Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-10-13

AT the very best, they said, it was an
inundated land (tierras anegadas)-
probably the tabled sunken island At
lantis, o. which they had heard; whose
slime, tradition said, made it impossible
to explore that sea, and on whose sub
merged shadows they might at any time
be hopelessly swamped or entangled.
Are there no graves at home,n they
asked each other, according to Herrera,
that we should be brought here to
die? The traie-winds, afterward
called by the friars winds of Mercy
because they aided in the discovery of
the New World. were only winds of de-
spair to the sailors. They believed that
the ships were sailing down an inclined
slope, and that to return would be inn
possible. since it blew always from
home. There was little to do in the
way of trimming sails, for they sailed
almost on parallel of latitude from the
Canaries to the Bahamas. Their sever
est labor was in pumping out the leaky
ships. The young adventures remained
listlessly on deck, or played the then
fashionable game of prinsero and heard
incredulously the daily reports told by
Columbus of the rate of sailing. They
would have been still more incredulous
had they known the truth. "They
sighed and wept," Herrera says, land
every hour seemed like a year."
The same Spanish annalist compares
Go umbus to st. Christopher in the
legend bearing the infant Christ across
the stream on his shoulders; and the
explorer was often painted in that char
acter in those days. But the weight
that Columbus had to bear up was q
wearisome and unworthy load. Some
times they plotted to throw him over
board by man9uvre econ dissimuta-
cton. Herrera says), intending to say
he. according to Peter Martyr. dealt
with them now by winning words, now
by encouraging their hopes GLANDS
nsodO Cer6iS, anptG Spe maOdoJ. II
they thought they saw land. he en-
encouraged them to sing an an hem
when it proved to be but cloud, he
held out the hope of land tomorrow.
They had sailed August 3, 1892, and
when they had been out two months
| October 81, he refused to beat about
in search of land, though he thought
they were near it, but he would press
straight through to the Indies. Some
; times there came contrary wind, and
Columbus was cheered by it, for it
would convince his men that the wind
did not always blow one way, and that
by patient waiting they could yet re-
turn to Spain.
AS the days went on the signs of land
increased, but very slowly. When we
think of the intense Impotence of the
passengers on an ocean steamer after
they have been ten long days on the
water, even though they know precise
ly where they are, and where they are
going, and that they are driven by me-
chanical forces stronger than winds or
waves, we can imagine something of
the feelings of Columbus and his crew
as the third month wore on. Still there
was no sign of hope but pelican to-day
and a crab tomorrow; or drizzling
| rain without w nd-a comb nation which
was supposed to indicate nearness to the
land. There has scarcely been mo-
ment in the history of the race more full
or solemn consequences than that even
ing hour when. after finding a carved
stick and hawthorn branch, Columbus
watched from the deck in the moment
airy expectation of some glimpse of land.
The first shore light is signal of sue
cess and triumph to sailors who cross
the Atlantic every three weeks. What
then was it to the patient commander
who was looking for the first CLEAN
from an unknown world?-T. W. Hig-
9t1aS0n, IN Harper S Magazine.