master of himself and of his material, and a ruler
over circumstances. The supreme thing that he
had professed to be able to do and which he had guaranteed
to do was, in the sublime simplicity of his own phrase,
“to discover new lands,” and luck or no
luck, help or hindrance, he did it at the very first
attempt and in the space of thirty-five days.
And although it was from the Pinta that the gun was
fired, and the first loom of the actual land seen in
the early morning, I am glad to think that, of all
the number of eager watching men, it was Columbus
who first saw the dim tossing light that told him
his journey was at an end.