DISCOVERY



As the length of the voyage
sailors habituated only to short
deavoured to conceal from the
they had made with this view,
teen leagues on the second dasy
he gave out that they had add-n
uniformly employed the same
voyage. By the 14th of Sept
two hundred leagues to the we
greater distance from land than
          ., .   ..  .....



fore
ance
the m
actly
as the
ance 4
the m



that time.



no 1E



agne
to th
qy pri
whic
vsteri



1 here th



kss astonishing the
tic needle, in their
e polar star, but i
Dceeded, this varia
h is now familiar,
ies of nature,. filled



                     a
could not fail of alartning
excursions, Columbus en
m the real proaress which
though they had run eigh-
after they had left Go mera,
anced only fifteen, and he
artifice during the whole
,ember the fleet was above
tst of the Canary isles, at a
any Spaniard had been be-
'ere struck with an appear-
new. ri'hey observed that
Impasses, did not point ex-
tied towards the west; and
n increased. This appear-
ough it still remains one of
te companions of Columbus



with terror.  rhey were now in a boundless unknown
ocean, far from the usual course of navigation; nature itself
seemed to be altered, and the only guide which they had
left was about to fail them. Columbus, with no I ess quick-
ness than ingenuity, invented a reason for this appearance,
which, though it did not satisfy himself, seemed so plausi-
ble to them, that it dispelled their fears and silenced their
murmurs.
  Ile still continued to steer due west, nearly in the same
latitude with the Canary islands. In this course he came
within the sphere of the trade wind, which blows inva-



riably from
degrees bey
gale, with s
sary to shift
the west of
weeds. that



east to westA between the



Pond them. He advanced
uch uniform rapidity that i
a sail. When about four
the Canaries, he found the
it resembled a meadow of



j tropics and a tew
before this steady
t was seldom neces-
hundred leagues to
sea so covered with
vast extent; and in



somne places they were so thick as to retard the motion of
the vessels. -This strange apppearance occasioned new
                         0~~~~~~~~
alarm and disquiet. The sailors imagined that they had
now arrived at the utmost boundary of the navigable



664



or



I
i



0



- .,