and mechanical means of success.

He had the conviction that he was engaged in a Providential work, and that he was certain to accomplish it. There are occasions in life when such a faith is worth everything to its possessor: this was one.

Correct chart of westward route from Europe to Asia, for comparison with the chart

of Columbus given above.

We can judge of the strength of his conviction from the fact that he carried with him, by his own special request, letters of introduction and recommendation from the joint sovereigns of Spain to the Grand Khan of China.

10. The Voyage; Variation of the Needle; Mutinous Feeling of the Crew; the Winged Guides. For a time all went well, then a new and strange circumstance was noticed. It was found that the compass no longer pointed toward the North

THE DISCOVERY AND NAMING OF AMERICA.

13

Star, but that it varied more and more, as they went on, to the west of north.1

This astonished Columbus, and greatly alarmed the seamen. They began to think that they had now entered a region where the ordinary laws of nature were suspended, and that to persist in keeping on would be destruction. Columbus pacified their fears as best he could. He however would not hear of turning back then, though he afterward promised to do so if land was not discovered in a few days.

On the 7th of October an event occurred which induced the admiral to change his course. He was then sailing due west, but that day a flock of land-birds was seen flying to the southwest. Alonzo Pinzon, captain of one of the vessels, urged Columbus to follow those birds. He refused; but at length yielded to entreaty, and reluctantly turned the prow of his ship in the direction of those winged guides.2

That seemingly trifling circumstance had important results. Had Columbus kept on in his direct westerly course, he would have struck the mainland of America at the peninsula of Florida. In that case it is probable that Spain would have planted her first

1 Humboldt remarks that it had probably been noticed before this voyage that the magnetic needle varied to the northeast. Now it was found that this variation varied; and that from northeast the needle swung round to the northwest. This was the new and startling feature of the situation.

2 See Paragraph 2, note 2, on the Northmen following ravens.

colonies on what is now the eastern shore of the United States, instead of spending her strength, as she did, in getting possession of Cuba and San Domingo. Such a settlement might have changed at least, for a long period-the future of this country. It might have made a second Mexico of the southeast,planting there a Spanish population, Spanish laws, and the Spanish language. Had that happened, and there is no reason to think it would not, then despotic Spain would have got firm control of a part of the new world that to-day belongs to the American Union, and such a hold, even if but temporary, certainly would not have resulted in our present advantage.

humble threshold of the new

ing the birds was that, five days later, Friday, October 12th, at two o'clock in the morning, the cry of "Land! Land! was heard. It proved to be a small island of the Bahamas, called by the natives Guanahani. It is now thought to be Watling's Island.1

When the sun rose, revealing the low sandy shore,-the world,-Columbus, clad in complete armor, landed with his men. Kneeling, they kissed the soil, and with tears gave thanks to God for having crowned their voyage

1 Cat Island, Turk's Island, and Watling's Island, all in the Bahama group, are rivals, each claiming the honor of the first landing of Columbus. The weight of evidence seems now to favor the last.

THE DISCOVERY AND NAMING OF AMERICA.

15

with success. Then, with solemn ceremonies, the admiral planted the royal flame-colored banner of Spain, and took possession of the country for Ferdinand and Isabella. To the island he gave the name of San Salvador, or the Holy Redeemer.

Columbus believed this little island to be part of the Indies. Since he had reached it by sailing westward he called the group to which it belongs the West Indies. To the natives he naturally gave the name Indians. However unreasonable that designation may seem to us now, knowing, as we do, that the Indies are many thousand miles west of the Bahamas, still that name will doubtless cling to that people as long as they continue to exist.

Columbus never found out his mistake in regard to this country. He made three more voyages1 hither; but he died firmly convinced that America was part of Asia, and that he had discovered a short and direct all-sea westward route from Europe to the Indies.

We see an illustration of the strength of that conviction in an incident which happened when he landed at Cuba, about a fortnight after taking possession of San Salvador. He considered that island part of the Asiatic mainland, and, it is said, compelled his men to swear that they believed that, if they chose, they could go thence, all the way by land, back to Spain. Whoever ventured to deny this was to receive one hundred lashes on his bare back, and have his sceptical tongue torn out. Strange to say, no one denied it!

12. Columbus returns to Spain; his Reception; the Pope's Division of the World. Having lost his own vessel

1 On his first voyage (1492) Columbus discovered the Bahamas and the West India Islands, including Cuba and San Domingo or Hayti. On his second voyage (autumn of 1493), he discovered the islands of the Caribbean Sea, besides Jamaica and Porto Rico. On his third voyage (spring of 1498), he discovered the Island of Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela, South America; and on the first of August, the mainland of that continent, at the mouth of the Orinoco River. On his fourth and final voyage (in the spring of 1502), he explored Central America and the Isthmus of Panama. He returned to Spain in 1504, where he died two years later.

2 Cuba was not discovered to be an island until two years after the death of Columbus.

the best one in the fleet - by shipwreck, the admiral built a fort with her timbers, on the island of Hispaniola,1 or Hayti. He left a small colony there, and sailed for Spain, reaching that country in the spring of 1493, after an absence of a little over seven months.

The reception given him by Ferdinand and Isabella was such as the first civilized man who had crossed the Atlantic merited. Those who a year before had laughed at him as crazy, now, cap in hand, bowed low before him. Yet the only printed account 2 which appeared describing his wonderful voyage was a copy of a letter which he had written to the king and queen. entitled:

It was

"A Letter of Christopher Columbus,

(to whom our Age is much indebted)

respecting the

Islands of India, beyond the Ganges,
lately discovered.” 3

A rhymed version of this letter was sung through the streets of Genoa. It must have created a stir in that declining city, which, forty years before, when Columbus was a boy, had boasted its trade with the East.1

One immediate result of this supposed discovery of a western route to the Indies was the division of the world by the Pope. Spain and Portugal were rivals. Both were eager to get the control of Oriental commerce. The Pope had confirmed Portugal in the possession of the islands and countries of Africa she had

1 Hispaniola, or Little Spain.

2 This was in 1493, about forty years after the invention of printing.

3 This letter may be found complete in Major's "Select Letters of Columbus" (Hakluyt Society's Publications, London). Extracts from it are given in Higginson's "American Explorers." In this letter Columbus gives an account of the voyage and describes the West India Islands and their inhabitants.

4 See Paragraph 5.