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 of islands which we call the
Bahamas.[2]

[Footnote 1: Columbus called the new land San Salvador (sahn
sahl-vah-dor', Holy Savior), because October 12, the day on which it was
discovered, was so named in the Spanish calendar.]

[Footnote 2: Three islands of this group, Cat, Turks, and Watlings, have
rival claims as the landing place of Columbus. At present, Watlings
Island is believed to be the one on which he first set foot. Read an
account of the voyage in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I., pp.
408-442; Irving's _Life and Voyages of Columbus_, Vol. I., Book III.]

[Illustration: Coat of arms of Columbus]

During ten days he sailed among these islands. Then, turning southward,
he coasted along Cuba to the eastern end, and so to Haiti, which he
named Hispaniola, or Little Spain. There the _Santa Maria_ was wrecked.
The _Pinta_ had by this time deserted him, and, as the _Niña_ could not
carry all the men, forty were left at Hispaniola, to found the first
colony of Europeans in the New World. Giving the men food enough to last
a year, Columbus set sail for Spain on the 3d of January, 1493, and on
March 15 was safe at Palos.

Of the greatness of his discovery, Columbus had not the faintest idea.