nce at least every heart
of that company beats in unison with the rest. And then the Office goes
on, and the dark-skinned congregation streams up to the sanctuary and
receives the Communion, while the blue light of dawn increases and the
candles pale before the coming day. And then out again to the boats with
shoutings and farewells, for the tide has now turned; hoisting of sails
and tripping of anchors and breaking out of gorgeous ensigns; and the
ships are moving! The Maria leads, with the sign of the Redemption
painted on her mainsail and the standard of Castile flying at her mizzen;
and there is cheering from ships and from shore, and a faint sound of
bells from the town of Huelva.

Thus, the sea being--calm, and a fresh breeze blowing off the land, did
Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos at sunrise on Friday the 3rd of
August 1492.

CHAPTER XIII

EVENTS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE

"In nomine D.N. Jesu Christi--Friday, August 3, 1492, at eight
o'clock we started from the bar of Saltes. We went with a strong
sea breeze sixty miles,--[Columbus reckoned in Italian miles, of
which four = one league.]--which are fifteen leagues, towards the
south, until sunset: afterwards to the south-west and to the south,
quarter south-west, which was the way to the Canaries."

With these rousing words the Journal

[The account of Columbus's first voyage is taken from a Journal
written by himself, but which in its original form does not exist.
Las Casas had it in his possession, but as he regarded it (no doubt
with justice) as too voluminous and discursive to be interesting, he
made an abridged edition, in which the exact words of Columbus were
sometimes quoted, but which for the most part is condensed into a
narrative in the third person. This abridged Journal, consisting of
seventy-six closely written folios, was first published by
Navarrette in 1825. When Las Casas wrote his 'Historie,' however,
he appears here and there to have restored sections of the original
Journal into the abridged one; and many of these restorations are of
importance. If the whole account of his voyage written by Columbus
himself were available in its exact form I would print it here; but
as it is not, I think it better to continue my narrative, simply
using the Journal of Las Casas as a document.]

of Columbus's voyage begins; and they