Life Of Columbus

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1865. Excerpt: ... and an inertia inclining to repose. From these two opposite tendencies arises the equilibrium of his nature. Woe to him that disturbs it! The appearance of this little flotilla, scarcely equal to a fishing or coasting squadron, offered a strong contrast in the people's eyes to the magnitude of the dangers it was so rashly going to brave. Of the three vessels, only one was decked, that on board of which he himself was; a crank and narrow trading craft, already very old and weatherbeaten. The others were open boats, which a heavy breaker might have swamped. But the poop and forecastle of these vessels, raised high out of the water like the ancient galleys, had two half decks, under which the sailors could find shelter in bad weather, and would prevent the caravella from foundering if she shipped a sea. They had two masts, one amidships, and the other aft. On the foremast they carried one great square sail, and on the other a triangular latteen sail. In calm weather, long sweeps, used but seldom and then with difficulty, fixed in the low gunwale of the caravella's waist, could, in case of need, give slow motion to the vessel. These three ships of unequal size, contained the 120 men of whom the crews were composed. He alone went on board with a calm face, a firm countenance, and a courageous heart. His conjectures had assumed in his mind, after the lapse of eighteen years, the shape of certainty. Although he was even then past the term of middle life, being in his fifty-seventh year, he looked upon the years that had gone by as though they were nothing. In his idea, all his life was to come. He felt the youthfulness of hope and his future immortality. As if to take possession of those worlds for which he spread his sails, he wrote and published before embarki...