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Full Essentials of Sociology 12Th Edition Henslin Test Bank Online PDF All Chapter
Full Essentials of Sociology 12Th Edition Henslin Test Bank Online PDF All Chapter
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(Henslin 12e Test Bank) (7—1)
Multiple-Choice Questions
TB_Q7.1.1
_____ is the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their
relative property, power, and prestige.
a. Social stratification
b. Bonded labor
c. Ideology
d. Caste system
TB_Q7.1.2
Which of the following statements about slavery is true?
a. It is a product of modern times.
b. Racism is the usual basis for it.
c. It has been common throughout history.
d. It is always considered an inheritable condition.
TB_Q7.1.3
In some instances, slavery was
a. temporary.
b. sought after by the slaves.
c. not a case of people owning other people.
d. due to the owners being in debt to the slaves.
Answer: a. temporary.
Learning Objective: LO 7.1 Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded
labor), caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification.
Topic/Concept: Systems of Social Stratification
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.1.4
What is the difference between bonded labor and slavery?
a. They are actually different terms for the same thing.
b. Bonded labor is entered into voluntarily (or arranged by parents).
c. Some people own other people in bonded labor.
d. Slavery is entered into voluntarily.
TB_Q7.1.5
_____ refers to beliefs about the way things ought to be that justify social
arrangements.
a. Social stratification
b. Ideology
c. Endogamy
d. Apartheid
Answer: b. Ideology
Learning Objective: LO 7.1 Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded
labor), caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification.
Topic/Concept: Systems of Social Stratification
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q7.1.6
A person's status is a lifelong condition determined by birth in
a. social democracy.
b. bonded labor.
c. a caste system.
TB_Q7.1.7
In endogamy, one
a. marries within one’s group.
b. is forbidden to marry within one’s group.
c. has multiple wives.
d. does not marry at all.
TB_Q7.1.8
The system of separating racial–ethnic groups that was practiced in South Africa
was called
a. slavery.
b. bonded labor.
c. apartheid.
d. the caste system, which was imported from India.
Answer: c. apartheid.
Learning Objective: LO 7.1 Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded
labor), caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification.
Topic/Concept: Systems of Social Stratification
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.1.9
In the estate stratification system of medieval Europe, which was one of the three
groups or “estates”?
a. Soldiers
b. Clergy
c. Sociologists
d. Techies
Answer: b. Clergy
Learning Objective: LO 7.1 Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded
labor), caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification.
Topic/Concept: Systems of Social Stratification
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.1.10
In a class system, what is the main basis for social stratification?
a. Sexual orientation
b. Money
c. Appearance
d. Kindness
Answer: b. Money
Learning Objective: LO 7.1 Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded
labor), caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification.
Topic/Concept: Systems of Social Stratification
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.1.11
The wealthiest 1% of adults worldwide own _____ of the Earth’s wealth.
a. 12%
b. 29%
c. 46%
d. 88%
Answer: c. 46%
Learning Objective: LO 7.1 Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded
labor), caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification.
Topic/Concept: Systems of Social Stratification
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.1.12
Gender is a basis of social stratification for ______ society(ies) in the world.
a. no
b. a few
c. many
d. every
Answer: d. every
Learning Objective: LO 7.1 Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded
labor), caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification.
Topic/Concept: Systems of Social Stratification
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.1.13
The tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth make up
the
a. bourgeoisie.
b. proletariat.
c. means of production.
d. class consciousness.
TB_Q7.2.14
The bourgeoisie are
a. the proletariat.
b. capitalists.
c. Marx’s term for socialists.
d. low in prestige.
Answer: b. capitalists.
Learning Objective: LO 7.2 Contrast the views of Marx and Weber on what
determines social class.
Topic/Concept: What Determines Social Class?
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analyze It
TB_Q7.2.15
In Marx’s theory, those who were exploited because they do not own the means
of production were called the
a. bourgeoisie.
b. proletariat.
c. clergy
d. superclass.
