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ADVENTURES OF EARLY 
 DISCOVERERS 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANCES A HUMPHREY 
 
 / 
 
 19^1^, 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 D LOTHROP COMPANY 
 
 FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS 
 
t >o 
 
 Copyright, iS88, 
 
 BV 
 
 D. LoTHROP Company. 
 
 Press of Berwick & Smith, Boston. 
 
ADVENTUEES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 HIDE-AND-SEEK ISLANDS. 
 
 Many years ago, thousands of years ago, the people of Europe 
 used to talk about an island which they called Atlantis. They 
 said this island lay far to the west, in the Atlantic Ocean. And, 
 the truth is, that ocean was so named for this island. 
 
 Atlantis was said to be a most lovely island, with high 
 mountains, wide rivers, and multitudes of singing birds. Flowers 
 grew everywhere, and the weather was always fair. Diamonds 
 and other precious gems could be picked up anywhere about the 
 island, and Neptune, the sea-god, had a most beautiful j^alace 
 right in the centre of it. Best of all, the people who lived 
 there were always good and happy. 
 
 But I never heard of anybody who ever really saw this island. 
 Sometimes, people, as they stood on the western shores of Europe, 
 thought they saw it. It lay along the horizon quite plainly, they 
 thought. But it always went away again. And sometimes the 
 sailors thought they saw it too ; but when they turned their 
 boats toward it, lo ! it was gone. And this is the way it played 
 Hide-and-Seek, and nobody ever caught it. 
 
 There was a good man who lived about a thousand years be- 
 fore Columbus, a man so good he was called Saint Brandon. 
 He was always doing good to people. And when he heard about 
 Atlantis, he wanted to go there and do good to the people. So 
 he sailed with another good man. Saint Malo. But of course, he 
 did not find Atlantis, though he found another island which was 
 ever after called by his name — the island of Saint Brandon. 
 
6 
 
 ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 But the droll thing is that nobody could ever after find that 
 island of Saint Brandon again. A great many people have tried 
 to find it. Even as late as 1721 a ship sailed from the Island 
 of Tenerift'e in search of it. For the people of the Canary Islands 
 fancied they saw it, some- 
 times, about a hundred miles 
 to the west. And, it is said, 
 that even to this day, they 
 sometimes think they see its 
 mountain-tops above the At- 
 lantic waves. And this is the 
 second Hide-and-Seek Island. 
 The third was called the 
 Island of the Seven Cities. 
 That was discovered at the 
 time when the Moors were 
 driving the Christians out of 
 Spain. Seven of the Chris- 
 tian bishops fled from Spain, 
 and took ship and sailed 
 out for safety on the At- 
 lantic ; for they had rather 
 trust themselves with the 
 waves than with the Moors. 
 By and by they came to an 
 island and landed. They 
 built seven cities on the island, and that was what gave it its 
 name. And that is all we know about it. Nobody could ever 
 find it. The sailors that came into the Spanish ports sometimes 
 said they had seen it afar off. But it always disappeared when 
 they sailed towards it. 
 
 IIU, I'OK THE ISLE OF SAIKT BRAKDON. 
 
ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 7 
 
 But I think the most charming of all the stories about the 
 Hide-and-Seek islands is that about Bimini. It was said that on 
 this island there was a Fountain of Youth. It was said that if 
 one were old, with gray hair and wrinkles, and faltering steps, half 
 blind and deaf, as the old often are, if such an one were dipped 
 in the waters of this Fountain he would be young once more, 
 with bright eyes and rosy cheeks and dancing feet. Ah ! thai 
 was something worth looking for. And so Ponce de Leon set 
 sail in 1512 in search of Bimini. But alas ! it was a Hide-and- 
 Seek island, and he never found it. And though many have 
 sought far and wide for it, it has never been found to this day. 
 But though Ponce de Leon never found the Fountain of Youth, 
 he discovered a land so full of flowers that he named it Florida, 
 by which name it has been known ever since ; and many peo- 
 ple have found it, with its soft airs and groves of orange-trees, 
 a true Fountain of Health. 
 
 And you may be sure that the boys and girls of those far-off 
 times knew all about these Hide-and-Seek Islands, and used to 
 plan, how, when they were grown up they, too, would go in 
 search of them. 
 
 LAMP OF THE ZKTLAXDEliS. 
 
THE MAN FOE WHOM AMEEICA WAS NAMED. 
 
 Last year we 
 had a little talk 
 about Columbus ; 
 what a hard time 
 he had ; how long 
 he tried before he 
 found any one to 
 help him ; how at 
 last Queen Isa- 
 bella of Spain be- 
 came his friend 
 and found him 
 ships and money ; 
 how he sailed 
 
 away from Palos 
 August, 1492, and 
 discovered this western world of ours. How on his third voyage, 
 1498, he saw the southern part of the great continent. 
 
 Well, just as soon as he came back from his first voyage 
 and told what he had found, then everybody, "even the tailors,'* 
 he said, were eager to go and find something too. And among 
 those who went was Americus Vespucius. 
 
 Americus made a voyage in 1497-98. He coasted along the shores 
 of what is now called Yucatan, and along the shores of the Gulf of 
 Mexico and Florida. 
 
 AK OLD ailU' OF THE EARI,Y DISCOVKUERS. 
 
ABYENTUBEk^ OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 9 
 
 He named this land " The Land of the Holy Cross." 
 
 A few years after he wrote some letters telling all about this 
 voyage. But many people said he did not tell the truth in these 
 letters. They said he did not make a voyage in 1497-98. They 
 said he wanted to take away the glory of the discovery from Col- 
 umbus, because Columbus did not reach the mainland until the year 
 1498, after the time that Vespucius said he did. They said many 
 hard things about Vespucius and his letters. 
 
 But very recently, a learned man named Yarnhagen, has been 
 looking it all up carefully. And he is sure that Vespucius told the 
 truth, and that he really did make that voyage in 1497-98. So, you 
 see, that wise men, differ about it, and it is difficult to tell what is 
 the exact truth. 
 
 Vespucius made another voyage in 1501 and he wrote a very 
 pleasant account of it. They 
 sailed across the ocean from 
 Portugal until they came to 
 the great southern continent 
 — now called South America. 
 They sailed down the coast 
 for seven hundred leagues. 
 He says it was a beautiful, 
 fruitful land, with bright 
 skies and soft breezes. They 
 sailed till they came in sight 
 of the stars near the south 
 jDole. He saw the four beau- 
 tiful stars which are called amekicus vespucius. — i^rom ^^rtm^m.^ m ^aZ/e?-!/ o/ il/«ss. 
 
 Hut. Society, Boston. 
 
 to-day the " Southern Cross." 
 
 They sailed on and on till it began to grow very cold, and the 
 
 nights were fifteen hours long. They saw before them a bleak, 
 
10 
 
 ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 rocky, and ice-bound land ; and then they turned back to Portu- 
 gal. 
 
 By and by people began to talk about a name for this new- 
 world. Columbus had named it the Indies. Some called it 
 Mundus Novus (New World). Others called it Colonia or Colum- 
 bia, for Columbus. Others said, let it be called Fer-Isabella, after 
 the King and Queen of Spain. The great southern continent was 
 called "The Land of the Holy Cross," the name Vespucius had 
 o;iven it. 
 
 But in 1507 a little book was pubUshed at St. Die, a town 
 among the mountains of Italy and France. In this book Ves- 
 pucius' letters were printed. In it was also printed this sentence : 
 "And the fourth part of the world having been discovered by 
 Americus, it may be called Amerige, that is, the land of Americus 
 or America." Copies of this little book are in the library of Harvard 
 College, and in other collections of books in America. 
 
 And that is where the name started from. 
 
 Americus Vespucius was born at Florence, Italy, November 9, 
 1451, and died February 22, 1512. 
 
 A VALENTINE. 
 
A BKAVE OLD ENGLISH SAILOR. 
 
 His name was Sebastian Cabot. He was born in the beauti- 
 ful city of Venice in Italy ; a city whose streets are of water, on 
 which the people sail up and down in pretty boats called gondolas. 
 Perhaps being born there was what made Sebastian so fond of 
 the' sea, and so little afraid of it. For all Venetian boys can 
 swim like ducks, and almost live in the water, paddling about 
 in it by day and by night. 
 
 Then his father, John Cabot, was a sailor, too, and a son often 
 likes to do what his father does. 
 
 Nobody knows when Sebastian's birthday was. In fact, we do 
 not know nearly so much about him as we would like to 
 know. We do not know exactly when he made his great voy- 
 ages. We know that he crossed the Atlantic many times. We 
 think that it was in 1497, that he and his father made a voy- 
 age with five ships, furnished at their own cost ; and King 
 Henry VII. of England gave them liberty to sail " to all parts, 
 countries and seas of the East," and " to subdue, occupy, and 
 possess all the lands" they found. For the kings of Europe in 
 those days, did not mind giving away whole countries that did 
 not belong to them, and Sebastian expected to reach the East 
 by sailing West. 
 
 Sebastian had heard about Columbus and his voyages. He had 
 heard that "Don Christopher Colonus, Genoese, had discovered 
 the coasts of India," "where spices grow," by a "way that was 
 never known before," by sailing West. And this report kindled 
 
12 
 
 ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DICOVERERS. 
 
 " a great flame of desire " in Sebastian's heart to make some 
 wonderful discovery, too. And as the world was round he 
 
 
 SEBASTIAN CAliOT. 
 
 thought he could find a still shorter passage to India by sail- 
 ing northwest. But he did not find it on this voyage in 1497. 
 
 So in 1498 he tried ao-ain. He 
 
 sailed from England with 
 
AB VENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 13 
 
 three liimdred men. He sailed past Iceland, and then to Labra- 
 dor. He called Labrador " The Land of Cod-fish." For the 
 waters there were so full of these fish that thej hindered the 
 sailing of his ship. He found plenty of salmon in the rivers, 
 and bears in the woods. He saw the bears come down to the 
 shore and catch and eat the fish. 
 
 From Labrador he sailed south, looking for that northwest pas- 
 sage. He sailed as far south as Florida. But he did not find 
 it, of course, for it is not there. But he discovered that what 
 he had supposed were islands, was really a "New Found Land" 
 which lay between Europe and India. So, although Columbus 
 discovered America, Sebastian Cabot was the first to make sure 
 that it was not India, but an entirely new land. 
 
 He tried once or twice more to find a northwest passage. 
 He explored what is now Hudson's Bay. But at last he gave 
 it up, discouraged. " They that seek riches," said a famous 
 writer, " must not go to the frozen North." So Sebastian made 
 other voyages. 
 
 He was a skilful as well as a brave sailor, and was held in 
 high esteem both by the Kings of England and of Spain. 
 
 ouK polls' washing day. 
 
THE STOEY OF FERDINAND DE SOTO. 
 
 The little Ferdinand De Soto was born in Spain, about eight 
 years after Columbus discovered America. 
 
 His father and mother were people of high rank, but they were 
 poor. So they thought they would have to economize in order 
 to give their little boy a good education. But a rich count hap- 
 pened to see the bright little fellow, and was so pleased with 
 him that he offered to send him to school and pay all his ex- 
 penses. And so he did ; not only to the schools, but also to 
 the University. 
 
 Ferdinand was a good scholar. He grew up tall, active and 
 brave. He was nineteen when he left the University, and he at 
 once started for those new-found lands across the Atlantic, to 
 try his fortune. He was poor and he wanted to make money; 
 and people thought gold and precious stones were to be got in 
 plenty in those new lands, if a body only knew just where to 
 look for them. And of course, each one who went hoped he 
 should be the lucky man who would find them. 
 
