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THE BOY COLUMBUS 
 
COLUNIBUS 
 
 AND 
 
 WHAT HE FOUND 
 
 MARY H. HULL 
 
 J^ '^ ' '^ 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 )Qma.riz ^enjperance fuUw^in^ ^gsociafion 
 
 1892 
 
 L^G> 
 
 -+ 
 
£11 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1892 
 
 TPoman'r? iJEcmpcvanc*? 'l^^uBtie^ing ^^eociafion 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
To my own 
 
 M&vnorj, Pi©rh>c<^ h.i\4 M©rf©t\, 
 
 and their young- friends, 
 
 Harold and Rush, John, Marion and Ida, Harold and 
 
 Margery, Harvey, Emeline, Edna and Rex, 
 
 I dedicate this book. 
 
 It owes very much to your eager 
 
 faces and questions, 
 
 as, with pencils and notebooks in hand, 
 
 you helped me to find 
 
 What He Found, and How He Found It. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The immoi'tal deed of Columbus will never lose its 
 hold upon the heart of humanity, whatever the criticisms 
 upon it. It will always be told, not only for what was 
 found, but because simple heroism — the same element 
 which has immortalized Greek heroic tales— will always 
 move us, head and heart. 
 
 It is strange that, great and simple as Columbus was, 
 we have made so little use of his story for the children, 
 compared with that of other historic characters. 
 
 In the stilted past, for some reason, the head has made 
 most of the estimates of the profits and losses to all con- 
 cerned in this afi'air. We have not really known the man 
 Columbus; hence we have not loved him. The deed 
 has so blessed and dazzled us we have known only it. 
 
 The world is growing simpler and sincerer and more 
 kind. The heart shall yet do its reckoning and shall 
 find the humanity of it all. For during a time of slavish 
 bondage to rules and rank, regulations and institutions, 
 here was a man, in spite of them, perfectly true to him- 
 self and his God. 
 
 " The greatest miracle among ye is. 
 Here stands a man." 
 
 Mentally, morally and physically, a most manly man 
 is Columbus — and only a man. Why may we not take 
 his character and personality, together with his position 
 
b IMIKFACK. 
 
 iu the world of geography and history, and make him 
 a sublime figure; one which may well stand to personify, 
 as it were, these two so-called " studies," for at least the 
 intermediate Avorld of childhood ? This great interme- 
 diate world is at present most hungry for natural meth- 
 ods of instruction. As Washington with liis "pony" 
 and " hatchet " personifies patriotism in the Kindergar- 
 ten world, why may not the characteristics of Columbus 
 serve the youth of this yet young land, better than they 
 have heretofore ? So much real life-blood was the cost 
 of this great deed, that there is an infinite amount of 
 material for any parent or teacher who cares to quicken 
 a live interest in that which is a living study, begetting 
 life. 
 
 Not that hero-worship, unrestrained, is the object, 
 but that something warmly human may stir the heart 
 and mind through arresting the attention and securing 
 an interest in human afiairs. It is no fable. The wan- 
 derings and wouderings of this modern Ulysses are all 
 so real that naught but heroism, self-denial to the point 
 of self-discovery, can be breathed into the young Amer- 
 ican if it be simply, sincerely and sympathetically placed 
 before him. 
 
 This is what i have tried to do in the present vol- 
 ume. The motif was born of interest in my own children, 
 and it developed as I caught more of the thought of the 
 Kindergartners through my acquaintance with the Kin- 
 dergarten Magazine and its editor, Miss Andrea Ilofer. I 
 here wish to make acknowledgment of her most valuable 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 suggestions, real aid, and encouragement in attempting 
 such a worlv as this in these days of dire criticism and 
 I'esearch. 
 
 Witli original translations from the writings of Fer- 
 nandez de Navarrette and Las Casas, whose great works 
 are mines of Avealth for all writers ou Columbus in this 
 century ; with Irving and Lamartine, Arthur Helps, 
 Mackie and others to sweeten and inspire one's spirit, 
 and with "Winsor to provoke it, and with the able 
 American historian, John Fiske, at the very iast to con- 
 firm the i^ositions taken, I have only to say I have done 
 my best and am greatly indebted to them all. 
 
 The World's Fair is at hand ; the greatest panorama 
 of the ages is to be presented to our young folks. 
 Columbus has come to his earthly kingdom, and the 
 children cannot too well knoAV him, and through him 
 what happened. 
 
 Columbus has come to stay, even after the World's 
 Fair is over. We have, somehow, reached a vantage- 
 ground whence we are able not only to conceive of this 
 lonely, single-handed, manly man and his inheren*^ genius 
 and patience and faith, but we have also come to a point 
 of l^ational birth where we begin universally to appre- 
 ciate ourselves as a JSTation, and those who helped to 
 create us. We are unifying more and moi-e, and are a 
 peculiar people. America w^ll be stimulated in all her 
 powers as never before, by all that shall be born of the 
 Columbian Exposition. May the youth of America in- 
 herit their full birthri^-ht. M. 11. II. 
 
gnllimhua and V^hat j-fa f alind. 
 
 I. 
 
 Wliat is it? What was born four hundred 
 years ago? Was it a child? Yes, that is 
 what it was, and the largest and most beau- 
 tiful one that ever was born. 
 
 This child seems almost to have come up 
 out of the sea, as Venus did in the great 
 stories of old, for that is where Columbus 
 first fecund her, and it was in the very midst 
 of the sea that she first came to life. 
 
 The child is America, often sweetly called 
 Columbia; and this book is about how this 
 child was born. 
 
 It is now just four hundred years since 
 she was born, and I suppose you 
 Birthday. already know of the great birth- 
 day party we are going to have. 
 The whole world is invited, and such a 
 
10 COLUMBUS AND WHAT III-: FOUXl). 
 
 " time " as it will Ije, you have never seen 
 and never ^vill see again in a hundred years; 
 so let lis be wisely I'eady. 
 
 Nearly every country on the gloT^e is either 
 an uncle, a cousin, an aunt, or a grand- 
 mother or a grandfather, or a great-grand- 
 father, to this young child, and we must 
 know about them or we will not be very 
 happy at the party. So the sooner we begin 
 to learn of them the better for us. 
 
 This little birthday book, then, is an effort 
 to introduce you to the real " Columbia, the 
 Gem of the Ocean," and to tell you about 
 her I'elatives, and to prepare you for the great 
 birthday party, 
 
 The WorUf s Fair. 
 
11. 
 
 The very first tiling, boys and girls, shall 
 be to go and see the spot which yet lies under 
 the sun, where a big- eyed hero boy began to 
 live. 
 
 There has been a great deal of discussion 
 
 as to where Columbus was born, but since 
 
 _, the conclusions at the last are 
 
 The City 
 
 of Genoa ^^^'^^ ^^ ^^-^^ Genoa, we will go 
 there at once, foi' ^ve have no use 
 for talk here, and will only try to see what 
 the l)oy saw, since it is Columbus himself we 
 are most interested in. 
 
 I invite 3'^ou to the city of Genoa, to the cit}' 
 where Columbus Ijegan his ^^^onderful life in 
 1485 or 1436, and where he combed wool and 
 dreamed dreams, no doubt, of the great sea 
 and its secrets. 
 
 Genoa is one of the most picturesque places 
 
12 COLUMBUS AISTD WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 in the world, aucl very old, older than Eome. 
 It was the greatest city in Europe, once. 
 When Columbus was born, Genoa and Venice 
 were capitals of two of the greatest powers 
 in Europe. 
 
 Genoa was a dreamy, beautiful spot, but 
 not a sleepy town; it was just the place 
 in which an imaginative boy should be 
 born. 
 
 Come with me and step into this little boat, 
 and let us go out into the sea, off Genoa, 
 and look back at it. At the very farthest 
 faint line next to the sky, beyond the city, 
 you will see the great Alpine mountains 
 l^eeping over everything; and right on this 
 side of them, do you trace the Apennines? 
 And sloping on and on, down toward us, lie 
 the hills right back of the town; all the 
 green beauty of the hills, and plains, do you 
 see it clustering there? And nearer, what is 
 that around the city? That is a wall peeping 
 out here and there. A wall so huge as that. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 13 
 
 is a thing: wliicli we in America never see. 
 What can it be for? In Europe you 
 nearly always find a wall about a city. 
 Why? Because the world used to fight so 
 much. Within the wall see the beautiful 
 churches rise high above everything — and 
 those broad palaces and promenades yonder, 
 with the houses and gardens surround- 
 ing. 
 
 The city which we have just looked at is 
 now about as big as our Milwaukee. And 
 this is all I can stop to tell you about 
 Genoa, but you can read in many books 
 of old Genoa and the brave Genoese. 
 
 What kind of a boy was this who lived at 
 
 Genoa? You must know how Columbus 
 
 ^. „ discovered himself, first, and found 
 The Boy. ' ' . 
 
 a great deal inside of his own 
 mind long before he found the outside; that 
 is, he thought for himself his own thoughts. 
 The greatest discovery in earth or heaven 
 is to find one's self. 
 
14 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 This is the great lesson of the life of Co- 
 lumbus for our 1)oys and girls to-day. Of 
 course, when he w^as a little boy, and until 
 
 r., . he was a man, he did n't know 
 
 Discoveries. 
 
 exactly what that thing was 
 which he should discover, but he knew there 
 was something to be discovered. I believe 
 every one of us not only may be, but should 
 be, a born discoverer. Our main business in 
 the world is to do this. 
 
 For instance, if I were not to do any dis- 
 covering for myself in this world, Init just 
 see things as you see them, why, then I would 
 only need to look out into the world through 
 your eyes. But I do not do that; I have a 
 pair of eyes of my own. Some people always 
 forget to look out of their own eyes, so they 
 learn only old things — and it is not the boys 
 and girls alone who forget. 
 
 The boy Columbus did both — he learned 
 and he discovered. His mind ran free in 
 thinking out his o^vn thouofhts while he 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 15 
 
 was listening also to the thoughts of 
 others. 
 
 He was a real boy, too, not only, as I 
 imagine, making boats and such things for 
 himself, but we know he helped his father 
 doing real work. His father had a lousiness, 
 and a very good one in those days. He 
 was a wool -comber and some say he was 
 a weaver, also. They worked together, and 
 many a day, no doubt, they talked of all 
 that was going on in the world, for there 
 were wonderful stories to tell in those times. 
 
 There Avere three younger children in the 
 
 family; two were brothers to Columbus, 
 
 ^, ^ .. and their names were Diego 
 The Family. ° 
 
 and Bartholomew. There was 
 a sister also. No doubt she was good, too, 
 yet women in those days, unless they were 
 queens or something great, did not figure 
 greatly in the world's doings. So we never 
 hear much about her, except that she mar- 
 ried somebody. 
 
16 COLUMBUS AXD WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 The father's name was Dominico, and the 
 mother's was Susanna Fontanarossa. And 
 right here let me tell you Columbus' own 
 name. He was really Christoforo Colombo, in 
 the Italian language, and was not Columbus 
 until he became a great admiral of the Ocean 
 Sea. In Spanish his name was Christoval 
 Colon, and w^hile he lived in Sj^ain he was 
 thus called. He then Latinized it and made 
 it Christopher Columbus, as was the custom 
 of the time. So let us call him Colombo ' 
 while we think of him a boy at home, for that 
 is what his father and mother w^ere called in 
 the sweet Italian language. 
 
 The bes^ business of all, thought this boy, 
 must be the business of the sea: — and who 
 would not think so, if it lay ever before our 
 eyes so beautiful and inviting? His father 
 seemed to understand him, for he let him 
 study those studies which should best lit him 
 for a life upon the water. Colombo first dis- 
 covered this in himself, and his father was 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTD. 17 
 
 good enough to discover it in him also, and 
 allow him to prepare for it. The boy and 
 his father were real friends. 
 
 Colombo had distant relatives by his own 
 name who were great water-men, and fond of 
 doing brave, daring, even wicked deeds, and 
 so our boy sailed with them early in life, 
 when he was but fourteen years of age. We 
 must now find out something about this sea 
 business, and see what Colombo must have 
 watched every day of his life, for you know 
 by the map that Genoa is situated on the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 Venice is on the same sea, and you notice 
 
 they are not very far apart from each 
 
 other — only across Italy. But that 
 The Sea. ,.,,. ^ -,-,-, . 
 
 little bit of land lying between 
 
 them kept them farther apart than did all 
 
 the distance by water down around the 
 
 whole of Italy. You must remember that 
 
 vessels were the main things in the world 
 
 to go about in. It was a dreadful under- 
 
18 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 taking to travel over ground, especially in 
 a mountainous country; and you remember 
 those mountain ranges that lie back of 
 Genoa. It was always very hard, slow work 
 to go anywhere except l)y water, until — just 
 think ! — only within the last forty or fifty 
 years. 
 
 It is only within a few years that people 
 could fly around on land, by steam. The 
 poor old world, or, rather, everybody in it, 
 for thousands of years had to go al)out 
 either afoot, on horseback, or on camel- back, 
 or be drawn by animals in chariots, carts or 
 wagons, o]' in very poor, queer carriages. 
 Not another way was there under the sun 
 for people to travel around any easier or 
 faster over mountains, or through mud. It 
 took weeks and weeks to bury even a 
 queen, four hundred years ago, in Colombo's 
 time ; for when the beautiful Queen Isa- 
 bella died, we are told her subjects suf- 
 fered greatly going up and down liills and 
 
COLTjMBtTS AND WHAT HE rOtT]>fD, 19 
 
 tln'ougli mud for miles, to attend the 
 funeral. 
 
 Let me tell you something, right here. 
 Less than fifty years ago, a gentleman living 
 in Cincinnati was offered a fine position on a 
 newspaper in Chicago, and he did not accept 
 it because the journey of two weeks, by river, 
 canal and lakes, from Cincinnati to Chicago, 
 would be too hard for his family. Now, 
 you can go to bed in a " sleeper " in either 
 of these cities, and waken in the morning in 
 the other city, having been tucked up warmly 
 in a most comfortable bed all night. 
 
 It is no Avonder, then, that boats, ships and 
 the business of the water were great things in 
 the world at that day, and no wonder that 
 the boy Colombo longed for the sea. But 
 even the sea vessels did not go by steam as 
 they do now, only l)y sails and oars. 
 
 All around the Mediterranean is where the 
 world began really to live and move for 
 thousands of years before Colombo was 
 
20 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 l)oi'ii. Around this sea, not a hundredth 
 part as big as the Atlantic (and your map 
 
 will prove it), is where all 
 
 The World , .. . . n . 
 
 the livmof, movmo; world lor 
 around the /' ^ . . ^ 
 
 „ .. thousands of years had been 
 
 iiediterranean. '' 
 
 crowded. And even there, 
 they only lived on the edges of the land 
 and never moved very far from the water. 
 
 The old Jews lived at the east end of the 
 sea. You know the story of the long, slow 
 journeys of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with 
 their horses and camels, flocks and herds, 
 over this eastern land, and of the children 
 of Israel as they went from old Egy2:)t to 
 Palestine, the promised land. 
 
 Greece, on this wonderful sea, is also the 
 spot where a great era passed in the history 
 of the world. Years and years the people 
 there carved wonderful sculpture and thought 
 wonderful thoughts. 
 
 Then, here, in Italy (shaped like an old- 
 fashioned boot), hanging down into this 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 21 
 
 crowded little sea, centered the great Roman 
 Empire with the Caesars at its head. 
 
 Thick and fast, humanity had piled itself 
 and its great liistory around this wonderful 
 center. No, not "thick and fast," — that 
 is a mistake, for not fast did they come to live 
 here. How long do you suppose history was 
 in creeping from the time of Abraham, over 
 here in Palestine, to the time of the Caesars 
 down here at Rome? Why, nearly two thou- 
 sand years. And how long from this two 
 thousand years when the Caesars ruled Rome 
 — that\s about the time Jesus Christ was 
 born over here in Palestine — do you suppose 
 it is, until now? Why, you know that, it is 
 one thousand eight hundred and ninety-two 
 years! Just see how we talk about time, 
 old Father Time. 
 
 Now all these years, except the last little 
 
 four hundred years when Co- 
 Father Time. 
 
 lumbus louud another great 
 
 sea to cross, moving humanity had crowded 
 
22 COLUMBUS AND AVHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 itself — not so '' fast," but very " thick " — 
 around this Mediterranean Sea. For how 
 long? Shall we figure on that? 
 
 The 1892 years, with which we date all our 
 letters and legal papers, make what we call 
 our Christian era, the time from Christ until 
 now (the sign is A. D.); add to it the two 
 thousand years B. C. (before Christ), that is, 
 go to the time of Abraham, and you have 
 three thousand eight hundred and ninety- 
 two years. Subtract these last important 
 four hundred years and we have three 
 thousand four hundred and ninety-two years 
 still left. Just think how, for all this long 
 time, people crowded around this sea before 
 Columbus discovered a greater one! 
 
 Now wait, there was another very strange 
 
 thing in the world always. No one yet 
 
 knows ho^v long there had been 
 
 another lot of people over in what 
 
 we now call China, India, Japan, etc., 
 
 who were never-moving people. They did 
 
COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 23 
 
 not know anything about the " world," and 
 the " world " did n^t know anything about 
 them. They did not even know about each 
 other when many miles apart. (By the 
 word " world," we mean the thinking, mov- 
 ing world, that which is thinking and 
 moving yet.) 
 
 These people around the sea were really 
 " the world," for they found out things, while 
 China has found out very little as yet, and 
 had never heard of any world beyond her own 
 save that there were people in the West 
 called the Latins, until some one or two hun- 
 dred years before Colombo was born! Then 
 a wonderful man named Marco Polo found 
 out all about this Far East. And this Far 
 East king, called Kubla-Khan, found out from 
 Marco Polo all about the Latins. " Latins " 
 is the best name for our Mediterranean Sea 
 people; for a few hundred years they were 
 Grecians, then after that, when there were 
 still more of them, they were Romans (and 
 
24 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE P^OUND. 
 
 spoke Latin), so we will call them Latins 
 for the present. We are going to the very 
 bottom of this thing, to find out just "SN^hat 
 that child found out, for we can. Do you 
 not helieve we can? 
 
 Now Marco Polo climbed over to the Far 
 East and back, somehow, and spent twenty- 
 six years doing so, and then wrote a book 
 which excited everybody the more and 
 more they read it. It told 
 most wonderful thinfrs al^out 
 that region. Colombo's father must have 
 heard of it, too, for the l)ook was nearly 
 two hundred years old when Colombo was 
 l)oni, and wealthy men of Genoa owned 
 just such l)ooks. 
 
 Marco Polo was a Venetian, and he wrote 
 the book while in prison at Genoa. lie was 
 there because the Genoese, once upon a time, 
 overcame the Venetians in a fight, and he 
 w^as taken pi'isoner with others. While there, 
 for five or six years, with nothing else to do, 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 25 
 
 he wrote iij) his travels. All books were 
 written by hand, you know, until printing 
 came. People did not believe half that was 
 in this book, but Polo on his dying bed de- 
 clared it was true, when he was questioned 
 by his confessors. People have since found 
 out that he wrote the truth. Columbus 
 by his confessors. We know now that 
 much of it was true. Columbus, in the 
 main, believed every word of this book, 
 of Cathay which Columbus expected to find 
 in the Ocean Sea. 
 
 You must have a little of this book right 
 here. You can get it for yourself, if you 
 wish, and read of these most interestinf>- 
 travels.'^" 
 
 Marco Polo tells of many kingdoms and 
 empires which he saw. He describes mi- 
 nutely and most quaintly very many strange 
 things, and it helps us to understand how 
 
 *The Travels of Marco Polo, by Thos. W. Knox. 
 
26 COLUMBUS AJSTD WHAT HP] FOUND. 
 
 Columbus was always so sure he liad found 
 Marco Polo's " kin2:doms " when he discov- 
 ered our continent; for many strange things 
 were very similar, such as climate, animals, 
 birds, and, most of all, the mild temper of 
 the inhabitants. 
 
 Marco Polo describes the great king of 
 Cathay, his palace, his habits, and his cap- 
 ital city, Quinsay. It was like a story of 
 fairyland. Read what C()loml;)o read. IN^o 
 wonder he tried to find it: 
 
 " All the streets of the city are paved with 
 stones or brick, so that you ride or travel in 
 every direction without inconvenience. Were 
 it not for this pavement you could not do so, 
 for the country is very low and flat. But as 
 the Great Khan's couriers could not gallop 
 their horses over the pavement [the Great 
 Khan was kinder to his horses than we in 
 Chicago are], the side of the road is unpaved 
 for their convenience. The pavement of the 
 main street of the city, also, is laid out in t\vo 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 27 
 
 parallel ways of ten paces in width on either 
 side, leaving a space in the middle laid with 
 fine gravel, under which are vaulted drains 
 that convey the rain-water into the canals; 
 and thus the road is kept dry. 
 
 " You must know the city has three thou- 
 sand baths, the water of which is supplied 
 by springs; they are hot baths, and the peo- 
 ple take great delight in frequenting them 
 several times a month, for they are very 
 cleanly in their persons. They are the 
 largest and finest l^aths in the world; large 
 enough for one hundred persons to bathe 
 together." 
 
 The great Pacific, as we now know it to be, 
 was called by Polo, " Ocean Sea," the same 
 name by which the Mediterranean people had 
 always called the Atlantic, so of course every- 
 body thought there was but one ocean. " The 
 Ocean Sea," wrote Marco Polo, " comes within 
 twenty-five miles of the city, where there is 
 a town and an excellent haven. A great river 
 
28 COLUMBUS AND AVHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 flows from the city of Quinsay to that sea 
 haven, by which vessels can come to the 
 city itself." 
 
 He tells how this Great Khan controlled 
 nine great kingdoms, which had each a 
 lesser king. 
 
 " In the whole of this vast country there 
 are more than one thousand two hundred 
 great and wealthy cities, without counting the 
 towns and villages, which are in great num- 
 bers. And you may believe it for certain that 
 in each of these one thousand two hundred 
 cities the Great Khan has a garrison, and that 
 the smallest five of such garrisons muster one 
 thousand men each, while there are some of 
 ten thousand, twenty thousand and thirty 
 thousand, so that the total number of troops 
 is something scarcely calculable. 
 
 " The people are idolaters, and since they 
 were conquered by the Great Khan they use 
 paper money. Both men and \vomen are 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 29 
 
 fair and comely, and for the most part clothe 
 themselves in silk. 
 
 " The people have a custom that as soon 
 as a child is horn, they write down the day 
 and hour, and the planet and sign under 
 which its birth has taken place; so that 
 every one among them knows the day of his 
 birth. And when any one intends a journey 
 [the greatest thing in the world was a jour- 
 ney], he goes to the astrologers and gives 
 tliem particulars al^out his l)irth in oi'der to 
 learn, whether he shall have good luck or no. 
 These astrologers are very skillful in their 
 business, and often their words come true, 
 so the people have great faith in them. 
 
 " The natives of the city are men of peace- 
 ful character, both from education and from 
 the example of their king, whose disposition 
 is the same. They know nothing of hand- 
 ling arms, and keep none in their houses. 
 In their dealings and in their manufact- 
 ures they are thoroughly honest and truth- 
 
30 OOLttMBTTS AISTD WHAT HE FOtJlsri). 
 
 fill, uiid tliere is such a degree of good will 
 and neigld)orly attaclinieiit among l)otli men 
 and Avonien tliat yon would take the peo- 
 ple Avho live in the same street to be al' 
 of one family. Yon hear no feuds or nois} 
 quari'els or discussions among them [surely 
 they had no saloons]. 
 
 " The city of Quinsay hath an hundred 
 miles of compass [that is, a hundred miles 
 around it]. And in it there are twelve 
 thousand bridges of stone, so lofty that a 
 great fleet could pass beneath them. And let 
 no man marvel that there are so many 
 bridges, for you see the whole city stands, ae 
 it were, in the water, and surrounded b} 
 Avater, so that a g.reat many bridges are re 
 quired to give free passage about it. And 
 though the bridges are so high the approaches 
 are so well contrived that horses and carts 
 do cross them."" This city is the modern 
 Hangcluui. 
 
 '^ Men of craft [men of business, that is], 
 
COLtTMBtJS AJSri) WHAT HE POUND. 3l 
 
 they nor tlieir wives ever toucli a piece of 
 work with their own hands, but live as 
 nicely and delicately as if they were kings 
 and queens. The wives, indeed, are most 
 dainty and angelical creatures. 
 
 " Inside this city is a lake which has a 
 compass of some thirty miles, and all 
 around it are erected beautiful palaces and 
 mansions, the most exquisite yon can imagine ; 
 in the middle of the lake are two islands, 
 on each of which stands a rich, lieautiful 
 and spacious edifice furnished in such style 
 as to seem fit for the palace of an emperor. 
 And when any one of the citizens desires 
 to hold a marriage feast, or to give any 
 other entertainment, it used to be done at 
 one of these palaces; and everything would 
 l)e found there ready to order, such as silver 
 plate, trenchers, and dishes, napkins and 
 table-cloths, and ^vhatever else was needful. 
 The king made this provision for the grati- 
 fication . of his people, and the place was 
 
32 COLUMBUS AND WJIAT HE FOUISTD. 
 
 open to every one who desired to give an 
 entertainment. Sometimes there would be at 
 these places an hundred different parties; 
 some holding a banquet, others celebrating a 
 wedding; and yet all would find good ac- 
 commodations in the different apartments 
 and pavilions, and that in so well-ordered 
 a manner that one party was never in 
 the way of another." 
 
 Just think of one hundred parties at one 
 time! It is no wonder they called it "The 
 City of Heaven," for that was their idea of 
 heaven. Polo goes on giving descriptions of 
 hospitals and " guards " (like our policemen), 
 postmen and timekeepers, and many such 
 things, so that it is not strange that he 
 stops sometimes and says, " It seems past 
 belief to one who merel}' hears it told, but 
 I will write it down for you." 
 
 He tells about one thing that I cannot 
 leave out, and that is how they gave the 
 alarm for lire or danger of any kind. 
 
COLUMBUS AND AVHAT HE FOUND. .'il^ 
 
 " Within this city there is an eminence on 
 which stands a tower, at the top of the 
 tower is hunc: a slal) of Avood. Whenever 
 iire or any other alarm breaks out in the 
 city, a man who stands there with a mallet 
 in his hand beats upon the slab, making a 
 noise that is heard at a great distance." 
 Was n't that a strange hre-bell? 
 
 Now hear a little about the king's palace: 
 "You must know a little of its demesne [its 
 grounds] hath a compass of ten miles, all in- 
 closed with lofty walls, and inside the walls 
 are the finest and most delectable gardens 
 upon earth. There are numerous fountains 
 in it, also, and lakes full of iish. In the 
 middle is the palace itself. It contains twenty 
 great and handsome halls, one of which is 
 more than the rest and affords room for a 
 vast multitude to dine in. It is all painted 
 in gold with representations of histories and 
 birds and beasts, knights and dames, and 
 many marvelous things. It forms really a 
 
34 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 magnificent spectacle, for on all the walls and 
 all the ceilings, you see nothing but paint- 
 ings in gold. And besides these halls the 
 palace contains one thousand large and 
 handsome chambers all painted in gold and 
 divers colors. 
 
 " From the Ocean Sea also come daily sup- 
 plies of fish in great quantity. One would 
 suj^pose so great a quantity could never be 
 sold, and yet in a few hours the whole is 
 
 cleared away For a Venice groat 
 
 of silver you can have a couple of geese and 
 two couple of ducks. Then there are calves, 
 beeves, kids and lambs, the flesh of which 
 is eaten by the rich and the dignitaries. 
 Indeed, they eat fish and flesh at the same 
 meal. 
 
 " These markets make a dainty display of 
 every kind of vegetables and fruits ; there are 
 pears of enormous size, weighing as much as 
 ten pounds aj^iece, the pulp of wdiich is white 
 and fragrant like a confection, besides peaches 
 
COLUMBUS Ai^D WHAT HE FOUlSrD. 85 
 
 in tlieir season, both yellow and white, of 
 ev> ry delicate flavor. 
 
 " These natives do not care much for wine, 
 being used to that kind of tlieir own made 
 from rice and spices. To give you an example 
 of the vast consumption in this city, let us 
 take the article of ijepper [his own italics], 
 and that will enable you to estimate what 
 must be the quantity of victuals provided for 
 the general consumption. Now Messer Marco 
 [he always says Messer Marco in S2:)eaking of 
 himself, instead of saying /J heard it stated 
 by one of the Great Khan's officers of cus- 
 toms, that the quantity of pepper introduced 
 daily into the- city of Quinsay amounted to 
 forty-three loads, each load being equal to 
 two hundred and twenty-three pounds." 
 Imagine a city that used nine thousand 
 five hundred and eighty-nine pounds of 
 pepper in one day! 
 