Answer: b. proletariat.
Learning Objective: LO 7.2 Contrast the views of Marx and Weber on what
determines social class.
Topic/Concept: What Determines Social Class?
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q7.2.16
Marx used the term class consciousness to refer to awareness of a common
identity based on one’s
a. race.
b. caste.
c. position in the means of production.
d. education level.
TB_Q7.2.17
When workers identified with the interests of capitalists, Marx called it _____
class consciousness.
a. false
b. misguided
c. optimistic
d. budding
Answer: a. false
Learning Objective: LO 7.2 Contrast the views of Marx and Weber on what
determines social class.
Topic/Concept: What Determines Social Class?
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q7.2.18
_____ Weber _____ Marx viewed property as significant in determining a
person’s standing in society.
a. Neither; nor
b. Both; and
c. Not; but
d. Notably; but not
TB_Q7.2.19
_____ Weber _____ Marx viewed property as the only source of power.
a. Neither; nor
b. Both; and
c. Not; but
d. Notably; but not
TB_Q7.2.20
Weber believed that
a. property could bring prestige, but prestige could not bring property.
b. property could not bring prestige.
c. prestige could not bring property.
d. property could bring prestige, and prestige could bring property.
Answer: d. property could bring prestige, and prestige could bring property
Learning Objective: LO 7.2 Contrast the views of Marx and Weber on what
determines social class.
Topic/Concept: What Determines Social Class?
Difficulty Level: Difficult
TB_Q7.2.21
_____ believe(s) that stratification exists because it is functional for society.
a. All sociologists
b. Functionalists
c. No one
d. Conflict theorists
Answer: Functionalists
Learning Objective: LO 7.2 Contrast the views of Marx and Weber on what
determines social class.
Topic/Concept: What Determines Social Class?
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.3.22
The research of David and Moore (1945, 1953) found that stratification of society
is inevitable because
a. no positions are more important than the other positions.
b. qualified people are most important at the lower levels.
c. for society to function, its positions must be filled.
d. smaller rewards at the top will motivate qualified people.
TB_Q7.3.23
In a meritocracy, all positions are awarded on the basis of
a. power.
b. social standing.
c. education level attained.
d. merit.
Answer: d. merit.
Learning Objective: LO 7.3 Contrast the functional and conflict views of why
social stratification is universal.
Topic/Concept: Why Is Social Stratification Universal?
TB_Q7.3.24
_____ stress that conflict, not function, is the reason that we have social
stratification.
a. Conflict theorists
b. Functionalists
c. All sociologists of this century
d. Despite the name, no conflict theorists
TB_Q7.3.25
Over a century ago, Mosca said that
a. leadership requires inequalities of power.
b. it is possible for societies to exist without any organization.
c. people in power can be trusted not to use their positions to seize greater rewards
for themselves.
d. in a just society, anyone can be a follower or a leader.
TB_Q7.3.26
In trying to synthesize the views of functionalist and conflict theorists, Lenski
suggested that the concept of _____ is the key.
a. civility
b. surplus
c. merit
d. greed
Answer: d. surplus
Learning Objective: LO 7.3 Contrast the functional and conflict views of why
social stratification is universal.
Topic/Concept: Why Is Social Stratification Universal?
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.4.27
Medieval Europe provides an excellent example of elites maintaining
stratification with
a. an iron fist.
b. monitoring.
c. soft control.
d. hard control.
TB_Q7.4.28
The divine right of kings asserts that the king’s or queen’s authority comes from
a. his or her forbears.
b. God.
c. the people.
d. his or her superior ability.
Answer: b. God.
Learning Objective: LO 7.4 Discuss the ways that elites keep themselves in
power.
Topic/Concept: How Do Elites Maintain Stratification?
