Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/19

8 8 THE COMPASS PREVARICATES. Monastery, and much interested in all matters relat- ing to explorations and discovery of new lands, and had also corresponded with the famous Italian mathematician, TroscaneUe, who gave him every encouragement, and lastly but more important, not- withstanding he had for many years attended oho great Naval College and Observatory at Lisbon, and the compass had been in use for 600 years, it had never been intimated that the magnetic needlo would NOT infallibly point to the north star; and notwithstanding he had had many talks with hiz wife's father, Bartholomew Perestrello. who was a, navigator, his very soul was tried when after forty- thi'ee days on the great ocean he found that the needlo> did not point to the north star as usual. Realizing the. superstition of his crew, he endeavored to keep them, in ignorance, but there were men of middle age who had led nautical careers all their life and could not be. fooled; and then began the Captain's trouble. Ho. was compelled to deceive his officers and sailors, for- lie well knew their superstition and was cognizant, ihat if they realized all that their commander did,, ithey would mutiny; so he resorted to deception, giving,* them the theory that the polar star revolved around en, given point, and owing to the distance traveled the;, ©tar did not appear in the same spot as nearer home,,, and to support his explanation, he convinced!, hioi icrews by showing that the farther west they weuti ths greater the varitation. But the great navigator, was compelled to falsify the distance traveled, fur wJjSfl they were 2,200 miles from the Canary Islands, t» told them they had gome only 1,560 m.iles, thua