through a long credo, may have thought himself back amid the brilliant
sunshine and strange perfumes of Espanola; and from a dream of some nymph
hiding in the sweet groves of the Vega may have awakened with a sigh to
the strident Alleluias of his brother priests. At any rate, farewell to
James, safely seated beneath the Gospel light, and continuing to sit
there until, in the year 1515, death interrupts him. We are not any more
concerned with James in his priestly shelter, but with those elder
brothers of his who are making ready again to face the sun and the
surges.

Columbus's ships were on the point of sailing when word came that the
Moors were besieging a Portuguese post on the coast of Morocco, and, as
civility was now the order of the day between Spain and Portugal, the
Admiral was instructed to call on his way there and afford some relief.
This he did, sailing from Cadiz on the 9th or 10th of May to Ercilla on
the Morocco coast, where he anchored on the 13th. But the Moors had all
departed and the siege was over; so Columbus, having sent Bartholomew and
some of his officers ashore on a civil visit, which was duly returned,
set out the same day on his last voyage.




CHAPTER III

THE LAST VOYAGE

The four ships that made up the Admiral's fleet on his fourth and last
voyage were all small caravels, the largest only of seventy tons and the
smallest only of fifty. Columbus chose for his flagship the Capitana,