 Ferdinand first coasted along to look for that passage Cabot 
 and others tried to find — the strait which they thought led 
 directly through this new found land to China and the East. 
 
 Then he was sent to help Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru. And 
 
 there, after a while, he got plenty of gold — all he wanted; 
 
 though I am afraid he did not get it rightly or honestly, ^or 
 
 the Spaniards thought it no harm to steal their gold from the 
 
 .Indians, and they did many cruel deeds in order to get ir-. 
 
 ^^ Ferdinand, now very rich, went back to Spain and m.^rried 
 
ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS, 
 
 15 
 
 Isabella Bovadilla, the daughter of the rich count who had edu- 
 cated him. For so long as Ferdinand was poor, the Count had 
 not been willing he should marry Isabella. 
 
 After a few years he thought he should like to try his for- 
 tune again in the new world, 
 for he had spent a large part 
 of the srold he had brouorht 
 home. So he took com- 
 mand of a great expedition, 
 the greatest that had ever 
 been sent from Spain. This 
 expedition was to go to 
 Florida, the beautiful land 
 discovered by Ponce de 
 Leon. How big Florida 
 really was, nobody knew. 
 But it was said that, some- 
 where in that flowery land, 
 there was a region called 
 El Dorado (the Land of 
 Gold), and that somewhere, 
 too, was that Fountain of 
 Youth you have read 
 about in " The Hide-and- 
 Seek Islands." 
 
 Great nobles of Spain joined this expedition, and priests, and 
 some women. The Donna Isabella went; and one wife, it is said, 
 went with her husband because he had invested every bit of 
 money in the expedition and she had nothing left to live on. 
 
 One lovely day in April, 1539, this expedition set sail, and the 
 guns boomed, the flags wavea, and the people cheered; for w^ere 
 
 XHE BUKIAL OF DE SOTO IN THE JUSSI8SIFPI. 
 
IG 
 
 ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 they not starting for El Dorado and the land of the Fountam 
 of Youth! 
 
 Near the end of May they arrived at Cuba. There Ferdinand 
 left the Donna Isabella to act as governor during his absence, 
 and himself set sail with his men for Florida. For many long 
 months they wandered through what is now Alabama, Georgia 
 and Arkansas, up even as far as the Indian Territory. Over the 
 Mississippi River, through trackless forests, across great marshes, 
 and over high mountains they made their way. It must have 
 been a gay and imposing sight if one could only have seen them ; 
 their banners, the trappings of their horses and their splendid 
 dresses made a fine picture against the green of the forests. 
 
 But their march had its dark as well as its gay side. They 
 had many fierce battles with the Indians by the way. For they 
 were cruel to the Indians, as the Spaniards always were. So 
 though the Indians were at first gentle and hospitable, they soon 
 learned to be cruel, too. 
 
 At last, finding no gold, they turned homeward. But De Soto 
 was taken with fever and died. May 21, 1542. He was a brave 
 and valiant leader, and his followers did not want the Indians 
 should know of his death, lest they should take courage from it 
 to attack them again. So they buried him in the Mississippi 
 River, where his body could not be found 
 
ONE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH S BRAVE CAPTAINS. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth of England had many brave captains, and the 
 bravest of them all, perhaps, was Sir Francis Drake. 
 
 He was born in the town of Tavistock, in the lovely county 
 of Devon, England ; and the little cottage in which his father 
 lived was on the banks of the river Tavy. 
 
 When Francis was still a boy, his father moved into Kent, 
 and lived in the hull of a ship, just as the Peggottys did in 
 Dickens' story. There were twelve sons in all, and there must 
 have been no little noise at times in that old hull. It is not 
 possible that a building in which twelve boys lived could ever 
 have been quiet except when they were all asleep. 
 
 A boy who lived in the hull of a ship would naturally begin 
 life by going to sea. And that was just what the boy, Francis, 
 did. His father put him with the master of a bark, which 
 coasted along the shores of England, and sometimes took freight 
 over to Zealand and France. And he took such pains to do his 
 work well, and was so diligent, that he greatly pleased his mas- 
 ter, so that when his master died, he left his bark to Francis 
 by his will. 
 
 But our brave and bold sailor soon grew tired of coasting, and 
 was eager to strike out into the ocean. So he sold his bark 
 and joined an expedition to the West Indies, under Captain 
 John Hawkins. There were six vessels in this expedition, one 
 of which, the Judith, was commanded by Drake. 
 
 They went first to the coast of Africa and captured two hun- 
 
18 
 
 ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 dred negroes. These they took to the West Indies and sold for 
 slaves. People in those days had not begun to look upon the slave- 
 trade as a wicked trade. 
 
 At that time, Spain had possession of the greater part of the 
 new world that Columbns had discovered. And they did not wish 
 to share it with any other nation. So when Captain Hawkins' 
 ships arrived they were roughly handled by the Spaniards. They 
 destroyed all but two, the 
 Mmion and the Judith ; took 
 the men prisoners and treated 
 them with great cruelty. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth was very 
 
 angry at this and would have 
 
 liked to declare war against 
 
 Spain, if that had been a 
 
 wise thing to do. But it 
 
 was not, for Spain was then 
 
 a great nation with a vast 
 
 number of ships and soldiers, 
 
 while England had but few. 
 
 But she was very glad to 
 
 have her captains trouble the 
 
 Spaniards, and get from them 
 
 by force as much as they 
 
 could of the gold and silver of which the Spaniards had robbed 
 
 the Indians of Mexico and Peru. 
 
 So, May 24, 1572, Drake set sail with two vessels, for Madre de 
 Dios, a placff in the West Indies, where the Spaniards kept great 
 store of gold and silver. And he did get a good deal of that 
 gold and silver, though he was badly wounded in the attack upon 
 the town. But he kept his wound to himself, and his men did 
 
 SIR FKANCIS DKAK.K. 
 
ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 19 
 
 not know it until, overcome by the pain and loss of blood, he 
 fainted. Then his men bound up his wound, and revived him, 
 and wanted him to go back to his boats. But he did not want 
 to, and so they took him up and carried him. The whole account 
 of this expedition shows what a fearless man Francis Drake was, 
 but it is too long to tell you here. 
 
 While crossing the Isthmus of Panama at this time, he came 
 one day to a tall tree on a high hill. He was with some 
 friendly Indians, and their chief took his hand, and asked him 
 to go up that " goodlie and great high tree." He went up by 
 steps cut in the trunk, and found up there a kind of arbor with 
 seats. And from that arbor he saw, for the first time, the Pa- 
 cific Ocean. It was then called the South Sea. He was the first 
 Englishman to see that ocean. And then he made a vow that 
 he would be the first Englishman to sail upon it. And you shall 
 hear about that in the next paper. 
 
 MAKING A CALL ON GRANDPA. 
 
HOW SIR FRAXCIS DRAKE SAILED ROUXD THE WORLD. 
 
 November 15, 1577, he sailed from Plymouth, England, for the 
 Pacific Ocean, with five ships, the Pelican, Elizabeth, Sioan, Mari- 
 gold and Christopher. He, himself, was commander of the Pelican. 
 
 After crossing the Atlantic he sailed down the coast of South 
 America to the Straits of Magellan. Here he changed the name 
 of his vessel from the Pelican to the Golden Hind. 
 
 It is a difficult matter for a vessel to go through this Strait. 
 It is crooked and narrow in many places, and the tides are high, 
 and the water runs very fast. The shores are steep and rocky. 
 On one side is a volcano, and the peaks of the mountains around 
 are covered with snow. They landed on one island which they 
 named Elizabeth. They found here green valleys and thousands 
 of humming-birds. It took them sixteen days to go through the 
 Strait, and Francis Drake was the second captain to go through 
 it. The first was the Portuguese, Magellan, for whom it was 
 named. 
 
 After they got through, a terrible storm arose and drove the 
 ships far south, and so Drake saw where the Atlantic and Pacific 
 meet. In this storm the Marigold was lost. The Swan and the 
 Christopher had been left behind long before. A short time after 
 the loss of the Marigold, the Elizabeth drifted away, and went 
 back to England. So Sir Francis was left to go on alone in the 
 Golden Hind. 
 
 Another storm arose, and again was the Golden Hind driven 
 down to the very end of South America, and so Drake was the 
 
ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 21 
 
 first to discover Cape Horn. But on the thirtieth of October, the 
 storm went down, and they sailed up the coast. They landed for 
 water at one place where they found a Spaniard asleep, with 
 thirteen bars of silver lying by his side, worth four thousand 
 ducats. A silver ducat is worth one dollar. " We tooke the sil- 
 ver and left the man," says the narrator. 
 
 Landing at another place farther on, they met a Spaniard and 
 an Indian boy driving " eight 
 sheepe of Peru." Each sheep 
 had two leather bags on its 
 back ; and each bag held fifty 
 pounds of silver. They took 
 the bags of silver. It was 
 a part of the business of this 
 Englishman, you see, to rob 
 every Spaniard he met. 
 
 He entered Callao, the port 
 of Peru, where thirty ships 
 were lying at anchor ; seven- 
 teen of these were loaded 
 with treasure, ready to sail 
 for Spain. But Drake took 
 all the treasure, and then 
 ordered the cables that held 
 the ships to be cut, that they 
 might drift away. He met a bark and robbed it of eighty pounds 
 of gold, and a cross of precious stones. Everybody was taken by 
 surprise, for no one expected to meet an Englishman in this part 
 of the world. 
 
 At Callao, he learned that a rich treasure ship had just left 
 there for Panama. He started in pursuit of her. Her name was 
 
 yUi-KiN ELIZAliKTU UF i^.NGLA.ND. 
 
22 
 
 ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 Cacafuego ; and she was called " the great glor}^ of the South 
 Sea." Drake came up with her near Panama. He fired two shots 
 that carried away one of her masts. He then boarded her and 
 found her to be indeed a treasure. For he took from her, not 
 only jewels and precious stones, but thirteen chests of silver coin^ 
 eio-hty pounds of gold and twenty-six tons of silver. 
 
 April 15tli, Drake took the Golden Hind into the port of 
 Ao-uapulca, for repairs. She was only a vessel of one hundred 
 tons, and she was pretty well battered with the long voyage and 
 the storms. And while he waited there he thought anxiously 
 about what he should do next. He was afraid that if he went 
 back the way he came, the Spaniards would be waiting for him 
 at the mouth of the Straits of Magellan. Ships now go around 
 Cape Horn instead of through these Straits. But no ship had 
 then been round Cape Horn. 
 
 
 ^:'^nmim\ ^'lu 
 
 IX THE MOKTII OF JUNE. 
 
 ; 
 
HOW SIR FKANCIS DRAKE SAILED ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Drake had seen that the two great oceans met at the south- 
 ern extremity of America, and so he concluded that they met 
 at its northern extremity too. And he thought at first he would 
 sail up that way and so go back into the Atlantic. But the 
 weather became so cold as he sailed north, that he changed his 
 mind. And it was well that he did. For if he had sailed up 
 into the icy Arctic Ocean, with his little vessel filled with trea- 
 sure, I am afraid we should never have heard from him again. 
 
 While sailing up the western coast of America, he came to a 
 "faire and good bay." Here he staid thirty-six days. The 
 Golden Hind had sprung a-leak, and they had to lighten her, 
 in order to repair her. So they carried their goods on shore, 
 and built a fort and lived in tents. The people came down to 
 the shore to see these strange white visitors. They sung and 
 danced around them. They put a feathered cap on Drake's head, 
 and a gold chain around his neck. They were kind and hospit- 
 able. This "faire and good bay" is thought to have been the 
 Bay of San Francisco. 
 