 That is enough from the great Polo l)ook. 
 I imagine it is the book our Colond^o boy in 
 
36 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUI^D. 
 
 the frontispiece lias been reading, as lie sits 
 so dreamily on the very outjoost of some 
 wharf — for see, his foot rests on the great 
 ring to which vessels are fastened. Here he 
 reads of a vast kingdom somewhere in the 
 world Avhere there are lakes of pearls, 
 mountains of gold and beautiful stones; reads 
 of that other magic king, " Prester John," 
 reads of the "Roof of the World," where 
 all supjDOse the garden of Paradise to be; 
 and he reads of how they were idolaters, 
 how they knew nothing of the Christian 
 religion: and "O! what a world this is," 
 he thinks, as he looks into the sea. " I 
 love it, and I must discover all I can of it." 
 Late students and critics ])elieve that 
 Marco Polo's book led to the discovery of 
 the New World more than any other one 
 thing, for from Columbus' own ^vritings he 
 seems to have known every line of it, and 
 was always inspired and led on to his dis- 
 coveries by it. 
 
III. 
 
 Colombo returned to liis home from school 
 in Pavia at fourteen years of age. Nobody 
 seems to know how long he was there, or 
 whether he had any more " school " of that 
 kind or not. One thing we know, he had 
 plenty of life-school, which was no doubt a 
 better education for a great discoverer than 
 a book-school could have been. His sou — his 
 first biographer — does not tell us any small 
 things of his father's l)oyhood life, but only 
 that he went to school at Pavia. That 
 sounded great and really was great in those 
 days, for school was not very easy to go to. 
 It cost much money. There were l)ut few 
 schools in the world at that time. One at 
 Pavia up in Italy among the mountains and 
 one at Paris, France, were the two most im- 
 portant ones. 
 
 37 
 
38 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 And Avliat strange schools tliey were, ^vitli- 
 out any books! Eyes and ears and Lands 
 had to l)e used instead j ears to hear what 
 was told l)y teachers during lectures, and then 
 eyes and hands to write the things down. In 
 this ^vay pupils had to l;)e ready for exam- 
 inations. Examination Avas recitation and 
 recitation was examination all the time. 
 
 Colombo studied geography, astronomy 
 and navigation, and some Latin. These 
 
 are pretty l)road studies for a 
 Colombo's / 
 
 boy or fourteen, but they proved 
 Studies. ' . . 
 
 to be the great foundation of his 
 
 life. His geography, indeed, must have been 
 a puzzling and exciting study. It must 
 have been based on Ptolemy's geography, 
 which was then over one thousand three 
 hundred years old. The Roman Empire, as 
 it had beeri spread about the Mediterranean 
 Sea, was correctly mapped out, but Africa 
 was a queer-looking affair stretching out 
 away to the south and to the west. Nobody 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 89 
 
 knew how far it should go, for iiol)ody 
 had ever seen any farther south than wdiat 
 was then called Cape Nun, meaning none, 
 nothing beyond. It is now called Cape 
 Verde. You can see in your geography 
 that it does appear to be the jumping-off 
 place, with nothing beyond, and when we 
 realize how very warm it is there so near 
 the equator, we need not be surprised that 
 the people thought it was boiling hot farther 
 on, and probably was the edge of the 
 world. So Cape Nun was a good name. 
 
 A queer-shaped England was in this 
 geography; Iceland, called Ultima Thule, 
 the end, was in a very strange place; so 
 Avere Scotland and Ireland. 
 
 It decided that the ocean did not go to 
 the end of the world, wherevei' that was, or 
 however that was, as others had taught, l)ut 
 that land must l)e the end, or edge, for what 
 would hold the water together if it were not 
 surrounded by land? So all unknown laud 
 
40 COLUMBUS AND WHAT JIE FOUND, 
 
 Avas termed Terra Incognita; that is, Land 
 Unknown. 
 
 As to the shape of the earth, great uncer- 
 tainty prevailed. Ptolemy lived at Alexan- 
 dria, down on the southern coast of the 
 Mediterranean Sea, in Egypt, to which 
 nearly all the wonderful books of Greece 
 and Rome were taken and where they were 
 saved when the barbarians overran all 
 Europe during what we call the Middle 
 Asces of the world. He lived in the second 
 century after Christ, and the geography had 
 not been changed a great deal even when 
 Colombo studied it in the fifteenth century, 
 for so little had l^een found out in the 
 world in all that time, which could chano;e 
 it. 
 
 The world, even this learning world around 
 the Mediterranean, had not groAvn very fast, 
 not to know more geography than Ptolemy 
 did one thousand three hundred years before. 
 Something happened to all Europe, and that 
 
COLUMBtrs AND WHAT HE FOUND. 41 
 
 is why it did n't learn faster in all those years. 
 The next chapter will tell you what it was 
 that happened. 
 
 The Grecians and Romans away back Ijefore 
 
 Christ, had some notion that the world was 
 
 round, and Ptolemy dared to 
 
 ncer ain y g^^j,j^-^jgg something of the kind ; 
 
 as to the i i i i •, i i 
 
 he thousfht that it was shaped 
 Shape of ^ ^ 
 
 the Earth ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^ round apj)le cut 
 through the middle, and resting 
 on its flat side; for of course, said he, it had 
 to stand on something. 
 
 We shall come to a time when Colombo, in 
 his weary hunting, concluded it was more like 
 a pear, with a sort of high part as a pear has 
 at the stem end. He was pretty sure once that 
 he had come to that part, and that it ^^as the 
 roof of the world, for Marco Polo had written 
 about that roof. And as an earthly Paradise 
 was the hope and dream of all the world 
 through those Middle Ages, it seemed very 
 likely to lie on the top of this pear-shaped 
 
42 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 world. Marco Polo' described what he had 
 seen on the " Roof of the World," and it was 
 to him like Paradise, and so of course Colum- 
 bus hoped he ^vas near it when he seemed to 
 come to a place where marvelous waters came 
 pouring down as if from such a great roof. 
 Poor man, he was only at the mouth of the 
 Orinoco River. But this was during his 
 fourth voyage, and I must not get so far 
 ahead of my story. 
 
 This Paradise had been located in various 
 places by old ti'^'^'^l^i'^? ^^i^^^ ^^'^s always an 
 
 „ interestino; place to hunt for. Once 
 
 Paradise. ^ ^ 
 
 it was supposed to be on the island 
 of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean, but when 
 that island came to be l)etter known, the 
 notion Avas given up and everybody supposed 
 it was to be found in the Avonderful land of 
 Cathay. Marco Polo had surely found a 
 strangely beautiful place, and since people 
 supposed Paradise must he somewhere in the 
 world, it is not surprising that Columbus put 
 
COLUMBUS AISTD WHAT HE FOUND. 43 
 
 the tlioiiglit of the Paradise, and the roof, and 
 his idea of the pear-shaped world, all together, 
 and suj^posed he was alxnit to make this most 
 interesting of all discoveries. Ponce de Leon, 
 many years after^\ard, yon know, also came to 
 America fnlly expecting to find the Fountain 
 of Youth. 
 
 To go l)ack to our geography: Some an- 
 cients had said the world was round like a 
 flat cake floating, instead of being round like 
 an apple or a pear. Some had also come to 
 the conclusion that it was in the form of a 
 globe. But when Colund)us was a boy, and 
 a young man, people were talking about 
 many w^onderful new things, no matter ^vhat 
 geographies taught. 
 
 The Portuguese had found out in 1412 that 
 
 they could get j^^'^t ^^^^^ 
 
 The Wild Stories r^ -^ i x i 
 
 Cape JNun and not l)e 
 
 Changed by the 
 
 ^ burned up. What a won- 
 
 Portuguese. / 
 
 derful thing! They also dis- 
 covered some new islands out in the Ocean 
 
■44 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Sea. Porto Santo was one, remember it. 
 These things all meant M^onderful ])<)ssi- 
 bilities. If one thing was done another 
 conld he done. The gates of the Avorld 
 seemed to be opening. The great doubts 
 al)out water and land and the shape of the 
 earth were going to be exj^lained. Igno- 
 rance was orrowino; to ])e unendurable to a 
 few spirited souls. Good Prince Henry was 
 one of the wisest. He founded a sort of 
 school for navigation at Lisbon when Co- 
 lumbus Avas yet a boy at his home in Italy. 
 
 Yet others concluded that water was the 
 end of the world instead of land, for the last 
 thing seen by those who had sailed the far- 
 thest, ^vas water, water everywhere. The 
 world might end in a watery mist where it 
 joined the sky, since the weather and A\'ater 
 seemed to get hotter and hotter the farther 
 toward the south one went. They knew that. 
 
 Wild stories were told about men getting 
 into such hot places that they could n't get 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 45 
 
 back again, and had been baked to deatli on 
 their vessels. The hot snn over them and the 
 hot water beneath, so roasted them that when 
 one went to pick tliem up their arms came 
 off their bodies. This was not all; people 
 said there were boiling whirlpools away 
 off there, which sucked the vessels right 
 into hot water. 
 
 This awful south must have had a fearful 
 look to little children when they were all 
 alone at night, as they gazed off in that 
 direction. Colombo, no doul)t, heard these 
 great sea stories when a boy; and, indeed, 
 when he grew to be a man, even ready to sail 
 into the great unknown, these stories had not 
 improved any. They had been located farther 
 away, however, as new discoveries were being 
 made. Marco Polo did tell for truth, and I 
 have read it in his book, how men would 
 die and be l)aked in hot deserts. 
 
 You see, Colombo was studying a very 
 queer sort of geography all liis life; not l)Ook 
 
46 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 geography, for old Ptolemy was fast being 
 changed by real geography. The Portuguese 
 were moving about and making new and 
 wonderful discoveries. These new discoveries 
 required new maps, and this is what gave 
 our Columbus a living when he came to 
 be a man. 
 
 We must go back a little. Colombo com- 
 menced his sea- school, we say, at fourteen 
 years of age, with men by the name of 
 Colombo. Then he could go on studying 
 astronomy, also, by watching the stars them- 
 selves; so his astronomy became actual as 
 well as his geography. By sailing and 
 " roughing it " for about ten years, until he 
 was twenty -five years of age, he studied actual 
 navigation by being in close contact with real 
 water and waves and storms and calms, and 
 learnino: to manao:e real vessels. All this, 
 added to his studies at Pavia, made him a 
 regular graduate of Divine Providence, be- 
 cause he early committed his way^to God, and 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 47 
 
 it would seem God took liim and prepared 
 him for liis great work in life's school. 
 
 He sailed everywhere around the Mediter- 
 ranean, and from this he passed out between 
 those two great giant rocks on each side of 
 the Strait of Gibraltar, into the mighty deep. 
 How they must have seemed to his impres- 
 sionable nature like great gods guarding the 
 beautiful, homelike sea he had always known, 
 from the great Ocean Sea. They always had 
 to pass between them, and then his voyage 
 would be up and down the coast, never very 
 far from land. The Genoese were very brave 
 men on water, and were often hired by other 
 nations to do their fighting for them. This 
 was ]3i'obably the main business of the men 
 with Avhom our young Colombo began his 
 lessons in navigation. This was why he was 
 sometimes supposed to be a pirate. We 
 know merchants hired just such men to carry 
 their goods to and fro from the Levant — the 
 east end of the Mediterranean, to which pre- 
 
48 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 cioiis silks and cloths came from the fabulous 
 Far East. 
 
 Colombo in his ten years' life on the water 
 
 learned, no doubt, about every kind of vessel. 
 
 I think you will like to know 
 
 a little al^out what he learned; 
 the Fifteenth 
 
 it \vill not take you more 
 Century. 
 
 than ten minutes to get a 
 pretty good idea. 
 
 There were merchant vessels (we have 
 freight cars, instead) and war vessels of all 
 sorts and sizes, though none could carry more 
 than five hundred tons. The galleys were the 
 most ancient of war vessels, and were used 
 by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, hun- 
 dreds of years before; sometimes they had 
 many rows, or banks, of oars, one bank placed 
 above the other. The top oars had to be 
 the longest, so as to reach the water, and 
 they would tlien l)e so heavy to handle that 
 the end next to the " galley slave " who 
 used it, had to l)e loaded Avith lead. Just 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 49 
 
 think, tlie oar is the oldest and the youngest 
 instrument used in navigation, and is llie 
 most like a human hand paddling along. 
 The " galley slaves " were convicts and 
 prisoners who would be chained to their 
 places for years and years at a time, and 
 there they would have to sit where they 
 could see nothing while they worked these 
 great oars, all working together by music 
 or the sound of a bell. 
 
 When iive rows of oars were used the 
 vessel was called a quireme; when four 
 rows, a quadreme; three rows, a trireme. 
 In the fifteenth century, however, these 
 galleys seldom had more than one row, or 
 bank, of oars. These galleys were often 
 very gorgeously adorned. They had a beak 
 in front with which they would run against 
 an enemy's vessel and break a hole in it. 
 Now the use of gunpowder, you must know, 
 made a wonderful change in the world, be- 
 cause it changed war methods. Men had 
 
50 rOLUMBT^S AND AVHAT HE FOTTND. 
 
 fouglit Avitli galleys of all sorts and shapes, 
 but gunpowder made them of less and less 
 use in war; yet up to the eighteenth cent- 
 ury there still remained some sort of a 
 galley. 
 
 The Maltese galley carried five hundred 
 forty-nine persons, including the galley 
 slaves. The gallea and galleon were the 
 first improvements on the galley. The ar- 
 tillery was placed fore and aft, and had to 
 shoot onl}^ in front or from behind, else 
 they would kill their own oarsmen. In the 
 gallea they relied on sails altogether and 
 got rid of their oars, or had overhanging 
 sides for oars. The o-alleon had the sides 
 
 o 
 
 " tumble home," that is, bend in at the top 
 so that sometimes the bottom of the boat 
 was twice as Avide as the top. 
 
 We read of our young Colombo having 
 command of a galley, so you see he must 
 luive known about every little " nook and 
 corner " in it. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTD. 51 
 
 There were also many other kinds of ves- 
 sels, generally about three hundred tons 
 weight. This was, perhaps, the weight of 
 the largest of Columbus^ three ships in 
 which he first crossed the Atlantic. No- 
 body knows exactly — but from a reliable 
 source we read his vessel was only sixty- 
 three feet long, — twenty feet l)eam and fifty - 
 one feet keel, the depth being ten and 
 one-half feet. AVhat a small vessel com- 
 pared with the eight and ten thousand ton 
 vessels, which are six hundred and eight 
 hundred feet long, crossing the ocean nowa- 
 days ! 
 
 Very few vessels had any decks in the fif- 
 teenth century. The forecastle was at first 
 a sort of platform built out on tlie front of 
 the ship for the archers and soldiers to 
 stand on while thev fous^ht. Then these 
 platforms came to be housed in, and then 
 they were called forecastles. Inside this 
 place, the ship's ofiice Inisiness was trans- 
 
52 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 acted. Tlien vessels came to have a castle 
 at eacli end of the boat. Finally these 
 castles were made to cover the whoh^ 
 vessel; they were then "decked.'" There 
 were also "topcastles" at the top of the 
 masts where men would be stationed so 
 that they could annoy the enemy with darts, 
 missiles, stones, or anything of that kind. 
 These w^ere on the largest ships, and it 
 took four or five years to build such an 
 one. 
 
 Then there were other kinds. Carracks 
 were next in size, and were more generally 
 used in trade, mostly by the Genoese and 
 Venetian, and were armed, for merchants 
 in the Mediterranean Sea had to figlit to 
 keep from having their goods stolen from 
 them. They were usually of one hundred 
 to two hundred tons weight. 
 
 Barges and l)alingers were still smalU^' 
 vessels with no " castles " on them. Tlu^se 
 were used for adventure and to reconnoitre, 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 53 
 
 as they drew little water and could go in 
 
 advance of larger vessels and find out how 
 
 things were. When several of them went 
 
 off on foreign voyages they usually sailed 
 
 in " convoys," that is, a lot of them would 
 
 sail together. Four harges and two l^alin- 
 
 gers were capable of holding one hundred 
 
 twenty men-at-arms and four hundred 
 
 eighty archers and sailors. 
 
 Their fighting implements were habergeons, 
 
 basinets (examine your dictionaries), bows 
 
 ^. , and arrows, iacks, taro-ets. 
 
 The Armament ' / ' ^ 
 
 * ci,-«<, lances and firins;- barrels, fire- 
 
 oi snips. <=' ' 
 
 arrows and sometimes cannon. 
 In 1490 a Venetian historian writes of the 
 " novelty of firearms " as follows, giving a 
 pretty good description of our present gun. 
 " The use of iron tubes," he says, " trans- 
 mitted to us from Germany, is Ijecome im- 
 portant among our soldiery. These tubes 
 by the force of fire, discharge leaden bullets 
 with extraordinary violence, and wound from 
 
54 COUTMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 a distance. Tliey are of the same shape and 
 form as a cannon l)y which walls are l)at- 
 tered, Avith this difference, however, that the 
 latter are cast from brass, and are often of 
 so great weight as to require iron and solid 
 bound carriages, and a vast number of horses 
 for their transportation. Tlie tubes, on the 
 other hand, are made of iron fixed on a 
 wooden butt, so that one may be handled 
 by every soldier singly. They are loaded 
 by gunpowder which is easily kindled, and 
 when the bullet has been I'ammed down 
 they are discharged from the shoulder. 
 
 " The Council of Ten, anxious to obtain a 
 supply of men skilled in these weapons, have 
 collected from all cpiarters persons ^vho are 
 masters of their use, and have sent them into 
 different towns to instruct the youth. Two 
 adults from each village shall devote them- 
 selves to this every year. There shall be an 
 assembly of these marksmen at some spot 
 fixed by themselves for shooting at a target." 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 55 
 
 We thus see how people were interested 
 in new things, and gunpowder was one of 
 them. 
 
 Many vessels Avere highly ornamented. The 
 sails were often gorgeous in color, and the 
 fiont of the boat would be made into many 
 interesting shapes, like that of a horse's head 
 or a swan. 
 
 In the fifteenth century, for the first time, 
 somebody thought of having a rudder made 
 fast behind tlie vessel to be managed by 
 ropes or chains, taking the place of two 
 great oars which had formerly been used 
 for steering the vessel. 
 
 The sails of the sliip were a square one in 
 front, called the mainsail, hung on a yard, 
 the yard being fastened to the mainmast; 
 the sails back of this were called lateen sails, 
 were smaller and of a triangular shape, such 
 as we have now, except that they were on 
 crooked masts. The smaller boats had only 
 lateen sails. 
 
5() COLUMBUS ANJ) WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 The com]3ass was another new thing in 
 those days. Marco Polo had found it in 
 China and had brought it to Europe two 
 hundred years before, but it was not in gen- 
 eral use as a guide until many years after. 
 At first it was called " sail-stone," " lode- 
 stone," " sailing-needle," etc., before it was 
 develojDed into the " compass " that we know. 
 But it was a most wonderful turning-point 
 in navigation. 
 
 Colombo sailed in all sorts of ways, no 
 doubt, for ten years, getting all sorts of 
 lessons in navigation. He learned to be the 
 greatest navigator the world has ever known, 
 not only on wide, open, unknown seas, ])ut 
 also in strange and dangerous shallow waters, 
 and among rocks and islands; not only in 
 storm and peril, as you will see, but in times 
 of peace. He never was " caught napping " 
 but once, and then he ought to have napped 
 if he had only had trusty sailors about 
 him. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 57 
 
 Toward the end of liis schooling in navi- 
 gation, when he was abont twenty-five years 
 
 „. „, , old, we hear of him in a terrible 
 His Wreck. 
 
 wreck off the coast of Portug-al. 
 He may have been living in Portugal at the 
 time, nobody knows for certain, but it seems 
 he was certainly Avrecked off the coast and 
 remained in Portugal until he went to Spain. 
 "He certainly landed at this time in a very 
 sorry plight near Lisbon. 
 
 He was in command of a galley during a 
 naval fight off the coast of Lisbon. His 
 vessel grappled with the enemy's and both 
 caught fire, his only escape being to jump 
 into the water. He s\vam six miles to shore 
 during a very high sea, with the help of an 
 oar, and was much exhausted when he reached 
 the end of his perilous journey. But he was 
 a very strong and brave young man, and this 
 was a time when muscle and courage saved 
 him. But he landed, and with him landed 
 the fate of our " Columl^ia, the gem of the 
 
58 
 
 COLIIMBUS AND WHAT UK FOUND. 
 
 ocean." Ah! if lie had been lost then, there 
 is no telling how much longer she would 
 have remained unborn! 
 
 He was a long time ill from his terrible 
 swim, l)ut he recovered, and we next find 
 him a regular attendant at church, and fall- 
 ing in love with a beautiful young lady. 
 
IV. 
 
 " The term Middle Ages is applied to the 
 period extending from 476 to the discovery 
 of America in 1492." 
 
 History says this. Read it carefully: Avhat 
 Columl:)us did will always be talked about, 
 because this discovery was the beginning of 
 our Modern Age, and was the ending of the 
 Middle Age. 
 
 That time called " Middle Ages " is what 
 this talk is about, and I think it is the most 
 interesting one we have, but you may " skip 
 it " if } ou wish to hurry on after Columbus. 
 
 But since Columbus himself was made up 
 out of this Middle Age, it is very important 
 to know what the world was like and what 
 our Colombo T)oy came to, and what he had to 
 liear and see and study, or we cannot even 
 imagine how it ever happened that he changed 
 things so. 
 
 59 
 
60 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 It is IK) Avuiider Ave are celebi'atiDg our four- 
 hundredtli birthday, Ly having a World's 
 Fair, Learn all you can at this very time, 
 for neither you nor any one now living will 
 see another birthday like it. 
 
 Colombo changed things so, because he 
 was born at just the right time, and because 
 he believed he could do something. He saw 
 that old geography did not know- much, for 
 it left things so unsettled about what the 
 world was like. 
 
 He also said to himself that away back in 
 the Ancient Ages (before the Middle Ages) 
 Grecians and Romans knew more and better 
 things than people do now. (Remember his 
 "now" was in the fifteenth century.) 
 
 He believed, somehow, that those ancients 
 were right about the world being like a pan- 
 cake, floating on something, or perhaps that it 
 was even a globe, although they only guessed 
 at it. If they were right it must be proven. 
 This great idea grew and grew Avith him. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. CA 
 
 No one knows exactly when it com- 
 menced. 
 
 For about one tliousand years (from 47G 
 to 1492) tliere had been so little learned 
 about anything! Why? 
 
 The Middle Ages are also called Dark Ages. 
 Why ? Let us try and find < ut some of these 
 " whys/' 
 
 We Avill call the time of this " fall " one 
 
 thousand years b. c, meaning l)y small b. c. 
 
 before Columbus: I do not 
 
 Fall of the Ro= ,,.... ,, 
 
 ^ , believe it is irreverent to call 
 man Empire. 
 
 it so. You know what large 
 B. C. means. For one thousand years b. c, 
 it had been a strange, sad time with the 
 whole world. The Roman Empire, the 
 Csesar^s great Rome, fell all to pieces in 476 
 A. D., that is 476 years after Christ, who 
 changed all dates. 
 
 When it fell there seemed to l)e great dark- 
 ness. All the beauty of art and learning and 
 the refinement and civilization of the world 
 
62 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 were nearly destroyed ; only ruins left! Many 
 ruins of this time are now standing in the 
 City of Kome. 
 
 The Roman Empire spread nearly all around 
 the Mediterranean Sea; the city of Rome was 
 the caj)ital, the center of Roman power, so 
 when we say Rome, we mean not only this city 
 but the empire. Rome, the great, had now lost 
 its hold, especially over its " West." The 
 West then did not mean our AVest out here in 
 the great, broad lands, but it meant the west 
 end of the Mediterranean Sea. Spain used to 
 be called Hispania, a word meaning " the outer 
 edge." Spain was thought to be the west 
 edge of the world, because peoj^le had no 
 idea how big the world was. So West, b. c, 
 was the western end of the Mediterranean 
 Sea, and on up along France, and the British 
 Isles. 
 
 Although this great Roman j)Ower had ruled 
 nearly everything, even Palestine, Jesus' own 
 countr}^, yet it fell. It had the greatest and 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 63 
 
 best laws the world had yet seen, except those 
 of Moses, and they had governed only the 
 little country of Palestine, and had been wi'it- 
 ten 1500 years B. C, The Romans were the 
 first people to build roads. They built great 
 stone theaters, too. One was the Coliseum, 
 whose ruins still stand; I fancy you have 
 seen pictures of it. They hmlt great build- 
 ings for holding their meetings, great porches, 
 great arches, gateways with writings cut in 
 them telling of great battles, and there they 
 are standing yet, but Rome herself fell. 
 
 She fell because she grew so rich and ripe! 
 
 She fell because she could no longer with her 
 
 riches bless the world. God seems 
 
 _ to have a way of lettinp; thino-s a:o 
 
 Rome Fall ? . . "^ 5 6 8 
 
 to pieces if they do not do this. 
 Rome could not bless the world any more, be- 
 cause as her people grew richer they became 
 very vain and good-for-nothing. Heroism 
 died out after the Caesars, and the first thing 
 the great power knew, there came a lot of 
 
64 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND, 
 
 brave, ignorant, wild people, barbarians, who 
 
 ruined all Ler finery. 
 
 Nobody can tell exactly where all these 
 
 hordes of people came from. They are 
 
 ^. ^ . . always called " The barba- 
 
 The Barbarians. '' 
 
 rians." They came from the 
 north somewhere, and, anxious for fine things, 
 they took possession of all they liked. What 
 they did not like they utterly destroyed. So 
 a condition of hopelessness fell over everything 
 and the world's " Dark Ages " came on. 
 
 The barbarians were not quite like our wild 
 Indians, yet they were not unlike them. In 
 your school readers and histories you will read 
 about them, for it was a wonderful one thou- 
 sand years in which they ruled, and the world 
 Avill always talk about them. These people 
 were not all alike. They were in tribes, in 
 droves. Some were called Huns, some were 
 Teutons, some were Goths, Vandals, and so 
 on. I cannot stop to tell you much al)out 
 them, only to say that they were brave and 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 05 
 
 igiioraDt aud had none of tlie weaknesses of 
 civilization. 
 
 There were thousand and thousands of these 
 barbarians and they kept coming in droves for 
 hundreds of years. 
 
 Rome, you see, was cultivated and beautiful 
 but the people had grown lazy and weak. 
 These fresh, free hordes of men who loved 
 lawless liberty, were sti'ong. They had lib- 
 erty, but no law or order, hence they never 
 had learned anything. The Romans had law 
 but no liberty, and they were weak though 
 they had learned much. 
 
 Do you see here are two great things coming 
 right up against each other — Law and Lib- 
 erty? These two things had to learn to live 
 together: and the world grew dark while this 
 was being learned. The hordes were accus- 
 tomed to rule themselves. They knew noth- 
 ing about kings and emperors and laws. 
 Rome could not stand before them and she 
 
0,C) COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 lost control of things; and all this happened 
 
 in tiie fifth century — one thousand years h. c. 
 
 A strange kind of government just then 
 
 made itself up out of the civilized ideas of 
 
 ^ Home and the wild, free notions 
 
 Feudal 
 
 Government. "^^ *^^^ barbarians. It is called 
 Feudal government. " Feud " 
 means the right to a piece of land. Instead 
 of the king or some ruler owning all the coun- 
 try, each man had the right to a piece of land. 
 He paid a fee for this right, so that each feud 
 meant somethino; like fee. Then each man 
 who was the head of a family could own his 
 own land. After awhile, a man would have 
 to fight some other man to keep him off that 
 land (for he could n't put the land into his 
 pocket) so feud came really to mean fight. 
 ' We cannot stop to find out all about feu- 
 dalism, of course, but it is interesting to 
 know al)out, since it was tlie time of knight 
 errantry, chivalry and ever so many interest- 
 ing things. The most important feature of 
 
COLUMBUS AISTD WHAT HE FOUIS'D. 67 
 
 feudalism was its idea of a freehold on land. 
 About tlie year 800 A. D., things began to 
 settle down somewhat after those dreadful 
 lightings and wars. The free men began to 
 get rich. Families grew powerful, some more 
 so than others, but they did not learn any- 
 thing until the time when there came an 
 
 emperor by the name of Char- 
 ar emagne. 2^^^,^^^^^^ ^^^ -^^ ^qq j^ jy ^qqq 
 
 b. c.) began to build schools and start the 
 world to doing something besides eating 
 and drinking. 
 
 The people had no thought, no books, no 
 morals, but just dug in the ground and played 
 and fought. They robbed each other as any 
 other animals would: but the great thing 
 that was coming into the world was a sort 
 of freedom. 
 
