Part 7

On the 25th of September the wind again became favorable, and they were able to resume their course directly to the west. The airs being light and the sea calm, the vessels sailed near to each other, and Columbus had much conversation with Martin Alonzo Pinzon on the subject of a chart, which the former had sent three days before on board of the Pinta. Pinzon thought that, according to the indications of the map, they ought to be in the neighborhood of Cipango and the other islands which the admiral had therein delineated.

Columbus partly entertained the same idea, but thought it possible that the ships might have been borne out of their track by the prevalent currents, or that they had not come so far as the pilots had reckoned. He desired that the chart might be returned, and Pinzon, tying it to the end of a cord, flung it on board to him.

While Columbus, his pilot, and several of his experienced mariners were studying the map and endeavoring to make out from it their actual position, they heard a shout from the Pinta, and, looking up, beheld Martin Alonzo Pinzon mounted on the stern of his vessel, crying:

“Land! land! Señor, I claim my reward!”

He pointed at the same time to the southwest, where there was indeed an appearance of land at about twenty-five leagues’ distance.

Upon this Columbus threw himself on his knees and returned thanks to God; and Martin Alonzo repeated the _Gloria in Excelsis_, in which he was joined by his own crew and that of the admiral.

The seamen now mounted to the masthead or climbed about the rigging, straining their eyes in the direction pointed out. The conviction became so general of land in that quarter, and the joy of the people so ungovernable, that Columbus found it necessary to vary from his usual course and stand all night to the southwest.

The morning light, however, put an end to all their hopes, as to a dream. The fancied land proved to be nothing but an evening cloud, and had vanished in the night. With dejected hearts they once more resumed their western course, from which Columbus would never have varied but in compliance with their clamorous wishes.

For several days they continued on with the same propitious breeze, tranquil sea, and mild, delightful weather. The water was so calm that the sailors amused themselves with swimming about the vessel. Dolphins began to abound, and flying fish, darting into the air, fell upon the decks. The continued signs of land diverted the attention of the crews and insensibly beguiled them onward.

On the 1st of October, according to the reckoning of the pilot of the admiral’s ship, they had come five hundred and eighty leagues west since leaving the Canary Islands. The reckoning which Columbus showed the crew was five hundred and eighty-four, but the reckoning which he kept privately was seven hundred and seven. On the following day the weeds floated from east to west, and on the third day no birds were to be seen.

The crews now began to fear that they had passed between islands, from one to the other of which the birds had been flying. Columbus had also some doubts of the kind, but refused to alter his westward course. The people again uttered murmurs and menaces, but on the following day they were visited by such flights of birds, and the various indications of land became so numerous, that from a state of despondency they passed to one of confident expectation.

Eager to obtain the promised pension, the seamen were continually giving the cry of land, on the least appearance of the kind. To put a stop to these false alarms, which produced continual disappointment, Columbus declared that should any one give such notice, and land not be discovered within three days afterward, he should thenceforth forfeit all claim to the reward.

On the evening of the 6th of October Martin Alonzo Pinzon began to lose confidence in their present course, and proposed that they should stand more to the southward. Columbus, however, still persisted in steering directly west. Observing this difference of opinion in a person so important in his squadron as Pinzon, and fearing that chance or design might scatter the ships, he ordered that, should either of the caravels be separated from him, it should stand to the west, and endeavor as soon as possible to join company again. He directed, also, that the vessels should keep near to him at sunrise and sunset, as at these times the state of the atmosphere is most favorable to the discovery of distant land.

On the morning of the 7th of October, at sunrise, several of the admiral’s crew thought they beheld land away to the west, but so indistinctly that no one ventured to proclaim it, lest he should be mistaken, and forfeit all chance of the reward: the Niña, however, being a good sailor, pressed forward to ascertain the fact.

In a little while a flag was hoisted at her masthead, and a gun discharged, being the preconcerted signals for land. New joy was awakened throughout the little squadron, and every eye was turned to the west. As they advanced, however, their cloud-built hopes faded away, and before evening the fancied land had again melted into air.

The crews now sank into a degree of dejection proportioned to their recent excitement; but new circumstances occurred to arouse them. Columbus, having observed great flights of small field-birds going toward the southwest, concluded they must be secure of some neighboring land, where they would find food and a resting-place. He knew the importance which the Portuguese voyagers attached to the flight of birds, by following which they had discovered most of their islands.

He had now come seven hundred and fifty leagues, the distance at which he had computed to find the island of Cipango; as there was no appearance of it, he might have missed it through some mistake in the latitude. He determined, therefore, on the evening of the 7th of October, to alter his course to the west-southwest—the direction in which the birds generally flew—and continue that direction for at least two days.

After all, it was no great deviation from his main course, and would meet the wishes of the Pinzons, as well as be inspiriting to his followers generally.