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q7.4.29
Which of the following is most effective in maintaining society’s stratification?
a. Brute force
b. Controlling people’s ideas
c. Control of food supplies
d. Elites without limits
TB_Q7.4.30
To maintain their power, elites attempt to _____ information.
a. freely distribute
b. honestly convey
c. shut off all
d. control
Answer: d. control
Learning Objective: LO 7.4 Discuss the ways that elites keep themselves in
power.
Topic/Concept: How Do Elites Maintain Stratification?
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.4.31
In Qatar, a poet who criticized the ruling family in a poem was
a. invited to have a public debate with the family.
b. imprisoned for life.
c. invited to marry into the family.
d. sentenced to community service for a year.
TB_Q7.4.32
Which one of the following statements about new technology and the elite is true?
a. New technology makes it easier for the elite to control information.
b. New technology does not give the elite power tools for monitoring citizens like
the old technology did.
c. New technology makes it harder for the elite to control information.
d. For the most part, the elite are unfamiliar with new technology.
Answer: c. New technology makes it harder for the elite to control information.
Learning Objective: LO 7.4 Discuss the ways that elites keep themselves in
power.
Topic/Concept: How Do Elites Maintain Stratification?
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
TB_Q7.5.33
The main way the British perpetuate their class system from one generation to the
next is through
a. education.
b. surveillance.
c. the absence of a middle class.
d. wealth.
Answer: a. education.
Learning Objective: LO 7.5 Contrast social stratification in Great Britain and the
former Soviet Union.
Topic/Concept: Comparative Social Stratification
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.5.34
In the former Soviet Union, the main basis for ranking higher in the stratification
system was
a. declaring that socialism was dead.
b. membership in the Communist party.
c. private wealth.
d. social class.
TB_Q7.6.35
The terms that do not imply value judgments about some parts of the world while
splitting it up into conceptual groups are
a. First, Second, and Third Worlds.
TB_Q7.6.36
The _____ richest people in the world own as much of the world’s wealth as the
bottom half of the whole world’s population.
a. 700
b. 422
c. 153
d. 85
Answer: d. 85
Learning Objective: LO 7.6 Compare the three worlds of global stratification: the
Most Industrialized Nations, the Industrializing Nations, and the Least
Industrialized Nations.
Topic/Concept: Global Social Stratification: Three Worlds
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q7.6.37
Which category of nations has the most land?
a. Most Industrialized Nations
b. Industrializing Nations
c. Least Industrialized Nations
d. Most Populous Nations
TB_Q7.6.38
Sixty percent of the world’s population lives in the
a. Most Industrialized Nations.
b. Industrializing Nations.
c. Least Industrialized Nations.
d. Western Nations.
TB_Q7.6.39
The United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Japan, Australia, and other
countries make up the
a. Most Industrialized Nations.
b. Industrializing Nations.
c. Least Industrialized Nations.
d. League of Nations.
TB_Q7.6.40
Most of the countries of the former Soviet Union and its former satellites in
Eastern Europe fall into the category of the
a. Most Industrialized Nations.
b. Industrializing Nations.
c. Least Industrialized Nations.
d. Unclassified Nations.
Learning Objective: LO 7.6 Compare the three worlds of global stratification: the
Most Industrialized Nations, the Industrializing Nations, and the Least
Industrialized Nations.
Topic/Concept: Global Social Stratification: Three Worlds
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.6.41
In the Least Industrialized Nations, _____ people are poor.
a. none
b. some
c. most
d. all
Answer: c. most
Learning Objective: LO 7.6 Compare the three worlds of global stratification: the
Most Industrialized Nations, the Industrializing Nations, and the Least
Industrialized Nations.
Topic/Concept: Global Social Stratification: Three Worlds
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.6.42
The Oil-Rich, Nonindustrialized Nations, like Kuwait,
a. are part of the Least Industrialized Nations.
b. are distinct from the Least Industrialized Nations in their great wealth.
c. are part of the Most Industrialized Nations.
d. are part of the Industrializing Nations.
Answer: b. are distinct from the Least Industrialized Nations in their great wealth.
