Handicrafts Of All Sorts, With Peasants Or
Farmers To Till The Ground, And A Variety Of Labourers, Were Engaged To
Accompany The Expedition.
The fame of the gold and other rarities which
the newly discovered region produced, had induced so many gentlemen
And
other persons of respectability to offer themselves, that it became
necessary to limit the numbers who could be permitted to embark, and not
to allow all who were eager to transport themselves to the new world to go
there, until time should make it appear how matters might succeed, and the
colony might be somewhat settled. Yet so eager were the adventurers to
engage in the scheme of this new colony, that 1500 persons of all sorts
went upon the expedition; of whom some carried out horses, asses, and
other kinds of cattle, which were afterwards of most important benefit to
the colony.
All things being prepared, the admiral weighed anchor from the road of
Cadiz, where the fleet had been prepared, upon Wednesday the 25th of
September 1493, an hour before sun-rising, and stood to the southwards for
the Canary islands, designing to procure some necessary refreshments
there[3]. On the 28th of September, being then 100 leagues from Spain,
great numbers of land birds, among which were turtle-doves, and many small
birds, came aboard the admirals ship, which were supposed to come from the
Azores, and to be on their passage to Africa to pass the winter. Holding
on their course, the fleet came to anchor at Gran Canaria on Wednesday the
2d of October, and sailed again at midnight for Gomera, where it arrived
on the 5th of October.
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