Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-10-14

that pleases the captain, because 1T
blows them further and further away
from the European coast, and further
on toward the shore of another country,
If there is any. After while, there
comes a calm day. and the attempt is
made TO fathom the ocean, and they
cannot touch bottom though the line
and lead run down 200 fathoms.
More delightful sensations for those
who are not good sailors! A fathom is
six feet, and two hundred fathoms, one
thousand two hundred feet, and below
that it may be many hundred feet
deeper. To add interest to the voyage,
on the twentieth day out, n violent
storm sweeps the sea, and the Atlantic
ocean tries what it Fan do with the
Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina.
Sc me of you know something of what
sea can do with the Umbria, the Ma
iestic, the Teutonic, the City of Paris, and
you must imagine what the ocean could
do with thIse three small ships of olden
time. You may Judge what the oceon
was then by what it is now; it has
never changed its habits. 1t can smile
like the morning, but often it is the
Archangel of Wrath and its most roll
licking fun is shipwreck. The muffin
GUS crew would have killed Columbu
had it not been for the general opinion
on shipboard that he was the only one
that could take them back home in
safety. The promise of silk waistcoat
and $40 in money TO the man who
should first discover land appeased
them somewhat, but the Indignation
and blasphemy and threats of assassi-
nation must have been awful. Yet,
God sustained the great sailor COM
handing the Santa Maria. Every
evening on shipboard they had prayers
and sung a vesper hymn. But, after
all the patience of those on board the
ships had been exhausted. and the
great captain or admiral had been
cursed by every anathema that human
lips could frame, one night sailor
saw light moving along the shore,
and then moving up and down, and
then disappearing. On Friday morn
ing az 2 o'clock, just long enough after
Thursday to make it sure that it was
Friday and Sd give another blow at the
world idea of unluclly days-on Friday
morning, Oct -, 1892, gun from the
Pinta signalled LAND Ahead" Then
the ships lay to, and the boats were
lowered and Capt. Christopher Co
lumbus first stepped upon the shore,
amid the song of birds and the air
surge of redolence, and took posses
sion in the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Ghost. So the voy-
age that began with the Sacrament
ended with Gloria in EXcelsis Del
On his way back to Spain the ship
was so wrenched by the tempest and
so threatened with destruction that he
wrote brief account of his discovery
Ind put it in caslx, and threw it over
board, that the world might not lose
the advantage of his adventures.
Honors awaited him on the beach, but
he undertook second voyage and with
it came all maligning and persecution
and denunciation and poverty. He
was called land-grabber, a liar,
cheat, a fraud, n deceiver of ma
tions. Spectators robbed him of his
good name, courtiers deprecated his
discoveries, and there came to him
ruined health and Imprisonment and
chains, of which he said while he
ratified them on his wrists: II will
wear them as memeAlto of the graft
tude of Princes" Amid keen apprecia-
ton of the worlds abuse and cruelty,
and with body writhing in the tortures
of govt, he groaned out his last words:
sin manus tuas Domino commendo
spiritum meun:" Unto thy hands
Oh, Lord, commend nv spirit
And, now, while / am thinking of
this illustrious ship captain of Genoa,
let me bespealI higher appreciation for
the ship captains now in service, many
of them this moment on the sea, the
lives of tens of thousands of passengers
in their keeping. What an awful re-
sponsibility is theirs! They go out
through the Narrows, or start from
Queenstown, or Southampton, or Glas-
gov; not knowing what cyclone, or
collisions, or midnight perils are
waiting for them. 1t requires
bravery to face a. army of men,
but far more bravery TO face
an army of AtlaN tic surges led on
by hurricanes. A more stupendous
scene is not to be witnessed than that
of ship captain walking the bridge of
a steamer in the midst of cyclone. /,
Remember those heroes in your prayers,
and when worn out in the service, and
they have to command inferior craft
or return to the land and go out of
service, do them full honor for what
they once were. Let the ship COM
panies award them pensions worthy
of what they endured until they start
on their last voyage from this world
TO the next. Aye, that voyage we must
all take, landsmen as well as seafarers.
Let us be sure that we have the right
pilot, and the right chart, and the I
right captain, and that we start in the
right direction. il will be to each of
us who love the Eord a voyage more
wonderful for discovery than that
which Columbus took, for, after all we
have heard about the other world, we
lrnovv not xvhara ~ is mr. how n loolxe |