"Lord! These natives rowing longships are all wearing Leather Armor and carrying bows and spears—there are at least a hundred and sixty of them!"
"What! They're not slowing down? They're speeding up and charging right at us!... Merciful Holy Mother protect us! They're enemies! Enemies!..."
"Quick! Turn around! Get out of the mouth of the bay, into the deep sea!"
The vast "Big Water Bay," dozens of miles across, narrowed at a sea mouth only a few hundred meters wide, where it joined the boundless Caribbean Sea. Within Big Water Bay were schools of migrating fish gathering together, sea turtles resting and sunning themselves, and startled seagulls wheeling overhead; it was filled with the vigorous life of the tropics. Compared with the bay's abundance, however, the deep-blue Caribbean Sea was like a barren, sprawling wilderness of hills, flowing with a silent desolation.
Life and desolation lay on the two sides of the sea mouth, separated by a long, narrow channel several hundred meters across. Yet for the two Castilian Caravels, just as they turned their bows and raised full sail, three Oared Longships came sprinting in, blocking the route to the limitless ocean! The line between life and death was overturned in that instant!
"Ah! Lord protect us! The sailboats accelerate too slowly—the natives' boats reached the sea mouth first... We won't make it!..."
"What? The natives' longships are charging straight into us! Damn it! Are they going to... board us?!..."
On the two Caravels, forty Castilian Sailors shouted in panic and terror. The natives' three oared sailboats had already closed to within a hundred paces at flying speed! Captain Big Pinzon bit his lip until it bled, with no time at all for fear. In a trembling, shrill voice, he let out a crowlike, piercing howl.
"Quick! Quick!! Light