d to believe that the lost
barrel has just now been found on the western coast of
England. But publishers and purchasers know alike that this
is only an amusing suggestion of what might have been.

The sudden and heavy showers, and the squalls which followed some time
afterwards, changed the wind, which turned to the west. They had the
wind thus abaft, and he sailed thus during five hours with the foresail
only, having always the troubled sea, and made at once two leagues and a
half towards the northeast. He had lowered the main topmast lest a wave
might carry it away.

With a heavy wind astern, so that the sea frequently broke over the
little Nina, she made eastward rapidly, and at daybreak on the fifteenth
they saw land. The Admiral knew that he had made the Azores, he had been
steadily directing the course that way; some of the seamen thought they
were at Madeira, and some hopeful ones thought they saw the rock of
Cintra in Portugal. Columbus did not land till the eighteenth, when
he sent some men on shore, upon the island of Santa Maria. His news of
discovery was at first received with enthusiasm.

But there followed a period of disagreeable negotiation with Castaneda,
the governor of the Azores. Pretending great courtesy and hospitality,
but really acting upon the orders of the king of Portugal, he did his
best to disable Columbus and even seized some of his crew and kept them
prisoners for some days. When Columbus once had them on board again,
he gave up his plans for taking ballast and water on these inhospitable
islands, and sailed for Europe.

He had again a stormy passage. Again they were in imminent danger. "But
God was good enough to save him. He caused the crew to draw lots to
send to Notre Dame de la Cintra, at the island of Huelva, a pilgrim who
should come there in his shirt. The lot fell upon himself. All the crew,
including the Admiral, vowed to fast on bread and water on the first
Saturday which should come after the arrival of the vessel. He had
proceeded sixty miles before the sails were torn; then they went under
masts and shrouds on account of the unusual strength of the wind, and
the roughness of the sea, which pressed them almost on all sides. They
saw indications of the nearness of the land; they were in fact, very
near Lisbon."

At Lisbon, after a reception which was at first cordial, the Portuguese
officers showed an inhospitality like that of Castaneda at the Azores.
But