“Friday, August 3, 1492.  Set sail from the bar of Saltes at 8 o’clock, and proceeded with a strong breeze till sunset sixty miles, or fifteen leagues south, afterward southwest and south by west, which is in the direction of the Canaries.”

It appears, therefore, that the great voyage, the most important and successful ever made, began on Friday, the day which is said to be so much disliked by sailors.  Columbus never alludes to this superstition.

He had always meant to sail first for the Canaries, which were the most western land then known in the latitude of his voyage.  From Lisbon to the famous city of “Quisay,” or “Quinsay,” in Asia, Toscanelli, his learned correspondent, supposed the distance to be less than one thousand leagues westward.  From the Canary islands, on that supposition, the distance would be ten degrees less.  The distance to Cipango, or Japan, would be much less.

As it proved, the squadron had to make some stay at the Canaries.  The rudder of the Pinta was disabled, and she proved leaky.  It was suspected that the owners, from whom she had been forcibly taken, had intentionally disabled her, or that possibly the crew had injured her.  But Columbus says in his journal that Martin Alonso Pinzon, captain of the Pinta, was a man of capacity and courage, and that this quieted his apprehensions.  From the ninth of August to the second of September, nearly four weeks were spent by the Pinta and her crew at the Grand Canary island, and she was repaired.  She proved afterwards a serviceable vessel, the fastest of the fleet.  At the Canaries they heard stories of lands seen to the westward, to which Columbus refers in his journal.  On the sixth of September they sailed from Gomera and on the eighth they lost sight of land.  Nor did they see land again for thirty-three days.  Such was the length of the great voyage.  All the time, most naturally, they were wishing for signs, not of land perhaps, but which might show whether this great ocean were really different from other seas.  On the whole the voyage was not a dangerous one.

According to the Admiral’s reckoning—­and in his own journal Columbus always calls himself the Admiral—­its length was one thousand and eighty-nine leagues.  This was not far from right, the real distance being, in a direct line, three thousand one hundred and forty nautical miles, or three thousand six hundred and twenty statute miles.(*) It would not be considered a very long voyage for small vessels now.  In general the course was west.  Sometimes, for special reasons, they sailed south of west.  If they had sailed precisely west they would have struck the shore of the United States a little north of the spot where St. Augustine now is, about the northern line of Florida.

     (*) The computations from Santa Cruz, in the Canaries, to
     San Salvador give this result, as kindly made for us by
     Lieutenant Mozer, of the United States navy.