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True Story of Christopher Columbus, Admiral; told for youngest readers by Elbridge Streeter Brooks
page 34 of 91 (37%)
So Columbus lowered a boat from the Santa Maria, and with two of his
chief men and some sailors for rowers he pulled off toward the island.

But before he did so, he had to listen to the cheers and congratulations
of the very sailors who, only a few days before, were ready to kill him.
But, you see, this man whom they thought crazy had really brought them
to the beautiful land, just as he had promised. It does make such a
difference, you know, in what people say whether a thing turns out right
or not.

Columbus, as I say, got into his rowboat with his chief inspector and
his lawyer. He wore a crimson cloak over his armor, and in his hand he
held the royal banner of Spain. Following him came Captain Alonso Pinzon
in a rowboat from the Pinta, and in a rowboat from the Nina Captain
Vincent Pinzon. Each of these captains carried the "banner of the green
cross" on which were to be seen the initials of the king and queen of
Spain.

As they rowed toward the land they saw some people on the shore. They
were not dressed in the splendid clothes the Spaniards expected to find
the people of Cathay wearing. In fact, they did not have on much of
anything but grease and paint. And the land showed no signs of the
marble temples and gold-roofed palaces the sailors expected to find. It
was a little, low, flat green island, partly covered with trees and with
what looked like a lake in the center.

This land was, in fact, one of the three thousand keys or coral islands
that stretch from the capes of Florida to the island of Hayti, and are
known as the Bahama Islands. The one upon which Columbus landed was
called by the natives Guanahani, and was either the little island now
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