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PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS 
 From the Marine Museum at Madrid. 
 
THE 
 
 STORY OF COLUMBUS 
 
 BY 
 
 N. J. LENNES 
 
 AUTHOR OF A SERIES OF BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 
 
 AND 
 
 PAUL C. PHILLIPS 
 
 PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 
 
 64 ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 
 
e: 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPA^fT 
 
 Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company 
 The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A. 
 
 APR 18 1921 
 
 g)CI.A6U672 
 
 'Wo I 
 
si 
 
 ; FOREWORD 
 
 One of the two men who made this book is an historian. 
 It is his business to try to find out what people did a long 
 time ago and to know whether or not the stories told 
 about them are true. He has worked over this book care- 
 fully to make sure that everything in it is as nearly true 
 as it can now be made. The other man has a family of 
 boys and girls. In his house there is a big fireplace and 
 in front of it a bearskin rug. In the evening he lies down 
 on this rug and tells these stories to the children. Then 
 he tells them to his dictating machine, the stenographer 
 copies them, and the printer makes them into books. 
 Now he is telling other stories to these boys and girls, and 
 some time they too may be made into books. If they are, 
 you will have a chance to read them if you should want 
 to do so. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I PAGE 
 
 Before the First Voyage 1-31 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The First Voyage 32- 68 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 69-107 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 The Third Voyage 108-136 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 The Fourth Voyage 137-159 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 The Last Years of Columbus 160-168 
 
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. Portrait of Columbus Frontispiece 
 
 2. The Landing of Columbus 1 
 
 3. Map of World, Showing Parts Known Definitely to Europeans 
 
 at the Time of Columbus 2 
 
 4. Map Showing Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and North Africa . . 3 
 
 5. Map Showing Mediterranean 5 
 
 6. Map Showing Islands Discovered by the Portuguese 6 
 
 7. Map Showing Overland Routes to India 8 
 
 8. Toscanelh's Map 12 
 
 9. Toscanelli's Map, reduced 15 
 
 10. Map Showing Portuguese Explorations Along Coast of Africa 16 
 
 11. Map of Aragon, Castile and Moorish Spain 22 
 
 12. La Rabida 23 
 
 13. Columbus Before the Court at Salamanca 24 
 
 14. Ferdinand of Aragon 25 
 
 15. Isabella of Castile 27 
 
 16. Ship of 1486 32 
 
 17. Ship of Fifteenth Century 33 
 
 18. 19. Map Drawn from Behaim's Globe 34, 35 
 
 20. Portrait of Columbus 38 
 
 21. Portrait of Columbus 39 
 
 22. The Canaries 41 
 
 23. Outline Map of First Outward Voyage 42 
 
 24. Map Showing Deviation of the Compass 43 
 
 25. Map Showing Sargasso Sea 45 
 
 26. 27. Detailed Map of First Outward Journey 46, 47 
 
 28. Map of Drifting from September 19th to September 26th 48 
 
 29. Outline Map of First Voyage Showing Main Dates 49 
 
 30. Map Showing Island Where Columbus May Have Landed 53 
 
 31. Map of Watlings Island 54 
 
 32. Indian Bed or Hammock 56 
 
 33. Detailed Map of Journey Among Islands 61 
 
 34. Map of Haiti Showing La Navidad 62 
 
 35. Map of First Homeward Voyage 67 
 
 36. Map of Spain Showing Palos, Seville, and Barcelona 70 
 
 vii 
 
viii Maps and Illustrations 
 
 PAGE 
 
 37. Columbus Commemorative Medal 72 
 
 38. Columbus's Coat of Arms 73 
 
 39. Map Showing Course of Second Voyage 76 
 
 40. Map Showing Second Voyage Among Islands 77 
 
 41. Old Picture Showing Fight With Cannibals 79 
 
 42. Map of Haiti Showing Isabella, Vega Real, Fort St. Thomas. . . 88 
 
 43. Armor Used in Time of Columbus 92 
 
 44. Map Showing Voyage of Exploration Among Islands on Second 
 
 Voyage 93 
 
 45. Map Showing Where Columbus Thought the Coast of Cuba was 96 
 
 46. Map Showing Course Columbus Proposed to Follow to go Around 
 
 the World 97 
 
 47. Portrait of Bartholomew Columbus 100 
 
 48. Columbus in Chains 108 
 
 49. Map Showing Course of Third Voyage 109 
 
 50. Map Showing Third Voyage Among Islands 110 
 
 51. Columbus Along the Coast of Central and South America, Third 
 
 Voyage Ill 
 
 62. Old Picture Showing Columbus Trading for Pearls 114 
 
 63. Cathedral at Santo Domingo 1 16 
 
 64. Map of South America 122 
 
 55. Map Showing Course of Fourth Outward Voyage 138 
 
 66, Map Showing Course Along Central America on Fourth Voyage. 140 
 
 57. Weapons Used by Natives of Veragua 141 
 
 58. Map Showing Course of Voyage from Veragua to Haiti 147 
 
 59. Signature and Monogram of Columbus 160 
 
 60. Statue of Columbus in Genoa 163 
 
 61. Statue of Columbus at Santo Domingo 165 
 
 62. Map of Spain Showing ValladoUd 166 
 
 63. House Where Columbus Died 167 
 
THE STORY OF COLUMBUS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 Before the First Voyage 
 
 I. The Coming of Columbus. — In the early morning 
 of October twelfth, in the year 1492, the Indians living 
 
 THE LANDING OF COLUMBUS 
 
 on a small island not far from Cuba saw three strange 
 objects out on the ocean. These Indians had never seen 
 any such objects before and did not have the slightest 
 idea what they were. Soon they saw men get off from 
 them into a boat and row toward the shore. When the 
 boat came nearer, the men were seen to have white skins 
 
 1 
 
The Story of Columbus 
 
 and to wear the most curious clothes which covered all 
 their bodies except their hands and faces. The Indians 
 had never before seen men with white skins, and they had 
 never seen people wearing such clothes. The Indians 
 themselves were almost naked. These strange white 
 people were Christopher Columbus and his followers, who 
 
 MAP OF THE WORLD. THE PARTS KNOWN DEFINITELY TO EUROPEANS AT THE TIME OP 
 COLUMBUS ARE SHADED. DOTTED LINE SHOWS COURSE OF COLUMBUS's FIRST VOYAGE 
 
 had come across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe in three 
 small sailing vessels. No wonder the Indians were sur- 
 prised, for up to that time not a single white person lived 
 in all of what is now called America. 
 
 Why did Columbus go across a wide ocean on a journey 
 as far as from Boston to San Francisco in these little 
 vessels? He must have had good reasons for doing so, 
 because in his small ships the journey was very dangerous. 
 It was not the kind of a sailing trip that people would 
 take for the fun of it. Did Columbus know about America, 
 or was he trying to go to some other land about which he 
 
Before the First Voyage 
 
 did know? If you read this book, you will find answers 
 to these questions. 
 
 We will now tell the story of Columbus, where he was 
 born, where he got his ships, why he started out over the 
 great ocean, what he was trying to find, and what he really 
 did find. 
 
 MAP SHOWING ITALY, PRANCE, SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND THE CITIES OF GENOA, SAVONA, 
 
 AND PALOS 
 
 2. Where Columbus Came From. — At the time of 
 Columbus, nearly all the white people of the world lived 
 in Europe. The parts of the world about which they 
 knew are shown in the shaded portion of the map. We 
 may be sure that there were many people who were curious 
 to know about the lands beyond this area. Some were 
 trying to work along the west coast of Africa, to see how 
 far land extended in that direction. Others had made 
 long journeys overland eastward to India and China, and 
 while there had even learned something about Japan. 
 
4 The Story of Columbus 
 
 Columbus decided to go straight out into the ocean, 
 and the path along which he sailed is shown by the dotted 
 line in the map. Columbus was born in Italy, but it was 
 in Spain that he got his ships and the people who sailed 
 with him. Indeed, he had been in Spain less than ten 
 years when he started on his great journey. 
 
 3. The Young Columbus. — It is more interesting to 
 read about places when we know where they are. For 
 this reason we give here a map which shows the countries 
 of Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. It shows also 
 the cities of Genoa and Savona in Italy and the town 
 of Palos in Spain. These countries and cities will be 
 mentioned again in the story which follows. 
 
 It is surprising how little is known about the life of 
 the young Columbus. He was born in Italy and very 
 likely in the city of Genoa. The year of his birth is now 
 generally beheved to have been 1446. If this is true, 
 Columbus was forty-six years old when he started on his 
 journey from Spain across the Atlantic. His father was 
 a poor man who made his living by weaving cloth. It is 
 known that Columbus worked with his father, combing 
 wool and weaving, and that people called him a wool 
 comber or weaver as long as he lived in Italy. 
 
 We do not know how long Columbus went to school, 
 if indeed he went to school at all, but we do know that in 
 later life he was one of the best educated men of his time. 
 He read and wrote Latin with ease, as well as his own 
 Italian language and also Portuguese and Spanish. He 
 read all important books on geography and travel, and 
 a great many other books that are interesting only to 
 learned people. He was in the habit of writing in the 
 
Before the First Voyage 
 
 margins of the books which he read, and several of these 
 with marginal notes in his handwriting are still to be found 
 in libraries of Spain. He was an expert penman and made 
 many beautiful and accurate maps. He knew much about 
 mathematics, astronomy, and the art of sailing. 
 
 The people of Genoa were much engaged in trading 
 and their goods were carried in ships that sailed back and 
 forth over the Mediterranean. A large part of this trade 
 came from the eastern end of the Mediterranean, where 
 
 MAP SHOWING MEDITERRANEAN OVER WHICH MERCHANTS OF GENOA CARRIED THEIR 
 GOODS TO AND FROM CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE EAST 
 
 they got silks, spices and other valuable goods that had 
 been carried overland from the Far East. 
 
 There are stories that Columbus went to sea while very 
 young, and that he even took part in some of the wars 
 which were then going on. But whether he went to sea 
 as a mere boy or not, it is certain that he heard many 
 exciting tales from sailors who returned to Genoa. In 
 those days there were many pirates, who attacked trading 
 ships, killed the sailors, and stole the goods. For this 
 reason, sea-going was very exciting and dangerous, and 
 those who came back told thrilling stories to which the 
 
6 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 young Columbus must have listened with great inter- 
 est. We may be sure that the exciting and adventurous 
 life of the sailor had far greater attraction for him than 
 the dull and quiet life of the weaver. 
 
 When Columbus was about twenty-seven years of age, 
 he left Italy and went to Portugal. 
 
 4. Why Columbus Went to Portugal. — It was no wonder 
 
 that a young man inter- 
 ested in the sea should go 
 to Portugal. The Portu- 
 guese were known as the 
 best seamen in the world 
 and had discovered more 
 new lands than any other 
 people of their time. They 
 had sailed out into the 
 Atlantic, which was then 
 known as the Sea of Dark- 
 ness, and had discovered 
 all the islands which are 
 shown on the small map. 
 They had also worked 
 their way far down along 
 the western coast of Africa. 
 When Columbus was still a boy the Turks conquered 
 the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and destroyed 
 the trade which the people of Genoa had carried on with 
 the East. For this reason many of the sailors and map 
 makers of Genoa had gone to Portugal to serve on her 
 ships and help in her discoveries. Among these men was 
 Bartholomew, a younger brother of Christopher Columbus, 
 
 MAP SHOWING ISLANDS DISCOVERED BY THE 
 PORTUGUESE 
 
 The Azores, Madeiras and Canaries were 
 known to tlie ancients and rediscovered early 
 in the 14th century. Portuguese colonies were 
 established in the Madeiras about 1418, in the 
 Azores about 1431. 
 
Before the First Voyage 7 
 
 who had gone to Portugal to work as a map maker. It 
 was but natural that Columbus should follow where many 
 of his neighbors had gone before him. Some of them had, 
 no doubt, come back to tell their stories, and we must 
 remember that people who return from strange lands are 
 very likely to make their stories more exciting than the 
 adventures really were. The men who returned from 
 these adventures were looked upon as great and wonderful 
 and Columbus wanted very much to become like them. 
 
 5. Columbus in Portugal. — We have just seen that 
 Bartholomew Columbus had gone to Portugal ahead of 
 his older brother, and that he was engaged in making 
 maps. When Christopher Columbus reached Portugal he 
 too began making maps, possibly in partnership with his 
 brother. Portugal was a good place for map makers 
 because at that time stories about new discoveries traveled 
 very slowly, and those who made maps wanted to show the 
 most newly discovered lands, so as to make their maps as 
 complete as possible. In those days maps were made by 
 hand, one by one, and not printed as they are today. 
 For this reason the making of maps was a great deal more 
 of a trade than it is now. It is important to keep in mind 
 that in Portugal, Columbus was always in touch with that 
 spirit of adventure which goes with the sailing into un- 
 known oceans and the search for new lands. As we shall 
 see later, it is likely that he himself took part in some of 
 the voyages of the Portuguese. 
 
 Soon after he came to Portugal, Columbus was married 
 to a young lady of good family. They had a son, Diego, 
 who was born a year or two later. If there were other 
 children they died young, because the name of none of 
 
8 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 them has come down to us. Columbus said, however, in a 
 letter written after he left Portugal, that he had left his 
 wife and children. We know that he took his son Diego 
 
 MAP SHOWING OVERLAND ROUTES TO INDIA 
 
 with him, so, according to that letter, there must have 
 been other children. 
 
 In these earlier years of his life Columbus took a great 
 deal of interest in geography and in the discoveries which 
 were being made. It is unfortunate that later he seems 
 to have lost this interest in geography itself and that his 
 
Before the First Voyage 9 
 
 thoughts turned more and more to the discovery of gold 
 and other riches. 
 
 6. Stories of the Far East. — When Columbus started 
 westward across the Atlantic, he expected to reach the 
 east coast of Asia. Why did he want to go to Asia? For 
 many hundreds of years before the time of Columbus, the 
 people of Italy, and especially of his own city of Genoa, 
 had been carrying on a trade with eastern Asia, bringing 
 the goods overland along the lines which are shown on 
 this map. Columbus had seen the great wealth which 
 the people of Genoa gained by this trade, and he had also 
 seen how their wealth was rapidly being lost after the trade 
 was stopped by the Turks who had conquered the eastern 
 shores of the Mediterranean. He found that the Portuguese 
 were trying to get this trade by sailing around the south- 
 ern end of Africa. In time he came to believe, however, that 
 by sailing westward he could reach Asia by a shorter route 
 than by going around Africa, and after all it was not cer- 
 tain as yet that it was possible to sail around Africa at all. 
 
 Now and then a traveler would go to these eastern 
 countries and come back with the most wonderful stories 
 about the riches he had seen. The stories of the travels 
 of three of these men are marvelous, indeed. Their 
 names are, Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, and Nicolo 
 di Conti. Many of their stories were, of course, not true. 
 They told of cities with bridges built of costly stone; they 
 told about more gold and silver and pearls than there 
 really was at that time an3rvvhere in the world. All things, 
 except men, they said, were finer in the East than else- 
 where; the trees grew taller, the animals were larger. Only 
 the people were small and weak, and not so brave as in 
 
10 The Story of Columbus 
 
 Europe. They had been fed so well and had lived in a 
 climate where they needed to do so little work that they 
 had become soft and puny. 
 
 The people of Europe were anxious to find an easy 
 way to reach these very rich countries where they could 
 trade — and, it must be said, not only trade, but even 
 steal the riches and carry them away. We shall find 
 later in this story that this is precisely what Columbus 
 did with the Indians, and that is what a great many 
 others did for years to come. 
 
 People like to tell wonderful stories and they also like 
 to believe them, and so these stories of the riches of the 
 Far East were not only beheved, but as they were told 
 from time to time they were improved upon, and the East 
 grew richer and richer as the stories were repeated. It is 
 no wonder then that many people in Italy, Portugal, and 
 Spain were trying to find some direct way to these untold 
 treasures where they might easily make themselves rich. 
 It is difficult for us, who live far from that time and from 
 those places, to understand just how excited they got 
 about it. We know how people now go ahnost mad when 
 they hear about the finding of gold. Hundreds of thou- 
 sands rush away from home and from their work, trying 
 to get rich all of a sudden by digging gold. But in those 
 days people could not rush to India as they do now to 
 newly found gold fields. The only way they knew was 
 to sail to the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and then 
 to go overland on a long and difficult journey. But this 
 route had been made impossible by the Turks, who refused 
 to let Christians carry on trade over the lands which they 
 had conquered. There were, too, many stories of savage 
 
Before the First Voyage 11 
 
 beasts and other great dangers. So people began to think 
 more and more about finding other ways to go to the Far 
 East. The Portuguese were trying to sail around the south 
 coast of Africa. A few were thinking about going around 
 the world by sailing westward across the Atlantic. This 
 last idea finally led Columbus to make his great journey. 
 
 7. How Columbus Came to Believe the Earth Round. 
 — We now know that the earth is round, very nearly the 
 shape of a true sphere. At the time of Columbus most 
 people believed that it was flat. Some thought that it 
 was flat and round, just like the top of. a dining table, and 
 others thought that it was flat and square, or rectangular, 
 like the top of a flat desk. Those who believed the earth 
 flat said that if it were round like a ball, then there must 
 be people or animals of some kind on the other side of it 
 and that they would be walking with their feet pointed 
 upward and their heads pointed downward. This, they 
 said, could not be, because those on the other side would 
 fall off the earth. In answer to the argument that if the 
 earth were flat, the water of the ocean would run off the 
 edge, they said that all around the edge of the earth 
 there was land which kept it from running off. 
 
 However, the belief that the earth is round had been held 
 by many people for nearly two thousand years before the 
 time of Columbus. Some stories told about Columbus would 
 lead us to believe that this idea was new with him, but that 
 is by no means true. There were the two beliefs that we 
 have mentioned about the shape of the earth, and the credit 
 that belongs to Columbus is, that he cliose the right one. 
 
 Columbus read all the books on geography that he could 
 find, and we know from the remarks which he wrote in 
 
12 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 their margins that he was most interested in the shape 
 of the earth and the possibihty of reaching the East by 
 saihng westward. When still a young man, not far from 
 thirty years of age, he wrote to one of the wisest men of 
 that time, an Itahan by name ToscaneUi, asking him for 
 his opinion about the shape of the earth, and telhng him 
 of his idea of saihng westward to reach the East. In reply, 
 ToscaneUi sent a copy of a letter which he had recently 
 
 TOSCANELLI S MAP 
 
 The original has been lost and this is from an early reproduction simplified 
 
 written to the King of Portugal on this same subject and 
 also enclosed a copy of a map. This map has been lost, 
 but the one shown here is part of an early reproduction 
 of it. The island called Cipango was supposed to represent 
 modern Japan, which is right off the coast of Asia. In 
 the letter to Columbus, ToscaneUi said, among other things, 
 
 " I perceive your great and noble desire to go to the place where spices 
 grow; wherefore in reply to a letter of yours, I send you a copy of another 
 letter, which I wrote to a friend of mine a gentleman of the household of 
 the most gracious king of Portugal." 
 
 Following is part of the letter to the gentleman in the 
 King's household of which ToscaneUi enclosed a copy to 
 Columbus: 
 
Before the First Voyage 13 
 
 "I was glad to hear of your intimacy and favor with your most noble 
 and illustrious king, I have formerly spoken with you about a shorter 
 route to the places of spices by ocean navigation than that which you are 
 pursuing by Guinea. The most gracious king now desires from me some 
 statement, or rather an exhibition to the eye, so that even the slightly edu- 
 cated can grasp and comprehend that route. Although I am well aware that 
 this can be proved from the spherical shape of the earth, nevertheless, in order 
 to make the point clearer and to facilitate the enterprise, I have decided 
 to exhibit that route by means of a sailing chart. I therefore send to his 
 majesty a chart made by my own hands, upon which are laid down your 
 coasts, and the islands from which you must begin to shape your course 
 steadily westward, and the places at which you are bound to arrive, and 
 how far from the pole or from the equator you ought to keep away, and 
 through how much space or through how many miles you are to arrive at 
 places most fertile in all sorts of spices and gems; and do not wonder at 
 my calhng west the parts where the spices are, whereas they are commonly 
 called cast, because to persons sailing persistently westward those parts 
 
 will be found by courses on the under side of the earth 
 
 I have drawn upon the map various places upon which you may come, 
 for the better information of the navigators, in case of their arriving, whether 
 through accident of wind or what not, at some different place from what 
 they had expected; but partly in order that they may show the inhabitants 
 that they have some knowledge of their country, which is sure to be a 
 pleasant thing. It is said that none but merchants dwell in the islands.' 
 For so great there is the number of navigators with their merchandise that 
 in all the rest of the world there are not so many as in one very splendid 
 port called Zaiton. For they say that a hundred great ships of pepper 
 unload in that port every year, besides other ships bringing other spices. 
 That country is very popidous and very rich, with a multitude of provinces 
 
 and kingdoms and cities without number I had a long talk 
 
 with him about many things, about the great size of their royal palaces 
 and the remarkable length and breadth of their rivers, and the multitudes 
 of cities on the banks of the rivers, such that on one river there are about 
 two hundred cities, with marble bridges very long and wide and everywhere 
 adorned with columns 
 
 "From the city of Lisbon, due west there are 26 spaces marked on the 
 map, each of which contains 250 miles, as far as the very great and splendid 
 city of Quinsay. For it is a hundred miles in circumference and has ten 
 bridges, and its name means City of Heaven, and many wonderful things 
 are told about it and about the multitude of its arts and revenues. . . . 
 
14 The Story of Columbus 
 
 But from the island of Antilia, which you know, to the very splendid 
 island of Cipango, there are ten spaces. For that island abounds in gold, 
 pearls, and precious stones, and they cover the temples and palaces with 
 soHd gold. So through the unknown parts of the route, the stretches of 
 sea to be traversed are not great. Many things might perhaps have been 
 stated more clearly, but one who duly considers what I have said will be 
 able to work out the rest for himself. Farewell, most esteemed one." 
 
 In reply to a letter from Columbus, Toscanelli wrote: 
 
 "I have received your letters, with the things which you sent me, for 
 which I thank you very much. I regard as noble and grand your project 
 of sailing from east to west according to the indications furnished by the 
 map which I sent you, and which would appear still more plainly upon a 
 sphere. I am much pleased to see that I have been well understood, and 
 that the voyage has become not only possible but certain, fraught with 
 honor as it must be, and inestimable gain, and most lofty fame among all 
 Christian people 
 
 "When that voyage shall be accomplished, it will be a voyage to powerful 
 kingdoms, and to cities and provinces most wealthy and noble, abounding in 
 all sorts of thingsmostdesired by us; I mean, with all kinds of spices and jewels 
 
 in great abundance For these reasons, and many others that 
 
 might be mentioned, I do not wonder that you, who are of great courage, and 
 the whole Portuguese nation, which has always had men distinguished in all 
 such enterprises, are now inflamed with desire to execute the said voyage." 
 
 We do not know just when Columbus received these 
 letters, but it was certainly more than ten years before he 
 sailed on his first voyage. No doubt his belief that the 
 earth was round grew stronger as the years went on. 
 
 It was very important, indeed, for Columbus to be 
 certain in his belief that the earth was round, for when he 
 tried to get kings and queens and others to help him, he 
 first had to tell them the wonderful stories about the riches 
 of the Far East, and then show them that this Far East 
 could be reached by going west. Much of the trouble 
 which Columbus had in securing help came from the fact 
 that those who might help him would not do so because 
 
Before the First Voyage 
 
 15 
 
 they thought the earth flat and, of course, if the earth 
 was flat, the East could not be reached by saihng west. 
 8. Stories of Islands in the West. — If we look at this 
 map we will see that the Portuguese sailors had already 
 gone a long distance out into the Atlantic. The island of 
 Flores, the most westerly of the Azores, is more than one- 
 third the distance from Spain to the place where Columbus 
 finally found the New World. Columbus, however, be- 
 lieved that there were many islands scattered all over the 
 ocean. For centuries stories had been told about a wonder- 
 ful island called Antilia that was supposed to be out in the 
 Atlantic far beyond any of 
 the islands yet discovered. 
 Columbus believed that 
 this island was far on the 
 way toward Asia, and he 
 
 '^ ^ TOSCANELLI S MAP REDUCED, SHOWING THE 
 
 was confirmed in this belief ^«^^^« ^^ ^^^ Atlantic 
 
 by the letter and the map of Toscanelh. It was his idea 
 that if he got into trouble out in the open ocean, he 
 could run up to this island to repair his ships or to seek 
 shelter from dangerous storms. 
 
 Many other wonderful stories were told. Sailors who 
 came back from trips far out into the ocean told of lands 
 that they thought they had seen ; but when others went in 
 search of them, they had somehow disappeared. This led 
 to the belief that there were floating islands scattered all 
 over the ocean. It was also believed that there were many 
 islands along the eastern coast of Asia, and it was expected 
 that these would be found long before the mainland would 
 be reached. One of these islands was actually known from 
 the stories of Marco Polo. It was called Cipango, and 
 
16 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 MAP SHOWING PORTUGUESE EXPLORATIONS ALONG THE COAST OP AFRICA 
 
 was the island of Japan, about which Marco Polo had 
 learned on his trip to China. 
 
Before the First Voyage 17 
 
 9. Voyages and Discoveries of the Portuguese. — To 
 
 understand conditions at the time we must now tell briefly 
 about the voyages and discoveries of the Portuguese. 
 
 For a century before the coming of Columbus, they had 
 sailed westward into the Atlantic and south along the 
 west coast of Africa. They had discovered the Azores, 
 the Madeiras, and the Canaries, and, in their efforts to 
 reach Asia by sea, they were gradually working their way 
 down the west coast of Africa. Just before reaching 
 Guinea, the coast of Africa turned towards the east and 
 for a time they hoped they had reached the southern end 
 of the continent. But about the time that Columbus 
 came to Portugal they were discouraged by fuiding that 
 the coast again turned southward. It was not until 1487, 
 five years before the first voyage of Columbus, that they 
 finally reached the Cape of Good Hope, the most southerly 
 point of Africa. Even then they did not go on to sail 
 completely around the continent, and it was ten years 
 later that Da Gama finally went on across the Indian Ocean 
 to India. It is known that Bartholomew, the younger 
 brother of Columbus, took part in the voyage that first 
 reached the Cape of Good Hope, and it is beheved that 
 Columbus himself took part in some of the earlier voyages. 
 
 10. The Voyages of the Norsemen. — Sailors from 
 Norway and Denmark, who are usually called Norsemen, 
 had crossed the northern end of the Atlantic and found 
 America nearly five hundred years before the time of 
 Columbus. Some time during the years when he lived in 
 Portugal, Columbus made a voyage to the north, visiting 
 England, and possibly going as far north as Iceland. 
 Some writers of history have believed that in talking with 
 
 2 
 
18 The Story of Columbus 
 
 the people of England or Iceland, Columbus heard stories 
 about the land that these Norsemen had found far to the 
 west. If he heard such stories, it is certain that they did 
 not lead him to try to find the land that the Norsemen 
 had found. It was believed at that time that all the 
 lands found by the Norsemen in going westward across 
 the northern part of the Atlantic were connected in the 
 north with Europe. Columbus wanted to go to the 
 Indies and he believed that they lay far to the south of 
 the lands which the Norsemen had discovered. As we 
 shall find, when Columbus left Spain he sailed to the 
 southwest instead of to the northwest. We may be 
 certain, therefore, that he did not get any ideas from the 
 stories of the Norse voyages which helped him to decide 
 to reach Asia by sailing westward. Indeed, it is very 
 doubtful whether he ever heard of these voyages at all, 
 for he never mentions them in any of his writings which 
 have come down to us. 
 
