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But the Bahama natives knew of no race but their own; so what could these undreamed-of visitors be but divine? Here is Columbus's own description of what happened when the white man and the red man had scraped acquaintance with each other:
"Are you organizing a strike?" suggested Saltash, a wicked gleam of humour in his eyes. Dick's eyes flashed in answer. "I am not!" he said. "But I'm damned if they haven't some reason for striking if he cares as little as that!" "How often do you tell 'em so?" said Saltash. Juliet's hand slipped quietly from Columbus's head to Dick's arm. "May I have a cigarette, please?" she said.
First he pointed out that Columbus's very stubbornness about rewards might be taken as proof that he was certain to find whatever he promised to find; then he reminded her that the navigator was a very devout man, and that in his enterprise there was a strong religious motive; should he discover new lands, not only would their heathen population be converted to Christianity, but their commerce would make Spain so wealthy that she could undertake a new crusade and conquer the infidels who held the Holy Sepulchre.
THE SHIPS OF COLUMBUS. Three ships, or caravels as they were called, were fitted out. The Santa Maria was the largest of the three, but it was not much larger than the small sailing yachts which we see to-day. It was about ninety feet long by twenty feet broad, and had a single deck. This was Columbus's principal ship or flagship.
It is obviously absurd to regard it as the sole origin of Columbus's great idea; it probably belongs to that order of accidents, small and unimportant in themselves, which are so often associated with the beginnings of mighty events.
Imagine how crude a thing was painting in the day of careless Thomas. That fresco is long since gone, but drawings of it still exist which tell us something of the people of Christopher Columbus's day previous to their appearance, and their conditions.
The very compasses of Columbus's ships seem by this time to have become demagnetised, and to have pointed only to gold; for no sooner had he heard this report than he bore away to the south in pursuit of that faint yellow glitter that had now quite taken the place of the original inner light of faith.
The fourth ship was called the Vizcaina, fifty tons, and was commanded by Bartolome Fieschi, a friend of Columbus's from Genoa, and a very sound, honourable man. There were altogether 143 souls on board the four caravels. The fleet as usual made the Canary Islands, where they arrived on the 20th of May, and stopped for five days taking in wood and water and fresh provisions.
Irving adopts the earlier of these two dates, upon the authority of a remark by Bernaldez, the curate of Los Palacios, which speaks of the death of Columbus in the year 1506, "at a good old age, being seventy years old, a little more or less." But this statement has an air of vagueness, and is, moreover, inconsistent with several passages in Columbus's own letters.
When Las Casas wrote his 'Historie, however, he appears here and there to have restored sections of the original Journal into the abridged one; and many of these restorations are of importance. With these rousing words the Journal of Columbus's voyage begins; and they sound a salt and mighty chord which contains the true diapason of the symphony of his voyages.
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