After sailing several weeks in unknown waters, the sailors were dissatisfied and uneasy, and wished to go back. It required all the authority of Columbus to keep them from mutiny. At length he promised them, if he did not see land within three days, he would certainly turn back. And as if to reward him for his undaunted courage, signs of land began at once to appear. Great masses of green weeds drifted past the ship, which they knew never grew except near the shore; and on the 12th of October a branch of red berries which the dullest sailor knew could grow only on land, was found floating on the water. On the 13th of October, 1492, they discovered and set foot on the island of San Salvador, one of the Bahama group, lying north of the West Indies. Shortly after, they discovered the island of Hayti, which Columbus called Hispaniola, meaning "Little Spain."

After landing at Hayti and taking possession of it for the King and Queen of Spain, Columbus sailed from that island and touched the coast of Cuba, which he supposed to be part of a large continent. After this, without waiting to explore farther, he went back to Spain to report to the two sovereigns what he had seen.

Of course when Columbus reached Spain he was received with the highest honors. When he told of these green fertile islands thousands of miles west, of the inhabitants with straight black hair and copper colored skins, with head-dresses of feathers, and faces streaked with paint; of the strange fruits and vegetables and trecs they had seen; all Spain was filled with wonder. Every one thought the western passage to Asia was now discovered. As yet nobody had any comprehension of the size of this new world which had been found, or indeed of the size of the globe at all. And from the belief that they had landed very near the Asiatic coast they named these new lands the West Indies and the inhabitants Indi ans which name they bear to this day.

As soon as possible Columbus was fitted out for a second voyage, and this time he had little trouble in getting sailors. Everybody wished to go to this wonderful land, which all believed was teeming with riches. Stories were told of pearls as big as robin's eggs that could be picked up on the shores, and of mountains where topaz and rubies, emeralds and diamonds, could be seen glittering among the rocks. It was difficult to keep any of the young men at home now, who had a taste for adventure.

In September, 1493, Columbus set out on a second voyage. But

now his ships were crowded with adventurers who did not care whether their discoveries should benefit the human race. What they wished was a fortune, which they hoped to get by merely sailing after it. And they were constantly quarreling and bickering among themselves, and blaming Columbus if all did not turn out just as they wished it.

He sailed first to the island of Hayti, and left a colony there which he named Hispaniola. Then he sailed on, touched at the islands of Jamaica and Porto Rico, and finally returning to Hispaniola left his brother Bartholomew to take care of the new colony, while he returned to Spain again.

CHAPTER II.

OTHER VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS.

Portugal finds an Eastern Passage to India. - Columbus and the Egg. - Third Voyage. Touches the Continent. - Sad Fate of Columbus.

PORTUGAL has not been unmindful of the success of Spain in discovering America. For Spain and Portugal were at this time the two greatest naval powers in Europe, and were jealous rivals. For years Portugal had been exploring the coast of Africa to try and find an eastern passage to Asia. In 1497 they were successful, and Vasco da Gama found his way round the Cape of Good Hope, and sailing up the eastern coast of Africa reached India and China. That was a great triumph for Portugal, and almost matched the triumph of Spain in her discoveries. Three years before Vasco da Gama's success, Spain and Portugal had divided the globe between themselves. They drew up an agreement by which Portugal was to have all the ocean on the east side of a line drawn north and south 1,200 miles west of the Cape Verd Islands, and Spain was to have all west of this line. It did not seem to occur to them that any one had any right to the ocean but themselves.

In the mean time when Columbus returned to Spain from his second voyage he found the court filled with fault-finders who were underrating the value of his discoveries. They claimed that other men, native Spaniards, were making rich voyages. "Why should so much power and so many rewards be given to this foreigner," they grumbled, "when so many of our nation can do as much as he?"

There is a story told that on one occasion Columbus came upon a group of these enemies in the palace. He asked them, as a merry jest, to stand an egg on its end, upon the table. Everybody tried, but like Humpty Dumpty in the nursery rhyme, all the king's men could not make the egg stand.

Then Columbus took it and with a delicate blow he broke the shell a little so the egg would sit upright.

"Ah, that is easy enough," every one cried.

"When I have shown you how," answered Columbus meaningly. It was easy enough for others to sail west and find new countries, after one man had inspired the nation with a belief in unknown lands, and led the way there in his frail ships.

For the third time, in May, 1498, he embarked for America. This time he went to South America and explored the coast. He entered the Orinoco River and fancied he had made a great discovery there. In those days every one believed that the Garden of Eden -"the earthly Paradise"-still flourished in all its beauty. Columbus thought he had drawn near it, and that the Orinoco was the Gihon which was one of the boundaries of Eden.

