CHAPTER III

THE LAST VOYAGE

The four ships that made up the Admiral's fleet on his fourth and last
voyage were all small caravels, the largest only of seventy tons and the
smallest only of fifty. Columbus chose for his flagship the Capitana,
seventy tons, appointing Diego Tristan to be his captain. The next best
ship was the Santiago de Palos under the command of Francisco Porras;
Porras and his brother Diego having been more or less foisted on to
Columbus by Morales, the Royal Treasurer, who wished to find berths for
these two brothers-in-law of his. We shall hear more of the Porras
brothers. The third ship was the Gallega, sixty tons, a very bad sailer
indeed, and on that account entrusted to Bartholomew Columbus, whose
skill in navigation, it was hoped, might make up for her bad sailing
qualities. Bartholomew had, to tell the truth, had quite enough of the
New World, but he was too loyal to Christopher to let him go alone,
knowing as he did his precarious state of health and his tendency to
despondency. The captain of the Gallega was Pedro de Terreros, who had
sailed with the Admiral as steward on all his other voyages and was now
promoted to a command. The fourth ship was called the Vizcaina, fifty
tons, and was commanded by Bartolome Fieschi, a friend of Columbus's from
Genoa, and a very sound, honourable man. There were altogether 143 souls
on board the four caravels.

The fleet as usual made the Canary Islands, where they arrived on the
20th of May, and stopped for five days taking in wood and water and fresh
provisions. Columbus was himself again--always more himself at sea than
anywhere else; he was following a now familiar road that had no
difficulties or dangers for him; and there is no record of the voyage out
except that it was quick and prosperous, with the trade wind blowing so
steadily that from the time they left the Canaries until they made land
twenty days later they had hardly to touch a sheet or a halliard. The
first land they made was the island of Martinique, where wood and water
were taken in and the men sent ashore to wash their linen. To young
Ferdinand, but fourteen years old, this voyage was like a fairy tale come
true, and his delight in everything that he saw must have added greatly
to Christopher's pleasure and interest in the voyage. They only stayed a
few days at Martinique and then sailed westward along the chain of
islands until they came to Porto Rico, where they put i