Introductory American History Part 6

CHAPTER XIII.

TRADERS, TRAVELERS, AND EXPLORERS IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES.

THE PERILS OF TRADERS. There was a time in the Middle Ages when merchants scarcely dared to travel from one town to another for fear of being plundered by some robber lord or common thief. If they traveled by sea they might also be attacked by robbers. Some of these robbers, like the Northmen, came from afar, but others were ordinary sailors who put out from near-by ports when there seemed nothing better to do.

This state of things gradually changed. The kings or great lords succeeded in protecting merchants on land, and the merchants armed vessels of their own to drive the pirates from the sea. As trade grew greater the towns became richer and stronger and the robbers and pirates fewer, so that the number of merchant ships increased rapidly and long voyages were attempted.

FAIRS. At first trade was carried on at great fairs, held in places convenient for the merchants of England and western Europe. The fairs lasted about six weeks, and one fair followed another. As soon as the first was over the merchants packed their unsold wares and journeyed to the next. At the fairs were found drugs and spices, cottons and silks from the East, skins and furs from the North, wool from England, and other products from Germany, Italy, France, and Spain.

THE TREASURES OF THE EAST. Men in the Middle Ages were dependent for luxuries upon the lands of Asia which are commonly called the East. By this name we may mean Persia, Arabia, India, China, or the Molucca Islands, where the choicest spices still grow. Spices were a great luxury, and were needed to flavor the food, because the manner of cooking was poor and there was little variety in the kinds of food. Most of the cotton cloth, the silks, the drugs, and the dyes were also procured from the East.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRADER'S CARAVAN CROSSING THE DESERT]

ROUTES TO THE EAST. No one knew that it was possible to reach Asia by sailing around the southern point of Africa or through what is called the Strait of Magellan. The products of the East were brought to Europe by several routes, two reaching the Mediterranean at Alexandria, in Egypt, a third at Antioch, in Syria, and a fourth on the southeastern sh.o.r.e of the Black Sea.

The loads were carried by camels in long caravans across the deserts from the Red Sea, or the Persian Gulf, or from northern India. Ships from the Italian cities of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice struggled with one another for the right to bring back these precious wares and sell them to the merchants of Europe, who were ready to pay high prices.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF THE TRADE ROUTES IN THE MIDDLE AGES]

VENETIAN TRADERS. Merchants from Germany came to Venice to trade the products of the North for spices, drugs, dyes, and silks, which they carried back across the Alps. Once a year the Venetians sent a fleet of vessels westward through the straits of Gibraltar and along the Atlantic sh.o.r.e as far as Bruges and London. The voyage was long and dangerous, and the Venetians traded in ports on the way. Spices in Bruges sold for two or three times what they cost in Venice.

THE CRUSADES. One event that brought to the Venetians an opportunity to enrich themselves was the Crusades. The Mohammedans had long held a large part of Spain, and towards the end of the eleventh century they threatened France and Italy. They also attacked what was left of the Roman Empire in the East, and the emperors sent to the pope and the western kings frantic appeals for help. Thousands of Frenchmen, Germans, Englishmen, and Italians were suddenly seized with the desire to go to Palestine and drive the Mohammedans from Jerusalem, the Holy City, and from the tomb of Christ. For the next two centuries large armies were sent there, sometimes gaining victories, sometimes being defeated in battle or overcome by disease.

WHAT THE VENETIANS GAINED FROM THE CRUSADES. Most of the Crusaders went to the Holy Land by sea, and when they had no ships of their own they often took pa.s.sage in Venetian ships. The Venetians asked large sums for this, and also succeeded in obtaining all the rights of trade in many of the seaports which were captured. Sometimes the Venetians undertook to govern islands like Cyprus and Crete, or territories along the coasts, but their main aim was to increase their trade rather than to build up an empire.