For three days they stood in this direction, and the farther they went the more frequent and encouraging were the signs of land. Flights of small birds of various colors, some of them such as sing in the fields, came flying about the ships, and then continued toward the southwest, and others were heard also flying by in the night. Tunny fish played about the smooth sea, and a heron, a pelican, and a duck were seen, all bound in the same direction. The herbage which floated by was fresh and green, as if recently from land, and the air, Columbus observed, was as sweet and fragrant as April breezes in Seville.

All these, however, were regarded by the crews as so many delusions beguiling them on to destruction; and when on the evening of the third day they beheld the sun go down upon a shoreless ocean, they broke forth into turbulent clamor. They exclaimed against this obstinacy in tempting fate by continuing on into a boundless sea. They insisted upon turning homeward and abandoning the voyage as hopeless.

Columbus endeavored to pacify them by gentle words and promises of large rewards; but finding that they only increased in clamor, he assumed a decided tone. He told them that it was useless to murmur; the expedition had been sent by the sovereigns to seek the Indies, and, happen what might, he was determined to persevere until, by the blessing of God, he should accomplish the enterprise.

Columbus was now at open defiance with his crew, and his situation became desperate. Fortunately the manifestations of the vicinity of land were such on the following day as no longer to admit a doubt. Besides a quantity of fresh weeds, such as grow in rivers, they saw a green fish of a kind which keeps about rocks; then a branch of thorn with berries on it, and recently separated from the tree, floated by them; then they picked up a reed, a small board, and, above all, a staff artificially carved.

All gloom and mutiny now gave way to sanguine expectation, and throughout the day each one was eagerly on the watch, in hopes of being the first to discover the long-sought-for land.

In the evening, when, according to invariable custom on board of the admiral’s ship, the mariners had sung the _Salve Regina_, or vesper hymn to the Virgin, he made an impressive address to his crew. He pointed out the goodness of God in thus conducting them by soft and favoring breezes across a tranquil ocean, cheering their hopes continually with fresh signs, increasing as their fears augmented, and thus leading and guiding them to a promised land.

He now reminded them of the orders he had given on leaving the Canaries—that, after sailing westward seven hundred leagues, they should not make sail after midnight. Present appearances authorized such a precaution. He thought it probable they would make land that very night; he ordered, therefore, a vigilant lookout to be kept from the forecastle, promising to whomsoever should make the discovery a doublet of velvet in addition to the pension to be given by the sovereigns.

The breeze had been fresh all day, with more sea than usual, and they had made great progress. At sunset they had stood again to the west, and were plowing the waves at a rapid rate, the Pinta keeping the lead, from her superior sailing. The greatest animation prevailed throughout the ships; not an eye was closed that night.

As the evening darkened, Columbus took his station on the top of the castle or cabin on the high poop of his vessel, ranging his eye along the dusky horizon, and maintaining an intense and unremitting watch. About ten o’clock he thought he beheld a light glimmering at a great distance. Fearing his eager hopes might deceive him, he called to Pedro Gutierrez, gentleman of the king’s bedchamber, and inquired whether he saw such a light; the latter replied in the affirmative.

Doubtful whether it might not yet be some delusion of the fancy, Columbus called Rodrigo Sanchez, of Segovia, and made the same inquiry. By the time the latter had ascended the round-house the light had disappeared. They saw it once or twice afterward in sudden and passing gleams—as if it were a torch in the bark of a fisherman, rising and sinking with the waves, or in the hand of some person on shore borne up and down as he walked from house to house.

So transient and uncertain were these gleams that few attached any importance to them; Columbus, however, considered them as certain signs of land, and, moreover, that the land was inhabited.

They continued their course until two in the morning, when a gun from the Pinta gave the joyous signal of land. It was first descried by a mariner named Rodrigo de Triana; but the reward was afterward adjudged to the admiral for having previously perceived the light.

The land was now clearly seen about two leagues distant, whereupon they took in sail and laid to, waiting impatiently for the dawn.

The thoughts and feelings of Columbus In this little space of time must have been tumultuous and intense. At length, in spite of every difficulty and danger, he had accomplished his object. The great mystery of the ocean was revealed; his theory, which had been the scoff of sages, was triumphantly established; he had secured to himself a glory durable as the world itself.

It is difficult to conceive the feelings of such a man at such a moment, or the conjectures which must have thronged upon his mind as to the land before him, covered with darkness. That it was fruitful was evident from the vegetables which floated from its shores.

He thought, too, that he perceived the fragrance of aromatic groves. The moving light he had beheld proved it to be the residence of man. But what were its inhabitants? Were they like those of the other parts of the globe, or were they some strange and monstrous race, such as the imagination was prone in those times to give to all remote and unknown regions? Had he come upon some wild island far in the Indian Sea, or was this the famed Cipango itself, the object of his golden fancies?

