and the next morning a gun was fired from one of the smaller vessels, as the signal agreed upon for "making land." It was a very welcome sound; for they had been seventy-one days in crossing the ocean, which is now crossed by steamers in nine. The vessels "lay to" that night; and the next morning they saw a wooded island six miles away, and crowds of natives running along the beach.

We may imagine how Columbus felt, when, at daybreak, he was rowed to the shore, with waving banners, and to the sound of music, and when he stepped upon the beach where no European had ever before landed! He bore the great flag of Spain, gorgeous with red and gold; and his other captains bore each a green flag, inscribed with a cross. All knelt, and kissed the ground; then Columbus, rising, and drawing his sword, took possession of the island in the name of Spain, and called it "San Salvador."

He soon sailed farther on, visiting Cuba, Hayti, and other West-India Islands; but he did not reach the mainland during this voyage. Returning to Spain, he was received with great honor: and a second expedition was fitted out under him, consisting of seventeen vessels and fifteen hundred men. With these he discovered the Windward Islands, —Jamaica and Porto Rico, and founded a colony in Hayti; the island being then called "Hispaniola," or "Little Spain."

On his third voyage, in 1498, he had six ships, and reached the mainland of South America, though not till it had been visited by another navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, or Americus Vespucius. The voyage of Americus Vespucius was made in the winter of 1497-98. He

was long supposed to have deceived the world in giving this date to his discovery; but it is now pretty well established that he spoke the truth. Ten years after, a European geographer gave the continent the name of "Americi Terra," or the land discovered by Americus; and thus it has borne his name ever since. It would have seemed more just that it should have borne the name of Columbus; and Americus Vespucius, who was his friend, had probably no intention of taking this honor from him; but this was the way it happened. Meanwhile Sebastian Cabot had reached the North American Continent before Columbus; so that the great navigator was not the first to set foot on the mainland, North or South.

On this third voyage of Columbus, he touched at his colony of Hispaniola, where he found them all quarrelling; and he was presently arrested by a Spanish commissioner, Bobadilla, who had been sent out by the enemies of Columbus. He was carried on board ship in chains; and, when the officers of the ship wished to take them off, he refused, saying, "I will wear them as a memento of the gratitude of princes." Reaching Spain, he was released, but could get no redress from the king. The truth was, that King Ferdinand was quite dissatisfied with the new countries, as not yielding wealth enough. However, Columbus fitted out one more expedition, with four ships, and went on a final voyage, reaching the coast of North America at last, although he thought all his life that it was Asia he had visited. This last voyage was a sad one for him, as his own colony at Hispaniola refused to let him land; and he was now old and weary, and as poor as ever. His one firm

friend, Queen Isabella, had died; and he died himself in 1506, aged about seventy years. Some years after, King Ferdinand ordered a marble tomb to be placed upon his grave, with the inscription, "To Castile and Leon, Columbus gave a new world." But, more than two centuries after that, the remains of the great voyager were transferred to the great cathedral at Havana, that they might rest in the soil of that New World which he had discovered.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SUCCESSORS OF COLUMBUS.

THE

HE next important voyage to America was planned by John Cabot, a merchant born at Venice, but living in Bristol, England. There had long been some commerce between Bristol and Iceland; and it is very likely that John Cabot, like Columbus, had heard from Icelanders the tradition of the old Norse voyages. At any rate, he got from King Henry VII. of England a "patent," or permission, allowing himself and his three sons to cruise about the world, at their own expense, with five ships; and to take possession, in the name of England, of countries hitherto unknown to Europeans. It was agreed, that, whenever he had done so, nobody but the family of Cabot was to be allowed to trade with any such countries, unless the Cabots gave permission. They were allowed to sail in any direction, east, west, or north; but what they really desired was to get to India by a north-west passage. At any rate, wherever they might go, onefifth of the profits of their trade must be given to the King of England.

So John Cabot and his sons set sail in 1497. Sebastian is the best known of these sons, and became more famous than even his father. We do not know exactly

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what their ships were; but they probably looked like this picture, which is taken from a map made by Sebastian Cabot. We do not know much of their voyage; only that they reached Labrador, and found it, as we may well suppose, cold and dismal. They said, when they got home, that the country was very barren, and that they had seen a great many white bears. They

had not much more to say; for they had not remained long, having reached home again in three months. Their maps and journals are all lost; but we know that they were the first Europeans, after the Northmen, to visit the mainland of North America.

A letter from a Venetian merchant, who was then in London, says that great honors were paid to John Cabot on his return to England. He was called "The Great Admiral," went about richly dressed in silk, and