When they said the Salve, (Salve Regina) which all the sailors were accustomed to sing in their way, the Admiral asked and admonished the men to keep a good look-out on the forecastle, and to watch well for land and to him who should first cry out that he saw land, he would give a silk doublet, besides the other rewards promised by the Sovereigns, which were 10,000 maravedis to him who should first saw it. It seemed to few to be an indication of land but the Admiral made certain that land was close. The Admiral said the same to Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, whom the King and Queen had sent with the fleet as inspector, but he could see nothing, because he was not in a place whence anything could be seen.Īfter the Admiral had spoken he saw the light once or twice, and it was like a wax candle rising and failing. He called Pero Gutierrez, a gentleman of the King's bedchamber, and said that there seemed to be a light, and that he should look at it. But the Admiral, at ten o'clock, being on the castle of the poop, saw a light, though it was so uncertain that he could not affirm it was land. The land was first seen by a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana. As the caravel Pinta was a better sailer, and went ahead of the Admiral, she found the land, and made the signals ordered by the Admiral. Up to two hours after midnight they had gone 90 miles, equal to 22 1/2 leagues. The run until sunset was 27 leagues.Īfter sunset the Admiral returned to his original west course, and they went along at the rate of 12 miles an hour. Everyone breathed afresh and rejoiced at these signs. The crew of the caravel Niña also saw signs of land, and a small branch covered with berries. Those of the caravel Pinta saw a cane and a pole, and they took up another small pole which appeared to have been worked with iron also another bit of cane, a land-plant, and a small board. They saw sand-pipers, and a green reed near the ship.
The course was W.S.W., and there was more sea than there had been during the whole of the voyage. Throughout the account, Columbus refers to himself in the third person as the "Admiral": We join Columbus's account as his expedition approaches the islands of the Bahamas. Las Casas was an historian and Columbus's biographer who had access to the original journal of the voyage. However, we do have an accurate abstract of the journal written by Bartolome de las Casas in the 1530s. The next day land was discovered.Ĭolumbus's journal of his first voyage to America has been lost. Columbus headed off disaster by promising his crew that if land was not sighted in two days, they would return home. This deception had only a temporary effect by October 10 the crew's apprehension had increased to the point of near mutiny. The latter log quieted the crew's anxiety by under-reporting the true distance they had traveled from their homeland. In order to mollify his crew's apprehensions, Columbus kept two sets of logs: one showing the true distance traveled each day and one showing a lesser distance. However, the trip was long, longer than anticipated by either Columbus or his crew. Once underway, Columbus benefited from calm seas and steady winds that pushed him steadily westward (Columbus had discovered the southern "Trades" that in the future would fuel the sailing ships carrying goods to the New World). His first stop was the Canary Islands where the lack of wind left his expedition becalmed until September 6.
His objective was to sail west until he reached Asia (the Indies) where the riches of gold, pearls and spice awaited. Columbus led his three ships - the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria - out of the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492.
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