Learning Objective: LO 7.6 Compare the three worlds of global stratification: the
Most Industrialized Nations, the Industrializing Nations, and the Least
Industrialized Nations.
Topic/Concept: Global Social Stratification: Three Worlds
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.7.43
_____ is the process by which one nation takes over another, usually in order to
exploit its labor and natural resources.
a. Colonialism
b. The culture of poverty
Answer: a. Colonialism
Learning Objective: LO 7.7 Discuss how colonialism and world system theory
explain how the world’s nations became stratified.
Topic/Concept: How Did the World’s Nations Become Stratified?
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.7.44
“Core nations” and the “periphery” are part of
a. neocolonialism.
b. colonialism.
c. world system theory.
d. the Most Industrialized Nations.
TB_Q7.7.45
_____ assumes that the values and behaviors of the poor make them
fundamentally different from other people.
a. Colonialism
b. The culture of poverty
c. Neocolonialism
d. World system theory
TB_Q7.8.46
According to sociologist Michael Harrington, when colonialism went out of style,
it was replaced by
a. functionalism.
b. conflict theory.
c. multinational corporations.
d. neocolonialism.
Answer: d. neocolonialism
Learning Objective: LO 7.8 Explain how neocolonialism, multinational
corporations, and technology help to maintain global stratification.
Topic/Concept: Maintaining Global Stratification
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q7.8.47
Just by doing business normally, _____ help to maintain internal stratification.
a. local small businesses
b. multinational corporations
c. Industrializing Nations
d. small farmers
TB_Q7.8.48
The heritage of neocolonialism
a. does not affect people in the West today.
b. can be found only in history books.
c. affects people in the West today, in the wars fought and terrorism coming from
the affected areas.
d. is proudly claimed by the nations affected.
Answer: c. affects people in the West today, in the wars fought and terrorism
coming from the affected areas.
Learning Objective: LO 7.8 Explain how neocolonialism, multinational
corporations, and technology help to maintain global stratification.
Topic/Concept: Maintaining Global Stratification
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analyze It
TB_Q7.8.49
Global domination
a. remains in the hands of the East.
b. may be on the verge of a major shift from West to East.
c. is shared democratically by the East and the West.
d. may be on the verge of a major shift from East to West.
TB_Q7.9.50
Through the various means, global stratification
a. is easy to maintain.
b. will likely be protected in its present state forever.
c. is not easy to maintain.
d. will probably disappear in a few years.
Essay Questions
Feedback: India’s cast system is based on religion rather than race. The system is
nearly three thousand years old. The four main castes are (top to bottom):
Brahman (priests and teachers); Kshatriya (rulers and soldiers); Vaishya
(merchants and traders); Shudra (peasants and laborers); and Dalit
(outcasts). Although the system was officially abolished in 1949, it
persists.
Learning Objective: LO 7.1 Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded
labor), caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification.
Topic/Concept: Systems of Social Stratification
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analyze It
TB_Q7.2.53: Discuss the “three Ps” of social class, according to Max Weber.
Feedback: The “three Ps” are property, prestige, and power. (Weber actually used
the terms of class, power, and status.) Property, which leads to power,
which leads to prestige; prestige, which can lead to power, which can lead
to property; power, which leads to property, which leads to prestige.
Learning Objective: LO 7.2 Contrast the views of Marx and Weber on what
determines social class.
Topic/Concept: What Determines Social Class?
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analyze It
TB_Q7.3.54: Who receives the most and the least resources under the
functionalist view? Under the conflict theory view?
Feedback: In the functionalist view most resources go to those who perform the
more important functions. These are thought to be the more capable and
more industrious people. The fewest resources go to those who perform
the less important functions. These are thought to be the less capable and
less industrious people. Under the conflict theory view most resources go
to those who occupy the more powerful positions, and the fewest
resources go to those who occupy the less powerful positions.
Learning Objective: LO 7.3 Contrast the functional and conflict views of why
social stratification is universal.
Topic/Concept: Why Is Social Stratification Universal?
