Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1892 — ON A NEW WORLD’S SHORES. ARRIVAL OF COLUMBUS' FLEET AT SAN SALVADOR. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ON A NEW WORLD’S SHORES.

ARRIVAL OF COLUMBUS' FLEET AT SAN SALVADOR.

rhe lint Lnidlnf In America of Christopher Columbus. It was an important day in the world’s history, a day fraught with vast possibilities for future ages when the eyes of Columbus first beheld the new world. And now that we are to commemorate the event by holding a great World's Fair in the land which be discovered, anything pertaining to the voyage and discovery is of more than ordinary interest. Fridays are regarded as unlucky days, yet it was on Friday, August 3, that the pioneer Atlantic navigator

set sail from the sunny land of Andalusia on that voyage whicji has Immortalized bis name, and it was on Friday, Oct.! that virgin forests of one Of the outpost islands of the American continent greeted his anxious gaze. It has beep the fate of Columbus

events in his life are the subjects of controversy, and thus we find doubt existing as to the island upon which he first landed. Following the more accepted opinion wo shall , call it San Salvador, the name Co- ; lumbus applied to ■ the Indian island l of Guanhaoe. Believing that he had touched on an island at the extremity of India, Columbus called the

natives Indians, a term that has since been applied to the aborigines of the entire new world. It was with an overflowing heart that Columbus knelt on the virgin soil and returned thanks to God for his safe voyage and with mingled feelings of admiration and triumph he planted tho royal standard of Ferdinand and Isabella on' the sea-shore, thereby taking possession of the island for the Spanish sovereigns. The simple-minded and naked natives fled at the approach of the Spaniards, but soon returned, making signs of adoration, for they believed that their visitors had descended from the skies. The Spaniards experienced a mutual surprise, for the Indians differed from any race of men before known to European civilization. Soon the most friendly relations Were established and the Indians exchanged various products for the trinkets of the white men. Gold,

however, was the cbject in which the Spaniards were chiefly interested and they made many inquiries of the natives as to where gold was produced. Invariably the latter pointed south, and as Columbus fancied he lay off the mainland of Asia he concluded that the place they referred to was the Island of Cipango, believed to be Japan; that he was near famous Carthay, with its limitless wealth, and the regions ruled over by the mythical Prester John. Thus two days later Columbus began cruising amid the archipelagoof islands, now known as the Bahamas, in quest of Cjpango, and Oct. 16 came upon*an Island which he called Santa Maria de la Concepcion. Here the natives were as simple and naked as on San Salvador and regarded the Spaniards as people descended from the sky. In succession he touched at the islands of Exuma and Exumeta, where he was received with transports of joy by the natives and then set out for Cuba which he promptly identified in his mind as Cipango. Oct. 28 he arrived in sight of the enchanting island and anchored in a river to which he gave the name of San Salvador. In writing of the island Columbus said: “It Is the most beautiful island that eyes ever beheld, full of excellent ports and profound rivers.” After exploring part of the coast and holding converse with the natives he became more fully convinced that he was on the borders of Cathay and he dispatched ambassadors to seek the Grand Khan. During the absence of his envoys he met with the humble potato and subsequently with the tobacco plant. When the messengers returned without having found his royal personage whom they sought Col umbus after taking on board several Indian men and women, to be trained as interpreters, set out in quest of the island of Babeque, a region said by tbe Indians.to be teeming with gold. He took an east-southeast course, and this fact had a great effect upon his subsequent voyages. Had he continued on his former course he would have learned that Cuba was an Island, not a continent, and he might have seen borne by the Gulf streams to Florida or might have discovered > Mexico. Not. 19 Columbus put to

'•ea-for the mytntearl Babeqnet, and the following day the Plnta, under i Martin Alonzo Pinzon, deserted blm. This had a moot depressing effect upon the great navigator, yet he pushed on until Dec. & he reached the eastern end tyf Cuba. The following day. he advanced in sight of beautiful Haytsi, which ho called Hispaniola. Of the natives Columbus wrote: “If anything was asked of them they never said no, but ratlier gave it cheerfully, and showed as much amity as if they gave their very hearts.” Another writer says: “It is certain that the land among these people is as common as tho sun and

water, and that ‘mine’ and ‘thine,’ tho seeds of all mischief, have no place with them. They are content with so little that, in p, large country, they have rather superfluity than scarceness, so that they seem to live ir> the golden world, without toilv living in open gardens; not intrenched with dykes, divided with hedges, or defended with walls. They deal truly with one another, without laws, without books, and without Judges.” December 22 the grand cacique, Cluancanagari, visited Columbus, bringing him presents, and asking him to proceed a little further eastward, and anchor opposite his residence. Two days later Columbus set out for the residence of tho Indian chief, bat, during tho night voyage, one of his vessels, the Santa Maria, was forced upon a sandbank. Gmncanagari wept when tho news was brought him, and immediately ordered all his _ peopple who had canoes to' unload the vessel. In a little time the cargo of the vessel was landed, and although it was of priceless valuo to the simple-minded natives not one cent’s worth was stolen. No-wonder Columbus wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella: “So loving, so tractable, so peaceable are these people that I swear to your majesties thdfe is not a better nation nor a better land. They love their neighbors as - themselves.” The cacique, learnipg that the Spaniards sought gold, gave all that he possessed, even presenting Columbus with his coronet, and ho dispatched some of his subjects iijto tho interior to procure the coveted metal for his visitors. The holiday life of th< natives and Ithe beauties of the cli mate induced many of the Spaniards to express the wish to be Allowed to live on the island, and Columbus had forthwith a fortress constructed from the remains of the wrecked caravel. This fortress with the adjacent Indian village and harbor he called La

Navidad (The Nativity), in memory of their having escaped when the caravel was wrecked on Christmas Day. Columbus was now anxious to return to the old world. One of his vessels was wrecked; one had deserted him and its fate was unknown; there remained only one crazy bark to bear the tidings of success across the Atlantic. Should it perish the secret of the discovery of the new world might never be known and Columbus would go down in history as a brainless adventurer. Accordingly he threw a garrison of thirty-nine men into the fortress of La Navidad and took his farewell of the generous Indian chief and his

kind-hearted subjects. The parting with the garrison was affecting. The handful of men thus left in the wilderness of the new world gazed wistfully after the light caravel as It glided over the waters. They were consoled, however, by the thought that wjthin a few months they would welcome other vessels to be sent by Columbus from Europe, but this welcome they were destined never to give.

It appears that Henry M. Stanley makes even a worse failure as a stump speaker than he did as a lecturer. He should let his wife do his political campaigning for him.

ROYAL, BANNER.

EMBARKATION OF COLUMBUS AT PALOS.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.