 On the twenty-third of July, 1579, Drake left this port and 
 sailed west; and, so long as the Golden Hind was in sight, the 
 natives kept fires burning on the hills. For they were very sor- 
 rowful at the departure of their white friends, and wanted to 
 keep them in sight as long as possible. 
 
 So the Golden Hind sailed across the wide Pacific, and down 
 the coast of Africa, and round the Cape of Good Hope and 
 
24 
 
 ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 home to England — the second ship that had then sailed round 
 the world. And Drake was the first Englishman to sail round it. 
 They reached Plymouth, England, September 26, 1580, and tho 
 bells of St. Andrew's church rang out a merry peal, and the peo- 
 ple all hastened to the wharf to see them. 
 
 The vessel was then taken to Deptford, and the next year 
 Queen Elizabeth vis- 
 ited it, and made 
 Francis Drake, Sir 
 Francis Drake; and 
 she gave him for 
 a coat of arms, a 
 ship on a world. 
 
 She also ordered 
 the Golden Hind to 
 be lodged in a dock 
 at Deptford. It was 
 never to go to sea 
 any more, but to 
 stay there as a mon- 
 ument to the cour- 
 ao:e and darino; of 
 Sir Francis Drake. 
 
 It remained there 
 for a long series of 
 years, and was visited by a great many people At last the wood 
 of it became much decayed, and so enough sound wood was taken 
 out to make a chair. This chair was presented to the University 
 of Oxford. And there it is to this day. 
 
 Sir Francis Drake served Elizabeth for many years after this. 
 He helped in the destruction of the Spanish Armada. You will 
 
 CHAIR MADE FROM THE " GOLDEN HIND." 
 
ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 25 
 
 read about that Spanish Armada in history. King Philip of Spain, 
 laid a plan to seize England, and not only to seize England, 
 but to seize Queen Elizabeth, too. And he sent a fleet of one 
 hundred and thirty-two ships, of over three thousand guns and 
 over thirty thousand men, to the shores of England. 
 
 But Queen Elizabeth was not to be frightened by all these 
 men and ships. " I know I have but the body of a weak and 
 feeble woman, but I have the heart of a King, and of a King of 
 England, too," she said. And she called together her officers and 
 great men, and among them was Sir Francis Drake. And ships, and 
 men and guns were brought, and the Spanish Armada was driven 
 back from the coasts of England, and only fifty-one of the ves- 
 sels went back to King Philip of Spain. 
 
 TAKING A LUNCH. 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 "In a poor farmhouse among the pleasant valleys of South 
 Devon, among the white apple-orchards and the rich water-meadows 
 anil the red fallows and red kine, in the year of grace, 1552, a 
 boy was born, as beautiful as day, and christened Walter Raleigh." 
 
 There, does not that sound like the beginning of a fairy story 
 or a hero story? And Sir Walter Raleigh was a heroic man, 
 and the whole story of his life, which, I hope, you will some- 
 time read, sounds like a fairy story. For his life was full of 
 adventure, full of things both splendid and sad. 
 
 He was one of the greatest men of Queen Elizabeth's reign, 
 but he died upon tlie scaffold. 
 
 The house in which he was born at Haves is still standinof. 
 
 One of his older brothers was Sir Humphrey Gilbert. He it 
 was who so bravely died at sea. He was an admiral, and had 
 gone out with an expedition to found a colony at Newfoundland. 
 His own ship was the Squirrel. 
 
 The Squirrel was small and overloaded. She was not strong 
 enough to live through the storms she met. And. one night, the 
 watchers on the other vessels saw the lights upon the Squirrel 
 suddenly go out, and then they knew that she was " swallowed 
 up by the sea." 
 
 The very day before Sir Humphrey Gilbert was " sittiug 
 abaft with a book in his hand ; " it was the Book of Books, the 
 Bible ; and he said to his terrified men who feared every mo- 
 ment that the Squirrel would sink : " Be of good heart, my 
 
ADVEN'TURUS OF THE EARLY DltiCOVERER^. 
 
 li 
 
 He sat upon the deck. 
 
 The Book ims in his hand; 
 
 ''Do not fear ! Heaven is as near,'' 
 He said, '■'by icater as by land!' 
 
 friends. We are as near to Heaven by sea as by land." 
 Our own Longfellow has written a poem about him, two verses 
 of which are here given: 
 
 Alas ! the land-tcind failed. 
 
 And ice-cold grew the night; 
 And nevermore, on sea or shore, 
 
 Shoidd Sir Humphrey see the light. 
 
 The boy Walter grew up 
 in lovely Devon, " fishing 
 in the gray trout brooks, 
 or going up with his fathei' 
 to the Dartmoor hills to 
 hunt the deer with hound 
 and gun/' till such time 
 as he went to the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford. But he 
 was a soldier before he 
 was eighteen. 
 
 There is a pretty story 
 told concerning Queen Eliz- 
 abeth and Walter Raleigh. 
 The Queen was walking- 
 out with her court one day 
 Avhen she came to a muddy 
 place in the highway. She 
 stopped and hesitated to 
 cross, lest she should soil 
 her fine shoes. And, as 
 she stood hesitating, a young man stepped forward, and taking 
 from his shoulders his rich plush cloak, spread it over the mud, 
 and so the Queen passed over dry shod. This young man was 
 Walter Raleigh. 
 
 SIR WALTEK KALKIGH. 
 
28 
 
 AUVJ^NTL^RES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 This story was first told by the old historian, Fuller, who was 
 a boy when Raleigh died. And Walter Scott tells it in his 
 beautiful book, Kenilworth. 
 
 Older brothers always have a great influence over younger 
 brothers. And Walter Raleigh's older brothers, John, Humphrey, 
 and Adrian, must have had a good as well as a great influence 
 over him. They were all brave and good men, and full of the 
 adventurous spirit of the times. They wanted to have a share 
 in the discoveries of that day, and when Sir Humphrey sent 
 out his expeditions, Walter Raleigh had an interest in them. 
 
 After Sir Humphrey died Walter Raleigh sent out expeditions 
 on his own account. His brother had wanted to discover that 
 northwest passage about which you have read in the paper upon 
 Cabot. But Sir Walter did not care for that. He wanted to 
 start an English Colony in America before the Spaniards could get 
 possession of it all. And that was the way all the Englishmen 
 of that day felt. Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Richard Grenville, 
 Walter Raleigh's friend, and Sir John Hawkins. They wanted 
 that Englishmen should have a share in this great land of 
 America, 
 
 W];iTi,\<; I.N iiiK sAXl). 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH S LOST COLONY. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh made several attempts to start a colony in 
 North America before he sent out the one which is always called 
 "The Lost Colony." 
 
 In 1584 he sent Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow to explore 
 the coast, and they brought back very pleasant accounts of a 
 certain island which we know as Roanoke Island in Albemarle 
 Sound — of its trees and deer, and " gentle and loving people." 
 
 It was about this time that he was knighted by Queen Eliz- 
 abeth, and became Sir Walter Raleigh, and he named the prov- 
 ince she had granted him, Virginia, in her honor. 
 
 In 1587 he sent out a colony composed of one hundred and 
 fifty householders and their families, to settle upon this island, 
 and this is the colony known as " The Lost Colony." 
 
 The governor of this Colony was John Whyte, and only a 
 short time after their arrival at Roanoke, his little granddaughter, 
 Virginia Dare, was born, the first child of English parentage born 
 within the limits of what is now the United States. 
 
 And only nine days after she was born, the fleet went back 
 to England, and John Whyte went with it. He meant to return 
 in a few months and bring provisions for the people from Eng- 
 land. 
 
 This, as I said, was in 1587 ; and it was in 1588, you re- 
 member, that the great Spanish Armada sailed against England. 
 And every ship and every man was needed to fight against the 
 Spaniards. 
 
30 
 
 AD VENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 So though Sir Walter Raleigh tried to send a ship to the re- 
 lief of these colonists, he could not do so until 1590 — three 
 long years. 
 
 And what did those people do during those three long years, 
 and what became of them ? Nobody knows. 
 
 When Governor Whyte sailed away, he made an agreement 
 with the colonists that if 
 
 any thing should happen 
 to make it wise for them 
 to go to some other j)lace, 
 they would leave, carved 
 upon some tree, the name 
 of that place. 
 
 And if it was through 
 disaster that they were 
 obliged to move, they would 
 carve a cross under the 
 name. 
 
 As the ship sent by Si:' 
 Walter Raleigh in 1590 drew 
 near Roanoke Island, yo;i 
 may be sure that Governo.' 
 Whyte looked eagerly uj) 
 and down the shore for some 
 signs of the colony he had 
 left behind ; the smoke from 
 
 CAHVIXG THK NAJIK. 
 
 their chimneys, perhaps, or the lights in their windows, he would see. 
 
 They would be on the lookout, of course, for a ship from 
 England. For had they not been expecting one every day for 
 two years and more ? 
 
 Doubtless the people would come flocking down to the shore. 
 
ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 31 
 
 and among them would be his little granddaughter, Virginia Dare, 
 who must now be nearly three years old. 
 
 But no sign did he see ; neither smoke from chimneys, nor light 
 in windows. None came down to greet them but the wild deer 
 and the heron. All was silence. 
 
 They went on shore. Books and maps were lying about torn, 
 bars of iron and bits of lead. The houses or huts had been 
 long deserted. 
 
 But upon a tree they found this word cut — CROAT AN. 
 Where was Croatan ? No one knew. 
 
 And not a trace of this colony, or of the fate of the little 
 Virginia Dare, has been found to this day. 
 
 r.i:l.\(.i.N<; in iiii; fkinii .s\vi;hT ( iaitiiks. 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH S VOYAGE TO GUIANA. 
 
 ET US now go a voyage with 
 Sir Walter himself ; for he not 
 only sent people to found colo- 
 nies, but he went, too. 
 
 He had heard many won- 
 derful stories about Guiana and 
 its riches. It was said that in 
 Guiana was to be found, at 
 last, the true Eldorado. Its 
 capital was called Manoa the 
 Golden. And in Manoa, it 
 was said, the very boxes and 
 troughs were made of silver and 
 gold ; and gold lay in its streets 
 in heaps, like piles of logs ! 
 The Spaniards had tried many times to find this Manoa the 
 
 Golden, but had not succeeded. 
 
 Whether Sir Walter believed all these wonderful stories, I do 
 
 not know. But he made up his mind there was some truth in 
 
 them — that riches of some sort were to be found in Guiana. 
 
 And he did not mean that Spain should get them all. So in 
 
 1595 he set sail for the mouth of the Orinoco River. 
 
 There he left his big ships and went up the river in boats. 
 
 These boats carried one hundred men and provisions for a month. 
 
 The Orinoco has many channels, and the currents and winds were 
 
ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 33 
 
 both strong, and they knew not at first which cliannel to choose. 
 
 But just after tliey started they saw a canoe with three In- 
 dians crossing. Tliey gave chase to them in their big eight-oared 
 boat, and soon caught up with them and took one Indian on 
 board for a pilot. And a capital pilot he proved to be. For he 
 knew all about the river, and '' but for him," says Raleigh, " I 
 think we had never found the way either to Guiana or back to 
 our ships." 
 
 So they rowed on and on, and sometimes the water was shal- 
 low, and they got aground. Sometimes the trees along the banks 
 and on the island were so tall and stood so thickly together they 
 could hardly breathe. 
 