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analyze It
TB_Q7.7.55: Describe the theory that colonialism explains how the world’s
nations became stratified.
Feedback: The countries that industrialized first got a jump on the rest of the
world. They used their increasing wealth to make arms and fast ships.
They invaded weaker nations and made colonies out of them. The more
powerful countries left a controlling force behind, in order to exploit the
nation’s labor and natural resources. In this way, colonialism shaped many
of the Least Industrialized Nations.
Learning Objective: LO 7.7 Discuss how colonialism and world system theory
explain how the world’s nations became stratified.
Topic/Concept: How Did the World’s Nations Become Stratified?
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analyze It
ON the 12th of May, 1492, Columbus left Santa Fé for Palos, the
seaport from which his expedition was to sail. He left his small-boy,
Diego, behind him, as page to Prince Juan, the heir of Castile and
Aragon. Diego was the son of his lawful wife, and it is pleasant to
find that, in spite of this fact, Columbus still remembered him. His
favorite son was of course Fernando, who, with his mother, Beatrix,
seems to have been sent away to board in the country during
Columbus’s absence at sea.
As soon as he arrived at Palos, Columbus called on his worthy
friend the Prior, and on the next day the two went to the church of St.
George, where the royal order directing the authorities of Palos to
supply Columbus with two armed ships, and calling upon everybody
to furnish the expedition with all necessary aid, was read aloud by a
notary-public. The authorities, as well as the other inhabitants of
Palos, were naturally only too glad to do everything in their power to
hasten the departure of Columbus; but it was found extremely
difficult to procure ships or sailors for the expedition. The merchants
very justly said that, much as they might desire to have Columbus
drowned, they did not care to furnish ships at their own expense for
an enterprise in the interest of all classes of the community. The
sailors declared that they were ready to ship for any voyage which
might be mentioned, but that it was a little too much to ask them to
go to sea with Columbus as their captain, since he would
undoubtedly use his authority to compel them to listen to a daily
lecture on “Other Continents than Ours,” thus rendering their
situation far worse than that of ordinary slaves.
The King and Queen, learning of the failure of Columbus to
obtain ships and men, and fearing that he might return to court,
ordered the authorities of Palos to seize eligible vessels by force,
and to kidnap enough sailors to man them. This would probably have
provided Columbus with ships and men, had not the short-sighted
monarch appointed one Juan de Peñalosa to see that the order was
executed, and promised him two hundred maravedies a day until the
expedition should be ready. De Peñalosa was perhaps not the
intellectual equal of the average American office-holder, but he had
sense enough to appreciate his situation, and of course made up his
mind that it would take him all the rest of his natural life to see that
order carried out. Accordingly, he drew his pay with great vigor and
faithfulness, but could not find any ships which, in his opinion, were
fit to take part in the proposed expedition. The people soon
perceived the state of affairs, and despaired of ever witnessing the
departure of Columbus.
Doubtless De Peñalosa would have gone on for years failing to
find the necessary ships, had not two noble mariners resolved to
sacrifice themselves on the altar of their country. Martin Alonzo
Pinzon and Vincente Yanez Pinzon, his brother, were the two marine
patriots in question. They offered a ship and crew, and the
magistrates, emulating their patriotism, seized two other ships and
ordered them to be fitted for service.
These vessels were under one hundred tons’ burthen each, and
only one of them, the Santa Maria, was decked over. In model they
resembled the boats carved by small inland boys, and their rig would
have brought tears to the eyes of a modern sailor—provided, of
course, a way of bringing a modern sailor to Palos to inspect them
could have been devised. If we can put any faith in woodcuts, the
Santa Maria and her consorts were two-masted vessels carrying one
or two large square sails on each mast, and remotely resembling
dismasted brigs rigged with jury-masts by some passengers from
Indiana who had studied rigging and seamanship in Sunday-school
books. The pretence that those vessels could ever beat to windward
cannot be accepted for a moment. They must have been about as
fast and weatherly as a St. Lawrence “pin flat,” and in point of safety
and comfort they were even inferior to a Staten Island ferry-boat.
