The situation of Columbus was daily becoming more and more critical.  The impatience of the seamen arose to absolute mutiny.  They gathered together in the retired parts of the ships, at first in little knots of two and three, which gradually increased and became formidable, joining in murmurs and menaces against the admiral.  They exclaimed against him as an ambitious desperado who, in a mad fantasy, had determined to do something extravagant to render himself notorious.  What obligation bound them to persist, or when were the terms of their agreement to be considered as fulfilled?  They had already penetrated into seas untraversed by a sail, and where man had never before adventured.  Were they to sail on until they perished, or until all return with their frail ships became impossible?  Who would blame them should they consult their safety and return?  The admiral was a foreigner, a man without friends or influence.  His scheme had been condemned by the learned as idle and visionary, and discountenanced by people of all ranks.  There was, therefore, no party on his side, but rather a large number who would be gratified by his failure.

Such are some of the reasonings by which these men prepared themselves for open rebellion.  Some even proposed, as an effectual mode of silencing all after complaints of the admiral, that they should throw him into the sea, and give out that he had fallen overboard while contemplating the stars and signs of the heavens, with his astronomical instruments.

Columbus was not ignorant of these secret cabals, but he kept a serene and steady countenance, soothing some with gentle words, stimulating the pride or the avarice of others, and openly menacing the most refractory with punishment.  New hopes diverted them for a time.  On the 25th of September Martin Pinzon mounted on the stern of his vessel and shouted, “Land! land!  Senor, I claim the reward!” There was, indeed, such an appearance of land in the southwest that Columbus threw himself upon his knees and returned thanks to God, and all the crews joined in chanting Gloria in Excelsis.  The ships altered their course and stood all night to the southwest, but the morning light put an end to all their hopes as to a dream; the fancied land proved to be nothing but an evening cloud, and had vanished in the night....

He was now at open defiance with his crew, and his situation would have been desperate, but, fortunately, the manifestations of land on the following day were such as no longer to admit of doubt.  A green fish, such as keeps about rocks, swam by the ships; and a branch of thorn, with berries on it, floated by; they picked up, also, a reed, a small board, and, above all, a staff artificially carved.  All gloom and murmuring was now at an end, and throughout the day each one was on the watch for the long-sought land.  They continued on their course until two in the morning, when a gun from the Pinto gave the joyful signal of land.  It was first discovered by a mariner named Rodriguez Bermejo, resident of Triana, a suburb of Seville, but native of Alcala de la Guadaira; but the reward was afterward adjudged to the admiral, for having previously perceived the light.  The land was now clearly seen about two leagues distant, whereupon they took in sail, and laid to, waiting impatiently for the dawn. .