undless and bottomless abyss.
Gradually terror and discontent once more took possession of the crews.
They began to imagine that the steadfast east wind that drove them
westward prevailed eternally in this region, and that when the time came
to sail homeward, the same wind would prevent their return. For surely
their provisions and water could not hold out long enough for them to
beat their way eastward over those wide waters!

Then the sailors began to murmur against the admiral and his seeming
fruitless obstinacy, and they blamed themselves for obeying him, when it
might mean the sacrifice of the lives of one hundred and twenty sailors.

But each time the murmurs threatened to break out into mutiny,
Providence seemed to send more encouraging signs of land. And these for
the time being changed the complaints to hopes. At evening little birds
of the most delicate species, that build their nests in the shrubs of
the garden and orchard, hovered warbling about the masts. Their delicate
wings and joyous notes bore no signs of weariness or fright, as of birds
swept far away to sea by a storm. These signs again aroused hope.

The green weeds on the surface of the ocean looked like waving corn
before the ears are ripe. The vegetation beneath the water delighted
the eyes of the sailors tired of the endless expanse of blue. But the
seaweed soon became so thick that they were afraid of entangling their
rudders and keels, and of remaining prisoners forever in the forests of
the ocean, as ships of the northern seas are shut in by ice. Thus each
joy soon turned to fear,--so terrible to man is the unknown.

The wind ceased, the calms of the tropics alarmed the sailors. An
immense whale was seen sleeping on the waters. They fancied there were
monsters in the deep which would devour their ships. The roll of the
waves drove them upon currents which they could not stem for want of
wind. They imagined they were approaching the cataracts of the ocean,
and that they were being hurried toward the abysses into which the
deluge had poured its world of waters.

Fierce and angry faces crowded round the mast. The murmurs rose louder
and louder. They talked of compelling the pilots to put about and of
throwing the admiral into the sea. Columbus, to whom their looks
and threats revealed these plans, defied them by his bold bearing or
disconcerted them by his coolness.

Again nature came to his assistance, by giving him fresh breezes from
the