Two lovely days we had in this wilderness
of isles and channels where was no man nor woman at all,
then again we went east and south, the land trending that
way. Very distant, out of eastern waste, rose what seemed
a large island. The Admiral said that we should go discover,
and we changed course toward it, but in three hours'
time met furious weather. The sea rose, clouds like night
closed us in. Night came on without a star and a contrary
wind blew always. When the dawn broke sullenly we were
beaten back to Cuba, and a great promontory against which
truly we might have been dashed stood to our north and
shut out coast of yesterday. Here we hung a day and
night, and then the wind lulling and the sea running not
so high, we made again for that island which might be
Babeque. We had Indians aboard, but the sea and the
whipping and groaning of our masts and rigging and sails
and the pitching of the ship terrified them, and terror made
them dull. They sat with knees drawn up and head buried
in arms and shivered, and knew not Babeque from anything
else.
Christopherus Columbus could be very obstinate. Wishing
strongly to gain that island, through all this day he had
us strive toward it. But the wind was directly ahead and
strong as ten giants. The master and others made representations,
and at last he nodded his gray head and ordered
the _Santa Maria_ put about and the Pinta and the Nina
signaled.
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