A thousand speculations of the kind must have swarmed upon him, as, with his anxious crews, he waited for the night to pass away; wondering whether the morning light would reveal a savage wilderness, or dawn upon spicy groves, and glittering fanes, and gilded cities, and all the splendors of Oriental civilization.

ORIGIN OF POPULAR GAMES.

Dice-Shaking, Chess, and Polo Rank As Patriarchs, While Ping-Pong and Basket-Ball May be Said to Be Only Fledgelings Just Out of the Incubator—Football Was Taken to England by the Romans.

Few nations are able to boast of such a great variety of games as are played in Great Britain and the United States. In many cases the Anglo-Saxon has been responsible for the preservation of games which are now almost unknown in the countries in which they had their origin. Some of these forms of diversion are older than the Roman Empire, while others, like ping-pong and basket-ball, are of recent invention.

=BASEBALL= holds undisputed sway as the American national game. It is founded on the old English game of rounders, and for almost a century it has been known in the Eastern States in various forms.

=BASKET-BALL= is unique, inasmuch as it was the invention of one man, and was completed at a single sitting. In 1891, in the course of a lecture at the Young Men’s Christian Association in Plainfield, Massachusetts, the lecturer spoke of the mental processes of invention, and used a game, with its limitations and necessities, as an illustration. James Naismith, who was a member of the class, worked out basket-ball that same night as an ideal game to meet the case. It was presented the next day in the lecture-room and put in practise with the aid of the members of the gymnasium. From there it spread to other branches of the Young Men’s Christian Association and subsequently to athletic clubs and the general public.

=BILLIARDS= is believed by some to have been brought from the East by the Crusaders, while others claim an English origin for it and find it allied to the game of bowls. Still others assert that the French developed it from an ancient German game. It seems pretty certain that the first person to give form and rule to the game was an artist, named Henrique Devigne, who lived in the reign of Charles IX. One writer sees in billiards the ancient game of paille-maille played on a table instead of on the ground, and this is indeed a very reasonable assumption.

=BOWLS=, or bowling, is one of the most popular and ancient of English pastimes, its origin being traceable to the twelfth century. It was held in such disfavor for years that laws were enacted against it and it was an illegal pursuit. Alleys were built, however, as it could not be played out-of-doors during the winter, and the game flourished in spite of opposition. In the beginning of the eighteenth century greens began to increase, while the alleys were rigorously and absolutely suppressed. It soon became a royal game, and no gentleman’s place was complete without a bowling-green.

=CHECKERS= is said by some to be a very old game, while others declare it to be of comparatively modern origin. Whence it came is absolutely unknown. The game is also called draughts, and there are many varieties of it—Chinese, English, Polish, Spanish, Italian, and Turkish. It is also found among the native tribes of the interior of New Zealand.

=CHESS= always has been the subject of more dispute, so far as its origin is concerned, than any other game. It is probably the most ancient as well as the most intellectual of games, and it is played all over the world. The belief which is most generally accepted is that it came from the Hindoos, and the most conservative estimate places its age at one thousand years. Some persons, however, claim an age of from four to five thousand years for it. Its basis is the art of war, and the Hindoo name for it, _chaturanga_, means the four “angas” or members of an army which are given in Hindoo writings as elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers.

=CRICKET= is the national game of Englishmen, and seems always to have been played in Britain. The first mention of it is found in a manuscript of the thirteenth century. The name comes from the Saxon _cric_ or _cryc_, a crooked stick—an obvious reference to the bat with which it is played. Wherever the English have colonized, the game is played, and in many of the British possessions it has become popular with the natives, notably in New Zealand.

=CROQUET= is said to have been derived from paille-maille, or mall, which was played in Languedoc in the thirteenth century. Mall was very popular in England at the time of the Stuarts. No other game has had such fluctuations of fortune as croquet, as it sunk into oblivion by the end of the eighteenth century, yet was revived during the middle of the nineteenth, and assumed almost the popularity of a national game.

=CURLING= has been popular in North Britain for the last three centuries, and is regarded as a Scottish game. It is possible that some of the Flemish merchants brought it into the country toward the close of the sixteenth century, but however that may be, it owes its development to the Scotch, and is now decidedly the national game of Scotland.

=DICE= are said by some to have had their origin in occult sources, but more reasonably they are ascribed to Psalmedes, of Greece, B.C. 1244. Those exhumed at Thebes are identical with those used to-day, and the games played with them are the simplest and most widely known games of chance in the world.

