quite big to think that he was really steering the Admiral's flagship,
was a little too smart; for, before he knew it, he had driven the Santa
Maria plump upon a hidden reef. And there she was wrecked. They worked
hard to get her off but it was no use. She keeled over on her side, her
seams opened, the water leaked in, the waves broke over her, the masts
fell out and the Santa Maria had made her last voyage.

Then Columbus was in distress. The Pinta had deserted him, the Santa
Maria was a wreck, the Nina was not nearly large enough to carry all his
men back to Spain. And to Spain he must return at once. What should he
do?

Columbus was quick at getting out of a fix. So in this case he speedily
decided what to do. He set his men at work tearing the wreck of the
Santa Maria to pieces. Out of her timbers and woodwork, helped out with
trees from the woods and a few stones from the shore, he made quite
a fort. It had a ditch and a watch-tower and a drawbridge. It proudly
floated the flag of Spain. It was the first European fort in the new
world. On its ramparts Columbus mounted the cannons he had saved from
the wreck and named the fort La Navidad--that is, Fort Nativity, because
it was made out of the ship that was wrecked on Christmas Day-the day of
Christ's nativity, his birthday.

He selected forty of his men to stay in the fort until he should return
from Spain. The most of them were quite willing to do this as they
thought the place was a beautiful one and they would be kept very busy
filling the fort with gold. Columbus told them they must have at least a
ton of gold before he came back. He left them provisions and powder
for a year, he told them to be careful and watchful, to be kind to the
Indians and to make the year such a good one that the king and queen of