 This was eight hundred years after C^hrist 
 came into the world and His truth was 
 only beginning to be felt as a power. Char- 
 lemagne had a dim notion that the people 
 
08 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 should l)e leariiiug sometliing. The school 
 at Pavia, which Columbus attended six hun- 
 dred years after, was one that he founded. 
 His numerous daughters made copies from 
 the old classical writings and people began 
 to chano-e ao-ain from barbarism to civil- 
 ization. Charlemagne himself was so fond 
 of study that he used to study while he 
 ate his diunei", after he was a grown man 
 and an emperor. 
 
 The old classical learning thus crept back 
 into life. It had nearly been destroyed, you 
 see, save that which was stored in monas- 
 teries or hustled off to Alexandria. Chris- 
 tianity, also, began to creep into those dark 
 Middle Ages in Charlemagne's time. Gree^ 
 and Roman learning came back but theii 
 pagan religion did not. 
 
 Just think what a poor, strange notion the 
 
 people had al)out this new kind 
 
 The Church. . v • i? ^ ^ l- 
 
 or religion tor a long, long time. 
 
 There had l)een great religions in the 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 69 
 
 world before. The Romans and Greeks had 
 imaginary gods sitting around on top of high 
 mountains and in the sky, who ruled like 
 mighty kings over all their wars, their seas, 
 their agriculture. But they had no thought 
 that any God ruled by love alone. 
 
 They thought gods must, of course, rule 
 by power. And it is no wonder that when 
 the new religion came into the world during 
 these dark times, people supposed somehow 
 it was to be a religion of power or it was 
 of little good, so the Christian church strove 
 to be a power, and it was. 
 
 The first real Christians like Peter and 
 John and Paul, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, 
 Origeu, Chrysostom, Athanasius, Augus- 
 tine — big names, but never mind — did not 
 suppose Christianity to be a thing of pom- 
 pous power, but later Christians did. The 
 early Christians were great in being gentle, 
 not powerful. 
 
 But old gods, to be good for anything had 
 
70 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 to be powerful, so, of course, it was liumaii 
 to try to have Christianity a great power. 
 And do you know people were forced into 
 being Christians! When a great king came 
 to be a Christian then he made all his 
 people profess to be Christians. 
 
 So the Church of the lowly, loving Jesus 
 came to be the greatest power on earth. It 
 even made kings kneel down to the Popes. 
 The Pope represented God on the earth. 
 God, of course, owned the earth, they said, 
 for He made it; then if the Pope was God's 
 representative he must be the one who 
 o\vned the land really, instead of anybody 
 else, and people came to pay the Pope the 
 fees for land. Columbus' most important 
 permission to discover new land came from 
 the Pope. 
 
 The Church grew to be so jjowerful that 
 by the time Columbus was l^orn all Europe 
 belonged to it. 
 
 All this time of the Dark Ages, then, the 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 71 
 
 " Light of the World " was coming in, and 
 although Christians at first made this mis- 
 take of honestly trying to rule the world as 
 they thought God would rule it, by power, 
 yet it was better Light than any before, for 
 there was much love in it. Pagan religion 
 had had none at all. 
 
 People were ready to die or to do any- 
 thing for this Christ whom they loved, and 
 
 oh! how they rejoiced when 
 The Crusaders. 
 
 they heard He was coming to 
 
 the earth again. The people had no Bibles 
 to read, so they believed only what the 
 priests told them. It is no wonder, then, 
 that the priests got up some very queer 
 things, so as to make the people obey them. 
 They would read the Scriptures to them. 
 They taught the people that Christ was com- 
 ing back to the earth again when one thou- 
 sand years from the time he first came had 
 gone by, so in this tenth century, 1000 A. D., 
 they began to look for Him. 
 
72 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Peter the Hermit preached everywhere 
 telling this, and, filled with delight, millions 
 and millions of these people we have been 
 talking abont, commenced climbing over the 
 mountains and wading the rivers, going to 
 Jerusalem, down at the east end of the pre- 
 cious sea, to meet Him. Peter said Jeru- 
 salem was where Jesus was crucified and it 
 was where He would come again. So men, 
 women and children, for two hundred years 
 kept going to and from Jerusalem to see 
 Jesus. 
 
 We are talking about centuries of time 
 and millions of people: remember how great 
 this all is. It will help you in all your 
 studies of history and geograj^hy hereafter. 
 
 Now this going to and fro for so many 
 years from Spain, France, England, Italy, 
 and other countries, to Jerusalem, made a 
 great change in Europe. Why? It was not 
 because they found Christ at Jerusalem, for 
 they were disappointed in that; it was not 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 73 
 
 because tliey got into so many fights as they 
 did when they got there, and found the 
 Saracens had possession of Jerusalem (re- 
 member this, for Columbus tried to do some- 
 thing about it); but it made wonderful 
 changes in Europe because it started the 
 people moving around and finding out 
 things about others besides themselves. So 
 you see what there was left of civilization, 
 what there was of learning and goodness, 
 commenced again to grow when people 
 moved about and thought. 
 
 Now all this was called " Crusading," 
 and it was what made Genoa and Venice 
 grow so fast in the tenth and eleventh 
 centuries. People got very tired of going 
 by land, so they went by water, instead. 
 Genoa and Venice lay at the heads of two 
 points of water not very far apart from 
 each other, where travelers could take a 
 vessel. Therefore great rivalry sprang up 
 between these two powers. Each worked 
 
74 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 hard to get the most custom and become 
 great in navigation. 
 
 People began to carry goods with them, 
 and to trade them off for something else; 
 they made money faster tlian 1)y digging in 
 the land. This was the beginning of real 
 commerce. 
 
 Ah ! Now you see things are ripening. 
 
 Jesus did not come to Jerusalem, but His 
 spirit did come to all Europe through this. 
 He made people know each other, and some- 
 times love each other. The new was really 
 commencing, the world was beginning to 
 move on. 
 
 In this tenth century the schools grew, the 
 church grew, science grew, art grew, and 
 commerce grew. This made a great change, 
 but rememl)er the change came slowly. 
 
 Marco Polo brought the compass, you 
 know, in the twelfth century, and this 
 ])rought many new ideas into navigation, 
 for sailors could now guide their vessels at 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 75 
 
 all times and need not wait for the sun to 
 come out in tlie daytime or for tlie moon 
 and stars at night. 
 
 I have told you how gunpowder made a 
 great change in naval war, in vessels and 
 in many ways. The greatest 
 change of all, however, next to 
 Columbus' discovery, was the thing which 
 John Gutenburg found out, that writing 
 could be done with something besides a 
 man's hand. All books were written by 
 hand, and always had been, up to the time 
 that Columbus was born. 
 
 It was in Germany that men first found that 
 a sort of impression, or imprint, could be 
 taken of a lot of wooden letters all at one 
 time, if they had ink on them. Then they 
 found that a lot of these imprints could be 
 made from one surface. And, oh, what a dis- 
 covery! What secrets John Gutenburg kept 
 to himself! He first used ^vooden letters tied 
 together with strings. It ^vas afterwards 
 
76 COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 
 
 found that movable metal letters were more 
 convenient. 
 
 The Bible was the first l)ook that was 
 printed. A man bought a beautiful copy, 
 supposing it had been written by hand. Of 
 course it cost a great deal of money, for such 
 a book was the work of one man's lifetime. 
 The owner was very proud of it, for it was 
 so beautifully written. He showed it to 
 another man and, behold, he had one just 
 exactly like it! These surjDrises happening, 
 set men to wondering how in the world this 
 beautiful, even, clean writing could be done. 
 The type imitated writing in Latin and the 
 pages had beautiful colored pictures on them 
 made by hand, and it was a marvel. 
 
 Do you know there is an original Guten- 
 burg Bilde in Chicago? It is the loan of Mr. 
 Ellsworth to the Chicago Art Institute, and 
 there it lies in a glass case for all to see. It 
 is in two volumes; one lies shut and one lies 
 open so people may see the outside and the 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT ME FOUND. 77 
 
 inside without touching the precious relic. 
 Mr. Ellswortli and his friend, E.ev. Mr. Gun- 
 saulus, in 1891, heard of this Bible being for 
 sale, so they went to New York quite deter- 
 mined to buy it for Chicago, and they did, 
 paying $14,000. There is but one other cop}- 
 in the world. See it if you can, for it is a 
 great prize. 
 
 Printing commenced secretly in Germany 
 in 1436, and in 1462 it was made known. 
 In 1465 printing was done at Paris, Milan, 
 Venice and at Rome; it did not reach Eng- 
 land until 1474. But just think how slowly 
 it grew, after all, for even in 1492, the 
 same year that Columbus discovered America, 
 there were only sixty printed books in the 
 world, that is, sixty different books. Forty- 
 four of these books were in England. In 
 1500 it is said there were five hundred 
 23rinting presses in all Europe, but they were 
 clumsy things compared with what we have 
 now. 
 
Y8 COLUMBUS ANi) WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 The first j^i'inting press in our New AVorld 
 came to Mexico in 1586. Fifty years after, 
 one was set up at Lima, Soutli America; then 
 over fifty years more passed by before one was 
 set up at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1(330. 
 
 The first printing press in our AVest was at 
 Cincinnati in I7l>8, the next at St. Louis in 
 1808. 
 
 So, you see, printing was really a new way 
 of getting along, and you can easily see 
 what a Avonderful discovery it was, for it lets 
 thought and news run through a very wide 
 and rapid channel from one end of the earth 
 to the other. Before printing came, all 
 thought was crowded into very few libraries, 
 and it generally stayed there. 
 
 Before Columbus discovered America and 
 while people lived only along sea-coasts, the 
 Avorld was crowded for room ; Columbus 
 was just needed. A man of God, he was 
 inspired to find new ground. This land 
 around the sea had been trodden on so nianv 
 
COLUMBUS AND WIIAT HE FOUND. 79 
 
 years, and liad so many old things tumbling 
 do^vn on it that the world needed a new con- 
 tinent. Columbus did not know all that, he 
 just did his own work, and did greater things 
 than he knew. 
 
 Now these Middle Ages were dark and 
 Ions:. The a2:e before was o-reater in its 
 pagan glory, the age since is greatei' in its 
 Christian glory; and you can easily un- 
 derstand, I think, that the Middle Ages, the 
 one thousand years 1). c, was just the sor- 
 rowful l)attle time in the world between 
 Pagan truth and Christian truth, between 
 man-made truth and God's truth. 
 
 You know when a little Christian truth 
 comes into your own young hearts it gener- 
 ally is T)orn of a little l)attle you have had 
 with a falsehood or with a bit of selfishness. 
 So it is Avdth the histor}' of Christian truth 
 everywhere, in all places and at all times. 
 
 We people are living now in the New 
 Time already four hundred years old, and 
 
80 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 we must l)fc' as true to our Time as others 
 have l)een to theirs. We need not make any 
 more mistakes, we can see and read and 
 write and ride, and can do everything in 
 the world we wisli to do, just so it is not 
 wrong. 
 
 So h^t the new Colombo boy and girl 
 dare to dream and do as truly as Columbus 
 did. Light is fully come. Eoom is fully 
 come. Learning and goodness are still com- 
 ino-. Let us all discover all we can, for the 
 VvAit that now is, is neither dark nor pagan. 
 
V. 
 
 Colombo went to live in Portugal, prob- 
 ably, just as young men and young women 
 nowadays come to live in eitie?;. AVhether 
 it is best and wisest to do so or not, each 
 young or old person must decide for himself. 
 No preaching on the subject will enlighten 
 anyone in particular. AVe only know it was 
 like Colombo carefull}' to find out for him- 
 self, M'hat was best, and he went in 1470, 
 and found Portugal to be the center of life 
 in culture and enterprise. The wise Prince 
 Heniy had lived twenty years before, and 
 his great attention to navigation had made 
 it the leading nation in this. 
 
 Colombo seemed to bid farewell to his 
 beloved Genoa, as she faded in her glory on 
 the waters, and to take up his home "with 
 the new life which ])elono;ed to Portuo-al, as 
 she spread her sails out in new discoveries. 
 Xo other nation was doing anything like it. 
 
82 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Perhaps Colombo's brotlier Bartholomew 
 was already at Lisbon when he came there, 
 and was eng-ao-ed in the l)usiuess of makino' 
 maps and selling books; at least this is what 
 Colombo did, when he came, whether he was 
 in partnership with his bi'other or not. He 
 made enough money in this book business to 
 live, and . to send something to his father, 
 for he never forgot liis father; but he prob- 
 ably read more of his books than he sold. 
 
 Books were then, of course, great wonders. 
 They were yet a very expensive luxury, and 
 only the dukes and dignitaries could • afford 
 to buy them. Colombo, however, seems to 
 have managed to have them to read by 
 going into the business himself. 
 
 Colombo probably did not have an ex- 
 tended business in this line, for he failed to 
 
 become very I'icli; he seemed 
 He Falls in Love. . ' , . i i ij. 
 
 to gravitate to his old lire 
 
 of navigation. He also fell in love with 
 an old navigator's daughter, or ratliei-, she 
 
COLTTMBT'S AND WHAT HE FOUND, 83 
 
 fell first ill love mtli liim. As soon as 
 Colombo was a citizen of Lisbon he was an 
 attendant at church. This devoted and up- 
 right and handsome young Italian with his 
 face set toward true thin2:s in a strano:e 
 country, was very likely to attract the atten- 
 tion of some true young lady, and so he 
 did. She was an inmate of the convent, and 
 " sought him with such expressions of affec- 
 tion that he easily yielded to her charms," 
 and they were married. 
 
 The young man probably had other plans 
 and heard other voices than the voice of love, 
 in his wide outlook upon his manhood, with 
 all its grand possibilities in that time and 
 place, but he rightfully yielded to a true 
 love, and it blessed him. 
 
 One thing we know, it blessed him by 
 bringing to him more books and plans on 
 navigation. Her father or grandfather (his- 
 tory is all mixed up about which he was) had 
 been a great Portuguese navigator, Perestrello 
 
84 COLUMRT'S AND AVTIAT HE FOUND. 
 
 ])y name. Her name was Phelipa Moniz Per- 
 estrello, with a Dona before it, wliicli meant 
 that she was a young lady of rank. Don [ind 
 Dona were titles that stood for much in 
 Spain and Portugal. 
 
 Columbo seems to have always had a way 
 of interesting people of rank. Though he 
 was himself l)orn with no rank but that of a 
 fine physique and a noble spirit, he always 
 ranked rightly with the noble of ])lt)od. He 
 naturally belonged to the people of refinement 
 and power. 
 
 This young pai]', when married, went with 
 lier mother — her father was dead — to live 
 away out in the ocean on an island called 
 Porto Santo. I told you to rememl)er this 
 island, and I hope you have, for it was the 
 romantic home of this charming couple. 
 
 There they lived, for it was where the 
 bride owned some property, and there 
 Coloml)o studied Perestrello's maps and 
 plans, and charts (for he was still going- 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT II K FOUND. 85 
 
 to school). He Wiis Avliere lie could liear 
 and see the latest things going on in Portu- 
 guese discoveries, Avhicli were at this time 
 most active. The l)eating and the roar of 
 the mighty Ocean Sea al)()ut his very home 
 in the night and in the day, must have filled 
 him with its majesty, and no dou])t he 
 
 „ 2:rew more and more to feel at 
 
 Baby Diego. ^ 
 
 home ^vitll it. A little hoy was 
 horn there. His name was Diego, — Don 
 Diego he is called in after history. 
 
 Those were peaceful days for Colomho. 
 He had enough to live on without niucli 
 concern. He studied and talked and loved 
 his little family (for he was always passion- 
 ately fond of all his family connections), 
 while coming to a solid conclusion that the 
 mystery of darkness could and must be 
 solved. 
 
 About this time, Colombo heard of a man 
 by the name of Toscanelli, a man then about 
 seventy-seven years old, who lived at Florence, 
 
8<) COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Italy. Ill fact a great many people had heard 
 
 of liim, for lie had long before made liimself 
 
 famous, in that slow-going day, hy writing a 
 
 little hook on what he believed the world Avas 
 
 like. He thon2:ht there was a way 
 Dr. Paul ^ . . -^ 
 
 rr ,,. to that ^vonderful India in the 
 
 Toscanelli. 
 
 East, not by going east over 
 dreadful mountains and long distances, but 
 by going west around the world, on water, 
 and coming to the East. There lay the water 
 toVvard the west, Avliy not try it ? This was 
 very startling, for Toscanelli was a great 
 scholar. He had really written a letter to 
 King Alphonzo, King of Portugal, once upon 
 a time, giving his views definitely, and had 
 also sent him a map of what he believed the 
 West was like. The Portuguese were for 
 years greatly excited about it, but the ex- 
 citement did n't come to anything after all, 
 because nol^ody wanted to try it. 
 
 Colomlx), however, heard about that Tos- 
 canelli, and since, as I said before, Colombo 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 87 
 
 set'iiic'd to belong to scholars and to what 
 they knew, he dared to write to the great old 
 Doctor. He had a fine handwriting always 
 (the lack of which has spoiled many a young 
 man's good start in the ^vorld), and he could 
 write a most interesting letter. He wrote, 
 asking Toscanelli for a copy of the letter he 
 had heard of, and also for the map which he 
 had once sent to the king. It was asking a 
 good deal, it seems to me, hut the Doctor 
 granted his request and sent them l)oth to 
 him, giving his exact calculations. This was 
 a great compliment to our sincere and ener 
 getic Colombo, for he ^vas only a plain young 
 man, as }^et, thinking in the same great lines. 
 It was all a most important success for him. 
 This same map went with him through all 
 his further difficulties and successes, until he 
 actually touched our shores ten or fifteen 
 years afterward. Uunfortunately, however, 
 it was lost after that. 
 
 This map, when Colombo first received it, 
 
88 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 must have stirred liis blood, for it taught 
 exactly what he thought, except that he be- 
 lieved the ocean was narrower than Toscan- 
 elli planned. It calculated that the earth (if 
 round) must be about eighteen thousand 
 miles in circumference. You know now it 
 is twenty-five thousand miles. How would 
 you like to sail out on such a mistake as that? 
 But this map suited Colombo the best of any- 
 thing he had ever seen. He thought eighteen 
 thousand miles to be the circumference, yet 
 he l)elieved the continent — nobody supposed 
 for a minute there were two continents — took 
 up more space than Toscanelli thought it did. 
 He believed there was less ocean. Toscanelli 
 said the land occupied about two -thirds of 
 the circumference. Here is an example in 
 fractions: — two-thirds of eighteen thousand 
 miles = twelve thousand miles. He thought 
 that must l)e the size of the land on the earth, 
 which, you see, left six thousand miles of 
 water. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 89 
 
 Colombo thought the unknown waters were 
 not so wide and that the land was much 
 wider, and this was the best geography the 
 world had, until Columbus solved the mys- 
 tery. No wonder it helped to break up those 
 awful Dark Ages. 
 
 There were other great men and things 
 helping him on, you know. About this 
 time, Colombo had some corre- 
 spondence with the g-rent 2:enius, 
 Da Vinci. ^ ... 
 
 Leonardo Da Vinci, who was inter- 
 ested in more different things than almost any 
 other person who ever lived. From being the 
 inventor of the wheelbarrow to painting some 
 of the greatest pictures in the world, his mind 
 was one which allowed nothing to escape him. 
 
 So, in great art galleries, when you see 
 pictures by Da Vinci, just remember that he 
 had a good word to j)ut into Colombo^s head 
 about that western way to the East. 
 
 The astrolabe was an instrument with which 
 men measured the height of the sun from the 
 
90 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 horizon, at this time, and it, as well as the 
 compass, enabled men to cut loose and sail 
 out of sight of land. 
 
 The years were going by with Colombo, 
 and these facts tempted him more and more 
 to try the deep — while very few others 
 thought anything about it. 
 
 He sailed often on the Guinea coast. Per- 
 haps he made the trip to Iceland at this time. 
 
 He was a graydiaired man when l)ut 
 
 thirty years old. It is said " his whole 
 
 , countenance had an air of 
 Appearance of 
 
 ^ , _. authority." He must have 
 
 Columbo. "J 
 
 had a most striking appear- 
 ance, for he had large blue eyes, was very 
 erect and tall; and to have an air of authority 
 along with gray hairs, and all that with a 
 disposition " engaging and affable," and to be 
 simple in diet and dress — this makes a com- 
 bination most rare. 
 
 It is not surprising, however, that ^ve have 
 no portrait of Columbus— only as some one 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. [)l 
 
 has imagined liim to appear — for the world 
 was only theu beginning to paint portraits. 
 Of course only great people liad them, and 
 painters never thought (^f Colombo being 
 great. 
 
 Remember, also, that not until 1839 
 were pictures " taken " by any 2>i'f>cess ex- 
 cej)t by painting. Now we have them for 
 a few dollars a dozen. 
 
 Colombo was simple in dress, when gor- 
 geousness was the fashion; not self-indulgent 
 in eating or drinking, when that has always 
 been the fashion — these thino-s mark him a 
 hero, in the l^eginning; though his poverty, 
 like many another person's, may have greatl}' 
 aided his heroism. 
 
 Our Colombo gradually rose in life, in spite 
 of all his difficulties — perhaps it would ])e 
 better to say he rose by them, for if a charac- 
 ter is great enough to " stand the strain of 
 life" at all, God generally makes more char- 
 acter by more strain, until He has one to be 
 
92 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 depeuded upon. Boys know" liow this is 
 when they want to make more muscle. It is 
 by exercise. This character that was being 
 formed at Portugal in those years of strain and 
 trial, tlirough much exercise of discouragement 
 and encouragement, rising and falling, was the 
 very character God could depend upon when 
 it came to the test in after years. 
 
 His maps did n't pay very well but he some- 
 how could approach kings, and Avrite to great 
 painters and great doctors and have great 
 schemes. He had risen, at last, to where he 
 succeeded in having his plan carefully laid 
 ])efore King Jolin of Portugal. 
 
 This most cultivated and learned nation in 
 
 navigation, this center of much new learning, 
 
 Avhere Colombo had struo-o-led to 
 
 ing on y^^^^ j^^, twelve or fifteen years, 
 
 now faced its chance for life, 
 but ho^v little it dreamed it had any- 
 thinfj; to learn from this self-tau2:ht Genoese? 
 We do not know many particulars about 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 93 
 
 it all, only that King John did give enough 
 attention to it once upon a time, to appoint 
 a lot of men to look into the matter and 
 decide. Colombo was asked to loan them 
 his charts and plans so that the Council 
 might l)etter understand exactly what his 
 scheme was, and before he received them 
 again they had secretly sent a caravel out 
 into the deep to see how this very vision- 
 ary notion might work. 
 
 They found out nothing, of course, because 
 Colombo himself was not along, and the very 
 wise (?) Council reported Colombo's plans 
 a great failure. Now just think!' They had 
 as much, and a great deal more, than Co- 
 lombo, to go by. They had Toscanelli's ideas. 
 They had done a great deal of discovering 
 before. They had vessels and money and 
 men and experience, but all that did not 
 make a character strong enough to " get 
 there." No, they reported it all a failure — - 
 and were not ashamed of doing so. 
 
94 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 But ColoDil)o, instead of feeling mortified 
 and discouraged, and giving up Lis scheme, 
 
 though he was in debt and alone, 
 
 Colombo 1,1 1 1 i 
 
 seemed to be only more deter- 
 Leaves 
 
 r, ^ , mined. He was now sure he kne^v 
 Portugal. 
 
 more about it than they all, and 
 the next we hear of him he has quietly left 
 Lisbon. 
 
 Whether he leaves because they make 
 such sport of him or whether it is because 
 he is much in debt and has to leave, we do 
 not know. We can only learn that he went 
 without people knowing where or when. 
 But there is' one sure thing, the next King 
 of Portugal very politely asked him, in 
 after years, to come back again, and said 
 that everything should be made right, and 
 that they might give him what he wanted. 
 But it was too late then. 
 
 Colombo took his little boy (and he nuist 
 have packed up the map, too) and went away. 
 The loving young wife, with whom he liad 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 1)5 
 
 shared a home so happily, had j)robably 
 died. 
 
 It must have been a sad l)reaking up of 
 his fond dreams of what the Poi*tuguese were, 
 and of what they coiihl do. They were 
 making such great discoveries down the 
 African coast and everywhere close to 
 shore — and were the only nation doing such 
 things — and if Colomh<^ had been made of 
 weaker stuff, his heart ^vould have broken, 
 and he would have died (for he could n't 
 give it up) and that would have been all. 
 
 Then my story would have ended here. 
 Instead of that, just think what he did! 
 He was so sure of his great thought, that 
 he only felt sorry and angry with Portugal 
 because she was to be left out of this great 
 plan. He slipped off alone. 
 
 How little it appeared to be that ^vay ! 
 How it took a great soul to know it ! So 
 it is now and always has been. Only the 
 gi'eat of faith have eyes to see things as they 
 
96 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 really are. The rest of the world follow 
 some leader iu a round ring, like little chil- 
 dren at a game of some sort, while those 
 who know something can be done, and must 
 l)e done, just go and do it. 
 
 These are the noble of God's world, who 
 reach so far into the unknown that they 
 have no other hand to lead them but God's 
 hand. God made it all and knows it all, 
 and it will not do to ask men much about 
 it, sometimes. 
 
 So Columbus felt that Portugal was left 
 forlorn and alone, and so she was, Avhen he 
 left her himself; but he took with him 
 all that Portugal could give him, and that 
 which Portugal knew about discovery, and 
 his maps and his little boy. 
 
VI. 
 
 After Portus^al was left by Columbus, what 
 did he do? He never gave up, but only 
 wondered ^vhat other nation under the sun 
 ^vould undertake the great business that he 
 knew must be done. 
 
 No other nation knew as much about dis- 
 covery as did Portugal, so it w^as with him 
 a most solemn question as to what next he 
 should do and where next he should go. 
 This is probably the time when he sent his 
 brother Bartholomew to England to offer his 
 project to Henry VH. 
 
 We know his brother went to England at 
 some time on this errand, and stayed so 
 
 long — earning his living, no 
 England's 
 
 doubt, while trying; to interest 
 Chance. ' *^ ^ 
 
 somebody — that when he returned, 
 Columbus had already gone for the second 
 time under Spain. There were no newsj)apers 
 
 97 
 
98 COLUMBUS AND WHAT IIK FOT^XD. 
 
 in those days, to tell all tlie news, so it must 
 liave been a great surprise to liiiu to find 
 Columhus gone, for it is said lie liad witli 
 Mm a favoral)le proposition from King Henry 
 VII. of England. 
 
 Perhaps Golumlnis Avent to his oAvn city 
 of Genoa at this time, to ask the Genoese to 
 undertake it, l3ut all is uncertainty as to 
 exactly when Columbus gave England and 
 Genoa the grand opportunity to carry out 
 his j)hin. 
 
 He thought of France, no doubt, at this 
 time, for France was a strong power, now 
 under Louis XL, and had Genoa by the 
 neck, but France was not the nation to un- 
 dertake a thing like this for she had done 
 nothing in the way of discovery. 
 
 In those days of little acquaintance between 
 nations, and wdien news and gossip traveled 
 slowly, Columbus proliably kilew little about 
 the real disposition of any country until he 
 had lived in it. He was utterly alone. He 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 99 
 
 was "a man without a country,'' that k, lie 
 was really not at home in any of them. He 
 was, indeed, the first American, for he '^vas 
 related to all countries. He was an Italian, 
 that is, a Genoese, and Genoa had con ^ to 
 1)6 quite French ; he had adopted Portugal as 
 his home, and he wa; thus a part of those 
 three countries. It yet remains for me to 
 tell you of how he became related to Spain, 
 and finally to America. 
 
 AVhen he became a Spaniard in order to 
 gain grer.t Spain, how little she realized that 
 she gained more than he did. 
 
 Nothing is known of his wanderings, at 
 first, l:>ut it is found that he came into Spain 
 and laid all his plans before two large- 
 hearted, wealthy Spanish noblemen, who, in 
 some way, entertained him as their guest for 
 tw^o years. They were the Duke of Medina 
 Sidonia, and the Duke of Medina Cell, 
 
 They lived down on the southern coast of 
 Spain, directly south of Portugal, facing the 
 
100 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 great ocean. They were immensely wealthy, 
 and they must have been much pleased with 
 
 the princely Columbus, though 
 
 The Dukes of n i i i • i i 
 
 all he had was a princely i)lan 
 Sidonia and . i. . i 
 
 „ .. and a little boy. They, at least, 
 
 treated him royally, and finally 
 at the end of two years, gave him a letter of 
 introduction to their Queen — Isabella, the 
 Queen of Spain. This is how Columl:)us 
 iirst came to know this important person. 
 