 At last the pilot persuaded Sir Walter to leave his big boat 
 behind and row in the smaller boats up a narrow stream. Soon 
 they came to a lovely country with great grassy plains and 
 clumps of trees, and deer that came fearlessly down to the water's 
 edge to feed. But they did not find Manoa the Golden. 
 
 After they had gone four hundred miles their provisions began 
 to get low. Sometimes they found plenty of delicious fruits to 
 eat. One day they met some canoes, filled with excellent Indian 
 bread. 
 
 At the mouth of the Carino River, they had a pleasant time 
 with the Indians. " They came," says Raleigh, " to wonder at 
 our nation and bring us victuals." There he saw an old chief, 
 a very old man, named Topiawari. He and Raleigh had long 
 talks about England and Queen Elizabeth, and about the geog- 
 raphy and climate of Guiana. And Raleigh was surprised to find 
 an Indian so learned and well-bred. 
 
 When the old chief took leave of him he said, " I am very 
 old, and Death calls daily for me." He thought he should never 
 see Raleigh again. But they staid in camp a while longer, and 
 
34 
 
 ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 Raleigh sent for him. He came with his followers, and brought 
 a great store of provisions for the English. But Raleigh would 
 not permit his hungry men to touch one bit they did not pay 
 for. For he was always just in his dealings with the Indians, 
 and quite unlike the Spaniards, who took everything they wanted 
 without paying. And the Indians felt the difference. They never 
 forgot Raleigh. Two hundred years after, when Humboldt was 
 in Guiana, he heard traditions of Raleigh's goodness. And the 
 Indians told him how Raleigh had promised to come back. 
 
 He did not find Manoa the Golden. Nobody ever found it, 
 and I suspect the story about it was a kind of fairy story. 
 
 Sir Walter wrote an interesting account of this voyage wdiich 
 you may some day read, perhaps. 
 
 H.Vi;VKSTEl!.s 
 
THE SEA-FIGHT OFF CADIZ IN SPAIN. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh was many things. He was a soldier, a 
 scholar, a navigator, a founder of colonies, a chemist, a poet and 
 an historian. And whatever he did, he did well. Most people, 
 you know, can only do one thing well. 
 
 He was fond of the planning and laying out of gardens and 
 the planting of trees. 
 
 He first brought the potato from America to Ireland, for the 
 potato was an American product. He was then living at Youghal, 
 Ireland. 
 
 He introduced tobacco into England. And it is said that one 
 day his servant saw him smoking, and as he had never seen 
 any one smoke before, he naturally thought that his master was 
 on fire, and bringing a big basin of water, he threw it over 
 him to put out the fire. 
 
 Sir "Walter was rear-admiral in the English Navy. He took 
 part in the great fight against the Spanish Armada about which 
 you have read in this series. His ship was one of three that 
 kept up the chase after the flying Spanish ships to the last. 
 
 In 1596 took place the famous sea-fight in the harbor of Cadiz 
 in Spain, between the English and Spanish ships, and Sir Walter 
 Raleigh was in the very thick of it. In fact, he led the attack 
 in his war-ship, the War-Spright. 
 
 He started betimes in the morning. " With the first peep of 
 day," he says, "I weighed anchor. . . . taking the start of 
 all ours on a good distance." 
 
36 
 
 ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 Under the wall of the town of Cadiz, lay a long line of 
 Spanish galleys, and as the War-Sprlcjlit sailed gallantly and 
 proudly by, they fired npon her. But the only notice Sir Walter 
 took of these "wasps," as he called them, was to blow his trum- 
 pets at them. He did not choose to spend his time and ammu- 
 nition in fighting such small 
 fry as these. 
 
 For just before him, and 
 beyond these "wasps," lay the 
 two great ships, St. PhilliiJ 
 and St. Andreio, the biggest 
 shi|)s in the Spanish Navy, 
 and as he drew near to these, 
 the guns of the War-S'pright 
 opened upon them. 
 
 They replied with their guns, 
 and the battle was raging 
 fiercely when the English ships 
 came up, the Rainbow and 
 the JSForipareih and tried to 
 get in ahead of the War- 
 Sjpright. 
 
 But this Sir Walter would 
 not allow ; he placed the War- 
 SjJright directly across the chan- 
 nel so no ship could pass. 
 
 " I was very sure (after that) that none would outstart me 
 for that day," he says. 
 
 When the Spaniards found that Raleigh was upon the point of 
 seizing the great St. Philip, they blew her up and sunk her, 
 together with the St. Thomas. But he captured the St. Andrew 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH IN HER PEACOCK GOWN. 
 
BRIGHT AND BRINDLE. 
 
 37 
 
 and the 8t. Matthew before they had time to blow them up, and 
 took them home to England and afterwards used them in fio-ht- 
 ing against the Spaniards. 
 
 This famous sea-fight lasted three hours. Eight only of the 
 English fleet were lost or crippled, while the Spaniards lost fifty 
 ships and galleys. After the sea-fight came a land-fight when the 
 English landed and fought for the possession of Cadiz. 
 
 But Sir Walter had been so severely wounded that he could 
 not sit upon his horse, and so he could not take part in this. 
 But he had his men carry him on shore in a litter, so that he 
 might look on if he could do nothing more. 
 
 The English had hoped to capture the great Indian fleet, which 
 was anchored near Cadiz, but the Spanish Duke of Medina set 
 the fleet on fire, and all the rich stuffs — velvets, silks, jewels, 
 and gold — were burned or sunk in the sea. 
 
 This disastrous sea-fight was the first great blow struck at the 
 power of Spain, and from that day she began to decline. 
 
 
 BKIGHT AND BKIMDLE. 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH IN PRISON. 
 
 After Queen Elizabeth died King James of Scotland became King 
 James I. of England. 
 
 Now King James did not like Sir Walter Raleigh ; more than 
 that, he hated him. And why he hated him you will understand 
 as you grow older and study history for yourself. 
 
 Now when one person hates another he always tries to do him 
 harm. And James I. was a king and so had great power to do 
 harm, and he had Sir Walter Raleigh arrested, tried, and im- 
 prisoned for a crime of which he was not guilty. 
 
 He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, in that part of 
 it called "The Bloody Tower," If you should go to England 
 you could see that very Tower. 
 
 But you must not suppose that because he was imprisoned, he 
 was shut up in a cell, or even in one room. He was not allowed 
 to go outside of what is called the Tower of London, but he 
 had a good deal of liberty inside that place. 
 
 He had rooms and servants. His wife, Lady Raleigh, was 
 with him part of the time, and part of the time she lodged 
 near the Tower. His older son, Walter, was with him and his 
 little son Carew was born while he was livino; there. 
 
 He used to pass a good deal of his time in a garden where 
 he had a "' still." For he was a chemist. 
 
 He wrote his famous Histonj of the World while living in 
 the Tower. He lived there twelve years, aud many people visited 
 him there. 
 
ADVENTURES OF THE EABLY BLSCOVEBERS. 
 
 39 
 
 Many of his friends tried to persuade King James to pardon 
 him. Queen Anne tried, for she had a great regard for Sir 
 Walter. Lady Raleigh tried. She went with her son, Walter, 
 and knelt at the feet of the king and begged him to spare her 
 husband and set him free. But the king refused. 
 
 Prince Henry, the king's oldest son, tried. Often and often 
 
 '■'■■■■■1 
 
 iiliiilllli.iiillill^iililliiHijmmiiiillililliliiililiiliiiiIllli,il{iU^^ ill I" I I f l' lllllll/l illlinl 1 1 iJll illli ililiilillilli Jibi jii liliiiiia .jjiiJllkiiiHiUMIi'i^jdii i iii>iliuiUiUltail u 11 
 
 PRINCES HENRY AND CHARLES ASKING KING JAMES FOR THE PARDON OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 he begged his father to spare the man who had done so much 
 for England's glory. Once when the king was at a feast, and 
 seemed very happy and good-natured, Prince Henry thought it 
 would be a good time to ask again for the pardon of Sir Wal- 
 
40 ADVENTURES OF THE EARLY DISCOVERERS. 
 
 ter. So he and his brother, Prince Charles, together asked for 
 his freedom. But the king refused to grant it. 
 
 It is true that at hist he did promise Prince Henry that he 
 would pardon Sir Walter on the coming Christmas. But, alas ! 
 before that Christmas came Prince Henry died, and the king for- 
 got or did not choose to remember his promise. 
 
 Prince Henry loved Sir Walter very dearly, and visited him 
 often in the Tower. " No king but my father," Prince Henry 
 once said, " would keep such a bird in a cage." 
 
 One of the last pleasures of this Prince was seeing the launch 
 of his own ship, the Prince., concerning the building of which he 
 had consulted Sir Walter. For this wonderful man seems to have 
 known all about ship-building. In fact, there was hardly any 
 science of his day of which he was ignorant. 
 
 All England mourned for Prince Henry, for he was a lad of 
 great promise — all but his father. But he did not seem to 
 care for the death of his son. He loved nobody but himself. 
 
 And with the death of this Prince died also the last hope of 
 Sir Walter Raleigh. He was condemned to death. But concern- 
 ing that I cannot tell you ; it is too sad a story. He died 
 bravely and " made no more of his death than it had been to 
 take a journey." And as years go on his memory is more and 
 more honored. America especially likes to do honor to Sir 
 Walter Raleigh. His portrait is in the Pilgrim Hall at Ply- 
 mouth, Mass., and in St. Margaret's Church in London, where he 
 was buried, there is a window to his memory, given by Americans. 
 
 On this window are these lines by James Russell Lowell : 
 
 " The Neio World's sons, from England's breast loe drew 
 
 Such milk as bids remember ivhence we came. 
 Prond of her past from tohich onr future grew. 
 
 This window we inscribe to Haleiah's name." 
 
^IKST ixsPTRATio.s OK CO...MBCS. - i?, GiuUo MonU.er,Je. In the Museu,n oj Fine Arts. Bost 
 
now THE NOETHMEN CAME TO AMERICA. 
 
 In 1002, four liiindred and thirty years before Christopher 
 Columbus was born, Lief, the son of Eric, started on a voyage 
 of discovery. He was a hardy Norwegian, who lived in Green- 
 land. 
 
 His ship was a queer little vessel, sometimes moved by sails, 
 and sometimes by oars. But it was tight and strong. He had 
 twenty-five men, and he sailed away southwesterly. It was early 
 summer, but he met many icebergs, just as our vessels now do. 
 
 The first land he came to was flat and stony near the sea. 
 Farther inland, were high mountains with snow on their tops. 
 This land was what is now called Labrador. Still sailing on to- 
 wards the south, they by-and-by came to a flat country. This 
 flat country had vast forests, and was what is now called New- 
 foundland. Here they cast anchor and went on shore, and feasted 
 upon the sweet berries they found growing in abundance. 
 
 But they were not content to stop here, and so sailed on still 
 farther south and southwesterly till they came to another and 
 far different land. 
 
 This land had pretty green hills covered with trees, wild 
 plums and berries grew here. The climate was soft, and there 
 were song-birds and plenty of squirrels. They liked the look of 
 this land so well, they sought along the shore for a harbor, and 
 finally found one at the mouth of a river, where the tide 
 swept in. Here were salmon and wild deer. A young German 
 
44 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 boy of the company wandered away one day and, when found 
 was eating dehcious grapes, such as grew in his own German 
 fatherland. The grapes were so abundant, Lief named the coun- 
 try Vinland. The company built huts and stayed in Vinland 
 during that winter. At first the days and nights were about the 
 same length. Then the days 
 shortened and the sun rose 
 at half-past seven, and set 
 at half-past four. 
 
