of that kingdom an exclufive right to all the benefits which might redound from its fuccefs.

As foon as the treaty was figned, Ifabella, by her attention and activity in forwarding the preparations for the voyage, endeavoured to make fome reparation to Columbus for the time which he had lost in fruitless folicitation. By the twelfth of May, all that depended upon her was adjusted; and Columbus waited on the king and queen, in order to receive their final inftructions. Every thing refpecting the deftination and conduct of the voyage, they committed implicitly to the difpofal of his prudence. But, that they might avoid giving any juft caufe of offence to the king of Portugal, they ftri&tly enjoined him not to approach near to the Portuguese settlements on the coaft of Guinea, or in any of the other countries to which the Portuguese claimed right as discoverers. Ifabella had ordered the fhips, of which Columbus was to take the command, to be fitted out in the Port of Palos, a small maritime town in the province of Andalufia. As the guardian Juan Perez, to whom Columbus had already been so much indebted, refided in the neighbourhood of this place, he, by the influence of that good ecclefiaftic, as well as by his own connection with the inhabitants, not only raised among them what he wanted of the fum that he was bound by treaty to advance, but engaged several of them to accompany him in the voyage. The chief of these affociates were three brothers of the name of Pinzon, of confiderable wealth, and of great experience in naval affairs, who were willing to hazard their lives and fortunes in the expedition.

But, after all the efforts of Ifabella and Columbus, the armament was not suitable, either to the dignity of the nation by which it was equiped, or to the importance of the fervice for which it was deftined. It confifted of three veffels. The largeft, a fhip of no confiderable burden, was commanded by Columbus, as admiral, who gave it the name of Santa Maria, out of respect for the Blessed Virgin, whom he honoured with fingular devotion. Of the second, called the Pinta, Martin Pinzon was captain, and his brother Francis pilot. The third, named the Nigna, was under the command of Vincent Yanez Pinzon. These two were light veffels, hardly fuperior in burden or force to large boats. This fquadron, if it merits that name, was victualled for twelve months, and had on board ninety men, moftly failors, together with a few adventurers who followed the fortune of Columbus, and fome gentlemen of Ifabella's court, whom the appointed to accompany him. Though the expence of the undertaking was one of the circumftances which chiefly alarmed the court of Spain, and retarded fo long the negociation with Columbus, the fum employed in fitting out this fquadron did not exceed four thousand pounds.

C

As the art of fhip-building in the fifteenth century was extremely rude, and the bulk of veifels was accommodated to the fhort and eafy voyages along the coaft which they were accustomed to perform, it is a proof of the courage as well as enterprising genius of Columbus, that he ventured, with a fleet fo unfit for a diftant navigation, to explore unknown feas, where he had no chart to guide him, no knowledge of the tides and currents, and no experience of the dangers to which he might be expofed. His eagernels to accomplish the great defign which had fo long engroffed his thoughts, made him overlook or difregard every circumftance that would have intimidated a mind leis adventurous. He pufhed forward the preparations with fuch ardour, and was feconded fo effectually by the perfons to whom Hfabella committed the fuperintendence of this business, that every thing was foon in readiness for the voyage. But as Columbus was deeply impreffed with fentiments of religion, he would not fet out upon an expedition fo arduous, and of which one great object was to extend the knowledge of the Chriftian faith, without imploring publicly the guidance and protection of Heaven. With this view, he, together with all the perfons under his command, marched in folemn proceffion to the monastery of Rabida. After confefling their fins, and obtaining abfolution, they received the holy facrament from the hands of the guardian, who joined his prayers to theirs for the fuccefs of an enterprise which he had fo zealously patronized.