 These noblemen thought very seriously 
 about undertaking the voyage for themselves, 
 as they were well able, l)nt they finally 
 concluded it was a matter of too great im- 
 portance, and that it shouhl l)e done l\y a 
 nation instead of by private persons, for 
 Columbus had them well under the influence 
 of his enthusiasm, you see. They wrote 
 to the Queen that they, themselves, had 
 thouo-ht of fittino; Columbus out for his 
 voyage, but that in case of important dis- 
 coveries, only some monarch Avould be able 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 101 
 
 to command the countries found. Yet they 
 wished to keep an interest in the Imsiness 
 and have some of the good of it. 
 
 All this introduction to the Queen and 
 King of Spain ^vas pushed right along after 
 the dukes gave up carrying out the plan 
 themselves. Columbus had made up his 
 mind to go to France, but the dukes could 
 not let this opportunity to do something 
 great in discovery pass from their own coun- 
 try; they must have Avritten a very interest- 
 ing letter to the Queen about Columbus, in 
 order to have it interest her so much as 
 it did, and at a time when she must have 
 been one of the most occupied persons in 
 the world. 
 
 She was a young mother of young chil- 
 dren, and had much to take up her mind 
 in managing her wily husband — whom she 
 always loved and served in the highest 
 sense. She was also so absorbed in manag- 
 ing her realm in the fear of God, that she 
 
102 ('('LJ'MBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 
 
 sometimes had to lead armies herself. How 
 could she stop to l)ecome acquainted Avith 
 a Avaiidering stranger, ^v\i]\ f< most strange 
 scheme? But she did, and lequested that 
 he be presented to her. It was a most 
 unfortunately busy time, however. 
 
 Before we go any farther we must know 
 
 something about Isabella and Ferdinand, 
 
 and about Spain — for you will 
 
 see plenty of Spanish relations at 
 
 our great AVorkVs Fair party. 
 
 Isabella, next to Columbus himself, is the 
 most important relative we have. 
 
 Isal)ella and Ferdinand ^veve at Cordova 
 A hen Columbus first came to them. Look 
 a the map and see what journey he and 
 h ' little T)oy took, bearing the important 
 le ;er of introduction. (Some Avriters say 
 C( umbus was iirst introduced to the King 
 an Queen of Spain l)y Perez, tlie Prior of 
 the Convent of La Pal)ida, but this is a mis- 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 103 
 
 take. This interesting introduction through 
 Perez came later.) 
 
 When Colunil)ns first saw Queen Isabella, 
 she was about thirty-four years of age. 
 She was a very beautiful woman, and a 
 very Queen, indeed. 
 
 She was a descendant of John of Gaunt, 
 through both her parents, and was a woman 
 of very strong character. This showed itself 
 to be true when she was but a young girl, 
 thirteen years old. Her father, King John 
 II., of Castile, had died when she was three 
 years old, leaving his crown to Henry, his 
 son, who was only a half-brother to Isabella, 
 and who was old enough to have daughters 
 of his OAvn. Then there was another brother, 
 so there was little chance that she would 
 ever be Queen, yet her hand was sought in 
 marriage, when she was but eleven years 
 old, for Ferdinand, Prince of Aragon, whom 
 she did finally marry, after many difficulties, 
 at eighteen years of age. Instead of becom- 
 
104 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 ing betrothed to Ferdinand at eleven years 
 of age, she was betrothed to his brother 
 Carlos, who was forty years old. Fortunately, 
 he died, and then in a year she was betrothed 
 to another man; but the young miss refused 
 to be bestowed in this manner, upon any 
 one, without consulting " the nobles of the 
 realm." Many things stirred the people 
 against the king, her half-brother, who was 
 not a good man, and they raised an army 
 to have his brother made king, instead. So 
 Henry then thought he could straighten out 
 matters by having Isabella marry a horrible 
 old man by the name of Don Pedro Girou. 
 Isabella was very miserable about this, ])ut 
 the betrothal was made. She said she would 
 not marry him, but that she should j)lunge 
 a dag-erer into his heart if she was forced to 
 do so. (She was now l)ut fifteen years old, 
 and had been betrothed three times to men 
 whom she hated.) But in spite of her threat, 
 Grand Master Don Pedro was on his way to 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 105 
 
 be married to her when he suddenly died. 
 Is it not rather remarkable how this lovely, 
 brave young woman was thus saved to become 
 the wife of the man she so loved always! 
 
 After this last man died, the king's brother 
 died, the one whom the people were striving 
 to have take the crown from Henry. So 
 they now offered to fight to have young 
 Isabella, the half-sister, made Queen. 
 
 She said, " No, she would not be Queen 
 of Castile until it was her right and duty 
 to be Queen," but she and the f)^ople forced 
 old Henry to sign an agreement that she 
 should be heir to the crown instead of his 
 own children (who really were not heirs), 
 and also an agreement that she should have 
 the right to choose her own husband. 
 
 So she finally lived in peace, and at 
 eighteen, she chose young Ferdinand of 
 Aragon to be her husband, but they had 
 an exciting time getting married in secret, 
 for old Henry, who paid .no attention to 
 
10() COLTTMHTTS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 liis a<j;r('('iii('iit, luid an army trying to pre- 
 vent tlie wedding. lie failed, and died 
 soon after. Tlien Isabella was really Queen 
 of Castile and Leon. Ferdinand agreed, 
 
 when he married her, that she 
 Queen it, 'mi 
 
 should retain all her sovereiijiity. 
 at Last. ^ -^ 
 
 This Avas a most important mat- 
 ter, later, when Isabella became interested 
 in our Columbus. 
 
 Isabella was a devout Christian, and had 
 a most loving and tender heart; all her bitter, 
 unnatural duties finally l)roke her heart, for 
 she died when oidy fifty-three years old, 
 haviuii: lived and IovcmI throu2;h crreat wars 
 and family anxieties. But she was always 
 cheerful and lovely in character and in 
 person. She is described as being very 
 beautiful in form and face; of medium 
 lieight, with fair complexion; her hair of 
 a bright chestnut c(dor, inclining to red, 
 and mild 1)1 ue eyes beaming \vith intelli- 
 gence and sensibility. She ^vas exceedingly 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 107 
 
 Ixviutiful — " Tlic liaiidsomest lady," says one 
 of lier lioiisehold, " whom I ever beheld, 
 and the most gracious in nnmners." 
 
 " She was dignified and modest, even to a 
 degree of reserve. She early imbibed a 
 relish for letters, in which she was superior 
 to Ferdinand." At the same time we read 
 of her playfulness, and joy in recreation 
 Avith her family as they grew into young 
 manhood and womanhood, which sometimes 
 quite troubled the very pious advisers that 
 she had. Her influence as a Queen and a 
 mother has been felt in the whole world, 
 2^erhaps as no other one woman's ever has 
 l)een. Queen Elizabeth was great as a 
 Queen, l^ut not as a woman; she, also, bad 
 very much to do with settling this New 
 World, and is one of our relatives, but 
 Isabella was not only Queen, but the 
 mother of beautiful Queens; one of them 
 was the good Queen Catherine of Eng- 
 land. She had five children ; the two 
 
108 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 eldest, Isabella and Jiiau, the most prom- 
 ising and gifted of the family, died as they 
 reached mature life, instead of li^^ng to 
 carry out the greatness of Spain, which 
 Ferdinand and Isabella had so wisely 
 begun. 
 
 I have introduced you to Isabella and 
 What Made Ferdinand, so now an intro- 
 Spain. duction to Spain comes next. 
 
 Castile and Leon Avere married to Aragon, 
 you see, when Isabella married Ferdinand. 
 This young King and Queen were very 
 active and soon added more provinces to 
 their kingdom. That is what made Spain. 
 
 They felt their great mission in the world 
 was to use their combined power to convert 
 the world to the church, at least, to convert 
 all in their own domain. The church, to 
 them, was the power of God in the world. 
 If this was true, then it was supposed to 
 be their duty either to convert everybody 
 or to drive them out of the country, for 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 109 
 
 God was the ruler, and all must obey Him. 
 So they carried on those terrible " pious 
 wars " against the Moors and against the 
 Jews, and dealt most severely with all who 
 doubted the church. 
 
 It was a most sickening piece of business, 
 and one which finally, it seems to me, broke 
 Isabella's heart. 
 
 The Inquisition was revived during their 
 reign, and hundreds of thousands were tort- 
 ured to death for not believing in the 
 church. It was all because the world had 
 not yet learned that God was Love. It was 
 supposed that God only ruled by power 
 and blood, and they had not yet learned 
 the rule of love. We must not judge too 
 harshly, for we do not yet know much 
 about love, ourselves. 
 
 Spain was coming to her greatest glory, 
 and ^vas ending her wars triumphantly, about 
 the time she came to know our Columbus. 
 Isabella and Ferdinand had been married 
 
110 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 about twenty years, and tliey had encour- 
 aged art and literature, and reformed laws 
 and had governed their united realm with 
 wonderful wisdom and power. Spain was 
 the greatest nation of Europe at this time. 
 She was not so cultivated as Portugal, nor 
 so advanced in discovery and in learning, 
 but she was greatest in size, and in power 
 
 to conquer the world. And now, 
 Spain in . .^ n . 
 
 lust as the liercest wars were 
 Her Glory. -^ , . 
 
 going on with the Moors, when 
 
 Isabella herself had sometimes to Avear a 
 soldier's suit and command armies, while 
 Kino; Ferdinand was in command somewhere 
 else; and just as they were beginning to 
 believe they would finally conquer, and 
 when the court, with all its splendid array, 
 was sort of camping around through the 
 domain of Spain, there came a poor man 
 with a letter of introduction from some- 
 ])ody, about a plan of his which Portugal 
 had tried and believed worth nothing. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. Ill 
 
 "What!" said everybody, "does that 
 fellow suppose this whole grand time of 
 triumphs, marchings and music, is all going 
 to stop, so he may have a chance to make 
 himself glorious? No, indeed!" 
 
 Yes, it was a most sad time for a man like 
 Columbus to put in an appearance with any- 
 thing on hand but to help light the Moors. 
 The Moors, the Moors must go! The relig- 
 ion of Christ must triumph! That was the 
 business of the world just then. 
 
 And Columljus himself was such a loyal 
 
 son of the church that he did not doubt that 
 
 was true. He loved the church 
 
 Columbus 111 
 
 . , and wanted to see the church 
 and the 
 
 Church conquer. He asked no questions 
 about theology but took theology 
 as he found it. He felt the church to be 
 the all -glorious and beautiful hope of God in 
 the ^vorld. He believed in obeying God, if 
 it took his life, and he was ready to lay down 
 his life for the truth as he understood it. 
 
112 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Sometime, during his six years' waiting upon 
 
 tlie court of Spain, Columbus seems to have 
 
 found a new wife. Her 
 Beatrix Enriquez. _ . . 
 
 name was Jieatriz Jiinriquez. 
 
 She was young and very beautiful and of a 
 nol)le family. Her brothers were always 
 good friends to Columbus, and finally went 
 on the great voyage. 
 
 Another little boy was born ; his name was 
 Fernando, and he was a dear son along with 
 Diego. He it was who grew up to be a 
 very scholarly man and wrote his father's 
 history. 
 
 Columbus, while waiting for Isabella and 
 Ferdinand to make up their minds as to 
 Avhat they should do for him, joined the 
 army and helped to fight the Moors. He 
 lieard how they held that wonderful holy 
 city of Jerusalem, the very place where 
 Christ was crucified, and he heard how 
 Queen Isabella had embroidered a most 
 beautiful veil with her own hands, to be 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTD. 113 
 
 sent to the lioly place as soon as it was 
 taken from the Moors, and all these things 
 made him more and more snre that some 
 day, Grod wonld have control of this whole 
 world. It would seem that just such a King 
 and Queen ought to rule this woidd for 
 God. 
 
 While waiting and hoping that Isabella 
 and Ferdinand would come to help him 
 get hold of the whole New World for God, 
 he would sometimes become dreadfully dis- 
 couraged, but they still put him off, saying 
 they would try to hear all about his plan 
 some other time. 
 
 Once they said, " Yes, we will have this 
 thing seen to," and one winter up at Sala- 
 manca, where there were a great 
 Council of __ . ., , 
 
 University and a g-reat many 
 Salamanca. . 
 
 learned and wise men, and where 
 
 the Queen was spending the winter, they 
 concluded they would give this Columbus a 
 chance to tell his story, and would have a 
 
114 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Council called to examiue liim and really 
 settle this matter. 
 
 But Talavera was confessor to the Queen, 
 and he had his mind jnade up that it Avas 
 foolish for the Queen to be so interested 
 in a crazy man, a man ^vho was about fifty 
 years old, and who had so far failed in life; 
 and as she was so very conscientious and 
 careful always to obey her God through 
 her confessor, it is a great wonder indeed 
 that she had such strong, natural, Avomanly 
 sense as to think anything at all about 
 Colunil)Us. 
 
 But Talavera got up the Council of Sala- 
 manca, and, of course, he called a Council 
 that suited himself, and for several years it 
 would not say yes or no. There happened 
 to be one or two men in it, however, ^vho 
 held on to the hope that the woi-ld might 
 be round, and that Columbus might be 
 right; yet, at last, it gave the decision that 
 the whole scheme was '' xaiu, impracticable, 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 115 
 
 and resting on grounds too weak to merit 
 the support of tlie government." 
 
 THs sounds very grand and dignified. 
 Poor Queen Isabella and Columbus; they 
 must have wondered if it could be possible 
 that they were only dreamers and schemers, 
 and that "the great Council was all-wise! 
 
 How sad to be so mistaken! How sorry 
 the Queen must have been for the noble 
 and handsome hero, whom she felt in her 
 heart was wiser than all the confessors and 
 wise men. 
 
 Two men of the Council supported the 
 scheme — Cardinal Mendoza, and the Arch- 
 bishop of Seville. They were both important 
 men. They managed to have the King and 
 Queen answer Columbus that, " although 
 they were too much occupied at present to 
 embark in his undertaking, yet at the con- 
 clusion of the war, they ^vould find both 
 time and inclination to treat Avith him." 
 
 This is carefully said. They do not say 
 
116 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 they'll find time and inclination to under- 
 take for liim, but time and inclination to 
 " treat with him." 
 
 So, after six years' waiting, fighting, and 
 living, sometimes upon the Queen's money, 
 and sometimes without any money, Columbus 
 concludes if this is all he has gained, he will 
 leave Spain, just as he left Portugal, and find 
 out again, " what next." 
 
VII. 
 
 How bitterly the discussions all came up 
 again, about the world being round, for these 
 Churchmen attacked Colon (let us call our 
 hero Colon for a little while, for this was his 
 name in Spanish) on Scriptural ground. 
 To say the world was i-ound, was to say the 
 Bilile was not true. The Bible said a great 
 deal about the four corners of the earth, and 
 about the sea being spread out as molten 
 glass, etc., etc.; how could the sea be flat 
 and yet round ? 
 
 None of these things puzzled Colon. His 
 
 scientific turn of mind did not see things as 
 
 they appeared. In his inherent greatness he 
 
 could see farther than they in their learned 
 
 greatness. He could feel man's smallness 
 
 and God's greatness, and that God might 
 
 have made a ball so big that when he put 
 
 117 
 
118 COLTMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 
 
 little man on it there was no up nor down 
 to it, if only man and beast, and Avater, and 
 everything else stayed on it; that was all 
 the " down " there was to anything con- 
 nected with the great round earth. So he 
 was not woi-ried about anything of that 
 kind, or about the Bible either. He was 
 only troubled about unlearning some of 
 their learning. 
 
 Colon left the court folks and started for 
 France at last, in good earnest. He and his 
 
 son Diego next appeared at 
 
 The Convent of ,i ^ j? j. i • i 
 
 the gate or a convent, wnich 
 
 La Rabida and ."" , . 
 
 ^ received its name rrom some 
 
 Juan Perez. 
 
 miraculous claim in its very 
 early day, of having cured the dreadful 
 disease of hydrophobia. Our Lady of the 
 Madness was its patron saint. 
 
 It has been a most jnizzling matter as to 
 when this visit to the convent was made. 
 
 AVe have adopted the theory of the later 
 writers — who , must all necessarily go to 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 119 
 
 Navarrete, and to the testimony of Fernan- 
 dez in tlie famons lawsuit, — that this is the 
 first visit which Columbus made to the con- 
 vent, with a " little l)oy," and " in distress." 
 From all that can be gathered, it is 
 thought that this " little boy " was about 
 twelve years old. 
 
 It was situated in a lovely spot, and here 
 ^vas where Juan Perez had retired from 
 this same court, disgusted, or at least, tired 
 of court life. 
 
 • He had been confessor to the Queen, and 
 yet without airs or self-glory al^out that, he 
 lived here so plainly and simply that he had 
 plenty of time and heart to hear all that 
 this stranger with the " little boy " had to 
 tell him about his mission in the Avorld. 
 
 How sweetly God plans things sometimes! 
 This ex-confessor to the Queen had much less 
 to do with the powers at the court at pres- 
 ent, than the confessor Talavera, and he had 
 learned to live without any of its dazzling 
 
120 COLUMBUS AND WHAT UK FOUND. 
 
 glory, a true, simple life ^v'liere lie could do 
 most good; yet how sweet and just like true 
 thiugs, tliat seem to happen sometimes, for 
 him, instead of Talavera, really to be the 
 one who, at last, should win the Queen to 
 her decision. 
 
 It Avas this way. Colon was hungry, and 
 poor, and alone, indeed. His little boy 
 must have something to eat, and Colon knew 
 about the hospitalit}^ of the convents, which 
 were situated here and there in the coun- 
 try, so he ^vent to La Rabida and asked 
 for bread and water. 
 
 Juan Perez saAV that he was entertaining 
 
 a man of great genius. In a little while 
 
 he was all awake to what 
 Garcia 
 
 ^ . seemed to him to be a very 
 
 Fernandez. •^ 
 
 important matter. He soon 
 found a learned young man Avho helped 
 to talk over this wonderful scheme ^vith 
 Columbus. This young man\s name was 
 Garcia Fernandez— he was the villaire doc- 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 121 
 
 tor. The village was only down the hill 
 from the convent and no doubt these 
 three had a grand and exciting visit 
 together, very soon. 
 
 At last — at last, Colon had found some one 
 who would listen to him without thinking 
 he was crazy. This Convent dedicated to 
 Our Lady of the Madness seems to have 
 been the only spot on earth where this 
 man, accused of madness, had a chance to 
 lay his head. 
 
 Real friendliness at last grasped Columbus 
 by the hand and opened its heart to do 
 anything in the world that could be done. 
 
 They talked and planned and figured up 
 all the knowledge they could get together, 
 as fast as possible, for Colon, Av^ho was 
 now fifty -seven years old, was so deter' 
 mined to go to France that no time was 
 to be lost. 
 
 Between them they commanded a great 
 deal of learning, for it was the kind that 
 
122 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 was real, and the kind that could 
 tlirive away oif there in the country by 
 the Sea, 1)y itself; it was not that sort 
 which paraded itself on nothing, in great 
 councils and liefore great folks. Garcia 
 Fernandez and Juan Perez had plenty of 
 books and knew them. They ^vere men 
 who looked out of their own eyes straight 
 into that sincere man's eyes who had 
 dreamed his dream so long, and had also 
 seen through his own eyes all his life; so 
 tliey three, together, saw something mighty. 
 
 No^v there were tAvo other wonderful pairs 
 of seeing eyes in the world, about this same 
 time, who felt just what these men thought. 
 These were Isal)ella's and those of her best 
 friend, the Marcliioness Moya. 
 
 Perez knew them well, not as court ladies, 
 but as women. He had known the Queen 
 most intimately, and he knew he commanded 
 her highest respect, and that anything he 
 might chance to choose, she would, in her 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 123 
 
 wisdom, believe was the best choice. So 
 
 what do you think! Juan Perez l)orrowed 
 
 a mule of a man by the name 
 The Mid= , ^ ^ , ' ^ 
 
 . . ^. . ot Juan Kodesquez, antl started 
 night Ride. ^ ' 
 
 at midnisfht to o-o two hundred 
 miles to see the Queen, expecting to change 
 her mind, after all that had been done. 
 
 This is the kind of desperate earnestness 
 that moves somethins; when it starts out 
 to do it. Here was a plain man, superior 
 of a country convent, hoping to do that 
 which some of the greatest people in the 
 realm had failed to do, and that was to 
 win the court to favor this project. 
 
 He started at midnight so as not to arouse 
 the suspicions of this little gossipy town of 
 Palos, and because "he was in the greatest 
 haste. 
 
 Colon waited at the convent, wondering, 
 indeed, Avhat next, and he must have actu- 
 ally rested as he had not before in years. 
 In due time the prior came l)ack with word 
 
124 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 from tlie Queeu tliat she must again see 
 him, and lie brought with him over two 
 hundred dollars for Colon to buy for him- 
 self a court suit. He brouo:ht also a mule 
 
 to be his very own. Mules, in 
 
 Another n t • 
 
 ,« . T^.. those days, were tine thme^s to 
 
 Mule Ride. -^ ' ^ 
 
 have, and not everybody owned 
 one to ride. They were worth from three 
 hundred to four hundred dollars. Colon 
 then took the new suit of fine clothes 
 and got astride his own mule and started 
 to see the beautiful Queen once again. 
 
 These three men had made up their minds 
 as to about what the terms should be. Colon 
 was to ask for three vessels, and for men, 
 and for one-eighth of the profits, and that 
 he should be Admiral of the little fleet and 
 should be appointed Governor of the lands 
 he should discover, the title to come down 
 to his heirs after him. 
 
 These terms depended entirely upon his 
 success, except the start. The starting out 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 125 
 
 was surely a small expense, only three little 
 boats and the men and the necessary pro- 
 visions ! 
 
 But it is very surprising that the wise- 
 heads, Ferdinand especially, thought // 
 Columbus discovered something, there was 
 going to be " too much in it" for himself. 
 Queen Isabella pleaded that it was all fair. 
 The Marchioness, her l^est friend, also pleaded 
 for Colon. But no! another Council was 
 called, and other wise heads said the plan 
 might be good enough, but Colon asked for 
 too much glory and profit. 
 
 It is very strange that even men of to-day 
 can draw conclusions as foolish as those men 
 
 did, after it has been proven that 
 Envy and ^ , ,. , , , , , 
 
 Colon did not ask too much. 
 Bitterness. 
 
 One writer says, " His arrogant 
 spirit led him to magnify his own impor- 
 tance before he had proved it. He failed 
 in modesty," etc., while the truth is, he 
 showed a mighty wisdom in not going about 
 
126 OOLUMBrS AND WHAT TIE foihstd. 
 
 the thing half-hearted. What woukl have 
 ])een the outcome, if, with a weak " modesty," 
 he had asked for half enough? 
 
 But the authorities said it was too much, 
 so Colon acceded somewhat, and offered to 
 hear one- eighth the expense. 
 
 No, that would n't do. So Colon simply 
 
 left a2:ain. He mounted his sfift of a mule 
 
 ^. ^ and I suppose he thanked his 
 
 The Queen ^ ^ 
 
 Will Do It ^tars that Isabella was his friend, 
 at least; hut he had gone only 
 two miles when a man came after him, post 
 haste, and said, " Come back. The Queen 
 herself will furnish everything asked for." 
 
 The story used to be that she offered her 
 jewels, but it seems that is not quite true; 
 but it is true that she said she would, on her 
 own res23onsibility, give Columbus all the 
 support he asked for, and that she, as Queen 
 of Castile, would supply him the means. 
 This relieved Ferdinand from responsibility, 
 though the money was at first borrowed fi'om 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 127 
 
 his treasury aud he and she together signed 
 the great aud important papers that at last 
 gave to Columbus his wish — the chance to 
 sail out on the Sea of Darkness. 
 
 Now was the time for his heart to fail if 
 there was any fail in him, for now it must 
 be proven that he was right. He had offered 
 all that a man could offer and that was his 
 life. Now he was actually to give it. 
 
 The very important paper making this 
 " pauper pilot " an Admiral of the Ocean 
 Sea, and giving him authority to govern 
 w^hatever he shouhl discover was signed, 
 
 " This seventeenth day of x\jpv\l^ in the 
 year of the Birth of our Saviour tfesus 
 Christy one thousand four hundred and 
 ninety -two ^ in this city of Santa Fe^ in 
 the Plain of Grenada ^ 
 
 The whole paper is not very long, but 
 it is very formal and has many big words in 
 it, so I will not trouble you to read it now. 
 
 The most curious part of all, though, was 
 
128 COLUMBIJS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 the letter written by Ferdinand and Isabella 
 to tlie great Kubla Khan and to Prestor John, 
 for " Christopher Columhus^ who will tell 
 them that tliey are in good health and per- 
 fect prosperity ^"^ to take with him when he 
 should find himself in their great kingdoms. 
 This letter was written April 30, only thir- 
 teen days after the great document was 
 signed. 
 
 How little any of them thought that that 
 poor letter was going to be dragged up and 
 down and around the Avilds of our iS^ew 
 Continent while men were hunting for the 
 Khan and his mountains of pearls, and 
 cities where parties were given to ten thou- 
 sand people at one time, everybody dressed 
 in cloth of gold! No, that letter never 
 reached Kubla Kahn, it only reached our 
 wild Indians. 
 
 Now Colon started immediately with his 
 letters in his pockets for the homelike con- 
 vent, and how like a man of to-day he 
 
COLUMBUS AXD 'WHAT HE FOUXD. 129 
 
 was in that sleepy Spanish world. He 
 expected to be off in ten days.' Was not 
 
 Colon a real American for '* hust- 
 A Real 
 
 lingr.*" when he had a chance to 
 American. 
 
 ''hustle," and vet was he not 
 magnificently patient Avhen he must be 
 patient' How long- he had waited, and 
 now what haste I 
 
 The King and Queen had a claim on two 
 vessels which belonged to the Port of Palos, 
 so they gave Colon an order to take those 
 tAN'o vessels and then- crews, and to find 
 also another one for his vovagre. Orders 
 were sent to the Mayor of Palos to collect 
 men and provisions and arms and all that 
 was necessary for the voyage, and a morn- 
 ing was appointed when this Mayor was — 
 to have the orders published in the morning 
 papers? Xo. to read them to the towns- 
 people LQ St. George's Church. And 01 
 into what an excitement the poor little 
 town was thrown! It was dreadful news. 
 
130 COLTTMBIJS ATS-D AVIIAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Everybody was so astonished to tliink this 
 
 strangei' that had T)een around of hite had 
 
 gotten them all into such great difficulty. 
 
 Nobody would go. The order from the 
 
 court then said that they must go — that 
 
 prisoners could be pai'doned of their crimes 
 
 if they would go, yet there were not enough. 
 
 Yes, it was a sad day for Palos, and the 
 
 business of getting off was so dreadful that 
 
 it seemed almost an impossibil- 
 A Sad Day . i p T»r ^ 
 
 ^ . ity. ihe month or May passed 
 
 for Palos. -^ -^ ^ 
 
 aAvay and Colon was uneasy and 
 in haste and hard at work. June came and 
 was almost gone when a man arrived \vith 
 word direct from the court that if it was 
 necessary, the military forces would see 
 that Colon had his men; that is, there 
 would be war, if necessary, to make some- 
 body go. 
 
 This frightened the people still more, and 
 it began to be a very serious matter. The 
 good Perez finally succeeded in interesting 
 
COLUMBUS Aisrr> WHAT HE FOUND. 181 
 
 in the scheme, two men, brothers, who 
 
 were quite ^villing to enter into it if there 
 
 was really anything to be gained; but they, 
 
 like every one, supposed it was only a 
 
 craz}^ dream. But when Colon 
 The Pinzons. n i • i 
 
 gave them all his thoughts m 
 
 the matter, and told them of all that he 
 expected to gain for Spain and for every- 
 body who would enter into the undertaking, 
 they became quite willing to go. Their 
 names were Martin Alonzo Pinzon and 
 Yanez Pinzon. They agreed to go, to 
 manage the two small l)oats, the "Nina" 
 and the " Pinta," which were there in port. 
 They were the leading men of the commu- 
 nity and it was quite a victory when they 
 really decided to join Colon. 
 
 After many difficulties, another vessel was 
 found, which was larger and had a deck. 
 This was the " Santa Maria," and Columbus 
 ^vas very busy getting these boats into a very 
 safe condition, and July was gone and 
 
132 COLtTMBtTS AND WHAT HE FOtlNB. 
 
 August liad come, before all was ready, the 
 morning of tlie tliird of August. It was 
 Friday and there was no sleep in all that 
 toAvn the night before. The men ^vho were 
 ready to go numbered one hundred and 
 twenty. Ninety were rough men. The 
 others were priests, a secretary, and an 
 attorney, some physicians, captains and 
 pilots. 
 
