Granada has fallen, the Jews are expelled, and a Spanish seaman sails west with Columbus in a crew that expects to die. Johnston was a Virginian, largely self-taught after illness ended her schooling, and one of the best-selling American novelists of her day; she wrote the first crossing from the deck, and the discovery is shown as what it was for the people already living there. Fifty-four plates of harbour scenes and departures by painters including Thomas Luny and Edvard Munch give the voyage a visual wake.