Santa Maria and the Pinta saw a puff of smoke coming from the Nina, which
was sailing ahead, and hoisting a flag on her masthead. This was the
signal agreed upon for the discovery of land, and it seemed as though
their search was at last at an end. But it was a mistake. In the
afternoon the land that the people of the Nina thought they had seen had
disappeared, and the horizon was empty except for a great flight of birds
that was seen passing from the north to the south-west. The Admiral,
remembering how often birds had guided the Portuguese in the islands in
their possessions, argued that the birds were either going to sleep on
land or were perhaps flying from winter, which he assumed to be
approaching in the land from whence they came. He therefore altered.
his course from west to west-south-west. This course was entered upon an
hour before sunset and continued throughout the night and the next day.
"The sea was like the river of Seville," says the Admiral; "the breezes
as soft as at Seville in April, and very fragrant." More birds were to
be seen, and there were many signs of land; but the crew, so often
disappointed in their hopeful interpretations of the phenomena
surrounding them, kept on murmuring and complaining. On Tuesday, October
9th, the wind chopped round a little and the course was altered, first to
south-west and then at evening to a point north of west; and the journal
records that "all night they heard birds passing." The next day Columbus
resumed the west-southwesterly course and made a run of fifty-nine
leagues; but the mariners broke out afresh in their discontent, and
declined to go any farther. They complained of the long voyage, and
expressed their views strongly to the commander. But they had to deal
with a man who was determined to begin with, and who saw in the many
signs of land that they had met with only an additional inducement to go
on. He told them firmly that with or without their consent he intended
to go on until he had found the land he had come to seek.

The next day, Thursday, October 11th, was destined to be for ever
memorable in the history of the world. It began ordinarily enough, with
a west-south-west wind blowing fresh, and on a sea rather rougher than
they had had lately. The people on the Santa Maria saw some petrels and
a green branch in the water; the Pinta saw a reed and two small sticks
carved with iron, and one or two other pieces of reeds and grasses th