[Footnote 41: Columbus was required by King John II., of Portugal, to furnish a detailed plan of his proposed voyages, with the charts and other documents according to which he proposed to shape his course, for the alleged purpose of having them examined by the royal counselors. He readily complied; but while he remained in anxious suspense as to the decision of the council, a caravel was secretly dispatched with instructions to pursue the route designated in the papers of Columbus. This voyage had the ostensible pretext of carrying provisions to the Cape de Verde Islands; the private instructions given were carried into effect when the caravel departed thence. It stood westward for several days; but then the weather grew stormy, and the pilots having no zeal to stimulate them, and seeing nothing but an immeasurable waste of wild, trembling waves still extending before them, lost all courage to proceed. They put back to the Cape de Verde Islands, and thence to Lisbon, excusing their own want of resolution by ridiculing the project of Columbus. On discovering this act of treachery, Columbus instantly quitted Portugal.--_Hist. del Almirante_, cap. viii.; Herrera, Dec. I., lib. i., cap. vii.; Munoz, _Hist. del Nuevo Mundo_, lib. ii.--Quoted by Prescott.] [Footnote 42: "Le Vendredi n'etant pas regarde dans la Chretiente comme un jour de bon augure pour le commencement d'une entreprise, les historiens du 17[me] siecle, qui gemissaient deja sur les maux dont, selon eux, l'Europe a ete accable par la decouverte de l'Amerique, on fait remarque que Colomb est parti pour la premiere expedition _vendredi_, 3 aout 1492, et que la premiere terre d'Amerique a ete decouverte _vendredi_ 12 Octobre de la meme annee. La reformation du calendrier appliquee au journal de Colomb, qui indique toujours a la fois, les jours de la semaine et la date du mois, feroit disparoitre le pronostic du jour fatal."--Humboldt's _Geog. du Nouveau Continent_, vol. iii., p. 160.] [Footnote 43: His first landing in the New World partook of the same character as his departure from the Old. "Christoforo Colombo--primo con una bandiera nella quale era figurato il nostro Signore Jesu Christo in croce, salto in terra, e quella pianto, e poi tutti gli alti smontarono, e inginocchiati baciarono la terra, tre volti piangendo di allegrezza. Di poi Colombo alzate le mani al cielo lagrimando disse, Signor Dio Eterno, Signore omnipotente, tu creasti il cielo, e la terra, e il mare con la tua santa parola, sia benedetto e glorificato il nome tuo, sia ringraziata la tua Maesta, la quale si e degnata per mano d' uno umil suo servo far ch' el suo santo nome sia conosciuto e divulgato in questa altra parte del mondo."--Pietro Martire, _Dell' Indie Occidentali_, in Ramusio, tom. iii., p. 2; Oviedo, _Hist. Gen. dell' India_.]