made up their minds that they should never be able to get back to
Palos again. They were rough men, used to the sea, but now they bowed
down their heads and cried like children. Columbus had hard work to
quiet their fears and to encourage them to go forward with the voyage
which they already wanted to give up.

[Footnote 13: Canaries (Ka-na'rez); see map in paragraph 12.]


10. What happened after they had been at sea many days.--For more
than thirty days the three ships kept on their way toward the west.
To the crew every day seemed a year. From sunrise to sunset nothing
was to be seen but water and sky. At last the men began to think that
they were sailing on an ocean which had no end. They whispered among
themselves that Columbus had gone mad, and that if they kept on with
him in command they should all be lost.

Twice, indeed, there was a joyful cry of Land! Land! but when they
got nearer they saw that what they had thought was land was nothing
but banks of clouds. Then some of the sailors said, Let us go to the
admiral and tell him that we must turn back. What if he will not listen
to us? asked others; Then we will throw him overboard and say when
we reach Palos that he fell into the sea and was drowned.

But when the crew went to Columbus and told him that they would go
no further, he sternly ordered them to their work, declaring that
whatever might happen, he would not now give up the voyage.


11. Signs of land.--The very next day such certain signs of land were