﻿Columbus’ logbook
FRIDAY,
3 AUGUST
   We set sail from the coast of Palos on Friday, 3 August 1492 at 8 o'clock, and proceeded with a strong breeze till sunset, sixty sea miles or fifteen leagues south, afterwards turned southwest and south by west, which is the direction of the Canaries.
(Columbus' ships reached Ferro, an isle of the Canary Islands on Wednesday, 9 August. Here they took food and water and then set sail again on Thursday, 6 September. Three Portugese caravels attempted to cut off their route, because the king of Portugal did not look with favour on Columbus' venture.)

MONDAY,
10 SEPTEMBER
   This day and night we sailed two hundred and forty sea miles, but I reckoned only one hundred and ninety-two sea miles, that the men might not be terrified if they should be long upon the voyage.
(Because Columbus assured his companions that India is not very far from the Western coast of Europe; from here onwards he always tampered with data, that the others did not notice how far they had travelled.)

SUNDAY,
16 SEPTEMBER
   ...The weather is as pleasant as in Andalusia in April. Here we began to meet with large patches of weeds very green, and which appeared to have been recently washed away from the land; on which account we all judged ourselves to be near some island, though not a continent; because in my opinion the continent we shall find further ahead.
[The weed that Columbus speaks about here is the so-called Sargasso Sea, a phenomenon experienced on the Atlantic Ocean. The continent mentioned is Cathay, that is, China. Based on The travels of Marco Polo he expects to reach the islands that gird the Eastern coast of China first, among them Cipango, that is, Japan.]

TUESDAY,
18 SEPTEMBER
   On this day and the following night we sailed above 220 sea miles; I wrote down only 192. The sea was calm and smooth all the while, like the river in Seville.
On this day Martin Alonso [Martin Alonso Pinzón, captain of Pinta, one of Columbus' first followers who also made huge sacrifices to equip the three caravels and in exchange expected a certain share from the income of the enterprise.] outsailed my ship with the swiftly moving Pinta, having informed me from his caravel that he had seen a large flock of birds flying towards the west, and so he hoped to catch sight of the land during the night, and sailed forward with his caravel to this end. A mist rose to the north, a sign of near coast.
(Their premonitions proved incorrect, they were disappointed by many other indications as well. The sailors grew restless.)

SUNDAY, 
23 SEPTEMBER
   We sailed on northwest and northwest by north, and then in the correct direction, that is, west, and made 88 sea miles. We saw a turtle dove, a pelican, another river bird and several other white fowl; the weeds were in abundance with many crabs among them.
The sea being smooth and tranquil, the sailors murmured, saying that they had got into smooth water, where it would never blow to carry them back to Spain, because in this region the ocean never makes high waves.
However, afterwards the sea rose without wind. The rising of the sea was very favourable to me, as similar miracle happened formerly in the time of the Jews, when the Egyptians set out in pursuit of Moses, when he freed the Jews from slavery. [In Madriaga's excellent Columbus biography he sees this reference as an evidence of Columbus' Jewish origin.] 

TUESDAY,
25 SEPTEMBER
   ...At sunset Martin Alonso called out with great joy from his vessel that he saw land, and demanded a reward for his intelligence. When I saw that Pinzón insists on his statement, I fell on my knees and returned thanks to God, and Martin Alonso with his crew repeated Gloria in excelsis Deo. The crew of Santa Maria acted in the same way. Those on board the Nina ascended the rigging, and all declared they saw land. I also thought it was land ahead at a distance of about 100 sea miles. Even at night everybody kept on repeating that there was land ahead.



