d partly by
the crudity and inexactness of the Admiral's methods. On the 24th of
September they at last reached the easternmost point of Espanola, named
by Columbus San Rafael. They stood to the east a little longer, and
discovered the little island of Mona, which lies between Espanola and
Puerto Rico; and from thence shaped their course west-by-north for
Isabella. And no sooner had the course been set for home than the
Admiral suddenly and completely collapsed; was carried unconscious to his
cabin; and lay there in such extremity that his companions gave him up
for lost.

It is no ordinary strain to which poor Christopher has succumbed. He has
been five months at sea, sharing with the common sailors their bad food
and weary vigils, but bearing alone on his own shoulders a weight of
anxiety of which they knew nothing. Watch has relieved watch on his
ships, but there has been no one to relieve him, or to lift the burden
from his mind. The eyes of a nation are upon him, watchful and jealous
eyes that will not forgive him any failure; and to earn their approval he
has taken this voyage of five months, during which he has only been able
to forget his troubles in the brief hours of slumber. Strange uncharted
seas, treacherous winds and currents, drenching surges have all done
their part in bringing him to this pass; and his body, now starved on
rotten biscuits, now glutted with unfamiliar fruits, has been preyed upon
by the tortured mind as the mind itself has been shaken and loosened by
the weakness of the body. He lies there in his cabin in a deep stupor;
memory, sight, and all sensation completely gone from him; dead but for
the heart that beats on faintly, and the breath that comes and goes
through the parted lips. Nino, de la Cosa, and the others come and look
at him, shake their heads, and go away again. There is nothing to be
done; perhaps they will get him back to Isabella in time to bury him
there; perhaps not.

And meanwhile they are back again in calm and safe waters, and coasting a
familiar shore; and the faithful little Nina, shaking out her wings in
the sunny breezes, trips under the guidance of unfamiliar hands towards
her moorings in the Bay of Isabella. It is a sad company that she
carries; for in the cabin, deaf and blind and unconscious, there lies the
heart and guiding spirit of the New World. He does not hear the talking
of the waters past the Nina's timbers, does not hear the stamping on th