Next morning, being Friday the third day of August, in the year one thousand four hundred and ninety-two, Columbus set fail, a little before fun-rife, in prefence of a vaft crowd of spectators, who fent up their fupplications to Heaven for the profperous iffue of the voyage, which they wifhed, rather than expected. Columbus fteered directly for the Canary Islands, and arrived there, Auguft 13, 1492, without any occurrence that would have deferved notice on any other occafion. But, in a voyage of fuch expectation and importance, every circumftance was the object of attention. The rudder of the Pinta broke loofe, the day after the left the harbour, and that accident alarmed the crew, no lefs fuperftitious than unfkilful, as a certain omen of the unfortunate deftiny of the expedition. Even in the fhort run to the Canaries, the fhips were found to be fo crazy and ill appointed, as to be very improper for a navigation which was expected to be both long and dangerous. Columbus refitted them, however, to the best of his power, and having fupplied himfelf with fresh provifions he took his departure from Gomera, one of the most wefterly of the Canary Islands, on the fixth day of September.

Here the voyage of difcovery may properly be faid to begin; for Columbus holding his courie due weft, left immediately the ufual

track of navigation, and stretched into unfrequented and unknown feas. The first day, as it was very calm, he made but little way; but on the fecond, he loft fight of the Canaries; and many of the failors, dejected already and dismayed, when they contemplated the boldness of the undertaking, began to beat their breafts, and to fhed tears, as if they were never more to behold land. Columbus comforted them with affurances of fuccess, and the prospect of vast wealth, in those opulent regions whither he was conducting them. This early discovery of the spirit of his followers taught Columbus, that he must prepare to ftruggle, not only with the unavoidable difficulties which might be expected from the nature of his undertaking, but with such as were likely to arife from the ignorance and timidity of the people under his command; and he perceived that the art of governing the minds of men would be no less requifite for accomplishing the discoveries which he had in view, than naval fkill and undaunted courage. Happily for himfelf, and for the country by which he was employed, he joined to the ardent temper and inventive genius of a projector, virtues of another ipecies, which are rarely united with them. He poffeffed a thorough knowledge of mankind, an infinuating address, a patient perfeverance in executing any plan, the perfect government of his passions, and the talent of acquiring an afcendant over those of other men. All these qualities, which formed him for command, were accompanied with that fuperior knowledge of his profeffion, which begets confidence in times of difficulty and danger. To unfkilful Spanish failors, accustomed only to coafting voyages in the Mediterranean, the maritime fcience of Columbus, the fruit of thirty years experience, improved by an acquaintance with all the inventions of the Portuguese, appeared immense. As foon as they put to fea, he regulated every thing by his fole authority; he superintended the execution of every order; and allowing himself only a few hours for fleep, he was at all other times upon deck. As his course lay through feas which had not formerly been vifited the foundingline, or inftruments for obfervation, were continually in his hands. After the example of the Portuguese difcoverers, he attended to the motion of tides and currents, watched the flight of birds, the appearance of fishes, of fea-weeds and of every thing that floated on the waves, and entered every occurrence, with a minute exactnefs, in the journal which he kept. As the length of the voyage could not fail of alarming failors habituated only to fhort excurfions, Columbus endeavoured to conceal from them the real progrefs which they made. With this view, though they run eighteen leagues on the fecond day after they left Gomera, he gave out that they had advanced only fifteen, and he uniformly employed the fame artifice

of reckoning short during the whole voyage. By the fourteenth of September, the fleet was above two hundred leagues to the west of the Canary Isles, at a greater distance from land than any Spaniard had been before that time. There they were struck with an appearance no less aftonishing than new. They observed that the magnetic needle, in their compaffes did not point exactly to the polar ftar, but varied towards the weft; and as they proceeded, this variation increased. This appearance, which is now familiar, though it still remains one of the myfteries of nature, into the cause of which the fagacity of man hath not been able to penetrate, filled the companions of Columbus with terror. They were now in a boundless unknown ocean, far from the ufual course of navigation; nature itself seemed to be altered, and the only guide which they had left was about to fail them. Columbus, with no lefs quickness than ingenuity, invented a reafon for this appearance, which, though it did not fatisfy himself, feemed fo plaufible to them, that it difpelled their fears or filenced their murmurs.

