moment was stretched again from sky to sea, and the New World still lay hidden in the shadows. *

CHAPTER III.

SPANISH DISCOVERIES IN AMERICA.

T was reserved for the people of a sunnier clime than Iceland first to

IT

make known to the European nations the existence of a Western continent. Spain was the happy country under whose auspicious patronage a new world was to be added to the old; but the man who was destined to make the revelation was not himself a Spaniard: he was to come from genial Italy, the land of olden valor and the home of so much greatness. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS was the name of that man whom after ages have justly rewarded with imperishable fame.

The idea that the world is round was not original with Columbus. Others before him had held a similar belief; but the opinion had been so feebly and uncertainly entertained as to lead to no practical results. Copernicus, the Prussian astronomer, had not yet taught, nor had Galileo, the great Italian, yet demonstrated, the true system of the universe. The English traveler, Sir John Mandeville, had declared in the very first English book that ever was written (A. D. 1356) that the world is a sphere; that he himself, when traveling northward, had seen the polar star approach the zenith, and that on going southward the antarctic constellations had risen overhead; and that it was both possible and practicable for a man to sail around the world and return to the place of starting: but neither Sir John himself nor any other seaman of his times was bold enough to undertake so hazardous an enterprise.† Columbus was, no doubt, the first practical believer in the theory of circumnavigation; and although he never sailed around the world himself, he demonstrated the possibility of doing so.

帶

*

As to the reality of the Norse discoveries in America, the following from Humboldt's Cosmos, Vol. II., pp. 269-272, may be cited as conclusive: "We are here on historical ground. By the critical and highly praiseworthy efforts of Professor Rafn and the Royal Society of Antiquaries in Copenhagen, the Sagas and documents in regard to the expeditions of the Norsemen to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Vinland have been published and satisfactorily commented upon. * The discovery of the northern part of America by the Norsemen can not be disputed. The length of the voyage, the direction in which they sailed, the time of the sun's rising and setting, are accurately given. While the Caliphate of Bagdad was still flourishing, * * America was discovered about the year A. D. 1000, by Lief, the son of Eric the Red, at the latitude of forty-one and a-half degrees north."

† See Appendix A.

The great mistake with Columbus and others who shared his opinions was not concerning the figure of the earth, but in regard to its size. He believed the world to be no more than ten thousand or twelve thousand miles in circumference. He therefore confidently expected that after sailing about three thousand miles to the westward he should arrive at the East Indies; and to do that was the one great purpose of his life.

Christopher Columbus was born at Genoa, a seacoast town of Northwestern Italy, in A. D. 1435. He was carefully educated, and then devoted

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

himself to the sea. His

His

ancestors had been sea-
men before him.
own inclination as well
as his early training
made him a sailor.
For twenty years he
traversed the Mediter-
ranean and the parts
of the Atlantic adjacent
to Europe; he visited
Iceland; then went to
Portugal, and finally
to Spain. The idea
of reaching the Indies.
by crossing the Atlan-
tic had already pos-
sessed him. For more
than ten years the poor
enthusiast was a beg-

gar, going from court

to court, explaining to dull monarchs and bigoted monks the figure of the earth and the ease with which the rich islands of the East might be reached by sailing westward. He found one appreciative listener, afterward his constant and faithful friend-the noble and sympathetic Isabella, queen of Castile. Be it never forgotten that to the faith, and insight, and decision of a woman the final success of Columbus must be attributed.

On the morning of the 3d day of August, 1492, Columbus, with his three ships, left the harbor of Palos. After seventy-one days of sailing, in the early dawn of October 12, Rodrigo Triana, who chanced to be on the lookout from the Pinta, set up a shout of "Land!" A gun was fired as the signal. The ships lay to. There was music and jubilee;

1473

and just at sunrise Columbus himself first stepped ashore, shook out the royal banner of Castile in the presence of the wondering natives, and named the island San Salvador. During the three remaining months of this first voyage the islands of Concepcion, Cuba and Hayti were added to the list of discoveries; and on the bay of Caracola, in the lastnamed island, was erected out of the timbers of the Santa Maria a fort, the first structure built by Europeans in the New World. In the early part of January, 1493, Columbus sailed for Spain, where he arrived in March, and was everywhere greeted with rejoicings and applause.

In September of the following autumn Columbus sailed on his second voyage. He still believed that by this route westward he should reach, if indeed he had not already reached, the Indies. The result of the second voyage was the discovery of the Windward group and the islands of Jamaica and Porto Rico. It was at this time that the first colony was established in Hayti and Columbus's brother appointed governor. After an absence of nearly three years, Columbus returned to Spain in the summer of 1496-returned to find himself the victim of a thousand bitter jealousies and suspicions. All the rest of his life was clouded with persecutions and misfortunes. He made a third voyage, discovered the island of Trinidad and the mainland of South America, near the mouth of the Orinoco. Thence he sailed back to Hayti, where he found his colony disorganized; and here, while attempting to restore order, he was seized by Bobadilla, an agent of the Spanish government, put in chains and carried to Spain. After a disgraceful imprisonment, he was liberated and sent on a fourth and last voyage in search of the Indies; but besides making some explorations along the south side of the Gulf of Mexico, the expedition accomplished nothing, and Columbus, overwhelmed with discouragements, returned once more to his ungrateful country. The good Isabella was dead, and the great discoverer found himself at last a friendless and despised old man tottering into the grave. Death came, and fame afterward.

Of all the wrongs done to the memory of Columbus, perhaps the greatest was that which robbed him of the name of the new continent. This was bestowed upon one of the least worthy of the many adventurers whom the genius and success of Columbus had drawn to the West. In the year 1499, AMERIGO VESPUCCI, a Florentine navigator of some daring but no great celebrity, reached the eastern coast of South America. It does not appear that his explorations there were of any great importance. Two years later he made a second voyage, and then 150 hastened home to give to Europe the first published account of the Western World, Vespucci's only merit consisted in his recognition of