w closer, the
birds could be heard singing. And on the shore a crowd of savages was
gazing with astonishment upon the mysterious ships that floated with
sails furled on the smooth waters of the bay. Hardly able to speak for
excitement and joy the sailors leaped into their rowboats. First of all
was Columbus, richly appareled, with the banner of Spain in his hand.
And as the prow of his boat grounded in the sand he sprang ashore and
took possession of the land in the name of King Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella, unfurling the gorgeous banner to the breeze. Then he and his
men kneeled and said a prayer of thankfulness, and they also planted in
the earth a great wooden cross, to show that the new land had come
under the power of the Christian Church.

The natives, who had gazed with wonder upon these actions, now
approached timidly but with every sign of friendship, offering Columbus
gifts of flowers and fruits and gay colored parrots, and lances tipped
with bone and feather belts. They seemed to have no difficulty in
understanding the sign language that the Spaniards used to make their
wants understood, and they worshipped the newcomers as though they were
more than human, and indeed their simple minds were convinced that
these gorgeous strangers in velvet and armor were no less than
superhuman beings.

By the sign language the savages made Columbus understand that there
were other lands not far off, and he believed that he had arrived at
India and could sail in the course of a few days to the rich countries
of China and Japan. And he called the natives "Indians," as a token of
his belief--a name that they and all the other natives of the American
continent have borne to the present time. To his dying day Columbus
believed that he had reached India and the Far East. How great would
have been his astonishment had he known that another ocean nearly twice
as broad as the one that he had crossed, lay between him and the
Orient, and that he had come upon an entirely New World where no
civilized men had ever set foot before!

Columbus named the island that he first set foot upon San Salvador.
After he had remained there for some time he gathered his crews and set
sail once more to discover other lands. He came to the island of Cuba
and he discovered Haiti, but he thought that these were islands or part
of the mainland of Japan, China or India, and so reported them in his
writings. And now came his first bitter taste of the trea