The Pinta was commanded by Martin Pinzon, and the Niña by
Vincente Pinzon. No less than four pilots were taken, though how
four pilots could have been equally divided among three ships
without subjecting at least one pilot to a subdivision that would have
seriously impaired his efficiency, can not readily be comprehended.
Indeed, no one has ever satisfactorily explained why Columbus
wanted pilots, when he intended to navigate utterly unknown seas. It
has been suggested that he had bound himself not to talk to an
intemperate extent to his officers or men, and that he laid in a supply
of private pilots purely for the purpose of talking to them. It is much
more probable that a law of compulsory pilotage existed at that time
in Spain,—for it was a dark and ignorant age,—and that, inasmuch
as Columbus would have had to pay the pilots whether he took them
with him or not, he thought he might as well accept their services.
Besides, he may have remembered that a vessel rarely runs
aground unless she is in charge of a pilot, and hence he may have
imagined that pilots possessed a peculiar skill in discovering
unexpected shores at unlooked-for moments, and might materially
help him in discovering a new continent by running the fleet aground
on its coast.
A royal notary was also sent with the expedition, so that if any
one should suddenly desire to swear or affirm, as the case might be,
it could be done legally. The three vessels carried ninety sailors, and
the entire expeditionary force consisted of one hundred and twenty
men.
The ship-carpenters and stevedores, doubtless at the instigation
of Peñalosa, made all the delay they possibly could, and at the last
moment a large number of sailors deserted. Other sailors were
procured, and finally everything was in readiness for the departure of
the fleet. On Friday the 3d of August, 1492, Columbus and his
officers and men confessed themselves and received the sacrament,
after which the expedition put to sea.
In spite of the knowledge that Columbus was actually leaving
Spain with a very slight prospect of ever returning, the departure of
the ships cast a gloom over Palos. The people felt that to sacrifice
one hundred and nineteen lives, with three valuable vessels, was a
heavy price to pay, even for permanently ridding Spain of the
devastating talker. Still, we are not told that they permitted sentiment
to overpower their patriotism, and they were probably sustained by
the reflection that it was better that one hundred and nineteen other
people should be drowned, than that they themselves should be
talked to death.
It is universally agreed that it is impossible not to admire the
courage displayed by Columbus and his associates. The ships of the
expedition were small and unseaworthy. They were not supplied with
ice-houses, hot water, electric bells, saloons amidships where the
motion is least perceptible, smoking and bath rooms, or any of the
various other devices by which the safety of modern steamships is
secured. The crew knew that they were bound to an unknown port,
and that if their vessels managed to reach it there was no certainty
that they would find any rum. Columbus had employed eighteen
years in convincing himself that if he once set sail he would
ultimately arrive somewhere; but now that he was finally afloat, his
faith must have wavered somewhat. As he was an excellent sailor,
he could not but have felt uncomfortable when he remembered that
he had set sail on Friday. However, he professed to be in the very
best of spirits, and no one can deny that he was as brave as he was
tedious.
On the third day out, the Pinta unshipped her rudder, and soon
after began to leak badly. Her commander made shift partially to
repair the disaster to the rudder, but Columbus determined to put
into the Canaries, and charter another vessel in her place. He knew
that he was then not far from the Canaries, although the pilots, either
because their minds were already weakening under the strain of
their commander’s conversation, or because they were ready to
contradict him at every possible opportunity, insisted that the islands
were a long way off. Columbus was right, and on the 9th of August
they reached the Canaries, where we may suppose the pilots were
permitted to go ashore and obtain a little rest.
For three weeks Columbus waited in hopes of finding an
available ship, but he was disappointed. The Pinta was therefore
repaired to some extent, and the Niña was provided with a new set
of sails. A report here reached Columbus that three Portuguese
men-of-war were on their way to capture him—doubtless on the
charge of having compassed the death of several Portuguese
subjects with violent and prolonged conversation. He therefore set
sail at once, and as he passed the volcano, which was then in a
state of eruption, the crews were so much alarmed that they were on
the point of mutiny. Columbus, however, made them a speech on the
origin, nature, and probable object of volcanoes, which soon reduced
them to the most abject state of exhaustion.
