ng of provisions and
stores the Pinzons were most helpful to Columbus and, it is not
improbable, to themselves also. They also procured the ships;
altogether, in the whole history of the fitting out of expeditions,
I know nothing since the voyage of the Ark which was so well kept within
one family. Moreover it is interesting to notice, since we know the
names and places of residence of all the members of the expedition,
that the Pinzons, who personally commanded two of the caravels, had them
almost exclusively manned by sailors from Palos, while the Admiral's ship
was manned by a miscellaneous crew from other places. To be sure they
gave the Admiral the biggest ship, but (in his own words) it proved "a
dull sailer and unfit for discovery"; while they commanded the two
caravels, small and open, but much faster and handier. Clearly these
Pinzons will take no harm from a little watching. They may be honest
souls enough, but their conduct is just a little suspicious, and we
cannot be too careful.

Three vessels were at last secured. The first, named the Santa Maria,
was the largest, and was chosen to be the flagship of Columbus. She was
of about one hundred tons burden, and would be about ninety feet in
length by twenty feet beam. She was decked over, and had a high poop
astern and a high forecastle in the bows. She had three masts, two of
them square-rigged, with a latine sail on the mizzen mast; and she
carried a crew of fifty-two persons. Where and how they all stowed
themselves away is a matter upon which we can only make wondering
guesses; for this ship was about the size of an ordinary small coasting
schooner, such as is worked about the coasts of these islands with a crew
of six or eight men. The next largest ship was the Pinta, which was
commanded by Martin Alonso Pinzon, who took his brother Francisco with
him as sailing-master. The Pinta was of fifty tons burden, decked only
at the bow and stern, and the fastest of the three ships; she also had
three masts. The third ship was a caravel of forty tons and called the
Nina; she belonged to Juan Nino of Palos. She was commanded by Vincenti
Pinzon, and had a complement of eighteen men. Among the crew of the
flagship, whose names and places of residence are to be found in the
Appendix, were an Englishman and an Irishman. The Englishman is entered
as Tallarte de Lajes (Ingles), who has been ingeniously identified with a
possible Allard or AEthelwald of W