 II. The Size of the Earth. — Columbus thought that 
 the earth was really much smaller than it is, and so he 
 believed that the distance from Spain to Eastern Asia 
 was only about three thousand miles. We now know that 
 if there had been no land in the way, so that Columbus 
 could have sailed to Eastern Asia in a straight line, he 
 would have had to go about three times as far as he 
 actually did. Some geographers of that time believed that 
 the distance was even less than three thousand miles, and at 
 times when Columbus was very anxious to get help he 
 spoke of Asia as bordering up against the coast of Africa. 
 
 At that time there was a general belief that only about 
 one-sixth of the earth's surface was covered with water 
 
Before the First Voyage 19 
 
 and that the other five-sixths were land. For this reason 
 the maps of that time showed large areas of land and small 
 seas. We now know that only about one-fourth of the 
 earth's surface is land and that the other three-fourths 
 are covered with water. If Columbus had really known 
 how large the earth is and that he would have had to sail 
 nine thousand miles before he could reach Asia, it is verj- 
 likely that he would not have dared to start on his voyage. 
 Of course, in those days nobody even dreamed of a large 
 continent lying between Europe and Asia. 
 
 12. Summary of Columbus's Beliefs. — We have now 
 seen that Columbus believed the stories of the wonderful 
 riches of the Far East; that he believed the earth to be 
 round; that he thought the size of the earth was much 
 less than it really is, so that the distance from Spain to 
 Asia would be only about three thousand miles. He 
 believed that there were very many islands scattered all 
 over the Atlantic and he expected to discover some of these 
 before he actually reached Asia. In only one of these 
 behefs was he right, namely, that the earth is round. It 
 is surely interesting that every one of his mistaken notions 
 was a good reason why he should go across the Atlantic. 
 Thus all his mistakes made him more determined to go 
 and made it easier for him to get the help which he needed 
 both in ships and in crews. If Columbus and those who 
 helped him had known the facts he would never have 
 crossed the Atlantic and found America. 
 
 13. Columbus as a Sailor. — To sail westward across 
 the Atlantic for the purpose of reaching Asia, it was by 
 no means enough that Columbus should believe the earth 
 to be round and the distance to be much less than it was. 
 
20 The Story of Columbus 
 
 It was necessary for him to be a very good seaman. He 
 needed to have the courage to go far out into the unknown 
 ocean. He needed to be able to command other men, and 
 he had to have the earnest desire to go, which would make 
 him disregard all the dangers that he might meet. 
 
 His life among the Portuguese had helped very much 
 to develop these quahties in him. No doubt he sailed on 
 many of their voyages, he took part in long journeys into 
 unknown seas, and he learned from the Portuguese sailors 
 the art of handling ships and of finding his location at sea. 
 We shall learn later that he was one of the very best sailors 
 of his time. It happened repeatedly that no one else in 
 his crews knew where they were, but seldom, if ever, did 
 Columbus miss his bearings. It is interesting to note the 
 combination of qualities which were needed for the under- 
 taking of Columbus. He needed to know the best science 
 of his time, to be informed on all that the best geographers 
 could teach, and besides that he had to be a rough-and- 
 ready, practical seaman who was willing to brave all the 
 dangers of unknown oceans. 
 
 We shall see that still other qualities were needed. 
 It required remarkable personal qualities to go on for 
 many years seeking the help he needed and to strive to 
 convince people that his plans could be carried out. 
 
 14. Columbus Tried to Get Help From the King of 
 Portugal. — To undertake such a voyage as Columbus 
 wanted to make it was necessary to have good ships, and 
 crews brave enough to start out on a long and dangerous 
 journey. Good ships cost a great deal of money, and 
 sailors to go on them had to be paid wages. Columbus 
 was poor and had to seek help from some one else. In 
 
Before the First Voyage 21 
 
 those days, it was usual for kings to send out ships to 
 search for new lands. Since the Portuguese were the 
 greatest explorers of that time, it was natural that Colum- 
 bus should go to the King of Portugal, to explain what he 
 wanted to do and to ask for help. The King, however, 
 soon learned that Columbus not only wanted help in ships 
 and money, but that he also wanted to get for himself a 
 large share of the riches to be obtained from the lands that 
 he might find. Columbus also wanted the King to promise 
 that he should be viceroy or governor of all the new lands 
 that he might discover. In those days when a king fitted 
 out ships to discover new lands, it was customary that 
 the lands thus found, and whatsoever could be made by 
 trading with them or by stealing their wealth, all belonged 
 to the king. So the demands of Columbus appeared very 
 unusual and the King refused to give him any help. 
 
 The King of Portugal thought, however, that it might 
 be worth while to test the ideas of Columbus. So he sent 
 some ships to carry goods to the Cape Verde Islands and 
 gave them instructions to go from there westward into the 
 Atlantic, to search for the land that Columbus had told 
 about. This shows that if Columbus had not wanted 
 much more than others who went out on such journeys, 
 he would have received help long before he did and his 
 voyages could have begun many years before he actu- 
 ally got started. 
 
 There are stories that at this time Columbus tried to 
 get help from his own city of Genoa, in Italy, and also 
 from one other place in Italy; but if he tried he certainly 
 failed. We are not at all certain, however, that either of 
 these stories is true. 
 
22 
 
 The Story of Colxjmbus 
 
 15. Columbus Leaving Portugal for Spain. — When 
 Columbus found that the king of Portugal would not give 
 him the help that he wanted and at the same time promise 
 him all that he demanded, he decided to go to Spain, to 
 try to get the King and Queen of Spain to help him. He 
 believed that they might be willing to do so because he 
 knew that Spain was now anxious to discover new lands. 
 For many years the Portuguese had done more exploring 
 
 than any other people in 
 Europe, but Spain was now 
 rapidly becoming more 
 powerful, and it seemed 
 reasonable to Columbus 
 that the Spaniards might 
 be anxious to get the trade 
 of the East and so get 
 ahead of their old rivals. 
 
 MAP OF ARAGON, CASTILE AND MOORISH SPAIN 
 
 It was in Spain that Co- 
 lumbus at last got his 
 ships and his men, but it took him eight years to get them. 
 16. Spain When Columbus Came There. — To under- 
 stand the trouble which Columbus had in getting help 
 from Spain, we must now tell something about that 
 country as it was at the time of Columbus. More than 
 seven hundred years earher, a people called the Moors 
 had crossed over from northern Africa, taken much of the 
 land, and made their homes there. These Moors were a 
 very remarkable people. At a time when the streets of 
 London were unpaved, with footpaths winding among 
 puddles of filth in which hogs were wallowing, the streets 
 of Cordova and Seville were beautifully paved. While 
 
Before the First Voyage 23 
 
 the nobles and princes of England found their way at 
 night by means of lanterns made of animal membranes 
 stretched over wooden frames and little tallow candles 
 placed inside them, the Moors walked through the well- 
 lighted streets of their proud cities. They built great 
 schools and universities and erected wonderful churches 
 and palaces. Indeed, the Moors were the most highly 
 civihzed people of their time. But the Spaniards always 
 
 F • 1 
 
 THE CONVENT OF LA RABIDA, IN PALOS, WHERE COLUMBUS RESTED FROM TliME TO TIME 
 
 WHILE IN SPAIN 
 
 hated them because the Moors had driven them out of a 
 part of their own land. 
 
 If you will look at the map of Spain given here, you 
 will see the part which the Moors conquered and you will 
 also see the part of Africa from which they came. You 
 will see that the rest of Spain was divided into two great 
 parts called Aragon and Castile. Ferdinand, the King of 
 Aragon, had married Isabella, the Queen of Castile. In 
 this way Aragon and Castile were united. When Colum- 
 bus came to Spain, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella 
 were carrying on a great war against the Moors. 
 
 17. Columbus in Spain. — It was by no means easy for 
 a poor stranger like Columbus to get permission even to 
 
24 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 come to the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella. This would 
 be difficult enough in ordinary times, and was especially 
 so now when the attention of the King and Queen was 
 wholly taken up by the great war. Columbus first sought 
 the acquaintance of some of the great men of Spain, and 
 it was by their help that he was finally permitted to appear 
 at the Court. After some years he was engaged in the 
 service of the Court and received a small sum of money 
 
 COLUMBUS BEFORE THE COURT AT SALAMANCA 
 
 yearly. The King and Queen, however, were too busy to 
 listen to his plans and they asked a number of learned men 
 to decide what should be done. Some of these men really 
 believed that Columbus might be right, while others de- 
 clared he was a wild dreamer. So years .went by without 
 anything being done. In the meantime, Bartholomew, 
 the younger brother of Columbus, returned from the 
 voyage on which the southern end of Africa had been 
 found. This expedition made him fear that the Portuguese 
 would be the first to reach the East by an all-sea route and 
 
Before the First Voyage 
 
 25 
 
 so he hurried Bartholomew to England to seek help. He 
 also tried to get some of the rich nobles of Spain to furnish 
 ships and men, and they would have done so had not the 
 Queen objected. She did not wish anyone except herself 
 or the King to send out such an expedition. 
 
 FERDINAND OP ARAGON 
 
 During all these years Columbus talked about his 
 plans to all who would listen, and he succeeded in getting 
 many to beheve in them. This was important, for the 
 King and Queen would not be likely to furnish ships and 
 men for such a voyage without the advice of the wisest 
 and most learned men of their kingdom. 
 
 In the first months of the year 1492, after the war 
 against the Moors had been finished, the King and Queen 
 
26 The Story of Columbus 
 
 decided to send Columbus on his voyage. Trouble started, 
 however, when they found what Columbus wanted. In 
 spite of years of poverty and waiting, he made exactly the 
 same demands of the Ejng and Queen of Spain that he 
 had made eight years earlier of the King of Portugal. 
 He still wanted to be viceroy of all lands he might discover. 
 He wanted the promise of large incomes of money and other 
 things which it was difficult even for a king and queen to 
 grant. But Columbus was fixed in his ideas as to what he 
 should have, and the result was that all help was refused him. 
 1 8. Columbus Starting for France. — Colimibus now 
 decided to go to France. Alone, riding a mule, he started 
 on his way. There were many people at the Court, how- 
 ever, who believed in his stories and plans, and it hurt 
 their pride to think that all these wonderful things might 
 go to France just because Spain would not risk a small 
 amount of money. These people went to the Queen. 
 For some time it had been noted that the King was not 
 as willing to listen to the plans of Columbus as was the 
 Queen, and so they went to her instead of to the King. 
 They told her again the stories which Columbus had told 
 of the wonderful riches of the East; they told her that 
 Columbus was really right and that if she would send him 
 out, the Spanish Court would be the richest in the world. 
 The result was that the Queen decided to help Columbus. 
 She said that she would get the money from Castile and 
 that Aragon should have no part in this expedition. So 
 it happened that a messenger was sent in all haste to over- 
 take Columbus. He found him a long way from the Court, 
 riding his lone mule. The messenger stopped him and 
 told him that the Queen wanted him to return. Columbus 
 
Before the First Voyage 27 
 
 was uncertain and thought that probably when the tune 
 really came they would again refuse him help. Neverthe- 
 less, he turned his mule around and went back to the 
 Spanish Court. The story has been told that the Queen 
 
 <^ 
 
 ISABELLA UF CASTILE 
 
 pawned her jewels to get the money with which to fit 
 out the ships. This is now known not to be true. It is 
 pretty certain, however, that all the expense was borne 
 by Castile. We shall learn a little later that the ships 
 were provided in another way; that is, the Queen was not 
 obliged to buy the ships nor to build them. 
 
28 The Story of Columbus 
 
 19. What the King and Queen Promised Columbus. — 
 
 While the Queen provided the necessary money, the King 
 joined her in the promises which were made to Columbus. 
 The most important of these were : 
 
 1. That Columbus should be viceroy of all the lands which he might 
 discover, and that his son, and his son's son and some member of his family 
 forever after him should be viceroy of these lands. 
 
 2. That he should be Judge and Admiral of all the lands and islands 
 he might discover. 
 
 3. That he himself should receive one-tenth of all the valuable goods, 
 all the gold and silver and pearls, and all things whatsoever which should be 
 gotten from these lands, after the cost of obtaining them had been deducted. 
 
 This last promise would have made Columbus very 
 wealthy if he had found the rich lands that he expected 
 to find. We must be sure to understand just what this 
 promise meant. Any people who were to trade with 
 these lands would have to give Columbus one-tenth of 
 all the profits they made, and anybody who might go 
 over and rob those people would have to give him one- 
 tenth of what they took. 
 
 There were other promises too, but these were the most 
 important ones. For many hundreds of years, both before 
 and after Columbus, a great many ships had gone out into 
 the ocean to find new land, but no one had ever received 
 a promise of the kind that Columbus received. It was 
 really a promise which not even a king and a queen could 
 carry out in the long run. It is remarkable that this poor 
 man, a foreigner born in Genoa, who had lived a few 
 years in Portugal, should come to the Court of Spain 
 and be able to get the King and the Queen to make him 
 such a promise. It is the same kind of promise that he 
 tried to get from the King of Portugal and which that King 
 
Before the First Voyage 29 
 
 refused to make. It was because of that refusal that 
 Columbus left Portugal for Spain, and he had once left 
 the Court of Spain to go to France just because the 
 King and Queen had in the first place refused to grant 
 his demands. 
 
 The one thing that Columbus wanted above every- 
 thing else was riches and glory for himself. We shall see 
 later in this story that his endeavor to become rich gave 
 him more suffering and pain and caused him more trouble 
 than all the other things of his life. Had he been satisfied 
 to go out as other great sailors had done, to find new lands, 
 and to receive what was naturally given to people who 
 work mainly for their country, he would have been much 
 wealthier in the end. Had he not been so grasping he 
 probably could have started on his first voyage eight 
 years earlier. 
 
 When Columbus really discovered the new world he 
 found but little gold or other riches, and he died poor 
 and lonely and almost forgotten. 
 
 20. How the Ships Were Provided. — The story has 
 been told that Queen Isabella bought the ships. This 
 story, however, is not true, and the way that the ships 
 really were obtained was as follows. 
 
 The people of the little town of Palos had done some- 
 thing to displease the King and Queen, and it had been 
 decided to fine the town by making the people furnish two 
 ships and crews for the time of twelve months. When it 
 was decided to help Columbus, an order was made out at 
 the Court, commanding Palos to prepare two ships, to 
 provide crews, and to let Columbus take them for his 
 proposed voyage. 
 
30 The Story of Columbus 
 
 The sailors on these vessels were to be paid the same 
 as sailors on warships, which was more than ordinary 
 sailors received, and were to be given four months' pay 
 in advance, at the time of starting on the voyage. Any 
 one who might be under arrest or in jail was to be allowed 
 to become a member of the crews, and nothing was to be 
 done with him until two months after his return. It will 
 thus be seen that any criminal in the town of Palos — a 
 thief or a murderer — might avoid being put into prison 
 or escape being executed for a certain length of time 
 simply by going on the voyage of Columbus. 
 
 The to^vn of Palos was required to furnish only two 
 vessels. Columbus, however, was allowed to get another 
 vessel if he could, making three in all. This he finally did 
 by the help of two brothers, who were old seamen and who 
 had considerable money. The name of these men was 
 Pinzon. The vessel which was provided by the Pinzons 
 was the largest of the three and was used by Columbus 
 as his flagship. We will describe these ships a httle later. 
 
 21. Difficulty in Getting Crews.^ — It was very hard, 
 indeed, to get seamen to go on this voyage. Everybody 
 was afraid of the great dangers which were believed to be 
 lurking in the far ocean. Even emptying the jail of Palos 
 did not furnish enough men for the crews. So Ferdi- 
 nand and Isabella gave an order to impress seamen. To 
 'impress" seamen means simply to take them, whether 
 they want to go or not, and make them go. It was found 
 difficult even to impress seamen, and it looked for a while 
 as though the whole plan would fail because of lack of 
 sailors. At that time the two Pinzon brothers, the ones 
 who had helped Columbus to get the third ship, offered 
 
Before the First Voyage 31 
 
 to go. They were well-known seamen, and other people 
 thought that if they were willmg to go, the voyage might 
 not be so very dangerous after all, and so the crews were 
 finally gotten together. 
 
 22. How the Money was Really Provided. — About 
 one-third of the money necessary for the expenses of the 
 voyage was provided by Columbus himself, with the help 
 of the Pinzons. The other two- thirds, or just a little more 
 than that, was provided by Queen Isabella from the in- 
 come of Castile. The little town of Palos had, of course, 
 to provide the two ships and to pay their crews. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 -^=^ 
 
 The First Voyage 
 23. The Ships of Columbus. — Columbus thus finally 
 obtained three ships, the Santa Maria, the Nina, and the 
 Pinta. The town of Palos provided the Nina and the 
 Pinta, and some friends of Columbus, the Pinzons, helped 
 him to secure the Santa Maria. The Nina and the Pinta 
 were sailing vessels of the kind called caravels, which 
 
 were much used in those days 
 to carry armed men. These 
 ships were open in the middle 
 but built-over at both ends. 
 That is, in each end there 
 were small rooms where the 
 crew and the captain lived. 
 They were fast sailers and 
 with a good wind could make 
 as high as twelve miles an 
 hour. This would make one 
 mile in five minutes, and it 
 takes a fairly fast runner to 
 go at that rate for a whole mile. The Nina was a little 
 smaller than the Pinta. 
 
 The third ship, the Santa Maria, was larger and 
 heavier, and had a deck extending over her full length. 
 This kind of ship was called a carack and was ordinarily 
 used for carrying merchandise. Columbus complained 
 that the Santa Maria was a dull sailer and not well suited 
 for his purposes. The ships of Columbus were very small 
 32 
 
 SHIP OP 1486 
 
The First Voyage 
 
 33 
 
 when compared with the ships that sail the ocean to-day. 
 It has been figured out that the Santa Maria was sixty- 
 three feet long on the deck, twenty feet wide, and about 
 ten and one-half feet deep. If fourteen ships of her size 
 
 SHIP OF FIFTEENTH CENTUKY 
 
 were placed end to end they would not all together be as 
 long as the Lusitania. The Santa Maria was less than 
 twice as long as an ordinary school room, and somewhat 
 narrower. You will find that your school room is more 
 than ten and one-half feet high, which was the distance 
 from the deck to the bottom of the Santa Maria, 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 24. What Columbus Expected to Find.— Columbus 
 believed that by sailing about three thousand miles west- 
 
 MAP DRAWN FROM BEHAIM's GLOBE 
 
 ward he would reach the eastern coast of Asia. He also 
 believed that between Europe and Asia there were many 
 
The First Voyage 
 
 35 
 
 islands which had not yet been discovered, and he expected 
 to find some of those on his trip across. But after leaving 
 
 MAP DRAWN FROM BEHAIM S GLOBE 
 
 the Canary Islands, which were already known, he did 
 not see land until he reached the West Indies. 
 
36 The Story of Columbus 
 
 The map on pages 34 and 35 is from a globe made in the 
 year 1490, just two years before Columbus sailed. It was 
 made by a man who up to that time had lived in Portugal 
 and who therefore had the same ideas about the shape of 
 the earth and the nearness of Europe to Asia that the 
 learned men of Portugal had at that time. Columbus 
 had not seen this globe before he started on his voyage, 
 because it was made in a German city and did not reach 
 Spain in time. But it represented the most advanced 
 ideas about geography and we may well believe that it 
 shows fairly well what Columbus had in mind. 
 
 Columbus must have taken maps with him, but it is 
 not known just what they were. Since he himself was an 
 expert map maker it is very likely that he carried maps 
 of his own construction. For more than ten years he had 
 been making plans for this journey, and he had no doubt 
 made sailing charts and maps of the regions he proposed 
 to visit. No doubt, too, he showed these maps and charts 
 to people whose help he was trying to secure. Naturally, 
 such maps would be taken on the voyage. We have no 
 sure proof as to any of these things, and we can only believe 
 that the map given here shows fairly well the nature of 
 the maps and charts which he carried. 
 
 25. Starting on the Voyage. — When they were finally 
 ready for the voyage, the ships lay in the mouth of a 
 small river that flowed into the harbor of Palos. About 
 a half hour before sunrise, on the morning of August third, 
 1492, the anchors were lifted, the sails were spread, and 
 the little ships headed towards the sea. Columbus de- 
 cided to make a complete history of his journey and keep 
 a daily record of all interesting events. A book in which 
 
The First Voyage 37 
 
 such a record is kept is called a journal and we will refer 
 to the one kept by Columbus as the Journal. While the 
 original Journal has been lost, we have early copies of it 
 which are believed to be fairly accurate. It is from this 
 Journal that we have most of our information about this 
 remarkable and important voyage. Columbus also de- 
 cided to make a map of the countries that he might dis- 
 cover and to make a chart showing the exact track of his 
 vessels across the ocean. It is interesting to notice that 
 it took seventy days from the time the ships sailed from 
 Palos until they reached the West Indies, which shows 
 an average speed of about forty-five miles per day. The 
 Lusitania, going at her best speed, would have made this 
 distance in just a few hours more than five days. Colum- 
 bus headed his ships for a group of islands called the 
 Canaries, which are about one thousand miles from Spain. 
 
 26. The Appearance of Columbus. — We do not know 
 that a picture of Columbus was ever painted while he 
 lived. We give here two of the earliest pictures of him, 
 and they are so different that both of them cannot be 
 good likenesses of the real man. 
 
 We learn from the writings of those who knew him 
 that he was tall and strong, with flowing white hair and 
 keen gray eyes. He was friendly and polite, and people 
 were charmed by his conversation. Even those who 
 opposed him felt respect for him, for he had an air of 
 authority. He was full of enthusiasm for his own plans, 
 and felt that they would not only bring him great wealth 
 and fame but would be the means of carrying the Christian 
 religion to millions of heathens. In his later years he 
 wished people to think he was of noble family, although 
 
38 The Story of Columbus 
 
 we know his father was a poor weaver. He even changed 
 his name from Columbus (Colombo in Italian) to Colon, 
 
 which was the name of a great French admiral. Nowa- 
 days we often find that great men whose parents were poor 
 
The First Voyage 
 
 39 
 
 are proud of their rise in life and that they refer with 
 much pride to the humble conditions from which they came. 
 Columbus seems to have been ashamed of his origin. 
 
 27. The Voyage to the Canaries. — There was no diffi- 
 culty in reaching the Canaries. Ships had sailed from 
 Spain and from Portugal to these islands time and again, 
 and no good seaman had any doubt about this part of the 
 
40 The Story of Columbus 
 
 voyage. At the Canaries the Nina had to stop to change 
 her sails. The Pinta had begun to leak and had to be 
 repaired; her rudder, or steering gear, had been damaged 
 on the way down and that also had to be fixed. 
 
 While passing one of the Canary Islands, the Tenerife, 
 they saw a volcano in eruption. Stories have been told 
 of the great fear which the sailors had of this volcano, 
 but there is no good reason for believing them. There 
 were many volcanoes in the waters where these sailors were 
 used to going and they no doubt had seen them in action 
 before. People who have written about Columbus have 
 often told stories, the truth of which no one knows. Indeed, 
 they have liked to tell exciting tales about his journeys. 
 We always need to be careful in reading about great 
 men to be sure that there is good reason for believing 
 what is told about them. 
 
 The island at which they stopped last is called Gomera. 
 Here they took on board wood, water, and food. At this 
 place they also met people from the Island of Ferro, which 
 is the farthest west among the Canaries. These people 
 told of islands farther out in the Atlantic. Such stories 
 are not surprising. We shall see that several times on 
 this voyage Columbus and his men thought they saw 
 land only to find a little later that they were mistaken. 
 
 28. Sailing the Unknown Ocean. — On Thursday morn- 
 ing, September sixth, Columbus and his crews left Gomera 
 and started out over the open ocean. Before starting on 
 the journey Columbus had predicted that land would be 
 reached by sailing three thousand miles or less from Spain. 
 He feared, however, that they might have to go farther, 
 so he decided to deceive his men. When they had sailed 
 
The First Voyage 
 
 41 
 
 about one hundred and eighty miles he told them that 
 they had gone only about one hundred and forty miles. 
 In this way he hoped to be able to make them believe that 
 they were not as far from home as they really were. When 
 they reached the West Indies the crews were made to 
 
 palmaI 
 
 cfi, 
 
 FUERTEVENTURA 
 
 GRAND 
 CANARY 
 
 16° 
 
 THE CANARIES 
 
 believe they had gone several hundred miles less than 
 they really had. 
 
 There were many things which made them fearful 
 out in this vast ocean where no one had ever gone before 
 but which imagination had infested with countless dangers. 
 The long days and nights gave the superstitious sailors 
 plenty of time to think about the great monsters which 
 they had heard inhabited the Sea of Darkness. The wind 
 was blowing constantly to the westward, and they feared 
 it would be difficult to sail back against it. Would they 
 sail over the edge of the earth and never be able to return? 
 
42 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 We shall see in the next section that the compass behaved 
 in a way to alarm them. It was really a wonder that 
 Columbus could persuade these crews to go on straight 
 westward for over thirty days. 
 
 29. The Compass. — At the time of Columbus, sailors 
 used the compass to show the direction in which they 
 were going. In all the seas known at that time the needle 
 pointed not quite north, but a little to the west of north. 
 
 ^^^W^4^ 
 
 OUTLINE MAP OF FIRST OUTWARD VOYAGE 
 
 It was known that by going westward the compass needle 
 would point more nearly to the north. But no one had 
 heard of a place where it pointed exactly north,, or even 
 somewhat to the east of north. The map here shows very 
 nearly the direction in which the needle pointed at the 
 various parts of Columbus' voyage. When they got out 
 a certain distance, they found that it pointed straight 
 north, and when they got a little farther it began to point 
 a little to the east of north. This they could not explain, 
 and to keep the crew from getting too much worried about 
 
The Fiest Voyage 
 
 43 
 
 this matter, Columbus told them that it wasn't the com- 
 pass which had gone wrong, but that the North Star had 
 changed its location. As the voyage proceeded, the com- 
 pass, of course, pointed more and more to the east, and 
 Columbus kept on explaining this by saying that the North 
 Star had moved more and more out of its proper place. 
 Columbus did not really believe this, but he thought it 
 
 MAP SHOWING DEVIATION OP THE COMPASS 
 
 It is supposed that the needle pointed farther to the east in the time of Columbus than 
 
 it does now, but just how much no one knows. This map gives a general idea of the 
 
 way it pointed at that time. 
 
 would be less likely to scare the men than if he told them 
 that the compass had begun to point in a direction where 
 it never pointed before. He thought it might make them 
 believe that the compass would be of little use in finding 
 their way out in this part of the ocean. 
 
 30. Birds at Sea. — Birds were seen almost every day 
 of the voyage. Columbus remarked in his journal several 
 times that birds would not go more than about sixty miles 
 from land, therefore there must be land at least that near. 
 
