Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The port, for some misdemeanour, had lately been condemned to provide two caravels for the service of the Crown for a period of twelve months; and in the impoverished state of the royal exchequer this free service came in very usefully in fitting out the expedition of discovery. Columbus was quite satisfied, since he had such good friends at Palos; and he immediately set about choosing the ships.
The town of Palos was ordered to provide two vessels. The ship of Columbus was, therefore, a refuge for criminals and runaway debtors, a cave of Adullam for the discontented and the desperate. But there was still a weighty difficulty to be surmounted. It was no easy matter to obtain crews for such an expedition.
The royal intention was, no doubt, to use the boats against Naples and Sicily, which they hoped to conquer after finishing the Moorish war. But when they decided finally to help Columbus, they remembered the punishment due Palos, and called upon it to give the two caravels to "Cristobal Colon, our captain, going into certain parts of the Ocean Sea on matters pertaining to our service."
They used it until one would think that for pure variety's sake they would find another! The sixth day from Palos there lifted from sea the peak of Teneriffe. This day, passing on some errand the open door of the great cabin, I saw the Admiral seated at the table. Looking up, he saw me, gazed an instant, then lifted his voice. "Come in here!"
The North Star, toward which the needle always pointed, had, so he said, changed its position. This quieted the sailors for a while. When they had been about forty days out from Palos, the ship ran into what is marked upon your maps as the Sargasso Sea.
But, always afterward, Isabella regarded the Indies as a Castilian possession. The most important officers in its administration, indeed most of the emigrants, were always from Castile. Columbus, meanwhile, was on his way back to Palos, on his mule, alone. But at a bridge, still pointed out, a royal courier overtook him, bidding him return.
Haven't you been pressed too, scooped in without a 'By your leave, Palos fish! A hundred fish and more in this net and one by one the giant will take us out and broil us!" The second man spoke with a whine. "I had rather a Barbary pirate were coming aboard! I had rather be took slave and row a galley!" The third, a young man, had a whimsical, dark, fearless face.
Martin had done a good trade and had got a certain amount of gold; and no doubt he knew well in what direction to turn the conversation when it was becoming unpleasant to himself. The unpleasantness was passed over as soon as possible, although the Admiral felt that the sooner he got home the better, since he was practically at the mercy of the Pinzon brothers and their following from Palos.
Thus they waited for daybreak. It was a proud moment of painful suspense for Columbus; and brimming hopes, perhaps fears of disappointment, must have accompanied that hour of wavering enchantment. It was Friday, October 12, of the old chronology, and the little fleet had been thirty-three days on its way from the Canaries, and we must add ten days more to complete the period since they left Palos.
The witness most to be depended upon as to these points of inquiry is the physician of Palos, Garcia Fernandez, a man of education, who sailed with Martin Alonzo Pinzon as steward of his ship, and of course was present at all the conversations which passed between the commanders.
Word Of The Day