Читать книгу Christopher Columbus онлайн

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Hardly had the crew recovered from this shock before a new trouble arose. They had come to the region of the trade-winds, which were unknown at that time. They shuddered as they thought that if these winds continued to blow they might never reach home again. One unfortunate thing followed another. On the sixteenth of September their fear was greatly increased. They suddenly observed that the ocean, as far as the eye could reach, was covered so completely with a green weed that it seemed as if they were sailing over a vast meadow.[14] In some places it was so thick they could hardly make their way through it. The sailors said to themselves, “We have come to the end of the navigable ocean. Under this sea-weed there must be reefs and shallows which will wreck our vessels. Why should we, wretched unfortunates, longer consent to follow this foolhardy leader?” Columbus again quieted them and inspired fresh hope. He said to them, “Why should you be troubled about a matter which shows that we are now approaching the wished-for goal? Does not vegetation grow by the sea? Is it not certain that we are not far from the shores where this sea-weed grew?”