CHAP. I V . ]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
149
as sing in the fields, came flying about the ships, and then con tinued towards the southwest, and others were heard also flying by in the night.
Tunny fish played about the smooth sea, and a
heron, a pelican, and a duck, were seen, all bound in the same direction.
The herbage which floated by was fresh and green, as
if recently from land, and the air, Columbus observes, was sweet and fragrant as April breezes in Seville. All these, however, were regarded by the crews as so many delusions beguiling them on to destruction ; and when on the evening of the third day they beheld the sun go down upon a shoreless horizon, they broke forth into turbulent clamor.
They
exclaimed against this obstinacy in tempting fate by continuing on into a boundless sea.
They insisted upon turning homeward, and
abandoning the voyage as hopeless.
Columbus endeavored to
pacify them by gentle words and promises of large rewards ; but finding that they only increased in clamor, he assumed a decided tone.
He told them it was useless to murmur, the expedition had
been sent by the sovereigns to seek the Indies, and, happen what might, he was determined to persevere, until, by the blessing of God, he should accomplish the enterprise.*
* Hist. del Almirante, cap. 20.
Las Casas, lib. i.
Journal of Columb.,
Navarrete, Colec. tom. i. p. 19. It has been asserted by various historians, that Columbus, a day or two previous to coming in sight of the New World, capitulated with his mutinous crew, promising, if he did not discover land within three days, to abandon the voyage.
There is no authority for such an assertion either in the history of his
son Fernando or that of the Bishop Las Casas, each of whom had the admi ral's papers before him.
There is no mention of such a circumstance in the
extracts made from the journal by Las Casas, which have recently been brought to light; nor is it asserted by either Peter Martyr or the Curate of Los Pala-