eive full pardon on his return to Spain--a means that
filled his ships with the most worthless and evil men.

Three ships were provided. They were called the _Santa Maria_, the
_Pinta_ and the _Nina_,--the last of which was so small that it seemed
in size little more than a modern life boat as it only had room for
eighteen men. The _Pinta_ carried twenty-seven men and was under the
command of the same Martin Pinzon who had aided Columbus in gaining the
ear of Queen Isabella--a man whom Columbus trusted completely, but who
was to betray that trust long before Columbus returned from his
perilous voyage. The _Santa Maria_ was the largest of the three ships,
and held fifty-seven men. This was Columbus' flagship.

At a seaport called Palos these vessels were made ready for their
voyage and on the Third of August, 1492, they might have been seen with
the sunlight gleaming on their white sails, on which were painted the
huge red Crosses of the Catholic faith, as they made their way into the
open sea and bore to the westward under a favoring breeze. They stopped
at the Canary Islands, where food and water were taken aboard, and
then, leaving behind them the entire civilized world, they sailed
boldly out into the Sea of Darkness toward that far region where not
only the Unknown but all the fears that superstitious seamen could
invent awaited them.

It was not long before Columbus saw that among his crew of desperate
ruffians and jailbirds there were many who would betray him on the
first opportunity. On the way to the Canaries and while stopping there,
the rudder of the _Pinta_ was twice broken; and now that the open sea
was reached and they were sailing into the far west, the helmsmen tried
to alter the course of the vessels so that they might not go any
further. When Columbus slept, the men at the tillers of all three ships
would steer into the northeast instead of the west, so that the
vessels, unperceived, might turn upon their own course and eventually
return to the Canary Islands and to Spain. But Columbus was too shrewd
a sailor to be tricked by any such clumsy means and placed the few men
that he could trust in charge of the helm. Fortunately for his design a
breeze came from the eastward and bore them rapidly along their course.
Columbus, moreover, did not let the men know how far they had sailed,
but every day gave out a distance far less than what had actually been
completed, so that his sailors might think themselv