Nothing was seen of the Portuguese men-of-war, and it has
been supposed that some practical joker alarmed the Admiral by
filling his mind with visions of hostile ships, when the only
Portuguese men-of-war in that part of the Atlantic were the harmless
little jelly-fish popularly known by that imposing title.
It was the 6th day of September when the expedition left the
Canaries, but owing to a prolonged calm it was not until the 9th that
the last of the islands was lost sight of. We can imagine what the
devoted pilots must have suffered during those three days in which
Columbus had nothing to do but talk; but they were hardy men, and
they survived it. They remarked to one another that they could die
but once; that care had once killed a vague and legendary cat; and
in various other ways tried to reconcile themselves to their fate.
The crew on losing sight of land became, so we are told, utterly
cast down, as they reflected upon the uncertainty of ever again
seeing a Christian grog-shop, or joining with fair ladies in the
cheerful fandango. Mr. Irving says that “rugged seamen shed tears,
and some broke into loud lamentation,” and that Columbus
thereupon made them a long speech in order to reconcile them to
their lot. The probability is that Mr. Irving reversed the order of these
two events. If Columbus made a long speech to his crew, as he very
likely did, there is no doubt that they shed tears, and lamented
loudly.
Lest the crew should be alarmed at the distance they were
rapidly putting between themselves and the spirituous liquors of
Spain, Columbus now adopted the plan of daily falsifying his
reckoning. Thus if the fleet had sailed one hundred miles in any
given twenty-four hours, he would announce that the distance sailed
was only sixty miles. Meanwhile he kept a private log-book, in which
he set down the true courses and distances sailed. This system may
have answered its purpose, but had the fleet been wrecked, and had
the false and the true log-books both fallen into the hands of the
underwriters, Columbus would not have recovered a dollar of
insurance, and would probably have been indicted for forgery with
attempt to lie. The lawyer for the insurance company would have put
in evidence the two entries for, let us say, the 10th of September; the
one reading, “Wind E.S.E., light and variable; course W. by N.;
distance by observation since noon yesterday, 61 miles;” and the
other, or true entry, reading, “Wind E.S.E.; course W. by N.; distance
by observation since noon yesterday, 117 miles. At seven bells in the
morning watch, furled main-top-gallant sails, and put a single reef in
all three topsails. This day ends with a strong easterly gale.” With
such evidence as this, he would easily have proved that Columbus
was a desperate villain, who had wrecked his vessels solely to
swindle the insurance companies. Thus we see that dishonesty will
vitiate the best policy, provided the underwriters can prove it.
It was perhaps this same desire to lead his crew into the belief
that the voyage would not be very long, which led Columbus to insert
in the sailing directions given to the two Pinzons an order to heave-to
every night as soon as they should have sailed seven hundred
leagues west of the Canaries. He explained that unless this
precaution were taken they would be liable to run foul of China in the
night, in case the latter should not happen to have lights properly
displayed. This was very thoughtful, but there is no reason to think
that it deceived the Pinzons. They knew perfectly well that Columbus
had not the least idea of the distance across the Atlantic, and they
probably made remarks to one another in regard to the difficulty of
catching old birds with chaff, which the Admiral would not have
enjoyed had he heard them.
Thus cheerfully cheating his sailors, and conversing with his
pilots, Columbus entered upon his voyage. A great many meritorious
emotions are ascribed to him by his biographers, and perhaps he felt
several of them. We have, however, no evidence on this point, and
the probability is that he would not have expressed any feeling but
confidence in his success to any person. He had long wanted to sail
in quest of new continents, and his wish was now gratified. He ought
to have been contented, and it is quite possible that he was.
CHAPTER VI.
THE VOYAGE.