 Colon was in command of the " Santa 
 Maria." The Pinzons commanded the other 
 two vessels. All were at St. George's Church 
 to have their sins absolved and to be ready 
 to sail long before day. It was more like 
 one OTand funeral of the whole town than 
 anything else. There had been many vessels 
 sail from this shady little port ])efore, but 
 nothing like this had ever started out. 
 
 This sad, glad, wonderful new thought, at 
 last sailed out of the harl)or and turned west 
 for the ofreat Gribraltar and for the Ocean Sea 
 by the time the sun was up, and the little 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 133 
 
 town settled down, as best it could, to wonder 
 about all tlie strange things that were going 
 on in the world. 
 
 The good Queen Isabella took young Diego 
 into her own family, to be a page to her 
 young son, Prince Juan. 
 
VIII. 
 
 We will begin this voyage with 
 Columbus' own words, for they 
 are the introduction to his jour- 
 nal which he kept while he 
 made the path through the 
 strange Ocean Sea of Dark- 
 
 ness. 
 
 It is easy to note from 
 them that his first, supreme 
 motive, at that time, was 
 to take Christianity to a 
 perishing world. He had seen Christianity 
 conrpier the Moors and Jews in Spain; that 
 is, he had seen what the worhl then tliought 
 was Christian conquest. Mohammedanism 
 falling before Christianity as it did in 1492 
 before Columbus' very eyes, made him feel 
 very sure that Christ was about to conquer 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 135 
 
 the world in this way. We have learned 
 better, but we must humbly remember how 
 we have learned it through others. 
 
 Columbus had read in Marco Polo how the 
 Kubla Khan desired to learn of Christianity; 
 for if he read the book at all, and we know 
 he did, he must have read the request (from 
 the Khan) that the Pope " would send a 
 hundred men of learning, thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with the principles of the Christian 
 religion, as well as with the seven arts, and 
 qualified to prove to the learned of his do- 
 minions, by just and fair argument, that the 
 faith professed by Christians is superior to, 
 and founded upon more evident truth than 
 any other; that the gods of the Tartars and 
 the idols worshiped in their houses were only 
 evil spirits." He also wanted brought to him 
 some of the " holy oil from the lamp which 
 is kept Imrning over the sepulchre of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." No doubt Columbus 
 wished he could take some of this with him. 
 
130 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Columbus liimself seems to have informed 
 the King and Queen of this desire of the 
 Khan and his successors, as you will see. 
 His story begins, " In the name of Jesus 
 Christ." This sentence is remarkably sim- 
 ple when compared with other documents 
 of the day. Jesus Christ and all his attri- 
 l)utes, God and all his power, wei-e dragged 
 out in words and words at the beocinnino- 
 of every important writing. In fact, it was 
 thought very impolite to mention any name 
 that ^vas at all revered, without also men- 
 tioning the reverence in which it was held. 
 
 Columbus goes on, — " Most High, most 
 Christian, most excellent and most mighty 
 Princes, King and Queen of Spain and of 
 the islands of the sea, our lord and our 
 sovereign, this present year, 1492, after 
 Your Highness had put an end to the war 
 against the Moors, who were reigning in 
 Europe, and had terminated the great war 
 in the city of Granada, where this jDresent 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 137 
 
 year, the second day of the month of Jan- 
 uary, I saw floating the royal banners of 
 your Highness on the towers of the Alham- 
 l^ra, the fortress of the said city, and where 
 I saw the Moorish King come to the gates 
 of the city and kiss the royal hands of 
 your Highness and of my lord, the Prince! 
 Then in this present month and according 
 to the information which I had given to 
 your Highness of the lands of India, and 
 of a Prince called Grand Khan, which 
 means, in our common language. King of 
 Kings, and that several times he and his 
 predecessors had sent to Kome to demand 
 Doctors in our Holy Faitli to teach him; 
 as the Holy Father had never provided any, 
 and as so many people were being lost in 
 their idolatrous sects of perdition, your 
 Highnesses thought, in your position as 
 Christian Catholics and as amiable princes 
 and propagators of the holy Christian Faith 
 and as enemies of the sects of Mohamme- 
 
V]S COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 danism and of all idolatries and heresies, of 
 sending me, Christopher Columbus, to the 
 said Countries of India to see the said 
 princes and the peoples and the countries 
 and their dispositions and the state of 
 everything, and the manner in which one 
 could best set about their conversion to 
 holy faith. You commanded me not to go 
 to the Orient by land, as was the custom 
 to do, but, on the contrary, to take the 
 western route ])y which we have no positiv^e 
 kno^vledge of any one ever having passed. 
 Consequently, after having chased all tlie 
 Jews from your kingdoms and domains, 
 your Highness commanded me, in this same 
 month of January, to set out with a fleet 
 sufficiently large, for the said countries of 
 India. And on that occasion you granted 
 me great favors and ennobled me, inasmuch 
 that henceforth I was called Don, and was 
 Grand Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and Vice- 
 roy and perpetual Governor of all the 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 139 
 
 islands and mainlands of which I should 
 make the discovery and conquest, and by 
 which, in consequence, the discovery and 
 conquest may l)e made [See the man's 
 faith!] in the Ocean Sea, and you decreed 
 that my oldest son should succeed me and 
 that it should be thus from generation to 
 generation forever and forever. I started 
 from the city of Granada, Saturday, the 
 12tli of the month of May, of this same 
 year, 1492. I came to the city of Palos, a 
 seaport where I fitted up three vessels very 
 convenient for such an undertaking, and I 
 left the harbor very well provided Avith a 
 great many provisions and seamen. Friday, 
 the 3d day of August of said year, and 
 half an hour before sunrise, I followed the 
 route of the Canary Islands, which belong 
 to your Highness and which are situated in 
 said Ocean Sea, to take from there my 
 route and to sail until I should , arrive at 
 the Indies, so as to acquit myself of the 
 
140 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 embassy of your Highness to these })riuces 
 and thus to execute wliat you thus com- 
 manded me to do. I intend, also, on this 
 account, to record very punctually and to 
 relate day by day all that I may do and 
 see and all that ha[)pen to me, as will be 
 seen farther on. Moreover, Mighty Pi'ince 
 and Princess, purposing to write each night 
 that ^vllich shall have happened in the day 
 and each day the navigation of the night, 
 I intend, liesides, to make a new marine 
 map, on which I shall indicate the situation 
 of all the sea and of all the lands of the 
 Ocean Sea in their proper position, and tlie 
 direction in which the wind conies to them, 
 and to compose a ])ook in which I shall 
 represent in painting the latitude from the 
 equinoctial line, and the longitude from the 
 west line. It is very especially important 
 that 1 forget sleep and that I study with 
 perseverajice my navigation, to fuliill all the 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 141 
 
 obligations that are imposed on me, which 
 will be a great labor." 
 
 These are what T call most majestic words. 
 Columbus has been represented as here say- 
 ing he should not sleep until he had found 
 land, Avdiich you can see would be only 
 foolish talk. He did not say that, for the 
 abov^e translation has been carefully made 
 from Las Casas, who has 2>i"^served it for 
 us in Columbus' own words. It is just as 
 he wrote it, and is the whole of what he 
 wrote as an introduction to his journal. He 
 then begins again by saying, — " I started 
 Friday, August 'M\, from the shoals of the 
 Saltes and we made before sunset sixty 
 miles, then we went single file towards the 
 southwest." 
 
 Sad, sweet picture this is, of the little fleet, 
 as night came on, heading single file for the 
 great unknown, loaded with such great re- 
 sponsibilities. Many of its men never saw 
 Spain again. 
 
142 COLUMBrS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Tills first voyage across the Atlantic was 
 made in three small vessels no hiro-er than 
 the yachts which now go fiHnn one point to 
 another along the coast; rarely do they vent- 
 ure across the ocean in these days. How- 
 ever, Columbus did wisely, it is said, in 
 choosing small vessels. They Avere the best 
 for examining what he had found after he 
 found it, and you know Avhat a scholar he 
 was in navigation and how long he was 
 trained on the sea. 
 
 Providence seemed to order the wind and 
 weather to be exactly i-ight all the Avay for 
 this first trip. If they had found such 
 weather as they did on their return, we 
 should not have heard of Columbus a^ain 
 after he left Palos, for the men never would 
 have gone on and Columbus would never 
 have given it up, so someljody would have 
 gone to the bottom. Columl)us'' great thought 
 had carried everything before it all the ^vay 
 up to the time he was off, and the weather 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 143 
 
 now, fortunately, helped to carry him over 
 the last great thing. Much of Columbus' 
 
 own journal is yet preserved 
 
 The Journal of . t , • hit r^ t 
 
 m what IS called Las Oasas 
 
 Columbus. . • ^^^^ ' 
 
 abridgment of it. This good 
 
 man did not copy all of it for us for fear 
 
 we would get tired of it, so he only picked 
 
 out parts of it. The journal itself, sad to 
 
 say, is lost. But there are some of Colum- 
 
 l)us' letters and papers yet in the world 
 
 exactly as he left them. 
 
 Columbus had the worst men on his own 
 
 vessel, where he could control them 
 
 l)est. He had, also, most of the 
 on Board. 
 
 officers to help him control them. 
 Martin Alonzo Pinzon on the " Pinta " had 
 another lot, not so bad. The " Mna," the 
 "■ little girl," was the l)est behaved vessel of 
 the three, and never gave any trouble to 
 anybody, and was the only one left to take 
 Columbus home again when he was ready to 
 start. In all my reading, I have formed a 
 
144 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 great love for the brave " little girl " boat, 
 for that is what the name " Nina " means. 
 She was in command of Yanez Pinzon, who 
 always behaved himself well, which is, no 
 doubt, the reason why the "little girl " did 
 the same. 
 
 Next morning they were out of sight of 
 land, which was a dreadful experience for 
 sailors in that day. Columbus steered 
 straight for the Canaries. These islands 
 were owned T)y the Spaniards, and no dou])t 
 they hoped to find a little of home again, 
 for they expected to meet some Spaniards 
 there. Saturday, Sunday, all went well, 
 except that the men grumbled. Monday, the 
 " Pinta " had a tossing about that broke her 
 rudder nearly off. Columbus' boat came 
 alongside to learn what Avas the matter, for 
 he saw the boat was " rolling " ; he found 
 what it was, but he trusted Martin Alonzo 
 to repair it when he said he thought he 
 could manage to hold together until they 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 145 
 
 should reacli the islands. The next day 
 
 something again gave Avay and it looked as 
 
 if some men on the " Pinta " were trying to 
 
 get it out of order so that she would liave 
 
 to turn back with them and take them home 
 
 again. But Captain Pinzon fixed it up once 
 
 more, yet in the night she sprang a leak, 
 
 which detained them again, and after tliat 
 
 they had to go very slowly; it 
 Misfortunes . 
 
 ^ . ^. was not until tlie next Sunday 
 
 of the Pinta. -^ 
 
 that they came in sight of 
 the Canary Islands. The men liad to stay 
 on board and did not get back liome again, 
 after all. They were worse frightened than 
 ever as they approached the islands, when 
 they saw " a great flame " coming from the 
 awful top of the Peak Teneriffe. It looked 
 to them as if they had come to the islands 
 that must be death's place, for most of them 
 had never seen anything like that before. 
 It appeared to be the very lightnings from 
 God to punish this man for daring to go 
 
146 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 out on such a risk. Columbus here hoped 
 he could trade off the "Pinta" and get 
 a l)etter vessel, but he could not, so he 
 liad to contrive all sorts of ropes and stuff 
 to mend it with, and it took him three weeks, 
 but you see he did n't fail to do it. Pinzon 
 and Columbus did not trust any one, but did 
 it themselves. They were not ready to sail 
 on until September 8 — just one month from 
 the time they left Palos. 
 
 They had rather discouraging news as they 
 sailed out from these islands aV)out some sus- 
 picious vessels tliat lay ahead 
 The Pope Draws ^^^ ^^^^^^^ Nobody knew ex- 
 
 a Line through .i i . ,1 rri • 
 
 actiy what they w^ere. ihis 
 the Ocean. -^ ^ ^ 
 
 was very strange, indeed, for 
 it was the farthest out any one had ever been. 
 Columbus and Pinzon felt quite sure they 
 were Portuguese vessels ready to seize them, 
 for Portugal claimed the riglit to discover 
 just as much new land as Spain, and ^vllen 
 one nation causfht the otlu^r discoverin*^ tlie 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE I^OUXD. 147 
 
 same land there was trouble. The Pope 
 finally had to divide the sea between these 
 two nations. Columbus knew that, having 
 been so detained, and the story of where he 
 was going having been so widely talked 
 about, it was very probable that the Port- 
 uguese were away out there waiting for 
 him, so he sped as fast as j^ossible around 
 the place where ships had been seen. A 
 calm, however, kept him back, but it kept 
 his pursuers also, and they were finally 
 seen no more. 
 
 On the 8th of September a fine breeze 
 sprang up and sent them on down the world, 
 so that the Peak of Teneriffe sank out of 
 sight behind them, and it seemed to them that 
 the last of land was seen forever. 
 
 A dreadful loneliness then crept over the 
 
 ^, ^ sailors. A floating: spar was seen 
 
 The Spar. ° ^ 
 
 away out in the sea. It looks 
 somewhat like a dead body afloat, and 
 sailors think it means disaster. 
 
148 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 The pilots would steer the vessels toward 
 the north, in spite of Columbus' commands. 
 The awful stories of whirlpools, boiling water 
 and dreadful places were always told of the 
 south, so it is not surprising they preferred to 
 steer away from that part of the world. But 
 "due west from the Canaries until something 
 is found," was Columbus' iron purpose and 
 promise, and the men had to obey. 
 
 The Admiral's calculations had been that 
 
 seven hundred and fifty leagues would bring 
 
 him to the Island of Ci- 
 Toscanelli's flap. i , i i < 
 
 pango, but he managed not 
 
 to let the pilots nor any one know the ex- 
 act distance they had come. His private 
 reckoning was carefully guarded from any- 
 body's intrusion. It was his own awful 
 piece of business and nobody else had any 
 right to know how far they had come. 
 
 On and on they sailed. Then a most 
 strange thing happened. The faithful com- 
 pass seemed to be bewitched. They found 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 149 
 
 it wrong. They had sailed six hundred 
 
 miles, and the l)ravest of them began to feel 
 
 there was something the matter with the 
 
 earth beneath them, for who had ever heard 
 
 of the compass failing; and to fail them 
 
 here, where nothing else could guide them, 
 
 was awful indeed. Columbus' 
 
 The Variation . i i • • • • 
 
 ^ ,, ^, ^. learnms;; and his ima2:ination 
 of the Needle. ^ ^ 
 
 then came to his I'escue, for 
 he could guide l)y the stars, when they 
 shone, and he also made up something 
 about this variation of the needle l)y say- 
 ing probably the North Star itself made a 
 circle every twenty -four hours, and of course 
 the needle would have to follow it. As 
 they went on, the needle straightened itself 
 toward the north again. 
 
 A terrible meteor shot through the sky 
 
 one niofht and pluns^ed into the 
 The Meteor. ° . .1 
 
 sea not tar away rrom them. 
 
 This, indeed, they thought, was wrath from 
 heaven. Ah! we may smile, but we must 
 
150 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 remember what our better knowledge has 
 cost somebody. AVe did not create it. 
 It has come to us, else we would never 
 have had it, so how can we boast of any 
 superiority ? 
 
 Between these alarming things that ^vere 
 happening, and while Columbus would be 
 sitting high on the poop of his vessel, 
 never sleeping, day or night, only when 
 entirely overcome by weariness, two dear 
 little l)irds came to them, which seemed 
 almost like friends speaking. It was over 
 the " little girl " boat that they flew. They 
 were rock birds, they thought. Sea-weeds 
 lay thick about them once, and it is a 
 wonder they were not tangled up in 
 them, for there is a mighty sea of them 
 called Sargasso Sea. They thought the sea- 
 weeds meant rocks, but they were very far 
 from rocks. 
 
 They now had a fine, steady breeze at 
 their backs which was, to their minds, a bad 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 151 
 
 omen, for if the wind always blew steadily 
 in this westward direction how could they 
 go against it when they should want to 
 return ! 
 
 The men of the " Nina," again the lucky 
 boat, saw some little tunny-fish, just such 
 little fish as they had caught at home. This 
 greatly encouraged them. Columbus him- 
 self began to feel that this might mean land 
 somewhere near. 
 
 On the 18th of September, that bold boat, 
 the " Pinta," which was so weak at first, 
 took a sail ahead, contrary to Columbus' 
 orders, and then the men dared to come 
 back and tell Columbus that they had seen 
 a whole flock of birds go over their heads. 
 
 Columbus had suggested to Isabella be- 
 fore he left, that ten thousand maravedis be 
 offered to the one who first saw land, so, of 
 course, each one Avas getting very anxious 
 to win that; but Columbus really thought 
 they must be only about halfway. The men 
 
152 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 were getting frightfully uneasy about the 
 steady wind in one direction. 
 
 No more signs of land. The men were 
 sure they ought to change their course. 
 They thought they had passed some islands. 
 Columbus prayed that the wind might 
 change, and on the 22d of September, sure 
 enough, a breeze sprang up, which proved 
 to them they could sail home fast enough 
 if it were necessary. So that trouble was 
 ended. 
 
 " Never since the day when Moses brought 
 the children of Israel out of Egypt were 
 waves so welcome," wrote the brave leader 
 in his journal. 
 
 On, on, they went, their supply of food 
 getting lower, so that turning back might 
 be a bad thing, even if the wind should 
 force their commander to go back. 
 
 On the evening of the 25th of September, 
 as the sun sank, there seemed to be a low, 
 dark line at the edge of the water. No 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 153 
 
 doubt men climbed to tlie .tops of their 
 masts and to those little " topcastles " I told 
 yon of, each evening. This night a shout 
 came from Martin Pinzon, on the " Pinta," 
 "Land! Land! Mine the reward!" All 
 looked, and Columbus, even, finally con- 
 cluded it was land, and said, " Yes, yours 
 is the reward, but let us give thanks," and 
 on all three vessels they gave thanks to 
 God as the Gloria in Excelsis was chanted. 
 The dark came on and they could see no 
 more that night. It was, of course, an anx- 
 ious night. In the morning how very sad it 
 was to see no land at all. It had probably 
 been only a low cloud. 
 
IX. 
 
 After the terrible disappointment, despair 
 took hold of many. Perhaps the Ad- 
 miral's strength held out because he had 
 to help the rest to live through it. Nothing 
 so helps at times of great strain as to have 
 to help others. 
 
 As dangers and fears arose, Colum])us, 
 the man, rose above them. Such strong 
 character had in years past been woven 
 into his life that nothing about him gave 
 way now. His lofty faith in God, and in 
 himself, and in his lifelong hope, now was 
 put to its last great test, and the man and 
 his God -given faith bore that test. Reason, 
 also, bore him on. He remembered Juan 
 Perez, Garcia Fernandez and Isabella — their 
 prayers, their learning, their faith, all must 
 have been turned over and over in his mind 
 
 151 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 155 
 
 as lie sat alone, night after night, watching 
 the mighty, lonely deep. 
 
 But he Avas great enough for it all, be- 
 cause God was with him. 
 
 Four more days of the " everlasting 
 monotony," and a frigate bird came to the 
 " Santa Maria." Birds must have been as 
 much to them then and there as Noah's 
 doves were to him. 
 
 About the first of October, the pilot of the 
 " Santa Maria " came to the Admiral and 
 said he had gone as far as the Admiral had 
 said he should have to go. He proposed to 
 go no farther. The Admiral knew they had 
 already gone one hundred leagues farther 
 than the pilot knew, and it began to look 
 to Columbus himself as if they might have 
 passed the land. There had, been no more 
 signs of land for a few days, but, as usual, 
 there came a flock of birds just in time to 
 save their hopes. 
 
 On the evening of the 6th of October all 
 
156 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND 
 
 three Captains had a deep consultation. The 
 Pinzons insisted that they should turn more 
 to the south, for there the birds steered (they 
 must have gotten over the feai* of hoiling 
 places), "No," Columbus said, "we may 
 miss all if w^e do." He kept straight ahead 
 tvesf. The next morning, October 7, early, 
 the dear little "Nina" fired a gun. It meant 
 land! The other boats crowded close up to 
 her, but, sad to say, no land appeared. It 
 was only low-lying morning mists. 
 
 Another consultation that evening. More 
 birds had been seen going south. The Ad- 
 miral finally decided to take more the direc- 
 tion of the birds. He remembered it was 
 October, the time for chilly weather, but it 
 was warm as summer with them. He knew 
 the birds knew where summer always was, so 
 the birds finally did the piloting (it would 
 have been ])etter if he had kept on west), 
 
 But the days again grew uninteresting. 
 They could not bear it, when they had ex- 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 157 
 
 pectecl so soon to find trees and people 
 again, and by the ninth or tenth of Octo- 
 ber things grew dangerous. 
 
 The men got together and made up their 
 minds they would go no farther. Some have 
 said they broke out in mutiny, but it seems 
 they only summoned Columbus to come to 
 them. He came; he appealed to them. 
 Had they not seen signs of land ? — had 
 they not been kept from every disaster? — 
 they had found no whirlpools, no monsters 
 — r^any other manly words he had with 
 them. 
 
 All that was in him came up to this sad 
 last hour of trial, and he conquered the 
 men. On the next day, the tenth, it grew 
 to be very different. 
 
 It has been said that the Admiral prom- 
 ised that if, in three days more, they did 
 not see land, he would turn back, but it is 
 not likely. Columbus would have died 
 first. There is no record that he said so, 
 
158 COLUMBUS AISTD WHAT HE FOUIS'I). 
 
 and it would have l)eeu more than foolish 
 to do so then. On the 11th of October a 
 higher sea came up than any they had 
 experienced since they left the Canaries. 
 Rough water seems to have been more en- 
 durable than the eternal calm. 
 
 Birds, still, but the sailors had ceased to 
 notice them ; they now had something more 
 exciting. The " Pinta " picked up a real 
 stick of wood. In the afternoon the " little 
 girl " found a fresh l>ough from a tree. 
 
 As night came on the Admiral decided to 
 head west again, and that they should " slow 
 up," as usual, but both the '' Pinta " and 
 the " Nina " were too eager to go very 
 slowly. 
 
 Columbus, in his high " castle " in the back 
 of his " Santa Maria," took his seat as usual 
 to watch, and about ten o'clock, ah! there 
 shot across his vision a lights a lights from 
 out the silent darkness. 
 
 He calmed himself enouofh to call one of 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 159 
 
 the officers to coine to his side and to look 
 also. Yes, he could surely see a light mov- 
 ing around, then it was gone again. They 
 called the third man. He could n't see it. 
 Nobody else saw it. Columbus was sure he 
 saw it, yet it was dark as ever again, as on 
 they went. 
 
 The " Pinta " was daring and selfish enough 
 always to keep ahead of the " Santa Maria," 
 which was a slower boat, and then Colum- 
 bus' own pilot and men obeyed him better 
 than the men on the " Pinta " did. Their 
 orders were to li.ee][) together. But the 
 " Pinta " slipped ahead, and at twelve 
 o'clock when the watches all changed, 
 Rodriguez Bernarjo took his turn in the 
 "Pinta's" watch. 
 
 On, on, two hours more, and all at once, 
 at two o'clock, as the moon broke through 
 the clouds and threw a burst of light on 
 everything — Ah! there before this man's 
 
160 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 eyes was actual land^ only two and a 
 half miles ahead. 
 
 What a wonder the " Pinta " had n't run 
 herself on to it! if the moon had not shone 
 out just then, she would surely have done 
 so very soon. 
 
 But now all was delirious joy. Bang! 
 bang! went the guns, and the other boats 
 came up and all held very still until day- 
 light should come, then there were thanks 
 and prayers to God, and such tears of joy 
 and gladness as this old Earth never be- 
 fore nor since has wept. It was the end of 
 a mighty purpose conceived and borne in 
 the heart of one great man. It was the 
 end of a mighty pain which the Dark 
 Ages had known for a thousand years. It 
 was the beginning of a New AVorld — a 
 New Life. It was the birthday morning of 
 our sweet land of Liberty — a new, sweet 
 morning for the World. Is it any wonder 
 we celebrate October, 1492, as we do 
 
COLUMBUS AlSri) WHAT HE FOUND. 1(31 
 
 this year, 1892? Four hundred years have 
 been none too long a time for us to get 
 ready to do it. One hundred years ago 
 we could hardly have been ready, for we 
 had only begun to have Presidents. It is 
 only one hundred and sixteen years since 
 the Declaration of Independence was written, 
 but now we are indeed a mighty Nation, 
 built by God to be very happy and to be 
 very serviceable to all the world. So you 
 see why we are celebrating this mighty 
 birthday. 
 
 The Admiral now was worshiped by his 
 men as truly as they had abused him. 
 They had added much to his suffering, but 
 that was all over now. 
 
 As daylight dawned and there in its 
 beauty lay the land that seemed to have 
 come out of the ocean, the men were all 
 ready for work. Little boats were lowered. 
 Columbus unpacked his best clothes and put 
 them on, and the attorney for the King 
 
162 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 *and Queen saw that all was done accord- 
 ing to law, and we are told how very care- 
 fully Columbus came on to the land in the 
 most stately fashion, with his banner and 
 his sword, and took possession. 
 
 We are told, too, that he fell to the earth 
 on his knees and kissed the ground. 
 
 But what or who it was they had found, 
 they were several days finding out. This 
 newborn baby was as much of a puzzle as 
 many another baby is. 
 
 There were queer -looking people dodging 
 in and out from behind the bushes. Instead 
 of being dressed in cloth of gold, they had 
 no clothes on at all. And they had colored 
 skins and were entirely different from what 
 Columbus or any one exjDCcted to find or 
 had ever seen. 
 
 They ate no meat, they had no notion of 
 fighting, they just seemed to be wild, ha23py, 
 silly people, with a very queer language of 
 their own. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 163 
 
 Of course tliey were terribly awed at the 
 great white men and their great ships that 
 they thought had come from the sky. They 
 supposed they were gods, and were de- 
 lighted with them, as soon as they found 
 it was safe to welcome them to their homes, 
 and all were soon on very happy terms with 
 each other, and with all the New World. 
 
X. 
 
 It all seemed to be like paradise, this 
 quiet, peaceful place, where there was noth- 
 ing to fear, where there were no animals 
 " except parrots." They staid in this place 
 for two or three days. 
 
 Columbus now walked on territory which 
 
 he was hereafter to govern according to his 
 
 own ^\dll. The attorney who had 
 
 Important • i i • 
 
 ^ come with him read to all the 
 Papers. 
 
 men the important papers which 
 made Columbus a great man in their eyes. 
 They had been given by . the King and 
 Queen to be read as soon as they should 
 discover any land. A part of them reads 
 as follows: 
 
 " And we also command all captains, 
 masters, mates, officers, seamen and seafar- 
 ing men in general, our subjects and j^eoF^e 
 
 i6d 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 165 
 
 who now are or ever shall be, and each 
 and every one of them, that whenever the 
 said islands and mainlands shall have been 
 discovered and won by you in the Ocean 
 Sea, and yon, or whoever you appoint, sliall 
 have taken the oath and performed the 
 ceremonies for such cases, they shall receive 
 and obey you all your lifetime, and after 
 you, your sons and successors from successor 
 to successor forever and forever, as our Ad- 
 miral of the Ocean Sea and Viceroy and 
 Governor in said islands and mainlands, 
 which you shall discover and acquire.'' 
 
 To the sailors this appeared to be very 
 solemn power given forever to the man 
 whom they had so mistrusted, and had 
 thought so crazy. He seemed to them then 
 to be a very different man, in his Vice- 
 royalty, and all that. And it is a won- 
 der that Columbus himself changed so 
 little under all that came to him. His 
 letters, however, read so simply and hum- 
 
160 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 bly that it is easy to be seen lie was yet 
 
 but a man intensely anxious to unravel a 
 
 great mystery. His next terrible anxiety 
 
 appears to be to have something to say 
 
 that will })lease the King and Queen about 
 
 the good they can do, and the gold they 
 
 can have from this great thing that he has 
 
 found. 
 
 He at once begins to discover the j)6ople. 
 
 He has no name for them for he does not 
 
 know what they are, but he 
 The People. . 
 
 writes about " these people or the 
 
 Indies." He was sure he was at the India 
 where Marco Polo had been. He ^vi'ites 
 in his journal on the first evening, after 
 what must have been a very exciting day. 
 He had not slept the night before; read 
 what he writes on Friday, October 12th: 
 
 *" So that they might be friendlily inclined 
 toward us and because I felt that they were 
 
 *Navarrete. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 107 
 
 people who might deliver themselves the 
 more readily to us, and who might be con- 
 verted to our Holy Faith rather by gentle- 
 ness and persuasion than by violence, I 
 gave to several of them colored caps (or 
 bonnets) and glass beads which they put 
 around their necks, and many other things 
 of little value, which gave them great pleas- 
 ure and won for us their friendship to a 
 marvelous degree. 
 
