the
_Pinta_ (peen'-tah), and the _Nina_ (neen'-yah), sailed from the port of
Palos (pah'-los), in Spain.

[Footnote 2: There is reason to believe that about the year 1000 A.D.
the northeast coast of America was discovered by a Norse voyager named
Leif Ericsson. The records are very meager; but the discovery of our
country by such a people is possible and not improbable. For an account
of the pre-Columbian discoveries see Fiske's _Discovery of America_,
Vol. I., pp. 148-255.]

[Illustration: Santa Maria]

His course led first to the Canary Islands, where he turned and went
directly westward. The earth was not then generally believed to be
round. Men supposed it to be flat, and the only parts of it known to
Europeans were Iceland, the British Isles, the continent of Europe, a
small part of Asia, and a strip along the coast of the northern part of
Africa. The ocean on which Columbus was now embarked, and which in our
time is crossed in less than a week, was then utterly unknown, and was
well named "The Sea of Darkness." Little wonder, then, that as the
shores of the last of the Canaries sank out of sight on the 9th of
September, many of the sailors wept, wailed, and loudly bemoaned their
cruel fate. After sailing for what seemed a very long time, they saw
signs of land. But when no land appeared, their hopes gave way to fear,
and they rose against Columbus in order to force him to return.

[Illustration: Nina]

But he calmed their fears, explained the sights they could not
understand, hid from them the true distance sailed, and kept steadily on
westward till October 7, when a flock of land birds were seen flying to
the southwest. Pinzon (peen-thon'), who commanded one of the vessels,
begged Columbus to follow the birds, as they seemed to be going toward
land. Had the little fleet kept on its way, it would have brought up on
the coast of Florida. But Columbus yielded to Pinzon. The ships were
headed southwestward, and about ten o'clock on the night of October 11,
Columbus saw a light moving in the distance. It was made by the
inhabitants going from hut to hut on a neighboring coast. At dawn the
shore itself was seen by a sailor, and Columbus, followed by many of his
men, hastened to the beach, where, October 12, 1492, he raised a huge
cross, and took possession of the country in the name of Ferdinand and
Isabella, King and Queen of Spain, who had supplied him with caravels
and men.[1] He had landed on one of a group o