toward the land they thought to be Cathay,
behold! it all disappeared--island and castle and palace and temple and
city, and nothing but the tossing sea lay all about them.

For this that they had seen was what is called a mirage--a trick of the
clouds and the sun and the sea that makes people imagine they see what
they would like to, but really do not. But after this Columbus had a
harder time than ever with his men, for they were sure he was leading
them all astray.

And so with frights and imaginings and mysteries like these, with
strange birds flying about the ships and floating things in the water
that told of land somewhere about them, with hopes again and again
disappointed, and with the sailors growing more and more restless and
discontented, and muttering threats against this Italian adventurer
who, was leading the ships and sailors of the Spanish king to sure
destruction, Columbus still sailed on, as full of patience and of faith,
as certain of success as he had ever been.

On the seventh of October, 1492, the true record that Columbus was
keeping showed that he had sailed twenty-seven hundred miles from the
Canaries; the false record that the sailors saw said they had sailed
twenty-two hundred miles. Had Columbus kept straight on, he would have
landed very soon upon the coast of Florida or South Carolina, and would
really have discovered the mainland of America. But Captain Alonso
Pinzon saw what looked like a flock of parrots flying south. This made
him think the land lay that way; so he begged the Admiral to change his
course to the southward as he was sure there was no land to the west.
Against his will, Columbus at last consented, and turning to the
southwest headed for Cuba.

But he thought he was steering for Cathay. The islands of Japan, were,
he thought, only a few leagues away to the west. They were really, as
you know, away across the United States and then across the Pacific
Ocean, thousands of miles farther west than Columbus could sail. But
according to his reckoning he hoped within a day or two to see the
cities and palaces of this wonderful land.

When they sailed from the Canaries a reward had been offered to
whomsoever should first see land. This reward was to be a silken jacket
and nearly five hundred dollars in money; so all the sailors were on the
watch.

At about ten o'clock on the evening of the eleventh of October,
Columbus, standing on the high raised stern of the Santa Maria,