When Columbus again landed at Hispaniola he found mischief had been plotted in his absence. His enemies there who wanted to rule the colony, had sent back to Spain such stories of his cruelty and tyranny, and desire for power, that the King of Spain had sent an officer named Francis de Bobadilla to inquire into these reports, and see if Columbus were guilty. The first thing this brutal fellow did after getting there, was to load Columbus with irons and send him back to Spain.

After he went on board, the officers of the ship which was to take him home were ashamed of the conduct of Bobadilla, and wished to

take off his fetters. But Columbus would not have them removed. He would thus present himself to his sovereigns. An old Spanish historian who tells his story, tells us that when the irons were put on him he said, "Thus the world rewards those who serve it; this is the recompense men give to those who trust in them. Have the utmost endeavors of my services ended in this? Have all my labors and sufferings deserved no more? Let me be buried in these irons to show that God alone knows how to

Isabella.

reward and bestow favors, of which He doth never repent; for the world pays in words and promises and at last deceives and lies."

And though the king and queen took off his chains and restored him to favor, the iron had entered his soul and he was never himself again.

He made one more voyage in 1502. This time he went into the Gulf of Mexico and explored the Isthmus of Darien, still hoping to find the long sought passage westward. But his search was vain. He planted a little colony on the coast of Panama, and then returned to Spain to die. His patroness, Queen Isabella, was now dead. The cold-hearted King Ferdinand neglected him. He lingered a few months in poverty and obscurity, and died in 1506, almost brokenhearted. Seven years after, the ungrateful king, for very shame at his neglect, put him up a monument with the inscription, "To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a new world." Words," says Ferdinand, the son of Columbus, in his life of his dear father, "words which we do well to mark, because the like cannot be found among either ancients or moderns."

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So ended the life of one of the greatest men who is celebrated in history.

CHAPTER III.

NAMING OF AMERICA, AND OTHER DISCOVERERS.

Amerigo Vespucci. - The Brothers Pinzon. -Gulf of the Three Brothers. - Florida discovFountain of Immortal Youth.

ered.

IN studying the history of discovery, we find that it is common to name different bodies of land and water after the men who first explored them; and it has often been a matter of wonder that this continent did not receive its name from the great navigator who discovered it. It would seem only a merited honor for so great a service to the world.

While Columbus was making ready to go on one of his voyages he met an Italian merchant in the city of Seville, who was interested in discovery, although he was not himself a sailor. This man's name was Amerigo Vespucci. He was a man of good birth, well educated, and curious to hear all

Amerigo Vespucci.

about the strange lands across the ocean. In 1499 he joined an expedition from Portugal, going to explore part of the coast of South America. On his return he published an account of this voyage, and of others that he afterwards made; and these voyages, written in Latin, were printed in Germany early in the sixteenth century. And because these printed accounts of the discovery of a new world circulated from one place to another, with his name attached to them, this country began to be called "the land of Amerigo (or Americus in the Latin form), and after a while changed to AMERICA. I do not believe that Vespucci himself intended to take from Columbus the honor of naming the continent. Indeed, it was not until after the death of both that the land began to be generally known as America.

But it is often regretted that the New World Columbus had discovered did not bear his name. We often hear the United States called Columbia. One of our national songs is "Hail Columbia.” And all over the country there are many cities and towns named for him.

Before the death of Columbus a number of the companions who had shared with him the honor of his first voyage, had either joined other expeditions, or had fitted out ships at their own expense, or that of any wealthy patron who would help them, and set out on voyages to the west.

The most noted of these were the brothers Alonzo, Vincente Yanez, and Francisco Pinzon. You remember the two former each commanded a vessel in the first voyage of Columbus. Alonzo, the oldest brother, had aided him in obtaining a crew and in bearing an eighth part of the expense of this voyage.

The Pinzons were all daring and expert sailors. In the year 1500, Vincente Yanez, who commanded four ships, led them over the equator southward to the coast of Brazil, and then into the mouth of the River Amazon, the largest river in the world. Coming back to Spain, he fell among hurricanes and dreadful tempests which destroyed two of his ships. His fortune was nearly all ventured in this enterprise, and this voyage almost ruined him. Afterwards, in 1506 and 1508, he was among those who were seeking the western passage to Asia. In the same year in which Pinzon discovered the Amazon, the Gulf of St. Lawrence was first explored. Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, was the first who entered this gulf. He sailed past Canada and landed at Labrador. Here he took away some Indians and carried them to Portugal as slaves.

He