 " Afterwards they swam to the small boats 
 in which we were and brought us some 
 parrots, some cotton thread in balls, some 
 javelins, and a great many other things, and 
 exchanged them with us for other objects 
 which we gave them, such as little glass 
 beads and hawk-bells. In line, they took all 
 that we offered them and gave very will- 
 ingly all that they had: but it seemed to me 
 that they were quite a poor people in all 
 respects. Men and women go as entirely 
 naked as when they were born; of the men 
 
168 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 which I saw, there was not a single one who 
 was more than thirty years old. 
 
 " They were very well formed, had T)eau- 
 tifiil bodies and pretty faces. Their hair 
 was almost as coarse as horsehair, short, 
 and coming down to the eyebrows [these 
 were "bangs," I suppose]. They left hang- 
 ing down behind a long lock which they 
 never cut. Some of them paint themselves 
 black; their natural color is that of the 
 Canary Islanders; they are neither black 
 nor white; but among them there are some 
 who paint themselves white, others red, 
 others whatever color they find. Some paint 
 only the face — others, all the body; some the 
 eyes, others only the nose. They carry no 
 weapons and have no acquaintance with 
 them, for I showed them some sabres, and 
 as they took them by the edge they cut 
 themselves out of ignorance. 
 
 "They have no iron; their javelins are 
 sticks without points, some of which are 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 169 
 
 finished off by a fisli's tootli, and others l:)y 
 some hard substance or other. 
 
 " I saw some of them liad scars on their 
 bodies and I asked by signs what they were, 
 and they made me understand that there 
 came to their island troops of inhabitants 
 of the neighboring islands who wanted to 
 take them, and that they defended them- 
 selves. I believed, and I believe still, some- 
 body comes here from the mainlands to take 
 them and reduce them to slavery. They 
 ought to be very good servants, of good 
 disposition. I perceive that they promptly 
 repeat all that is said to them, and I 
 believe that they may become Christians 
 without difficulty, as they seem to me to 
 belong to no sect whatever. If it please 
 our Lord, on my departure I will carry 
 with me from here six of them to your 
 Highnesses, so that they may learn to speak. 
 I have seen in this island no species of 
 animals whatever, unless it is some parrots." 
 
170 COLUMBVS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Let us read on for a little while these very 
 words of Columbus. They seem to tell us 
 more than any others do: 
 
 " Saturday, Oct. 13th. 
 " Hardly had day dawned when we saw 
 coming on to the beach a great many of tliese 
 men, all young, as I have already said ; all of 
 good height. This is a race of men really 
 very beautiful. Their hair is not curly but 
 flowing; their foreheads and heads are very 
 large, more so than any other race that I have 
 ever seen. Their eyesv are beautiful and 
 not at all small; their color is not black but 
 similar to that of the Canary Islanders and 
 cannot be otherwise since their situation is 
 with that of the Island of Iron, one of the 
 Canaries on a direct line from East to 
 West." 
 
 The reason why Columbus repeats this 
 about their color being like that of the 
 Canaries is, probably, so tliat he may in some 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. I7l 
 
 way account for tlie color. He had slept 
 over it and happened to think, maybe, that 
 folks in the same line of latitude, had the 
 same color. What color should he call 
 them? It was a color no one had ever seen 
 before. The Africans were black, the 
 Cathay people, of course, were the Chinese, 
 and were yellow^, and Europeans were 
 white, but what was the color of this new 
 man? We have learned to call him the 
 Red Man. How wonderful it is to realize 
 that Columbus is the first white man who 
 ever saw him and tried to name him and 
 his color! 
 
 "I examined them attentively," Columbus 
 says, " and tried to find out if there was 
 any gold. I saw that some of them wore a 
 little piece of it hanging from a hole which 
 they made in their noses, and I succeeded 
 by signs, in learning from them that by 
 going around their island and sailing south- 
 ward I would find a country, the king of 
 
172 coLrMnrs and what iik FOUisrD. 
 
 whicli had large vases of gold in great 
 quantity. I tried to persuade them to go 
 into this countiy, l)ut I soon understood 
 they did not want to go, so I determined 
 to Willi until the next day in the afternoon, 
 and then to depart to the southwest, where, 
 according to the information given me, there 
 existed land. The inhabitants of the coun- 
 try situated to the northwest often came to 
 fight with them and then passed on toward 
 the southwest to search for gold and pre- 
 cious stones." 
 
 The next day, then, we read of their ex- 
 ploits along the coast. Let Columbus him- 
 self tell of his as he approached another 
 part of the island. 
 
 " As soon as day dawned I prepared to 
 visit the difPerent people, and l)efore long I 
 saw two or three of the inhabitants come 
 to the beach, calling to us and giving thanks 
 to God (as they understood some God lived 
 up in heaven). One old man came even 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTB. l73 
 
 into my boat, and others called loudly to all 
 men and women to ' Come and see the men 
 who have come doivn from heaven. Bring 
 them something to eat and dinnh.'' 
 
 " Then came a great many men and women 
 all bringing something. They thanked God, 
 throwing themselves on the earth, raised 
 their hands to the sky, and then invited us 
 to come to land." 
 
 He examined very closely all this island 
 before leaving it, so as to decide where he 
 should build a fortress; but he almost con- 
 cluded it was unnecessary to build any place 
 of defense, since these peaceful people knew 
 so little of war. The King and Queen could 
 decide for themselves, when they should see 
 the seven natives he should take with 
 him, " so as to teach them our language 
 and to then bring them back into their 
 country." " Still, if your Highnesses should 
 command that I subdue them or take them 
 captives, nothing would be easier, for with 
 
174 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTD. 
 
 iifty men one could hold them all in per- 
 fect submission and do with them whatever 
 one would like.'' 
 
 Poor Columbus! it is plain to be seen 
 here, that his o\\ti wishes would be to act 
 the missionary to these Indians; but he is 
 also subject to a conquering King and 
 Queen who have sent him to be viceroy al 
 governor, and the question is which shall 
 he be? He tries to be both governor and 
 missionary. 
 
 Soon he sees so many islands he cannot 
 decide which direction to take, but he goes 
 to the largest one, " which is about iive 
 leagues from this one that I leave, and to 
 which I have given the name San Sal- 
 vador." 
 
 He takes mth him the half-dozen natives, 
 for he finally persuaded them to go, and 
 moves on to another island, always going 
 around their reefs and shoals in the most 
 successful manner with his vessels. On the 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. l75 
 
 way to this larger island, a canoe of natives 
 came toward tliem, alongside the " Nina." 
 The iirst thing anybody knew, one of the 
 half- dozen jumped from the ship into the 
 canoe and away they went as fast as they 
 could. 
 
 Columbus was anxious to have no trouble 
 with these people for they had willingly 
 come with him, yet if one escapes like that 
 with a bad tale to tell it may make trouble, 
 so they tried hard to catch him and bring 
 him back and make it all understood, but 
 the white men could not catch them. Co- 
 lumbus describes it in his journal and says 
 they " ran like scared chickens " into the 
 woods. The men, however, saw just then 
 another boat load coming who had not seen 
 the chase. Eagerly the white men held up 
 balls of cotton to show that their commer- 
 cial intentions were good. They would not 
 come very close to the boat. The Admiral 
 
176 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 then ordered that tliey be taken by force, 
 and so tbey were, but badly frightened. 
 
 But Cohimbus' plan was to take them 
 and trim them all up with beads and trink- 
 ets, and give them presents, and then let 
 them go again so that they could tell 
 a happier tale than the man who had run 
 away from them. Many little stratagems 
 like this Columbus had to use to keep 
 peace and to keep all under his eye. 
 
 It is very interesting to read about this 
 cruising among the islands, but only a few 
 of the most important matters can we here 
 touch upon. The bits of dried leaves with 
 Avhich these men made a sort of stick and 
 then set one end on fire and put the 
 other end into their mouths and made a 
 smoke, was a most curious proceeding, and 
 one which our Columbus himself never 
 took any " stock in," but the tobacco 
 which these Indians smoked has been a 
 source of much — shall we say wealth? 
 
COLFMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 177 
 
 It remains, I think, for the economist 
 of real value to decide about that. It has 
 certainly been a source of much weakness 
 to real manhood, and the world had been 
 a much better world since, if it had not 
 made this savage discovery of tobacco. 
 
 Columbus seems finally to have named 
 these natives Indians. He is so sure he is 
 in India that he falls into the habit, and 
 he sets the habit for the world since. 
 American Indians they are to-day. 
 
 These who were first discovered, who 
 lived in such lazy, mild, happy ways, were 
 very different from those found afterwards 
 on the other islands and on our Continent. 
 
XI. 
 
 Be sure to look at the map and see what 
 a broken -up place our Columbus struck, 
 and remember, what solid land — Florida — 
 he would have found instead, if he had 
 only kept straight west that time when the 
 birds and the Pinzons decided him t(j turn 
 southwest. 
 
 AVhat a lot of distress it would have 
 saved him if he had discovered the conti- 
 nent instead of these bewilder- 
 Bewildering . • i i -i 
 
 . . mo; and numerous islands, these 
 
 Islands. ^ 
 
 reefs and rocks and floundering 
 
 seas. It was enough completely to break 
 any man's heart never to be able to know 
 what he had found. In all four of Columbus' 
 voyages he went drifting around in this tei*- 
 riblc liollow of wastes and islands whicli 
 you know lies in between the two irreat 
 
 Americas, the North and the Soiitli. 
 
 178 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 179 
 
 But God had a mighty purpose in this 
 and Columhus was His own man. God's 
 
 plan was that Protestantism 
 Catholicism and , , ^ ,i t • i ii 
 
 and not Catholicism snould 
 Protestantism. , . 
 
 have its chance in the New 
 
 World. If Columbus, representing Catholic 
 Spain, had struck the continent, we would 
 all have been Catholics, if we had been 
 at all; but as it is, England made us into 
 Protestants, and Catholicism landed with our 
 good Columbus farther South. Hence, Mex- 
 ico, Central America and South America, 
 and the West Indies, are Catholic to-day, 
 while we are Protestant, because Spain fol- 
 lowed up Columbus' discovery and planted 
 her religion there. But we will not here 
 and now, begin to get ourselves into 
 trouble about the difference between Cathol- 
 icism and Protestantism, but go on fol- 
 lowing the man Columbus. I believe 
 it is Man, after all, Man with a capital 
 M, who is going to save us, and of course 
 
180 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 you know I mean the Man Jesus, the Christ. 
 
 But let us get back again into Colum- 
 bus' own boat and know only what he 
 knew, and that is that God is good and 
 takes care of every one of us in our own 
 time if Ave will but do our whole part. 
 
 He wished to visit a small town because 
 " the king who resides there wears a 
 great deal of gold. I shall go to-morrow 
 far enough ahead so that I shall certainly 
 find the tribe. I shall see the king aird 
 shall speak to this sovereign who, accord- 
 ing to the testimony of these Indians, has 
 under his dominion all the neighboring 
 islands, wears clothes and is entirely cov- 
 ered with gold. 
 
 "My intention is not to visit this coun- 
 try in much detail, because I should not 
 succeed in fifty years, and I wish on the 
 contrary as much as possible to see and to 
 discover other new countries, and to return 
 to you in the month of April, if it pleases 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 181 
 
 our Lord. It is true that when I shall 
 have found places where there are gold and 
 spices in large quantities, I will stay there 
 awhile until I have made as large provision 
 of them as possible, and the only aim of my 
 cruises is the search for these provisions." 
 
 Cruel disappointment is now beginning to 
 weigh heavily on his heart. He remembers, 
 no doubt, the great ado there was about the 
 expenses, and he knows that there '11 be 
 something to pay in all his after life if this 
 thing does not turn out well in riches. He 
 must find gold. 
 
 As soon as the natives saw these white 
 people, " they all took fright, abandoned 
 their homes and their clothes, and all that 
 they possessed. I would not allow anything 
 to be taken from them, not even to the 
 value of a pin," writes Columbus. 
 
 At last he succeeded in pacifying them and 
 then they could not do enough for him. 
 But he still wanted to find the king, and to 
 
182 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 go to another land which he believed to he 
 Cipango; the Indians called it Cuba, but 
 it was yet a long ways off. He sailed 
 around among fruits and flowers, " but," he 
 says, " my resolution is to go to the main- 
 land, to the city of Quinsay, to deliver the 
 letters of your Highnesses to the Great 
 Khan, to secure his response and to return 
 as soon as I may carry it." 
 
 When he held his devotions and talked 
 
 with his men he must have 
 
 Searches for -, ^i i 4. j! 
 
 more and more tnougnt ot 
 
 Cuba, the . „ . 
 
 _ . , those idols which the Uumsay 
 
 Golden *^ 
 
 Cipango. people were w^orshiping, and 
 
 of the good message he had 
 for them of God and His love for every- 
 body. 
 
 He finally decided that there was no gold 
 in sight and that he must move on; but he 
 was troubled because many different winds 
 were necessary for such roundabout ways 
 as he had to take. He could go straight 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 183 
 
 across an ocean with almost any wind, but 
 you can see without steam it took very wise 
 navigating to get around here among islands, 
 rocks, reefs and shallow waters. 
 
 Slowly and carefully they felt their way 
 through sands and rocks and torrents of 
 rain for several days, and reached the beau- 
 tiful land of Cuba. He had been told it 
 had in it ten great rivers, and plenty of 
 gold and had a great king. The beautiful 
 harbor which, according to Navarrete, is 
 now called Nipe Bay, is where Columbus 
 landed, fully expecting to visit a real king. 
 Columbus had never seen or heard of such 
 ragged coasts, full of harbors, with mount- 
 ains in the distance and great palms 
 stretching themselves up like sentinels. In- 
 deed, this was the land of Paradise! 
 
 Others besides Columbus have described 
 the beauty that dwells there; but think 
 what it was to Columbus, the first white 
 man who ever saw it or heard of it. 
 
184 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Ferns and orchids, j)alm -trees, even fern- 
 trees, all in tangled masses — fruits, such 
 as lemons, bananas, grapes, all in tropical 
 abundance — spices, then in Europe worth 
 many dollars per j^o^md — all seemed to him 
 to be mighty riches; yet how in the world 
 was he to make it into riches for their 
 Majesties? No, he could only feast on it 
 himself. Many times he wished he could 
 stay there always. Yet he had a sad heart 
 with him for he had two dear boys at home; 
 he must not stay, but must go on. 
 
 Some of these mountains rise up four 
 thousand and five thousand feet high, and 
 away in there in the center must be where 
 Kubla Khan was holding those great 
 parties. Perhaps when the Indians said 
 " Cuba " it sounded to Columbus something 
 like " Kubla." Nobody knows. Anyway, 
 where was he? He must find out. He 
 did n't know. Nobody knew until years 
 after. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 185 
 
 As he brought his ships to land two little 
 canoes came out, but ran away again. The 
 Indians on board told him that there were 
 mines of gold and j)earls here. The Ad- 
 miral thought the bivalve shells on the 
 shore indicated that pearls were at hand. 
 He named the deep, restful harbor, San Sal- 
 vador. It yet bears that name. 
 
 Pinzon believed Cuba must be a city sit- 
 uated somewhere on the land where they 
 were and that the land was not an island 
 at all, but a continent whose king was 
 at war with Kubla Khan. But Columbus 
 determined to send in his letters to tlie 
 king who, he believed, lived in this neigh- 
 borhood in a city of Cathay. 
 
 He believed that he ought to make all 
 efforts possible to find the 
 
 e ery irs (|j.gat Khan. One Indian 
 
 finally came to shore and 
 
 stayed long enough to let Columbus' Indians 
 
 tell him that they ^verv r.ot subjects of the 
 
180 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Kubla Khan, and were not enemies, but 
 were only good people who went around 
 among the islands giving presents. 
 
 Columbus finally came to think this must 
 l)e the mainland. If he was actually at 
 the mainland then the Great Khan was in 
 there somewhere, and he must get out those 
 letters. 
 
 He had with him on board two men who 
 were willing and well fitted to make the 
 
 trip inland and carry the 
 The Next Embassy ^ t^ i • i r^ 
 
 letters. Koderiffo de (ierez 
 to the Khan. ^ 
 
 was the name of one and 
 
 Luis de Torrez was the other, a Jew. " He 
 could speak Hebrew, Chaldean and even a 
 little Arabic," and of course Spanish, per- 
 haps French. He was the man to go and 
 do the talking, for there was no telling how 
 many languages he might find. Two In- 
 dians went with them. They took with 
 tliem pearl necklaces and such things as 
 would best pay their expenses. They were 
 
COLUMBUS AJN^D WHAT HE FOUND. 187 
 
 to be gone not longer than six days. They 
 were to bear the messages of the King and 
 Queen of Spain, and to inquire as to the 
 Khan's empire and strength, etc. 
 
 All this, sent in to a poor Indian! It is 
 almost laughable now, of course, but we 
 need not laugh. 
 
 The Admiral spent his time in climbing 
 mountains and in hunting and shooting 
 game. He shot some beautiful birds which 
 he took home with him. He offered rewards 
 for any one who would find the most spice, 
 nutmegs or cinnamon, gum or any such 
 things. 
 
 He found a fine l)each where he had the 
 "Santa Maria" and the "Nina" "careened," 
 and " calked," so that they might all be 
 ready for further work. You remember 
 the " Pinta " was " fixed " at the Canary 
 Islands. 
 
 The Admiral here heard of the cjreat, uni- 
 
188 COLUMI?rs AXD WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 versal, bu2;aboo story which it seems has 
 
 ^. ^ ^ , been found everywhere in the 
 The One=Eyed '' 
 
 Qj^^^g world, the story of the one- 
 
 eyed giants. 
 
 Homer, the great Greek jD^et, could n't 
 have invented the one-eyed man, for we see 
 the North American Indians had the same 
 story. How does it happen? Can any one 
 tell how it is that the Norsemen, the Ara- 
 bians, the South Africans, the Greeks and 
 our Indians were always scaring themselves 
 al)ont the one-eyed man? 
 
 The Indians said there were one-eyed 
 giants to the southeast, and that they had 
 immense ships and a great deal of mer- 
 chandise, plenty of gold and pearls. This 
 one eye was in the middle of the forehead, 
 and some had heads like dogs. " When 
 they caught any one they cut off his head 
 and drank his blood." 
 
 These Avere exactly the stories Marco Polo 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 189 
 
 told, SO Columbus was more and uiore sure 
 every day that lie was in India. 
 
 He found roots that when roasted tasted 
 like chestnuts. These were our sweet pota- 
 toes. He also found coffee berries of a dif- 
 ferent species from ours. From this very 
 spot is exported to-day more coffee than 
 from any other market in the world. 
 
 He tried to wait patiently to hear from 
 
 the men as to what they found. But all 
 
 his hopes of Quinsay \vere dashed 
 Return -, • ^ 
 
 ^ ^, to the OTOund ao-am, when on 
 
 of the " ° ' 
 
 Embassy Tuesday, November 6, the men re- 
 turned with no words of Quinsay. 
 They could only tell of more Indians — but 
 not a word of disappointment came from 
 Columbus. No, indeed, he had to keep 
 all that to himself, but we know he must 
 have felt dreadfully lost after being so 
 sure. 
 
 He very patiently heard their story and 
 kindly entertained the new Indians who 
 
190 COLUMBUS AXD AVIIAT HE FOUXD. 
 
 came with them, in the best manner pos- 
 sible. 
 
 The men reported that they had traveled 
 twelve leagues. Then they found a village 
 of fifty houses in which perhaps one thou- 
 sand j^eople lived. They had a fine time, 
 however, for they had l)een entertained as 
 if they had come down from the skies. 
 The finest of the Indians had carried them 
 ir, their arms to the best house — and hati 
 kissed their feet and made them sit on their 
 best seats, and eat their best food. Seats 
 they had not seen before in this new land, 
 and they were only for chiefs to sit on; the 
 Indians themselves sat on the ground all 
 around them and looked at them while 
 they sat down, and fairly worshiped them. 
 The women, especially, thought they were 
 very handsome, and all offered to go home 
 with them. 
 
 " They begged the Christians to stay five 
 days, at least. The men sliowed them theii- 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 191 
 
 samples of ciuuamon aud pepper and other 
 things which the Admiral had given them; 
 the women explained to them l)y signs that 
 there were great quantities of these things 
 near there towards the southeast, hut none 
 in that immediate I'egion." 
 
 They found very few cities, but at least 
 five hundred people begged to leave every- 
 thing and go with them to live in the sky. 
 Is not that a yearning for immortal life? 
 Poor things, even they did not seem to be 
 contented to be only Indians. They wanted 
 the next higher state of being if there was 
 such a thing. But no, Torrez could only 
 consent to take with him their chief and 
 his son and a servant. He took these three 
 and came back to the ships. 
 
 The Admiral talked with the chief and 
 gave as fine a reception as he could, and 
 w^ould like to have taken him home to the 
 King and Queen, l:»ut the chief was home- 
 sick to get back to the woods the very first 
 
192 COLUMBUS AXD WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 night, and Columbus dryly says, "that as 
 he had his ship standing on the earth," in- 
 stead of heaven, " he did not know what 
 whim might take possession of that Indian." 
 As he did not want to provoke him, he let 
 him go. He promised to return at dawn, 
 but they never saw " that Indian " again. 
 
 We hear more about little sticks stuck 
 into j)eople's mouths, which are on iire at 
 one end, also of sticks being held in their 
 hands so as to raise a perfume. How queer ! 
 It seems to me the idea of carrying the 
 tobacco around in hands instead of mouths 
 is a pretty good one, for then it would not 
 seem to be so ridiculous; but we have gone 
 on with it in our mouths worse than ever 
 the native Indians did. 
 
 They describe the cotton plant for the 
 first time, just as it grows to-day. This 
 makes four great discoveries in the New 
 World; Indian corn, sweet potatoes, tobacco 
 and cotton. 
 
COLUMBCTS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 193 
 
 Columbus is greatly impressed with tlie 
 native goodness of the Indians. "No mal- 
 ice have they," and, " I am convinced, most 
 serene Princes, that from the moment that 
 this devout, religious peo23le hear their own 
 language, they will become Christians." 
 
 Columbus did not know that quiet, igno- 
 rant heathenism was much more tranquil 
 and easy than Christian civilization; but we 
 would rather l)e Christians, and work and 
 even fight and learn life and all that is in 
 it, than to be heathen, would n't we? 
 
 I hope Christianity has done all its fight- 
 ing, but let me tell you something; Chris- 
 tianity has not yet -done all its discovering, 
 there is a good deal of that left to be done 
 by you and me. 
 
XII. 
 
 Columbus still heard of the wonderful 
 place called Boliio, or Barbeque, where the 
 giants lived and had plenty of gold. With 
 his ships all in good order he sailed 
 on toward the " east-southeast," along the 
 coast of Cuba. The same stories of Indians 
 and birds and beautiful islands went on, 
 but no great amount of gold was found. 
 
 On the 20th of November, toward even- 
 ing, it was evident that something strange 
 had come over the "Pinta" — Columbus 
 noticed she seemed to go in the wrong di- 
 rection. He hoisted his signals for her to 
 follow him, as he was sure there was some 
 mistake or misunderstanding, but the "Pinta" 
 all at once seemed ^o have some notion or 
 other not to follow, but to "run her o^\^n 
 
 boat." 
 
 194 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT TIE FOUND. 195 
 
 This distressed Colunihiis very iniicli; lie 
 tliouglit it possible the " Pinta " had diso- 
 beyed for some 2;ood reason and 
 Pinzon ^ i i i • 
 
 Is Q ne '^'^^^^^^'^ soon return, so he kept his 
 
 signals out all night and waited, 
 expecting to have the vessels all together in 
 the morning. No, indeed, the " Pinta " was 
 nowhere in sight when daylight came again, 
 and, sad to say, she seemed to have really 
 started for home. Could it be possible 
 Alonzo Pinzon would undertake to run 
 away in such a manner? If so, he evi- 
 dently intended to reach Spain first and tell 
 all the news, and lay claim to all the dis- 
 covery. Yes, it seemed to be that way. 
 Columbus had already mistrusted him since 
 Pinzon had showed him " insolence ^"^ and 
 disobedience many times. 
 
 Columbus quietly smothered all his pain 
 and said little about this treatment, but 
 went on bravely with his discovering, using 
 the other two boats. He did not want to 
 
196 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 leave, for he believed if lie could but sail 
 
 on southeast along the coast of this Cuba — 
 
 for he supposed to the day of his death 
 
 that this was the mainland — he would 
 
 surely find the Khan. 
 
 But he gave it up and sailed into the 
 
 open waters again and came to Hayti — or 
 
 San Domingo, as it is now 
 Hispaniola. . 
 
 called, ihis island is the His- 
 paniola we hear so much about in the life 
 of Columbus, for it afterwards came to be 
 a sort of home -spot for him. 
 
 He named it Hispaniola because its beauty 
 was much like that of Spain. Hispaniola 
 means Little Spain. There are some ruins 
 to-day in the island Hayti of the buildings 
 and forts of these early times. 
 
 About the first thing that happened at 
 Hayti was the coming of a whole troop of 
 Indians who were frightened at the sight 
 of three white men, and ran a^vay so fast 
 that one little Indian woman could n't keep 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 197 
 
 up, SO tlie sailors took her with them to 
 the ships. The poor thing was frightened 
 nearly to death, crying, and supposing she 
 would be killed when she was brought in. 
 
 But Columbus soon made her happy 
 by giving her a lot of gay clothes to put 
 on, and by having her introduced to the 
 other Indian women on board. She was so 
 happy she did n't want to go home again, 
 but Columbus sent her there to tell the 
 rest how anxious they were to make the 
 acquaintance of all their people. 
 
 Sure enough, a whole lot of them came 
 soon after, bowing and scraping and asking 
 to be allowed to receive them to their 
 houses, the woman and her husband at the 
 head, doing the main business of exchang- 
 ing courtesies. A fine young chief also 
 came, carried on the shoulders of four 
 other Indians. 
 
 No " Pinta " was seen yet, so it was 
 pretty certain that the " Santa Maria " and 
 
11)8 COLITMHUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 the little girl boat, "Nina," were to do all 
 tlie rest, and to find tlieir way home alone 
 when the right time came. Columbus had 
 some hope, however, that Alonzo Pinzon was 
 still hanging around Cuba looking for gold, 
 since he was the one who was so very sure 
 it was the mainland. It might be that he 
 had not yet gone home and that he would 
 still be found. 
 
XIII. 
 
 When was there a time tliat Christmas had 
 no place in oiir country; when there were no 
 boys and girls who then had a happy time? 
 Can it be that only Indians looked np at these 
 skies — Indians who thought that days were 
 all alike? They lived here for hundreds of 
 years and never heard of Christmas nor of 
 what made Christmas, until Columbus came. 
 The world over on the Mediterranean Sea 
 had, for all this time, kept Christmas as 
 Christ's Birthday, but now this New World 
 was to have a Christmas also for the very 
 first time. C-olumbus had made preparations 
 
 for it, and especially since he 
 
 Guacanagari. • -^ i i -i i i • j? 
 
 wuH invited by the grand chiet- 
 
 tain, Guacanagari, to sail to his port and make 
 
 him a visit. 
 
 This name is a very long one, but it will 
 
 pay you to remember it, for he was the finest 
 
 199 
 
200 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Indian yet found anywhere by Columbus. 
 His people were more civilized than others. 
 When Columbus sent some of his men to 
 visit him at his home and to take presents, 
 they found real streets, that is, houses were 
 arranged in some order, and instead of the 
 people trading for everything, they desired 
 to make gifts, not taking anything in re- 
 turn. They thought they were giving things 
 to folks from heaven. 
 
 This acquaintance with the chief had been 
 made a few days before Christmas ; the 
 men had returned to the vessels and all 
 was well, more so than at any time since 
 the little fleet had left home, except that 
 the " Pinta " was missing. On the evening 
 of the 24th of December, Christmas Eve, 
 everything being so safe and calm, and 
 Columbus very tired, having had no sleep 
 the night before, and having been on watch 
 since early dawn, he concluded he could 
 have a night's sleep. He called the 
 
COLUMBUS AliJJ) WHAT HE FOUND. 201 
 
 ship's master to take the tiller, as nobody 
 else was allowed to touch it, and gave him 
 orders to watch the weather and to call him 
 if there were any changes in it. He then 
 wrapped himself up for a sleep. The mas- 
 ter then felt everything was so safe it was 
 useless for him to stand hy that rudder and 
 do what any boy could do when he might 
 just as well be asleep, too; so he allowed 
 "a boy" to take his place. I imagine the 
 boy thought he was the very one to do so 
 and that he knew as much as was neces- 
 sary, but little were his eyes and his ears 
 trained to understand anything unusual. 
 Little did any one know about the Gulf 
 Stream and its currents. If "the boy" had 
 been a young Columbus, he would have 
 discovered they were drifting, drifting toward 
 danger. How strange that Columbus, who 
 had been safe in storms and among rocks, 
 and perils of all sorts, was just now very 
 unsafe, through this boy's drifting! When 
 
202 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 tlie awful sound of sand scraping the bot- 
 tom of the boat was heard, it must have 
 seemed as if it came right up out of the 
 middle of the ocean. 
 