He ftill continued to fleer, due weft, nearly in the fame latitude with the Canary Isles. In this courfe he came within the sphere of the trade wind, which blows invariably from eaft to west, between the tropics and a few degrees beyond them. He advanced before this fteady gale with such uniform rapidity, that it was feldom neceffary to shift a fail. When about four hundred leagues to the weft of the Canaries, he found the fea fo covered with weeds, that it refembled a meadow of vaft extent; and in fome places they were so thick, as to retard the motion of the vefels. This strange appearance occafioned new alarm and difquiet. The failors imagined that they were now arrived at the utmost boundary of the navigable ocean; that these floating weeds would obftru&t their farther progrefs, and concealed dangerous rocks, or fome large tract of land, which had funk, they knew not how, in that place. Columbus endeavoured to perfuade them, that what had alarmed, ought rather to have encouraged them, and was to be confidered as a fign of approaching land. At the fame time a brifk gale arose, and carried them forward. Several birds were fçen hovering about the ship*, and directed their flight towards the weft. The defponding crew refumed fome degree of fpirit, and began to entertain fresh hopes.

* As the Portuguese, in making their difcoveries, did not depart far from the coaft of Africa, they concluded that birds, whofe flight they obferved with great attention, did not venture to any confiderable distance from land. In the infancy avigation, it was not known, that birds often stretch their flight to an immenfe from any fhore. In failing towards the Weft-Indian iflands, birds are at the diftance of two hundred leagues from the nearest coaft Nat. Hift. of Jamaica, vol. i. p. 3. Catefby faw an owl at fea, when as fix hundred leagues diftant from land Nat Hift. of Carolina, pret

Upon the first of October they were, according to the admiral's reckoning, feven hundred and feventy leagues to the weft of the Canaries; but left his men fhould be intimidated by the prodigious length of navigation, he gave out that they had proceeded only five hundred and eighty-four leagues; and, fortunately for Columbus, neither his own pilot, nor thofe of the other ships, had skill sufficient to correct this error, and discover the deceit. They had now been above three weeks at fea; they had proceeded far beyond what former navigators had attempted or deemed poffible; all their prognoftics of difcovery, drawn from the flight of birds and other circumftances had proved fallacious; the appearances of land, with which their own credulity or the artifice of their commander had from time to time flattered and amused them, had been altogether illufive, and their profpect of fuccefs feemed now to be as diftant as ever. These reflections occurred often to men, who had no other object or occupation, than to reafon and difcourfe concerning the intention and circumftances of their expedition. They made impreffion, at first, upon the ignorant and timid, and extending, by degrees, to such as were better informed or more refolute, the contagion fpread at length from fhip to fhip. From fecret whispers or murmurings, they proceeded to open cabals and public complaints. They taxed their fovereign with inconfiderate credulity, in paying such regard to the vain promises and rafh conjectures of an indigent foreigner, as to hazard the lives of so many of her own fubjects, in profecuting a chimerical scheme. They affirmed that they had fully performed their duty, by venturing fo far in an unknown and hopeless course, and could incur no blame, for refufing to follow, any longer, a desperate adventurer to certain deftruction. They contended, that it was neceffary to think of returning to Spain, while their crazy veffels were still in a condition to keep the fea, but expreffed their fears that the attempt would prove vain, as the wind, which had hitherto been fo favourable to their course, muft render it impoffible to fail in the oppofite direction. All agreed that Columbus fhould be compelled by force to adopt a measure on which their common fafety depended. Some of the more audacious propofed, as the most expeditious and certain method for getting rid at once of his remonftrances, to throw him into the fea, being perfuaded that, upon their return

P. 7. Hift. Naturelle de M. Buffon, tom. xvi. p. 32. From which it appeara, that this indication of land, on which Columbus feems to have relied with fome confidence, was extremely uncertain. This obfervation is confirmed by Captain Cook, the most extenfive and experienced navigator of any age or nation. "No one yet knows (fays he) to what diftance any of the oceanic birds go to fea; for my own part, I do not believe that there is one in the whole tribe that can be relied on in pointing out the vicinity of land." Voyage towards the South Pole, vol. i. p. 273.