rst few days' sail.
Emilio Castelar tells us that these barks, laden with bright promises
for the future, were sighted by other ships, laden with the hatreds and
rancors of the past, for it chanced that one of the last vessels
transporting into exile the Jews, expelled from Spain by the religious
intolerance of which the recently created and odious Tribunal of the
Faith was the embodiment, passed by the little fleet bound in search of
another world, where creation should be newborn, a haven be afforded
to the quickening principle of human liberty, and a temple be reared to
the God of enfranchised and redeemed consciences.

An abstract of the Admiral's diary made by the Bishop Las Casas is yet
extant; and from it many particulars may be gleaned concerning this
first voyage. Three days after the ships had set sail the Pinta lost her
rudder. The Admiral was in some alarm, but comforted himself with the
reflection that Martin Pinzon was energetic and ready-witted; they had,
however, to put in (August 9th) at Teneriffe to refit the caravel. On
September 6th they weighed anchor once more with all haste, Columbus
having been informed that three Portuguese caravels were on the lookout
for him. On September 13th the variations of the magnetic needle were
for the first time observed;[3] and on the 15th a wonderful meteor fell
into the sea at four or five leagues distance. On the 16th they arrived
at those vast plains of seaweed called the Sargasso Sea; and
thenceforward, writes the Admiral, they had most temperate breezes, the
sweetness of the mornings being most delightful, the weather like an
Andalusian April, and only the song of the nightingale wanting. On the
17th the men began to murmur. They were frightened by the strange
phenomena of the variations of the compass, but the explanation Columbus
gave restored their tranquillity. On the 18th they saw many birds and a
great ridge of low-lying cloud, and they expected to see land. On the
20th they saw two pelicans, and they were sure the land must be near. In
this, however, they were disappointed, and the men began to be afraid
and discontented; and thenceforth Columbus, who was keeping all the
while a double reckoning--one for the crew and one for himself--had
great difficulty in restraining the men from the excesses which they
meditated. On the 25th Alonzo Pinzon raised the cry of land, but it
proved a false alarm; as did the rumor to the same effect on October
7th, when the