150
LIFE
A N D V O Y A G E S OF
[BOOK I I I .
Columbus was now at open defiance with his crew, and his situation became desperate.
Fortunately the manifestations of
the vicinity of land were such on the following day as no longer to admit a doubt.
Beside a quantity of fresh weeds, such as grow
in rivers, they saw a green fish of a kind which keeps about rocks;
cios, both contemporaries and acquaintances of Columbus, and who could scarcely have failed to mention so striking a fact, if true.
It rests merely upon
the authority of Oviedo, who is of inferior credit to either of the authors above cited, and was grossly misled as to many of the particulars of this voyage by a pilot of the name of Hernan Perez Matheo, who was hostile to Columbus.
In
the manuscript process of the memorable lawsuit between Don Diego, son of the admiral, and the fiscal of the crown, is the evidence of one Pedro de Bilbao, who testifies that he heard many times that some of the pilots and mariners wished to turn back, but that the admiral promised them presents, and entreated them to wait two or three days, before which time he should discover land. (“ Pedro de Bilbao oyo muchas veces que algunos pilotos y marineros querian volverse sino fuera por el Almirante que les prometio donos, les rogó esperasen dos o tres dias i que antes del termino descubriera tierra.”)
This,
if true, implies no capitulation to relinquish the enterprise. On the other hand, it was asserted by some of the witnesses in the abovementioned suit, that Columbus, after having proceeded some few hundred leagues without finding land, lost confidence and wished to turn back ; but was persuaded and even piqued to continue by the Pinzons. falsehood on its very face.
This assertion carries
It is in total contradiction to that persevering con
stancy and undaunted resolution displayed by Columbus, not merely in the pre sent voyage, but from first to last of his difficult and dangerous career.
This
testimony was given by some of the mutinous men, anxious to exaggerate the merits of the Pinzons, and to depreciate that of Columbus.
Fortunately, the
extracts from the journal of the latter, written from day to day with guileless simplicity, and all the air of truth, disprove these fables, and show that on the very day previous to his discovery, he expressed a peremptory determination to persevere, in defiance of all dangers and difficulties.