FROM CORDOVA TO CATHAY.

called the astrolabe, by which he determined his latitude; but he could only
guess at his longitude, and he measured time by an hour-glass. It has been
said that he probably had no means for accurately calculating the speed of his
vessels, as there is no mention of the log-and-line before 1519; and as to the
telescope, it was first used in the year 1610. Having such a slight equipment,
the sailors of that day were, of course, very timid about venturing far from land.
The task that Columbus set himself was
simply to go to the Canary Islands, in
about latitude twenty-eight degrees north,
and sail due west until he struck land.
He was diverted from his course by the
advice of the pilots, and by the flight of
birds to the southward, otherwise he might
have landed on the coast of Florida, near
the Indian River.

“When I think,” says a celebrated
writer, “of Columbus in his little bark,
his only instrument an imperfect com-
pass and a rude astrolabe, sailing forth
upon an unknown sea, I must award to
him the credit of being the boldest sea-
man that ever sailed the salt ocean.”

After they had been a month at sea,

ET A ea the pilots reckoned they had sailed about

(So named by the Portuguese.) five hundred and eighty leagues west of

the Canaries; but by the true, though

suppressed, figures of Columbus they had really made over seven hundred

leagues. It was about that time, or the tenth of October, that the crew became

mutinous ; but later, signs of land, such as a branch with berries and a piece of

carved wood, changed gloom to hope, and strict watch was kept throughout the

night. They were then on the verge of the great discovery. All seemed to

have felt that some great event was pending; and on the night of the eleventh

of October Columbus claimed to have seen a wavering light. The next day,

early in the morning, or that is about two o’clock of the twelfth of October,

land was first sighted by a sailor on the Pinta. A landing was made the same
day, and possession taken in the name of the Spanish sovereigns.

All these events we are, of course, familiar with in the works of many
authors, notably in the history of Washington Irving, who first made the Eng-
lish-speaking world acquainted with the voyages of Columbus. But, although
it is quite four hundred years'since these events took place, there is still a
great difference of opinion as to the island which may claim to have been
the first land sighted on that memorable date, October 12, 1492. What and