to the kings and princes he expected to visit; he had a secretary and
historian to write out the story of what he should find and what he
should do. There was a learned Jew, named Louis, who could speak almost
a dozen languages, and who could, of course, tell him what the people
of Cathay and Cipango and the Indies were talking about. There was
a jeweler and silversmith who knew all about the gold and silver and
precious stones that Columbus was going to load the ships with; there
was a doctor and a surgeon; there were cooks and pilots, and even a
little fellow, who sailed in the Santa Maria as the Admiral's cabin boy,
and whose name was Pedro de Acevedo.

Some scholars have said that it cost about two hundred and thirty
thousand dollars to fit out this expedition. I do not think it cost
nearly so much. We do know that Queen Isabella gave sixty-seven thousand
dollars to help pay for it. Some people, however, reckoning the old
Spanish money in a different way, say that what Queen Isabella gave
toward the expedition was not over three or four thousand dollars of our
money. Perhaps as much more was borrowed from King Ferdinand, although
he was to have no share in the enterprise in which Queen Isabella and
Columbus were partners.

It was just an hour before sunrise on Friday, the third of August, 1492,
that the three little ships hoisted their anchors and sailed away from
the port of Palos. I suppose it was a very sorry and a very exciting
morning in Palos. The people probably crowded down on the docks, some of
them sad and sorrowful, some of them restless and curious. Their fathers
and brothers and sons and acquaintances were going--no one knew where,
dragged off to sea by a crazy old Italian sailor who thought there was
land to be found somewhere beyond the Jumping-off place. They all knew
he was wrong. They were certain that nothing but dreadful goblins and