CHAP.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
III.]
247
men, whom he still kept with him to satisfy his extreme curiosity respecting the voyage.
As there were no houses on the neigh
boring shore, the messengers remained on board all night. On the following morning, Columbus reminded his people of their vow to perform a pious procession at the first place where they should land.
On the neighboring shore, at no great distance
from the sea, was a small hermitage or chapel dedicated to the Virgin, and he made immediate arrangements for the perform ance of the rite.
The three messengers, on returning to the
village, sent a priest to perform mass, and one-half of the crew landing, walked in procession, barefooted, and in their shirts, to the chapel; while the admiral awaited their return, to perform the same ceremony with the remainder. An ungenerous reception, however, awaited the poor tempesttossed mariners on their first return to the abode of civilized men, far different from the sympathy and hospitality they had experienced among the savages of the New World.
Scarcely
had they begun their prayers and thanksgivings, when the rabble of the village, horse and foot, headed by the governor, surrounded the hermitage and took them all prisoners. As an intervening point of land hid the hermitage from the view of the caravel, the admiral remained in ignorance of this transaction.
When eleven o'clock arrived without the return of
the pilgrims, he began to fear that they were detained by the Portuguese, or that the boat had been shattered upon the surfbeaten rocks which bordered the island. Weighing anchor, therefore, he stood in a direction to command a view of the chapel and the adjacent shore; whence he beheld a number of armed horse men, who, dismounting, entered the boat and made for the caravel. The admiral's ancient suspicions of Portuguese hostility towards