due
north, and thus drew attention to the variability of the compass.
By the 21st September his men became mutinous and tried to force him
to return. He induced them to continue, and four days afterwards
the cry of "Land! land!" was heard, which kept up their spirits
for several days, till, on the 1st October, large numbers of birds
were seen. By that time Columbus had reckoned that he had gone
some 710 leagues from the Canaries, and if Zipangu were in the
position that Tostanelli's map gave it, he ought to have been in
its neighbourhood. It was reckoned in those days that a ship on
an average could make four knots an hour, dead reckoning, which
would give about 100 miles a day, so that Columbus might reckon
on passing over the 3100 miles which he thought intervened between
the Azores and Japan in about thirty-three days. All through the
early days of October his courage was kept up by various signs
of the nearness of land--birds and branches--while on the 11th
October, at sunset, they sounded, and found bottom; and at ten
o'clock, Columbus, sitting in the stern of his vessel, saw a light,
the first sure sign of land after thirty-five days, and in near
enough approximation to Columbus's reckoning to confirm him in the
impression that he was approaching the mysterious land of Zipangu.
Next morning they landed on an island, called by the natives Guanahain,
and by Columbus San Salvador. This has been identified as Watling
Island. His first inquiry was as to the origin of the little plates
of gold which he saw in the ears of the natives. They replied that
they came from the West--another confirmation of his impression.
Steering westward, they arrived at Cuba, and afterwards at Hayti
(St. Domingo). Here, however, the _Santa Maria_ sank, and Columbus
determined to return, to bring the good news, after leaving some
of his men in a fort at Hayti. The return journey was made in the
_Nina_ in even shorter time to the Azores, but afterwards severe
storms arose, and it was not till the 15th March 1493 that he reached
Palos, after an absence of seven and a half months, during which
everybody thought that he and his ships had disappeared.

He was naturally received with great enthusiasm by the Spaniards,
and after a solemn entry at Barcelona he presented to Ferdinand
and Isabella the store of gold and curiosities carried by some
of the natives of the islands he had visited. They immediately
set about fitting out a much larger flee