Very different were the conjectures of the pilots. Some said that they
were in the Sea of Spain, others, in that of Scotland, and, being in
despair about their whereabouts, they concluded that they had been under
the guidance of the Devil. The admiral, however, was not a man to be much
influenced by the sayings of the unthoughtful and the unlearned. He
fortified himself by references to St. Isidro, Beda, Strabo, St. Ambrose,
and Duns Scotus, and held stoutly to the conclusion that he had discovered
the site of the earthly Paradise. It is said, that he exclaimed to his
men, that they were in the richest country in the world.

Columbus did not forget to claim, with all due formalities, the possession
of this approach to Paradise, for his employers, the Catholic Sovereigns.
Accordingly, when at Paria, he had landed and taken possession of the
coast in their names, erecting a great cross upon the shore, which, he
tells Ferdinand and Isabella, he was in the habit of doing at every
headland, the religious aspect of the conquest being one which always had
great influence with the admiral, as he believed it to have with the
Catholic monarchs. In communicating this discovery, he reminds them how
they bade him go on with the enterprise, if he should discover only stones
and rocks, and had told him that they counted the cost for nothing,
considering that the Faith would be increased, and their dominions
widened.


GRACEFUL REARING OF NATIVES; BEAUTY OF THE LAND.

It was, however, no poor discovery of mere "rocks and stones" which the
admiral had now made. It will be interesting to see his first impressions
of the men and the scenery of this continent which he had now,
unconsciously, for the first time, discovered. He says, "I found some