This course was entered upon an hour before sunset and continued throughout the night and the next day.
"The sea was like the river of Seville," says the Admiral; "the breezes as soft as at Seville in April, and very fragrant." More birds were to be seen, and there were many signs of land; but the crew, so often disappointed in their hopeful interpretations of the phenomena surrounding them, kept on murmuring and complaining.

On Tuesday, October 9th, the wind chopped round a little and the course was altered, first to south-west and then at evening to a point north of west; and the journal records that "all night they heard birds passing." The next day Columbus resumed the west-southwesterly course and made a run of fifty-nine leagues; but the mariners broke out afresh in their discontent, and declined to go any farther.

They complained of the long voyage, and expressed their views strongly to the commander.

But they had to deal with a man who was determined to begin with, and who saw in the many signs of land that they had met with only an additional inducement to go on.

He told them firmly that with or without their consent he intended to go on until he had found the land he had come to seek.
The next day, Thursday, October 11th, was destined to be for ever memorable in the history of the world.