It changed, it flushed. We carried in
the _Santa Maria_ a cock and hens. Cock crew.
Christopherus Columbus had Italian love for fit, harmonious
noting of vast events. This morning the trumpeter
also of the Santa Maria waked those who slept. The
clear and joyful notes were heard by the Pinta and the
Pinta, too, answered with music. The Nina took it from
her. Beltran the cook and his helpers gave us a stately
breakfast. The Admiral came forth from his cabin in a
dress that a prince might have worn, crimson and tawny,
and around his throat a golden chain. Far and near rushed
into light, for in these lands and seas the dawn makes no
tarrying. It is almost night, then with a great clap of
light it is day.
We had voyaged, all thought, to Asia over an untrodden
way. Every eye turned to land. Not haze, not dissolving
cloud, not a magic nothing in the thought, but land, land,
solid, palpable, like Palos strand! Had we seen a great port
city, had we seen ships crowding harbor, had we seen a
citadel on some height, armed and frowning, had we marked
temples and palaces and banners afloat in this divine cool
wind of morning, many aboard us would have had now no
surprise, would have cried, "Of course, I really knew it,
though for the fun of it I pretended otherwise!"
But others among us could not expect such as this after
the quiet night; no light before us save that one so soon
quenched, no stir of boat at all or large or small; an unearthly
quiet, a low land still as a sleeping marsh under
moon.
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