What It Cost Columbus To Find America

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 9 (Supplement)

What It Cost Columbus To Find America

STRANGE ITEMS FROM EXPLORER'S LOG.

The cost of financing Columbus' first voyage to America (Mr. Charles Duff tells us in liis hook "The Truth About Columbus") was less than £1500. Yet Columbus was in his early "forties" before lie could raise the money. The idea of "land to the West" had obsessed him since boyhood. These were the ideas and prejudices against which lie had to fight: — That it would be impossible to reach the opposite hemisphere because of the unbearable heat of the torrid zone. That if a ship succeeded in rounding the globe ehe would never return, as the rotundity would present a steep surface or mountain top up which it would be impossible to sail. That if there were men in the Antipodes they would walk with their heels upwards and their heads hanging down, which was clearly impossible. After long years of wrangling a Jew, Luis de Santangel, provided the money. He supplied three ships, with captains at £25 a year, and crews earning £5 a year. Men were unwilling to go. Some had to be impressed forcibly into service. Others were criminals released from gaol. Terrified, but with no alternative, they were lashed aboard by frantic boatswains. On Friday, August 3, 1492, with a calm sea and a fresh breeze, the expedition sailed from the bar of Saltes at the port of Palos, in Spain. Columbus, created an admiral for the occasion, led in his slow, clumsy flagship, the Isabella. His experience of navigation was small; his only instalments were the astrolabe and the hour glass; his crews were largely composed of dangerous rascals. Yet, with the patronage of the King and Queen of Spain, and his own unshakable beliefs, his confidence was hi^h. Throughout the voyage Columbus falsified his log book. These entries are, typical:—

September 9. —Sailed 19 leagues to-day (a league is 3.18 miles) and decided to count less than the true number, that the crew might not be frightened if the voyage should prove long. September 10. —Sailed 60 leagues . . . reckoned only 48 leagues, that the men might not be terrified. Wednesday, October 10. —Made 59 : leagues, reckoned 44. Here the men could bear it no longer. They complained of the long voyage . . . With promises of the vast riches to be found in the Indies, Columbus kept them in hand. And at two in the morning of October 12, 1492, the admiral, standing on the quarter-deck, saw what looked like the light of a candle gleaming in the empty waste of waters. "The Admiral held for certain that land was near. For which reason, after they had said the Salve which seamen repeat and chant after their own fashion, the admiral asked and held them to keep a strict watch upon the forecastle and look out most diligently for land. They took in sail and hove-to." The night wore away. The dawn came. And, with the sunrise, eyes, strained with months of watching, saw an island, with "very green trees, many streams of water, and a variety of fruits." The most important voyage in history was over. i