44 The Story of Columbus 
 
 We now know, however, that many birds go much farther 
 from land than Columbus supposed. Once he remarked 
 that he knew there must be land close by, but that 
 they would not stop to find it now as they could look 
 it up when they returned. The Portuguese were often 
 believed to have found land by following in the direc- 
 tion in which the birds were flying, and that made 
 Columbus more certain that the birds belonged to some 
 land nearby. Sometimes they thought they saw flocks 
 of land birds in the evening, but they never could see 
 them in the*full light of day. Of course, they did not 
 really see such birds, but only thought they did. No 
 doubt the belief that land was near though they did not 
 see it made them feel safer than they would have felt if 
 they had known that there was no land within hundreds 
 of miles. 
 
 31. The Sargasso Sea. — From September sixteenth to 
 October third the ships sailed through great bodies of 
 seaweed. These weeds were very heavy, perhaps as thick 
 around as one's thumb, and very long. There were great 
 masses of these weeds. Stories have been told that the 
 sailors became much worried about them; they thought 
 they would be entangled so badly in them that they 
 could not get out; but there is no reason to beheve these 
 tales. Columbus says nothing about such fears in his 
 Journal, and we must believe that the stories were invented 
 by those who like to have exciting tales to tell. The weeds 
 were thought to be river weeds, or at least to come from 
 some land nearby, and to indicate that they were sailing 
 close to islands or lands which, however, they did not see. 
 On September twenty-second they even changed their 
 
The First Voyage 
 
 45 
 
 direction in order to try to get out of the weeds, and they 
 really did so for a short time. 
 
 We now know that there is a place in the Atlantic 
 called the Sargasso Sea, where a great many weeds have 
 been collected and are floating out in the middle of the 
 ocean. These weeds are gathered here by great currents 
 which go in a circle and thus keep them in a sort of eddy 
 such as we often see in a river, w^here bits of wood may be 
 
 MAP SHOWING SAEGASSO SEA 
 
 seen floating around in the same place for a long time. 
 Columbus, of course, knew nothing about all this and 
 thought they came from nearby land. Fortunately he 
 did not lose time by searching for these lands. To sail 
 west and thus to reach Asia was the guiding star of Colum- 
 bus. His straight path across the ocean shows this more 
 clearly than anything else. With slight exceptions, he laid 
 his course as true to the westward as does the modern liner. 
 32. Story of the Voyage from the Canaries to the West 
 Indies. — The first three days were calm and the ships 
 
46 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 moved slowly. On September thirteenth, when they had 
 been sailing just one week after leaving Gomera, they were 
 about two hundred miles west of the Azores, which were 
 the islands farthest west in the Atlantic which were 
 known at that time. 
 
 On September fourteenth they saw what they thought 
 were land birds and they believed they were within, a 
 short distance from land. On Saturday, the fifteenth, 
 
 DETAILED MAP OP FIRST OUTWARD JOURNEY 
 
 they saw a bolt of fire shoot into the ocean. This, no 
 doubt, was a shooting star or a meteor. On September 
 sixteenth they entered the Sargasso Sea, about which we 
 have just read. On September seventeenth they believed 
 they saw other land birds, which, as Columbus remarked 
 in his Journal, do not sleep on the sea. They were now 
 sure they were near land, and the Pinta, which was the 
 fastest sailer, started ahead to see land first. They also 
 thought they saw flocks of birds in the west. There were 
 heavy clouds, which they thought were sure signs of land. 
 
The First Voyage 
 
 47 
 
 On the nineteenth, the wind was against them, and they 
 drifted somewhat toward the north, as can be seen on the 
 map. Columbus remarked he was glad they ran into this 
 head wind, because that showed that sometimes, at least, 
 the wind blew eastward and that therefore it would not 
 be so difficult to get back. On the twentieth two pelicans 
 came on board, and again he remarked that these birds 
 sleep on shore and go to sea in the morning. Hence they 
 
 DETAILED MAP OF FIRST OUTWARD JOURNEY 
 
 could not be far from land. On the twenty-second of 
 September they saw a whale, and this they believed to 
 be a sign that they were nearing land. Anyone who has 
 crossed the Atlantic knows, of course, that the whale goes 
 anywhere in the ocean. 
 
 On the twenty-second they changed their course again 
 and headed still farther to the north, trying to get away 
 from the weeds, which were very thick. 
 
 On the twenty-third and twenty-fourth there was no 
 wind and the ships drifted with the current. 
 
48 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 50^ 
 
 SEPT. 24 SEPT- 23 
 
 40^ 
 IP 
 
 40 r 
 
 y^^'^ %^ ""^ 
 
 .0^ 
 
 
 MAP OF DRIFTING FROM SEPTEMBER 19tH TO 
 SEPTEMBER 26tH 
 
 On the evening of the twenty-fifth they were certain 
 they saw land in the southwest, and sailed in that direction 
 to find it. In the morning of the next day, however, they 
 discovered that what they had seen was only clouds and 
 there was no land. 
 
 They now sailed straight west for twelve days. On Octo- 
 ber third they thought 
 they saw branches with 
 fruit among the weeds. 
 On October sixth the Pin- 
 zon brothers began to urge 
 that they sail on a more 
 southerly course, as they 
 believed that the land was 
 in that direction. Columbus, however, persisted in sailing 
 westward. On Sunday, October seventh, the Nina, which 
 was in the lead, fired a gun and raised a flag to show that 
 they had sighted land. Again they found they were mis- 
 taken. However, towards evening of that same day 
 Columbus decided to go in a more southerly direction, as 
 urged by the Pinzon brothers. Great flocks of birds were 
 now seen flying southwestward, and again they thought of 
 the stories of the Portuguese finding land by following birds. 
 They were now two hundred miles farther west than 
 the distance which Columbus had said would take them 
 to Cipango — the island of Japan. 
 
 On October eighth they saw land birds flying along 
 the course of the ships. On the tenth Columbus wrote 
 in his Journal that the crews were becoming very much 
 worried and he encouraged them as best he could. He 
 told them they could not now be far from land, that it 
 
The First Voyage 
 
 49 
 
 would be too bad to turn around after they had gone so 
 far, and that if they only kept on they would reach Asia 
 and that all of them would be very rich. He also spoke 
 about what the King and Queen would think of men who 
 had gone so far and would turn around without going 
 just a little farther. 
 
 On October eleventh there was a very rough sea, and 
 we may imagine how the little ships were tossed about 
 
 OUTLINE MAP OF FIRST VOTAGE, SHOWING MAIN DATES 
 
 in it. However, there were now real signs that land was 
 near. They saw logs floating in the water, and they even 
 thought they saw a stick of wood which had been carved 
 with a knife. They saw green bushes, and stalks of the 
 rosemary, and bits of cane. There was no doubt that land 
 was near, and they changed their course to the west. At 
 two o'clock in the morning of October twelfth, land was 
 seen. The great voyage was over! It was now thirty-six 
 days since they left the Canary Islands. They had found 
 nothing unusual. The sea was the same kind of sea as 
 4 
 
50 The Story of Columbus 
 
 at home. The wind and the waves were the same as 
 those they had been used to. They had found none of 
 the horrible things which people believed were out in the 
 great ocean. Indeed, nothing strange had happened on 
 the journey. Longer voyages had frequently been made 
 from Portugal. The only unusual thing about this voyage 
 was that they had sailed out into the great ocean, straight 
 toward the west, about two thousand miles farther than, 
 any ship had ever sailed, so far as they knew. 
 
 When they were sure that they saw land, the ships 
 were turned around to avoid running ashore in the dark- 
 ness. No doubt Columbus slept little that night. For 
 more than ten years, possibly for nearly twienty years, 
 he had been hoping some day to sail west to find land. 
 Now he had sailed west just about the distance that he 
 expected to sail to find the great continent of Asia. There 
 the land lay before him, and he had no doubt but that it 
 was Asia itself or one of the islands which he believed to 
 be lying out in the sea near that continent. The moon 
 was three-quarters full, and in its light, three thousand 
 miles west of Europe, those little ships lay with their prows 
 turned to the wind, their crews waiting for the morning, 
 when they would head for the shore to see what they had 
 really found. We must not forget that this voyage was 
 one of the very greatest things ever accomplished by any- 
 one. Columbus and his men knew that well. But Colum- 
 bus had one fear. For many years he had hoped to become 
 rich and great through such a voyage. To those who sent 
 him he had held out prospects of glory and power sufficient 
 to make them unrivaled among the kings of the earth, 
 and what he had reserved for himself was enough to make 
 
The First Voyage 51 
 
 him richer and more powerful than any save his King and 
 Queen. Would he find the riches? Was this indeed the 
 land where bridges were built of costly stones, and where 
 the people were so weak that he could easily make himself 
 their master? We may well believe that he passed an 
 anxious and restless night. 
 
 33. The Story of the Light. — Anyone who has read 
 anything at all about the voyage of Columbus has read 
 the story that in the evening of October eleventh, standing 
 in the prow of his ship and peering into the darkness, he 
 saw a light, and that this light was the first real sign of 
 land that was seen. It would be more pleasant not to tell 
 the story about this fight, but those who write about men 
 who have made history should tell the whole truth. The 
 story goes that Columbus saw the fight, or thought he 
 saw it, and that he spoke to one of his men about it and 
 that this man, who was not much more than a slave, said 
 he thought he saw it too. Columbus also spoke to one 
 other man in a different part of the ship about it, but this 
 man could not see it. Columbus further said that he saw 
 the fight a little later and that it moved up and down. 
 This was between ten and eleven o'clock at night. We 
 know now that at the rate at which they were sailing they 
 were at least thirty miles from the land which they really 
 saw at two o'clock in the morning. Hence Columbus 
 could not possibly have seen a light on shore, because 
 there could not have been a light powerful enough to be 
 seen even ten miles away, let alone thirty miles. Further, 
 to be visible that far the light must have been elevated 
 more than 600 feet above the water, and Columbus himself 
 describes this land as low and flat. We must tell the rest 
 
52 The Story of Columbus 
 
 of the story. The King and the Queen had promised to 
 give a sum of money every year for hfe to that one of the 
 crew who should see land first. The sum of money was 
 not great — about sixty dollars a year — but money was 
 worth much more then than it is now, and taking it all 
 in all it was a very considerable sum for a poor sailor. 
 The man who really saw land first was a sailor on the 
 Pinta, by name Roderigo de Triana. The Pinta fired the 
 gun to let the rest of the ships know that this time they 
 really saw land. As soon as this gun was fired, the ship 
 turned about and lay still for the night. 
 
 It seems that if Columbus saw the light, as he says he 
 did, at ten or eleven o'clock that night, he would not have 
 gone on sailing straight for it if he saw it ahead, and if he 
 saw it on either side of the vessel he would surely not have 
 gone on, but would have stopped so as to see the land in 
 the morning. If he really saw the light ahead, he would 
 have known by the next morning that the light could not 
 have been on the land now lying before them, since that 
 was too far away from the place where he saw it. 
 
 On their return to Spain, Roderigo claimed the reward 
 for seeing land first, but Columbus denied that he should 
 have it and claimed it for himself because he had seen a 
 light four hours before Roderigo really saw the land. 
 The reward was given to Columbus and the story goes that 
 Roderigo was so disgusted with Christian justice that he 
 turned Mohammedan. So, the great admiral — the man 
 who was to be the viceroy of all the lands that he should 
 discover — kept for himself the money which would be of 
 little importance to a rich man, but which would amount 
 to a great deal for a poor sailor. To say the least, there 
 
The First Voyage 
 
 53 
 
 was grave doubt that Columbus really saw land first, 
 and it would seem that a great and generous man would 
 have allowed a poor sailor to get his reward and would 
 
 MAP SHOWING ISLANDS WHERE COLUMBUS MAY HAVE LANDED 
 
 not have taken it for himself. But this was not the 
 way of Columbus. 
 
 34. Where Did Columbus Land? — It is not known 
 with absolute certainty which one of the islands in the 
 West Indies Columbus saw first. On the map in this page 
 you will see Cat Island, Watlings Island, Samana, Acklin 
 
54 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 Island, Mariguana, and Grand Turk Island. At one time 
 or another each one of these has been supposed to be the 
 place on which Columbus landed. It is now fairly certain, 
 however, that he actually did land on Watlings Island. 
 Columbus himself said that the island was low, that there 
 
 was a large lagoon or lake in its 
 interior, that it bore green trees, 
 and many different kinds of fruit. 
 Watlings Island seems to be the 
 only one which answers this de- 
 scription completely. 
 
 35. Course Among the 
 Islands. — The course along which 
 it is believed Columbus sailed 
 among the islands is shown on 
 the map (see page 61). 
 
 The first island, which we now 
 believe was Watlings Island, he 
 named San Salvador, or ''Holy 
 ^ Savior." The next island of con- 
 siderable size which he discovered 
 he named Fernandina, after the King of Spain, and the next 
 considerable island he named Isabella, after the Queen of 
 Spain. Cuba he named Juana, after the Crown Prince 
 of Spain, and Haiti (Hispaniola) was named after Spain 
 herself. They left the eastern end of Haiti on January 
 tenth and saw that island for the last time on the sixteenth 
 of January. We thus see that Columbus and his men 
 spent three months among these islands. By looking at 
 a map of America, we will see that, after all, Columbus 
 saw very Httle of it on his first journey, and we may 
 
 MAP OF WATLINGS ISLAND 
 
The First Voyage 55 
 
 wonder why he did not stay longer and explore more of it; 
 but we may be certain that he was anxious to get back home 
 to tell the wonderful story of the land actually discovered 
 away out in the ocean three thousand miles from Europe. 
 We will now learn something about what Columbus did 
 during the three months that he spent among these islands. 
 36. Character of Natives. — The people that Columbus 
 found when he landed in the West Indies were different 
 from any that had been seen by the people of Europe 
 before that time. He called them Indians because he 
 thought they were natives of India, and that name has 
 since been applied to all the natives of America. Colum- 
 bus says that the natives of the first island where he landed 
 were simple and timid but friendly. They would run at 
 the least provocation, but return again when friendliness 
 was shown them. The natives of Haiti, however, were 
 stout and brave, and different in many ways from those 
 of the islands farther north. We shall find later that the 
 natives of the islands still farther south were again very 
 different from those in Haiti. The natives of the islands 
 in the north were gentle and peaceful, while those from 
 the islands in the south were very warlike and used to 
 go on long voyages to attack the tribes of the north. 
 These people wore little clothing, though more of it was 
 worn in Haiti than in the other islands. The natives often 
 painted their noses and eyes, and even their whole bodies. 
 For ornaments they wore little trinkets fastened in their 
 noses. They were willing to trade anything that they had, 
 even pieces of gold, for little bells, some shiny stuff such 
 as broken glass or broken dishes. In this and many other 
 ways they were just like small children. 
 
56 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 37." Houses, Canoes and Weapons of the Natives. — 
 
 Columbus believed the natives did not know anything 
 about the sharp edge of a knife or a sword, because they 
 took hold of his sword in such a way as to cut their hands. 
 They had spears made of sticks to which were tied pointed 
 pieces of bone. They made canoes by hollowing out logs. 
 Most of the canoes were small, just large enough for one 
 person, but others were very large — some of them large 
 
 INDIAN BED OR HAMMOCK 
 
 enough to hold fifty men. Small paddles were used for 
 oars. The natives were excellent swimmers. When a 
 canoe tipped over, they swam along beside it, turned it 
 over and crawled back into it again and were not in the 
 least put out by such an accident. In Haiti one of the 
 kings lived in considerable style. He was carried on an 
 arrangement like a litter, and he even wore something on 
 his head that resembled a crown. Columbus tells about 
 going into some of the houses. Everything in them was 
 neat, and there were beds hung between posts, which they 
 
The Fikst Voyage 57 
 
 called hammocks. This is where we get our word ham- 
 mock. The houses were shaped like tents, but there were 
 not more than twelve or fifteen of them together in one 
 group. Columbus says they saw dogs running about 
 which could not bark. 
 
 The Indians had no domestic animals such as cattle, 
 sheep, swine, and horses. They had large numbers of 
 tame parrots which they killed and ate as we do turkeys 
 and chickens. Their food consisted mostly of fruit which 
 grew in abundance, of corn, potatoes, and fish. The Span- 
 iards found large stores of fine cotton in Cuba, and the 
 natives knew how to weave it into some kind of cloth. 
 
 38. Columbus and the Natives. — At San Salvador, 
 Columbus retained two of the natives on his ships to help 
 him talk with the Indians of the other islands. That 
 is, he took them prisoners. A few days later, one of 
 these escaped from the ship, but Columbus caught another 
 man who was paddling around in a canoe and took him 
 instead. Several times Columbus would capture men and 
 even women and keep them prisoners for a while on his 
 ships, treat them well and then give them presents and 
 let them go so that they might teU the natives that the 
 strangers were not dangerous. In this way Columbus 
 got the natives to come to the shore and bring down 
 things to trade for the httle trinkets that he carried 
 with him for that purpose. In some places the natives 
 fled from their houses, and even from the towns, when they 
 saw the strange ships coming toward shore. It was 
 thought that they were afraid that these ships might 
 carry some of their enemies, who used to come and make 
 war upon them. Nearly all of the natives that Columbus 
 
58 The Story of Columbus 
 
 met on this voyage showed a friendly spirit, and with a 
 few exceptions, such as taking some of them prisoner now 
 and then, he treated them well in return. The natives 
 along the eastern shore of Haiti were less friendly, and 
 once they began to shoot at the Spaniards with their bows 
 and arrows. Then, for the first tune, Columbus fired at 
 them with his guns and a number of the Indians were 
 wounded. The fight lasted for a very short time, for when 
 the natives saw the firing of the guns they ran for their 
 lives. In Cuba, Columbus took six men, seven women, 
 and some children on board his ship as prisoners, and ten 
 of these were carried back to Spain. These people were 
 taken by force and entirely against their will. They knew 
 nothing about where they were going and their friends 
 and relatives thought they might just as well be dead as 
 to go out into the ocean on these strange ships. Columbus 
 wanted these people to show to the King and Queen and 
 the people of Spain, and he didn't care very much whether 
 they Hked to go or not. We shall learn later that Colum- 
 bus cared little what the natives themselves wanted; he 
 was willing to make them do anything, so long as he 
 thought it would pay. We shall find him crowding hun- 
 dreds of these poor, simple people in httle ships to carry 
 them to Spain to sell as slaves. The only excuse he ever 
 made was that by taking them to Spain they could be 
 converted into Christians. We certainly would not like 
 to have strange things hke those ships come to our shore 
 and take some of our people away as was done with 
 these natives. 
 
 39. The Search for Gold. — The movements of Colum- 
 bus on his voyages cannot be understood, unless we keep 
 
The First Voyage 59 
 
 clearly in mind that what he was really trying to do was 
 to get gold and other valuable things. Indeed, we cannot 
 understand his life at all unless this is kept clearly in 
 mind. In the Journal in which he described his first voy- 
 age he mentioned gold nearly every day from the time he 
 reached the first island until he left for Spain. Small bits 
 of gold w^ere obtained from the natives at nearly all the 
 places where they landed. More of it was obtained in 
 Haiti than elsewhere, and that was probably the strongest 
 reason why he decided to build a fort there, as we shall 
 see a little later that he did. 
 
 In many places the natives wore small ornaments of 
 gold and Columbus tried to find out from them where 
 gold could be found. It is interesting that in most places 
 he understood the natives to say that the gold was some- 
 where farther on; that there was not much of it in their 
 island, but that there were other places where there was a 
 great deal of it. The natives seemed to say that the land 
 where the most gold could be found was to the south and 
 east of the islands first visited. Their enemies, they said, 
 went to the south to obtain gold. 
 
 On October fifteenth Columbus wrote that he hoped to 
 find gold ''with the help of our Lord." When he reached 
 Fernandina he learned that there was a gold mine some- 
 where on that island, and he tried to find it but did not 
 succeed. In Isabella he heard of a king who was covered 
 with gold ornaments. On October twenty-first he wrote 
 in his Journal, "I am proceeding solely in quest of gold 
 and spices." In Cuba he heard stories of gold to be found 
 elsewhere. He also learned that pearls could be found 
 in some of the islands. On the north coast of Cuba, which 
 
60 The Story of Columbus 
 
 was the most westerly point reached on this voyage, very 
 Httle gold was found. The natives, however, told of a 
 place far to the south and east where much gold could be 
 obtained, so on November twelfth Columbus turned about. 
 If Columbus had been sailing merely to discover new 
 lands and to learn about geography, and not to find gold, 
 spices, and other riches, he would probably have gone 
 farther westward along the north coast of Cuba. If he 
 had, he would have discovered that Cuba was an island 
 and not a part of the main land as he supposed to the end 
 of his days. If he had sailed around the west end of Cuba, 
 he would have gotten into the Gulf of Mexico, and it is 
 perfectly possible that in that case he would have sailed 
 still farther west and so found Mr dco itself, where there 
 was an immense amount of gold. If Columbus had not 
 been so anxious to find gold, he might have found a very 
 great deal of it. 
 
 About November twentieth, Pinzon, in the Pinta, stole 
 away from Columbus in the hope that he might find gold 
 all by himself. Columbus did not know where the Pinta 
 had gone, and he even thought that Pinzon might have 
 hurried back to Spain to carry the news of the discovery of 
 these western lands to the King and Queen before Colum- 
 bus could do so himself. About five weeks later, however, 
 the Pinta was found on the north coast of Haiti, and this 
 ship sailed with Columbus when they started on their 
 homeward voyage. 
 
 In Haiti, where the fort was built, the King brought 
 considerable gold. He had some large plates of this metal, 
 which he broke in pieces and traded to the Spaniards. 
 
 On December twenty-second Columbus wrote in his 
 
The First Voyage 
 
 61 
 
 Journal, ''Our Lord in whose hands are all things, be my 
 Help. Our Lord in his mercy direct me where I may find 
 the gold mine." 
 
 It is not surprising that Columbus should write this 
 
 DETAILED MAP OF JOURNEY AMONG ISLANDS 
 
 prayer in his Journal. He was sent out by the Spanish 
 Court because it was supposed that India, where he was 
 going, was immensely rich, and the thing that the Spaniards 
 wanted above all el^e was to get hold of these riches. 
 Columbus had been able to get his ships and his men 
 
^' 
 
 
 TORTUGA 1. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C^ 
 
 LaN^^dd^ad 
 
 is 
 
 ^ 
 
 
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 ^k 
 
 
 
 -«^ 
 
 > 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 -"'<«««'-' 
 
 C A 
 
 A. 
 
 I B B E l^N 
 
 s i: 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 62 The Story of Columbus 
 
 because it was thought that these riches could be had. 
 The Spaniards did not think much about discovering lands 
 simply for the sake of discovering them or finding out 
 about things; they wanted to get rich — that is the thing 
 that must be kept in mind to understand them at all. 
 
 40. The Shipwreck. — On December twenty-fifth 
 (Christmas Day), the Santa Maria was wrecked. In the 
 evening of December twenty-fourth the Santa Maria and 
 the Nina were sailing smoothly along the northwest coast 
 
 of Haiti. Columbus, who was 
 badly in need of sleep, had 
 gone to bed. On the Santa 
 Maria all of the crew had done 
 the same, except a young boy 
 who was put at the helm to 
 
 MAP OF HAITI SHOWING LA NAVIDAD 
 
 steer. When the vessel was 
 drifting along with no one but the boy awake, a current 
 carried her onto a sandbank. The boy awakened Colum- 
 bus, who at once saw the danger. The crew were imme- 
 diately called to work. They put out an anchor and 
 they tried in every way to pull the ship off the sandbank, 
 but could not move her. When they found that she was 
 stuck fast they cut the mast and began to move the stores 
 to the Nina. The natives came out in their canoes 
 and helped in this work. During this Christmas Day 
 everything of value was saved from the wrecked ship. 
 The Santa Maria had to be given up, and Columbus 
 now had left only one very small ship, the Nina. We re- 
 member that the Pinta had sailed away more than a 
 month earlier, and as yet Columbus knew nothing of 
 her whereabouts. 
 
The First Voyage 63 
 
 41. Building the Fort. — After the loss of the Santa 
 Maria it was decided to build a fort and to leave part of 
 the crew there to hunt for gold and spices, while the others 
 were to go to Spain in the one little ship that was left. 
 The fort was a rude building made of logs. They dug a 
 deep and broad ditch around it, which they filled with 
 water, and they also put up a tower. The ditch was to 
 keep the natives from attacking the fort, and the tower 
 was to enable the men to see the country for a distance 
 around. Forty men were left at this fort. A list of the 
 names was made, and this list has come down to us. 
 Among these forty men there was one Englishman 
 and one Irishman. They had bread and wine for one 
 year, and seeds for planting in the spring. A small boat 
 belonging to the Santa Maria was left them. Their pur- 
 pose was to search for gold, and Columbus says that he 
 expected these men to collect one ton of it by the time he 
 should return. They named this fort the Navidad. The 
 name is Spanish and refers to the "Nativity" or birth of 
 Christ and also to the day when they were stopped at 
 this place by the wreck of the Santa Maria, that is, to 
 Christmas Day. 
 
 42. Leaving for Spain. — On Sunday, December thir- 
 tieth, Columbus had an interesting meeting with the King 
 of that part of Haiti. The King and Columbus were very 
 friendly one to another, and the King put his crown upon 
 the head of Columbus. Columbus in turn took off his 
 necklace and his scarlet cloak and placed them on the 
 King. He put a fancy pair of shoes on the King's feet and 
 placed a silver ring on his finger. But Columbus also 
 wanted to show the King that in case he should get into a 
 
64 The Story of Columbus 
 
 fight with the Spaniards terrible things might be expected. 
 So he fired a shot from his cannon and sent it clear through 
 both sides of the Santa Maria that was lying on the bank. 
 The great noise of the firing of the cannon and the wonder- 
 ful power of that great ball was something terrifying and 
 awful to those Indians. This cannon was indeed very 
 different from the little spears which the Indians used 
 as weapons. 
 
 Columbus now gave much good advice to the men 
 who were to remain at the fort. We can easily see that 
 they needed good advice. They were left there for the 
 purpose of collecting gold, and they would, of course, need 
 the help of the natives in doing this. There were only 
 forty Spaniards and there was a whole island full of 
 Indians. So it was very important that the Spaniards 
 should treat the Indians well and not offend them in any 
 way. We shall learn later that the good advice which 
 Columbus gave did not do much good. The men who 
 were left at the fort did anything but treat the Indians 
 well, and the result was that when Columbus returned, 
 eleven months later, every one of these forty men had 
 been killed. We must not blame the Indians too much for 
 this. The Spaniards would steal everything that they 
 could find and would take the women away from their 
 famihes, put them into the fort, and treat them as slaves. 
 What do you think we would do if people were to come to 
 our shores and begin doing that sort of thing? Is it likely 
 we would treat them any better than the natives treated 
 these Spaniards? 
 
 43. What Columbus Thought of the Islands.— It is 
 interesting to note what Columbus thought of the islands 
 
The First Voyage 65 
 
 he had discovered. He began by speaking of the natives 
 as a poor and weak people, but the climate and the trees 
 and the islands themselves pleased him greatly. Every 
 new place he reached he said was finer than any he had 
 seen before. He thought the islands themselves were 
 immensely rich and he believed that great gold mines were 
 to be found somewhere in them. Columbus never knew 
 that Cuba was an island, but thought it a part of the main- 
 land of Asia. It is interesting to note, too, that on this 
 journey Columbus found the potato, and also tobacco and 
 cotton. Any one of these commodities has proved of 
 much greater value than all the gold that Spain ever got 
 from the new world, or ever hoped to get. Columbus left 
 for Europe, however, with the belief that riches were to 
 be found somewhere, mainly in gold and spices. He carried 
 with him samples of strange bushes on which he believed 
 spices grew. These, however, proved to be worthless. 
 
