Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/47

36 PECUUARITIES OP NAVIGATIOIT. you know, the sun appears to be going south from the longest day to the shortest, after which it seems to come back north. To convince yourself: some aight when the north star can be seen take a piece of string and suspend from the ceiling, then go back a few steps and make a mark so the plumb line and your mark will range with the polar star. Now take a square or resort to the hypothenuse, using the six, eight and ten to arrive at a square, then the right angle of the suspended string would be an angle of ninety degrees, or the same as a carpenter's square. Now suppose you should then set up a lot of stakes clear around the world to range with your square directly west from your plumb line, you would dis-- cover that in 1,000 mUes you would be a good deal fur- ther south of the north pole. To make this more clear, if you have sailed or should in the future sail across the Atlantic from Liverpool to New York you wDl dis- cover that the course of the ship is kept north of west by several points notwithstanding New York is in latitude forty North, and Liverpool fifty-three, or thirteen degrees further north, or 900 mUes. One would naturaUy suppose that the vessel would be steered south instead of ' 'nor 'west, ' ' as the saUors say. Before leaving the presence of Mendoza, we must dispose of the colored man Stephen, who, being a slave belonging to Dorantes, the viceroy purchased him so he could act as a guide and interpreter; he being so well versed in the sign manual of the Indians that he would be of assistance to a party sent to dis- cover the rich cities of Cibola, which the four men heard about so frequently in their travels.