le the children waved a
last good-by from the water-stairs, the three vessels steered out from
Palos Harbor, and before that day's sun had set, Columbus and his fleet
were full fifty miles on their way across the Sea of Darkness. The
westward voyage to those wonderful lands, the Indies and Cathay, had at
last begun.

CHAPTER V. HOW THEY FARED ON THE SEA OF DARKNESS.

Did you ever set out, in the dark, to walk with your little brother or
sister along a road you did not know much about or had never gone over
before? It was not an easy thing to do, was it? And how did your little
brother or sister feel when it was known that you were not just certain
whether you were right or not? Do you remember what the Bible says about
the blind leading the blind?

It was much the same with Columbus when he set out from Palos to sail
over an unknown sea to find the uncertain land of Cathay. He had his own
idea of the way there, but no one in all his company had ever sailed it,
and he himself was not sure about it. He was very much in the dark. And
the sailors in the three ships were worse than little children. They did
not even have the confidence in their leader that your little brother
or sister would probably have in you as you traveled that new road on a
dark night. It was almost another case of the blind leading the blind,
was it not?

Columbus first steered his ships to the south so as to reach the Canary
Islands and commence his real westward voyage from there. The Canary
Islands, as you will see by looking in your geography, are made up of
seven islands and lie off the northern corner of Africa, some sixty
miles or so west of Morocco. They were named Canaria by the Romans from
the Latin canis, a dog, "because of the multitude of dogs of great size"
that were found there. The canary birds that sing so sweetly in your
home come from these islands. They had been known to the Spaniards and
other European sailors of Columbus's day about a hundred years.

At the Canaries the troubles of Columbus commenced. And he did have a
lot of trouble before his voyage was over. While near the island called
the Grand Canary the rudder of the Pinta, in which Captain Alonso Pinzon
sailed, somehow got loose, then broke and finally came off. It was said
that two of the Pinta's crew, who were really the owners of the vessel,
broke the rudder on purpose, because they had become frightened at the
thoughts of the perilous voyage, and hoped by dam