 44. Strange Stories. — Columbus and his men heard 
 many strange stories in their journey among these islands. 
 The natives seemed to believe that the Spaniards, who 
 were white, had come from Heaven. The Spaniards 
 themselves encouraged this belief by saying that they 
 were children of Heaven, who had come to seek for gold. 
 They did this, of course, to get the natives to help them 
 and also to make the natives afraid to attack them. 
 
 There were stories of men who would kill people and 
 eat them. Men who do that are called cannibals. They 
 heard that there was a tribe of cannibals somewhere to 
 the south and that these cannibals now and then would 
 come to the islands in the north to kill people for food. On 
 the island of Haiti some of the natives showed Columbus 
 5 
 
66 The Story of Columbus 
 
 gashes on their legs, which they said were places where 
 the cannibals had started to eat them and had bitten out 
 chunks before they could get away. The Spaniards also 
 heard stories about men with one eye and with faces like 
 dogs; they heard about people with tails, who were sup- 
 posed to be somewhere to the westward. On November 
 seventeenth, when Columbus turned eastward on the north 
 coast of Cuba, he remarked in his Journal that he would 
 have to go and hunt for gold now, but that some time later 
 he might go farther west and see the people with tails. 
 
 45. The Homeward Voyage. — Just two days after 
 Christmas, on December twenty-seventh, Columbus got 
 word that the Pinta was somewhere on the north coast of 
 Haiti and he sent men in a boat to get her captain to bring 
 his ship to Navidad. The Pinta, however, did not return, 
 but Columbus found her about a week later when he was 
 on his journey homeward. Her captain, Pinzon, explained 
 his desertion by saying that he had gotten lost from the 
 rest of the fleet, and he now agreed to go along with Colum- 
 bus. On January fourth Columbus left the fort at Navi- 
 dad and sailed eastward along the northern coast of Haiti. 
 The wind and the current kept them from going very fast, 
 and it was not until January sixteenth that they saw the 
 land of Haiti (or Hispaniola, as they called it) for the last 
 time. They then turned northward, as will be seen from 
 the map, until they got about as far north as Spain, and 
 then sailed straight east. 
 
 The homeward voyage was very stormy. The two 
 ships, the Nina and the Pinta, were separated and Colum- 
 bus feared that the Pinta might have gone down with 
 all on board. Columbus was so much afraid that his own 
 
The First Voyage 
 
 67 
 
 ship would sink that he wrote a story of his voyage and 
 put it into a small barrel or keg and threw it overboard, 
 in the hope that someone might find it in case his ship 
 should be lost. He also put a story of the same kind into 
 another keg and placed it on the deck of the Nina so that 
 it might float off in case she should go down. 
 
 After sailing one month they were not exactly certain 
 as to their location. Columbus thought they were some- 
 
 MAP OF FIRST HOMEWARD VOYAGE 
 
 where close to the Azores, while other members of the 
 crew thought they were somewhere near the coast of Spain. 
 On February eighteenth they sailed into a harbor of a 
 small island, which they found to be one of the Azores. 
 Columbus was right and the others were wrong. The 
 Azores belonged to the Portuguese, and when Columbus 
 sent one-half of his men ashore to attend church they 
 were made prisoners and the Portuguese came out to the 
 ships and tried to take Columbus and the rest of his men. 
 However, Columbus showed them the papers which had 
 
68 The Story of Columbus 
 
 been given him by the King and Queen of Spain and the 
 Portuguese thought then that they had better let him and 
 his men go, inasmuch as it was dangerous to offend the 
 powerful Spanish kingdom. Columbus sailed on through 
 a terrible storm, and on March third the weather drove 
 him into a small port in Portugal. He stayed there a few 
 days and then went on to Palos, the port in southern Spain 
 from which he had sailed. He reached Palos on March 
 fifteenth, about seven months after he had left it. In the 
 meantime, the Pinta had reached a port in northern Spain 
 and from there she proceeded around the coast of Portu- 
 gal and arrived in Palos the afternoon of the same day that 
 Columbus did. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 
 
 46. Reception in Palos. — It was a joyful day for the 
 people of Palos when the ships of Columbus returned. 
 Seven months earlier they had started out into the un- 
 known Atlantic, and there were many who feared that 
 they were lost. During the winter the weather was unusu- 
 ally bad. While Columbus was sailing among the islands 
 of the West Indies in beautiful weather, the coasts of 
 Europe were lashed by terrific storms that raised the sea 
 to unusual heights. On his homeward voyage Columbus 
 ran into these storms and his ships were in great danger. 
 
 We can well imagine how the people of Palos visited 
 back and forth during the long winter months that had 
 just passed and talked about the terrible things which 
 were believed to be out in the great ocean. As they were 
 seated around their firesides in the evening, hearing the 
 wind howl, they thought of their own people, members of 
 their own families, away out on the ocean where they 
 believed the storm was just as furious and possibly worse, 
 and it is no wonder that they were worried. We can under- 
 stand, then, how happy these people were when they saw 
 the ships coming back. And what strange things these 
 travelers brought and what marvelous stories they told! 
 How the people looked with wonder upon the half-naked 
 Indians and the curious birds and the branches of strange 
 trees, and how they listened to the story of the journey 
 and of the new land beyond the great ocean! 
 
 There was still some anxiety for the forty men who had 
 
 69 
 
70 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 been left at Fort Navidad, but Columbus assured the 
 people that they were all well and no doubt they would 
 be found happy and prosperous when he should return to 
 them. These simple people of the little town of Palos 
 were happy beyond expression. They were proud that 
 the little fleet which made this wonderful voyage had 
 sailed from their town. And indeed they might well be 
 proud of it. The name of the little town of Palos is 
 
 now known all over the world 
 just because Columbus sailed 
 from there. 
 
 Columbus sent a messen- 
 ger to the Court with the news 
 that he had returned and then 
 went to Seville to await orders. 
 The King and Queen immedi- 
 ately sent word that he should 
 come to them at once to tell 
 his story. They also told him to start making arrange- 
 ments for another voyage. They were now in a hurry to 
 go on with these voyages because they feared that the 
 Portuguese would send out a fleet and take some of the 
 lands which the Spaniards hoped to get for themselves. 
 47. Reception at Court. — News of his return spread 
 rapidly as he went on his way from Seville to Barcelona, 
 where the Court was now located. People gathered from 
 all around to see him as he passed through the towns and 
 to look upon the strange people and the wonderful things 
 he had brought. He had with him six of his ten Indians. 
 One had died at sea and three were sick at Palos. As he 
 entered the city of Barcelona he had a procession not 
 
 MAP OP SPAIN SHOWING PALOS, SEVILLE; 
 AND BARCELONA 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 71 
 
 unlike that of a small circus. The Indians, nearly naked 
 and wearing all their ornaments, headed the line; then 
 there were forty parrots carried in cages; there were other 
 strange birds of bright and brilliant feathers; there were 
 branches of trees which were supposed to furnish spices. 
 Next came Columbus himself on horseback, followed by a 
 large number of the nobles of Spain, likewise on horseback. 
 Columbus returned to the Court of Spain like a king coming 
 back from a victorious war. When Columbus was brought 
 into their presence the King and Queen were seated at 
 the end of the room with Prince Juan. As a mark of 
 special respect to Columbus they arose to receive him 
 standing. When he drew near they motioned him to be 
 seated. The Indians and all the strange things that he 
 had brought were in the room, and he pointed to each of 
 them in turn as he told his story. He told of the people 
 he found, and he showed them the six Indians. He told 
 of the wonderful birds he had seen, and he pointed to his 
 collection of parrots. He told of the spices that he had 
 found, or thought he had found, and he pointed to the men 
 carrying branches of strange trees. He told of treasures, 
 and pointed to the ornaments which the Indians wore and 
 to the collection of gold that he had brought, which, 
 though small, was supposed to be but a taste of what was 
 soon to come. 
 
 Columbus now lived in Barcelona about six weeks. 
 He was treated as one of the royal family. He was given 
 large and beautiful rooms in which to live, and almost daily 
 he could be seen riding through the streets with the King 
 and the Prince. For once in his life, Columbus seems to 
 have been really happy. People knew him and he smiled as 
 
72 The Story of Columbus 
 
 they greeted him on the street. For six weeks, at least, 
 Columbus was regarded as the really great man of Spain. 
 The news of the great discovery spread rapidly throughout 
 Europe, and Spain was the center of much interest. We 
 hear of banquets given to Columbus, and many interesting 
 stories are told of his life at Court. One of these has been 
 told over and over again and had been told many times 
 before about other people. We will repeat it here, though 
 
 COLUMBUS COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL, 
 
 Struck after his return from the first voyage 
 
 it is not certain that it really happened in the case of 
 Columbus. At a banquet table someone is supposed to 
 have said that it was easy enough to find India — all that 
 one had to do was to sail westward. Columbus then asked 
 a waiter to bring in an egg and requested the guests to 
 try to make it stand on end. They all tried to do so but 
 failed. Then Columbus took the egg, crushed one end a 
 little and thus made it stand up. Then he said, ''This is 
 perfectly easy; all one has to do is to crack one end a little." 
 The King and Queen now gave Columbus considerable 
 money and awarded a coat of arms to him and his family. 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 
 
 73 
 
 A coat of arms is an ornament or badge which kings and 
 queens give to people whom they wish to favor especially. 
 This coat of arms Columbus was supposed to put on his 
 banner, and the members of his family were also supposed 
 to use it in some such way. 
 
 48. Preparation for the Second Voyage. — Preparations 
 for the second voyage had been started before Columbus 
 
 Columbus's coat of arms 
 
 The picture to right shows the coat of arms as given to Columbus. The mottoes as 
 
 shown in picture to left were added later by descendants of Columbus 
 
 left Seville and were being made rapidly. Seventeen ships 
 were collected in the port of Seville. Arms and ammuni- 
 tion left over from the Moorish wars were placed on board. 
 Horses and other domestic animals, all sorts of tools, and 
 implements for tilling the ground, garden seeds, large 
 quantities of food and many other things were loaded into 
 the vessels. Three of the vessels were large, of the same 
 type as the Santa Maria, built especially for carrying 
 freight. There were many of the type of the Pinta and 
 
74 The Story of Columbus 
 
 the Nina, built for war, and there were some smaller, light 
 vessels, built to run in shallow water and rivers for the 
 purpose of exploring along the coast. 
 
 It is important to notice the kind of people who went 
 on the second voyage. We remember that on the first 
 voyage it was very hard to get men to go, that criminals 
 had to be taken from the jails, and that even then it was 
 with great difficulty that about one hundred men were 
 gotten together. Now it was very different. There were 
 many more wanting to go than could be taken. Columbus 
 says that about two thousand offered their services, 
 whereas he could take only fifteen hundred. Indeed, it 
 had been decided at the outset that there were to be twelve 
 hundred men in the expedition, but there were so many 
 wanting to go that this number was finally increased to 
 fifteen hundred. But few of the men who went were used to 
 hard work; many of them were nobles who had never done a 
 bit of work in their lives and who wanted to go on an excit- 
 ing trip. Some were soldiers who looked for adventures in 
 the unknown lands to the west. Some hoped to trade 
 with the natives and make themselves wealthy. 
 
 There were men in this expedition who afterwards 
 became great sailors. One of these was Ponce de Leon, 
 who later discovered Florida. There was a young man, by 
 name Ojeda, a brave daredevil of great muscular strength, 
 who performed notable feats on this trip and who later 
 commanded expeditions of his own. Diego, the youngest 
 brother of Columbus, came on from Italy and sailed on 
 this journey. 
 
 49. Starting on the Second Voyage. — On September 
 twenty-fifth, 1493, about thirteen months after Columbus 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 75 
 
 started on his first voyage, the fleet of seventeen ships left 
 the port of Cadiz for the second journey across the ocean. 
 This must have been a wonderful day for Columbus. As 
 he looked around the harbor he saw the fleet of many 
 vessels, of which he was the sole commander. When the 
 crews lifted the anchors and hoisted the sails, music 
 sounded from the shore. There were great crowds watch- 
 ing the departing ships. Cannon were fired and the echoes 
 rolled over the waters. Gaily dressed ships not belonging 
 to the fleet of Columbus followed them out to sea. On 
 the decks of his fleet were his fifteen hundred men — one of 
 the most curious mixture of men that ever went on any 
 voyage. There were sailors; there were nobles and ser- 
 vants, idlers and working men ; there were those who went 
 for the fun of it, and others who were ready for anything, 
 be it hard or easy. There were priests who started with 
 the purpose of converting the Indians into Christians. 
 There were men to govern the new provinces in the west, 
 who were already thinking about how to arrange their 
 states. And the master of all this was the weaver's son 
 from Genoa, for thirty years a wanderer on the earth, going 
 from land to land to find the help which he needed to sail 
 west and find Asia. 
 
 It was a great day for the people of Cadiz and of all 
 Spain. They believed that these voyages would add to 
 their country great territories and that Spain would be- 
 come greater and richer than she ever had been before. 
 Though there were to be many disappointments, never- 
 theless these voyages led to the discovery of all of South 
 America and Central America, and most of these belonged 
 to Spain for about three hundred years and she lost the 
 
76 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 last of her possessions, Cuba and Porto Rico, in the year 
 1898, in her war with the United States. 
 
 50. Voyage from Spain to the West Indies. — As on his 
 first voyage, Columbus sailed from Spain to the Canaries. 
 He reached these islands in seven days, and on October 
 fifth anchored at the island of Gomera, the same island 
 from which he sailed on his first voyage. 
 
 At Gomera they took on board wood, water, and many 
 
 MAP SHOWING COURSE OP SECOND VOYAGE 
 
 animals which they expected to need, such as calves, goats, 
 sheep, swine, and fowl. And they also took seeds with 
 which to plant fields, gardens, and orchards. This time 
 the intention was to start a real settlement in the new land, 
 so they took with them all that they thought they needed 
 to do that. They also took on board fruit, such as oranges, 
 lemons, and melons. 
 
 On the seventh of October the fleet sailed from Gomera. 
 They now went farther south than on the first voyage. 
 We will remember that the natives had often told Colum- 
 bus about lands of gold and riches to the south of Haiti, 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 
 
 77 
 
 and Columbus wanted to find these lands on his way out. 
 Of course, he intended to go back to Fort Navidad in 
 Haiti, but he expected to make discoveries on his way there. 
 The second voyage was not nearly as interesting to 
 Columbus, and is not as interesting to us, as was the first 
 voyage. On the first voyage they did not know just where 
 they were going and they were watching anxiously for 
 
 MAP SHOWING SECOND VOYAGE AMONG ISLANDS 
 
 every new thing that they saw. On the second voyage 
 they knew just what they were about and sailed right 
 along without paying any attention to little things which 
 they noted with care the first time. This time they ran 
 to the south of the seaweed which they saw so much of 
 on the first voyage. 
 
 On Sunday, November third, they saw land. It was 
 very unhke the island which they had seen on the first 
 voyage. Instead of being low and flat, it had great moun- 
 tains. They called this island Dominica, in honor of the. 
 
 k 
 
78 The Story of Columbus 
 
 day on which they first saw it. Finding that they could 
 not land here, they sailed on to another, which they named 
 Marigalante, after the flagship of Columbus. 
 
 51. From Marigalante to Fort Navidad. — When they 
 landed on the island of Marigalante they found that the 
 natives had fled. There were beautiful trees, giving off 
 the odors which they thought were the odors of spices. 
 They did not stay to collect spices, however, and the next 
 morning they sailed to another island, which they called 
 Guadeloupe. Here they found a real village, in which there 
 were only a few young children who had been left when 
 the others ran away. Columbus tried to get the natives 
 to come back by giving these children little bells and other 
 trinkets. After a while the Spaniards saw a few women 
 in the roads nearby, but they found no grown-up men. 
 
 In another little town which they visited, the houses 
 were built around a square. These houses were made of 
 logs and the roofs were covered with leaves. In them were 
 chairs and other simple pieces of furniture. They found 
 bows and bone-tipped arrows, and they thought that some 
 of these were pointed with human shin bones. There 
 were also fowls something Hke geese, many parrots, and 
 pineapples, which they had not tasted before. They saw 
 what they supposed were the bones of men and women 
 that had been eaten, and they beheved they saw human 
 flesh cooking in pots and hanging from the roofs to dry. 
 Over and over again they tell the story that the people 
 in these islands were cannibals. It is certain that the word 
 ''cannibal" is derived from the name ''Caribs" which was 
 given to these people. They were first called ''Caribs," 
 then ''Carabels," and finally the word became ''Canni- 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 
 
 79 
 
 bals," which is now used to signify any people that eat 
 human flesh. 
 
 The captain of one of the ships with a small party of 
 men went into the woods and got lost. They wandered 
 about the island for nearly a week, without seeing any 
 people except a few women and children. They supposed 
 
 
 .'^*^ 
 
 ■^* 5 1 
 
 OLD PICTURE SHOWING FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS 
 
 that all the men had gone off on a war expedition. These 
 Caribs were indeed the people about whom Columbus had 
 heard so many stories on his first voyage. They were a 
 fierce and warhke people who often went to hunt down 
 the more timid people of the islands farther north. 
 
 Columbus sailed from Guadeloupe on November tenth 
 and anchored again on November fourteenth, near an 
 island which he called Santa Cruz. Here they had their 
 first fight with the Indians on this journey. The island of 
 
80 The Story of Columbus 
 
 Santa Cruz was inhabited by the same kind of people — 
 the Caribs — that they found on the islands farther south. 
 Columbus wanted to take some of them, and so he ran one 
 of his ships right onto a canoe filled with them, overturned 
 the canoe, and then tried to fish the swimming Caribs 
 out of the water. Caribs on shore started shooting with 
 arrows, and those in the water fought very fiercely. A 
 number of the Spaniards were wounded, and, of course, 
 some of the natives were also wounded or killed. The 
 men from the overturned canoe were either killed or cap- 
 tured and taken on the ship and chained. One of the 
 Spaniards who was wounded in this fight died later and 
 was buried on the north coast of Haiti. These Caribs 
 used arrows with poisoned tips, and it was one of these 
 that killed the Spaniard. 
 
 Passing many small islands, they came to the island 
 now called Puerto Rico. Here they saw a village close by 
 the shore, which was laid out neatly. But the natives had 
 fled and they saw none of them. On November twenty- 
 second they sighted a low, flat island, which proved to be 
 Haiti, the island Columbus had left in the middle of Jan- 
 uary of the same year. 
 
 While sailing along the north coast of Haiti they landed 
 at various places, and at one place they found human 
 bodies with whiskers, which made them fearful that they 
 were the bodies of men that had been left at Fort Navidad. 
 They reached the shore outside of Fort Navidad on the 
 evening of November twenty-seventh and anchored their 
 ships. It was dark and too late to go ashore, so they fired 
 a cannon to let the people whom they supposed were at 
 the fort know that they had returned. There was no 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 81 
 
 answer to this signal, but a little later a native came out 
 in a canoe and finally got on board Columbus's ship. 
 This native told a story, which they had difficulty in under- 
 standing, about how all of the people of the fort had been 
 killed and that there was not a single one of the forty 
 men left alive. 
 
 52. The Fate of the Men at Fort Navidad. — To under- 
 stand what happened at Fort Navidad, we now recall the 
 kind of men that Columbus had taken out with him on 
 his first voyage. Many of them were bad men — men 
 who had committed all sorts of crimes in Spain, for which 
 they had been put in prison. They were not the sort of 
 men who would be likely to treat the natives kindly, and 
 they surely did not do so. They were cruel, they stole 
 what they could lay their hands on, and even took the 
 women and kept them prisoners in the fort. We now also 
 recall the King who had been so friendly to Columbus on 
 his first voyage. His name was Guacanagari. While no 
 doubt he had learned to distrust the Spaniards, he had 
 remained in peace with them during the time that Colum- 
 bus was away. 
 
 The people outside of his dominion, however, soon 
 learned to distrust the Spaniards heartily, and they were 
 only looking for a good chance to attack them. This 
 chance came when the Spaniards began to quarrel among 
 themselves. They did not like the man whom Columbus 
 had made governor, and they tried to put another man in 
 his place. They did not succeed in doing this, however, 
 for the larger number were willing to have the old governor 
 go on until Columbus should return. Those who were 
 dissatisfied left the fort and went far into the island, 
 6 
 
82 The Story of Columbus 
 
 beyond the dominion of King Guacanagari. Here a young 
 Carib who had come from the other islands farther south 
 heard about the Spaniards fighting among themselves. 
 He got a number of natives together and they killed the 
 few Spaniards who were away out in the island. Then 
 this same Carib got some other little kings to join with 
 him and they marched quietly and hurriedly up to Fort 
 Navidad and attacked it in the middle of the night. The 
 Spaniards were very careless, and did not even have a 
 watch looking out for danger. Apparently all were asleep, 
 and the Indians killed every one of them. Then they 
 burned the village of King Guacanagari and wounded the 
 JCing himself. 
 
 When Columbus returned and the King finally came 
 on board his ship, he would not allow Columbus to hang 
 a chain with a cross around his neck. He did not want 
 any of the religion in which these Spaniards beheved. He 
 thought they were brutal and cruel, and he did not Hke 
 to have any more to do with them than was necessary. 
 
 If the Spaniards who were left at Fort Navidad had 
 been the right kind of people, they could surely have gotten 
 along nicely with the natives and there would have been 
 no trouble. They lost their lives because they did what 
 was wrong. Decent people will not kill poor savages and 
 steal what little they have even if they are not strong 
 enough to defend themselves, and in this case the men 
 who acted in this manner received their just punishment. 
 
 53. Building the New Town of Isabella. — Columbus 
 now decided that the place where Fort Navidad had been 
 built was not a good place for a colony. It was low, wet, 
 and unhealthy, and there was no stone with which to put 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 83 
 
 up buildings. So he sent out ships to explore around the 
 islands, trying to find a better location. These ships 
 came back without finding a place that was thought really 
 suitable, and on December seventh, ten days after the 
 fleet had anchored outside of Fort Navidad, they began 
 sailing eastward along the coast of Haiti. They were 
 driven into a harbor by a storm, and this appeared to be a 
 suitable place for their colony. There was a high, rocky 
 point on which they could build a fort. There were two 
 rivers, which they could use to turn the wheels of a mill, 
 and everything here seemed to be fine. They planted 
 garden seeds which came up in five days, and they soon 
 had plenty of onions, radishes, and beets. ''Vegetables,'' 
 they said, ''grow more in eight days here than they do in 
 Spain in twenty." They also heard that there were gold 
 mines in the mountains not far away. They called the 
 new town Isabella, after the Queen of Spain. 
 
 The work of unloading the seventeen ships now began 
 in good earnest. There were horses and other animals to 
 be put ashore, there were provisions, and ammunition for 
 the guns, and goods of all sorts. They made a plan for the 
 town. There was to be a square in the middle and also 
 a street. They marked places for the church, for a store- 
 house, and for a house for the admiral. The smaller houses 
 were built quickly so that the people might have places 
 in which to live. While some were building houses, others 
 cleared fields and planted orchards. Piers were built to 
 be used in landing goods and animals. There was a great 
 deal of hard work to be done, and many of the men who 
 had come out had not been used to work of this sort 
 and naturally they got tired easily. A strange sickness, 
 
 I 
 
84 The Story of Columbus 
 
 called malaria, crept into the town and soon about one- 
 half of the whole expedition were sick. The town for a 
 while was a great hospital and those who were well had 
 to take care of those who were ill. Columbus himself was 
 sick for several weeks, but as the time went on things got 
 better. The men got well again, the smaller houses were 
 finished, and the ships unloaded and made ready to 
 return to Spain. 
 
 All that is now left of the little town of Isabella are the 
 ruins of three stone buildings, the church, the storehouse, 
 and the admiral's house. All else is a wilderness and no 
 one lives there. 
 
 The main trouble of Columbus now was to get some- 
 thing valuable to send back to Spain. He had expected 
 that the little colony at Fort Navidad would collect a lot 
 of gold and other riches to be sent back, so that the Span- 
 iards at home would not feel that they were wasting their 
 money on these expeditions. 
 
 54. The Search for Gold. — Columbus now made a 
 hurried effort to find a gold mine in order to be able to 
 send some good news to Spain instead of the gold he had 
 hoped to send from Navidad. Ojeda was placed in charge 
 of an expedition of fifteen men to hunt gold, and he started 
 right into the territory of the Carib chief who had mur- 
 dered the men at Fort Navidad. This chief's name was 
 Caonabo. It is important to remember his name, for we 
 shall hear much about him later. It was certainly a daring 
 thing for these fifteen men to start into this territory, but 
 they were brave, and well armed. The second night they 
 slept on the top of a mountain, and in the morning they 
 saw before them a broad, beautiful valley, which they 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 85 
 
 called Vega Real, which means ^^Rich Plains." There 
 were small towns scattered over the valley, and a river 
 womid its peaceful way along its bottom. They went 
 down into this valley and the natives received them kindly. 
 They marched up the mountain on the opposite side and 
 the natives were still friendly. They did not see or hear 
 anything of Chief Caonabo. 
 
 Everywhere in the streams they saw glittering particles 
 of what appeared to be gold, and Ojeda picked up one lump 
 of real gold which weighed nine ounces. All this gave 
 rise to the wildest stories about the tremendous amount 
 of gold to be found in the interior parts of the island. One 
 statement was like this: 
 
 "The most splendid thing of all is that the rocks on the side of the 
 mountain being struck with a club large quantities of gold broke forth." 
 
 It was said that Ojeda was loaded down with the gold 
 that they gathered after thus striking the rock once. 
 
 They all said, '^If we find these things on the surface 
 of the mountains, what must we not find inside of the 
 mountains!" The natives knew how to separate the gold 
 from the sand, and with their help the Spaniards soon 
 collected quite a bit of it. With this gold, and the promise 
 of more, Columbus felt he could send encouraging reports 
 to Spain. 
 
 55. Columbus Writes a Letter. — Columbus now wrote 
 a long letter to the King and Queen of Spain. This letter, 
 with notes written in the margin by the King and Queen, 
 is still in existence and may be read with great interest. 
 The letter was carried by one of the important men who 
 came out with the expedition and who was now returning 
 to Spain. In it Columbus requested the King and Queen 
 
 k 
 
86 The Story of Columbus 
 
 to ask the bearer of the letter about the gold to be found 
 near Isabella, and advised them to return thanks to God 
 for the riches that had already been discovered. The 
 King wrote in the margin, ''We now return thanks to God." 
 Columbus then explained about the sickness of his men 
 and the friendliness of the natives. He said the greater 
 part of his men were sick and that the natives rambled 
 about the settlement both day and night. He gave reasons 
 for doing and not doing certain things, and the monarchs 
 wrote in the margin that he had done well. Columbus 
 said that he was building a stone fort for defense and that 
 when this was done he would provide for the gathering 
 of gold. ^'Exactly as should be done," wrote the monarchs 
 in the margin. 
 
