Days of the Discoverers

nly clouds? If there are hydras, and gorgons, and sea-snakes that can swallow a ship, and a great black hand reaching up out of

er playfellow Fernao could see the western ocean in a great half-circle, bounded by the mysterious line above which three tiny caravels had just risen. The sea to-day was exquisite, bluer than the heavens that arched above it. The wave-crests looked like a flock of sea-doves playing on the sun

s been to places that you Castilians never even heard of. He has seen whales, and mermaids, and the Sea of Darkness itself! He

die?" inquired the

d there are devils in the forest, stronger th

cause I am Spanish, and a girl, I am without understandin

sed the sea, as ship-boy, sailor, and pilot. His daughter Catharina had been the nurse of Beatriz, and he

so little. He seated himself as he spoke, on an ancient bench that rested its back against the wall just where the wind was

ness out away beyond the Falcon Islands, where ships are drawn into a great pit under the edge of the world. And he says that ships cannot go too far south because the sun is so near it would burn th

r jealousies and rivalries amused him. He had spent most of his life in the feluccas and caravels of Lisbon and Oporto, because when he was young they went where no othe

it was we had come for. The sea won't be mocked or threatened. She has ways of her own, the old witch, to tame the vainglorious. And 't is true enough," the old pilot went on with a quizzing look at Fernao on his insecure perch, "that sailors have a bad habit of doubling and trebling their recollections when they

io Sancho," promised Beatriz, all love a

d sailing moreover through the air at the height of a tall mast-head above the sea? And a mountain of ice half a league long and as high as the Giralda at Seville, floating

ily, tio caro?" persisted Beatriz. The old m

there is. I saw a Sea of Darkness on the se

ed Beatriz, and Fernao silently s

ospered, and found the people in great trouble of mind. They showed him that a thick black cloud hung upon the sea to the northwest of the island, filling the air to the very heavens and never going away; and out of this cloud, they said, came strange noises, not like any they had heard before. They dared not sail far from t

e when the moon changed, we liked it not, I can tell you. And when we learned that he was minded to sail straight into the dark

hurriedly aboard with his lady love whom he had carried off from her home in Bristol, and between dark and dawn the captain weighed anchor and was off. Then being driven from the course the ship was cast on a thickly wooded island with a high mountain in the middle, wher

which hung above the waters was the mist arising from those dense woods which covered it. Th

dered out the boats to tow the ship into the cloud, and I was one of those who rowed. As we got closer it was not quite so dark, but the roaring was louder, although the sea was smooth. Then through the da

alled Madeira. When we came back, having taken possession of the island for the King, he sent a colony to settle upon it, and the first boy and girl born there were named Adam and Eva. The people set fire to the trees, whi

eath. "Weren't you ver

legs be scared. We knew that we had to obey orders or be dead, so we obeyed. I have been gla

a-wolves?" a

ding in a tail like a fish, but with hair, not scales, on the body; the head has a thick mane, and the jaws are la

to drive the

at that." The old pilot grinned. "They were driven away by rabbits. Somebody brought rabbits there and let them loose, and in a few years ther

chuckle of the old man. Then Fernao,

abyss are not in the western ocean, why ha

ver was told to sail due west from Lisbon. But here is a man who can answer your question, if any one can. Welcom

yes were those of a man not old in either mind or body. He smiled in answer to the greeting, and replied with a quick wave of the hand. "Do not disturb yourself, I beg of y

ely ornamented with carved figures in relief. Old Sancho took i

come from?" he

ittle son Diego picked it up, the day

Zarco touched there on his way to Madeira. With your good permission I will leave you for a few minu

ore, and knew him to be a mapmaker in the King's service, but he had never before been within speaking d

ing about the disc

triz answered wit

island. It seems like living on

sudden daring, "what is be

boy. The world is ro

silent amazement, and Fernao looked as if he would like to ask who could prove the statement. The strange

e the capes-Saint Vincent, Finisterre, the great rock the Arabs call Geber-al-Tarif-the Mediterranean-the northern coast of Africa-so. Beyond are Arabia and India, and the Spice Islands which we do not know all about-then Cathay, where Marco Polo visited the Great Khan-you have heard of that?

pmaking, under the cosmographer's skilful fi

strat

form as the children wat

nderingly, "a ship coul

n the 'Travels of Sir John Maundeville' more th

?" asked

the earth were not a perfect round, but sloped upward to the south. My own belief is,"-he seemed for a moment to forget that he was talking to children, "that it is not perfe

with the glory of the thought. The

. We do not know how long it would take to cross it. I have lately received a map from the famous

and there was nothing, after all, like the piece of wood cast ashore by the Atlantic

the use of iron tools; that I am sure of. Some of our men were shipwrecked once where they had to make stone and shells serve their turn, and I know the

s eyes lighted wi

t may be Ind

it come here? Besides, the people of India underst

d men in remote islan

ories with a pinch of salt, but if there are islands where wild people live they would make such things as this. And now I think of it, I once picked up

so far as I could judge it was no kin to the palm nuts we get. I kept the shell, and I have never found any merchant who could ma

of any part of Europe or Africa. Another thing which is strange, though I hold it not as important as they do, is that the people of Madeira persistently declare that they see a great island appear and disapp

after a pause, "what things men think they see. And you t

d or the selfish. Toscanelli thinks that since the world is round, we should reach the Indies by sailing due west from this coast, but in that case India would seem to be far greater than we have believed.

sked Beatriz, treasuring the tiny globe in one careful hand while

if you, my lad, are the first to sail round the world, remember that the sea is His,

o

Sagres. He may be said to have laid the foundation of the Portuguese and later Spanish discoveries. In the time

was generally set forth in what might be called books of science, and even in some popular works like that of Sir John Maundeville, who died in 1372. Its acceptance by the public, however, may be said to have followed somewhat the course of the Darwinian th

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