THE NEW VENETIAN SHIPS. The Crusaders who returned to Europe brought back a liking for the luxuries of the East, and their tales made other men eager for them. For this reason more ships were built to sail in the Mediterranean. The shipowners attempted to make their ships larger and stronger. They were larger than those built by the English or by other peoples along the Atlantic coast, but they would seem small to us. There is an account of Venetian ships in the thirteenth century which tells us that they were one hundred and ten feet long and carried crews of one thousand men. They relied mainly upon the use of oars, but had a mast, sometimes two masts, rigged with sails, which they could use if the wind was favorable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VENETIAN SHIPS]

DANGERS OF THE SEA. One difficulty about sailing was the lack of any means in cloudy weather, and especially at night, of telling the direction in which they were going. The sailors did not like to venture far from sh.o.r.e, although the open sea is safer during a storm than a wind-swept and rocky coast. At the time when the sailors of the Mediterranean were building up their trade to Alexandria, Antioch, and the Black Sea, two instruments came into use which enabled them to tell just where they were.

THE COMPa.s.s. One of these instruments was the compa.s.s, which the Chinese had long used, and which was known to the Arabs before the Europeans heard of it. If a boy will take a needle, rub its point with a magnet, and lay the needle on a cork floating in water, he will have a rough sort of compa.s.s. The point of the needle wherever it may be turned will swing back towards the north, thus guiding the sailors.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARINER'S COMPa.s.s]

The compa.s.s was known in Europe about 1200. There is a story that at first sailors thought its action due to magic and refused to sail under a captain who used it. But a century later it was in general use, and had been so much improved that even in the severest storms the needle remained level and pointed steadily towards the north.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN ASTROLABE]

THE ASTROLABE. The other instrument, called the astrolabe, was a bra.s.s circle marked off into 360 degrees. To this circle were fastened two movable bars, at the ends of which were sights, or projecting pieces pierced by a hole. The astrolabe was hung on a mast in such a way that one bar was horizontal and the other could be moved until through its sights some known star could be seen. The number of degrees marked on the circle between the two bars told how high the star was above the horizon, and the sailors could reckon the lat.i.tude of the place where they were. In a similar way their longitude could be found out.

The astrolabe was not so useful as the compa.s.s, for it could be used only on clear days or nights. With these two instruments it was possible to sail far out into the Atlantic. By the middle of the fourteenth century ships from Genoa and Portugal had visited the Madeira and the Canary Islands, and even the Azores which are a thousand miles from the mainland.

WHAT MEN THOUGHT ABOUT A SEA ROUTE TO THE EAST. Men learned more about other strange lands through a Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, who wrote an account of his wonderful journey to the court of the Grand Khan, or Emperor of the Mongols, of his travels through China, and of his return to Persia by sea.

Many men in the Middle Ages had believed that east of Asia was a great marsh, and that because of it even if they succeeded in sailing around Africa it would be impossible to reach the region of the spices and silks and jewels which they so much desired. They also thought that the heat in the tropics was so intense that at a certain distance down the coast of Africa they would find the water of the ocean boiling. These things and the tales of strange monsters that inhabited the deep sea had terrified them. The news which Marco Polo brought changed this feeling.

THE MONGOLS. The way Marco Polo happened to visit the court of the Mongol emperor was this. The Mongol Tartars were great conquerors, and they not only subdued the Chinese but marched westward, overrunning most of Russia and stopping only when they were on the frontiers of Italy. For a long time southern Russia remained under their rule. Their capital was just north of the Great Wall of China.

The Mongol emperor did not hate Europeans, and even sent to the pope for missionaries to teach his people. Marco Polo's father and uncle while on a trading expedition had found their way to his court, and on a second journey, in 1271, they took with them Marco, a lad of seventeen years. The emperor was much interested in his western visitors and took young Marco into his service.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MONGOL EMPEROR OF MARCO POLO'S TIME After an old Chinese ma.n.u.script]

MARCO POLO'S TRAVELS. Marco Polo traveled over China on official errands, while his father and uncle were gathering wealth by trade. After many years they desired to return to Italy, but the emperor was unwilling to lose such able servants. It happened, however, that the emperor wished to send a princess as a bride to the Khan or Emperor of Persia, also a Mongol sovereign, and the three Polos, who were known to be trustworthy seamen, were selected to escort the princess to her royal husband. After doing this they did not return to China, but went on to Italy.

