Chapter XIV: The Discovery of a New World

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Six years before Vasco da Gama made his
famous voyage to India around Africa and opened a new trade route for
the Portuguese merchants, another seaman had formed and carried out a
much bolder plan. This was Christopher Columbus, and his plan was to
sail directly west from Europe into the unknown ocean in search of new
islands and the coast of Asia. Columbus, who was a native of Genoa in
Italy, had followed his younger brother to Portugal. Both were probably
led there by the fame of Prince Henry's explorations.

The brothers became very skilful in making maps and charts for the
Portuguese. They also frequently sailed with them on their expeditions
along the coast of Africa. All the early associations of Columbus were
with men interested in voyages of discovery, and particularly with those
engaged in the daring search for a sea route to India.

HOW COLUMBUS FORMED HIS PLAN. Columbus gathered all the information
on geography which he could from ancient writers and from modern
discoverers. Many of them believed that the world was shaped like a
ball. If such were its shape, Columbus reasoned, why might not a ship
sail around it from east to west? Or, better, why not sail directly west
to India, and perhaps find many wonderful islands between Europe and
Asia? His imagination was also fired by Marco Polo's description of the
marvelous riches of China, Japan, and the Spice Islands. But the idea of
going directly west into the midst of the unknown and seemingly
boundless waste of water, and on and on to Asia, appeared to most men of
the fifteenth century to be madness.

HIS NOTION OF THE DISTANCE TO ASIA. Columbus made two fortunate
errors in reckoning the distance to the Indies. He imagined that Asia
extended much farther eastward than it actually does, making it nearer
Europe, and estimated the earth to be smaller than it is. His figures
placed Japan less than 3,000 miles west of the Canary Islands, instead
of the 12,000 miles which is the real distance. He accordingly thought
Japan would be found about where Mexico or Florida is situated.

HOW HE SECURED HELP. Even so, many years passed before Columbus was
able to undertake a voyage. He was too poor himself, and needed the help
of some government to fit out such an expedition. He may have tried to
get his native city, Genoa, to help him. There is such a story. If he
did, it was without success. He tried to obtain the help of Portugal,
where he lived a long time, and whose princes were greatly interested in
the discovery of new trade routes. His brother visited England in the
same cause. Neither of these countries, however, was willing to
undertake this expensive and doubtful enterprise.

The King and Queen of Spain, to whom Columbus turned, kept him waiting
many years for an answer. They thought that they had more important work
in hand. There was another king in Spain at the time, the king of the
Moors. Ferdinand and Isabella, the Christian king and queen, were trying
to conquer the Moors, and thus to end the struggle between Christians
and Mohammedans for the possession of Spain, which had lasted nearly
eight centuries. This war required all the strength and revenue
of Spain.

Fortunately, just as Columbus was becoming thoroughly discouraged, the
war with the Moors came to an end. Granada, the seat of their former
power, was finally taken in January, 1492. Now was a good time to ask
favors of the sovereigns of Spain, and to plan large enterprises for the
future. Powerful friends aided Columbus to renew his petition, and Queen
Isabella was persuaded to promise him all the help that he needed.

THE SHIPS OF COLUMBUS. Three ships, or caravels as they were
called, were fitted out. The _Santa Maria_ was the largest of the three,
but it was not much larger than the small sailing yachts which we see
to-day. It was about ninety feet long by twenty feet broad, and had a
single deck. This was Columbus's principal ship or flagship. The second
caravel, the _Pinta_, was much swifter, built high at the prow and
stern, and furnished with a forecastle for the crew and a cabin for the
officers, but without a deck in the center. The third and smallest
caravel, called the _Nina_, the Spanish word for baby, was built much
like the _Pinta_. Ninety persons made up the three crews.

The ships were the usual size of those which coasted along the shores
of Europe in the fifteenth century. Expeditions had never gone far out
into the ocean. Columbus preferred the smaller vessels in a voyage of
discovery, because they would be able to run close to the shores and
into the smaller harbors and up the rivers.

BEGINNING OF THE VOYAGE. The expedition set sail from Palos in
Spain, August 3, 1492. It went directly to the Canary Islands. These
were owned by Spain, and were selected by Columbus as the most
convenient starting-point. The little fleet was delayed three weeks at
the islands making repairs. On September 6 Columbus was off again. He
struck due west from the Canaries.

