These
vegetables included the "good tasting roots either boiled or baked"
which we know as potatoes. Most daring of all the company was a young
nobleman named Alonzo de Ojeda. Alonzo was a real adventurer, willing to
face any danger or hazard.
Columbus, on leaving Spain, again headed for the Canaries, this time for
the purpose of taking on sheep, goats, swine, and other domestic animals
to stock the new lands; then off again for the real business of crossing
the Atlantic. Gold being the thought uppermost in every mind--even in
the mind of the Admiral--the rudders were set southwest for the
Caribbean Islands.
These, the natives of Haiti had told him, were full of gold; at least,
that is how Columbus interpreted the signs the Haitians made when he
asked for gold; and so, instead of hurrying to cheer up those forty men
he left at La Navidad, he steered to a point considerably south of Haiti
and reached the Caribbeans precisely; which, it will be seen, was a far
greater test of nautical skill than merely to sail anywhere into the
west, as he had done on the first voyage.
The sea nearly all the way across was deliciously smooth and the trade
wind soft and steady; only once was there bad weather; very bad while it
lasted and very terrifying to those who had never before been at sea;
but it happened that, during the storm, the electric phenomenon known as
the Light of St.
Pages:
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131