=FOOTBALL= was undoubtedly introduced into England by the Romans, and is, therefore, older than the national game of cricket. Varieties of it may be found in many parts of the world. It is known in the Philippines and through the Polynesian Islands, among the Eskimos, the Faroe Islands, and even by the Maoris of New Zealand. The Greeks also played it.

=GOLF= is popularly supposed to have its origin In Scotland, but there seems to be good reason for believing that it came from Holland. The name itself is undoubtedly of German or Dutch extraction, and an enactment of James I of England, bearing date 1618, refers to a considerable importation of golf-balls from Holland, and at the same time places a restriction upon this extravagant use, in a foreign country, of the coin of the realm.

=LACROSSE= is the national ball-game of Canada. It came from the aboriginal red men, who doubtless played it for many centuries before the discovery of the New World. Different tribes played it in different ways, and it was usually very rough. The name was given to it by the French Canadians, who saw the resemblance between the curved netted stick used in playing it and a bishop’s crozier or _crosse_.

=PING-PONG= is really table-tennis, and had its origin in that game. Its immense popularity lasted only a brief space of time, and its greatest vogue was in France and America.

=POKER= is probably a development of _il frusso_, an Italian game of the fifteenth century. A similar game called _primiera_ was played in Italy in the sixteenth century, and thence journeyed into Spain. In France this became _ambigu_, and later appeared in England under the name of brag. Poker is distinctly an American game, and seems to have descended more directly from the game of brag than from any of the others.

=POLO= is of Eastern origin, and has been a favorite pastime in Persia, Tatary, and the frontiers of India from prehistoric times. The name of the game varies with the district, and the rules are not the same on minor points, though they are substantially alike on the main issues. China and Japan also have a game closely resembling the Persian sport.

=POOL AND PYRAMIDS= are both a form of billiards, and their origin from the same source is apparent.

=SHUFFLEBOARD= probably comes from the same source as quoits, curling, and bowling. It was immensely popular in England during the reign of Henry VIII. Subsequently it was one of the games forbidden by law because it turned the people from the practise of archery.

=TENNIS= is pronounced the oldest of all the existing ball-games. It is impossible to give its origin, but it was played in Europe during the Middle Ages, in the parks or ditches of the feudal castles. It was at first the pastime of kings and nobles, but later it grew popular with all classes. The French took it from the Italians and the English from the French.

=WHIST= undoubtedly is derived from the old game of trumps, which has a purely English lineage. There is no record of the origin of this game nor of its development into ruff-and-honors, which was the parent of whist. The earliest reference to it is believed to be in a sermon of Latimer’s, about the year 1529. The name probably is derived from the “hist” or “silence” which close attention to play demands of the players.

THE WORLD’S GREAT OPERAS.[1]

=Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman—No. 3.=

_An original article written for_ THE SCRAP BOOK.

Footnote 1:

This series began in THE SCRAP BOOK for August. Single copies, 10c.

[Sidenote: =The Flying Dutchman.=]

Ten weeks after the production of “Rienzi,” the Dresden Theater produced Wagner’s new opera, “The Flying Dutchman,” which had been composed in seven weeks after the completion of “Rienzi.” Much to the surprise of Wagner and his friends, “The Flying Dutchman” met with a cold reception, and served to slam shut in Wagner’s face the door of popularity which “Rienzi” had opened. The work was inadequately staged and sung; but a more effective cause of its failure lay in the fact that it was a new kind of opera, whose method the public did not understand.

Wagner had begun to apply his theory of leading motives, or reminiscent melodies. These motives are phrases of a few notes rendered by the orchestra, each of which symbolizes a character, a psychological mood, or an event of dramatic weight.

While listening to the story which the orchestra is telling, one may without difficulty foretell the entrance of a character, the approach of doom, or the fateful result of an action. From these motives, modulated through strange keys and sung by instruments of differing colors, the scores of Wagner’s late operas, from “Die Meistersinger” on, were in their entirety composed.

❧ ❧ ❧

[Sidenote: =Wagner.=]

Wagner received his idea for “The Flying Dutchman” from a dramatic episode in his own life. At the time of the production of his opera, “The Novice of Palermo,” he was living beyond his means in Russia, in the town of Riga.

The failure of his opera left him heavily in debt, and the importunities of creditors decided him to escape in disguise from Russian territory. Minna, his wife, masqueraded as the wife of a lumberman, who took her as far as Pillau, in north Prussia, to which place Wagner was assisted by a different route. From that seaport he embarked with his wife, an opera and a half, a diminutive purse, and a Newfoundland dog, on a sailing-vessel to London, and thence to Paris.

Before leaving Riga, Wagner had read the legend of the Flying Dutchman, who was condemned to sail forever till the love of a faithful woman should release him from this curse. Among the wild storms of Wagner’s own voyage, in the wild romance of the passage through Northern fiords, he became obsessed by the story.