Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/322

 MARK TWAIN

over him. Such was the daily life of the great dis coverer in his marine basket during several historic weeks; and the difference between his ship and his comforts and ours is visible almost at a glance.

When he returned, the King of Spain, marveling, said as history records :

&quot;This ship seems to be leaky. Did she leak badly?&quot;

&quot;You shall judge for yourself, sire. I pumped the Atlantic Ocean through her sixteen times on the passage/

This is General Horace Porter s account. Other authorities say fifteen.

It can be shown that the differences between that ship and the one I am writing these historical con tributions in are in several respects remarkable. Take the matter of decoration, for instance. I have been looking around again, yesterday and to-day, and have noted several details which I conceive to have been absent from Columbus s ship, or at least slurred over and not elaborated and perfected. I observe stateroom doors three inches thick, of solid oak and polished. I note companion way vestibules with walls, doors, and ceilings paneled in polished hard woods, some light, some dark, all dainty and delicate joiner-work, and yet every point compact and tight ; with beautiful pictures inserted, composed of blue tiles some of the pictures containing as many as sixty tiles and the joinings of those tiles perfect. These are daring experiments. One would have said that the first time the ship went straining and laboring through a storm-tumbled sea those

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