The Crossing
The ships ran south to the Canary Islands and waited there for favorable east winds before turning west. After a long delay at the Canaries they sailed west along the twenty-eighth parallel (September 6), but their course was not so far south that the trade winds helped them fully. We know today that a more southerly route would have shortened the distance and labor of reaching America. The weather was fine. Columbus wrote in his journal that the air was like an Andalusian spring, and only the song of the nightingale was missing. Thirty-three days passed in anxiety and excitement. Columbus told his companions the distance covered each day with a little deducted; but since he overestimated his speed, his reckonings, without his intending it, came out right. The calm of the sea continued, and he changed course. The sailors felt more and more lost in the boundless sea. On October 9 the captains of the Pinta and Niña came aboard the flagship and demanded an immediate return to Spain. Columbus promised that if they did not reach land within three days he would do so. On October 10 the crew of his own ship mutinied, and he silenced them with the same device. On October 11 a green branch covered with blossoms was taken from the water and their confidence in the captain returned. At two the next morning, under the moonlight, Rodrigo de Triana, lookout of the Pinta (the book says Niña), cried out: "Land! Land!" At last they had reached land.
San Salvador
When dawn came they saw naked natives, who were "all well-formed," on the shore. The three captains went ashore by boat with some armed men; they knelt, kissed the earth and gave thanks to God. Columbus named the place San Salvador (Holy Savior) and took possession of it in the names of Ferdinand, Isabella and Christ. The natives received the future enslavers of their people with civilized courtesy. Columbus writes that to win their friendship, since he knew they were a people who could better be saved from savagery and converted to Christianity by love than by force, he gave some of them red caps and necklaces of colored glass beads and other cheap things which delighted them greatly. They became friends and stayed so, to the explorers' astonishment; later they swam out to the ships and brought parrots and cotton thread and many other things, and in exchange the Spaniards gave them small glass beads. In the end, with all good will, they exchanged whatever they had.
The report of the "gentle and friendly savages," which later enchanted Rousseau, Chateaubriand and Whitman, must have begun then and there. Among the first things Columbus learned was that the islanders were the target of raids by other native bands who tried to enslave them, and that they themselves, or their ancestors, had treated the first natives of the island the same way. Two days after landing the admiral wrote an ominous note in his journal: these natives had no skill in using weapons, and anyone who wished could subdue them with fifty men. Alas, there was no gold at San Salvador.
Cuba and the Search for the Khan
On October 14 the little fleet sailed in search of Cipangu, the Japan of Polo's tales, and of gold. On October 28 they landed in Cuba. The natives there too were well built; they tried to sing the Ave Maria with the sailors and make the sign of the cross. When Columbus showed them gold, they indicated that some could be had in the interior, at a place they called Cubanacan (central Cuba). Columbus, mistaking this name for El Gran Can (the Great Khan of China), sent two Spaniards with full diplomatic credentials to find that imaginary ruler. The envoys, without finding the Khan, returned with pleasant news: the natives everywhere had received them with a good welcome. They were also the first Europeans to report American tobacco: they had seen natives, men and women, roll tobacco leaves into the form of cigars, put one end in the nose and smoke them. Columbus, disappointed, weighed anchor (December 4). He took with him by force five young natives as interpreters and seven native women (the book says to console them); all of them died on the way to Spain (the book's account; the force used is noted here and not described further).
Hispaniola and the Wreck of the Flagship
Meanwhile the senior captain, Martín Alonso Pinzón, had gone off with his ship to find gold. Columbus reached Haiti on December 5 and stayed four weeks. The natives welcomed him and held feasts and rejoicing. He obtained some gold and thought himself nearer the Khan's capital. But on Christmas Eve, the night he meant to celebrate as the happiest day of his life, the flagship ran aground on submerged reefs and the blows of the waves and rocks broke it apart. The Niña was luckily near enough to rescue the crew, and the kindly natives tried with their canoes to save the cargo before the ship sank. The chief comforted Columbus with warm hospitality and gold and assured him that this "fatal metal" was plentiful in Haiti. The admiral thanked God for the gold and forgave the wreck, and wrote in his daily notes that Isabella and Ferdinand were now rich enough to conquer the Holy Land. Columbus was so struck by the natives' warm welcome that he left a number of his sailors to live on the island and explore it while he went back to Spain to report his discoveries. On January 6, 1493, Pinzón rejoined him with the Pinta; his apology was accepted, since Columbus did not want to return with only one ship. They sailed for Spain on January 16.
The Return
Theirs was a long and painful voyage. Contrary winds blew throughout January, and on February 12 a terrible storm battered the little ships, no more than 21 meters long (the book's figure). Near the Azores Pinzón again drew away, hoping to reach Spain first and spread the news of the discovery of Asia. The Niña, separated from the Santa María's company, anchored at the Azores (February 17); half the crew went ashore, mostly to visit a shrine of the Virgin. The Portuguese authorities detained them and held them for four days while Columbus fumed offshore. Then they were released, and the Niña set sail again; but another storm drove her off course and tore her sails, and the crew became so desperate that they vowed, once on land, to fast on the first day, live on bread and water, and keep the Ten Commandments.
On March 3 they saw the Portuguese coast in the distance. Although Columbus knew he was taking a delicate step, he decided to put in at Lisbon as an ambassador rather than sail the remaining 360 kilometers to Palos on a single sail. John II received him warmly, the Niña was repaired, and on March 15, "with infinite pain and terror," as Columbus says, she returned to the port of Palos. Their voyage from the day they left that port to their return had lasted 193 days.
Pinzón's End
Martín Pinzón had landed a few days earlier on the northwest coast of Spain and informed Ferdinand and Isabella of his arrival. But they would not receive him. The Pinta had to come to Palos, and a day later the Niña docked. Pinzón, afraid of disgrace, fled to his home, took to his bed, and never opened his eyes again.