horrible monsters lived off there to the West, just waiting to devour
or destroy the poor sailors when these three little ships should tumble
over the edge.

But how different Columbus must have felt as he stepped, into the
rowboat that took him off to his "flag-ship," the Santa Maria. His
dreams had come true. He had ships and sailors under his command, and
was about to sail away to discover great and wonderful things. He who
had been so poor that he could hardly buy his own dinner, was now called
Don and Admiral. He had a queen for his friend and helper. He was given
a power that only the richest and noblest could hope for. But more than
all, he was to have the chance he had wished and worked for so long. He
was to find the Indies; he was to see Cathay; he was to have his share
in all the wealth he should discover and bring away. The son of the
poor wool-weaver of Genoa was to be the friend of kings and princes; the
cabin boy of a pirate was now Admiral of the Seas and Governor of the
Colonies of Spain! Do you wonder that he felt proud?

So, as I have told you, just before sunrise on a Friday morning in
August, he boarded the Santa Maria and gave orders to his captains
"to get under way." The sailors with a "yo heave ho!" (or whatever the
Spanish for that is) tugged at the anchors, the sails filled with the
morning breeze, and while the people of Palos watched them from the
shore, while the good friar, Juan Perez, raised his hands to Heaven
calling down a blessing on the enterprise, while 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.