eight o'clock in the morning
On Luis , as , indeed , on most others who lived in sufficient familiarity with the man to enable them to appreciate his motives , and to judge correctly of the uprightness of his views , the effect , however , was always favorable , and probably would have been so had Mercedes never existed . The young man , himself , was not entirely without a tinge of enthusiasm , and , as is ever the case with the single-minded and generous , he best knew how to regard the impulses of those who were influenced by similar qualities . This answer was consequently in accordance with the feelings of the admiral , and they remained on the poop several hours , discoursing of the future , with the ardor of those who hoped for every thing , but in a manner too discursive and general to render a record of the dialogue easy or necessary . It was eight o'clock in the morning when the vessels passed the bar of Saltes , and the day had far advanced before the navigators had lost sight of the familiar eminences that lay around Palos , and the other well-known land-marks of the coast . The course was due south , and , as the vessels of that day were lightly sparred , and spread comparatively very little canvas , when considered in connection with the more dashing navigation of our own times , the rate of sailing was slow , and far from promising a speedy termination to a voyage that all knew must be long without a precedent , and which so many feared could never have an end . Two marine leagues , of three English miles , an hour , was good progress for a vessel at that day , even with a fresh and favorable wind ; though there are a few memorable days ' works set down by Columbus himself , which approach to a hundred and sixty miles in the twenty-four hours , and which are evidently noted as a speed of which a mariner might well be proud . In these days of locomotion and travelling , it is scarcely necessary to tell the intelligent reader this is but a little more than half the distance that is sailed over by a fast ship , under similar circumstances , and in our own time .