Calling two of his sailors, he pointed it out to them. One agreed that
there was certainly a light bobbing up and down, but the other insisted
that he could see nothing. Columbus did not feel sure enough of his
"light" to claim that it meant land, so he called the ships together and
reminded the crews that their sovereigns had offered to the one who
should first see the shore a pension of ten thousand maravedis (about
twenty-five dollars) a year. In addition, he himself would give a
further reward of a silk doublet. This caused them all to keep a sharp
watch; but land it surely meant, that fitful light which Columbus saw,
for that very night--or about two o'clock in the morning of October 12
--Rodrigo de Triana, a sailor on the _Pinta_, shouted "_Tierra!
Tierra!_" and sure enough, as the dawn grew brighter, there lay a
lovely little green island stretched before their sea-weary eyes!
Who can imagine the tremendous emotions of that famous October morning!
Here were a hundred men who had just demonstrated that the world was
round; for by sailing west they had reached the east--if, as many were
ready to believe, they had come to Martin Alonzo's Cipango! The world
really _was_ a sphere! and at no point in rounding it had they been
in danger of falling off! Here they stood, that marvelous morning of
October 12, on Cipango or some other island off Asia, as they supposed,
with the soles of their feet against the feet of those back in Palos,
and the fact did not even make them feel dizzy.
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