They had been absent twenty-four years, and they found that their relatives had given them up for dead and did not recognize them. It was like the old story of Ulysses, who, when he returned to his native Ithaca after his wanderings, was recognized by n.o.body. The Polos proved the truth of what they said by showing the great treasures which they had sewed into the dresses of coa.r.s.e stuff of a Tartar pattern which they wore. They displayed jewels of the greatest value, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF MARCO POLO'S TRAVELS The known world is in white, the undiscovered in black, and that first described by Marco Polo is dotted]

WHAT MARCO POLO TOLD. In the account Marco Polo wrote of his travels and of the countries he had visited he described a wonderful palace of the Great Emperor. Its walls were covered with gold and silver, the dining hall seated six thousand people, and its ceiling was inlaid with gold. This palace seemed to Marco Polo so large, so rich, and so beautiful that no man on earth could design anything to equal it. The robes of the emperor and his twelve thousand n.o.bles and knights were of silk and beaten gold, each having a girdle of gold decorated with precious stones.

Marco Polo told of great cities in China where men traded in the costly wares of the East, and where silk was abundant and cheap. He described from hearsay j.a.pan as an island fifteen hundred miles from the mainland. Its people, he said, were white, civilized, and wondrously rich. The palace of the emperor of j.a.pan was roofed with gold, its pavements and floors were of solid gold, laid in plates two fingers thick.

REASONS FOR FINDING A SEA ROUTE TO THE EAST. Tales of such great wealth made Europeans more eager than ever to reach the East. Marco Polo had shown that it was possible to sail past India, through the islands, to the eastern coast of Asia. When printing was invented his account was printed, and the copy of that book which Columbus owned is still preserved. Upon its margins Columbus wrote his own opinions about geography.

Other travelers besides the Polos returned with similar tales of the East. Soon, however, all chance to go there by way of the land was lost, because the Mongol emperors were driven out of China and the new rulers would not permit Europeans to enter the country. The ordinary caravan routes to the East were also closed not long afterwards. In 1453 the Turks captured Constantinople, drove away the Italian merchants, and prevented European sailors from reaching the Black Sea. Fifty years later the Turks seized Egypt and closed that route also. Fortunately before this happened a better route had been discovered.

THE PORTUGUESE SAILORS. During the Middle Ages the Portuguese princes fought to recover Portugal from the Moors. When this was done they were eager to cross the straits and attack the Moors in Africa. Prince Henry of Portugal made an expedition to Africa and returned with the desire to know more about the coast south of the point beyond which European sailors dared not venture. Sailors were afraid of being lost in the Sea of Darkness or killed by the heat of the boiling tropics.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DANGERS OF THE "SEA OF DARKNESS" From an old picture]

From his love of exploring the seas Prince Henry has been called "The Navigator." He took up his residence on a lonely promontory in southern Portugal, and gathered about him learned men of all peoples, Arabian and Jewish mathematicians, and Italian mapmakers. Captains trained in this new school of seamanship were sent into the southern seas. Each was to sail farther down the western coast of Africa than other captains had gone. Before Prince Henry died in 1460 his captains had pa.s.sed Cape Verde, and ten years later they crossed the equator without suffering the fate which men had once feared. But they were discouraged when they found that beyond the Gulf of Guinea the coast turned southward again, for they had hoped to sail eastward to Asia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PORTUGUESE ROUTE TO INDIA The broken lines show the old trade routes to the East. The solid line shows the new Portuguese route]

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE DISCOVERED. At last in 1487 the end of what seemed to be an endless coast was reached. The fortunate captain who accomplished this was Bartholomew Diaz, who came of a family of daring seamen. He had been sailing southward along the coast for nearly eight months, when a northerly gale drove him before it for thirteen days. The weather cleared and Diaz turned eastward to find the coast. As he did not see land he turned northward and soon discovered land to the west. This showed that he had pa.s.sed the southern point of Africa. His crew were unwilling to go farther and he followed the coast around to the western side again. The southern point he called the Cape of Storms, but the king of Portugal, when the voyagers returned, named it the Cape of Good Hope, for now he knew that an expedition could be sent directly to the Indies.