THE TERRORS OF THE VOYAGE. While the little fleet was still in
sight of the Canary Islands a volcanic eruption nearly frightened the
sailors out of their wits. They deemed such an event an omen of evil.
But the expedition had fine weather day after day. Steady, gentle,
easterly winds, the trade winds of the tropics, wafted them slowly
westward. But the timid sailors began to wonder how they would ever be
able to return against winds which seemed never to change from the east.

Then they came to an immense field of seaweed, larger in area than the
whole of Spain. This terrified the sailors, who feared they might be
driven on hidden rocks or be engulfed in quicksands. They imagined, too,
that great sea-monsters were lurking beyond the seaweed waiting to
devour them.

THE FIRST SIGNS OF A NEW LAND. In spite of fears and complaints,
and threats of resistance, Columbus kept a westward course for more than
four weeks. Then as he began to see so many birds flying to the
southwest, he concluded that land must be nearer in that direction. He
had heard that most of the islands held by the Portuguese were
discovered by following the flight of birds. So on October 7 the
westward course was changed to one slightly southwest.

From this time on the signs of land grew frequent. Floating branches,
occasionally covered with berries, pieces of wood, bits of cane, were
encouraging signs. Birds like ducks and sandpipers became common sights.
The Queen had promised a small pension to the one who should first see
land. Columbus had offered to give a silken doublet in addition. With
what eagerness the sailors must have kept on the lookout!

THE GREAT DISCOVERY. At last as the fleet was sailing onward in the
bright moonlight Columbus saw a light moving as if carried by hand along
a shore. A few hours later, about two o'clock on the morning of October
12, a sailor on the _Pinta_ saw land distinctly, and soon all beheld, a
few miles away, a long, low beach. The vessels hove to and waited for
daylight. Early the same day, Friday, October 12, 1492, they approached
the land, which proved to be a small island. Columbus named it San
Salvador, which means Holy Saviour. We do not know which one of the
Bahama islands he first saw, but we believe it was the one now called
Watling Island. Columbus went ashore with the royal standard and banners
flying to take possession of the land in the name of King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella.

WHERE COLUMBUS THOUGHT HE WAS. The astonished inhabitants of the
island soon gathered to see the strange sight--the landing of white men
in the West Indies. They looked upon the ships as sea-monsters, and the
white men as gods. Nor was Columbus less puzzled by what he saw. The
people were a strange race--cinnamon colored, naked, greased, and
painted to suit each one's fancy. They had only the rudest means of
self-defense, and were almost as poor as the parrots that chattered in
the trees above them. Such savages bore little resemblance to the people
whom Marco Polo said inhabited the Spice Islands.

Columbus thought that he had reached some outlying island not far from
Japan. A cruise of a few days among the Bahamas satisfied him that he
was in the ocean near the coast of Asia, for had not Marco Polo
described it as studded with thousands of spice-bearing islands? He had
not found any spices, but the air was full of fragrance and the trees
and herbs were strange in appearance. Of course if the islands were the
Indies, the people must be Indians. Columbus called them Indians, and
this name clung to the red men, although their islands were not the
true Indies.

THE SEARCH FOR THE GOLDEN EAST. Columbus thought that the natives
meant to tell him in their sign language of a great land to the south
where gold abounded. He set off in search of this, and came upon a land
the natives called Cuba. Its large size convinced him that he had at
last found the Asiatic mainland, and he sent two messengers, one a Jew
knowing many languages, in search of the Emperor of China. They found
neither cities nor kingdoms, neither gold nor spices. This was a great
disappointment to Columbus, but he patiently kept up his search for the
riches which he expected to find.

THE MISFORTUNES OF COLUMBUS. While on the coast of Cuba, Pinzon,
the commander of the _Pinta_, deserted him. Pinzon, whose ship was
swifter than the others, probably wished to be the first to get home, in
order to tell a story which would gain him the credit of the discovery
of the Indies. A few days later Columbus discovered a large island which
the natives called Hayti, and which he called Espanola or "Spanish
Land." At every island he searched for the spices and gold which Marco
Polo had given him reason to expect. In a storm off Espanola Columbus's
own ship, the _Santa Maria_, was totally wrecked. Such disasters
convinced him that it was high time to return to Spain with the news of
his discovery.

