h the lookout on the Pinta distinctly saw land through the moonlight.
When it was day they went on shore. The 12th of October, 1492,
therefore, was the date on which for the first time, so far as history
attests with assurance, a European foot pressed the soil of this
continent. Adding nine days to this to translate it into New Style, we
have October 21st as the day answering to that on which Columbus first
became sure that his long toil and watching had not been in vain.

[1493-1500]

The admiral having failed to note its latitude and longitude, it is not
known which of the Bahamas was the San Salvador of Columbus, whether
Grand Turk Island, Cat (the present San Salvador), Watling, Mariguana,
Acklin, or Samana, though the last named well corresponds with his
description. Mr. Justin Winsor, however, and with him a majority of the
latest critics, believes that Watling's Island was the place. Before
returning to Spain, Columbus discovered Cuba, and also Hayti or
Espagnola (Hispaniola), on the latter of which islands he built a fort.

In a second voyage, from Cadiz, 1493-1496, the great explorer discovered
the Lesser Antilles and Jamaica. In a third, 1498-1500, he came upon
Trinidad and the mainland of South America, at the mouth of the Orinoco.
This was later by thirteen months and a week than the Cabots' landfall
at Labrador or Nova Scotia, though a year before Amerigo Vespucci saw
the coast of Brazil. It was during this third absence that Columbus,
hated as an Italian and for his undeniable greed, was superseded by
Bobadilla, who sent him and his brother home in chains. Soon free again,
he sets off in 1502 upon a fourth cruise, in which he reaches the coast
of Honduras.

To the day of his death, however, the discoverer of America never
suspected that he had brought to light a new continent. Even during this
his last expedition he maintained that the coast he had touched was that
of Mangi, contiguous to Cathay, and that nineteen days of travel
overland would have taken him to the Ganges. He arrived in Spain on
September 12, 1504, and died at Segovia on May 20th of the next year.
His bones are believed to rest in the cathedral at Santo Domingo,
transported thither in 1541, the Columbus-remains till recently at
Havana being those of his son Diego. The latter, under the belief that
they were the father's, were transferred to Genoa in 1887, and deposited
there on July 2d of that year with the utmost ecclesiastical pomp.