A School History of the United States | Page 3

poverty and distress, before the Friday
morning in August, 1492, when his three caravels, the Santa Maria
(sahn'-tah mah-ree'-ah), the Pinta (peen'-tah), and the _Niña_
(neen'-yah), sailed from the port of Palos (pah'-los), in Spain.

[Footnote 2: There is reason to believe that about the year 1000 A.D.
the northeast coast of America was discovered by a Norse voyager
named Leif Ericsson. The records are very meager; but the discovery of
our country by such a people is possible and not improbable. For an
account of the pre-Columbian discoveries see Fiske's _Discovery of
America_, Vol. I., pp. 148-255.]
[Illustration: Santa Maria]
His course led first to the Canary Islands, where he turned and went
directly westward. The earth was not then generally believed to be
round. Men supposed it to be flat, and the only parts of it known to
Europeans were Iceland, the British Isles, the continent of Europe, a
small part of Asia, and a strip along the coast of the northern part of
Africa. The ocean on which Columbus was now embarked, and which
in our time is crossed in less than a week, was then utterly unknown,
and was well named "The Sea of Darkness." Little wonder, then, that as
the shores of the last of the Canaries sank out of sight on the 9th of
September, many of the sailors wept, wailed, and loudly bemoaned
their cruel fate. After sailing for what seemed a very long time, they
saw signs of land. But when no land appeared, their hopes gave way to
fear, and they rose against Columbus in order to force him to return.
[Illustration: Niña]
But he calmed their fears, explained the sights they could not
understand, hid from them the true distance sailed, and kept steadily on
westward till October 7, when a flock of land birds were seen flying to
the southwest. Pinzon (peen-thon'), who commanded one of the vessels,
begged Columbus to follow the birds, as they seemed to be going
toward land. Had the little fleet kept on its way, it would have brought
up on the coast of Florida. But Columbus yielded to Pinzon. The ships
were headed southwestward, and about ten o'clock on the night of
October 11, Columbus saw a light moving in the distance. It was made
by the inhabitants going from hut to hut on a neighboring coast. At
dawn the shore itself was seen by a sailor, and Columbus, followed by
many of his men, hastened to the beach, where, October 12, 1492, he
raised a huge cross, and took possession of the country in the name of

Ferdinand and Isabella, King and Queen of Spain, who had supplied
him with caravels and men.[1] He had landed on one of a group of
islands which we call the Bahamas.[2]
[Footnote 1: Columbus called the new land San Salvador (sahn
sahl-vah-dor', Holy Savior), because October 12, the day on which it
was discovered, was so named in the Spanish calendar.]
[Footnote 2: Three islands of this group, Cat, Turks, and Watlings,
have rival claims as the landing place of Columbus. At present,
Watlings Island is believed to be the one on which he first set foot.
Read an account of the voyage in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol.
I., pp. 408-442; Irving's _Life and Voyages of Columbus_, Vol. I.,
Book III.]
[Illustration: Coat of arms of Columbus]
During ten days he sailed among these islands. Then, turning
southward, he coasted along Cuba to the eastern end, and so to Haiti,
which he named Hispaniola, or Little Spain. There the Santa Maria
was wrecked. The Pinta had by this time deserted him, and, as the
_Niña_ could not carry all the men, forty were left at Hispaniola, to
found the first colony of Europeans in the New World. Giving the men
food enough to last a year, Columbus set sail for Spain on the 3d of
January, 1493, and on March 15 was safe at Palos.
Of the greatness of his discovery, Columbus had not the faintest idea.
That he had found a new world; that a continent was blocking his way
to the East, never entered his mind. He supposed he had landed on
some islands off the east coast of Asia, and as that coast was called the
Indies, and as the islands were reached by sailing westward, they came
to be called the West Indies, and their inhabitants Indians; and the
native races of the New World have ever since been called Indians.
Although Columbus in after years made three more voyages to the New
World, he never found out his mistake, and died firm in the belief that
he had discovered a direct route to Asia.[1]
[Footnote 1: Columbus began his second voyage in September, 1493,

and discovered Jamaica, Porto Rico (por'-to ree'-co), and