really _was_ a sphere! and at no point in rounding it had they been
in danger of falling off! Here they stood, that marvelous morning of
October 12, on Cipango or some other island off Asia, as they supposed,
with the soles of their feet against the feet of those back in Palos,
and the fact did not even make them feel dizzy. We who have always known
that the earth is a sphere with a marvelous force in its center drawing
toward it all objects on the surface; we who have always known that
ships by the thousands cross the great oceans from one continent to
another; we who have always known that the whole inhabited earth has
long since been explored,--we who were born to such an accumulation of
knowledge can never realize what was the amazement, the joy, of that
little handful of men who, after three lonely months on the unknown
ocean, at last reached unsuspected land.

And the humble Genoese sailor man,--what were his emotions on the great
morning that transformed him into Don Cristobal Colon, Admiral and
Viceroy under their Highnesses, the king and queen of Spain. Let us hope
that he did not think too much about these titles, for we ourselves
don't think about them at all. We are only trying to grasp the joy it
must have given him to know that he had been true to his grand purpose;
that he had waited and suffered for it; and that now, after declaring he
could find lands in the unknown ocean, he had found them. Quite right
was he to put on his scarlet cloak for going ashore, for he had
conquered the terrors of the deep!

How eagerly they all clambered into the small boats and rowed toward the
shore, Columbus and the Pinzon brothers and the notary in the first boat
load. The new Admiral carried the royal standard, and when they leaped
ashore, he planted it in the ground and took possession of the island
for Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Then on a little hill they put up a