"Course due west, speed eight knots, between 25 and 26 degrees north latitude!..."
"Boom! Boom!..."
"The Lord's blessing! The Nina has raised a flag! The Nina has fired her cannon! They've sighted land!..."
The morning sunlight spilled over the glittering sea like cheese spread across an expensive porcelain plate, full of an enticing flavor. Three Castilian sailing ships had all their canvas raised, racing due west at around seven or eight knots. Captain Small Pinzon's Nina was the fastest, and it was also the first to send word that land had been sighted, lifting the spirits of the sailors on all three ships. But then...
"Vaffanculo! That idiot Small Pinzon is as stupid as his brother! Not only are they stupid, they're blind too, mistaking the clouds on the horizon for land again!... There's not a damned thing, not a damned thing at all! Got everyone happy for nothing again! Merda!"
Cloud banks stretched westward, merging with the distant sea, like land that could be seen but never touched. Expedition Commander Columbus stood on the sterncastle, cursing under his breath while his eyes stared fixedly out over the vast sea and sky, trying to catch some trace of land.
Yet not until the sunset glow of dusk did he sigh helplessly and admit that this had been another fruitless day. The flocks of birds in the sky cried as they flew away, as if they too were mocking him.
"Merda! Birds that fat ought to have Arana put a shot into them and bring them down to eat!... Forget it. If these fools had that kind of marksmanship, they'd have joined the royal Crusader Army long ago, not come running off to be adventurous sailors..."
Columbus cursed softly for a while, looking down on this bunch of sailors under him