 Drifting wrecks are always such a sur- 
 
 ^. .,, . prise; all on board soon kne^v 
 The Wreck. ^ 
 
 they were not in open sea; they 
 kncAV what that sound meant, — they ^vere 
 stuck fast in the sand. 
 
 Columbus was the first man on deck, and 
 he commanded at once that the little l)oat 
 be lowered and an anchor be dropped a 
 ways back and an efPort ])e made to dra^v 
 the vessel off the sand. The men obeyed so 
 far as to get into the little boat, but, dread- 
 ful to say, instead of helping to do any- 
 thing they put off for the other boat, so as 
 to make themselves safe, and left Columbus. 
 He then, in his desperation, began to 
 lighten the dear old " Santa Maria " l)y 
 throwing all the heavy things overboard. 
 He cut down the big masts, threw out the 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 203 
 
 cannon, and did all that could be done, 
 but it was of no use; it was dark and no- 
 body could tell what was going on except 
 that they knew they felt the vessel sinking 
 more and more solidly into sand. 
 
 It was good punishment for the bad, 
 foolish men who paddled off for the other 
 boat, that the Captain of it would n't let 
 them come aboard; instead of that he hur- 
 ried straight to help Columbus, if possible, 
 and let them take care of themselves the 
 best they could. Nothing could be done 
 but to get everything out of the " Santa 
 Maria." She was fast going to pieces, for, 
 with her hull fast in the sand and the 
 waves of the shore twisting her every way, 
 she was breaking up. Dear little " Nina " 
 was the only boat left, and she had to 
 carry one hundred men and get them all 
 home again some way. It was a sorrowful 
 Christmas morning for Columbus, but he 
 kejat up a very brave heart, and his very 
 
204 COLUMBUS AXD WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 best friend was tlie Indian Chief, Guacana- 
 gari. 
 
 This was Christmas Day, 1492, the first 
 one in America. It was spent not in festiv- 
 ities as it is now, nor as Columbus had 
 planned, for he expected to have a fine 
 dinner with the chief; but it was spent in 
 saving what they could of the wreck. 
 
 The " Santa Maria " soon fell clear over 
 on her side. Columbus and the men had 
 to make their home on the " Nina." Diego 
 de Arana, one of Columbus' officers and 
 relatives who was uncle to little Fernando 
 Columbus, and another man, started as soon 
 as it was day to tell the King Guacanagari 
 of the intended visit and of their troubles. 
 He lived four or five miles inland from 
 where the wrecked vessel lay. The kind 
 king then did more than almost any civil- 
 ized king could have done. He opened and 
 emptied out many of his houses for them 
 to come into. The people helped with all 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 205 
 
 their iniglit to bring everything ashore. 
 In a little while the vessel was empty. 
 Nothing at all was stolen or injured. 
 Everything was honestly cared for, although 
 there must have been tempting chances 
 to steal pretty things. "Who had ever 
 taught these Indians to be honest? 
 
 King Guacanagari came the next day and 
 made a call upon Columbus, and when he 
 saw he was really troubled it moved him to 
 tears. Think of such sympathy! He took 
 dinner with Columbus and cheered him by 
 telling him of plenty of gold that was to 
 be found in the great mountains back of 
 them. And he also invited Columbus to 
 come to a fine dinner which he prepared 
 for him out of conies (rabbits), fish, and 
 roots (potatoes, probably), and fruits. Co- 
 lumbus found him to be a really kingly 
 man, delicate in his habits and manly. 
 When he ate (without knives and forks, 
 of course) he always washed " his hands 
 
20r> COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 
 
 when lie Lad finisliecl, and i'ul)l)ed them 
 ^vith sweet and odoriferous herbs." His 
 people obeyed him and honoi-ed him, and 
 all lived so happily that Columbus and his 
 men began to conclude they were pretty 
 good people to live with. 
 
 They finished the day with games and 
 dances on the part of the Indians, and Co- 
 lumbus fired off some of his cannon, which 
 sounded through the forests as if the 
 heavens would come down. When King 
 Guacanagari heard these guns, he was sure 
 they had strange and wonderful guests. 
 They exchanged a great many presents. 
 Two large masks for the face, made of gold, 
 were given to Columbus. The king laid his 
 crown on Columbus' head and Columbus 
 put his beads on the king's neck and all 
 were happy. 
 
 After some days Columbus came to the 
 conclusion that the l>est thing to do now 
 was to build a little fort or house there, 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 207 
 
 out of the wrecked vessel, and leave part 
 
 of the men behind. He would then return 
 
 to Spain and report all his news and come 
 
 again as soon as possible to the men with 
 
 new boats and provisions. 
 
 As they all became more acquainted, this 
 
 plan worked well. The little fort called 
 
 Navidavid (Town of Christmas) 
 
 ' went up. There was plenty to 
 the First , i • i 
 
 eat and s^ood water to drink. 
 Settlement. ^ , 
 
 These Indians were the only 
 ones Columbus had found who seemed to 
 cultivate the ground and provide for them- 
 selves. The only trouble they had was 
 from the neighboring islands. The Caribs 
 lived on them and were much feared by 
 these mild men, but the guns and weapons 
 of warfare which Columbus' men had 
 brought, seemed to be just what was nec- 
 essary for the defense of this little New 
 World, and so they made its first settle- 
 ment of white people. 
 
208 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 In the midst of all this confusion and 
 what would have been distress to many 
 another person, Columbus still found time 
 carefully to write in his journal all that 
 was necessary. He says, " I shall leave 
 here a calker, a carpenter, a gunner and a 
 cooper, and many of the other men who 
 want to serve your Majesties and do me 
 pleasure by finding out where the gold is 
 gathered. And thus everything has turned 
 out very conveniently for making this first 
 settlement." 
 
 The Indians were delighted with the idea, 
 and King Guacanagari did his best to tempt 
 Columbus himself to stay, by chasing about 
 for gold. He brought him quite a large 
 amount; but no, Columbus must not stay. 
 He must get ready to return to Spain as 
 soon as possible. One morning, as King 
 Guacanagari was taking breakfast with Co- 
 lumbus and deciding about two Indians who 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 209 
 
 would return to Spain with him, word came 
 to Columbus that a vessel had been seen. 
 
 Columbus knew it must be Pinzon's. He 
 was glad and he was not glad, for you see 
 since the " Santa Maria " was gone, Colum- 
 bus was obliged to take up his headquarters 
 on the " Nina." The captain of the " Nina " 
 was a good man and, of course, gave up his 
 ship to Columbus. But he was a brother of 
 Alonzo Pinzon who had run away, and it 
 might happen now, since Columbus was 
 really shipwrecked, that they might together 
 turn against him and keep him out of com- 
 mand. Columbus was, however, ready if 
 things should take such a turn. But no 
 " Pinta" came around, so things went on in 
 preparation for departure. 
 
 Diego de Arana was to be in command 
 of the fort. Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo 
 de Escobedo were next in duty bound to 
 keep perfect order and to "hold the fort" 
 until Columbus should return. They kept 
 
210 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 the " Santa's " little boat for fishino- and 
 other things. They had seeds to sow in the 
 spring and their main work was to hunt for 
 gold. There were thirty-nine of them who 
 remained behind, and all felt willins: and 
 able to care for themselves. They were Co- 
 lumbus' best men. 
 
 On the 4th of January, Columbus was 
 finally off. Sad good-byes had been said. 
 One brave little company was left in the 
 midst of Indians, happy and brave, and the 
 other was launching out into the mighty 
 Atlantic in a small boat all alone. I am 
 sorry to tell you they never saw each other 
 
XIII. 
 
 Sailing away from the port of the "Town 
 of Christmas " on this side of the Atlantic 
 was a little different from the leave-taking 
 of the port of Palos, on the other side, just 
 four months before, was n't it? 
 
 These men had all learned wonderful 
 things about a whole wide world in this 
 short time. Geography would never again 
 be the same. Columbus knew the secret of 
 the ages had been unlocked, and that he 
 held the key. 
 
 The great New World was now a fact. 
 He had found it, that was sure, — but what 
 if anything should happen to him and his 
 little boat on the way home? He must 
 have felt so small, as he realized all this, 
 and feared that he never would get home 
 with it : as if the waves and winds that 
 
212 COLUMBUS AISTD AYIIAT HE FOUND. . 
 
 lay between Liiu and home would certainly 
 try to tear it away from him. He seemed 
 to be almost haunted with this fear. He 
 knew well the mighty importance of his 
 discovery, and that he was all alone with 
 it. No one except two or three of his men 
 cared for what was found. Columbus him- 
 self had studied the old Ptolemy and knew 
 the world needed new geography, and he 
 had gone out and made it all. 
 
 Alonzo Pinzon evidently knew it was a 
 great find, but he had no such lofty con- 
 ception as Columbus of how the very king- 
 doms of earth and heaven were to be 
 changed. Columbus, of course, did not 
 know about it all, but he came as near real- 
 izing it as any human being could. He was 
 only human, and no doubt had many affec- 
 tions set on the earth, as is natural, ])ut his 
 treasures lay in the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 He was discovering, living, dying for One 
 he loved, and that One was his Father 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 213 
 
 above, who blessed it all, and tbat is why 
 it made such a great change in the world 
 every way. 
 
 He bade good-bye to his New World and 
 started toward the southeast along the coast 
 of. his Little Spain, not like some mighty 
 monarch, but like a very tired man in a 
 very little boat. 
 
 He had not sailed far when the "Pinta" 
 
 was seen in the distance. Columbus tried 
 
 to 2:et near enou2:h to com- 
 The"Pinta." ° . . ^ . 
 
 municate with Pinzon in order 
 
 to know what might be the explanation of 
 
 his conduct. Pinzon, also, made the effort 
 
 to see him, but winds and waves were too 
 
 high. Columbus retreated to a harbor near 
 
 by, and it was good that Pinzon followed. 
 
 There they settled the matter wisely and 
 
 carefully. Columbus said little. He knew 
 
 the time for punishment or severe words 
 
 was not at hand. He was rather helpless 
 
 away from the help of all power of law 
 
214 COLUMBUS AJSTD WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 and law3^ers, l)ut lie knew, and Pinzon 
 knew, that the time for liis piinishment 
 would come when he reached Spain. 
 Every obligation had been made very bind- 
 ing, by oaths and papers, and by signing 
 of names, and all that. Perfect obedience to 
 Columbus was to be carried out during all 
 this trip, hence Pinzon must have felt rather 
 badly all the way home. 
 
 On they sailed, after a few falsehoods had 
 l)een told by Pinzon about losing his way 
 on account of a storm. But some of the 
 men on board of the " Pinta " told about 
 gold the Indians had l)een bringing to them, 
 and that Pinzon had l)een making plenty 
 of bargains with them all, and had been 
 simply cruising around. He had been rather 
 lazy, however, for the boat had some worm- 
 holes in it which proved he had been 
 standing still too much in the water. He 
 gave up some of the gold to the treasurer 
 on Columbus' boat, Avho had kept a very 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 215 
 
 ■strict account of all the trading that had 
 been done ever since they struck the islands. 
 Columbus describes something like mer- 
 maids, but he says they were not very 
 
 beautiful. It is supposed he saw 
 Mermaids. ^ ^ 
 
 something like sea calves put 
 
 their heads up out of the water, and as 
 
 every sailor in those days had his eyes 
 
 open for mermaids, Columbus thought this 
 
 might be where they lived. 
 
 Columbus still hoped those giants would 
 
 be found as they left, and sure enough he 
 
 did come to where men 
 The Eastern End 
 
 ^ „, , , were nerce enou2:h to cut 
 
 of Hispaniola. ° 
 
 their heads open, helmets 
 and all, with one blow from their swords. 
 They were painted and feathered in war- 
 like fashion, and were strong and brave, 
 and very different Indians from those at the 
 little Christmas Fort. 
 
 Several of Columbus' men finally took a 
 little boat and ventured to shore to see if 
 
216 COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 
 
 they could find gold. The great ships of 
 merchandise and the one-eyed giants seemed 
 to be missing. They found something new 
 in the way of Indians and of Indian curiosi- 
 ties, but they found no gold. They suc- 
 ceeded in trading for a few bows and 
 arrows, by being very careful not to of- 
 fend. 
 
 Once tlie savage men hiid down all their 
 fighting instruments behind trees and came 
 out ver}^ carefully to the white men to see 
 them. All at once they grew suspicious 
 of the strange white inen and concluded 
 they had better fight, and ran for their 
 swords and bows and arrows and came on to 
 the men in a frightful ^vay, as if they were 
 going to capture them, bind them and keep 
 them as prisoners. The men had to defend 
 themselves by shooting, and this soon sent 
 the Indians flying for the woods, but two 
 of them were killed; the men enjoyed that 
 so much they would have gone after them. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 217 
 
 but for the command of the pilot on the 
 little boat. 
 
 This was the first blood shed in the long, 
 long struggle of years between the white 
 man and the red man in our New .World. 
 
 Columbus felt very sorry to have had this 
 happen. It was new to have such bloody 
 work going on. He was most thankful 
 that Fort Navidivad was so far away, for 
 these seemed to be very dangerous Indians. 
 
 Columbus writes in his journal of being 
 disgusted with the company he was in, and 
 of how he hopes to return to the islands 
 with good men and vessels. 
 
 The "Nina" had come to be so shaky 
 that Columbus could hardly take his obser- 
 vations of the stars or the sun. When the 
 different pilots compared their calculations 
 they did n't agree within a thousand miles. 
 
 Columbus' reckoning was different from 
 them all, but his proved in the end to be 
 right, but even he was not sure. 
 
XIV. 
 
 I am sorry to have to tell you of a fear- 
 ful storm tliat came to the little boats in 
 
 the very darkest midst of the 
 Battling. -^ 
 
 Grreat Atlantic Ocean. Others who 
 have since been in these great storms in the 
 winter time in great, safe boats, can appre- 
 ciate what it must have been for little open 
 ones that were too leaky and light to go 
 through a peril of any kind. We know the 
 end of the story and that they lived through, 
 but try to place yourself with them, and 
 imagine what it must have been to have 
 seen those ugly, forked lightnings in the 
 sky in the evening of the 12th of Febru- 
 ary! Real terror shot through all their 
 hearts at once, for they knew they were in 
 serious danger. Columbus had been all 
 these five months on the water without any 
 
 battle with a storm, and it had seemed as 
 
 218 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 219 
 
 if God would not let any storm come near 
 liim; here was a fierce one, however, but 
 his faith made a leap so high he felt 
 sure that God would not let anything hap- 
 pen. 
 
 The morning of the thirteenth Avas a 
 frio-htful one. Nothincr but mountains of 
 waves and a dark and dreadful sky, rain, 
 thunder and lightning. Only once in a 
 while did the two boats catch a sight of 
 each other, and that Avas when they each 
 happened to be on the top of a wave at 
 the same time; then down they woukl pitch 
 again out of sight. All sail was furled, 
 and no attempt to move on could be made, 
 only to keep right side up, if possible, and 
 right end foremost. 
 
 All day and night of the thirteenth the 
 winds beat on. In the morning of the 
 fourteenth the " Pinta " was no more to be 
 seen, and the " Nina " battled alone. 
 
 Columbus wrote, while in the midst of ' 
 
220 COLUMBUS ATSTD WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 ttese perils, words as calm and strong as if 
 
 lie were in some quiet home. Did you 
 
 ever try to write Avhen you were 
 
 frio-litened or excited? I remem- 
 Writes. ^ 
 
 ber trying to write a letter dur- 
 ing the Chicago fire, and I think there 
 was very little sense in it. 
 
 But below is a part of what he wrote 
 while the boat seemed to be going to pieces 
 under him. He had a little dry cabin in 
 one end. Hear his brave words: 
 
 " Notwithstanding the quantity of Avater 
 the ship is making [that is, water coming 
 in] I have faith that our Lord who brought 
 us here, will in his mercy and loving kind- 
 ness watch over my return, for His Ma- 
 jesty well knows the toil I suffered before 
 I could get away from Castile, and that no 
 one was on my side except Him, only be- 
 cause He alone could read my heart." 
 
 People often have plenty of faith after 
 danger is over, or plenty before danger 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 221 
 
 comes ou, but here is a mail in the very 
 jaws of death writing words of trust and 
 peace. " / liave faith that our Lord," etc., 
 not that I 'loill have or had^ l^ut in the 
 midst of it all, he says, " I have." 
 
 In many places his writing shows how 
 carefully he searched his heart to see what 
 misrht be wroua; inside him. He is evi- 
 dently ashamed of being somewhat nervous 
 and fretful, for Las Casas says that Co- 
 lumbus " confesses that even a gnat annoys 
 him, and attributes such Aveaknesses to his 
 small amount of faith and his lack of con- 
 fidence in divine Providence, while on the 
 other hand he is re -animated by the favor 
 which he knows God has bestowed upon 
 him."^" 
 
 But the storm grew worse and worse. 
 Hope was nearly gone. If there was auy- 
 
 *Las Casas was the good missionary to the Indians, 
 afterwards; he gives us Columbus' own words, some- 
 times, for lie had his journal to copy from. 
 
222 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 tliino: that could l)e done Columbus wanted 
 
 to do it, or if there was any one of them 
 
 wlio must 2')erform some vow or become a 
 
 pilgrim, it must be done. 
 
 We must remember that in those days 
 
 men knew no l)etter way to find God than 
 
 to dra^v lots sometimes. If they 
 The Beans. i tt- i • i 
 
 only round Him, that is the mam 
 
 thing. You remember a woman once really 
 found Christ\s love by sim^^ly touching the 
 hem of His garment. Las Casas says " Co- 
 lumbus commanded that they should draw 
 lots for a pilgrimage to Santa Maria de 
 Gaudalupe, when a candle weighing five 
 pounds of wax should be taken her, and 
 that all make a vow that he on whom the 
 lot should fall should accomplish the pil- 
 grimage. He commanded that as many 
 smooth beans (or peas) be brought him as 
 there were persons on the ship, to mark a 
 cross on one of them with a knife, to then 
 put them all into a bag and to stir them 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND, 223 
 
 up well. The Admiral was tlie first to put 
 his hand in. He pulled out the smooth pea 
 marked by a cross; it was upon the Ad- 
 mii'al that the lot fell, and from that time 
 he considered himself a pilgrim and as 
 obliged to go and accomplish the vow 
 which had just been made." 
 
 It was curious that Columbus himself 
 should draw this, but he was as ready to 
 make the pilgrimage as anybody, as soon 
 as they should see Spain again. 
 
 Of course the one to Avhom such lots fell 
 always felt as if he was somehow to blame 
 for all the trouble. 
 
 It must have been a terrible trial to Co- 
 lumbus to draw this bean, but he did, and 
 no doubt a most awful searching of his 
 brave heart went on still deeper. Columbus 
 was not so much afraid to die as he was 
 anxious for his secret, that it be not lost. 
 What a mighty desire he had to reach 
 home with his 
 
224 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 The storm went ou. All prayed and 
 wept together. The little " Nina " mounted 
 one wave after another only to pitch down 
 again on the other side. Nobody could eat 
 anything or sleep. In fact, they did n't 
 have much on board to eat. Columbus was 
 iinall}^ quite ill. His legs were so badly 
 swollen from so much fatigue and from 
 gout, that he had to stay in bed some of 
 the time. 
 
 The next day they concluded to put the 
 beans into the bag and draw lots again, and 
 the one who should draw the bean with 
 the cross on it should make a pilgrimage 
 to Notre Dame de Loretto. This, Las Casas 
 says, is " one of the estates of the Pope, a 
 neighborhood where the Holy Virgin has 
 done and does still a great many wonder- 
 ful miracles." It was probably one of the 
 greatest pilgrimages that could be per- 
 formed. 
 
 Columbus did n't draw the lot this time, 
 
COLUMBUS AITD WHAT HE FOUND. 225 
 
 but another poor man did. His name was 
 Pedro de Villa. The Admiral helped him 
 out by promising him to pay the expenses 
 of this pious journey, for it was a long 
 ways to go. The storm still went on. 
 
 Columbus retired at last to his cabin and 
 did what no one on board knew anything 
 about. How he ever had the strength to do 
 it is a wonder. He took out his journal 
 and made a copy of it, and carefully 
 wrapped it up in oiled silk and then 
 covered it with wax all water-tight, then 
 put it in some sort of a small cask, and 
 threw it into the waves, for he thought, 
 and wrote down afterwards, that if all 
 were to perish he would try to save the 
 news of his discovery, and somewhere^ 
 sometime, some one might find it. Would n't 
 you like to find that? No one ever has. 
 He allowed his sailors to think he was per- 
 forming some secret vow to God, when they 
 saw him throw it overboard, for if the men 
 
226 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 had known how Columbus seemed to be 
 l^reparing for death they would have lost 
 all hope. He did n^t let them know how 
 heavy his own heart was. 
 
 Once more, for the third time, they j)ut 
 the beans into the bag and stirred them 
 Avell and drew lots. Again Columbus drew 
 the rnarhed lean. This seemed so sad that 
 for some reason they all vowed to make 
 the pilgrimage together to the first 
 church they should ever see. Columbus' 
 keen mind jumped at a thought when the 
 lot fell to him the second time, which 
 seemed to have some comfort in it, and 
 that was if he was twice chosen to make 
 tlie pilgrimage, he surely was to be saved, 
 and this may account for all choosfug to 
 make the jjilgrimage with him and tl us be 
 saved, too. 
 
XV. 
 
 Four days and three nights the danger 
 lasted, but on the morning of the 15th the 
 
 storm was over, the sky clear. 
 Land and 
 
 and, best ot all, land was m 
 Clear Sky. 
 
 sight. God had heard and an- 
 swered them. The great sea yet rolled and 
 swelled, and still beat them about, but they 
 could make a little headway. 
 
 The morning was like a child's sweet 
 face after a deep cry. Sobs and tears, 
 waves and fog and chill, were not gone, 
 but the terror and hurt had passed away. 
 The sea always seems to sob after a storm 
 like a heart that has been stirred up. 
 
 Columbus and the men all gave God the 
 jDraise for their escape, and bustled about 
 to get ready for the land they saw in the 
 distance. Some said it was the Madeira 
 Islands, some said it was the Azores, some 
 
 that it was the coast of dear old Spain 
 
 227 
 
228 DOLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 itself. Closer and closer tliey came along- 
 side — to what? For three days, sometimes 
 in thick fogs, they tried to find out. On 
 Sunday the nineteenth they found a little 
 harbor in which to cast anchoi-, but the 
 cable broke and they had to go out to sea 
 again in order to be safe. They could n't 
 tell where they were until at last they sent 
 a little boat over the waves to land. 
 
 The boat returned (with three men left 
 
 behind) to tell them all that they were 
 
 before St. Mary's Island, which is 
 
 one of the Azores. Ah! the Azores 
 Azores. 
 
 islands belong to Portugal! In a 
 moment Columbus was on his guard. He 
 asked why those three men stayed on the 
 land. The answer was that the governor 
 of the island, Juan de Castenada, was so 
 wonderfully interested in their marvelous 
 story that he kept them as guests, and 
 wanted to hear all the strange news they 
 had to tell. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 229 
 
 Oh, he seemed very kind. He sent out 
 wold for the commander to come to see 
 him and tell him how it was they had 
 lived through the dreadful storm. He sent 
 them chickens to eat, and bread and fruit, 
 and seemed very polite, indeed. How good 
 the food must have tasted, for all on board 
 had not tasted anything but bread and wine 
 for a long time. 
 
 Columbus sent back thanks, but declined 
 to make the visit to the governor of the 
 island, though he remembered the vow 
 they had all made. 
 
 He could see a chapel dedicated t<> the 
 
 Virgin, not very far from the shore. It 
 
 was not safe, he was sure, for 
 
 them all to leave the vessel at one 
 the Vow. 
 
 time, so they divided themselves 
 into two parties. The first half of them 
 were to go and make the pilgrimage and 
 return, then the second half of them Av^ould 
 g-o and do the same. Columbus himself 
 
2oO COLl'MBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 stayed with tlie secoud half. The first 
 party landed in a small boat, barefooted, 
 and carefully and conscientiously carried 
 out their vow. Columbus watched them 
 disappear into the woods; waited and 
 watched for them to return. Instead of 
 seeing what he was looking for, he only 
 saw, after awhile, a great excitement on the 
 island. People were riding around on 
 horses and with their swords in their 
 hands; there seemed to be trouble. 
 
 Dear, good Columbus had no such recep- 
 tion as this in his Indies, where " no storms 
 ever came." Here he was with half his 
 men on the white man's land, facing some- 
 thing that looked more like war than any- 
 thing he had seen before at all. He 
 ordered every man to be ready for fight if 
 it was necessary, l)ut to keep hidden, for 
 there was a boat-load, armed, coming to 
 them with the governor, and Columbus did 
 not want to show fight unless he must. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 231 
 
 The governor came alongside of the 
 " Nina " and asked boldly to see the ship's 
 
 commander. I will not take 
 
 The Two . , , n 1 ;i i 
 
 time to tell you now the two 
 Commanders "^ 
 
 j^^^^ commanders settled the trouble^ 
 
 but it was not until after a 
 great deal of very wise and dignified deal- 
 ing on the part of Columbus that all was 
 quiet. 
 
 When the governor of the island found it 
 was not safe to trifle with the Admiral of 
 the Ocean Sea, who was in the royal serv- 
 ice of the King and Queen of Spain, he 
 soon " backed down," as boys say, and 
 allowed Columbus and his men to do what 
 was but right, and that was to refresh them- 
 selves and to perform their religious vows. 
 
 At first, you see, this governor supposed 
 it was some crazy little boat-load of peo- 
 ple who had been Avashed up on his shore. 
 He supposed, also, that they were weak, and 
 that they had been out discovering some of 
 
232 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 tlie islands or lands belonging to the Por- 
 tuguese, and tliat liis business was to seize 
 them; but when he found out who it was, 
 he was very much ashamed. 
 
 The weather was still so bad that Colum- 
 l^us had not much opportunity to mend his 
 
 poor little boat, or mend him- 
 Xhc 
 
 self, but he did the best he could 
 Weather. ' 
 
 for several days and then vent- 
 ured on again into the deep sea waves, 
 bound for Spain, on the 24th of February. 
 For three days they went on comfortably, 
 when another storm struck them which was 
 worse than ever. They gave themselves up 
 for the fourth time to the casting of lots, 
 and, strange to say, Columbus again drew 
 the marked bean. 
 
 It was midnight of Saturday, March 2, 
 when this happened. Kain fell in torrents. 
 Two long, terrible days of it and then, O, 
 joy! land Avas again in sight! 
 
 Columbus now began to find himself in 
 
COLUMBirS AISTD WHAT HE FOUND. 233 
 
 the midst of business. He wrote a letter 
 
 and sent it by a courier to the King and 
 
 Queen of Spain. There were no postoffices 
 
 and railroads, remember. Everything must 
 
 be sent on horseback or mule- back, 
 
 or by footmen. News spread from 
 Kings. "^ ^ 
 
 mouth to mouth as fast as ever news 
 could, about the little weather-beaten boat 
 coming into Portugal with most wonderful 
 stories to tell about great discoveries. Co- 
 lumbus, who used to l)e hanging around 
 the Court and begging somebody to help 
 him do this very thing, had just been doing 
 it all. 
 
 He wrote another letter to another king, 
 the King of Portugal, asking if he might 
 come uj) to Lisbon and repair himself and 
 his boat for the rest of his journey home. 
 It was n't very safe to stay at the little 
 town where he was, because great reports 
 of gold and spices, jewels and such things, 
 had brouglit crowds to see him. 
 
284 coLUMHUs Aisri) what he foitnd. 
 
 The letter from the King of Portugal 
 
 invited him to come to visit him at once. 
 
 He also ordered everybody to 
 
 o-ive Columbus every possible 
 Invitation. ^ ^ . . 
 
 attention, and to treat him like 
 
 a lord, free of all expense. 
 
 On the 8th of Marcli he had a grand 
 
 letter from the Queen of Spain, brought 
 
 by a special person, Don somebody. This 
 
 _ was the very l)eo:inning of 
 
 The Queen's -^ ^ ^ 
 
 Letter honors which showered them- 
 
 selves on our Columbus for 
 the next few months. Such awful ups and 
 downs came to Columbus all his life that 
 it makes a real fairy tale, does it not? 
 