 In the spring Lief went 
 back to Greenland, and his 
 brother Thorwald bought his 
 vessel and sailed for Vin- 
 land. Thorwald and his men 
 passed the winter in the 
 same huts where Lief and 
 his men had staid the win- 
 ter before. When summer 
 came they began to explore, and one day they saw some dusky men, 
 the first human beings they had found. These dusky men were 
 timid and ran away, but Thorwald's men caught some of them 
 and cruelly put them to death. This made these dusky Lidians 
 angry, and they made an attack upon the Northmen and Thor- 
 wald was killed. Vinland means Wine-land. 
 
 The next summer Thorfin, a young Norwegian nobleman, came 
 to Vinland with his beautiful bride. Gudfrida. These came with 
 five other women, and a number of men. They lived three years 
 in Vinland, and then Thorfin and Gudfrida returned to Norway, 
 carrying specimens of the furs and fruits of this new country. 
 Some of Thorfin's people staid behind and were joined by about 
 
 THE OLD MILL AT NEWPORT, lUIOUE ISLAM). 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 45 
 
 thirty more from Greenland. Among this thirty was Freydisa, 
 sister of Lief. She was such a bad-hearted, deceitful woman, her 
 family hoped she would always stay in Vinland, and never come 
 back to Greenland. But she stirred up such strife, and set the 
 colony so by the ears, she had to flee back to Greenland to 
 save her life. And this is about all we know about the colony 
 of Vinland. It became extinct, but just how, nobody knows. 
 What I have told you is found in the chronicles of Iceland. 
 
 Historians differ as to how far these Northmen sailed along the 
 shores of America. Some think Lief went as far as what is 
 now Rhode Island, and that the old stone mill at Newport is 
 the remains of a tower built by the Northmen. This tower is 
 round and rests on seven columns. Its foundation stones are 
 wrought spheres. 
 
 Others say that the Northmen did not get any further than 
 Labrador, and I suppose we shall never know the exact truth 
 about it. 
 
BIRTH AND BOYHOOD OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 About the year 1435, a little boy was born in the city of 
 Genoa, in Italy. Genoa is still a lovely city — a city of palaces. 
 Back of it are high rugged mountains, and in front of it, lying 
 at its feet, is the blue, tideless Mediterranean Sea. Its streets 
 are narrow and steep. 
 
 But in 1435, when this little boy was born, Genoa was not 
 only a lovely city, but a very rich one. It had a great many 
 ships, which sailed to all parts of the world ; that is, to all 
 parts of the world that the Genoese knew anything about. For 
 America was then unknown to the people of Europe. They did 
 not know that across the Atlantic Ocean lay this big continent 
 of ours. They knew something about Asia, and the East Indies. 
 They traded with the East Indies. But they brought all their 
 silks, and their spices, and other precious things by way of the 
 Gulf of Persia, and various rivers, to the Mediterranean Sea. 
 They did not know 'there was an easier way to get there, by 
 sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern point of 
 Africa. 
 
 They did not dare to sail very far south. They noticed that 
 it grew warmer as they sailed south, and they thought if they 
 kept on, by and by they would come to where the water of 
 the ocean would boil ! 
 
 But, as I said, Genoa was then a very rich and lovely city 
 and there this little boy was born. His name was Christofo 
 Colombo. That is his Italian name. In Spanish history he is 
 
THE ADVENTURED OF COLVMBUS. 
 
 47 
 
 called Cristoval Colon, and we know him as Christopher Columbus, 
 the great discoverer of America. 
 
 Yes, the great Columbus was once a wee baby just as we 
 all have been, and, I have no doubt, cried just as all babies do, 
 and ate and slept, and cooed, and kicked, till, by and by, he 
 grew into a big boy of 
 
 SIX. 
 
 His parents were poor. 
 His father was a wool- 
 comber. For a little time 
 Colombo was the only child, 
 but after awhile, two little 
 brothers and a sister came 
 into the home-nest, which 
 was then pretty well crowded. 
 
 But though the parents 
 of Colombo were f)oor, they 
 managed to give him a good 
 education. He was taught 
 to read and to write, and 
 he wrote so good a hand, 
 Las Casas tells us, that he 
 might have earned his bread 
 by writing. Las Casas was a historian who knew all about that, 
 for he owned some of Columbus' manuscripts. 
 
 He was also taught arithmetic, drawing and designing, and in 
 course of time, grammar and Latin. But the study he seemed 
 to enjoy most was geography, and he had a great desire to go 
 to sea. So his wise father concluded that if his little son wished 
 to follow a maritime life, that is, to go to sea, for the purpose 
 
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. (From an old print.) 
 
48 THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 of trade or of discovery, he must be properly fitted for it, and lie 
 sent him to the famous University of Pavia, in Lombardy. There 
 he was taught not only geography, but geometry, astronomy, and 
 navigation. And he studied hard, just as boys are apt to study 
 the things they like. 
 
 He was at Pavia only a short time, but he made good use of 
 that tune, and, afterwards, as he grew up to big boyhood and 
 to manhood, he kept right on studying ; in fact, I suppose he 
 never stopped studying so long as he lived, which is the right 
 way to do if a boy or girl wishes to be really successful in 
 life. 
 
 We do not know exactly how old Colombo was when he came 
 back from Pavia to his father's house in Genoa. But he must 
 have been still very young, as, according to his own account, 
 he was only fourteen when he entered upon his maritime 
 life. 
 
 Between the time that he left Pavia until he began to go to 
 sea, he helped his father at wool-combing. But we can easily 
 imagine that this wide-awake, earnest boy, spent a good deal of 
 time at the busy wharves of Genoa, watching the coming and 
 going of the richly-ladened, queer vessels of those days, and talk- 
 ing with the sailors about the unknown and distant countries 
 he so much wished to see. For wharves are very fascinating 
 places to most boys, and certainly must have been to one so 
 fond of geography as was Colombo. 
 
 Very early he must have begun to wonder about this big 
 world of ours. Giulio Montevede, in his statue, •' The First In- 
 spirations of Columbus," represents him as a mere lad, busy with 
 thoughts concerning that unknown land which he thinks must lie 
 beyond the wide Atlantic Ocean. 
 
// /^ r >-"<^' 
 
 COLUMBUS AND HIS SONS DIEGO AND FEKDINANU. 
 
 From an old print. 
 
COLUMBUS IN LISBON. 
 
 In 1470 Columbus went to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. 
 
 He was then thirty-five, but his hair was already white with 
 care and trouble. He was a tall and dignified man, courteous 
 to every one, and especially gentle and kindly in his own house- 
 hold. He is said to have had a quick temper, but he early 
 learned to control that quick temper. 
 
 He married and settled in Lisbon. The father of his wife had 
 been a distinguished navigator, and all his papers — his charts 
 and the journals of his voyages — were given to Columbus. He 
 studied these carefully. At the same time he made maps and 
 charts to support his family, for he was poor. Notwithstanding 
 his own poverty, he helped his aged father who continued to 
 live in Genoa, and gave money for the education of his younger 
 brothers. 
 
 From time to time he voyaged down the coast of Guinea and 
 made a trip in 1477 to Iceland. 
 
 He read the works of Marco Polo. Marco Polo was a Vene- 
 tian traveller who had visited Cathay (China) and Cipango (Japan). 
 He told marvellous stories about the riches of these countries. 
 They abounded, he said, in gold and precious stones, and the 
 palace of the King of Japan was covered with plates of gold, 
 instead of lead, as in other lands. 
 
 The works of Marco Polo had been translated into many lan- 
 guages, and were in manuscript, because the art of printing was 
 
52 THE ADVENTURES OF C0LV3IBUS. 
 
 not then in general use. It was not an easy matter to get 
 these works, but Columbus got them, and read them eagerly, 
 and he lonsced to see these wonderful lands. As he read and 
 studied, and thought, he became sure that, by sailing directly 
 west, he should reach first the island of Cipango (Japan) and 
 then Cathay (China). 
 
 And this was what all the wise men of that day thought, 
 that the world was much smaller than it really is, and that the 
 Atlantic Ocean, only, lay between the western coast of Europe 
 and the eastern coast of Asia. 
 
 Prince Henry of Portugal had thought to reach India by sail- 
 ing round Africa, but he died in 1473, before this was accom- 
 plished. Columbus thought that a shorter way than this would be 
 directly west. 
 
 This Prince Henry was a great and good man, and as eager 
 for discovery as was Columbus. His nephew John II. was king 
 of Portugal, when Columbus finally made up his mind to ask 
 the Crown of Portugal to fit out a fleet of vessels to make a 
 voyage of discovery across the Atlantic. 
 
 King John was eager to find a passage by sea to India, but 
 he was not so ready to listen to Columbus as the latter had hoped. 
 
 He gave Columbus audience and listened attentively to what 
 he had to say, but referred the matter to a "junto," or com- 
 pany of learned men. These learned men discouraged the king 
 from attempting the voyage. They thought the idea of reaching 
 India by saihng west was nonsense. But the king, still doubt- 
 ing, called together his council and laid Columbus' proposal 
 before them. They too advised the king not to enter upon the 
 undertaking. But seeing him still dissatisfied they proposed to 
 hun to do a truly mean thing. 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 53 
 
 It was to fit out a vessel secretly in the direction pointed out 
 by Columbus, and see if anything came of it. The king listened 
 to this mean counsel, and the vessel was fitted out. They asked 
 Columbus to give them a plan of his proposed route, and to 
 bring to them his charts, pretending they only wanted to exam- 
 ine them. But they gave them into the hands of the captain 
 of the vessel, with orders to follow the course marked out on 
 Columbus' chart. 
 
 The vessel sailed. But storms arose, and the crew were afraid 
 when they saw the great tumbling waves of the wide Atlantic 
 before them, and not a bit of land, and quickly put back to 
 Lisbon. 
 
 When Columbus heard of this mean trick of King John, he 
 was very angry and would have nothing more to say to him, 
 although the king would like to have talked the matter over 
 with him again. His wife had died and he left Lisbon near the 
 end of 1484, taking his son Diego with him. 
 
AKRIVAL OF COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 
 
 Said Columbus to his son Diego, when writing to him about 
 his brother Ferdinand, and telling him always to love and cling 
 to him, " for ten brothers would not be too many for you ; I 
 have never found better friends on my right hand and on my 
 left, than my brothers." 
 
 So we often find, in the life of Columbus, mention made of 
 his brothers, especially of his brother Bartholomew. 
 
 When Columbus left Lisbon, he sent his brother Bartholomew 
 to Henry VII. of England, to propose that he should furnish 
 vessels for the discovery of the Indies at the West. At the same 
 time Columbus himself made a similar proposal to the Republic 
 of Genoa. But neither proposal was accepted. 
 
 The next we hear from Columbus he was in Spain. One day, 
 a stranger on foot stopped at the gate of the convent. La 
 Rabida, in the province of Andalusia, and asked for food for 
 his little boy. The two were dusty and weary with travel. 
 They were poor, or they would not have been asking for food 
 and shelter in this way. They asked only for bread and water. 
 
