afforded him, treasured it up and added to it every day; and amid the greatest privations, and the uncongenial society of men who had no thought above the wants and duties of the hour, kept alive his lofty aspirations.

People were talking admiringly of the doings of Prince Henry of Portugal; of strange discoveries which had been made. They talked of countries where the rocks were red hot, and the sea boiled; where men walked about with their heads under their arms. They talked of lands where the city streets were paved with gold, and jewels as common as dew drops; and Columbus listened to it all and wondered. He wondered whether there could be any truth in it, whether there was land beyond the water, land not yet discovered; whence could have drifted the singular canes which he had heard of, and the pieces of carved wood that had been cast ashore on the African coast. He wondered whether the earth was really a plain level, as was then believed; and he thought of these things through the day, and dreamed of them through the night.

Columbus went to Lisbon to hear more of the discoveries that had been made; and day after day you might have seen him, for he was a religious man, entering the Church of All Saints, at prayer time. Men noticed him; children looked curiously into his face; the eyes of a noble lady fell upon him, her heart was touched, she sought an interview, and shortly afterwards they were married. This marriage introduced Columbus to those who were able to help him forward with his project. His father-in-law, Don Bartolomeo Marrio de Palestrello, had been one of Prince Henry's most distinguished officers; and the use of his maps, plans, and charts, was of great service to Columbus, who now began to correspond with the learned men of the day. He felt thoroughly convinced that an undiscovered region lay beyond the Western Ocean; he felt a deep impression that it was the will of God he should discover it-he determined to devote the whole of his life to that object.

Trouble came upon him. Sickness and death were in his house. Trials and afflictions followed fast on one another.

The grave closed over his wife. He lost his fortune in consequence of the war which then devastated the land, and quitted his home in deep poverty, with his little son for his only companion. He was so poor that he begged at a monastic house, not so much for himself as for his boy;-but he never lost sight of the object of his life-to find a new world.

Columbus suggested a plan to the Portuguese Court for the fitting out of an expedition to search for the Continent, which he himself felt firmly persuaded was to be found. But his proposal was coldly received, and ultimately rejected. He next determined to solicit help from the Court of Spain, and began to beg his way to the capital. It was during this journey, that, weary and footsore, his child almost dead with fatigue, he craved a little bread and water at a convent door. The prior of the convent was interested in the noble looking stranger, and began to talk to him. That conversation convinced the churchman that he had to deal with no common man. Columbus revealed his project, and the prior introduced him to the Cardinal Mendoza, first minister and confidential adviser of the

crown.

Cardinal Mendoza was a man of extensive information and liberal mind. He was struck by the good sense of the poor stranger, and recommended him to the king. You must know that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were then reigning in Spain, and that Spain was a colossal power, boasting to be the mistress of the sea. The King and the Cardinal agreed that a council should be held at Salamanca for the purpose of taking into consideration the credibility of Columbus's statements. And before this assembly, consisting chiefly of churchmen, the simple seaman appeared. He stated boldly his conviction that there existed beyond the sea an undiscovered continent, and he explained his notions with regard to the spherical form of the earth. This was regarded as flat heresy; and the council separated very ill-satisfied with Columbus, and not indisposed to make an end of him with a long cord and a short shrift.

For five long weary years, Columbus continued at

ntervals to urge his project on the attention of the court. At length Queen Isabella was moved by his earnest eloquence and untiring patience. Refusing longer to listen to cold and timid counsellors, she said:

"I will assume the undertaking for my own crown of Castille, and am ready to pledge my jewels to defray the expenses."

So a treaty was signed on the 17th day of April, 1492, by which Columbus bound himself to be the faithful vassal of Spain; and on the 3rd of August, in the same year, he and his companions weighed anchor from the port of Palos, in Andulasia. The armament consisted of three small vessels-the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina. On board the first, which was the largest, Columbus hoisted his flag. The second was commanded by Martin Alonzo Pinzon; the third by Vincente Janez Pinzon.

A few days brought them to the Canary Islands, the western boundary of the known world. Beyond this, all was unknown-a sea in which no craft had floated, since man was for the first time "taught by the little Nautilus to sail." For days and weeks they sailed onward—

"The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free;

They were the first that ever beat
Over that silent sea.'

The men grew terrified-mutinous, and were inclined to throw Columbus overboard and steer for home; but they were kept from any open act of violence, and after sixty days hope began to revive. Here and there, tossed and toyed with by the ocean, were pieces of curiously carved wood; occasionally, an abundance of weeds would be seen, which had evidently been but recently torn from the rocks; strange birds were discovered wheeling about in the air, and settling on the rigging; and one day, as a seaman leaned overboard, he observed a fresh thorn branch filled with red berries. Columbus addressed his people that evening as the sun sank, and besought them to be very watchful during the night. Besides the gratuity

of thirty crowns for life, he engaged to bestow upon him who should first discover land a velvet doublet. At two in the morning, the signal was given by one Roderick

Triava.

The land they saw was an island about fifteen leagues in length, without any hills, and all covered with trees. Columbus went ashore in a boat with a well-armed crew. Groups of simple natives, olive colour in complexion, and with black hair, gazed with astonishment at the new comers; especially when Columbus, who was clothed in scarlet, knelt and kissed the ground, and then planting the standard of Leon and Castille, took formal possession in the name of the sovereigns of Spain.

The island was one of the Bahamas, and Columbus gave it the name of St. Salvador. His discoveries were subsequently extended to the mainland of the American continent.

It was a grand holiday when Columbus returned to Spain, and made his triumphal entry into Barcelona. Clouds of banners and flags were waving; throngs of gaily dressed people crowded the public ways; the prolonged roar of cannon burst from the battlements of the port, and the bells rang out from all the churches a mass of merry music, that rushed like a whirlwind over the town. And Columbus rode through the streets with almost royal pomp--petted and caressed by all-but hated by many for his great success. Indians from the New World, marched in two ranks, with rings of gold on their legs, and crowns of feathers on their heads; then came the crews of the vessels, bearing crowns of gold, stone idols, beautiful flamingoes, glittering with brilliant hues, land tortoises, alligators, branches of strange trees. Over them all the admiral's flag, with the inscription

"Por Castella y Por Leon

Novero Mundo Allo Colon."*

The history of the further discoveries of Columbus need not be traced in detail here. His many successes made him

*To Castille and Leon Columbus gave a new world.

many foes. He had found a new Continent, which promised to be an inexhaustible mine of wealth to Spain. Envy,

hatred, malice, and their friend and partner, uncharitableness, leagued against him. He was popular, and must pay the penalty. He was accused of exercising too great an authority in the new settlements; of arrogating to himself a princely state, rightfully belonging only to the king; of diverting money from the royal treasury into his own pocket. A commissioner was sent out to inquire into these charges a man who hated Columbus, and was resolved to ruin him, if it were at all practicable. The admiral resented the interference of the commissioner, who took possession of his house, and who, on the pretence of treasonable conduct, put Columbus in chains, and sent the gallant hero back to Spain a prisoner. On arriving at the Court he was released, and treated with respect; but his heart was broken, and he did not long survive the disgrace to which he had been subjected. He died May 29, 1506. He was buried in the Cathedral of Seville, the