did when he took possession of a new place, and made some boat excursions
among the islands in the harbour. On the 17th of November two of the six
youths whom he had taken on board the week before swam ashore and
escaped. When he started again on his voyage he was greatly
inconvenienced by the wind, which veered about between the north and
south of east, and was generally a foul wind for him. There is some
difference of opinion as to what point of the wind the ships of
Columbus's time would sail on; but there is no doubt that they were
extremely unhandy in anything approaching a head wind, and that they were
practically no good at all at beating to windward. The shape of their
hulls, the ungainly erections ahead and astern, and their comparatively
light hold on the water, would cause them to drift to leeward faster than
they could work to windward. In this head wind, therefore, Columbus
found that he was making very little headway, although he stood out for
long distances to the northward. On Wednesday, November 21st, occurred a
most disagreeable incident, which might easily have resulted in the
Admiral's never reaching Spain alive. Some time in the afternoon he
noticed the Pinta standing away ahead of him in a direction which was not
the course which he was steering; and he signalled her to close up with
him. No answer, however, was made to his signal, which he repeated, but
to which he failed to attract any response. He was standing south at the
time, the wind being well in the north-east; and Martin Alonso Pinzon,
whose caravel pointed into the wind much better than the unhandy Santa
Maria, was standing to the east. When evening fell he was still in
sight, at a distance of sixteen miles. Columbus was really concerned,
and fired lombards and flew more signals of invitation; but there was no
reply. In the evening he shortened sail and burned a torch all night,
"because it appeared that Martin Alonso was returning to me; and the
night was very clear, and there was a nice little breeze by which to come
to me if he wished." But he did not wish, and he did not come.