 While the porter was giving them the bread, the prior or 
 head of the convent chanced to go by. You have read that 
 Columbus was a tall and dignified man, of courteous manners, 
 and you will not be surprised to learn that this prior was 
 pleased with his appearance, and stopped to speak with him. 
 Doubtless he was surprised, too, to see such a man so destitute. 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 57 
 
 This prior was a man of much learning. He lived not far 
 from the port of Palos and knew all about the various voyages 
 of discovery that had been made. So he was greatly interested 
 when he learned Columbus' errand, for Columbus had come to 
 
 apply to the court of Spain 
 for help to carry out his 
 plans. 
 
 This prior's name was Juan 
 Perez de la Marchena, and 
 from that time to the end 
 of his life he was a firm 
 friend to Columbus. 
 
 At this time, 1486, Fer- 
 dinand and Isabella were 
 king and queen of Spain. 
 Ferdinand was king of Arra- 
 gon, and Isabella was queen 
 of Castile, and by their 
 marriag-e these two kino-doms 
 had become one. But they 
 QUEEN ISABELLA OF SPAIN. had scparate councils, and 
 
 each conducted the affairs of his or her kingdom. 
 
 Writers who lived at that time, have told us many charming 
 things about Queen Isabella. " She was the noblest creature that 
 ever reigned over men," says one. She was fair, and her hair 
 was auburn. Her clear blue eyes were honest and loving, and 
 she was a " model of modesty and integrity." Our own Wash- 
 ington Irving, who wrote a life of Columbus, says she is one of 
 the " purest and most beautiful characters in history." 
 
 And it was to this beautiful and gracious queen that Colum- 
 
58 THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 bus was now to make his proposals for a voyage of discovery. 
 Juan Perez gave liim a letter of introduction to one of the 
 chief men of her court, and Columbus, leaving his son Diego 
 with the good prior, went to Cordova where the king and queen 
 were. 
 
 They were engaged, at that time, in a war with the Moors. 
 The Moors had held possession of the southern part of Spain for 
 eight hundred years, and the Spaniards wished to drive them back 
 into Africa. So when Columbus reached Cordova, he found the 
 city full of soldiers, and the court was like a military camp. 
 
 Queen Isabella often went with her army, and, like her sol- 
 diers, wore armor at such times. 
 
 (Several suits of armor worn by Isabella, can be seen to-day, 
 together with her sword, in the royal arsenal at Madrid.) 
 
 It was a bad time for Columbus to make his proposals, for 
 everybody, including the king and queen, was thinking only of 
 war. When the king was away with the army, Isabella was 
 busy sending him troops and supplies. They were continually mov- 
 ing from place to place, and as Columbus was poor, he could not 
 follow them. He supported himself, as he had done before, in 
 making maps and charts, while the good Juan Perez took care 
 of and educated his son Diego. 
 
 At last he was summoned before the king. Ferdinand listened 
 to what he had to say, and then turned the matter over, as 
 King John did, to a conference of wise men. This conference 
 was held at Salamanca, the great seat of learning, then, in Spain. 
 These learned men were some of them professors of astronomy, 
 geography, and other sciences. They were learned priests and 
 friars. And before them Columbus stood up in his poor, plain dress, 
 and told his story. 
 
 i 
 
THE VESSELS ARE FITTED OUT FOE THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 
 
 The wise men of Salamanca listened to what Columbus had 
 to say. A few believed as he did. But others laughed. 
 
 " The world round ! " some of them said, " we don't believe it 
 is, and even if it were, how, if you sailed down under it, 
 could you ever get back again up hill ? " 
 
 The}' were wise in many things, but, as you see, they knew 
 but little about our world. 
 
 And so the conference came to nothing, and Columbus waited 
 and waited, for seven long years. At last he said he would 
 wait no longer. Nobody would listen to him. The king and 
 queen were thinking only of war. " When the war is over," 
 they said, ''' we will see what we can do for you." The follow- 
 ers of the court laughed at him. Even the little children 
 pointed at him, as he passed, and called him a " madman." 
 Yes, he would go away from Spain to France whose king had 
 written to him that he would help him. 
 
 So he went down to the convent of La Rabida to tell his 
 good friend, Juan Perez, what he was going to do. He came to 
 the convent gate, weary, hungry and poor, as he did at first. 
 And the good Juan Perez's heart ached when he saw him. 
 
 But when he heard what Columbus was going to do, he 
 said, " That must not be. Spain must not lose the glory of the 
 great discovery. We must try once more what we can do." 
 And he wrote to Queen Isabella himself such a letter, that she 
 
62 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 replied at once, asking Don Perez to come to her, and tell her 
 once more what it was Columbus wished to do. 
 
 Don Perez was so glad when he got this letter that he lost 
 not a moment, but mounted his mule, and started at midnight 
 
 for Santa Fe, where the 
 queen and court were. He 
 succeeded ; and Queen Isa- 
 bella sent again for Colum- 
 bus. 
 
 But at the "very last, once 
 more she hesitated. It was 
 not strange that she did so. 
 King Ferdinand did not look 
 favorably on Columbus. Had 
 he had his way, Columbus 
 would have been sent away 
 for good. Besides there was 
 no money. The war had 
 used up the money of both 
 Castile and Arragon. But 
 it was only for a brief time 
 that Queen Isabella hesi- 
 tated, and then she said, as 
 such a generous, noble queen would say, ''' I undertake the enter- 
 prise for my own kingdom of Castile, and I will pledge my 
 private jewels to raise the necessary funds." 
 
 The port of Palos in Andalusia was the place fixed upon from 
 which to fit out the vessels. There were three : the Nina, the 
 Pinta and the Santa Maria. Two of these were small, of a 
 kind called caravels. They were not decked over, but were built 
 
 JUAN PEREZ, AT MIDNIGHT, ON HIS WAY TO SANTA FE. 
 
iUEEN 1SA11EL1.A OF bl'Ai:< IN lIEli AltJloi;, 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF C0LU3IBU8. 65 
 
 hioi:li at either end with cabins which looked like houses, or castles. 
 
 At first Columbus could not get even these three small ves- 
 sels. The king and queen had ordered the town of Palos to fur- 
 nish two of these vessels. But it refused. Nobody was willing 
 to risk a vessel, and nobody was willing to go on such a voy- 
 age. But the sovereigns issued a second order to have ships 
 seized, and masters and crews forced to serve. 
 
 Then arose a great hue and cry in Palos. The most dreadful 
 stories w^ere told about those unknown seas and lands whither 
 they were to sail. The people of Palos went from house to 
 house and talked about it just as people now talk about things. 
 
 " 0," said the w^omen, '' if our husbands and sons go they 
 will never come back. They will be swallowed up by the fear- 
 ful waves, or by creatures more cruel than the waves." So, you 
 may see, there was a great outcry about the voyage in Palos. 
 
 One navigator, however, w^ho lived in Palos, Alonzo Pinzon, a 
 man of courage, said he was ready to go, and to risk both 
 himself and his money. He thought Columbus would come out 
 all right, and would find the country he was going to seek. 
 So he and his brother furnished one vessel and part of the 
 rest. Alonzo Pinzon was made captain of the P'mta and his 
 brother Vicente Yanez Pinzon captain of the Nlria. The Santa 
 3Iaria, the largest vessel, aiid the only one decked, was the 
 flag ship, and Columbus himself was its captain. 
 
TPIE VOYAGE AND THE DISCOVERY. 
 
 Columbus was fifty-six years of age when he set sail from 
 Palos with the Plnta, the Nina and the Santa 3Iaria. They 
 sailed August, 1492, and the mothers, wives and children of the 
 men went down to the wharves to bid them " good-by " with 
 many tears, for they never expected to see them return. 
 
 On the third day out, the rudder of the Pinta was found to 
 be broken, and they put in to the Canary Islands. There they 
 staid three weeks till a new one could be made. As they sailed 
 past the island of Teneriffe the sailors were terrified at sight of 
 its volcanoes sending forth fire and smoke. But Columbus told 
 them all about volcanoes, and calmed their fears. And so he had 
 to keep explaining things to them, for as soon as they lost sight 
 of the Canary Islands they were full of fears at every new thing. 
 
 They had heard of the Canary Islands. European vessels often 
 visited these islands. But of the ocean beyond they knew noth- 
 ing. To them it was a wide waste of unknown waters. They 
 feared its storms, its rocks, its shoals, and the dreadful creatures 
 which they thought lived in it. Many of these truly brave men 
 cried aloud when the last bit of land disappeared in the east, 
 and they thought of the dear friends they had left. Brave as 
 they were, they had not the courage and faith of Columbus. He 
 was a happy man when he saw the last faint land-line dis- 
 appear; for he had now entered upon that voyage for which he 
 had worked and waited for eighteen years. 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 September 6 they set sail from the Canaries, and on Septem- 
 ber 11, they fell in with part of a wreck. The sight of this 
 wreck filled the crew with fear. September 14, however, they 
 thoiio-ht there were sisrns of land. A heron hovered about the 
 ships, a bird which they supposed never flew far from land. 
 
 On and on the three ships 
 sailed, until they came within 
 the influence of what are 
 called the "Trade Winds." 
 The soft air and the beauti- 
 ful skies made them think 
 of their beloved Andalusia. 
 They began to see patches 
 of weeds, such as grov^r in 
 rivers, green, too, as if it 
 had not been long since they 
 were washed down into the 
 ocean. A pretty white tropi- 
 cal bird came to greet them. 
 The crew watched eagerly 
 for land. Ferdinand and Isabella had promised to the man who 
 should first discover it a pension of thirty crowns. On the 18th 
 Alonzo Pinzon thought he saw land at the north, but it proved 
 to be fog on the horizon. 
 
 The sailors began to grow uneasy. The favorable wind, that 
 had borne them so far towards the west, they began to fear 
 would not allow them to return again. On the 20th, however, 
 a contrary breeze sprung up, and they felt better. That day birds 
 flew about the vessel, such as live only in groves and orchards. 
 They came singing in the morning, and went away at night. 
 
68 THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Next there came a calm, and the ocean was covered with weeds 
 as far as the eje could reach. The men were frightened again. 
 They thought they were coming upon sunken land, where the 
 vessels would get aground, and could never be got off again, and 
 they would have to stay there and die. 
 
 The calm was broken by a great swell of the ocean, and then 
 they felt better again. At last, however, they began to talk 
 seriously of a mutiny against Columbus. He was a madman, 
 they said. Some of them even proposed to throw him into 
 the sea and then return to Spain, and tell the king and queen 
 that he had tumbled overboard while gazing at the stars ! 
 
 Columbus knew what was going on, but he spoke soothingly 
 to the men, and promised a doublet of velvet in addition to the 
 thirty crowns to whoever should first see land. September 25 
 Alonzo Pinzon shouted from his vessel, " Land ! land ! Senor, I 
 claim my reward." But Alonzo Pinzon was again mistaken. 
 
 October 7 Columbus changed his course. Up to that time he 
 had sailed directly west. But he had noticed flocks of birds 
 coming from and going back to the southwest. He determined 
 to follow in the track of those birds. On the evening of October 
 11 he went up on top of the castle to watch for land. There 
 had been many signs of land that day — a branch of thorn with 
 berries on it, a piece of a tree, a carved staff. How eager, 
 how anxious, how full of hope was Columbus ! At ten o'clock 
 he saw a light. It moved from side to side, and up and down. 
 He called to two of his gentlemen to come and look. They, 
 too, saw the light. At two o'clock in the morning, a gun from 
 the Pinta gave the welcome signal of land, and they took 
 in sail and lay to, waiting for daylight. 
 
COLUMBUS MAKES HIS FIRST LANDING IN THE NEW WORLD. 
 
