months instead of six weeks.

Once more he exhibited his easy mastery of the art of navigation and his
extraordinary gift for estimating dead-reckoning. After having been out
of sight of land for eight weeks, and while some of the sailors thought
they might be in the Bay of Biscay, and others that they were in the
English Channel, the Admiral suddenly announced that they were close to
Cape Saint Vincent.

No land was in sight, but he ordered that sail should be shortened that
evening; and sure enough the next morning they sighted the land close by
Cape Saint Vincent. Columbus managed his landfalls with a fine dramatic
sense as though they were conjuring tricks; and indeed they must have
seemed like conjuring tricks, except that they were almost always
successful.

CHAPTER IV

IN SPAIN AGAIN

The loiterers about the harbour of Cadiz saw a curious sight on June
11th, 1496, when the two battered ships, bearing back the voyagers from
the Eldorado of the West, disembarked their passengers. There were some
220 souls on board, including thirty Indians: and instead of leaping
ashore, flushed with health, and bringing the fortunes which they had
gone out to seek, they crawled miserably from the boats or were carried
ashore, emaciated by starvation, yellow with disease, ragged and unkempt
from poverty, and with practically no possessions other than the clothes
they stood up in. Even the Admiral, now in his forty-sixth year, hardly
had the appearance that one would expect in a Viceroy of the Indies. His
white hair and beard were rough and matted, his handsome face furrowed by
care and sunken by illness and exhaustion, and instead of the glittering
armour and uniform of his office he wore the plain robe and girdle of the
Franciscan order--this last probably in consequence of some vow or other
he had made in an hour of peril on the voyage.

One lucky coincidence marked his arrival. In the harbour, preparing to
weigh anchor, was a fleet of three little caravels, commanded by Pedro
Nino, about to set out for Espanola with supplies and despatches.
Columbus hurried on board Nino's ship, and there read the letters from
the Sovereigns which it had been designed he should receive in Espanola.
The letters are not preserved, but one can make a fair guess at their
contents. Some searching questions would certainly be asked, kind
assurances of continued confidence would doubtless be given, with many
suggestions for the bet