Spanish Discoveries in America.
Christopher Columbus.
IT was reserved for the people of a sunnier clime than Iceland first to make known to the European nations the existence of a Western continent. Spain was the happy country under whose patronage a new world was to be added to the old; but the man who was destined to make the revelation was not himself a Spaniard: he was to come from Italy, the land of valor and the home of greatness. Christopher Columbus was the name of that man whom after ages have rewarded with imperishable fame.
2. The idea that the world is round was not original with Columbus. The English traveler, Sir John Mandeville, had declared in the first English book ever written (A. D. 1356) that the world is a sphere, and that it was practicable for a man to sail around the world and return to the place of starting. But Columbus was the first practical believer in the theory of circumnavigation.
3. The great mistake with Columbus was not concerning the figure of the earth, but in regard to its size. He believed the world to be no more than ten thousand or twelve thousand miles in circumference. He therefore confidently expected that, after sailing about three thousand miles to the westward, he should arrive at the East Indies.
4. Christopher Columbus was born at Genoa, Italy, in A. D. 1435. He was carefully educated, and then devoted himself to the sea. For twenty years he traversed the parts of the Atlantic adjacent to Europe; he visited Iceland; then went to Portugal, and finally to Spain. He spent ten years in trying to explain to dull monarchs the figure of the earth and the ease with which the rich islands of the East might be reached by sailing westward. He found one appreciative listener, the noble and sympathetic Isabella, Queen of Castile. To the faith, insight, and decision of a woman the final success of Columbus must be attributed.
SHIPS OF COLUMBUS
Discovery of America.
5. On the morning of the 3d day of August, 1492, Columbus, with three ships, left the harbor of Palos. After seventy-one days of sailing, in the early dawn of October 12, Rodrigo Triana, a sailor on the Pinta, set up a shout of "Land!" A gun was fired as the signal. The ships lay to. Just at sunrise Columbus stepped ashore, set up the banner of Castile in the presence of the natives, and named the island San Salvador. During the three remaining months of this first voyage, the islands of Concepcion, Cuba, and San Domingo were added to the list of discoveries; and in the last-named island was erected a fort, the first structure built by Europeans in the New World. In January, 1493, Columbus sailed for Spain, where he arrived in March, and was greeted with rejoicings and applause.
6. In the following autumn, Columbus sailed on his second voyage, which resulted in the discovery of the Windward group and the islands of Jamaica and Porto Rico. It was at this time, and in San Domingo, that the first colony was established. Columbus's brother was appointed governor. After an absence of nearly three years, Columbus returned to Spain. The rest of his life was clouded with persecutions and misfortunes.
7. In 1498, during a third voyage, Columbus discovered the island of Trinidad and the mainland of South America. Thence he sailed back to San Domingo, where he found his colony disorganized; and here, while attempting to restore order, he was seized by an agent of the Spanish government, put in chains, and carried to Spain. After much disgraceful treatment, he was sent out on a fourth and last voyage, in search of the Indies; but the expedition accomplished little, and Columbus returned to his ungrateful country. The good Isabella was dead, and the great discoverer, a friendless and neglected old man, sank into the grave.
8. Columbus was even robbed of the name of the new continent. In the year 1499, Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine navigator, reached the eastern coast of South America. Two years later he made a second voyage, and then gave to Europe the first published account of the Western World. In his narrative all reference to Columbus was omitted; and thus the name of Vespucci, rather than that of the true discoverer, was given to the New World.
Discovery of the Pacific.
9. The discovery of America produced great excitement in Europe. Within ten years after the death of Columbus, the principal islands of the West Indies were explored and colonized. In the year 1510 the Spaniards planted on the Isthmus of Darien their first continental colony. Three years later, De Balboa, the governor of the colony, crossed the isthmus, and from an eminence looked down upon the Pacific. Not satisfied with merely seeing the great water, he waded in a short distance, and, drawing his sword, took possession of the ocean in the name of the king of Spain.
Florida.
10. Meanwhile, Ponce de Leon, who had been a companion of Columbus, fitted out an expedition of discovery. He had grown rich as governor of Porto Rico, and had also grown old. But there was a Fountain of Perpetual Youth somewhere in the Bahamas—so said a tradition in Spain—and in that fountain the old soldier would bathe and be young again. So in the year 1512 he set sail from Porto Rico; and on Easter Sunday came in sight of an unknown shore. There were waving forests, green leaves, and birds of song. In honor of the day, called Pascua Florida, he named the new shore Florida—the Land of Flowers.
11. A landing was made near where St. Augustine was afterwards founded. The country was claimed for the king of Spain, and the search was continued for the Fountain of Youth. The adventurer turned southward, discovered the Tortugas, and then sailed back to Porto Rico, no younger than when he started.
12. The king of Spain gave Ponce the governorship of his Land of Flowers, and sent him thither to establish a colony. He reached his province in the year 1521, and found the Indians hostile. Scarcely had he landed when they fell upon him in battle; many of the Spaniards were killed, and the rest had to fly to the ships for safety. Ponce de Leon himself was wounded, and carried back to Cuba to die.