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378
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
·
Henry M. Field
8
It
is
hard
to
imagine
the
darkness
and
the
terror
which
then
hung
over
the
face
of
the
deep.
The
ocean
to
the
west
was
a
Mare
Tenebrosum--a
Sea
of
Darkness,
into
which
only
the
boldest
voyagers
dared
to
venture.
Columbus
was
the
most
successful
navigator
of
his
time.
He
had
made
voyages
to
the
Western
Islands,
to
Madeira
and
the
Canaries,
to
Iceland
on
the
north,
and
to
the
Portuguese
settlements
in
Africa.
But
when
he
came
to
cross
the
sea,
he
had
to
grope
his
way
almost
blindly.
But
a
few
rays
of
knowledge
glimmered,
like
stars,
on
the
pathless
waters.
When
he
sailed
on
his
voyage
of
discovery,
he
directed
his
course,
first
to
the
Canaries,
which
was
a
sort
of
outstation
for
the
navigators
of
those
times,
as
the
last
place
at
which
they
could
take
in
supplies;
and
beyond
which
they
were
venturing
into
unknown
seas.
Here
he
turned
to
the
west,
though
inclining
southward
toward
the
tropics
(for
even
the
great
discoverers
of
that
day,
in
their
search
for
new
realms
to
conquer,
were
not
above
the
consideration
of
riches
as
well
as
honor,
and
somehow
associated
gems
and
gold
with
torrid
climes),
and
bore
away
for
India!
From
this
route
taken
by
the
great
navigator,
he
crossed
the
ocean
in
its
widest
part.
Had
he,
instead,
followed
the
track
of
the
Northmen,
who
crept
around
from
Iceland
to
Greenland
and
Labrador;
or
had
he
sailed
straight
to
the
Azores,
and
then
borne
away
to
the
north-west,
he
would
much
sooner
have
descried
land
from
the
mast-head.
But
steering
in
darkness,
he
crossed
the
Atlantic
where
it
is
broadest
and
deepest;
where,
as
submarine
explorers
have
since
shown,
it
rolls
over
mountains,
lofty
as
the
Alps
and
the
Himalayas,
which
lie
buried
beneath
the
surface
of
the
deep.
But
farther
north
the
two
continents,
so
widely
sundered,
incline
toward
each
other,
as
if
inviting
that
closer
relation
and
freer
intercourse
which
the
fulness
of
time
was
to
bring.
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