Against his will, Columbus at last consented, and turning to the
southwest headed for Cuba.

But he thought he was steering for Cathay. The islands of Japan, were,
he thought, only a few leagues away to the west. They were really, as
you know, away across the United States and then across the Pacific
Ocean, thousands of miles farther west than Columbus could sail. But
according to his reckoning he hoped within a day or two to see the
cities and palaces of this wonderful land.

When they sailed from the Canaries a reward had been offered to
whomsoever should first see land. This reward was to be a silken jacket
and nearly five hundred dollars in money; so all the sailors were on the
watch.

At about ten o'clock on the evening of the eleventh of October,
Columbus, standing on the high raised stern of the Santa Maria, saw a
moving light, as if some one on the shore were running with a flaming
torch. At two o'clock the next morning--Friday, the twelfth of October,
1492 the sharp eyes of a watchful sailor on the Pinta (his name was
Rodrigo de Triana) caught sight of a long low coastline not far away. He
raised the joyful shout Land, ho! The ships ran in as near to the shore
as they dared, and just ten weeks after the anchors had been hauled up
in Palos Harbor they were dropped overboard, and the hips of Columbus
were anchored in the waters of a new world.

Where was it? What was it? Was it Cathay? Columbus was sure that it was.
He was certain that the morning sun would shine for him upon the marble
towers and golden roofs of the wonderful city of the kings of Cathay.