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.
The admiral issued orders for every thing of which
the fleet might stand in need to be provided with all possible dispatch.
On Monday the 7th of October, the admiral continued his voyage for the
West Indies, having first delivered sealed orders to every ship in the
fleet, with strict injunctions that they were not to be opened unless
separated from him by stress of weather. In these he gave directions for
the course which they were to steer for attaining the town of the Nativity
in Hispaniola, and he did not wish that course should be known by any one
without urgent necessity. Having sailed on with a fair wind until Thursday
the 24th of October, when they were by estimation 400 leagues west from
Gomera, all were astonished at not finding any of the weeds which had been
met with on the former voyage when only 250 leagues advanced into the
Atlantic. On that day and the next a swallow was seen flying about the
fleet. On the night of Saturday the 26th, the body of St Elmo, with
seven lighted candles, was seen on the round top, which was followed by
prodigious torrents of rain and frightful thunder and lightning. I mean
those lights were seen which the seamen affirm to be the body of St Elmo,
to whom they sing litanies and prayers upon these occasions, and they
firmly believe that there can be no danger from those storms in which that
phenomenon occurs. According to Pliny, when such lights appeared to the
Roman sailors they were said to be Castor and Pollux, of which Seneca
likewise makes mention in the beginning of his Book of Nature.[4]
On Saturday the 2d of November, the admiral observed a great alteration in
the appearance of the sky and in the winds, and concluded from these, and
the prevalence of heavy rains, that he was certainly approaching the land,
and therefore ordered most of the sails to be furled, and all the people
to be on the watch, and to keep a strict look out. This precaution was
exceedingly necessary; for next morning, just as day began to dawn, a high
mountainous island was discovered about seven leagues to the west, to
which the admiral gave the name of Dominica, because discovered on Sunday.
Soon afterwards another island was seen to the north-east of Dominica, and
then another, and another after that more to the northwards.[5] On this
joyful occasion, all the crew assembled on the poop, and devoutly sung the
salve regina, and other hymns, giving thanks to God that in twenty
days after their departure from Gomera they had safely made the land,
judging the distance between Gomera and Dominica to be between 750 and 800
leagues. Finding no convenient place for anchoring on the east side of
Dominica, the admiral stood over to another island which he named
Marigalante after his own ship.
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