PREPARATIONS FOR RETURN TO SPAIN. As there was not room for both
crews on the tiny _Nina_, his one remaining ship, it became necessary to
leave about forty sailors in Espanola. A fort was built, and supplies
were left for a year. Columbus with the rest set off on the return to
Spain. Ten Indians were captured and taken with them to show to his
friends in Europe. Besides, Columbus hoped that they would learn the
language of Spain, and carry Christianity back to their people.

THE SEARCH FOR CHINA RENEWED. There was rejoicing in Palos when the
voyagers returned. Great honors were bestowed upon Columbus. It was now
easy to get men and money for another voyage. In September, 1493,
Columbus started to return to his islands, this time with seventeen
ships and fifteen hundred men, all confident that they would soon see
the marble palaces of China, and secure a share in the wealth of the
Spice Islands. No one yet realized that a new world--two great
continents--lay between them and their coveted goal in Asia. Columbus
went directly to Espanola, where he found that his colony of the
previous year had been murdered by the Indians. A new settlement was
quickly started. A little town called Isabella was built, with a fort, a
church, a market place, public granary, and dwelling-houses. Isabella
was the first real settlement in the New World.

OTHER VOYAGES TO THE NEW WORLD. Columbus made two other voyages. He
continued to search for the coast of Asia, which he believed to be near.
He made a third voyage from Spain to the West Indies in 1498. He sailed
farther south, and came upon the mainland which later was called South
America. A fourth expedition in 1502 touched on the coast that we call
Central America. He died soon after this voyage, still believing that he
had discovered a new route to the Indies and new lands on the coast
of Asia.

THE SAD END OF COLUMBUS'S LIFE. The close of his life was a sad
one. The lands he had found did not yield the riches which he had
expected. The colonists whom he had sent out to the islands had
rebelled, and jealous enemies had accused him falsely before the king
and queen of misgovernment in his territories. Once his opponents had
him carried to Spain chained like a common prisoner. He was given his
liberty on reaching Spain, but the people had become prejudiced
against him.

Ferdinand, the son of Columbus, tells us that as he and his brother
Diego, who were pages in the queen's service, happened to pass a crowd
of his father's enemies, the latter greeted them with hoots: "There go
the sons of the Admiral of Mosquitoland, the man who has discovered a
land of vanity and deceit, the grave of Spanish gentlemen." Hardships
and disappointments broke down the great discoverer, and he died
neglected and almost forgotten by the people of Spain.

QUESTIONS

1. What plan did Columbus form? Why was it bolder than the plan Diaz
had carried out in 1487, or even than that Da Gama carried out a few
years later? Why did men like Columbus and Diaz desire to find a sea
route to India? Had anybody before Columbus believed the
earth round?

2. What mistake did Columbus make in estimating the size of the
earth? Why was this a fortunate error?

3. From what countries did Columbus try to obtain help? Why did he
find it so hard to secure this? What event in Spain finally favored
his cause? Who were the Moors?

4. Why was Columbus surprised when he saw the natives in the West
Indies? Why were the Indians on their side surprised?

5. What islands did Columbus find and claim for Spain on his first
voyage? How many other voyages did he make? What new lands did he
find on his later voyages? What did he think he had found?

6. Why did the enemies of Columbus in Spain call him the Admiral of
Mosquitoland, the man who discovered a land of vanity and deceit,
the grave of Spanish gentlemen? What did they mean by this?

EXERCISES

1. Find pictures of the ships of Columbus or of the sailing ships of
other explorers of that day. How does the deck arrangement on those
differ from the ocean steamships of to-day? What advantage would
ships like those of Columbus have over present steamships in
exploring strange coasts? What disadvantages?

2. Draw up a list of reasons why Columbus's sailors were afraid to
go on and wished to turn back to Spain.

3. Trace on an outline map the voyage of Columbus. Mark where
Columbus found land, and where he expected to find Japan and China.
What great mass of land was really very near the island he first
discovered?

4. Find from the maps mentioned in Chapter IV (Greek World), Chapter
VII (Roman World), Chapter VIII (The world after Polo's journey),
and Chapter XIV (The world as known after Columbus), how much more
the Romans knew of the world than the Greeks had known, the
Europeans after Marco Polo's journey than the Romans, and the
Europeans after Columbus's voyage than after Marco Polo's journey.

_Important Date_--1492. The discovery of America by Columbus.