 Here he Avas now, a \vonderful man in 
 the eyes of kings and ({ueens and nobles, 
 priests and bishops and archbishops, even 
 lip to cardinals and the Pope, but only a 
 few days ago he was all alone in a little 
 boat ready to be drowned and nobody ever 
 to hear of him airain. Yet Columbus Mm- 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 235 
 
 self stayed just the same, for lie knew very 
 well liow his glory came. He knew his 
 best friend, who went with him through his 
 awful trials of waiting and poverty, and 
 his perils, and had always known his heart, 
 was the same One who had brought him 
 his little human glory. 
 
 When Columbus and his pilot reached the 
 palace of the King of Portugal, grand peo- 
 ple came away out to meet them and they 
 were escorted into the King's presence with 
 all manner of pomp and ceremony and 
 politeness. 
 
 Do you remember how he left Portugal 
 only eight years before? ISTow the King 
 makes a great ado about him. He invites 
 Columbus to sit doioii in his presence. 
 "What a wonderful thing!" everybody says. 
 Who ever heard of anything so fine as to 
 be asked to sit before a king? 
 
 Columbus did n't care very much about 
 it all, l)ut he sat down, of course. He was 
 
28() COLrMBUS AND WHAT IIK FOUND. 
 
 on tile watch, for Ik^ kiu^w^ P(ji'tiigal would 
 feel jealous. 
 
 Sure enough, the King, with all polite- 
 ness, began to inquire about certain treaties 
 between Spain and Portugal, and was very 
 diligent in finding out exactly where Co- 
 lumbus had been. 
 
 Columbus very carefully told him just 
 where it was. He had not been near the 
 Portuguese lands, exce23t to refresh himself, 
 and his discoveries were away beyond any- 
 where that any man, so far as he knew, had 
 ever been before. He told him how he had 
 strictly obeyed the commands of Spain to 
 keep clear of territory l^elonging to Por- 
 tugal. 
 
 It is not surprising that av icked men coun- 
 seled the King to try to keep all this glory 
 for Portugal, if possible. They said if 
 only Columbus would somehow sell out to 
 them all his news, it would be a great 
 thing. Columbus was as much a Portuguese 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTD. 237 
 
 as lie was a Spaniard, and why need he 
 
 take all his discoveries to Spain? It is also 
 
 (jiiite true that some wicked men 
 Wicked 
 
 proposed quietly to kill Columbus 
 
 so as to prevent his ever being 
 
 heard of again, or going to Spain; but the 
 
 King himself did not listen to any such l)ase 
 
 proposals. He was too wise. He may not 
 
 have been too good. 
 
 Every honor attended the hero back to 
 his little boat. Cavaliers rode beside him 
 and his pilot. Mules were presented to 
 them to ride upon, and an offer was made 
 to escort him all the way through the coun- 
 try to his home, instead of his again trust- 
 ing himself to go around by the sea. 
 
 But Columbus preferred to take his little 
 boat and arrive at the little town of Palos 
 by himself, if possible. So on the 15th of 
 March, just a month from the time he 
 landed in the fog at St. Mary's, there he 
 was at sunrise lookins; ao-am at the dear 
 
238 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 old Anclalusian coasts. The Aveatlier heing 
 fine, at noon lie stepped liis foot into the 
 dear little home town of Palos, 
 
 There was no way for any one to know 
 they were coming, so what a joy it must 
 have been to surprise everybody. I wonder 
 what the Indians thought of the white man's 
 home ? 
 
XVI. * 
 
 The bells were mug and the shops were 
 shut.^ and the whole town of Palos joined 
 in devout admiration of the Admiral and 
 his men, and especially of the Indians. 
 Friends and relatives crowded close to wel- 
 come them home. 
 
 It was Friday when they arrived, the 
 same day of the week as that on which 
 they sailed away a little more than eight 
 months before. What wonderful changes! 
 Juan Perez was there, ready to welcome his 
 brave, true-hearted friend into the very 
 holiest corner of his heart. How blessed it 
 all seemed, to think that the man who came 
 to him poor, so sadly alone in the world, 
 had gone out and really done this thing. 
 
 And then we must remember they did 
 
 not yet know how great a thing it was, as 
 
 we now know it to be. It is easy to under- 
 
 239 
 
240 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 stand, I think, that it was God, sure enough, 
 ^V'ho pointed this man Columbus to accom- 
 plish a deed that will always mean so much 
 to the world. He never did it as only 
 a man. He lived and moved in God, and 
 that is why he did God's work. 
 
 As soon as it was possible, the men all 
 came together and finished their humble 
 
 march, which had so failed at St. 
 The Vow. 
 
 Marys Island, to the iirst chapel 
 
 they should see, for they remembered the 
 
 peril they came through. 
 
 Others remembered it, too, for they had 
 painful knowledge of how stormy the 
 weather on the seas had been. Many had 
 given them up as lost, and, sure enough, 
 many were sadly missing. Where was the 
 "Pinta"? 
 
 So it was a most solemn procession they 
 made as they all marched in their bare feet 
 and legs to the church of St. George. 
 Great peace and joy and thanksgiving 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 241 
 
 swelled glad hearts as the chants were given 
 and masses said for those storm -tossed, 
 weather-beaten seamen. But other hearts 
 must have sunk down in great sorro^v over 
 the lost ones. Ah, how sweet it was to 
 have actually lived through it all and 
 triumphantly to give thanks! 
 
 Many, many things were to be attended 
 to by Columbus besides his religious duties. 
 Many accounts were to be settled, and re- 
 ports to be put into perfect shape. The 
 King and Queen were at Barcelona, quite 
 a long ways from Palos. 
 
 What do you suppose then happened? 
 
 There came sailing into the harbor another 
 
 little storm -tossed boat, only a 
 More News. <» i • 7 
 
 day or two after, and it vias t/ie 
 
 " PintaP What a surprise ! The " Nina " 
 
 supposed of course the " Pinta " had gone 
 
 down in the storm, and of course the 
 
 "Pinta" had thought the "Nina" was lost. 
 
 What an excitement must have stirred the 
 
242 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 little town! Here were all the Pinzon 
 family supposing their proud Alonzo lost, 
 ))ut here he was returned to them; and 
 others just as loving, were no doubt as 
 haj^py as they. 
 
 The story of Pinzon's home-coming, how- 
 ever, is very sad indeed. During the awful 
 
 storms, when the "Piuta" was 
 
 Alonzo . . 1 /-I 1 1 
 
 _. missmo;, you remember, Columbus 
 
 Pinzon. rt' J ' 
 
 could n't think it possible she 
 had slipped off again as she had before 
 when cruising among the islands; so of 
 course it was supposed the " Pinta " went 
 down. Instead of that she was marvelously 
 saved, and for some reason was blown off 
 north, and came into the Bay of Biscay, 
 touching Spain away on that side. This 
 was Alonzo Pinzon's tempting chance to 
 take all the glory of the discovery to him- 
 self. Tie believed Columbus and the " Nina " 
 were in the bottom of the sea, and that no 
 one would ever know how it was. He was 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 243 
 
 as nearly worn out as Columbus was, with 
 all the exposure and excitement, but he 
 arranged a report to suit himself and sent 
 it to the King and Queen. He reported 
 Columbus lost, and Columbus reported Pin- 
 zon lost. 
 
 These two different reports must have 
 sounded very strangely. Pinzon's was re- 
 ceived first, and the Queen was 
 
 „ e-reatly grieved that Columbus was 
 
 Reports, o J & 
 
 lost. O what glory Pinzon felt 
 that he was about to receive! He thought 
 of all he alone had to tell of the sufferings 
 and heroic deeds he had passed through, 
 and of the riches that were waiting for 
 him. Columbus was at last out of his way. 
 But what a mighty shock he felt when 
 he came rounding the Andalusian hills, and 
 saw ahead of him, all safely harbored at 
 home, the little " Nina." In a moment all 
 was lost to him. His heroic deeds were as 
 rags. Nothing counted now, for he had an 
 
1>44 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 awful lie beneath it all. What a shame 
 that he should have spoiled all his noble 
 work that way, for he had been a great 
 help to Columbus. Do you see how Co- 
 lumbus had just let God take care of Pin- 
 zon's wrong-doings, and sure enough, God 
 did. Alonzo Pinzon betrayed himself. No 
 one else did. And the Pinzon family, for 
 twenty years after, brought lawsuits and 
 troubles of all kinds for Columbus' descend- 
 ants, in trying to defend this poor man, 
 and trying to believe and to make every- 
 body else believe that there was some truth 
 in his claims ao:ainst Columbus. 
 
 He never met Columbus again. When he 
 saw the " Nina " all truthfully lying in the 
 harbor of Palos ahead of him, he preferred 
 not to be seen by any one, so he had the 
 "Pinta" leave him a little below the harbor, 
 nearer his home; he went there, and in a 
 few days he died, rendering up a full and 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 245 
 
 real repoi-t to God, ^v'llo knew the trutli all 
 the time. 
 
 The "Pinta" with all the others on 
 board came on up to Columbus, the real 
 commander, and reported itself to him. He 
 took charge of its accounts, and all its 
 affairs and Indians, and was a desperately 
 busy man, forgetting that he was worn out 
 and sick, just home from a terrible journey. 
 How sad that there seems to have been no 
 one to welcome him to a nice home and 
 to care for him personally ! No one is 
 homelike to him except Juan Perez, who 
 entertains him at the dear old Convent 
 when Columbus keeps still long enough. 
 
 The most important thing to be done, 
 however, is to lay this whole affair before 
 the Queen. She is the one most interested 
 and most responsible. She is at Barcelona. 
 How shall he reach her? By boat? No, 
 the poor little boats are worn and almost 
 useless. There are no railroad trains over- 
 
246 COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUXI). 
 
 land, l)ut animal feet and human feet can 
 get tliem all there, though it is a distance 
 of about four hundred miles. 
 
 He received a grand reply from the King 
 and Queen, who addressed him as " Don 
 Christopher Columbus, Our Admiral of the 
 Ocean Sea, and Viceroy and Governor of the 
 islands discovered in the Indies." This is a 
 long, great name, a very different one from 
 Christoval Colon, and one that was a great 
 deal more l)other to him every way. 
 
 They promised him wonderful rewards 
 and glory, and asked him to hasten his 
 march to them. Their letter to Alonzo 
 Pinzon was written about the same time, 
 and it was crushing. He received it shortly 
 before he died. How very different the 
 two men must have felt, for one was guilty 
 and the other was not. Columbus suffered, 
 too, in after years, and did not receive all 
 the rewards that ^vere so freely promised 
 him, but his suffei'ings were never to be 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 247 
 
 compared witli Pinzon's, for he never was 
 false. He never betrayed a single trust. 
 He Avas true to every one and everything. 
 Pinzon died and others died all around Co- 
 lumbus, as false as falsehood itself, during 
 the terrible tasks of finding our New 
 World, but Columbus was sweetly kept 
 from falling from the truth. He suffered, 
 but not like Pinzon, ever. 
 
 He finally had his whole array of Indians 
 and peacocks, the great snake-skins, canoes, 
 
 arrows, spices, tobacco, India- 
 The March. ' l ' ' 
 
 rubber, j^otatoes, some gold, and 
 the many, many things he had brought, 
 with all the sailors, pilots and men, on the 
 march to Barcelona. 
 
 The whole country was wild with excite- 
 ment, and the people would hardly let 
 them pass along, but in a month they all 
 arrived at Barcelona. Columbus himself was 
 on a horse at the rear, with Spanish soldiers 
 to wait upon him and ride beside him. 
 
248 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 The King and Queen made great prep- 
 arations for this recej^tion. They were 
 seated on their thrones side by 
 side, under a great, gorgeous 
 eauopy made of gold and silk, 
 and placed in the puldic park where all the 
 nobles could see the fine spectacle. Co- 
 lumbus entered the city as royally, and 
 everything was prepared for as grand a 
 reception as any king could expect. Co- 
 lumbus was almost dazzled with it all, but 
 he did n't forget himself, and ^vhen he 
 finally came before the King and the sweet 
 Queen he so loved, he fell on his knees, 
 expecting only to kiss their hands. Instead, 
 what do you think? The whole of Spain 
 was actually overcome mtb surprise. They 
 took him by the hand and asked him to 
 stand hefpre them. More, tliey stood up 
 before Imn. This was something so great to 
 some people they could never get over it. 
 They were bitterly jealous; yet through all 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 249 
 
 the envy and the joy and triumph, Columbus 
 was very sure of God, of Isabella and her 
 friend, the first lady, and of Juan Perez, 
 also the treasurer, Luis de Sant Angel, and 
 Alonzo de Quintanillo. 
 
 The next few days were great days of 
 thanksgiving. The royal pair themselves 
 knelt and prayed immediately, be- 
 fore everybody, after they received 
 giving. 
 
 Columbus, and from that on, the 
 
 royal service of solemn music seemed to 
 lift everybody " into heaven," says Las 
 Casas. 
 
XVII. 
 
 I, for one, am very sorry we must come to 
 our last words about this wonderful man, 
 for there are three more voyages I might 
 tell you about. But they would fill an- 
 other book, and I can give you but a 
 glimpse of the remaining days of Colum- 
 bus' life. 
 
 He lived only ten or twelve years after 
 the first great voyage. You remember he 
 was nearly sixty years old when he made 
 it. 
 
 " His strong youth Av^asted " before the 
 
 "sealed gates'' of opportunity; but in spite 
 
 of his age, and wornout-ness, he still went 
 
 on and made three more voyages. They 
 
 were not so important as the first one, yet 
 
 they were just as interesting, for they show 
 
 us how a great nature can endure suffering 
 
 and defeat, as well as success. 
 
 250 
 
COLUMBUS AND WJLAT UE FOUND. 251 
 
 He never at any time lost faitli in God, 
 and lie was always liappy of heart, but he 
 found out in a few years that there was 
 nothing more for him to do but to go to 
 heaven. 
 
 Queen Isabella and Ferdinand, you see, 
 were made most glorious by this great dis- 
 covery. Portugal was wild with envy over 
 it all. She could, hardly keep her ships 
 and sailors from going to the Indies, also. 
 It was like holding a lot of dogs by their 
 chains, but they dared not let them loose. 
 After that New World had been found, 
 every country, as fast as it heard the story, 
 wanted to have a chance there, but only 
 Spain had it, the rest had lost it. Every- 
 body wanted to go back with Columbus, 
 and the Queen began to hurry him off in 
 her first letter to 
 
 " Clwistoplier Coluinhun^ the Admiral of 
 tlie Ocean Sea., and Viceroy and Governor 
 of tlte Islands discovered in the l7idiesy 
 
252 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Ferdinand was quite equal to all the 
 great business there was in hand. The 
 first thing he did after glorifying Colum- 
 bus all he could, riding out with him, giv- 
 ing him a house of his own to live in, — he 
 went straight to the Pope and secured his 
 authority and power over " The Indies." 
 Isabella had plenty of help in Ferdinand 
 then, and some very careful statesmanship was 
 required. He was equal to it, however, and 
 Avatched everything and everybody and held 
 on to all there was. He made it safe for 
 SjDain to go ahead and discover the rest of 
 the world. He forgot, though, to keep all 
 safe for Columbus in his old days, but he 
 made it as glorious for himself as he could. 
 
 Columbus was invited to a great party 
 once, by a grand Cardinal. Of course the 
 Admiral sat in the best seat. The other 
 guests were much distressed at all the 
 honors coming to the man who once was 
 nothing. They talked at the table very 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 253 
 
 much as some people talk nowadays, 
 
 about Low, after all, tliey did u't 
 
 believe it was anythino; very 
 
 Columbus' ITT 
 
 _ . 2:reat to liave made that dis- 
 Puzzles. ^ 
 
 covery. 
 But Columbus heard them talking, and 
 his mind ran back to the long, long time 
 when he wasted so many years; how he 
 waited to control the selfish kings, how he 
 suffered in managing those sailors on the 
 way, how he so carefully sailed around 
 among rocks and sands and among new 
 people and strange waters; he thought of 
 the perilous storm, but he knew it was no 
 use to say anything to such men. He no- 
 ticed a dish of eggs, and remembered an old 
 puzzle; he was fond of jokes, you know. 
 This one nobody knew about, he was sure, 
 so he just took a round, beautiful egg in 
 liis hand and asked if any one could make 
 it stand on end. They said, " Why, no, 
 nobody can make an egg stand up." "Yes, 
 
254 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 it can be done," Columbus said. They 
 asked liiiu to do it, then; they would like 
 to see him make an egg stand on end. 
 
 Columbus took it and gently tapped it 
 on the table so that the shell broke just 
 enough to make a flat little place, and there 
 it stood, calmly as an egg could stand, right 
 before them all. Well, it was a great joke. 
 Nobody could say a word at first, then they 
 said, " Why, that is easy. We could have 
 done that." " Yes," Columbus said, " after 
 somebody has told you how! It is just so 
 with crossing the Ocean Sea. It is easy 
 after some one has shown you how." 
 
 Ah, Columbus must have felt that his dis- 
 covery of the Indies, like the discovery of 
 making an egg stand on end, was no more 
 his own. It was gone out of his hand for- 
 ever. He was glad it was true that he 
 had made the world so much larger, and he 
 was humbly proud of the great blessing it 
 would forever be, yet he very naturally did 
 
 1 
 
COLlTMBUS AJSTD WHAT HE FOUISTD. 20D 
 
 not want to be forgotten or neglected, or 
 
 liatecl, after lie liad done so mucli, so lie 
 
 worked liard to do the best lie could for 
 
 everybody, supposing lie would be taken 
 
 care of. 
 
 By the 25th of September he was ready 
 
 to sail again, with fifteen hundred men and 
 
 seventeen vessels. Horses, mules, do- 
 Second • . 1 r. n 1 
 
 mestic animals or all sorts, seeds. 
 Voyage. 
 
 grains of all kinds, were sent 
 along, so that it was a kind of Noah's ark 
 which sailed off from Cadiz for the Indies. 
 Fine, lazy men went along, expecting to 
 pick up gold. They landed among the Car- 
 ibbee Islands. The Caribs were not one- 
 eyed or rich, after all. They were only 
 wild, man-eating Indians. They went on 
 to the island of King Guacanagari — called 
 Hispaniola, by Columbus, you remember — 
 expecting to delight the hearts of the 
 thirty- nine men who had stayed behind to 
 hold Fort Navidavid. 
 
/ 
 
 256 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 So they sailed up in front of the island, 
 
 and fired guns for a nice surprise, but not 
 
 an answer came back. Hearts 
 
 sank as the truth revealed itself. 
 and Men 
 
 A„ ^ JNot a thino* was left but ashes 
 
 All Gone. ^ 
 
 and bones. It was a sad shock 
 to Columbus. He found the poor Indian 
 king hidden away with a few of his men. 
 The Caribs had been there, and the men 
 had not always done right, so all was gone. 
 
 Bravely Columbus rallied the spirits of 
 all, kept friendship with the Indian king, 
 and began to settle. But before winter was 
 over so much sickness came to the men that 
 Columbus had to send some of them home. 
 They went and told dreadful stories of hard- 
 shijis, and, worst of all, they told false tales 
 about Columbus. 
 
 New settlements were then made on 
 the beautiful green island, one was called 
 Isabella, the other Santo Domingo. It has 
 lasted from that time to this. But matters 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 257 
 
 grew worse, and in the spring Columbus 
 liad to go to Spain for new supplies. We 
 are giving only glimpses, yet you can see 
 from them, how the difficulties began to 
 gather. 
 
 It was simply too great a discovery for 
 any one generation to handle. It was two 
 hundred years before it was possible for 
 human nature to change even a little part 
 of this great, wild land into anything like 
 a country, so we need not be surprised that 
 Columbus could not do it in a half dozen 
 years. But he did all he could, and if those 
 who were with him had but done the same 
 there would have been much less trouble. 
 
 When Columbus went to Spain the second 
 time he left his brother, Bartholomew Co- 
 lombo, in charge of the Colony. He was 
 almost as brave a man as our hero. 
 
 On his third voyage, made with six ves- 
 sels, Columbus discovered the wonderful 
 waters that seemed to come from the " Roof 
 
258 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 of the World." He went soutli of what is 
 
 now called the Gulf of Mexico, to the 
 
 mouth of the Orinoco. He discovered an 
 
 island, which he named Trinidad, because it 
 
 was to him like God, in his " Trinity," 
 
 coming up out of the water in answer to 
 
 prayer. 
 
 From this point he returned to Hispan- 
 
 iola and a new governor arrived at the 
 
 island, Bobadilla by name. He 
 
 _ had no business to do as he did 
 
 Bobadilla. 
 
 and Queen Isabella did not in- 
 tend he should, but he arrested Columbus 
 and his brother, and put them into a dark 
 prison for a few days, then put chains on 
 Columbus and sent them both home. There 
 were no questions, and no trial, nothing 
 that could explain to Columbus what was 
 going on, but there he was helpless with 
 nearly all the men turned against him. 
 
 The end of it was that Isabella was very 
 sorry and tried to make it all right with 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 259 
 
 Columbus by apology, but Columbus' heart 
 was broken. She also thought she could 
 fix matters by appointing a new governor 
 to go and bring Bobadilla home, and so he 
 did, but Columbus' grand " governorship " 
 as " Viceroy- General of the Indies," was 
 gone. Even good Queen Isabella could 
 not restore his rights to him. 
 
 This new governor was Orvando. He 
 sailed for the Indies, and Columbus stayed 
 at home this time. Spain was growing more 
 and more glorious, Columbus less and less 
 so. Though he was weak, he could not rest 
 from doing something, so Isabella gave him 
 four little ships, with which to make a 
 fourth voyage. The first voyage, you know, 
 was with three vessels, the second with 
 seventeen, the third with six, the last was 
 with only four, and they were very poor 
 ones. 
 
 " This voyage was crowded with misfort- 
 unes, but more romantic than the boldest 
 
260 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 imagination would have ventured to put 
 
 forth as fiction." Columbus was per- 
 
 _ ^. mitted to make it in the hope 
 Fourth ^ 
 
 and Last *^^* ^^^ might find a strait, 
 Voyage. through which he could pass on 
 to the real Land of Cathay. He 
 was ordered not to stop at his own island, 
 for the new governor would not care to 
 see him. 
 
 Fernando Columbus, fourteen years old, 
 went with his father on this tri]), and I am 
 
 going to let him tell you some- 
 
 Fernando .i • i, x -j. • i • 
 
 thmg about it m his own 
 
 Columbus. 
 
 words."* He says, " ilie Ad- 
 miral in a small time had rigged and pro- 
 vided four ships, the biggest of seventy, 
 the least of fifty Ton Burden, and one hun- 
 dred and forty men and boys, of lohich 
 
 *He grew up to be a great scholar aud wrote his 
 father's life. AVe are indebted, to Mr. James W. Ells- 
 worth's valuable library of American literature, for 
 the use of this rare old book. 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 261 
 
 number 1 was one.'''' What a great jour- 
 ney for a boy of fourteen years to make! 
 He saw some awful suffering before lie 
 was home again, but he tells it all in the 
 most simple manner. 
 
 Columbus had to have a better vessel, and 
 on this account and for refuge from a storm 
 he saw coming, he stopped be- 
 fore his old place, "San Do- 
 Happening, ^ 
 
 mingo," and asked if he might 
 come into port. Fernando tells how it all 
 was: 
 
 " Thence we took the way for San Do- 
 mingo, the Admiral having a mind to Ex- 
 change one of his Ships for another. It 
 could carry.no sail, but the side would lie 
 almost under Water, which was a hindrance." 
 How do you suppose a boy enjoyed the 
 excitement of a vessel that would not stand 
 up straight? 
 
 " So that the new governor might not be 
 surprised at our unexpected arrival, the 
 
2<)2 COMMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Adminil sent Peter de Torreros, Captain of 
 .one of the Ships, to him, to signify what 
 occasion he had to change that Ship; for 
 which reason, as also because he appre- 
 hended a great Storm was coming, he desired 
 to secure himself in that Port, advising him 
 not to let the Fleet sail out of port for Eight 
 days to come; for if he did it would be in 
 great danger." 
 
 Now listen; this " Fleet," which was about 
 to " sail " out of the Port for Spain, must 
 have been an intensely interesting one to 
 Columbus, for it was one of several vessels, 
 containing much gold, his own among the 
 rest, and it also was just taking Bobadilla 
 to Spain so that he might give an account 
 of his behavior to Columbus. 
 
 Here was this wise old sailor, Columbus, 
 kindly advising them to wait eight days, 
 for he believed a great storm was coming; 
 and sure enough, such a storm came that 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 2()3 
 
 Columbus' enemies afterwards l)elieve(l " He 
 liad raised that storm hy Art Magick." 
 
 They all had great excitement and suffer- 
 ing every way. After the account of the 
 storm, Fernando then tells us a fish story: 
 
 " While the Admiral gave his men a 
 breathing spell after the Storm, it being 
 
 one of the Diversions used at Sea to 
 A Fish 1 • 1 
 
 r ish, when there was nothmsi; else 
 Story. ' ^ 
 
 to do, I will mention a Fish called 
 Saivina, as big as half an ordinary Bell. 
 This fish lying asleep above the Water was 
 struck with a Harping- Iron from the Boat 
 of the Ship and held so fast that it could 
 not break loose, but being tied with a long 
 Rope to the Boat drew it after it as swift as 
 an Arrow, so that those aboard the Ship 
 seeing the Boat scud about, and not knowing 
 the occasion, were astonished it should do 
 so without the help of the Oar till at last 
 the Fish sunk, and being drawn to the Ship's 
 side was there hauled up with the Tackle." 
 
264 COLUMBUS AND AVHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 Au interesting sight from the ship must 
 have been this little boat-load of men flying 
 like " an arrow " through the water, pulled 
 by a fish! But the " harj)ing-iron " had 
 put a hole into him and the fish could n't 
 keep up his chase for a very long time, so 
 he sank helpless and they were then able 
 to pull him up into the ship instead of the 
 fish pulling them, 
 
 Fernando gives us a great many inter- 
 esting and thrilling stories, one about an 
 
 eclipse which occurred when for 
 The Ecliose 
 
 eight months they had been ship- 
 wrecked, and were sick, and 
 many of the men had gone almost mad, 
 some had died, others had run away to live 
 with the Indians, and there was none to 
 help but God. Columbus and his men 
 were starving, but their lives were saved 
 by a very ingenious thought that came to 
 the Admiral. 
 
 Perhaps he had read of Tiberius, a great 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 265 
 
 Roman general, doing something of the same 
 kind once upon a time, but this is what 
 Fernando says of his father: 
 
 " He bethought himself that within 3 
 days there would be an eclipse of the Moon 
 in the first part of the night, and then 
 sends for an Indian of Hispaniola, who was 
 with us, to call the principal Indians, saying 
 he would talk with them about a matter 
 of concern. He ordered the Interpreter to 
 tell them; That we were Christians and Be- 
 lieved in God, who dwelt in heaven and 
 took care of the Good and Punished the 
 Wicked; that seeing how negligent they 
 were in bringing Provisions for our Com- 
 modities, God had appointed to give them 
 a token in the Heaven." 
 
 He then told them to look into heaven 
 that night and see the moon grow bloody 
 and then dark, and they would then see 
 God would punish them if they did not do 
 right. Sure enough, the moon grew bloody 
 
266 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 
 
 and dark — and the Indians took notice of 
 it, and were so frightened they came run- 
 ning from all parts loaded with provisions, 
 crying and lamenting, and prayed the Ad- 
 miral by all means to intercede with God 
 for them. So Columbus did intercede in 
 good earnest for them to learn something 
 from it all, for he was much interested in 
 their being good. This was a curious way 
 to save life, but " necessity is the mother 
 of invention " and something had to be 
 done. 
 
 Ferdinand gives us a most interesting col- 
 lection of Indian stories of "Beliefs and 
 Idolatry and how they serve their Gods," 
 taken from a " manuscript of F. Roman 
 concerning the Antiquities of the Indians, 
 which he, as being skilled in their Tongue, 
 has carefully gathered by Order of the Ad- 
 miral." One interesting thing he says is, 
 " They can neither read, nor count beyond 
 Ten." 
 
COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 267 
 
 Columbus finally readied home again. 
 He died two years after, l)elieving, as others 
 did, that he had discovered the East 1)y 
 going West. 
 
 He did not really ever come to want, for 
 he always had friends and a pair of loving 
 sons, who did what they could for him, and 
 God made up to him in heaven all that be- 
 longed to him. 
 
 People did not make much ado about 
 him when he died, they were too busy with 
 his discovery. Only a few knew when it 
 was that he went to his last home; but we 
 in these days will never forget him. We 
 shall always love him and help to honor 
 him for his heroism and his faith in finding 
 for the world something better than he 
 knew, this Land of Liberty. 
 
104 W