nzon now proposed that they should steer south-west, but Columbus
persisted in keeping a westerly course. On the 7th of October, at
sunrise, several of the Admiral's crew fancied that they saw land; the
_Nina_ pressing forward, a flag was run up at her masthead, and a gun
was fired,--the preconcerted signal for land.

The captain and his crew were mistaken notwithstanding. The clouds
which had deceived them melted away. The crews again became dejected.
But once more flocks of field birds were seen flying through the air to
the south-west, and Columbus, having already run the distance at the
termination of which he had expected to find the island of Cipango,
fancied he might have missed it. He therefore altered his course to the
south-west.

As the ships advanced the signs of land increased: a heron, a pelican,
and a duck were seen bound in the same direction. Branches of trees,
and grass, fresh and green, were observed. The crews, however,
believing these to be mere delusions for leading them on to destruction,
insisted on abandoning the voyage.

Columbus sternly resisted their importunities, and the following day a
branch of thorn, with berries on it, and a staff artificially carved,
with other articles, were picked up, showing that land must be close at
hand.

All gloom and mutiny now gave way to sanguine expectations, and Columbus
promised a doublet of velvet, in addition to the pension to be given by
the sovereign, to whosoever should first see the longed-for shore.

As he walked the high poop of his ship at night, his eye continually
ranging along the horizon, he thought he saw a light glimmering at a
great distance. Fearing that his hopes might deceive him, he
successively called up two of his officers. They both saw it,
apparently proceeding from a torch in the bark of a fisherman, or held
in the hand of some person on shore, borne up as he walked.

So uncertain were these gleams that few attached any importance to them.
The ships continued their course until two in the morning, when Rodrigo
de Triana, a seaman on board the _Pinta_, descried land at two leagues
ahead. A gun was fired from the _Santa Maria_, to give the joyful news.
When all doubt on the subject was banished the ships lay to.

Who can picture the thoughts and feelings of Columbus, as he walked the
deck, impatiently waiting for dawn, which was to show him clearly the
long-sought-for land, with, as he hoped, its spicy groves, its
gl