But Columbus only smiled and said:
"My friends, you see I was right. The earth is round, and I have not only found India with its untold riches, but I have brought some of its people home with me."
And that is why today we call the red men Indians. Columbus did not know that he had discovered a new continent, so it was natural for him to speak of the natives as Indians. And I am sure you will pity him when I tell you that he died without ever knowing the difference.
All Europe was in a fever of excitement over his voyage, and it was not long before he fitted out other vessels and sailed across the ocean again to find the northwest passage which he believed would shorten the route to India. Rich men, and learned ones, were ready to go with him, and the sailors expected to find gold and precious stones scattered all over the ground. Every word that the convicts told them about El Dorado they thought meant gold, and the wildest and most exaggerated stories were soon in everybody's mouth.
The padres, too, were enthusiastic over the prospect of converting the heathen, but nobody took the trouble to find out what the Indians believed about God. Every one misunderstood the meaning of El Dorado and never dreamed that there had been such a teacher as the Golden Hearted, or that the Indians already knew how to be brotherly and kind.
Even the most learned men in those days were ready to accept the existence of a mythical city called Cathay as true.
They thought it was situated somewhere between the island of Newfoundland and Florida, where they expected to find the spice groves. Another story very common in Europe said that there was among the beautiful summer isles of the west, one that conferred immortality and was spoken of as the Island of Perpetual Youth. Among those whose imagination was fired by this romance was a brave knight named Ponce de Leon, who was Columbus' companion on his second voyage. He did not care for the gold of the new world, for he was already rich, but he was old, and he wanted to renew his youth. King Ferdinand commissioned him Governor of Porto Rico, but he soon tired of it, and was determined to discover the magic spring.
"For what reason should I stay here and lord it over these half-naked savages," he said to his relatives and friends when they tried to dissuade him from undertaking such a perilous search. "Let us go where we can bathe in those enchanted waters and be young once more. I need it and so will you before very long."
"But how do you know there is such a place?" they asked.
"By hearing the full particulars of an old Indian who went there and washed himself and drank from the spring until he was restored to youth and vigor. Let us go and be like him."