and returned back to Portugal.
About two leagues to the west of where we lay, there was a town behind a point of land, where the Portuguese had several caravels, and two brigantines or row barges like gallies.
The flood of the life-stream began to set again, and little by little to rise and inundate Western Europe, floating off the galleys and caravels of King Alphonso of Portugal, and sending them to feel their way along the coasts of Africa; a little later drawing the mind of Prince Henry the Navigator to devote his life to the conquest and possession of the unknown.
Similar fancies beset, as all the boys remember the crews of the caravels that carried Columbus and his fortunes. There were the splendors of tropical skies to beguile us; the sea as serene as the sky to enchant us! What mighty magic was this that put a spell upon an American army, seeking beyond the old outlines of our history and dreams, to guide us on unfamiliar paths?
Caravels were to be sent to convey them to Spain; and they were to be permitted to carry with them all the slaves that they had collected and all the native young women whom they had ravished from their homes.
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