 Columbus then asked for provisions and told what 
 they had done in the way of planting. He wrote about 
 the cannibals, and asked that they be made acquainted 
 with the Christian faith and taught the Spanish language. 
 "These suggestions are good," wrote the King and Queen 
 in the margin. Now came the vital point in this letter. 
 Columbus said that cattle were needed in the settlement, 
 and that these could be paid for in Carib slaves. With 
 the light boats which they were building it would be easy 
 to capture them. He said, "They are a wild people, fit 
 for any work, well proportioned, and very intelligent, and 
 who, when they have got rid of their cruel habits to which 
 they have been accustomed, will be better than any other 
 kind of slaves." No more definite proposal to start a 
 slave trade was ever made. As Columbus laid down his 
 pen he asked the King and Queen to praise God, as he 
 himself was then doing. 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 87 
 
 It is to the credit of the King and Queen that they 
 expressed doubt about this proposal, and we shall see that in 
 the end Isabella went so far as to send back some natives 
 that Columbus had sent to Spain to be sold as slaves. 
 
 56. What the Natives Thought of the Spaniards.— The 
 Indians who came and went through the town of Isabella 
 were not really as dull and as simple as Columbus and the 
 other Spaniards may have thought they were. They 
 learned quickly what was the main thing that the white 
 men were after. They soon learned to hold up little bits 
 of gold and say, ''Behold! Here is the god of the Chris- 
 tians." Later, travelers who came among these people, 
 and who learned to know them and were willing to tell 
 the truth, said that they heard them say this. The Span- 
 iards had already compelled the natives to help in the 
 search for gold.- They had taken some of their number 
 as prisoners to Spain, and had mistreated many others, 
 especially the women. It is no wonder that King Guacan- 
 agari did not want to wear the cross, the emblem of the 
 Spanish faith. 
 
 A Spaniard historian tells us that some years later a 
 native king of Cuba who heard that the Spaniards were 
 coming over from Haiti tried to protect his people by 
 seeking the favor of their god. Taking a big lump of gold, 
 he called his people together and said: ''Behold, this is 
 the god of the white men ; let us dance around it and pray 
 to it, so it may keep them from harming us." But the 
 white man's god did not protect the natives. The Span- 
 iards captured this very King and burned him alive. When 
 he was dying in the flames a priest held up a cross and 
 begged him to "become a Christian" so he might go to 
 
88 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 Heaven. The half-roasted Indian replied that if there 
 were Christians in Heaven he did not want to go there. 
 
 57. Columbus Himself Goes in Search for Gold. — 
 Leaving his brother, Diego, in command at Isabella, 
 Columbus now started at the head of a large expedition 
 for the mountain where Ojeda had found gold. In that 
 expedition there were four hundred soldiers, many work- 
 
 MAP OF HAITI SHOWING ISABELLA, VEGA REAL, FORT ST. THOMAS 
 
 men and miners, and men to carry provisions. They had 
 military music, the drums were beating constantly, and 
 they made as much of a warhke show as they could in 
 order to impress the natives. 
 
 On the way they had to build roads and bridges. They 
 camped on the same mountain where Ojeda had camped, 
 and they looked down upon the same beautiful valley, 
 the Vega Real. Columbus erected a cross on the summit 
 and then went down into the valley, as Ojeda had done. 
 The horses and horsemen astonished the natives beyond 
 description. They had never seen a horse before, and they 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 89 
 
 thought that the horse and his rider were all one animal. 
 When one of the riders got off they thought that the 
 animal separated itself into two parts. The Spaniards 
 came to the river in the middle of the valley and the men 
 bathed in it, but they found it too deep to wade across. 
 So they built rafts on which the men and goods could be 
 carried, and the horses were led as they swam the river. 
 Then the expedition clambered up the steep mountain 
 where Ojeda had found gold. 
 
 On this rnountain, at a place a little more than fifty 
 miles from Isabella, they built a fort, which they called 
 St. Thomas. There was a river here which flowed in a 
 sharp curve so that it was on three sides of the fort. For 
 this reason Columbus thought the fort could easily be 
 defended against possible attacks of the natives. 
 
 Columbus was now in the highest hopes that a great 
 quantity of gold would be found. He thought he saw the 
 glittering particles in all the streams. The natives had 
 learned to know what the Spaniards wanted, and so they 
 brought bits of gold to the fort and traded them for little 
 janghng bells and other tinsel, which were of no value 
 to the Spaniards but which the natives Uked better than 
 the gold. 
 
 Fort St. Thomas was now regarded as the mining camp 
 of the expedition. A road was built to Isabella, from which 
 food and other needed articles were brought to the new fort. 
 From Fort St. Thomas expeditions were sent out to get 
 acquainted with the country. The Spaniards planned to 
 explore the whole island so that they might discover the 
 best mines. The whole thing was arranged in a business-like 
 manner for the one purpose of gathering gold. 
 
90 The Story of Columbus 
 
 58. Trouble at Isabella. — Many of the men at Isabella 
 had become dissatisfied. They had to work hard, whereas 
 they had come out expecting to have a lot of fun and no 
 serious work to do. The food was not good, nor was there 
 plenty of it. When the expedition was fitted out in Spain 
 some of the merchants had put in bad food, although good 
 food had been paid for. This is not at all surprising. The 
 same thing has happened many a time even in our day. 
 Men have sold bad food to armies, both in the United 
 States and in England, within the memory of those of us 
 who are not even old at the present time. 
 
 The man who kept the accounts of the colony, one 
 named Diaz, now put himself at the head of those who 
 were dissatisfied. He accused Columbus of mismanaging 
 the colony and of having made false promises to the 
 colonists before they left Spain. In a land which Colum- 
 bus had described as beautiful, rich, and healthy, they 
 were dying from sickness and starvation. Diaz and his 
 followers even made plans to bring charges against Colum- 
 bus at the Court of Spain. The plots were discovered by 
 Columbus, and Diaz was put in chains and placed aboard 
 a ship to be taken to Spain for trial. The other men were 
 punished in various ways, but on the whole the punish- 
 ments were light. Columbus did not want to be harsh 
 with them, for by showing that he was lenient he hoped 
 to get all his men to like him so that there would be no 
 further trouble of this sort. 
 
 There is no doubt that Columbus had painted the 
 newly discovered country in too rosy colors. He surely 
 said that it was finer in many respects than it really 
 was. Now, these Spaniards, who had not been used to 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 91 
 
 work or hardship of any sort, said that the islands 
 were worse than they really were. Columbus and Diaz 
 were about equally far from the truth, and it is hard 
 to say which one of them was more at fault in making 
 untrue statements. 
 
 When Columbus returned from his trip to Fort St. 
 Thomas he found ripe vegetables in the gardens which 
 they had planted. There is no doubt that if the Spaniards, 
 instead of hunting for gold, had come out to be simple 
 farmers in this new land they would have gotten along 
 very well. More than a hundred years later, people from 
 England settled on the bleak shores of what is now Massa- 
 chusetts, not for the purpose of finding gold, but to make 
 homes for themselves where they could raise what they 
 needed to live on. These people, living on a stony and poor 
 soil and in a cold climate, got along very much better than 
 the Spaniards who were hunting gold in this fertile and 
 charixdng island. 
 
 Although Columbus succeeded in suppressing the first 
 mutiny his troubles were not ended. Fever broke out 
 again and large numbers were sick. The whole colony was 
 threatened with starvation. Columbus now took things 
 in his own hands and forced the priests and the nobles to 
 work just the same as the common laborers. This they 
 hated to do, for they thought common work degrading. 
 Even when they were in danger of starvation they would 
 remain idle unless compelled to work. It is no wonder 
 that they were dissatisfied and angry. These priests and 
 nobles of Spain, who had never done a stroke of work with 
 their hands in all their lives, thought it something horrible 
 that this man Columbus, who was not even a Spaniard, 
 
92 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 /^. 
 
 but a foreigner — a mere Italian — should now make them 
 work. However, they had to work or starve, and the result 
 was that m the end they all worked. 
 
 59. Trouble with the Natives. — At St. Thomas, Colum- 
 bus left a force of fifty-six men to complete the fort, to 
 explore the country, and to collect gold. He gave the men 
 
 instructions to treat the natives 
 well, but these instructions were 
 useless. The Spaniards were soon 
 abusing them just as the men at 
 Fort Navidad had done, and the 
 natives became angry and war- 
 like. They began to capture and 
 rob small parties of Spaniards 
 going between Isabella and Fort 
 St. Thomas. The natives were 
 not really dangerous, however, 
 for it was found that a single 
 horseman in armor could defeat 
 a whole band of Indians. 
 
 In one case a Spanish horse- 
 man attacked a group of natives 
 and recaptured five Spaniards 
 whom they had taken prisoners. 
 The fact was that the weapons of the Spaniards enabled 
 them to defeat the natives even when they were in very 
 large numbers. This led Columbus to believe that all 
 that was necessary was to take good care and there 
 would be no real danger from their attacks. As soon as 
 he felt that his men could get on without him, he decided 
 to take three small ships and go on an exploring expedition 
 
 \^^ 
 
 ARMOR USED IN TIME OF COLUMBtfS 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 
 
 93 
 
 toward the west. On April twenty-fourth he left Isabella 
 and sailed westward along the coast of Haiti. 
 
 60. Sailing Along the South Coast of Cuba. — On his 
 journey westward, along the north coast of Haiti, Colum- 
 bus stopped at the old Fort Navidad. King Guacanagari 
 did not come out to greet him and Columbus did not stay 
 to learn why but went on to Cuba. When he reached the 
 east end of this island, which he had seen on his first 
 voyage, he sailed along its southern coast. On the first 
 
 MAP SHOWING VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION AMONG ISLANDS ON SECOND VOYAGE 
 
 day they found natives near the shore. These people 
 had never seen ships like those of Columbus, and they fled 
 in terror. The crews of the ships landed and ate their 
 food. When some of the natives came nearer the shore, 
 Columbus gave them trinkets for the food and treated 
 them well. The story of these ships and of the kindly 
 white men in them was told along the shore ahead of 
 Columbus, and as the ships ghded by, the natives came 
 out in their canoes and brought all the fruit that Columbus 
 and his men could use. No doubt, the natives came out 
 not only to trade their fruit, but also to see the wonderful 
 ships. Every place Columbus went he heard the same 
 
94 The Story of Columbus 
 
 story about the great island to the south from which all 
 the gold that the Cubans had was said to come. So, on 
 May third, after having reached what is now the town of 
 Santiago, Cuba, Columbus left the coast of Cuba and 
 sailed straight south. 
 
 6i. Columbus in Jamaica. — Soon after leaving the 
 coast of Cuba they saw a streak of land on the horizon, 
 but it was two days before they came close to the shore. 
 This land was an island which the natives called Jamaica. 
 Columbus named it San Diego, but its old Indian name 
 has continued until now. As they drew near great 
 numbers of canoes came out to meet them. At first the 
 natives showed signs of fright, but Columbus threw them 
 little gifts and they lost their fears. When the Span- 
 iards began to land, however, the natives attacked them; 
 but a cannon was fired several times and they ran for 
 their lives. Here for the first time we hear the story 
 that the Spaniards let loose a fierce dog on the natives. 
 Later on they used these dogs frequently in their wars 
 with the Indians. 
 
 A King now came out to make peace with Columbus, 
 and as the Spaniards sailed along the coast westward there 
 was no more trouble with the natives. They came out in 
 their canoes constantly to trade, and it was here that a 
 young man came on board Columbus's ship and asked if 
 he might be taken to the strange land from which these 
 ships came. Columbus agreed to take him, and asked the 
 crew to treat him kindly since the boy appeared to have 
 courage and other likable qualities. We hear nothing 
 more about him, however, and it is not known what 
 became of him. 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 95 
 
 Columbus says that the natives of Jamaica were more 
 warhke than any he had seen before, except the Caribs. 
 They also appeared to be more intelligent. They were 
 better sailors, and had very big canoes made from the 
 mahogany trees which grew on this island. There was 
 one canoe, ninety-six feet long and eight feet wide, all 
 made from one log. What a tremendous mahogany log 
 that must have been! The simple utensils and tools 
 which these people had were of the same kind as those 
 found on the other islands, but they were better made. 
 
 When Columbus reached the western end of Jamaica 
 he sailed northward, and on May eighteenth was again on 
 the coast of Cuba. He then turned westward and soon 
 reached what is now called Cape Cruz. On going around 
 this cape he saw a broad bay to the north and on the west 
 side of the bay there was a large number of small islands, 
 which he called the Queen's Gardens. Among these 
 islands the passages were so narrow that he often could 
 not turn his ships around and sometimes he had to send 
 boats ahead with ropes to pull them through the narrow 
 channels. From one of these islands natives came up to the 
 ships in a canoe and gave them what fish they wanted. 
 Columbus tells a wonderful story about how these natives 
 caught fish. He says there is a fish in those waters which 
 catches other fish by means of suckers attached to its 
 head. The natives would first catch one of these fish, 
 tie a line to its tail, and then let it out. It would then 
 catch another fish, by means of its suckers, and the fisher- 
 man would pull in both fish and take off the one that was 
 caught and let the catcher out again; and so they con- 
 tinued fishing all day! 
 
96 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 62. Sailing Along the Coast of Cuba. — We now recall 
 that it was on the north coast of Cuba that Columbus heard 
 about people with tails, and now he heard the same stories 
 again. These people with tails were supposed to live much 
 farther west. They wore long cloaks so that the tails 
 could not be seen. One day when Columbus had to stop 
 to fix one of the ships, a hunter went ashore and came 
 rushing back with the story that he had seen some people 
 with white robes. Other men were sent ashore to hunt 
 
 for them, for they thought 
 surely here were the people 
 with tails. None were found, 
 however. It is supposed that 
 the excited hunter saw a flock 
 of white cranes in the distance. 
 The coast now began to 
 turn southward and Columbus 
 thought that he was sailing 
 along the shore of the Malay 
 On the map you will see just 
 The Malay Peninsula 
 
 MAP SHOWING WHERE COLUMBUS THOUGHT 
 THE COAST OF CUBA WAS 
 
 Peninsula in eastern Asia. 
 
 where Columbus thought he was. 
 
 was believed to be the richest in spices of all the lands of 
 
 the East. 
 
 We know that at this time Columbus was thinking 
 about sailing around the south coast of Asia and then 
 around Africa to Spain. He also thought that he might 
 sail up the Red Sea and leave his ships, cross overland 
 where the Suez Canal now is, and then get another ship 
 and reach Spain by the way of the Mediterranean. Of 
 course, we know now that Columbus could not have done 
 that, because he was not on the coast of Asia at all; but 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 
 
 97 
 
 if he really had tried to do it he would no doubt have run 
 up against the mainland in Central America and thus 
 found Mexico, which he never did find. 
 
 The wooden ships of those days were often attacked 
 by a boring worm, especially in a warm climate, and be- 
 came leaky. Columbus's ships were now leaking badly 
 
 MAP SHOWING COURSE COLUMBUS PROPOSED TO FOLLOW TO GO AROUND THE WORLD 
 
 from this cause, and the crews became anxious and wanted 
 to turn back to Isabella. At this point they found that 
 their interpreter, whom they had taken along from Haiti, 
 could no longer understand the people. For these reasons, 
 though much against his will, Columbus was compelled 
 to turn around. 
 
 63. Columbus's Men Sign a Paper. — Before Columbus 
 started back he drew up a remarkable paper and compelled 
 his men to sign it. In this paper they swore that they 
 7 
 
98 The Story of Columbus 
 
 believed Cuba was a part of Asia and that one could travel 
 all the way from there to Spain by land. It was solemnly 
 stated that if anyone should change his mind on this 
 matter he would be severely punished. If he were an 
 officer he was to be fined a large sum of money, and if an 
 ordinary sailor he was to receive one hundred lashes on 
 his back and have his tongue out. All the eighty people 
 in Columbus's crews swore to this paper. Of course it 
 was all nonsense to sign such a paper, for they could not 
 possibly know that the statements in it were true. They 
 had no means of knowing that one could pass by land 
 from Cuba to Spain. Surely if later they might learn 
 that Cuba was an island, as we now know it is, not all the 
 sworn statements in the world could keep them from 
 changing their minds. Childish and silly as this whole 
 thing now seems to us, Columbus wanted such a paper to 
 present to the Court of Spain. He was anxious above all 
 else to make certain that he had really found Asia, and 
 possibly a little more anxious to have others believe it. 
 
 It is interesting to think that if Columbus had sailed 
 westward just a very few days more, the coast would 
 have turned to the northward, and if he had followed it 
 he would have gone around Cuba and he and his men 
 would have changed their minds in spite of the statement 
 they had all sworn to. 
 
 64. Returning Eastward. — On the way eastward they 
 found the Isle of Pines, then sailed along the south shore 
 of Jamaica and the south shore of Haiti. They were 
 delayed by storms along the whole eastward journey, but 
 the natives continued to be friendly and to provide the 
 crews with such food as they had. The food was getting 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 99 
 
 low and the men were limited to one pound of moldy 
 bread each day and a small cup of wine. The wind was 
 constantly from the east, and it took one whole month to 
 pass Jamaica. After going around the eastern end 
 of Haiti they finally reached Isabella on September 
 twenty-ninth. 
 
 Columbus had been absent five months on a very 
 troublesome voyage. His crews were tired and worn out 
 and he himself was too sick to stand up when they entered 
 Isabella. On this journey, as we have seen, he explored 
 nearly all of the south coast of Cuba, sailed around the 
 island of Jamaica, and explored the southern coast of 
 Haiti. It seems a pity that he did not continue far 
 enough to reach the western end of Cuba and then turn 
 northward. That would have given Columbus certain 
 new ideas which unfortunately he never came to have. 
 
 65. Columbus Meets His Brother Bartholomew. — 
 When Columbus reached Isabella, he found his brother 
 Bartholomew. We now recall that this brother had 
 already done important work in the way of discoveries. 
 He was with the Portuguese when they first sailed around 
 the south end of Africa. He was sent by Columbus to 
 see if the King of England would help in fitting out ships 
 to go across the ocean. When Bartholomew returned to 
 Spain by way of France, he learned that his brother had 
 already found land across the Atlantic and had gone west 
 again on his second voyage. The King of Spain was just 
 then sending out a fleet with supplies for Haiti, and 
 Bartholomew came out with this fleet. Bartholomew was 
 strong, brave, and able — just the sort of man that Colum- 
 bus needed most to help him. In some ways he was a 
 
100 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 better man than his brother. He was a better speaker 
 and writer and he could manage men better, and was not 
 so given to impractical dreaming. Columbus now made 
 
 / 
 
 PORTRAIT OF BARTHOLOMEW COLUMBUS 
 
 him governor of Haiti,- with the title of Adelantado, which 
 means governor of a province, 
 
 Bartholomew told how things were going in Spain, 
 that Columbus's family were well and were enjoying them- 
 selves at the Court. Columbus had feared that his enemies 
 might have gotten the King and Queen to show his family 
 disfavor, but Bartholomew told him that there was no 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 101 
 
 serious danger of that. Meeting with his brother and 
 hearing the good news which he had to tell was very im- 
 portant for Columbus, now when he was in bad health and 
 low spirits. It did more to make him well than anything 
 else could possibly have done. 
 
 66. Trouble at Isabella While Columbus Was Away. — 
 At Isabella, Columbus found trouble enough for a well man. 
 The expedition which was to explore the country around 
 Fort St. Thomas had not done so, but had abused the 
 natives in many ways so that they had become very 
 unfriendly. The chief, Caonabo, who had destroyed Fort 
 Navidad, now decided to destroy Fort St. Thomas. He 
 gathered an army and tried to surprise the Spaniards. 
 Ojeda, who was in command, was too shrewd and alert 
 to be taken by surprise. He gathered his men into the 
 fort, and Caonabo, who had hoped to surprise them, found 
 the Spaniards ready. The natives did not dare to come 
 within range of the Spanish weapons, and Ojeda was too 
 wary to be drawn into an open fight. Caonabo then tried 
 to starve the Spaniards by placing a guard all about the 
 fort so no one could go out or in. If he had kept this up 
 long enough he no doubt would have succeeded, but little 
 by little the savages became tired of the siege and went 
 away. So Ojeda and his men got out safely. Caonabo 
 now learned of quarrels among the Spaniards at Isabella, 
 and although he had just failed to take Fort St. Thomas, 
 he now decided to try to drive the Spaniards from the 
 island altogether. He felt that this was not entirely a 
 hopeless undertaking, for he had once succeeded in doing 
 away with the entire Spanish colony at Fort Navidad. 
 King Guacanagari, the old friend of Columbus, learned 
 
102 The Story of Columbus 
 
 of the plans of Caonabo, and as soon as Columbus returned 
 from his trip to the west he told him what was going on. 
 
 67. The Battle of Vega Real. — The native army was 
 gathering in the valley called Vega Real. The story runs 
 that they numbered one hundred thousand. Columbus 
 had opposed to them about two hundred soldiers, with 
 twenty horsemen. The Spaniards attacked from all sides 
 at once. The natives were in an open space with timber 
 all around, and the Spaniards crawled up close to them 
 through the trees and then began to shoot at them with 
 guns. The natives were bewildered by the shots coming 
 from all sides. Their confusion was increased by the noise 
 of the Spanish drums, which was greater than that of all 
 their warwhoops. When they began to retreat, Ojeda, at 
 the head of the twenty horsemen, rode straight into the 
 crowd and killed a great many of them with spears. At 
 the same time, a number of bloodhounds were let loose. 
 The Indians were soon on the run, making for the hill- 
 sides all around. Caonabo and his great army were com- 
 pletely defeated. From now on, the natives were much 
 in fear of the Spaniards and there was no further attempt 
 to drive them from the island. 
 
 68. The Capture of Caonabo. — Caonabo, however, 
 escaped, and Ojeda followed him with only ten men. The 
 Spaniards rushed right into Caonabo's camp and the 
 Indian, who liked this brave, reckless man, treated him 
 as his own guest. Ojeda now invited Caonabo to go 
 with him to Isabella to see the town. As Caonabo had 
 wandered about in the woods near Isabella he had heard 
 the ringing of the great bell, and he wanted very much to 
 see it. Ojeda told him that if he would go with him he 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 103 
 
 would give him the bell. This temptation was too great 
 for the Indian, who said he would go, if he could take with 
 him a great force of armed men. Ojeda agreed to this 
 and they started toward Isabella. They came to a river 
 and Ojeda showed the unsuspecting Indian some hand- 
 cuffs, which were bright, shiny things, and told him that 
 they had been sent by the King of Spain to be presented 
 to the bravest Indian chief they might find, and that now 
 he wanted to give them to Caonabo. After crossing the 
 river, Ojeda took the Indian chief on the back of his horse 
 and placed the handcuffs on his hands. Then all the 
 Spanish horsemen made a sudden dash through the crowd 
 of Indians, who parted and let them pass. When beyond 
 the reach of the Indians they stopped and tied Caonabo 
 fast on the horse's back. In this way these few Spaniards 
 rode into the camp at Isabella with the Indian chief as 
 their prisoner. 
 
 The brave Caonabo hated all of the Spaniards except 
 Ojeda; He particularly hated Columbus, who he thought 
 was not brave enough to do the things which he sent his 
 man Ojeda to do; but he liked Ojeda because of his bravery 
 and his cunning. 
 
 69. The First Shipload of Slaves Sent to Spain. — 
 While the natives were gathering under Caonabo, getting 
 ready for the battle of Vega Real, Columbus did one of 
 the things which his friends must always regret. He felt 
 that he could not return to Spain without repaying some 
 of the money which had been expended in fitting out his 
 expeditions. The amount of gold which could be gathered 
 was not nearly enough for this, and so he decided to send 
 some of the natives to Spain and sell them as slaves. 
 
104 The Story of Columbus 
 
 On February twenty-fourth, 1495, the first shiploads of 
 Indians were sent to Spain. Five hundred of them were 
 crowded into small ships to make the journey across the 
 ocean. We must not be too harsh in our judgment of 
 Columbus on account of this, for in his time the enslaving 
 of heathen people was not always thought to be wrong. 
 The Portuguese had taken a great many slaves in Africa 
 and sold them in Europe. 
 
 We should remember, however, that the King and the 
 Queen of Spain had not been any too certain that this 
 should be done, and later Queen Isabella decided that 
 slavery was bad and some of the slaves were sent back 
 from Spain to the West Indies. 
 
 70. How the Natives Were Forced to Gather Gold. — 
 Columbus now felt that he had taken care of his enemies 
 among the Spaniards and that he had subdued the Indians. 
 So he decided to give all his attention to the gathering of 
 gold. He made a plan for forcing the natives to gather 
 gold, which in the end made slaves of them all. Every 
 person above fourteen years of age was required to bring 
 in a certain amount every three months. The Spaniards 
 made little copper medals and gave one to each native 
 as he brought in the amount required of him. If the Span- 
 iards found a native without the proper number of these 
 copper medals they knew that he had not done his work. 
 The Indians who did not bring in gold were given a certain 
 number of lashes and set to work just hke prisoners or 
 slaves. In many parts of the island the natives could not 
 possibly find as much gold as they were required to bring 
 in, and in these cases they were allowed to bring in cotton. 
 Some chiefs offered to bring in grain, but the Spaniards 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 105 
 
 insisted on either gold or cotton. Even Columbus's old 
 friend King Guacanagari had to bring in his share. Small 
 bodies of armed men were stationed in little forts all over 
 the island. These men continued the customary Spanish 
 abuse of the natives and hunted out those who failed to 
 bring in gold. Under this treatment the character of the 
 Indians changed entirely. Their spirit of joyful inde- 
 pendence was lost. They became sad and quiet. They 
 sang sad songs, and many of them went into the moun- 
 tains, where they starved and died rather than work for 
 the Spaniards. Under this brutal treatment the Indians 
 died rapidly. Columbus was mistaken in his belief that 
 they would make fine slaves. 
 
 71. The Enemies of Columbus in Spain. — In the 
 meantime, Columbus had made many enemies. Some of 
 the men who went out with him on his first voyage were 
 jealous because they thought they should receive as much 
 credit for the voyage as Columbus himself. Others who 
 went on the second voyage and had returned to Spain 
 hated Columbus because he had not permitted them to 
 steal as much as they wanted to from the natives. Others 
 were honest in their belief that the colony at Isabella was 
 not well managed and that Columbus was cruel to the 
 natives. These enemies, when they got to Spain, went to 
 the Court and told their stories to the King and Queen. 
 Some of the stories were true and some were not. They 
 told how the natives were abused, how Columbus was 
 brutal not only to the natives but also to the Spaniards. 
 They said everything was going wrong in Haiti, that the 
 land which he had described as beautiful and rich was in 
 reality a wretched place and not fit for the homes of white 
 
106 The Story of Columbus 
 
 people. What the enemies of Columbus really wanted to 
 do was to have his power taken away. The result was 
 that the King and Queen sent another expedition to Haiti 
 to look over the whole island and see just what it was like 
 and what was going on. Columbus heard about this 
 trouble at the Court, and so he decided that the best thing 
 for him to do was to go to Spain and see the King and 
 Queen himself. On June eleventh, 1496, his ship entered 
 the harbor of Cadiz in Spain. 
 