Diaz had sailed thirteen thousand miles, and his voyage was the most wonderful that Europeans had ever heard about.

THE SEA ROUTE TO INDIA. Eleven years later the Portuguese king sent Vasco da Gama, another captain, to attempt to reach the coast of India by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope which Diaz had discovered. Da Gama was successful and landed at Calicut on the south-western coast of India. He returned to Portugal in 1499, and his cargo was worth sixty times the cost of the voyage. This was the beginning of a trade with the East which enriched Portugal and especially the merchants of Lisbon.

QUESTIONS.

1. What dangers threatened traders in the Middle Ages who traveled by sea or land? What was a fair?

2. What products were brought from the East? By what routes? Point these out on a map. What rival trading cities were in Italy? How did the Venetians get their wares to London?

3. Who were the Crusaders? Why did they attack the Mohammedans? What did the Venetian traders gain by these wars? Describe a large Venetian ship of this time.

4. When was the compa.s.s invented? Why was it dangerous to sail great seas and oceans without a compa.s.s? Tell how an astrolabe was made.

5. What at first kept men from attempting to sail to eastern Asia? Who was Marco Polo? Describe his adventures. How did he return to Venice? How did people learn about the lands he had visited?

6. Why after 1453 was it necessary to find a sea route to Asia? What did Prince Henry the Navigator succeed in doing? How was the Cape of Good Hope discovered? Who went with Diaz on this voyage?

7. Who first sailed to India by the Cape of Good Hope? Was the voyage profitable? What city was made rich by the new trade?

EXERCISES.

1. Find from a map in the geography how many miles goods must have been carried to reach Venice from Persia, India, the Moluccas, or China. How far is it from Venice by sea to Bruges or London?

2. Where and how do we now obtain cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves?

3. What line of emperors has been recently ruling over China? Where has been their capital? Find out about the present Mongols. Collect pictures of China and j.a.pan.

4. Read a longer account of Marco Polo.

5. Study the geography of Portugal. Collect pictures of Portugal. Find out if many Portuguese are living in the United States.

REVIEW.

Steps Towards the Discovery of America Greek colonies in Italy, Gaul, and Spain.

Roman conquest of Gaul, Spain, and Britain.

Viking voyages to Greenland and Vinland.

Venetian trade in spices with the East, and Venetian voyages to London and Bruges.

Marco Polo's travels in China and the East.

Portuguese voyages down the coast of Africa and about the Cape of Good Hope.

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 a.s.sociations 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, j.a.pan, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS The oldest known picture of Columbus, in the National Library, Madrid]

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 j.a.pan less than 3,000 miles west of the Canary Islands, instead of the 12,000 miles which is the real distance. He accordingly thought j.a.pan would be found about where Mexico or Florida is situated.

HOW HE SECURED HELP. Even so, many years pa.s.sed 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 pet.i.tion, 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 princ.i.p.al 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COLUMBUS'S IDEAS OF THE ATLANTIC The shaded portions represent the land as Columbus expected to find it. The light outline of the Americas shows the actual position of the land as he found it.]

The ships were the usual size of those which coasted along the sh.o.r.es 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 sh.o.r.es 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A CARAVEL OF COLUMBUS After the reconstructed model exhibited at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893]

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 sh.o.r.e. 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 ash.o.r.e 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 G.o.ds. 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 j.a.pan. 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WATLING ISLAND, WHERE COLUMBUS FIRST LANDED]

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF LANDS DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS]

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 pa.s.s 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE COLUMBUS MONUMENT AT GENOA]

QUESTIONS.