| "The flotilla left the Canary Island of Gomera on September 6, 1492, and shaped a course westward. The winds blew steadily astern; no storms arose; the resources of navigation were in no wise taxed. Indeed, on the 16th of September and often afterwards, Columbus notes that "they met with very temperate breezes so that there was great pleasure in enjoying the mornings, nothing being wanted but the song of nightingales. . . . The weather," he says, "was like April in Andalusia."" |