 72. Columbus in Spain, 1496-1498. — The men who 
 crawled out of the caravels in the' harbor of Cadiz were 
 weak from sickness and worn out by a long voyage. The 
 constant westerly winds had kept them near the West 
 Indies for two months and the journey from Isabella to 
 Spain occupied in all three months. As they landed 
 Columbus wore the simple robe of a monk, and his meek 
 bearing was in marked contrast to his splendid return 
 from the first voyage. There was a small fleet in the har- 
 bor ready to sail for Isabella, and Columbus sent a letter to 
 his brother Bartholomew, in which he urged him to use 
 every means to make the colony profitable so that some of 
 the money paid in fitting out his expeditions might be repaid. 
 
 The King and Queen now had many things to hold 
 their attention. Their son and daughter were both about 
 to be married. There was grave danger of war with 
 France. Columbus wanted to get ships for another expe- 
 dition to sail in search of lands not yet discovered, but all 
 ships that could be had were needed at home since the 
 French might make an attack at any time. In the spring 
 of 1498 the Queen sent two ships to Isabella with food and 
 other necessary articles. 
 
Columbus in Spain and the Second Voyage 107 
 
 When the King and Queen finally turned their attention 
 again to the problem of getting ships and crews for another 
 expedition, they found it difficult to secure either. It was 
 especially difficult to get crews. Again prisons were 
 opened and criminals taken, and outlaws still out of prison 
 were pardoned on condition that they would enter the 
 crews of Columbus. 
 
 It seems that in spite of the work of Columbus's ene- 
 mies the King and Queen still remained his friends and be- 
 lieved in his plans, but people in general had lost faith in 
 him. The expense in money and work and human life 
 of his expeditions had been large and the returns in money 
 had been very small. There were only the small collections 
 of gold and a few shiploads of slaves to show for all the 
 outlay. After his first journey Columbus had been a 
 popular hero, greeted with respect by all who saw him. 
 Now he was laughed at and jeered at when he appeared 
 on the streets. The days of his popularity had passed, 
 never to return. 
 
 It may be remarked here that in May, 1498, Da Gama, 
 sailing for the Portuguese, reached the real India after 
 going around the south end of Africa. The India reached 
 by Da Gama, while not as rich as the India of the fables 
 told by early travelers, nevertheless gave rise at once 
 to a very profitable trade. Poor as were the West Indies 
 discovered by Columbus, yet nevertheless they gave to 
 Spain much more of lasting value than the Portuguese 
 ever got from their trade with India. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 The Third Voyage 
 73. The Course Planned for the Third Voyage. — For 
 
 several reasons Columbus now planned to sail south about 
 as far as the Equator and then straight west across the 
 Atlantic. The natives had constantly told about rich 
 
 COLUMBUS IN CHAINS 
 
 lands farther south and he wished to find these on his way 
 out. There was also at that time a belief in Europe that 
 the greatest riches were to be found in the warmer climates. 
 In a letter written to Columbus by a well-known jeweler 
 we find the statement that gold and jewels come in greatest 
 abundance from near the Equator, where black races of 
 people live. ''Therefore/' says this jeweler, ''steer south 
 108 
 
The Third Voyage 
 
 109 
 
 and find a black race if you would find such riches in 
 abundance." Cohimbus also expected by going farther 
 south to strike the most southern part of China and pos- 
 sibly sail around it into the Indian Ocean. 
 
 74. The Story of the Outward Voyage. — As on the 
 previous voyages, Columbus sailed from Spain to the 
 Island of Gomera. From there he sent three of his six 
 
 MAP SHOWING COURSE OF THIRD VOYAGE 
 
 ships directly to Haiti with provisions. Then he sailed 
 south with the other three to the Cape Verde Islands. 
 There he found the cHmate exceedingly hot and bad for 
 the health of himself and his crews. He now began to be 
 troubled with gout, which was to grow worse and remain 
 with him for the rest of his days. When he started west- 
 ward from the Cape Verde Islands he ran into a calm sea 
 and for a couple of weeks the ships lay nearly still. We 
 now know that there is a belt of calms in the region of the 
 Equator, and it was in this belt that Columbus found him- 
 self. To get out of the calms he headed his ships farther 
 
no 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 north and then started west for what he thought were the 
 Carib Islands, where he had struck land on his second 
 voyage. Swept along by the ocean current and a steady 
 wind, he crossed the Atlantic rapidly and on July thirty- 
 first land was sighted. 
 
 75. The Island of Trinidad. — It was fortunate that 
 they reached land quickly, because their water was nearly 
 
 gone, their ships were 
 leaky, the crews were 
 discouraged, and many 
 on board were sick. 
 The island which Co- 
 lumbus saw first had 
 three tall peaks and so 
 he called it Trinidad. 
 They landed at the 
 south end of this island, 
 and filled their water 
 casks. The men went 
 ashore mornings and evenings and found the cold breezes 
 most dehghtful after the very hot weather that they had 
 experienced on their journey. To the south they saw the 
 low country of South America with the many mouths of 
 the great Orinoco River. We know that this river divides 
 up into a number of streams to form a great delta just as 
 it enters the ocean. It is interesting that when Columbus 
 saw the mainland of America for the first time he thought 
 it was an island, whereas he thought Cuba, which is in 
 reality an island, was a part of the mainland. 
 
 76. The Serpent's Mouth. — We now know that there 
 is a great ocean current going in from the Atlantic along 
 
 MAP SHOWING THIRD VOYAGE AMONG ISLANDS 
 
The Third Voyage 
 
 111 
 
 the northeast coast of South America, that this great 
 current sweeps all the way through the Caribbean Sea 
 and the Gulf of Mexico and goes out again between Florida 
 and Cuba, and across the Atlantic. This is the stream 
 which in the North Atlantic is known as the Gulf Stream. 
 Columbus, who knew nothing about this, found a great 
 
 COLUMBUS ALONG THE COAST OF CENTEAL AND SOUTH AMEEICA, THIED VOYAGE 
 
 current rushing in between the mainland and the Island 
 of Trinidad. The strait here is narrow and the water 
 flowed like a swift river. This not only surprised him but 
 made him and his crew very uneasy, for they had never 
 seen anything like this before. Another thing which made 
 them uneasy and afraid was, that when the tide went 
 down a great volume of water came flowing into the ocean 
 from the river. This raised the surface of the water, so 
 that the cables which held the anchors became too short 
 and one of them broke during the night. They could 
 
112 The Story of Columbus 
 
 not turn around because it was impossible to sail against 
 the current, and it looked very dangerous to go on. A 
 boat was sent out to examine the passage and came back 
 with the story that the water was really deeper than it 
 looked to be, and so they decided to try it. A favorable 
 wind came up and they headed the small ships right 
 through the boiling water. They came through all right, 
 and on the other side the water was smooth and placid. 
 Columbus named this strait the Serpent's Mouth — a name 
 which it bears to this day. 
 
 77. In the Gulf of Paria. — They now sailed northward 
 along the west coast of the Trinidad Island and soon found 
 another narrow strait with rushing currents, which looked 
 even worse than the Serpent's Mouth. This they named 
 the Dragon's Mouth. Columbus, who did not know that 
 they were in an enclosed bay, sailed westward along the 
 shore. From the ships they saw a lot of monkeys, but 
 no people. They finally cast anchor near the mouth of a 
 river, and landed. This is probably the first time that 
 white people landed on the continent of America. Colum- 
 bus was ill at the time and it is not certain that he him- 
 self went ashore. He was disappointed to see that the 
 natives were copper colored, Hke those of Haiti, and 
 not black as he had expected. It was among black 
 people that he hoped to find much gold and many 
 precious stones. Columbus heard the natives call the 
 land Paria, and this is the name which he gave to the 
 land and also to the sea. 
 
 The natives were very friendly and received them with 
 hospitality. As they sailed along the coast they found 
 better canoes than they had seen farther north. They 
 
The Thikd Voyage 113 
 
 were of the same general type but showed better work- 
 manship. Columbus also thouglii that the people were 
 more clever and more mtelligent than any he had seen 
 before. The women wore strings of pearls hanging about 
 their necks, and the Spaniards were told that these pearls 
 came from oyster shells. 
 
 The food that the Spaniards had taken with them on 
 the voyage was now rapidly spoiling because of the warm 
 weather. Even things which they had taken to dehver 
 at Haiti were spoiling. Columbus was feeling worse, his 
 gout was bad, and his eyes had swollen so that he could 
 scarcely see, and he was afraid that he would become 
 really sick, as he was when he^ returned to Haiti the 
 year before. 
 
 78. The Dragon's Mouth. — They now returned to the 
 Dragon's Mouth, but it looked to be a very dangerous 
 place to pass. The waters rushed and tumbled like a 
 river flowing swiftly over rocks. Columbus thought that 
 this might be from other causes than rocks, and as there 
 was really nothing else to do he decided to send the little 
 fleet through. They waited for a favorable wind and 
 then headed right for the middle of the strait. While 
 going through the wind stopped and they had to let 
 the current sweep them along. But everything went 
 all right, and they came out on the other side to peaceful 
 water as they had done when they passed through the 
 Serpent's Mouth. 
 
 79. The Coast of Paria. — On August fifteenth they 
 found themselves in the open waters north of Trinidad, 
 and sailed westward along the coast. They found natives 
 in canoes fishing for pearls, and stopped to trade with 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 them. Columbus remarked that the Spaniards exchanged 
 worthless things for pearis. We have seen that Columbus 
 believed that the land to the south was an island. He 
 
 Ml '■' 
 
 \^^ V 
 
 I <*n.> 
 
 '-■ > '-'i 
 
 
 UfT'' 
 
 
 \f^A; N^ 
 
 ^^.y 
 
 OLD PICTURE SHOWING COLUMBUS TRADING FOR PEAKLS 
 
 thought a strait separated it from the mainland of Asia, 
 which he supposed lay to the west, and he continued west- 
 ward along the coast to find this strait. The natives told 
 him that to the west there was a ''narrow place" and 
 Columbus thought they meant a narrow strait through 
 
The Third Voyage ll5 
 
 which he might sail. The natives probably referred to 
 the narrow stretch of land connecting North and South 
 America. This neck of land has now been cut by the 
 Panama Canal. 
 
 Columbus had curious ideas about the lands he had 
 discovered. He wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella that the 
 mountain in Haiti where gold had been found was the 
 same mountain from which Solomon got his gold and 
 ''which now belongs to the King and Queen of Spain." 
 He thought that the Orinoco River came from the Garden 
 of Eden, and that it was the river which one reads about 
 in the Bible as watering that land. For miles around the 
 mouths of the great Orinoco the water is fresh and Colum- 
 bus said that ''the lovely waters from the Garden of Eden 
 sweeten all the sea around." Columbus was full of all the 
 fancies and superstitions of his time. 
 
 But Columbus could not remain long on the coast of 
 Paria. His provisions were running low and his health 
 was bad, and he decided to run up to Haiti, where he 
 hoped to rest and replenish his provisions. Doubtless he 
 expected to return to Paria soon to gather pearls, but we 
 shall see that a very different fate awaited him. 
 
 80. Founding of Santo Domingo. — Gold had been 
 found in the southwestern part of Haiti before Columbus 
 returned to Spain on his second voyage. Bartholomew, 
 who was left in charge in Haiti, explored the country 
 farther and decided to build a town on the south coast of 
 the island near these new mines. This town was at first 
 named New Isabella, but it soon came to be called Santo 
 Domingo, the name which it still bears. The natives had 
 learned by this time that the only safe thing for them to 
 
116 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 do was to serve the Spaniards promptly. When they 
 were requested to bring in food, cotton, and other useful 
 articles to the settlers in this new town, they did so without 
 making any objections. 
 
 When Columbus left the coast of Paria to sail for Haiti 
 his ships were carried far to the west by the ocean current, 
 and he finally struck the coast of Haiti much farther west 
 
 CATHEDRAL AT SANTO DOMINGO 
 
 than he had expected. Fearing it would take a long time 
 to sail eastward against this current, he sent a messenger 
 ashore to let his brother know that he had returned. 
 Bartholomew went to meet him, and it was on board his 
 ship off the south coast of Haiti that Columbus learned 
 about the founding of Santo Domingo and about the 
 many troubles in Haiti during his absence. 
 
 8i. Relations with the Natives. — Columbus found the 
 relations between the Spaniards and the natives even 
 worse than when he left. Small parties of workmen and 
 
The Third Voyage 117 
 
 soldiers were now living in the little forts that had been 
 built in every neighborhood. In this way Spanish brutal- 
 ity and mistreatment had reached all the people of the 
 island. Even though the natives had learned that they 
 could not win in a fight against the white men, they at 
 times got so desperate over the wrongs they suffered 
 that they made attacks. These attacks were punished 
 with the utmost severity. Once the natives broke into 
 a Spanish church, destroyed the altar, and took out 
 some of the sacred vessels and buried them. The story 
 was told that where these vessels were buried, trees in 
 the shape of crosses grew up. But this did not satisfy 
 the Spaniards. They put to death all whom they believed 
 had a hand in this robbery, and they even burned some of 
 them alive. This last act of cruelty caused the natives 
 to make one more attempt to overcome their enemies, 
 but, as in other such cases, they were defeated and pun- 
 ished with fresh cruelties. 
 
 82. Roldan's Rebellion. — The people who followed 
 Columbus from Spain to Haiti were not such as would be 
 likely to establish a successful colony. Criminals taken 
 from the jails were dangerous when allowed to roam at 
 will among a weak and simple people and were rebellious 
 when kept in check. Priests and nobles were worse than 
 useless in such a settlement when allowed to remain idle, 
 and became morose and dissatisfied when compelled to 
 work, even in the face of starvation. Columbus and his 
 brothers Diego and Bartholomew were hated partly be- 
 cause they were foreigners. The proud Spaniards did 
 not want to be ruled by men of foreign birth. No doubt, 
 too, Columbus had made mistakes. Possibly some had 
 
118 The Story of Columbus 
 
 come to Haiti through what they regarded as his mis- 
 representations. Many beheved that affairs in Haiti 
 were badly managed. They were all certain they were 
 not having as good times and were not getting rich as 
 fast as they had hoped. It is easy to defend Columbus 
 by pointing out that those who came after him were 
 accused as he was and had just as much trouble with the 
 rebellious spirits of their followers. But whether Colum- 
 bus was at fault or not, there were always many dissatis- 
 fied Spaniards who were ready to follow anyone who would 
 rise up against him. The rule of Bartholomew, who was 
 in command while Columbus was absent, was even less 
 agreeable to the Spaniards than that of Columbus himself. 
 Bartholomew was harsher in his manners and more 
 unyielding in his demands. 
 
 In the absence of Columbus, a man by the name of 
 Roldan, whom he had made the chief judge on the island, 
 put himself at the head of those who were dissatisfied. 
 Word came from Spain that Columbus was now unpopular 
 at the Court and they thought it safe to start a real rebel- 
 lion. Bartholomew did not know how many would follow 
 him and how many would follow Roldan in case it 
 came to a real fight, so he did not dare to try to 
 make him prisoner. The arrival of Columbus did not 
 help much. In the end he and his brother came to the 
 belief that it would not be safe to risk a fight with 
 Roldan. Hence Columbus gave Roldan and his rebellious 
 followers everything they wanted. Roldan was placed 
 back in his office as chief judge of the island. Columbus 
 did, however, try to send him back to Spain, but there was 
 great difficulty in getting ships. After waiting awhile 
 
The Third Voyage 119 
 
 Roldan made new demands, all of which were granted. 
 One of these was that Roldan and his followers should 
 receive certain stretches of land and that the natives 
 should be made to work the land for them. This was 
 really the beginning of the system which will be mentioned 
 in the next section. 
 
 Later Columbus wrote a letter to Spain, saying that 
 he had signed his agreements with Roldan because he 
 was compelled to do so and that therefore they should be 
 regarded as of no value. In the same ship which carried 
 this letter there were letters from Roldan and his followers 
 which told a very different story. 
 
 The King and the Queen were now very much puzzled 
 to know which party was right, and we shall see a little 
 later how the whole thing came out. 
 
 In the meantime, Roldan went on working with Co- 
 lumbus and they together subdued the natives thoroughly 
 and also some rebellious Spaniards. Indeed, a very con- 
 siderable number of these were hanged, and the colony 
 was under very good control by the spring of 1500. 
 
 83. Granting Land to the Spaniards. — The demands 
 of Roldan led to a system of land-holding not unlike that 
 used in Europe in earlier times. Large tracts of land were 
 granted to his chief followers, each of whom was also 
 given a certain number of natives to till the soil. The 
 natives who were thus put to work on the land no longer 
 had to bring gold to Isabella or Santo Domingo. Some 
 native chiefs were even excused from sending in gold if 
 they would furnish so many laborers. In this way the 
 natives soon came to be slaves of those who owned the 
 land. This system oppressed them so badly that in the 
 
120 The Story of Columbus 
 
 end they were all killed off. Their fights with the Span- 
 iards were over. They had been thoroughly defeated. 
 They had lost their courage and made no more struggles 
 against the slavery which the Spaniards were rapidly 
 imposing upon them. 
 
 84. Discoveries by Others than Columbus. — It will 
 be remembered that a young Spaniard, by name Ojeda, 
 took an important part in the second voyage of Columbus 
 and that he had much to do with the defeat of the natives 
 in the only really important battle which the Spaniards 
 aver fought with them in Haiti — the battle of Vega Real. 
 It will be remembered, too, that this same Ojeda captured 
 Caonabo, the most warlike of the native chiefs. When 
 the news of Columbus's discovery of the coast of Paria 
 came to Spain in 1499, Ojeda was there. He heard with 
 particular interest the story about the finding of pearls, 
 and so he apphed to the treasurer of the Court for permis- 
 sion to visit this coast. This permission was given, 
 although the Court had previously promised Columbus 
 that no one would be allowed to visit any of the lands he 
 might discover except by permission of Columbus himself. 
 It will be seen, therefore, that the Court was now breaking 
 its promise. 
 
 In the expedition of Ojeda there was a man by the 
 name of Americus Vespucius. This man should be remem- 
 bered because his name was finally given to the American 
 continent. There were also many who had gone with 
 Columbus on one or more of his voyages. They reached 
 land east of the Orinoco River, sailed westward by using 
 the charts that Columbus had made, passed through the 
 Serpent's Mouth, then through the Dragon's Mouth, and 
 
The Third Voyage 121 
 
 sailed westward along the coast of Paria, as Columbus 
 had done. There they found a city built on piles driven 
 into the water and called it Venezuela, after the city of 
 Venice in Italy, which is built in this way. Ojeda then 
 sailed northward to Haiti and finally returned to Spain. 
 
 Another Spanish sailor named Nino sailed to the same 
 coast and gathered many pearls. His was the first voyage 
 to the new world that brought back enough treasure to 
 pay the expense of the voyage. By the agreement between 
 the Court and Columbus, he should have had a certain 
 share of these pearls, but he did not receive any of them. 
 
 It will be remembered that two brothers by the name 
 of Pinzon went out with Columbus on his first voyage. 
 One of these now got together a fleet of four ships and 
 started to sail west and south, as Columbus had done on 
 his second voyage. He struck the coast of South America 
 in the neighborhood of the present Cape St. Augustine, 
 which is the most easterly point of the continent. Then 
 saihng northward, he discovered the Amazon River, whose 
 volume of water was so great that even when the ships 
 were out of sight of land the water was fresh enough to 
 drink. Pinzon then sailed up to the Gulf by Paria, from 
 there to the northern islands first discovered by Columbus, 
 and then back again to Spain. 
 
 A Spaniard by the name of Diego de Lepe sailed along 
 the same course as Pinzon, but went farther south, a good 
 ways below the Cape of St. Augustine. Then, there was 
 another sailor, by the name of La Cosa, who was a good 
 map maker. He went on a voyage to South America in 
 search of pearls, and made the first fairly good map of 
 the lands he visited. This same La Cosa also was with 
 
122 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA 
 
The Third Voyage 123 
 
 Columbus on his second journey when they sailed along 
 the south coast of Cuba, and he was one of the men 
 who signed that curious paper swearing that they believed 
 Cuba to be a part of Asia. It is interesting to note 
 that La Cosa at one time swore to such a statement, while 
 on his map he showed Cuba as an island. 
 
 Americus Vespucius and Ojeda described what they 
 saw in a practical way and not in a fanciful and sometimes 
 superstitious way, as Columbus had done, and people 
 were much interested in their descriptions. It was from 
 the description by Americus Vespucius that people began 
 to call the new land America. If Columbus had described 
 the country he saw in a straightforward way instead of 
 dreaming about the Garden of Eden and the mountain 
 from which Solomon got his gold, it might have been 
 called Columbia and our continents would now be known 
 as South Columbia and North Columbia. However, as 
 it is, we find the name Columbia scattered pretty much 
 over all the country. There is the Republic of Colombia 
 in South America. The District of Columbia, where the 
 city of Washington is located, is named after Columbus, 
 and we have cities called Columbus in many states of 
 the Union. All of these places are, of course, named after 
 Christopher Columbus, who, after all, was the real dis- 
 coverer of land in the west. 
 
 85. Public Opinion in Spain. — For some years com- 
 plaints had reached Spain that Columbus was mismanag- 
 ing the colony in Haiti. His enemies had been trying to 
 get the King and Queen to believe this, but so far it seemed 
 that they had not succeeded. However, he had many 
 enemies within the Court and was becoming unpopular 
 
124 The Story of Columbus 
 
 with the people outside. When starting on his third 
 journey it was again necessary to fill his crews with crim- 
 inals from the jails. 
 
 Very little of the promised gold had been brought 
 back, but Columbus continued to talk about the great 
 riches which he and others were going to make out of the 
 new lands. He spoke of using part of his own income to 
 take Palestine, and especially Jerusalem, away from the 
 Turks. People did not hke to hear a man talk like that 
 when at the same time he failed to pay his sailors their 
 wages. Columbus kept for himself most of the pearls which 
 he got on the coast of Paria, and when he was asked why 
 he did this he said that he wanted to keep the pearls until 
 he could get an equal amount of gold, so as to make a good 
 showing. This explanation did not satisfy the people in 
 general. It looked as if he was more anxious to get rich 
 than to do anything else. Columbus's two sons were now 
 pages of the Queen, and as they passed through the streets 
 the people hooted them. The sick and unpaid sailors 
 wandered through the Court and stood under the palace 
 window calling for their pay. 
 
 There was also a good deal of talk about Columbus 
 sending Indians to Spain as slaves. The story was told 
 that he refused to have some natives baptized because 
 then they would be Christians and could not be sold 
 as slaves. 
 
 86. The Queen Doubting Columbus. — From the very 
 first the King and Queen had doubted whether it was wise 
 to give Columbus the great powers which they gave him 
 before he started on his first voyage. This doubt on the 
 part of the King had been strengthened by the charges 
 
The Thikd Voyage 125 
 
 which were made against Columbus again and again, and 
 now the Queen began to doubt him also. She thought 
 that something must be wrong or there would not be so 
 many complaints against him. True enough, Columbus 
 was a man who had the courage and the wisdom to start 
 west, but, at the same time, was he able to govern a 
 colony well? And if he was not able to govern a colony 
 well, was it right for the King and Queen to keep him as 
 governor, even if he had been promised that he and his 
 sons and his sons' sons should forever govern all the lands 
 that he might discover? Roldan's rebellion brought this 
 question up more clearly than ever. At this time a num- 
 ber of Roldan's friends came to Spain and, of course, they 
 told the Court that Columbus was entirely unfit to govern 
 the colony. Columbus also continued to send home slaves 
 against the wishes of the Queen, and it is stated that 
 she became so angry that he would have been disgraced 
 at once had she not remembered the great services 
 which he had rendered to Spain by discovering the lands 
 beyond the ocean. 
 
 There is no doubt that the Spaniards had treated the 
 Indians very badly and brutally, and Columbus was 
 blamed for it all. It is not at all certain that it was just 
 to lay all the blame on Columbus. It is very doubtful 
 whether any man could have succeeded in so controlling 
 those unruly Spaniards that the natives would not have 
 been abused. Certainly none of the men who followed 
 Columbus as governors of the Spanish colonies succeeded 
 in doing this; but his enemies used exactly those argu- 
 ments with the Queen which they thought would be useful 
 in setting her against him. 
 
126 The Story of Columbus 
 
 At this very time a letter arrived from Columbus 
 requesting that he might be given permission to continue 
 the sending home of slaves for two years more. The Queen 
 answered this letter by saying that she had ordered all 
 the slaves which had been sold in Spain to be sent back 
 to the West Indies. She called the Indians her people, 
 and would not consent to have them sold as slaves. 
 
 It is, of course, clear why Columbus was so anxious 
 to sell these slaves. By so doing, not only could he himself 
 get a share of the money for which they were sold, but he 
 hoped also to show a profit for those who provided ships 
 and money for his voyages. 
 
 87. A Judge Sent to Haiti. — At the same time that 
 Columbus asked to be permitted to go on selling slaves 
 for two years more, he also asked that a judge be sent out 
 to decide between him and Roldan. The King at once 
 appointed a man by the name of Bobadilla, who had been 
 an officer in the Court, to go to Haiti as judge. The affair 
 was managed very differently from the way Columbus 
 had expected. We cannot now be certain just what orders 
 the King gave Bobadilla. Not all of the orders were put 
 down in writing. He carried one letter from the King, 
 directed to Columbus, which read in part as follows: 
 
 "We have directed Francisco Bobadilla, the bearer of this, to tell 
 you for us, of certain things to be mentioned by him. We ask you to give 
 faith and credence to what he says, and to obey him." 
 
 The expression, 'Ho obey him," of course meant that 
 Bobadilla was now to have higher power than Columbus. 
 Nevertheless, we must not forget that Bobadilla was to 
 be judge of the trouble between Roldan and Columbus, 
 and was not sent out to find fault with Columbus or do 
 
The Third Voyage 127 
 
 him harm. We do not know what the King and Queen 
 had told Bobadilla to tell Columbus. That was done by 
 word of mouth, and we shall never know just what it was. 
 It may have been a clever trick on the part of the King 
 and Queen to arrange things this way, so that in case 
 things did not go as intended, they would not be blamed. 
 There is no question, however, but that Bobadilla treated 
 Columbus with much greater brutality than there was 
 any need of. Wlien he came to Santo Domingo, Columbus 
 was not there, but a great many people who hated Colum- 
 bus were there. The criminals from Spanish jails whom 
 Columbus had brought out were now there to tell stories 
 about him who had tried to keep them from being as 
 vicious against the natives as they liked to be. Such 
 people would not be likely to tell the exact truth nor to 
 come reasonably near it. Bobadilla apparently listened 
 to all they had to say and acted as if he believed them and 
 as if there were no need of gathering further evidence as 
 to just what the facts were. Columbus, who was out in 
 the island away from Santo Domingo, had no chance 
 whatsoever at that time to tell his side of the story. 
 
