Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/17

6 6 THE PINTA NINA AND SANTA MaKIA. men for the purpose of finding a new route to the East Indies, who were going to risk theit lives in the attempt to find a new water path, so as to be able to compete with Venice, MUan, Florence and Genoa,who monopolized the trade with Syria, Egypt and India. These mariners had agreed to go with Captain Columbus, and on that fine August morning adieus and affectionate last farewells were common. Wives embraced their husbands, mothers wept over their sons, fathers admonished their boys to be brave, and the priests blessed them all, fervently praying fcr the Almighty to protect and bring them safely back to sunny Spain. Hundreds of conversations were being carried on by the 2,000 inhabitants of the little seaport town, located about 120 mileo northwest of the Straits of Gibraltar. Hark to this dialogue: Mr. Shipbuilder; "Did you ever see such fools, to be flying in the face of Providence? That man Colon (Spanish for Columbus) is crazy. Has he not put in years trying to induce merchants to lit him • out with a vessel, and now the Queen has given him $67,000 to sink to the bottom of the ocean, and worse still, we will lose some of our best sailors. I would not give, a piaster (dollar) toward such an enterprise. "Oh, have you seen that Nina, one of the boats? It is only fifty feet long, and the Pinta but little longer, and neither have upper decks. I tell you those Pinzon boys do not realize what they are doing. Ah, Coloa is cunning enough. He takes the Santa Maria, which is ninety feet long and has a deck. He may return, but the others. God help them!" Mr. Banker: "Well, we let the brothers have a