On June 30, 1349, there was a total eclipse of the Moon visible at London to which some interest attaches. Archdeacon Churton[133] connects it with the following incident:—“The worthy Abp. Bradwardine, who nourished in the reign of the Norman Edwards, and died A.D. 1349, tells a story of a witch who was attempting to impose on the simple people of the time. It was a fine summer’s night, and the Moon was suddenly eclipsed. ‘Make me good amends,’ said she, ‘for old wrongs, or I will bid the Sun also to withdraw his light from you.’ Bradwardine, who had studied the Arabian astronomers, was more than a match for this simple trick, without calling in the aid of the Saxon law. ‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘at what time you will do this, and we will believe you; or if you will not tell me, I will tell you when the Sun or the Moon will next be darkened, in what part of their orb the darkness will begin, how far it will spread, and how long it will continue.’” An eclipse of the Moon which happened when Columbus was at the Island of Jamaica proved of great service to him when he was in difficulties owing to the want of food supplies which the inhabitants refused to afford. The eclipse was a total one, and so far as the description goes the eclipses of April 2, 1493, and March 1, 1504, both respond to the recorded circumstances: both were total and both occurred soon after sunset. But, inasmuch as in the life of Columbus written by his son the incident is placed nearly at the end of the work, there can be no doubt that it is the later of the above eclipses which was the one in question. The story is very graphically told by Sir A. Helps[134] in the words following:—