 88. Columbus in Chains and Prison.— The first thing 
 that Bobadilla did after listening to these stories was to 
 read to Diego Columbus his letter from the King, to show 
 that now Columbus would have to obey him. Bobadilla 
 then went to live in Columbus's house. He took every- 
 thing that he could find in the way of money or valuables, 
 whether it belonged to Columbus or to the Crown. He 
 used the money to pay the debts of Columbus in Santo 
 Domingo, and this, of course, made him popular. Boba- 
 dilla was now completely in power. Diego was placed in 
 
128 The Story of Columbus 
 
 chains and put on board one of the ships. As soon as 
 Columbus himself came to Santo Domingo he also was 
 put in chains and placed in a stone tower which was used 
 as a prison. That tower is still standing and visitors are 
 now shown the place where Columbus lay in chains. 
 Bartholomew, the other brother of Columbus, was also 
 imprisoned and placed on a ship. It was the purpose of 
 Bobadilla to keep these men separated so that they could 
 not make any plans among themselves. Columbus him- 
 self thought that they were. going to kill him. When an 
 officer came to take him out of prison and place him on 
 board a ship to go back to Spain, he asked, '^ Where are 
 you taking me?" ''To embark on the ship," was the 
 answer. Said Columbus, ''Is that the truth?" "It is 
 true," replied the officer, who was captain of the ship. 
 Columbus now knew that he would after all see Spain and 
 her King and Queen once more. As soon as the ship left, 
 the captain, who was a humane man, wanted to take the 
 chains off his prisoner, but Columbus would not let him. 
 He said, "No. These chains have been placed on me by 
 Bobadilla, on orders of the King, and they shall not be 
 taken off until the King orders them to be taken off." 
 So Columbus crossed the Atlantic, chained as a murderer 
 might be. They had fine weather and a quick voyage, 
 and reached Spain early in the year 1500. 
 
 89. How Columbus was Received in Spain. — Seven 
 years earher, when Columbus returned from his first 
 voyage, he was greeted and received like a king. It was 
 then a common thing to see him with the King and the 
 Prince riding through the streets of the city. Now he 
 returned a prisoner in chains. His enemies liked this, 
 
The Third Voyage 129 
 
 but there were many others who believed that he had 
 been greatly wronged, and there was popular feeling in 
 his favor. Pity was awakened on all sides, and this pity 
 extended even to the Court. Just after landing, he wrote 
 a letter to a lady at the Court, who he knew would show 
 it to the Queen. In the very beginning of this letter he 
 wrote: ^'I have now reached that point where I beheve 
 that there is no man so low but who thinks it is right to 
 insult me." By order from the King, the chains were 
 promptly taken off, and Columbus was given money with 
 which to make himself ready to come to the Court. We 
 shall never know whether Bobadilla had done things to 
 Columbus which the King and Queen had not ordered him 
 to do, or whether they now had changed their minds. It 
 is not unlikely that the general feeling in favor of Columbus 
 had affected them. 
 
 The meeting of Columbus with the King and Queen 
 was sad and touching. The Queen wept, and Columbus 
 fell on the ground at her feet. Columbus had a very 
 peculiar type of mind. In the letter which we have just 
 mentioned he said that he knew no reason why he should 
 be imprisoned. Now, in talking to the Court, he men- 
 tioned all the reasons for his imprisonment which his 
 enemies ever had stated, and he tried to show that he had 
 not been at fault in any of them. Evidently he had for- 
 gotten the letter, and so had the King and Queen, and 
 they pitied him. They made promises of money, and said 
 that his power should be restored to him; but Columbus 
 was never to be viceroy of the Indies again. 
 
 90. Eighteen Months in Spain. — Columbus was now to 
 spend eighteen months in Spain before he could go on 
 9 
 
130 The Story of Columbus 
 
 another voyage. He continued to urge the King and Queen 
 to make him viceroy again and to send him out to Haiti. 
 To this the King said that he now had a great many ene- 
 mies in Haiti, that the island was in a turmoil and that 
 the wisest thing to do would be to wait until order was 
 restored. This seemed not unreasonable to Columbus 
 and he became more content to wait. 
 
 The mistake in making the first agreement with Colum- 
 bus as sweeping as it was now became more and more 
 clear. Spain was in a hurry to explore as much of the new 
 world as possible because both Portugal and England were 
 sending out expeditions, and the Court did not want to 
 wait for Columbus's consent before sending out other 
 explorers. As we have seen, the agreement had already 
 been broken when Ojeda, La Cosa, Lepe, and Pinzon 
 were sent out on different expeditions. It has been said 
 that the King was anxious to bring Columbus into disgrace, 
 for by so doing he would be able to keep on sending out 
 expeditions when and where he pleased. The one-tenth 
 of all the profits, which was to go to Columbus, also turned 
 out in the long run to be no small affair. It would indeed 
 be surprising if a contract of this sort should not be broken. 
 That one individual and his heirs should have a right 
 forever to one-tenth of all the profits which might be 
 made by trading with all the lands which this one indi- 
 vidual might discover, was surely a very dangerous contract 
 to make. While Columbus was in Spain the agreement 
 with him continued to be broken. Ojeda started out to 
 make a settlement in Venezuela. There he had about as 
 much trouble as Columbus had in Haiti. His people quar- 
 reled among themselves, abused and insulted the natives, 
 
The Third Voyage 131 
 
 and finally overpowered Ojeda and sent him a prisoner to 
 Haiti. That was just what had happened to Columbus. 
 
 Conditions had changed since Columbus made his first 
 voyage; now there were many sailors who could go across 
 the ocean and explore the coasts of the new world. 
 Columbus was no longer needed; and it is the experience 
 of the world that very seldom do we go on paying tribute 
 to one who is no longer rendering service, no matter how 
 great his services have been in the past. 
 
 It may be, too, that the King and Queen were entirely 
 sincere in their argument that Columbus should not be 
 given his rights again until conditions in Haiti had been 
 changed for the better. There are reasons for thinking just 
 that. When Columbus was sent on his fourth voyage he was 
 forbidden to go to Haiti on his way out, but was permitted 
 to go there on his way back. Evidently it was thought that, 
 by the time of his return, conditions would have changed 
 so that there would be no danger in his going there. 
 
 On the whole, while in Spain, Columbus lived unnoticed 
 and in poverty. The only thing he could do was to hope 
 for better things to come later, and hoping for better 
 things to come later was not new to Columbus. He had 
 done that for many years before his first voyage. 
 
 91. A New Governor for Haiti. — In Haiti things were 
 going as badly as ever. Bobadilla tried to be lenient with 
 the Spaniards. One of his charges against Columbus was 
 that he had handled the settlers too severely. But the 
 settlers whom Columbus had brought out were not the 
 kind of people who could be handled with leniency. As 
 soon as they had little fear of being punished they treated 
 the natives more cruelly than ever. Very soon it became 
 
132 The Story of Columbus 
 
 certain that Bobadilla did not succeed any better than 
 Columbus, if, indeed, he did as well. So it became neces- 
 sary to send another governor to Haiti to replace Boba- 
 dilla. A man by the name of Ovando was selected for 
 this post. Ovando left with a fleet of thirty ships and 
 twenty-five hundred persons. A new type of people was 
 now being sent over. There were on longer merely single 
 men, who were generally adventurers and often criminals. 
 Many of the new settlers were men with wives and 
 families who came to the new world to build homes and 
 make a living. There were, however, entirely too many 
 nobles in this expedition^ — men who would not work — 
 but, taken all in all, it was made up of a much better 
 type of people than those taken out by Columbus, espe- 
 cially those who came on the first and third voyages. 
 
 Of the thirty ships that sailed with Ovando many were 
 large, and Columbus was obliged to look upon an expedi- 
 tion very much larger and more elegant than any that he 
 had taken out. While Ovando was dressed in silks and 
 satins Columbus was wearing the simple robe of a monk. 
 He had neither money nor power, but the King promised 
 that any property he had in Haiti should be returned to 
 him, and he was allowed to select a man to see to it that 
 this promise was carried out. It was now the purpose to 
 send to Haiti something of the style and pomp of an 
 European Court, to see what might come of that. 
 
 92. Negro Slavery in Haiti. — Ovando was allowed to 
 take some negroes to Haiti to serve as slaves. While 
 Isabella would not have her subjects, as she called the 
 natives of the West Indies, sold as slaves in Spain, she 
 was willing to have negroes sold as slaves in Haiti. It 
 
The Third Voyage 133 
 
 looks as though it was not the idea of slavery which the 
 Queen disliked, but rather the idea that her people should 
 be sold as slaves anywhere. It may be also that the Span- 
 iards began to see even this early that the Indians were 
 not fitted for the heaviest work in the mines. The negroes 
 were so much better workers than the Indians that within 
 a few years numbers of them were sent over. As the 
 natives died rapidly under the harsh treatment of the 
 Spaniards negroes took their places, so that finally all the 
 slaves in the islands were of negro blood. It is now a long 
 time since the last Indian in the islands discovered by 
 Columbus passed away. 
 
 93. Writings of Columbus While in Spain. — During 
 this stay in Spain, Columbus wrote a most peculiar little 
 book, the manuscript of which has come down to us but all 
 of which has never been printed. He referred to his early 
 arguments to show that the earth was round, that he was 
 led to believe it was round because of certain reasons which 
 he had then stated and by means of which he got people 
 to believe in him and finally to help him get up a small 
 fleet for his first voyage. Now, he said that this was all 
 a mistake ; that these were not really the reasons that made 
 him believe the earth was round, but that God had ap- 
 peared directly to him and had told him all these things, 
 and that he had been appointed directly by God to go 
 west and find Asia. (God seems to have left him in the 
 belief that it was Asia and not America that lay on the 
 west side of the Atlantic.) He said that now there was 
 only one great thing left to do, and that was to take 
 Jerusalem from the Turks. He believed that he had been 
 appointed by God to do this work also. He said he be- 
 
134 The Story of Columbus 
 
 lieved his troubles in the Indies were all due to the devil, 
 because the devil knew that if Columbus succeeded there 
 and got enough wealth, then he would go at the head of 
 another expedition and take Jerusalem from the Turks, 
 and the devil, of course, wanted Jerusalem to be in the 
 hands of the Turks. 
 
 We now know, of course, that the arguments about the 
 shape of the earth which Columbus used in his earher life 
 were entirely sound, and it seems a pity that in his more 
 advanced years he should have given them up. But one 
 cannot be certain whether or not the man was entirely 
 sane. We must remember, too, that in the days of Colum- 
 bus there was a great deal more talk of the kind we find 
 in this book than there is nowadays. It is hard to be 
 certain of the reasons why Columbus did what he did at 
 various times of his life. It may be he thought that by 
 promising to go at the head of an expedition to take Jeru- 
 salem from the Turks, he would get the church on his side, 
 and in those days the church was very powerful, indeed. It 
 is hard to think that a man, as intelligent as Columbus 
 was in some ways, could really believe all that he wrote 
 down during these months of depression and sadness. 
 
 At this time he also wrote a very interesting letter to 
 a bank in Genoa, the city of his birth. He made copies 
 of all the papers that had been given him, showing the 
 powers and rights that had been granted him, and these 
 he sent to the bank in Genoa for safe keeping, together 
 with the letter just mentioned. These papers are still 
 kept in Genoa. In this letter he says that one-tenth of 
 the wealth which may come from his possessions should 
 be given to the city of Genoa for the purpose of helping 
 
The Third Voyage 
 
 135 
 
136 The Story of Columbus 
 
 to buy bread and other necessities for the poor. Surely, 
 Columbus was a remarkable sailor! This man who had 
 lived nearly all his life in the utmost poverty, who could 
 not pay his just debts, and who did not have enough 
 wherewith to clothe himself decently, was proposing to 
 use his wealth for all time to come to provide food to 
 the needy people of his native city. 
 
 94. Preparation for the Fourth Voyage. — All this time, 
 however, Columbus had been thinking in a sensible way 
 about geography. He felt sure that Cuba was a part of 
 Asia and that the lands to the south were all islands. 
 The great current which flowed westward both on the 
 south side of Cuba and along the coast of Paria made him 
 feel certain that there must be a strait through to the 
 west ; for what could become of all the water flowing west- 
 ward if it did not flow out through a strait? So he wanted 
 to go on another voyage to find this strait. The King 
 thought it might be well to test out this theory, especially 
 since the Portuguese had now sailed to India by way of 
 the south coast of Africa. If the same land they had found 
 could be reached by going through a strait just west of 
 the lands discovered by Columbus the Spaniards would 
 have a much shorter route than the Portuguese. Possibly, 
 also, he was glad to get rid of Columbus, who while in 
 Spain would never stop seeking to have his rights restored. 
 As we have seen before, he was requested not to go to 
 Haiti on the way out, but might stop there on his return 
 journey. The King and the Queen assured him that later 
 on all his rights would be given back to him. So, with a 
 fleet of four small vessels and about one hundred and 
 fifty men, Columbus started on his fourth voyage. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 The Fourth Voyage 
 
 95. The Outward Journey. — When Columbus started 
 on his fourth voyage early in May, 1502, he intended to 
 sail around the world. He expected to pass through the 
 strait which he supposed was somewhere south and west 
 of Cuba, through the Indian Ocean and around the south 
 end of Africa. The arrangements which the King and 
 Queen made seem to show that they did not altogether 
 trust him. They sent along a man by the name of Porras, 
 whose duty it was to keep a complete list of all the pearls, 
 gold, and other valuable articles which Columbus might 
 find. This Porras had a shrewd, cunning httle mind. He 
 was a mischief maker by nature and we shall see that he 
 caused Columbus no end of trouble before they came back. 
 They also instructed Columbus that he should not take 
 a single slave. 
 
 Columbus was now no longer as strong and vigorous 
 as in his younger days ; he had led a hard life, and he was 
 gradually growing weaker. He no doubt felt this himself, 
 and anxiously hoped that this time, at last, he might 
 succeed in doing something really great. As he started 
 out he wrote in his Journal: 
 
 " Now my voyage will be made in the name of the Holy Trinity and I 
 hope for success." 
 
 There seemed to be in his mind a feeling that, after all, he 
 had not succeeded. But in spite of bodily weakness, ap- 
 proaching old age, and misfortune, his spirit was unbroken. 
 
 137 
 
138 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 On his way from Spain to the Canaries, Columbus 
 touched on the coast of Africa to help some Portuguese 
 who were being hard pressed by the Moors; but on reach- 
 ing the place he found the Moors had gone, and so he 
 continued his voyage westward and reached the island of 
 Martinique, in the West Indies, on June fifteenth. The 
 course of his journey will be seen from the map shown here. 
 
 MAP SHOWING COURSE OF FOURTH OUTWARD VOYAGE 
 
 96. At Santo Domingo. — We have already stated that 
 the King and Queen refused Columbus permission to stop 
 at Santo Domingo on his way out. This request was made 
 in a very polite and considerate form and reads as follows : 
 
 "It is not fit that you should lose so much time; it is much better that 
 you should go another way, though if it should be necessary and God is 
 willing, you may stay there [in Haiti] a httle while on your return." 
 
 Columbus now decided to disobey this instruction and 
 sail northward along pretty much the same course that 
 he followed in his second voyage. On June twenty-ninth 
 his ships arrived off the port of Santo Domingo, in the 
 Island of Haiti. He gave as his reason that one of his 
 
The Fourth Voyage 139 
 
 ships was a bad sailer and that he wanted to try to trade 
 it off for a better one; but it is more Ukely that his real 
 reason was a desire to learn how his affairs were getting 
 on in the island. He stopped his ships outside the port 
 and sent in a rowboat to ask permission to come in, which 
 the governor, Ovando, refused. 
 
 In the harbor there was then lying a small fleet ready 
 to sail for Spain. This fleet had on board more treasure 
 in gold and other articles of value than any fleet that had 
 been sent from Haiti to Spain. On one of these ships was 
 Roldan, whom we will remember as the judge who started 
 a rebellion against Columbus a few years earlier, and there 
 was also Bobadilla, the man who was sent out from Spain 
 to decide between Columbus and Roldan. The story goes 
 that these two men were on board the same ship. In 
 another ship there was a considerable quantity of gold, 
 about four thousand pieces, belonging to Columbus. We 
 are told that Columbus believed a great storm was coming 
 on and that he warned them against the storm. The 
 warning was not heeded and the ships started towards 
 Spain. These ships had scarcely got beyond the eastern 
 end of Haiti when a terrific storm broke loose and the 
 ship which carried Bobadilla and Roldan went down and 
 all on board were drowned. Other ships also went down 
 or were driven back to Santo Domingo. One only of the 
 ships went on to Spain and that, the stories tell us, was 
 the one carrying the gold belonging to Columbus. Colum- 
 bus had not been permitted to enter the harbor even during 
 the storm, and his ships had to stay outside and weather 
 it as best they could. However, they crept close to the 
 coast and came out of it all right. 
 
140 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 97. On the Coast of Honduras. — Columbus now left 
 Haiti and sailed westward. He touched at a small island 
 near Jamaica and then for four days sailed directly west. 
 Finding no land, he began to be doubtful where to go. He 
 
 MAP SHOWING COURSE ALONG CENTRAL AMERICA, FOURTH VOYAGE 
 
 turned northward and touched the shore of Cuba in the 
 locality of the Queen's Gardens and then southwest again to 
 an island about forty miles north of Honduras. From this 
 place he could see the mountains of what we now know 
 as Central America. Two weeks later, he landed on the 
 north coast of Honduras, at the place shown in the map. 
 
The Fourth Voyage 
 
 141 
 
 On the coast of Honduras Columbus found a higher 
 type of people than any he had met on his earlier voyages. 
 They were more skillful in making their implements and 
 
 WEAPONS USED BY NATIVES OF VEBAGUA 
 
 their clothing and in building their houses. They had 
 finer canoes than he had seen before. They made the 
 finest of cotton cloth and they knew how to work copper 
 into bells, hatchets, and other things they needed. They 
 had swords, and clubs tipped with a pecuHar kind of rock. 
 
142 The Story of Columbus 
 
 With these weapons they later became dangerous enemies 
 of the Spaniards. 
 
 One of the canoes which came out to meet them was 
 eight feet wide and very long. It was covered in the 
 middle with a canopy and belonged to a native King who 
 apparently came from the north. These people had many 
 gold ornaments, and when Columbus asked them where 
 they got the gold they pointed to the west. Columbus 
 believed that this rich country was the same India that 
 Da Gama had found a few years earher and that by going 
 farther south he would come to a strait which he thought 
 would lead him directly into the Indian Ocean and which 
 he supposed the natives had told him about on his third 
 voyage. For this reason he sailed east rather than west, 
 following the coast as shown on the map. If he had gone 
 to the west and north he would have found the rich coun- 
 try of Mexico which in later years gave to Spain great 
 treasures. When Columbus turned east he believed that 
 the coast would soon turn south and lead to a strait. 
 When at last it did turn to the south he named the cape 
 around which he sailed ^^Gracias a Dios," which means, 
 '^Thanks be to God." 
 
 We, of course, know that there was no such strait at 
 all as the one he was looking for. The nearest to a strait 
 now is the Panama Canal, which the Americans have 
 constructed across the Isthmus of Panama, along which 
 we shall soon find Columbus sailing. Columbus might 
 have figured out, however, that the great current flowing 
 westward along the coast of Honduras could reasonably 
 be supposed to lead to a strait if there was one. But, 
 instead of going with the current, Columbus sailed against 
 
The Foukth Voyage 143 
 
 it. The current along the coast of Honduras was very 
 strong and there was also a wind from the west, and Colum- 
 bus spent forty days going from the place where he had 
 first landed to the cape mentioned above. In six weeks 
 he traveled a distance of less than two hundred miles. 
 They then sailed along what is now called the Mosquito 
 Coast, and on October seventeenth they landed at a place 
 which they called Veragua. Here they found houses built 
 of stone and mortar and the walls decorated with carvings 
 and pictures. They traded trinkets for gold, and indeed 
 they found more gold here than they had anywhere since 
 they discovered the new world. But Columbus was now 
 very anxious to find the strait, and so he left even the gold 
 in order not to lose time. About October thirtieth they 
 passed the place where the Panama Canal now opens into 
 the Caribbean Sea. On November second they reached 
 a harbor, which they called Porto Bello. They were now 
 short of food. By this time Columbus began to fear he 
 would not find the strait. His ships were badly bored by 
 the worms and had suffered from hard sailing. His men 
 were anxious to return to the gold on the coast of Veragua. 
 So on December fifth they turned around, and, as bad 
 luck would have it, the wind -turned around too and again 
 they had to sail against it. A great storm arose from 
 which they suffered for several days until they took refuge 
 in the mouth of a river which they called the Bethlehem 
 River. This river is now called the Veragua. Along this 
 coast there are very heavy rains at certain seasons of the 
 year, and it now started to rain in dead earnest. The 
 Bethlehem River rose suddenly and carried the ships out 
 into the ocean. 
 
144 The Story of Columbus 
 
 98. The Settlement at Veragua. — When Columbus 
 gave up hope of finding the strait he began to gather 
 gold. He sent his brother Bartholomew to hunt for 
 gold mines, and he also sent people up and down the 
 coast, but nowhere could they find as much gold as in 
 Veragua. Here, then, Columbus thought must be the 
 place from which all the gold from the east really came, 
 and he decided to make a settlement here. They took 
 all sorts of necessary things ashore and started to build 
 a small village. Eighty men were to live here and 
 collect gold while Columbus should go to Spain for 
 more supplies. Then the river went down just as sud- 
 denly as it had risen, for the dry season had set in, and 
 the ships which were lying in the river could not be 
 gotten out to sea. 
 
 While they were trying to get them out of the river, they 
 found that the native King was making plans to kill all 
 the Spaniards who were to be left behind. Bartholomew 
 at once attacked the natives with a number of armed 
 men. This was done so suddenly that the King and his 
 men were made prisoners. By this time Columbus had 
 gotten the ships out of the mouth of the river and Bar- 
 tholomew sent the King and the other prisoners in a canoe 
 to be taken to the ships lying outside. The prisoners 
 were tied so they could not escape. The King begged to 
 have his hands tied less tightly, because they hurt him, 
 and the Spaniards loosened the rope. This was a trick of 
 the King, for when it got dark he slipped the rope off his 
 hands, jumped out of the canoe, and dived under the 
 surface of the water. The Spaniards thought he had 
 drowned and the rest of the prisoners were taken to the 
 
The Fourth Voyage 145 
 
 ships and placed in prison. One night the prisoners broke 
 loose and very nearly escaped. They were caught, how- 
 ever, and put back into prison. By the next morning 
 they had all killed themselves. Columbus now discovered 
 that these were not the same kind of people he had 
 found on the other islands; that they were fierce and 
 determined and very dangerous. He thought, however, 
 that he had taught them a lesson and that he need no 
 longer have great fear of them. So he decided to go ahead 
 with the settlement; but, as had happened so often before, 
 some of the Spaniards who were to be left behind refused 
 to obey their leader and real trouble started. Again the 
 natives tried to attack them, and the danger was all the 
 while growing greater for the Spaniards. For some time 
 the weather was so bad that the men in the ships were 
 unable to visit the settlement. When at last a boat did 
 get through, the captain determined to go on up the river 
 beyond the settlement, though he was warned that there 
 were native warriors on both sides of the river who would 
 likely attack him. He had not gone far when the natives 
 killed all of his party except one. 
 
 The situation now looked so dangerous that it was 
 decided to give up the settlement. The food and other 
 things which had been brought ashore for the settlement 
 were taken to the ships on rafts. One ship was so worm- 
 eaten that it was left- to lie in the mouth of the Veragua 
 River. Columbus now sailed away from the place, where 
 he had spent about three and a half months. This 
 place is worthy of note, since it was the first spot on the 
 mainland of the new world where people from Europe 
 tried to make a settlement. This, too, is the place from 
 
 10 
 
146 The Story of Columbus 
 
 which the family of Columbus later got its title. His 
 descendants are now called Dukes of Veragua. 
 
 For a long time Columbus had thought that he saw 
 visions. While waiting for Bartholomew and his men to 
 come to the ships, he believed he saw more visions, which 
 he described in a long letter to the Queen. He said that 
 a voice came to him and told him to take courage, for he 
 was in the service of God. What God had done, said the 
 voice, for men like Moses and David, that would God 
 now do for him. Curiously enough, this voice also spoke 
 of the name of Columbus as being known throughout the 
 earth. Curiously, also, it spoke of the country where he 
 was as India and not as a new continent. ^^ Remember 
 David," said the voice, ''how he was a shepherd and was 
 made king. Remember Abraham, how he was a hundred 
 years old when his first son was born." ''And," said the 
 voice, "there is use still for those who are old." It is 
 hard to believe that the man who wrote this was not 
 half mad. 
 
 After his terrible experiences with the fierce natives 
 he wrote, "There is not in the world a country whose 
 people are more timid, there is a very good harbor, a 
 beautiful river, and the whole place may easily be put 
 into a state of defense." We cannot now think that all 
 this man said should be fully trusted. He said one thing 
 at one time and exactly the opposite at another time. 
 Surely the memory of Columbus was bad, or he did not 
 at all times tell the truth. 
 
 99. From Veragua to Jamaica. — Columbus decided to 
 go to Haiti, as his ships were in such bad condition that 
 it was not safe to try to cross the Atlantic in them. He 
 
The Fourth Voyage 
 
 147 
 
 did not sail straight for Haiti, however, but went eastward 
 along the coast. When he arrived at Porto Bello he had 
 to abandon another ship because it would no longer stay 
 afloat, and this left him with only two ships. He then 
 continued eastward as far as the Gulf of Darien, and from 
 that point headed his ships north. The reason that 
 Columbus did not go directly from Veragua to Haiti was 
 that he wished to confuse the crew so that none of them 
 would know how to go 
 back to Veragua. He 
 remembered that some 
 who had sailed with him 
 when he discovered the 
 pearl coast of Paria had 
 gone there later to hunt 
 for pearls on their own 
 account. He wished to 
 prevent any of his crew 
 from going back to Vera- 
 gua to get the gold which 
 he had found there. He even took away the maps that 
 they had, and all descriptions of the course of their journey, 
 so that he would be the only one who would know how 
 to find Veragua again. 
 
 Columbus hoped to sail directly from the Gulf of 
 Darien to Haiti, but the current carried him westward and 
 he struck the coast of Cuba near the Queen's Gardens. 
 The crews were now nearly starving, for their provisions 
 had spoiled during their long stay in the very warm coun- 
 try. In Cuba, however, they got fruit and other things 
 to eat. They sailed eastward, but the ships were leaking 
 
 MAP SHOWING COURSE OF VOYAGE FROM VERA- 
 GUA TO HAITI 
 
148 The Story of Columbus 
 
 so badly that the pumps were kept going all the while, 
 and they used pots and kettles to bail the water out of 
 them. The ships were in such bad condition that it was 
 with the greatest difficulty that they could be made to 
 sail at all. When they approached the west end of Jamaica 
 it was no longer possible to go on and the ships were run up 
 on the beach. They were placed side by side so they could 
 be tied together with ropes. The place where the ships were 
 run ashore has ever since been called Don Christopher's 
 Cove. Here Columbus and his crew stayed one long year. 
 100. Living One Year on Stranded Ships. — While 
 Columbus remained in Jamaica his most important helper 
 was a daring young Spaniard by the name of Diego 
 Mendez. He had already showed his courage and ability 
 earlier on this journey. When the ships were lying in 
 the river at Veragua, Mendez went alone into the camp of 
 the savages and found out that they were getting ready 
 to attack the Spaniards. It was he who made the plan 
 for attacking them by night, and this we have seen was so 
 successful that the King and his men were taken prisoners. 
 He took part in some of the fiercest fighting in Veragua 
 and was always the first to act whenever there was danger. 
 Mendez was very much like that other young Spaniard, 
 Ojeda, about whom we have heard before. When Colum- 
 bus found himself stranded on the coast of Jamaica he 
 sent Mendez in command of a party to search for food. 
 As soon as they collected as much food as one man could 
 carry they sent him back to the ships, and the rest of the 
 party went on to collect more food. In this way the men 
 finally had all been sent back and Mendez went on alone. 
 He soon found a native King, with whom he became 
 
The Fourth Voyage 149 
 
 friendly, and they got together much food. Natives were 
 sent to carry it back to the ships. Then Mendez got a 
 large canoe on the eastern end of Jamaica and some natives 
 to help him paddle it back to the ships. From this time on 
 food came in plentifully. As soon as they had secured food 
 Columbus began to make plans to get away from the island ; 
 but he was to live a whole year on the stranded ships. 
 
 loi. Mendez Goes to Haiti. — The nearest place where 
 he could get help was Haiti, but between Jamaica and 
 Haiti there is forty miles of open sea. The only means 
 by which they could go were Indian canoes, but these were 
 built to paddle around in quiet waters and were very 
 dangerous on a rough sea. Columbus asked for volunteers 
 to undertake the journey, and Mendez was the only one 
 who offered to go. They got another Spaniard, and six 
 Indians to help paddle the single canoe in which they 
 started. As they passed along the south coast of Jamaica, 
 they were continually threatened by natives along the 
 shore. At last the whole party was captured, but Mendez 
 got away and returned alone to the ships. They decided, 
 however, to try again. Some other Spaniards offered to 
 go along and they took two canoes and enough Indians 
 to paddle them. 
 
