s
failed. He hears a voice calling him. He looks back and sees an old
friend pursuing him on a horse, and beckoning him to come back. He saw
Columbus turn away from the Alhambra, disheartened, and he hastens to
the queen and tells her what a great thing it would be, at a trifling
expense, if what the sailor believes should prove true. "It shall be
done," Isabella replies. "I will pledge my jewels to raise the money;
call him back." Columbus turns back, and with him turns the world.

Three frail vessels, little larger than fishing boats, the Santa Maria,
the Pinta, and the Nina, set sail from Palos, August 3, 1492, for an
unknown land, upon untried seas; the sailors would not volunteer, but
were forced to go by the king. Friends ridiculed them for following a
crazy man to certain destruction, for they believed the sea beyond the
Canaries was boiling hot. "What if the earth is round?" they said, "and
you sail down the other side, how can you get back again? Can ships
sail up hill?"

Only three days out, the Pinto's signal of distress is flying; she has
broken her rudder. September 8 they discover a broken mast covered with
seaweed floating in the sea. Terror seizes the sailors, but Columbus
calms their fears with pictures of gold and precious stones of India.
September 13, two hundred miles west of the Canaries, Columbus is
horrified to find that the compass, his only guide, is failing him, and
no longer points to the north star. No one had yet dreamed that the
earth turns on its axis. The sailors are ready for mutiny, but Columbus
tells them the north star is not exactly in the north. October 1 they
are two thousand three hundred miles from land, though Columbus tells
the sailors one thousand seven hundred. Columbus discovers a bush in
the sea, with berries on it, and soon they see birds and a piece of
carved wood. At sunset, the crew kneel upon the deck and chant the
vesper hymn. It is sixty-seven days since they left Palos, and they
have sailed nearly three thousand miles, only changing their course
once. At ten o'clock at night they see a light ahead, but it vanishes.
Two o'clock in the morning, October 12, Roderigo de Friana, on watch at
the masthead of the Pinta, shouts, "Land! land! land!" The sailors are
wild with joy, and throw themselves on their knees before Columbus, and
ask forgiveness. They reach the shore, and the hero of the world's
greatest expedition unfolds the flag of Spain and takes possession of
th