Canary Islands, and then standing due west. In September, to the
amazement of all on board, the compass was seen to "vary": an important
scientific discovery--viz., that the magnetic needle does not always
point to the pole-star. Some writers have imagined that the compass was
for the first time utilized for a long journey by Columbus, but the
occult power of the magnetic needle or "lodestone" had been known for
ages before the fifteenth century. The ancient Persians and other "wise
men of the East" used the lodestone as a talisman. Both the Mongolian
and Caucasian races used it as an infallible guide in traveling across
the mighty plains of Asia. The Cynosure in the Great Bear was the
"guiding star," whether by sea or land; but when the heavens were
wrapped in clouds, the magic stone or needle served to point exactly the
position of the unseen star. What Columbus and his terrified crews
discovered was the "variation of the compass," due to the fact that the
magnetic needle points, not to the North Star, but to the "magnetic
pole," a point in Canada to the west of Baffin's Bay and north of Hudson
Bay.

If Columbus had continued steering due west he would have landed on the
continent of America in Florida; but before sighting that coast the
course was changed to southwest, because some birds were seen flying in
that direction. The first land reached was an island of the Bahama
group, which he named _San Salvador_. As the Spanish boats rowed to
shore they were welcomed by crowds of astonished natives, mostly naked,
unless for a girdle of wrought cotton or plaited feathers. Hence the
lines of Milton:

Such of late
Columbus found the American, so girt
With feathered cincture, naked else and wild,
Among the trees on isles and woody shores.

The spot of landing was formerly identified by Washington Irving and
Baron Humboldt with "Cat Island"; but from the latest investigation it
is now believed to have been Watling's Island. Here he landed on a
Friday, October 12, 1492.

So little was then known of the geography of the Atlantic or of true
longitude, that Columbus attributed these islands to the _east coast of
Asia_. He therefore named them "Indian Islands," as if close to
Hindustan, a blunder that has now been perpetuated for four hundred and
ten years. The natives were called "Indians" for the same reasons. As
the knowledge of geography advanced it became necessary to say "West
Indies" o