A Brief Summary Of Chapter 1 American Dialectical Journal

Chapter Thirteen: Hidden Among the Waves

The voyage by this time was proceeding with an intensified rhythm and the monotony was beginning to wear on the crew. The crew searched vainly for some variation in routine or some excitement in the waters around them. They searched for anything that would end the weariness and stimulate their interests. It was now more than a week since they lost sight of the Canaries and some thirty more days since leaving the Port of Palos. This day was quite ordinary in its beginning, but in the afternoon, the Nina pulled alongside the Santa Maria. The pilot of the Nina shouted that they just saw a tern and other tropic birds. Land must be nearby since these birds never go more than twenty-five leagues
He was somewhat embarrassed that he spoke with a lisp and often found it difficult to get his words together as quickly as the other seamen. On this particular day as he sat apart from all of the other men. Leaning against the ladder, he was unprepared for the sudden appearance of a tern which landed in an abrupt motion on the top rung of this ladder. Diego instinctively looked up at the bird but the motion of Diego's head startled the bird so that it immediately took wing and circled high above the mast of the ship. Diego continued to watch the bird being very careful not to move his arm or head again. After some time, he noticed that the bird was tiring. The circular path high above the ship was getting ever lower and soon the bird carefully and cautiously again approached the same ladder. Diego was committed to being a statue with outstretched hands. The fatigued bird landed upon the ladder again, ventured even closer to Diego's casually outstretched hand. Diego held his breath, froze his body. The tern occupied itself with preening its wings and picking at its feathers and did not notice the ever so slight motion of the approaching hand. When Diego felt that his hand was close enough to sweep up the bird he suddenly grabbed at the bird and successfully locked his hand about one of the bird's legs. The tern screamed, yelled and flapped its wings trying to
There were no worms in the stomach. After the hasty autopsy, Diego respectfully threw the remains overboard. The expectation and distraction of land was growing.

Soon the weeds of the sea became thick like the foam of a soup pot. A growing concern among the men as that this algae might become so dense that it would impede the progress of their vessels. The carpet of floating seaweed covered the ocean as far as the eye could see. Men searched the horizon for hulls of ships that had been hopelessly engulfed in the weed as was rumored since ancient times. They found no lost ships. They found no islands. The endless mass of weeds was alarming to the Pilot because weeds are often found in the vicinity of the shelf of land. Usually it was torn from the seabed by storms and hurled onto mainland beaches. It was deemed to be another evidence of shallow water. Columbus shared with La Cosa and Peralonso that these weeds are called "sargoco" by the Portuguese, who first observed weeds in the area of the Azores. They confirmed that, although very dense, it rarely impedes the progress of sailing ships when encountered in mid-ocean. Since the Admiral was sure that they were not that near land, there was no cause for alarm. However, they should, as a precaution, take soundings with the lead line to at least two hundred fathoms to be certain that there were no shallow waters