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Far from quelling this desire to better himself, we ought to hail it as the source of his perpetual progress. That desire to him is often like imagination to the poet, it transports him into the Future 'Crura sonant ferro, sed canit inter opus.
The admiral sailed from Gomera for Ferro on Thursday the twenty-first of June, whence he resolved to send three of his ships direct to Hispaniola, and going with the rest to the islands of Cabo Verde to sail directly over from thence to discover the continent. He therefore appointed a captain to each of the ships which he sent to Hispaniola.
On the night of Saturday, September isth, being then almost three hundred leagues west of Ferro, they saw a prodigious flash of light, or fire-ball, drop from the sky into the sea, at four or five leagues' distance from the ships, toward the southwest.
They are seven in number, Lancerota, Fuerteventura, Grand Canary, Teneriffe, Geomero, Hiero or Ferro, and Palma. Grand Canary is far distant from the others, and contains 9000 inhabitants, being the seat of the bishop, the inquisition, and the royal council which governs all the seven islands.
He was now striking off from the frontier islands of the Old World into the region of discovery. For three days the squadron was detained by a calm. On the 9th of September he saw Ferro, the most western of the Canary Islands, where the Portuguese were said to be waiting for him, about nine leagues distant.
He instructed his officers, he visited the gates, questioned, took notes, inspected the gutter in the Via Man di Ferro, even inspected the Jew.
In the meantime his influence with the natives was strong enough to produce a native revolt, which Bartholomew had only just succeeded in suppressing when Christopher arrived on August 30th. The Admiral was not a little distressed to find that the three ships from which he had parted company at Ferro had not yet arrived.
The Admiral always had a sound family feeling, and finding that cousin Antonio had sea experience and knew how to handle a ship he gave him command of one of the caravels on this voyage a command of which he proved capable and worthy. From these three captains, after giving them full sailing directions for reaching Espanola, Columbus parted company off the island of Ferro.
It was a warm moist starless night, and there seemed no air to breathe in those narrow alleys. The gondolier was half asleep. Eustace called him as we jumped into his boat, and rang our soldi on the gunwale. Then he arose and turned the ferro round, and stood across towards the Salute.
On setting his course from Ferro Columbus issued sealed instructions to the captain of each ship which, in the event of the fleet becoming scattered, would guide them to the harbour of La Navidad in Espanola; but the captains had strict orders not to open these instructions unless their ships became separated from the fleet, as Columbus still wished to hold for himself the secret of this mysterious road to the west.
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