 Yoli may be sure that, at the first dawn of day, Cohimbus, 
 his officers and his crew were on deck for a look at the new- 
 found Land. And a beautiful land it was, a green and level 
 island, covered with trees like an orchard or park. The date of 
 its discovery was October 12, 1492. 
 
 There were people on the island, a dusky people unlike any 
 the Spaniards had ever seen. 
 
 Columbus at once ordered the boats to be manned. He put 
 on his finest dress of scarlet, took the fiag of Castile and Arragon 
 in his hand and stepped on board his boat. Alonzo Pinzon and 
 his brother followed in their boats. Each carried the flao; of the 
 Expedition. On this flag was a green cross having on each side 
 the letters F and Y the initials of Ferdinand and Ysabel. 
 
 As soon as Columbus 
 landed he knelt, kissed the 
 ground, and gave thanks to 
 God for his success. The 
 rest knelt around him. 
 
 Then he arose to his feet, 
 drew his sword, and took 
 230ssession of the island in 
 the name of the SjDanish 
 Sovereigns. He named this island San Salvador. 
 
 The king and queen had promised Columbus that he should ht 
 
 COLUMBUb KNELT AND QAVE THANKS TO GOD. 
 
70 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 mceroy and admiral over all lands he should discover. So he 
 next called around him his officers and crew to take the oath 
 of obedience to him as Admiral. 
 
 The natives watched these proceedings with curiosity. Early in 
 the morning they had seen 
 
 
 
 
 with fear these monsters 
 — for such they called the 
 vessels — hovering on their 
 huge white wings about 
 their island. They crowded 
 down to the shore to get 
 a nearer view. But, when 
 they saw the boats filled 
 with strange beings draw- 
 ing near, they had fled in \^ 
 terror to the woods. 
 
 When they found, how- 
 ever, that these strange 
 beings did not follow them, 
 but w^ent quietly about their 
 own business, they took courage, and came out from their hiding 
 places. They saw with wonder the white skins of the Spaniards, 
 their beards, their gay clothes, and their shining armor. Growing 
 still bolder, they went up to these strange beings, touched their 
 wonderful clothes and faces, and took their white hands in theirs. 
 
 Columbus was pleased with their gentleness, and told his men 
 to let them gratify their curiosity. He treated them with such 
 kindness t\\Qy began to think these vessels had come straight from 
 the skies, on their white wings, and that these strange and 
 terrible, but beautiful beings, were the inhabitants of the skies ! 
 
 THE N'AllN 
 
 SWIM OUT AND BlilNG GIFTS. 
 
r~^ 
 
 ^ > ' 
 
 .> >i',. 
 
 
 
 
 
 TAKING POSSESSION OF THE ISLAM, IN THE NAME OF THE SPANISH SOVEREIGNS. 
 
i 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. .73 
 
 You may remember, that Columbus thought when he sailed 
 west that he should reach some part of the East Indies. So he 
 named these people Indians. 
 
 He gave them colored caps, glass beads, and hawks' bells. 
 Thev hung the strings of beads about their necks, and jingled 
 the bells. The Spaniards staid all that day on this green island, 
 refreshing themselves after their long voyage. 
 
 The next morning the shore was thronged with the natives. 
 When the boats again put off many came out to meet them in 
 their light canoes hollowed from trees. Some swam out, bringing 
 gifts of parrots, balls of cotton, and cakes of bread called cassava. 
 Some of them wore ornaments of gold in their noses. 
 
 Columbus staid a few days at this island, wdiich is one of the 
 Bahamas, and then began a cruise among the other islands of 
 this group. Everywhere the natives received them with kindness, 
 bringing them cotton, and exchanging their few ornaments of gold 
 for beads and hawks' bells. For the Spaniards were greedy for gold. 
 
 These people lived in tents made of branches of trees and 
 covered with palm leaves. These tents were built under the 
 shelter of the beautiful trees, and were neatly kept by the women. 
 They slept in a kind of cotton net, slung between two posts, 
 which nets they called hamacs. Did you ever see a hamac f 
 
 Among these islands was one, most beautiful of all, to which 
 Columbus gave the name of " Isabella." " I know not," he says 
 " where first to go, nor are my eyes ever weary of gazing on 
 this beautiful verdure. Here are large lakes, and the groves about 
 them are marvellous, and here and in all the islands everything 
 is green, and the herbage as in April in Andalusia. The singing 
 of the birds is such, that it seems as if one would never desire 
 to depart thence." 
 
CRUISING. 
 
 The next isiand Columbus found was Cuba. When he saw this 
 great island he was sure he had found Japan (Cipango). As he 
 sailed along its shores he sent a boat on shore, now and then, 
 to a.sk the natives about that splendid city wherein dwelt the 
 king in his palace covered with gold. Afterwards he thought that 
 this island was not an island at all, but a continent — the Conti- 
 nent of Asia. And to the day of his death he always thought so. 
 The air was so spicy he was sure the Spice Islands lay some- 
 where near. He saw on this island of Cuba a canoe hollowed 
 from a tree, so big that it would hold one hundred and fifty per- 
 sons. He found in an empty house — for the people fled when 
 they saw the Spaniards coming — a cake of wax. This he took 
 to send to the Spanish sovereigns, '^' for where there is wax," said 
 he, " there must be a thousand other o:ood thing:s." 
 
 After Cuba, he next found Hayti ; and what a lovely time he 
 must have had sailing over those summer seas and finding green 
 and flowery islands, peopled with a gentle, friendly race. Hurri- 
 canes often blow in the West Indies, but Columbus does not seem 
 to have met Avith any. In the rivers of Hayti they found fish 
 like those of Spain. They heard birds which they thought were 
 nightingales — birds which live in Spain. The country they thought 
 looked like the more beautiful parts of Spain, and so they named 
 the island Hispaniola, which means Little Spain. 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, the people fled in terror when they saw the 
 Spaniards. But the Indians whom Columbus had with him followed 
 
 \ 
 
THE ADVENTURED OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 7o 
 
 them and quieted their fears. They told them that these people 
 had come down from the skies to bring beautiful gifts. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 i^^: 
 
 V /;^:s] 
 
 
 THE DREADFUL LTZAED. 
 
 On this island the Santa Mai^ia was wrecked on the morning of 
 Christmas day, 1492. Columbus usually stayed on deck at night 
 because there was ""reat dano-er in coasting; alonsr these unknown 
 
70 THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 shores. But that night he was so tired, and the sea was so calm, 
 he thought he might safely rest a while. He gave orders to the 
 steersman not to give the helm in charge to a ship boy. But no 
 sooner had the admiral gone than the steersman did that very 
 thing, and the vessel was carried b}^ the currents on to a sand bar. 
 
 This wreck took place not far from the home of the chief 
 Guacanngari, who proved to be a good friend. He sent his canoes 
 and men to help the Spaniards to unload the vessel. He ordered 
 a guard to be kept over their goods after they were brought on 
 shore, and nothing was stolen. The chief invited Columbus 
 to visit him and gave him a feast of fruits and fish. He ordered 
 his peojDle to dance before him to cheer him. He tried to cheer 
 him all he could for the loss of the Santa Mariar 
 
 Columbus told Guacanagari he would protect him from his 
 enemies, the Caribs. He ordered a cannon on board the Nina 
 to be fired off. When the natives saw the flash and heard the 
 roar they were frightened. They saw how the big ball tore the 
 trees. But they were glad too. They said, " These wonderful 
 beings have brought their thunder and lightning from the skies 
 and will j)rotect us from the Caribs." 
 
 During all these cruisings from island to island, the Spaniards 
 had seen no wild beasts. But they had seen a fearful creature 
 with sjDines on its back, a pouch under its throat and a wide 
 mouth. They soon found that this creature was a kind of lizard 
 and harmless. Its flesh is good for food. 
 
 They found also a root new to them which the Indians ate ; 
 it was the potato. In Cuba they saw the natives going about 
 "with certain dried herbs which they rolled up in a leaf and 
 lighting one end, put the other end in their mouths," and smoked. 
 They called this roll " a tobacco." 
 
HIS EETUKN TO SPAIX. 
 
 January 4, 1493, Columbus set out on his return to Spain. He 
 took with him nine Indians. He was two months crossing the At- 
 lantic, and met with a fearful storm which lasted fourteen days. 
 He feared the vessel might sink, and the king and queen of Spain 
 might never hear of his great discovery. So he wrote an account 
 of it on a strip of parchment, wrapped it in a waxed cloth, placed 
 it in the centre of a cake of wax, put the whole into a barrel and 
 threw it into the sea. He thought perhaps somebody might find it. 
 
 He put into the river Tagus in Portugal to wait for fair weather, 
 and visited the queen of Portugal. 
 
 March 13, he sailed into the harbor of Palos. You remember 
 that the Santa Maria was wrecked off the coast of Cuba. The 
 Pinta had become separated from the Nina while crossing the At- 
 lantic. So it was only the Nina that sailed into Palos on that 
 joyful day almost four hundred years ago. The news of her ar- 
 rival quickly flew over the town. The bells were rung, the shops 
 were closed, and everybody left their business and their work, even 
 the children left their play, to hasten to the wharves. 
 
 Columbus was at once ordered to 2:0 to the court at Bar- 
 
 o 
 
 celona. As he drew near that city, a great company on horse- 
 back came out to meet him. His entrance was a triumph. Such 
 a brilliant and strange procession had never before been seen in 
 Spain. For first of all came the dusky Indians (six of them) wear- 
 ing feathers of gay tropical birds and ornaments of gold. The 
 
78 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 sailors and ship-bo^^s of the Nina carried poles and pike staffs, 
 on the top of which were stuffed parrots, cocoanuts, bananas, huge 
 
 U/^r/ .''==-1 
 
 COLUMBUS TSLLINO THE STORY OP HIS VOYAGE TO THE QUEEN OF PORTUGAL. 
 
 calabashes or gourds, rare plants and the stuffed body of an iguana 
 or big lizard. One of the prettiest things was the yellow ears of 
 

 COLUMBUS iiNXEKa lH TKlUMfii THE CITY Oi^ BARCELONA. 
 
THE ADVENTUEES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 81 
 
 the Indian corn. Coronets and bracelets of gold, baskets finely 
 woven of grass, and banners were in the procession. Then came 
 Columbus himself, on horseback, and around him were the proud 
 
 COLUMBUS TELLING DON PEREZ WHAT HE HAD SEEN AND DONE. 
 
 nobles of Spain. I wonder if he remembered then the time when 
 he came to the door of the convent cf La Rabida asking for bread 
 and water. 
 
 The king and queen rose to receive him, which was a great 
 honor. They listened to his story, and when he had finished they 
 fell on their knees, all who were present did the same, and the 
 royal choir chanted the Te Deum Laudamus (We praise thee, 
 God). Thus they gave to God the glory of the great discovery. 
 
 But I doubt if Columbus enjoyed anything more than he did 
 the telling of all he had seen and done to his good and faithful 
 friend Don Perez. 
 
1 
 
 HIS SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 
 
 September 25, 1493, Columbus set sail on his second voyage. 
 This time he had three large ships and fourteen small ones. On 
 his first voyage, you remember, nobody was willing to go. But 
 now so many were eager to go that he had in all fifteen hun- 
 dred. 
 
 His two boys, Diego and Ferdinand, came to see Columbus off, 
 " proud of the glory of their father." 
 
 The vessels stopped at the Canary Islands, where calves, goats, 
 sheep and pigs were bought to stock the island of Hispaniola. 
 
