That he had found a new world; that a continent was blocking his way to
the East, never entered his mind. He supposed he had landed on some
islands off the east coast of Asia, and as that coast was called the
Indies, and as the islands were reached by sailing westward, they came
to be called the West Indies, and their inhabitants Indians; and the
native races of the New World have ever since been called Indians.
Although Columbus in after years made three more voyages to the New
World, he never found out his mistake, and died firm in the belief that
he had discovered a direct route to Asia.[1]

[Footnote 1: Columbus began his second voyage in September, 1493, and
discovered Jamaica, Porto Rico (por'-to ree'-co), and the islands of the
Caribbean Sea. On his third voyage, in 1498, he discovered the island of
Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela, and saw South America at the mouth
of the Orinoco River. During his fourth and last voyage, 1502-1504, he
explored the shores of Honduras and the Isthmus of Panama in search of a
strait leading to the Indian Ocean. Of course he did not find it, and,
going back to Spain, he died poor and broken-hearted on May 20, 1506.]

%5. The Atlantic Coast explored.%--And now that Columbus had shown
the way, others were quick to follow. In 1497 and 1498 came John and
Sebastian Cabot (cab'-ot), sailing under the flag of England, and
exploring our coast from Labrador to Cape Cod; and Pinzon and Solis,
with Vespucius[2] for pilot, sailing under the flag of Spain along the
shores of the Gulf of Mexico, around the peninsula of Florida, and
northward to Chesapeake Bay. Between 1500 and 1502 two Portuguese
navigators named Cortereal (cor-ta-ra-ahl') went over much the same
ground as the Cabots. For the time being, however, these voyages were
fruitless. It was not a new world, but China and Japan, the Indian
Ocean, and the spice islands, that Europe was seeking. When, therefore,