 Bartholomew with a party of men followed them along 
 the shore to guard against attacks by the natives. When 
 they reached the east end of Jamaica he turned back and 
 the canoes started out over the open ocean. It took them 
 four days to paddle over this forty miles of open water. 
 No one could sleep easily in the open canoes, and the 
 water splashed in and spoiled their food. They could 
 not carry enough drinking water, and one of the In- 
 
150 The Story of Columbus 
 
 dians died of thirst. They finally reached the western 
 coast of Haiti. 
 
 102. A Letter of Columbus. — Before Mendez started 
 on this journey Columbus told him that if he were to reach 
 Haiti he should get one or more ships and send them to 
 Jamaica, and that he himself should go on to Spain. He 
 wrote a very curious letter, which he gave Mendez to 
 carry to the Court of Spain. This letter began, 
 
 "I send this letter by means of and by the hands of Indians. It will 
 be a miracle if it reaches its destination." 
 
 He must, of course, have had in mind the natives whom 
 they got to help paddle the canoes. In this letter he tells 
 about the fourth voyage, and he also goes over again the 
 discouraging days of his early life. He refers to the 
 years in Spain when he was trying to get ships for his first 
 voyage. He talks about the people who then made fun 
 of him; ''but now," he says, ''everybody, even the tailors, 
 are trying to become discoverers." He speaks about the 
 neglect of him in Spain after he had been sent back in 
 chains, and then goes on: "The twenty years of service 
 through which I have passed with so much toil and danger 
 have profited me nothing and at this very day I do not 
 even have a roof in Spain that I can call my own. If I 
 wish to eat or sleep I have nowhere to go except to a poor 
 hotel and most times I do not have the money with which 
 to pay my bills. It wrings my very heart strings when I 
 think of my son, Diego, whom I have left an orphan in 
 Spain without a house or property which is due him on 
 my account, although I had thought it certain that the 
 King and the Queen as just and faithful Princes would 
 give back to him all of these things with interest. 
 
The Fourth Voyage 151 
 
 ''I was twenty-eight [thirty-eight] years old when I 
 began to serve you. Now I have not a hair on my head 
 that is not gray, my body is weak, and all that was left 
 to me and my brothers has been taken away and sold, 
 to my great dishonor; even the clothes which I wore." 
 
 Then, speaking of his present condition, he says, 
 ''Here I am on a far island all alone in my troubles and daily 
 expecting death, with Indians all about me who are full of 
 cruelty. Weep for me, whoever has charity, truth and justice." 
 
 Then he goes over once more the old geographical 
 problems which he had talked so much about when he was 
 younger. He repeats that the world is small (we now 
 know that Columbus thought it was much smaller than it 
 really is). He says, ''Out of seven parts of it the dry parts 
 occupy six and water occupies only one." "I say," he con- 
 tinued, "the world is not as large as people suppose it is." 
 
 Then he talks about gold and Heaven in the same 
 sentence: "Gold is the most precious of all things and he 
 who has gold has all he needs in this world and all the 
 means of getting his soul into Heaven." He talks about 
 the riches of Veragua. "I can simply say that to my 
 mind my people who are now going back to Spain carry 
 the best message that was ever sent to Spain." This was 
 the rambling, curious letter which Columbus gave to 
 Mendez. It shows a tired and discouraged man thinking 
 of his own hard life, full of disappointments and worry 
 about his family. 
 
 103. Mutiny of Porras. — After Mendez had left for 
 Haiti new troubles broke out. As usual, some of the 
 men began to mistreat the natives. Columbus was 
 very anxious to keep them friendly so they would 
 
152 The Story of Columbus 
 
 continue to bring food. He therefore punished these 
 unruly Spaniards rather severely and they became angry 
 and rebellious. 
 
 We now recall the man Porras who was sent out with 
 Columbus to keep a record of all the valuable things which 
 they might find on the voyage. Porras placed himself 
 at the head of that part of the crew who were ready to 
 join in open rebellion. He said that Columbus had been 
 sent away from Spain and would not be allowed to return. 
 He told the ignorant crews that the King and Queen had 
 forbidden him to come back to Spain and that Mendez 
 had been sent on to try to get them to permit him to do so. 
 The rebels fitted up canoes, stored them with food and 
 started for Haiti. Columbus was sick, as were many of 
 the crews, and these stayed behind along with others who 
 remained loyal. The rebels were good sailors on large 
 ships but did not know how to. handle canoes. They had 
 gone a few miles from the east end of Jamaica when a 
 storm came up and they did not dare go on. They found 
 that the canoes were loaded too heavily, and threw the 
 provisions overboard. Then they threw out some of the 
 Indians. These were very good swimmers and they would 
 swim after the canoes and take hold of them. Then the 
 Spaniards chopped off their hands. In this way they 
 disposed of all the natives except those that were abso- 
 lutely necessary to paddle the canoes. Porras turned 
 back and waited a month for a calm sea and then tried 
 once more to cross over. But another storm arose and 
 they gave up all hope of reaching Haiti. 
 
 104. Those Left on the Ships. — Not all the men who 
 stayed with Columbus on the ship were weak and sick. 
 
The Fourth Voyage 153 
 
 There were some strong, true men who would not leave 
 him, and they now had all they could do to get food for 
 the sick and to take care of them. During this time of 
 great danger the people on the ships came to understand 
 that they must not quarrel among themselves but must 
 work together like brothers if they were to live at all. 
 
 The natives soon grew tired of bringing food. In the 
 beginning they would trade a good deal of food for simple 
 things, such as bells and other shining trinkets, but they 
 soon had enough of these. It was now learned that Porras 
 and his men were roaming over the island and that the 
 natives who had been sending food to Columbus were 
 now compelled to give then- food to the rebels. The men 
 on the ships were very near starvation. 
 
 105. Columbus Predicts an Eclipse. — It was in the 
 month of February, 1504. Columbus knew from his 
 calendar that there would be an eclipse of the moon on 
 February twenty-ninth of that year, so he decided to 
 make use of that fact to scare the natives into bringing 
 food. He sent out messages to have all the native Kings 
 come to the shore where his ships were on that day. Then 
 he told them that the God of the Spaniards no longer 
 liked the Indians, because they would not bring food to 
 his people; that this God had decided to take away the 
 moon so it would no longer shine for them by night. As 
 the evening came on, the terrified natives began to see a 
 black shadow creep over the face of the moon. This 
 shadow crept farther and farther over the moon and the 
 bright shining part became smaller and smaller. This 
 terrified the natives so much that they began to call upon 
 Columbus, telling him that they would do anything he 
 
154 The Story of Columbus 
 
 wanted them to do, if he only would save the moon for 
 them. Columbus replied that he would go into his little 
 house on the ship and call to the God of the Spaniards 
 to see if he could not get him to give back the moon to 
 the Indians. After staying in the cabin for a while he 
 came out and said that the God of the Spaniards had told 
 him he would give back the moon to the Indians if they 
 would promise to give to Columbus and his men all the 
 food that they needed and to treat them well in every 
 way. This they promised readily, for they were now 
 thoroughly frightened. Soon the moon, which had become 
 entirely black and invisible, began to get light on one side. 
 The light streak grew wider and wider, as we now know 
 it does when an eclipse is going away, and after a time 
 the moon was shining as full and bright as before the 
 eclipse. After this Columbus had no trouble in getting 
 all the food that he needed. 
 
 io6. Mendez in Haiti. — ^When Mendez reached Haiti 
 he went to the governor, Ovando, and told him the story 
 of Columbus on the stranded ships. Ovando, however, 
 did not want to help Columbus and he told Mendez that 
 he had no ship large enough to go for that big crew. No 
 Indians could be found to go back with the lone Spaniard 
 who had come over with Mendez, so it was impossible 
 to get word back to Columbus. Finally Ovando decided 
 to send a ship to Jamaica to see if Columbus and his men 
 were still alive, but not to help them. This little ship 
 appeared off the coast of Jamaica just eight months after 
 Columbus's ships had stranded. A boat was sent to the 
 shore with some provisions, but as soon as these had been 
 put on board the ships of Columbus it suddenly rowed 
 
The Fourth Voyage 155 
 
 away and went out to the ship lying off the shore. This 
 ship was under the command of one of the worst enemies 
 of Columbus, and he knew very well when he saw the 
 captain that he would not be rescued at this time. Along 
 with the provisions Ovando sent a letter, in which he 
 promised to send a ship large enough to take away 
 Columbus and his whole party as soon as one should come 
 from Spain. The little ship went away and left the ship- 
 wrecked crews alone. 
 
 107. A Small Battle. — Columbus now sent Porras a 
 copy of the letter from Ovando, with a request that he 
 and his men return to the ships. Porras suspected that 
 the letter might be a trick to get him and his men to place 
 themselves in the hands of Columbus, who might put 
 them in chains and imprison them. So they approached 
 ready for a fight. Bartholomew now gathered together 
 all the men on the ships who were in condition to fight — 
 about fifty in all — and went out to meet them. Porras 
 instructed his men to attack Bartholomew and attempt 
 to kill him. Several of them surrounded him, but he was 
 a good fighter and knocked them down one after another. 
 Finally Bartholomew wounded Porras, took him prisoner 
 with a number of his men, and carried them to the ships. 
 Curiously enough, only two or three of Columbus's men 
 were wounded in this fight, while the other side had a 
 large number wounded and one killed. The followers of 
 Porras now sent a messenger to Columbus, asking him to 
 forgive them and promising that they would obey him 
 and help him in every way if he would take them back. 
 But Columbus hesitated, for he was afraid that after a 
 while they might start another rebellion. Finally they 
 
156 The Story of Columbus 
 
 were allowed to come back, but were separated and put 
 under commanders whom Columbus could trust. Then 
 he gave them little trinkets, which they could trade for 
 food, and let them wander around the island, promising 
 to call them as soon as the ships for which he was waiting 
 should arrive. 
 
 io8. The Ships of Rescue. — In the spring of 1504 three 
 ships arrived from Spain at Santo Domingo, and Mendez, 
 who was still in Haiti, bought one of them and sent it to 
 rescue Columbus and his crews. About this time Ovando 
 also sent a ship to Jamaica for Colimabus. The people of 
 Haiti really forced Ovando to send this ship, for they knew 
 that if Columbus and his men were not rescued they would 
 soon perish. Out of sympathy for him they forced the 
 cruel and brutal Ovando to do what he had refused to do 
 for nearly a year. So one day about noon the stranded 
 crews of Columbus saw two ships coming toward the shore. 
 
 After returning to Spain, Columbus said that he had 
 not in his whole life had so joyful a day as the day when 
 these two ships appeared off the coast of Jamaica, for he 
 had never expected to leave that place alive. Later on, 
 a town called Christopher's Cove was founded at the 
 place where Columbus and his followers lived that long 
 year. It was on June twenty-eighth that everything was 
 ready and Columbus left Jamaica for Haiti. We have 
 seen that Mendez pushed his canoe over the open waters 
 from Jamaica to Haiti in four days. Columbus and his 
 two ships now took seven weeks to go from the west end 
 of Jamaica to Santo Domingo. Ill luck seemed to be with 
 them on this journey, and the winds were constantly 
 against them. 
 
The Fourth Voyage 157 
 
 109. Enslavement of Natives. — We will now repeat 
 some of the stories about Haiti which were told to 
 Columbus during these seven weeks. It was about four 
 years since Columbus had been taken from Haiti to Spain, 
 and during that time the management of the island had 
 been in the hands of Bobadilla and Ovando. In these 
 years the work of enslaving the natives which had been 
 started by Columbus went on rapidly. It is true that for 
 a while the complaints about the evils of this system had 
 become so great that the King and Queen had ordered it 
 stopped altogether. However, Ovando arranged matters 
 so that he could go on with it. He wrote to the King and 
 Queen that the natives would not do any work at all 
 unless they were compelled to do it, and that some work 
 was necessary to keep up their health. The King and Queen 
 replied that while they did not want the natives treated as 
 slaves, they wanted them to be given as much work as would 
 be good for their health. This gave Ovando what he wanted, 
 because he could easily see to it that in his reports the 
 natives were made to work on account of their health. 
 
 The natives were now compelled to work very hard 
 in the mines and on the farms from six to eight months 
 each year. The food given them was poor and there was 
 not nearly enough of it. If they ran away, they were 
 nearly sure to be caught, and when caught were severely 
 punished and set to work again. The paths from the 
 mines to the homes of the natives were strewn with the 
 dead and dying. Starvation and overwork killed them 
 by the hundreds and by the thousands. 
 
 Thus, if we blame Columbus for enslaving the natives, 
 we see that others who were sent out to the islands were 
 
158 The Story of Columbus 
 
 no better than he, and many of them were worse. There 
 was one thing which these Spaniards were all after, and 
 that was gold and riches, and to obtain them they would 
 go to any length in their cruelty and brutality. 
 
 no. Wars Against the Natives. — In a part of the 
 western end of the island of Haiti, Anacaona, the widow 
 of Caonabo, was now reigning. Rumors came to Santo 
 Domingo that a rebellion was being prepared in her 
 dominion, and so Ovando decided to start out and take 
 care of it early. He took with him three hundred soldiers, 
 and seventy men on horseback. When he came into the 
 dominion of Queen Anacaona she had no idea that the 
 Spaniards were going to attack her people. She treated 
 them as well as she could, gave them the best lodgings, 
 called in some Indian chiefs, and prepared a feast and 
 games in honor of her guests. Ovando, on his part, said 
 he wanted to show the Queen how the Spaniards carried 
 on their fights, so he arranged a mock fight between his 
 men. When they were ready, the Spaniards, on a sign 
 from Ovando, fell upon the poor natives and killed all 
 who could not escape into the woods. They drove a 
 nimiber of native Kings into a house, set fire to it and 
 burned them alive. The Queen was taken prisoner and 
 brought to Santo Domingo and later hanged. The excuse 
 for all this was that Anacaona was supposed to be planning 
 a rebellion against the Spaniards, but the reasons for 
 believing this were not very good. The truth seems to 
 be that Ovando wanted to show the natives what they 
 might expect if they did not obey without any question 
 whatsoever. So he stooped to this mean, low trick of 
 going to the home of the Queen and then betraying her 
 
The Fourth Voyage 159 
 
 while she was entertaining him and his followers as 
 her guests. 
 
 About this time there were signs that the natives in 
 the east end of Haiti were also getting restless. Fierce 
 Spanish dogs fell upon one of them and killed him. This 
 made the natives so angry that they crept along the coast 
 in canoes and killed what Spaniards they could. This 
 outbreak was of course punished in the brutal manner 
 usual with the Spaniards of those days. 
 
 Such were the stories that were told to Columbus on 
 his way from Jamaica to Haiti. Possibly they made him 
 pity the poor natives whose ruin he had begun. But it 
 is just as Ukely that these stories of brutality and treachery 
 brought him comfort. Others were managing no better 
 than he, and therein, he may have argued, lay the proof 
 that he had not been at fault. 
 
 III. From Haiti to Spain. — On September twelfth, 
 1504, Columbus sailed for Spain from Santo Domingo. 
 Besides the ship which Mendez had bought and sent to 
 Jamaica to rescue him, Columbus obtained another and 
 placed it in conmiand of his brother Bartholomew. Then, 
 with his son and his brother, he started home. They had 
 not gone far when a bad storm came up which broke the 
 mast of one of the ships. Columbus transferred himself 
 and his crew to the other ship and they continued their 
 way toward Spain. The ill luck that had been with 
 Columbus on this voyage stayed with him to the end. 
 They ran into storm after storm, and the journey across 
 the Atlantic took about two months. When he reached 
 Spain, Columbus had been away from that country two 
 and a half years. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Last Years of Columbus 
 
 112. Letters from Columbus to His Son. — Columbus 
 had been in bad health during the whole of his journey, 
 and he was never really well during the rest of his Hfe. 
 When he reached Spain he had to remain in the city of 
 Seville for five months. During this time he wrote a 
 
 r-~ . ^- 
 
 
 ■ S '^ 
 
 
 -.V- 
 
 ^-7 •> ^ ■ ■ 
 
 SIGNATURE AND MONOGRAM OF COLUMBUS 
 
 series of letters to his son Diego which are of great value 
 to us, for through them we learn a great deal about his 
 thoughts and feelings. It will be remembered that Diego 
 was a page of the Queen and was constantly at the Court, 
 and so Columbus wrote to him about things which he 
 hoped Diego might teU the Queen. Columbus also hoped 
 to get some of his friends to help him at the Court. 
 
 Shortly after he landed in Spain he asked Mendez to 
 help him by talking with the King. He writes that Ovando 
 had kept him from getting his share of the gold found in 
 Haiti. ^'If the King and Queen would have Ovando keep 
 an account of all the riches which have been found, they 
 would gain just as much as I would." He suspects that 
 160 
 
The Last Years of Columbus 161 
 
 Porras, the man who rebelled at Jamaica, had influenced 
 the King and Queen against him. He writes: ^^Recall 
 through all this my own sickness and the pay that is due me 
 for my services." He also hopes that the King and Queen 
 would see to it that his sailors are paid. He says: ''They 
 are poor and have been gone three years. They bring 
 home good news from the gold fields of Veragua." One 
 week later he complains about his illness. He sends his 
 love to Mendez and hopes that he will have influence 
 with the Court to overcome that of Porras. 
 
 Two days before this last letter was written, that is 
 on November twenty-sixth, Queen Isabella died. She had 
 been the best friend that Columbus had at the Court. 
 The King had been less willing to help him, and no doubt 
 had always been sorry that they promised him such great 
 powers as they did before he sailed on his first voyage. 
 During the absence of Columbus on his last voyage the 
 Queen had shown her interest in him by making his son 
 one of her bodyguards, and she had naturalized his brother 
 Diego so that he might be promoted to higher offices in 
 the church. 
 
 Columbus, indeed, was to see the Court once more, 
 but his rights were never to be given him and he was to 
 the day of his death to receive no encouragement whatso- 
 ever from the King. 
 
 On December first he writes to his son, blaming him 
 for not writing: "I have no pleasure now but in a letter 
 from you." Again he complains about his sickness and 
 his want of money. He tells Diego to stick close to his 
 younger brother. '^Ten brothers would not be too many 
 for you; in good fortune as in bad fortune I have never 
 11 
 
162 The Story of Columbus 
 
 found better friends than my brothers." He explains that 
 he cannot write to his friends because he had to write by 
 night, since by day his hands are weak and painful. 
 
 Two days later he writes: '' Everybody except myself 
 is receiving letters." Then he speaks about the Queen, 
 of whose death he has heard. '^One must believe she is 
 now clothed with a sainted glory, no longer regretting the 
 bitterness and weariness of this Hfe." He mentions the 
 King, saying: ''He deserved all our sympathy." Again 
 he goes back to his own plans. He says things are going 
 badly in Haiti and that the right person could restore 
 order there in three months. ''All of which I can do in 
 the King's service and any one else not having my personal 
 interest could not do it so wellJ' He says he had written 
 a letter to the King about this but had received no reply. 
 
 On December twenty-ninth he writes again, complain- 
 ing that he had received no news. He again speaks of 
 his sailors, who had not been paid. "They are poor," he 
 says. "They are going to the Court to press their claims. 
 Aid them in it." 
 
 By reading the letters which he wrote during these 
 long months in Seville we can see what Columbus was 
 thinking most about. He was all the while trying to bring 
 pressure to bear upon the King to have his rights in the 
 West Indies given back to him. He believed that he 
 should now be treated as one of the greatest men of the 
 times. Instead, he was left alone and unnoticed in the 
 port of Seville. He did not even receive letters, he was 
 ill, and in as pitiful a condition as he well could be. 
 
 113. Earlier Letter to Bank of Genoa. — We have 
 already stated that before his fourth voyage Columbus 
 
The Last Years of Columbus 
 
 163 
 
 wrote a letter to a bank in his native city of Genoa, saying 
 that he would have a tenth part of the income from his 
 
 STATUE OF COLUMBUS IN GENOA 
 
 property set aside for the purpose of helping to buy bread 
 and other necessities of life for the working people of that 
 city. That letter reached the bank in Genoa after a long 
 time, and the answer did not reach Spain for an equally 
 
164 The Story of Columbus 
 
 long time. Now Columbus thought the bank was not 
 even decent enough to answer his letter. This made him 
 bitter and dissatisfied. The truth was that the bank had 
 answered the letter promptly and that much notice was 
 taken of it in Genoa, but the news of this never reached 
 Columbus. Such things helped to make his last years 
 more bitter. 
 
 114. Americus Vespucius. — During the last months 
 at Seville, Columbus wrote an interesting letter about 
 Americus Vespucius, after whom the continent of America 
 was finally named. Vespucius had sailed along the north 
 coast of South America on two different voyages. On his 
 return from the second of these voyages he wrote a clear 
 and simple story about it which came to be widely read, 
 while the stories of Columbus about his voyages along the 
 same coast were not generally known. Hence the land 
 came to be called America, after Americus Vespucius. 
 Surely Columbus had no idea of this when he wrote a 
 very kindly letter about Vespucius to his son. Very 
 naturally, the continent of America might have been called 
 Columbia, and probably would have been so called if 
 Columbus had written a story of his voyage as simple 
 and clear as that of Vespucius. 
 
 The letter about Vespucius, written to his son Diego 
 a,nd dated February fifth, 1505, runs in part as follows: 
 ''Within the past few days I have talked with Americus 
 Vespucius, who will bear this letter to you. He has been 
 called to the Court about matters of navigation. He has 
 always appeared to be friendly to me. Fortune has not 
 always favored him, and in this he is not different from 
 many others. His undertakings have not always been as 
 
The Last Years of Columbus 
 
 165 
 
 successful as he would 
 wish. He left me with 
 the kindliest purposes 
 toward me and will 
 do anything for me 
 which is in his power. 
 I hardly knew what to 
 tell him would be help- 
 ful for him to do for 
 me, because I did not 
 know why he had been 
 called to the Court. 
 Find out what he can 
 do, and he will do it. 
 The whole thing can 
 be so managed that he 
 will not be suspected of 
 helping me. I have told 
 him all that I could 
 tell him as to my own 
 affairs, both what I 
 have done and what 
 pay I have had. Show 
 this letter to my brother 
 Bartholomew so that 
 he may help Vespucius 
 to be of service to us." 
 
 115. Columbus Again at Court. — Columbus set out 
 from Seville for the Court on May fifth, 1505. We do 
 not know just when he reached the Court, but we do know 
 that the King listened to him patiently but would make no 
 
 STATUE OP COLUMBUS AT SANTO DOMINGO 
 
166 
 
 The Story of Columbus 
 
 promises. Finally an old friend of Columbus, now one 
 of the Bishops in Spain, was appointed as a judge to 
 decide between Columbus and the Court. Columbus 
 would not give up a single one of the rights and powers 
 which he had received from the King and Queen before he 
 sailed in 1492, and these rights and powers the King would 
 not give back to him. It looked as though the King 
 believed that Columbus was not fit to govern the colonies 
 
 in the west. The King was 
 willing to give Columbus 
 large properties in Spain, 
 providing he would give up 
 the rights under the old 
 promises, but this Columbus 
 would not do. This was the 
 same man who before he 
 made his first voyage insisted 
 so hard on what he wanted 
 
 MAP OF SPAIN SHOWING VALLADOLID 
 
 that he left the Court of Spain and started for France! 
 
 Diego Mendez, about whom we have read a good deal 
 in this story, remained a true friend of Columbus until 
 the end. He did all he could for Columbus at the Court 
 and elsewhere. Columbus now remained about the Court, 
 following it from city to city, for about a year, but 
 nothing was done for him. 
 
 ii6. The End.— In May, 1506, in the city of Valla- 
 dolid, he began to feel that his end was near. On May 
 nineteenth he signed a will which he had written in his 
 own hand about a year before. In this will be made his 
 son Diego his heir both to his property and to his title 
 of Admiral of the Indies. If Diego should die without 
 
The Last Years of Columbus 167 
 
 children, his property should go to his other son, Ferdinand; 
 and if Ferdinand should die without children, then the 
 brother of Columbus, Bartholomew, should be his heir. 
 By ^'heir" here is meant the male heir. In default of 
 male heirs, then the title and rights should go to female 
 
 HOUSE "WHERE COLUMBUS DIED 
 
 heirs, and in the same order of succession. He requested 
 all his descendants to be loyal to the King of Spain. Upon 
 the head of the house he imposed the duty of helping all 
 those of the family who might be in poor circumstances. 
 One of his house should be appointed to live always at 
 the city of Genoa to maintain the dignity of the family 
 there. When his estate should be settled he provided 
 that a cathedral should be erected in Haiti, in the Vega 
 Real, which we remember as the valley near the settlement 
 of Isabella. There were many other provisions in this 
 will which we need not repeat here. He closed it by saying 
 
168 The Story of Columbus 
 
 that all of these bequests could be made only when his 
 rights are acknowledged. '' Hitherto I neither have had 
 nor have I now any positive income." 
 
 A copy of this will was made in 1524 by his son Diego 
 and is now in existence. It is kept among the family 
 papers in the hands of the Duke of Veragua. 
 
 On the next day, May twentieth, in the city of Valla- 
 dohd, Columbus died. He died at house number seven, 
 on a street called Calle de Colon (Street of Columbus), 
 and this house is still shown to travelers. 
 
 117. Columbus Died Unnoticed. — It is surprising 
 almost beyond belief how little notice the world took of 
 the death of Columbus. The historian, Peter Martyr, 
 who frequently mentioned Columbus, at this very time 
 wrote five long letters from the city of Valladolid which 
 have come down to us, but in them he did not say one 
 word about the sickness or death of Columbus. Books 
 written two or three years later about his voyages did 
 not mention that he was dead. The man who in 1493 
 had been received Uke a king at the Court of Spain was 
 now so forgotten that not even his death was mourned. 
 No more attention was paid to his burial than would 
 be paid to that of any other poor person whose body is 
 carried to its last resting place, unnoticed by all except 
 the close personal friends and the near relatives. So died 
 one of the most remarkable of all men — one to whom 
 fame has later given one of the highest places among the 
 very great. 
 
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