 November 2, the fleet arrived at the Antilles. On the 4th they 
 landed on Gaudaloupe, and here the Spaniards first tasted the 
 delicious pine-apple. The houses on this island were square. 
 Tliey were woven of reeds and thatched with palm leaves, and 
 each had a little portico. The people on this island were the 
 warlike Caribs. Their arrows were pointed with the bones of 
 fishes, and were poisoned. The women fought as well as the 
 men. The children learned to use the bow a ad arrow very early. 
 
 November 22, the fleet arrived off Hispaniola (Hayti). Before 
 Columbus went back to Spain from his first voyage, he had had 
 a fort built from the wreck of the Santa Maria. He had called 
 that fort La Navidad, and had left a number of Spaniards in it. 
 November 27, he arrived opposite the harbor of La Navidad, but 
 there was no sign of life. Not a Spaniard was to be seen. The 
 next day he landed and found the fort burned. All around lay 
 
liAKTHULOSIEW COLOMBLS. 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 85 
 
 broken chests, torn clothes, and household things. He soon learned 
 the truth. 
 
 In the interior of the island lived a warlike Carib chief named 
 Caonabo — Caonabo means " The Lord of the Golden House." 
 He was so called because he lived in the golden mountain of 
 Cibao. After Columbus went away the Spaniards that he had 
 left in the fort treated the natives badly. They lived wicked 
 lives ; they grew careless and would not obey their commander. 
 They often left the fort un- 
 guarded. One night all but 
 ten were away. Caonabo came 
 with his warriors, killed the 
 ten, destroyed the fort, and 
 set fire to the houses where 
 the other white men were 
 sleeping. Afterwards Caonabo 
 was taken prisoner ; and this 
 is how it was done. 
 
 Columbus had tried in vain to 
 take him in battle, and at last 
 Alonzo de Ojeda said he would take him alive by a trick. He 
 invited Caonabo to visit Isabella, the town Columbus had founded. 
 He told Caonabo he would give him the bell on the chapel of 
 Isabella. This bell was a great wonder to the Indians. When 
 they heard it ring and saw the Spaniards hurrying to the 
 service, they thought the bell " talked " and called them. 
 
 So Caonabo called his warriors together and started for Isa- 
 bella. They halted one day near the river Yagui, and Ojeda 
 showed to Caonabo a set of manacles — irons to hold the hands 
 together — such as are put upon prisoners. They were of steel, 
 
 A CAlIIli iiot>i;. 
 
36 THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 and polished till they shone like silver. Ojeda told Caonabo that 
 these were worn by the king and qneen of Spain at festivals — 
 that they came from the skies. 
 
 " Go, Caonabo/' he said, " and bathe in the river, then I will 
 put these on your wrists, and you shall mount my horse and 
 ride like a king before your people." For these Indians thought 
 the horses of the Spaniards were wonderful creatures. They at first 
 thought the man and the horse made one animal. 
 
 So Caonabo was greatly pleased at Ojeda's offer. He bathed, 
 and then Ojeda helped him to get upon his horse, and then put 
 on the manacles. And there was Caonabo a prisoner ! For he could 
 n'ot help himself; and Ojeda took the bridle of his horse, and 
 he and his men dashed away upon their horses, and carried 
 Caonabo with them. Columbus afterwards took him to Spain, but 
 he died on the voyage. And that was the end of the brave, 
 proud Caonabo, who died as many a white man has done, for 
 his people and his country. 
 
 In October, Bartholomew Colombus arrived at Isabella, and glad 
 enough was Columbus to see him. For Columbus was not having 
 an easy time. The Spaniards had hoped and expected to find 
 gold so plenty that they could pick it up like stones. And 
 when they did not they were bitterly disappointed. They said 
 Columbus was to blame. (We always have to find fault with some- 
 body, you know, when things don't turn out to suit us.) They sent 
 lying reports home about him. They did everything they could to 
 harm him. Many of them were bad men and lived bad lives. So 
 he was glad to have near him so good, so brave, so loving, so 
 active, so generous a man as was this brother ; and when " he went 
 back a second time to Spain he left Bartholomew in command of 
 the island of Hispaniola. 
 
STORY OF THE EGG. THE THIRD VOYAGE. 
 
 I must go Imck a little in this chapter to tell you a pretty 
 story about Columl)us, a story that everybody likes, and likes to tell. 
 
 When Columbus returned from his first voyage, you remember, 
 he was feasted and made much of. And, among others, Gonzalvez 
 de Mendoza, the grand Cardinal of Spain, gave him a splendid 
 banquet. Mendoza was the first subject m the Spanish kingdom, 
 and was a noble and princely man. He gave to Columbus the 
 most honorable place at his table, and served him as he would 
 have served the king himself. 
 
 He did not envy Columbus his good fortune in discovering the 
 New World. Not a bit. He was glad to do him honor. 
 
 But there were men who did envy Columbus. And because 
 they envied him they would like to have injured him. Some of 
 these men v\^ere at the banquet that day. And one of .them it 
 Avas wdio said to Columbus : 
 
 '• If you had not discovered the New World, do you not think 
 there are plenty of men in Spain who could have done it ? " 
 It was the same as if he had said, " It was nothing to discover 
 the New World. It was easy enough just to sail West till you 
 came to it. You are making a great fuss about nothing." 
 
 Columbus did not reply to this in words. But he took an Qg^ 
 and asked this man to make it stand up on one end. The man 
 tried, but could not make it stand up. Then another tried, and 
 another, and another, till all had tried, and none could do it. 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Then Columbus took the egg and struck one end lightly upon 
 the table, so as to break it a little, and left it standing. 
 
 I do not suppose he said anything. But they all knew what 
 he meant — tliat it is easy to do a thing after you know how 
 it is done. And now that he had shown the way to the New 
 World, it was easy enough for other men to follow. 
 
 This story is told by an Italian, Benzoni, in his history 
 printed in 1572. 
 
 You have read that the proud Caonabo died while on the pas- 
 sage to Spain. But Colum- 
 
 bus had also taken with 
 him Caonabo's brother aTid 
 his nephew, the latter a boy 
 of ten. These two he car- 
 ried about with him in Spain 
 wherever he went. He pres- 
 ented them to Ferdinard and 
 Isabella. Whenever they 
 passed through a great city, 
 he put a heavy gold col- 
 lar and chain round the 
 neck of Caonabo's brother, 
 because he came from the 
 " Golden House " of Cibao. 
 
 May 30, 1498, Columbus set 
 sail on his third voyage to the 
 New World. This time he sailed a little south of West and came 
 into what are called the " calm latitudes." These lie on the 
 equator. And here the wind fell, and they had a calm which 
 lasted eight days. The air was liot " like a furnace," the •' tar 
 
 COLUMBUS PHESKNTING THE BROTHER OK CAONABO TO 
 I-KHDINAND AND ISABELLA, 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 9. 
 
 about the ships melted ; the seams of the ships opened ; the salt 
 meat was spoiled ; the wheat was parched as if with fire " ; the 
 hoops shrunk from the water casks, and some of them burst. In 
 this way they lost much of their water, and on July 31 there 
 was but one cask of water on each ship. Columbus began to 
 
 feel anxious ; he feared they 
 might get out of water be- 
 fore they reached land. But 
 that very day at noon, a 
 sailor saw three mountain 
 tops rising above the hori- 
 zon. These proved to be 
 an island with three moun- 
 tains upon it. So Columbus 
 named it La Trinidad, which 
 means the Trinity, or three. 
 They went on shore and 
 found a clear brook where 
 they filled their casks. 
 
 Trinidad is near the mouth 
 of the Orinoco Eiver. This 
 river brought down a vast body of water into the ocean 
 and the current was strong there, and the waves big. One 
 night, when Columbus was on deck, he heard a loud roar 
 in the south. He looked, and saw a great wave coming high as 
 the ship itself. It was rolling toward the ship with a noise like 
 thunder. It was white with foam. He thought it would roll over 
 the ship and destroy it. But instead of that, the ship was lifted 
 up upon it like a cork, and rode there in safety. But the crew 
 were greatly terrified. 
 
 HUGE WAVE AT THE MOUTH (.)E THE OUHNULO. 
 
COLUMBUS IN CHAIJfS. 
 
 Columbus hy this time had changed his 
 mind about the shape of the earth. Instead 
 of being round, he now thought it was shaped 
 like a pear, one part of it being higher than 
 the rest, and tapering up toward the sky. 
 And he now thouo;ht he had come to that 
 part of the earth which was higher than the 
 rest. For the sky was very clear and blue 
 here, and the air cool and sweet. The coast 
 opposite to La Trinidad was a green and fruit- 
 ful land ; the mornings and evenings were 
 cool and fresh, and even at noon the sun 
 was not very hot. 
 Now, in this same latitude in Africa, he knew it was hot and 
 dry, and the land was unfruitful. In Africa, too, the people 
 were black, and coarse in manner. 
 
 But here the natives were fair, fairer even than in Cuba. 
 They had long hair, and were graceful and bright. So this land, 
 he thought, must be much higher than that in the same latitude 
 in Africa. The great river Orinoco, too, carried its fresh waters 
 far out into the ocean. It ran hard and fast, as though it ran 
 down hill. Yes, he was sure now that he had come to that 
 part of the earth that tapered up toward the sky. And that if 
 he kept sailing on, by and by he would come to the top, and 
 
 COLUMBUS THOUGHT THE 
 
 EAKTH WAS SHAPED LIKE 
 
 A PEAK. 
 

THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 95 
 
 there he would find the Garden of Eden, which we read about 
 in the Bible ! For up near the stem of the pear, he thought 
 the Garden of Eden was placed. 
 
 We know he was mistaken but so he thought; and he wrote 
 to the king and queen of Spain all about what he thought, 
 and perhaps they thought so too. For many wise men of that 
 day supposed the Garden of Eden was to be found on some 
 part of the earth higher than the rest. 
 
 After Columbus set sail upon his third voyage, his enemies 
 were very busy in Spain. They tried to turn the king and 
 queen against him. They said he made his discoveries only for 
 his own profit ; that he 
 
 treated those who went =v\ ^ ' --~A=- 
 
 with him badly ; that he 
 deceived the king and 
 queen about the countries 
 he had found 5 they said 
 everything that bad men 
 can say about one whom 
 they wish to injure. 
 
 So finally the king and 
 queen sent Boabdilla out 
 
 to see about thincrs. If Boabdilla found that Columbus had done 
 wrong, he was to send him home and be governor in his place. 
 
 "But," they said to Boabdilla, "inquire very carefully, and do 
 nothing hastily." 
 
 But Boabdilla did not inquire at all. He at once ordered 
 Columbus to be put in chains. Nobody would do it at first. 
 Put chains upon Columbus, the great discoverer! The good, true, 
 noble man ! But at last one of his own servants put the man- 
 
 COLUMBUS KETUKNING TO SPAIN IN CHAINS. 
 
96, THE ADVENTURES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 acles on his wrists, and then he was sent home to Spain in chains. 
 
 But when he arrived there, Queen Isabella was very angry; 
 and she ordered the chains to be taken off, and Columbus to be 
 brought to her. 
 
 When he entered her presence, worn with sorrow and age, 
 mournful, but still carrying himself nobly, the good and tender- 
 hearted queen burst into tears. 
 
 Columbus again obtained leave to make another voyage to the 
 New World. He sailed May 9, 1502. About three weeks after 
 his return from that voyage Queen Isabella died. And by her 
 death Columbus lost his best friend. 
 
 He died at Valladolid, Spain, May 20, 1506, aged seventy 
 years. 
 
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