st
more perilous perhaps than any yet on record. No longer could they
sail along with a coast always in sight; day after day and night after
night they must sail on an unknown sea in search of an unknown land.
No one ever expected to see them again. It has well been said that,
"looking back at all that has grown out of it in the four centuries
that have elapsed, we now know that the sailing of those three little
boats over the bar was, since the Fall of Rome, the most momentous
event in the world's history." The ships steered for the Canary Islands,
and it was not till 9th September that the last land faded from the
eyes of that daring little company.

[Illustration: THE BEST PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS. From the original
painting (by an unknown artist) in the Naval Museum at Madrid.]

Something of a panic among the sailors ensued when they realised their
helpless position; some even burst into tears, begging to be taken
home. The days passed on. By the 16th they had come within the influence
of the trade winds.

"The weather was like April," says Columbus in his journal. Still
westward they sailed, eagerly looking for signs of land. Now they see
two pelicans, "an indication that land was near," now a large dark
cloud to the north, another "sign that land is near."

As the days pass on, their hopes die away and "the temper of the crews
was getting uglier and uglier as the three little vessels forged
westward through the blue weed-strewn waters." On 9th October hope
revives; all night they hear birds passing through the still air.

On the evening of the 11th a light was seen glimmering in the distance;
from the high stern deck of the _Santa Maria_ it could be plainly seen,
and when the sun rose on that memorable morning the low shores of land
a few miles distant could be plainly seen. "Seabirds are wheeling
overhead heedless of the intruders, but on the shore human beings are
assembling to watch the strange birds which now spread their wings
and sail towards the island.

"The _Pinta_ leads and her crew are raising the 'Te Deum.' The crews
of the _Santa Maria_ and the _Nina_ join in the solemn chant and many
rough men brush away tears. Columbus, the two Pinzons, and some of
the men step into the cutter and row to the shore." Columbus, fully
armed under his scarlet cloak, sprang ashore, the unclothed natives
fleeing away at sight of the first white man who had ever stepped on
their shores. Then, unfurling the royal standar