da that Columbus,
disappointed and down-hearted, asked for food and shelter for himself
and his child. It was here that he found an asylum for a few years while
he developed his plans, and prepared the arguments which he submitted to
the council at Salamanca. It was in one of the rooms of this convent
that he met the Dominican monks in debate, and it was here also that he
conferred with Alonzo Pinzon, who afterward commanded one of the vessels
of his fleet. In this convent Columbus lived while he was making
preparations for his voyage, and on the morning that he sailed from
Palos he attended himself the little chapel. There is no building in the
world so closely identified with his discovery as this.

THE EARNESTNESS OF COLUMBUS.

(ANONYMOUS.)

Look at Christopher Columbus. Consider the disheartening difficulties
and vexatious delays he had to encounter; the doubts of the skeptical,
the sneers of the learned, the cavils of the cautious, and the
opposition, or at least the indifference, of nearly all. And then the
dangers of an untried, unexplored ocean. Is it by any means probable he
would have persevered had he not possessed that earnest enthusiasm which
was characteristic of the great discoverer? What mind can conceive or
tongue can tell the great results which have followed, and will continue
to follow in all coming time, from what this single individual
accomplished? A new continent has been discovered; nations planted whose
wealth and power already begin to eclipse those of the Old World, and
whose empires stretch far away beneath the setting sun. Institutions of
learning, liberty, and religion have been established on the broad basis
of equal rights to all. It is true, America might have been discovered
by what we call some fortunate accident. But, in all probability, it
would have remained unknown for centuries, had not some _earnest man_,
like Columbus, arisen, whose adventurous spirit would be roused, rather
than repressed, by difficulty and danger.

EACH THE COLUMBUS OF HIS OWN SOUL.

(ANONYMOUS.)

Every man has within himself a continent of undiscovered character.
Happy is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul.

A SUPERIOR SOUL.

(CLADERA. SPANISH.)

His soul was superior to the age in which he lived. For him was reserved
the great enterprise of traversing that sea which had given rise to so
many fables, and of deciphering the mystery of his time.

COLUMBUS DARED THE MAIN.

SAMUEL RO