Night shrouded the sea, and the tide swelled into the bay. A splash of something hitting the water, followed by a desperate, hoarse scream, echoed through the black night.
"Columbus! I curse you... ah!..."
Castile's fleet sailed away without a shred of mercy. When the slowest ship, the flagship Santa Maria, passed out of the narrow river mouth and vanished beneath the vast, dim canopy of sky, all that remained in Boatswain Bartolome's eyes was the cold, cruel sea...
"Damned bastard! Leaving me on the savages' great island... I should have killed you long ago! Long ago..."
Two quarters of an hour later, Boatswain Bartolome, utterly spent, struggled with all his strength and finally swam to shore. He collapsed onto the beach like a fish about to die of exhaustion, unable even to turn over. Soaked through and dizzy with hunger, he stared at the brilliant river of stars across the sky as if he had seen some heavenly delicacy. And the bursts of birdsong drifting often from the woods seemed to carry the aroma of roasted birds, drawing closer and closer...
"Ao! Coo, coo! There's a lone evil spirit over there! He's not moving at all, like a dead fish!..."
"Shh! Keep your voice down! He looks like he was thrown off the last big ship..."
"Ah! Then what do we do? Kill him?... But Chief Koki's order to us was to follow the evil spirits' fleet and see whether, after leaving the river mouth, they went east or west..."
"The Sun, Great Main God, is our witness! Those ships were too fast. We couldn't keep up! But we can tell they went east... Come on! We'll slowly get close to this evil spirit, careful not to make any sound, and then..."
Gray clouds drifted over, veiling the starry