So, with this plan in mind, he sent three of his ships to the little
settlement of Isabella, and with the other three he sailed more to the
southwest. On the first of August the ships came in sight of the three
mountain peaks of the large island he called Trindad, or Trinity.

Look on your map of South America and you will see that Trinidad lies
almost in the mouth of the Orinoco, a mighty river in the northern part
of South America.

Columbus coasted about this island, and as he did so, looking across
to the west, he saw what he supposed to be still another island. It was
not. It was the coast of South America. For the first time, but without
knowing it, Columbus saw the great continent he had so long been hunting
for, though he had been seeking it under another name.

So you see, the story of Columbus shows how his life was full of
mistakes. In his first voyage he found an island and thought it was the
mainland of the Eastern Hemisphere; in his third voyage he discovered
the mainland of the New World and thought it only an island off the
coast of the Old World. His life was full of mistakes, but those
mistakes have turned out to be, for us, glorious successes.



CHAPTER X. FROM PARADISE TO PRISON.

If you know a boy or a girl whose mind is set on any one thing, you will
find that they are always talking about that thing. Is not this so? They
have what people call a "hobby" (which is a kind of a horse, you know),