THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. PART I. THE STORY OF THE COLONIES: FROM INFANCY TO INDEPENDENCE. CHAPTER I. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. - The Route to the East. Columbus wishes to sail Westward to India. He applies to Portugal and Genoa. - Finally Aided by Isabella of Spain. - Sets Sail from Palos. - Incidents of Voyage.-Discovers West Indies. Riches of New World. Second Voyage. IT T is almost impossible to believe that less than four hundred years ago this whole great country of ours was a vast unknown wilderness; that the people in Europe and Asia did not even know that there was any land here, but supposed the Atlantic was a broad spreading ocean reaching from the shores of Europe into unknown space; that, although there were schools, and books, and maps of the earth's surface, learned men in Europe and Asia were still disputing whether the earth were round or flat, and no person in all their schools or cities dreamed that these two great Continents, of North and South America, had any place in the earth's geography. It is difficult to believe, is it not? Yet it is true. The land of the Western Hemisphere was a new discovery in the history of the globe. Hence it was called The New World," while Europe, Asia, and Africa, are called "The Old World." Many nations, and many different sailors, have claimed the honor of being the first to discover the Americas. Some of the Northmen, both Icelanders and Norwegians, have traditions that their ships had sailed across the Atlantic, and some of their people settled here, and even built houses and forts in North America, hundreds of years ago. But the honor of sailing forth on purpose to find an unknown land, of setting foot upon its shores, and then sailing back to Europe to tell the whole world that such a country did exist, and was really found, belongs only to one man. His name is celebrated in civilized countries of all languages and races. You must never forget it from this time forth. He was called CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Columbus was born in the year 1435, in the town of Genoa, Italy. He was an Italian sailor. In those days nearly all the towns on the Italian sea-coasts belonged to separate states, and were each famous for their commerce. So a great many of the boys born there were brought up to follow the sea. It was thought necessary that they should have some knowledge to fit them for that trade, there fore when Columbus said he should like to be a sailor, his father, who was a poor man, either a wool-comber, or cloth-weaver by trade, sent him to school to study mathematics and geography (such as they knew in those days), and the rudiments of navigation. Columbus could not have had time to get a very thorough knowledge of these branches, however, for he was only fourteen years old when he began to go to sea. |