friends, the Pinzons, seem to have advanced this, and to have been
afterwards repaid. Las Casas and Herrera both say that the sum thus
added was much more than one-eighth of the cost and amounted to half a
million maravedis.

CHAPTER III. -- THE GREAT VOYAGE.

THE SQUADRON SAILS--REFITS AT CANARY ISLANDS--HOPES AND FEARS OF THE
VOYAGE--THE DOUBTS OF THE CREW--LAND DISCOVERED.

At last all was ready. That is to say, the fleet was so far ready that
Columbus was ready to start. The vessels were small, as we think of
vessels, but he was not dissatisfied. He says in the beginning of his
journal, "I armed three vessels very fit for such an enterprise." He
had left Grenada as late as the twelfth of May. He had crossed Spain to
Palos,(*) and in less than three months had fitted out the ships and was
ready for sea.

(*) Palos is now so insignificant a place that on some
important maps of Spain it will not be found. It is on the
east side of the Tinto river; and Huelva, on the west side,
has taken its place.

The harbor of Palos is now ruined. Mud and gravel, brought down by the
River Tinto, have filled up the bay, so that even small boats cannot
approach the shore. The traveler finds, however, the island of Saltes,
quite outside the bay, much as Columbus left it. It is a small spit of
sand, covered with shells and with a few seashore herbs. His own account
of the great voyage begins with the words:

"Friday, August 3, 1492. Set sail from the bar of Saltes at 8 o'clock,
and proceeded with a strong breeze till sunset sixty miles, or fifteen
leagues south, afterward southwest and south by west, which is in the
direction of the Canaries."

It appears, therefore, that the great voyage, the most important and
successful ever made, began on Friday, the day which is said to be so
much disliked by sailors. Columbus never alludes to this superstition.

He had always meant to sail first for the Canaries, which were the most
western land then known in the latitude of his voyage. From Lisbon to
the famous city of "Quisay," or "Quinsay," in Asia, Toscanelli, his
learned correspondent, supposed the distance to be less than one
thousand leagues westward. From the Canary islands, on that supposition,
the distance would be ten degrees less. The distance to Cipango, or
Japan, would be much less.

As it proved, the squadron had to make some stay at the Canaries. The
rudder of the Pinta was disabled, and she prove