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CHAPTER V.

PARLEY TELLS HOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERS THE CONTINENT OF AMERICA.


Columbus, having been furnished with six vessels of no great burden,
departed on his third voyage. He touched at the Canaries and at the Cape
de Verd islands; from the former he despatched three ships with a supply
of provisions for the colony of Hispaniola; with the other three he
continued his voyage to the south.

Nothing remarkable occurred till they were within five degrees of the
line; then they were becalmed, and the heat became so excessive, that
the wine casks burst and their provisions were spoiled.

The Spaniards, who had never ventured so far to the south, were afraid
the ships would take fire, but they were relieved in some measure from
their fear by a seasonable fall of rain.

This, however, though so heavy and incessant that the men could hardly
keep the deck, did not greatly mitigate the heat, and Columbus was at
last constrained to yield to the importunities of his crew, and to alter
his course to the north-west, in order to reach some of the Caribbee
islands, where he might refit and be supplied with provisions.