A flight of birds, coupled with a sailor’s superstition, robbed Columbus of the honor of discovering the continent. It is a curious but historical fact. When Columbus sailed westward over the unknown Atlantic he expected to reach Zipangu (Japan). After several days’ sail from Gomera, one of the Canary islands, he became uneasy at not discovering Zipangu, which according to his reckoning, should have been 216 nautical miles more to the east. After a long discussion he yielded to the opinion of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the commander of the Pinta, and steered to the southwest. Pinzon was guided in his opinion solely by a flight of parrots, which took wing in that direction. It was good luck to follow in the wake of a flight of birds when engage upon a voyage of discovery–a widespread superstition among Spanish seamen of that day; and this change in the great navigator’s course curiously exemplifies the influence of small and apparently trivial events in the world’s history. If Columbus had held to his course he would have entered the gulf stream, have reached Florida, and then probably have been carried to Cape Hatteras and Virginia. The result would probably have given the present United States a Roman Catholic Spanish population instead of a Protestant English one, a circumstance of immeasurable importanct. “Never,” wrote Humboldt, “had the flight of birds more important consequences.”
You can read about Alexander von Humboldt, and learn that he was famous, famous! in the 19th century for exploring South and Central America.
I’d never heard of him before today. There are a few of his works in PG.