but one continent on the globe, and one great ocean, and that, by sailing across the Atlantic, you would come, after a time, to India and Tartary and Cathay (as they called China) and Cipango (as they called Japan). Many beautiful things were brought from those countries overland, gold and pearls and beautiful silks; and so the kings of Europe would have been very glad to find a short way thither. This map shows clearly how the wisest men thought it might be done. The drawing was made by a friend of Columbus, in the very year when he made the first western voyage across the Atlantic. It shows the names of all the places just mentioned; and it shows, moreover, how near at hand they were supposed to be, when the navigators of those days were making the maps. Columbus studied such maps, or helped to draw conclusion them, and grew more and more convinced, that, if he could only cross the unknown ocean, he would find India on the other side. Things often happened to confirm him in this opinion. Sailors from the Canary Islands told him of seeing land far in the west. His brother-in-law had seen a piece of curiously-carved wood, that had been washed on shore in Portugal, after a westerly gale. An old pilot had picked up a carved paddle at sea, a thousand miles west of the European coast. At Madeira, Columbus heard of pine trees that had been washed up; and at the Azores they had found tropical cane-stalks on the beach; and once the bodies of two men, of foreign dress and aspect, had been cast on shore. Then it is supposed that Columbus went to Iceland; and there he may have heard legends of the early expeditions to Vinland.

reached by Columbus.

Columbus

aid.

For ten years he endeavored to persuade some Euro- Efforts of pean government to send him on a voyage of discovery to obtain across the Atlantic Ocean. First he tried the republic of Genoa, then the republic of Venice, and then the court of Portugal. For seven years he tried to interest the two sovereigns of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella. At last they gave him an audience, and liked his plans very much; but the Archbishop of Granada, who was present, thought that Columbus asked for too much power over the lands he expected to discover: so the archbishop objected. Columbus refused to lower his claims, and left the court. He had gone two leagues (six miles), when the queen sent for him to return; and, when he had done so, the king and queen signed an agreement with him on his own terms. Isabella decided to fit out the expedition at the expense of her own kingdom of Castile, the chief of the kingdoms of which Spain was composed.

In three months the expedition was ready to sail. His outfit. But sailors were unwilling to go; and Columbus had to drive some of them by force into the service, as he had authority to do. There were three ships, the "Santa Maria," the "Pinta," and the "Nina." The "Santa Maria" was a good-sized vessel, ninety feet long, and carrying sixty-six seamen. It was decked all over, and had four masts, two with square sails, and two with lateen-sails. The other vessels were smaller, and without decks: and they were all provisioned for a year. There were, in all, one hundred and twenty persons on this Bold expedition.

It took His first

They sailed from Palos Aug. 3, 1492. them a month to reach the Canary Islands; but after

voyage.

they had passed those, and found themselves on the lonely ocean at night, many of the sailors wept, and declared they never should return. Columbus quieted them, and they sailed on, day by day; sometimes hopeful, and sometimes mutinous. Once the sailors plotted

Signs that land was near at hand.

to throw Columbus overboard. Often they thought they saw signs of land: once they were sure of it, and it proved only a cloud. At last land-birds were seen, and floating twigs with red berries, and a piece of wood rudely carved, and drifting seaweed, to which live crabs were clinging. Finally, one evening at ten o'clock, Columbus saw a light glimmering across the water;

and the next morning a gun was fired from one of the smaller vessels, as the signal agreed upon for "making land." It was a very welcome sound; for they had been seventy-one days in crossing the ocean, which is now crossed by steamers in less than nine. The vessels "lay to" that night; and the next morning the crew saw a wooded island six miles away, and crowds of natives running along the beach.

Columbus.

We may imagine how Columbus felt, when, at day- Landing of break, he was rowed to the shore, with waving banners, and to the sound of music, and when he stepped upon the beach where no European had ever before landed! He bore the great flag of Spain, gorgeous with red and gold; and his other captains bore each a green flag, inscribed with a cross. All knelt, and kissed the ground; then Columbus, rising, and drawing his sword, took possession of the island in the name of Spain, and called it "San Salvador."

discov.

He soon sailed farther on, visiting Cuba, Hayti, and His other other West India islands; but he did not reach the eries. mainland during this voyage. Returning to Spain, he was received with great honor and a second expedition was fitted out under him, consisting of seventeen vessels and fifteen hundred men. With these he discovered the Windward Islands, — Jamaica and Porto Rico, and founded a colony in Hayti; the island being then called "Hispaniola," or "Little Spain."

On his third voyage, in 1498, he had six ships, and reached the mainland of South America, though not till it had been visited by another navigator, Amerigo Ves- Voyage of pucci, or Americus Vespucius. The voyage of Americus Vespucius was made in the winter of 1497-98. He

Vespucius.