discovery, and all lay to, awaiting with intense expectation the approach of morning. As the day slowly dawned, a green and beautiful island was seen stretching before them. Numbers of people, quite naked, were running on the beach, filled with amazement at the strange spectacle which the night had conjured up on their shores. The admiral, in full dress, bearing the royal standard, and gallantly attended, entered his boat, and rowed to shore. Kissing the earth, with tears of joy, he returned thanks to God. His people followed the example, and all, overwhelmed with joy, thronged around him, with embraces, kissing his hands, and, in the intoxication of the moment, almost adoring him. He proceeded to take a solemn and ceremonious pos session of the island, in the name of the Spanish sovereigns, calling it San Salvador. Its native name was Guanahani, and it is one of that long chain of Bahamas extending from Florida to Hayti. The natives, who at first, terrified by the armour and gorgeous array of the strangers, had fled into the woods, now ventured forth, and approached the Spaniards, with many prostrations and signs of adoration. They supposed that these wonderful beings had floated. from some celestial region, and gazed, with eager curiosity, on their beards, their raiment, and the whiteness of their complexions. The islanders themselves were of a copper hue, nearly naked, and ornamented with fantastic paintings. Supposing himself near the eastern shore of Asia, Columbus gave these people the name of Indians-a term since applied to all the native races of the western hemisphere. Their disposition was singularly amiable and affectionate. The admiral gave them little presents, such as coloured beads and hawk's-bells, the tinkling sound of which tickled their ears surprisingly, and which they received with rapture as gifts from the celestial land. They cried to each other, he says, "with loud voices, 'Come and see the men who have come from heaven. Bring them victuals and drink. There came many of both sexes, every one bringing something, giving thanks to God, prostrating themselves on the earth and lifting up their hands to heaven." Great numbers came off in their canoes to the vessels, bringing tame parrots and balls of cotton yarn as offerings to the wonderful visitors. Strong interest was excited among the Spaniards by the sight of smali ornaments of gold, which the natives wore in their noses, and which they averred, by signs, was procured from the south-west. Columbus understood them as describing, in this vague species of communication, a great prince, who was served on vessels of that precious substance; and his ardent imagination at once inferred that ne must be in the neighbourhood of Cipango, and of its gorgeous potentate, described by Marco Polo. CHAPTER III. -CONTINUED EXPECTA -DISCOV DISCOVERY OF OTHER BAHAMA ISLANDS.- SANTA MARIA WRECKED. LA NAVIDAD FORTI- ADVENTURES WITH THE NATIVES. ON the evening of the 14th of October, the admiral got under way, and left San Salvador, steering amid green and beautiful islands, which appeared innumerable. He at once concluded that he was in that great archipelago, reported by his favourite author as consisting of seven thousand four hundred and fifty-eight spice-bearing islands, and lying off the eastern coast of Asia. On the 16th he landed on, and took possession of another island, which he devoutly named "Santa Maria de la Concepcion," and where he found the natives friendly and confiding as before. At the island of Exuma, where he next went on shore, the inhabitants, as usual, thronged around him with their little offerings. The disposition of all these islanders appears to have been eminently simple, amiable and unsuspicious. "I am of opinion," says Columbus, in his journal, "that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion." In Exumeta, where, in search of his Japanese potentate, the admiral next touched, his soul, ever keenly sensitive to the beauties of nature, was filled with rapture at the loveliness of the scenery and the climate. In his communication to the sovereigns, he says, "It seems as if one would never desire to depart from hence. I know not where first to go, nor are my eyes ever weary of gazing on the beautiful verdure. * Here are large lakes, and the groves about them are marvellous, and here and in all the island * * every thing is green, and the herbage as in April in Andalusia. The singing of the birds is such, that it seems as if one would never desire to depart hence. There are flocks of parrots which obscure the sun, and other birds, large and small, of so many kinds and so different from ours, that it is wonderful; and besides, there are trees of a thousand species, each having its particular fruit, and all of marvellous flavor, so that I am in the greatest trouble in the world not to know them, for I am very certain that they are each of great value. * As I arrived at this Cape, there came off a fragrance so good and soft of the flowers or trees of the land, that it was the sweetest thing in the world." * * The Indians here told him, that in a great island named Cuba, to the southward, much gold abounded, and he understood them as describing large ships which came there to trade for spices and the precious metals. His sanguine imagination at once sprang to the exultant conclusion, that this was the desired Cipango; that the ships in question were those of the Grand Khan; and that the expected fruit of his expedition lay ripe before him. Forthwith he got under way (October 24th), resolved first to visit the island, and then to cross to the mainland, and deliver his letters to the Khan. Three days he sailed south-west, and on the fourth, beheld the high and mountainous shores of Cuba stretching before him. The squadron anchored in a beautiful river, and the commander in his boat explored the country, elighted with its beauty. The most graceful of palms, differing from those of the Old World, every where met the eye; and he fancied that amid the varied perfumes of tropical vegetation, he could distinguish the flavour of oriental spices. Coasting westward, the voyagers fell in with several villages, in which were found implements evincing considerable art and ingenuity. By another strange mistake, the result of imperfect communication with the natives, Columbus now concluded that he was on the mainland of India, and, by his interpreters, endeavoured to reassure the alarmed villagers, and to convince them that he had no connection with the Khan, whom he supposed the object of their especial terror. Encouraged by the friendly message, though part of it only was intelligible, they ventured, in great numbers, to the ships. The admiral, supposing that the capital of Tartary, the seat of the Great Khan, could lie at no great distance in the interior, dispatched messengers in quest of it-among them a converted Jew, whom he had taken out expressly to further communication with that poten tate, and who was equipped with a knowledge of Hebrew, Chaldaic and Arabic. Penetrating the country for some distance, this embassy came upon a village of a thousand inhabitants, from whom they received great reverence and hospitality, but on whom the oriental learning of the interpreter was quite thrown away. These people smoked a fragrant herb, prepared in rolls, which they called Tabacos-a name since universally applied to the plant itself. Much cotton was cultivated by them, and manufactured into the simple articles which a tropical climate requires. In the south-east, Columbus was now informed, was a land called Babeque, rich in gold, which the people there hammered into bars. From this, and from the name Quisqueya, which they occasionally used, he concluded at once that the latter could be no other than Quisai, the celestial city of the Khan, described, with such lavish ornament, by the enthusiastic Polo. Accordingly, turning from a course which would soon have taken him to the mainland of America, Columbus, on the 12th of October, retraced his way, sailing in quest of the ever-fleeting Land of Promise. During this voyage, rendered tedious by baffling winds, Martin Alonzo Pinzon, whose vessel, the Pinta, was the fleetest of the squadron, deserted him, and was soon lost to sight. The admiral slowly worked his way eastward along the shore, making fresh surveys, and falling in with new tribes of the natives. Their canoes, hollowed from the Ceyba-tree, were of gigantic size-some of them, he says, being capable of accommodating an hundred and fifty persons. It was not until the 5th of December, that the voyagers, having rounded the eastern extremity of Cuba, beheld a new land, high and mountainous, rising in the south-east. It was the beautiful and unfortunate island of Hayti, on which Columbus, in honour of his adopted country, bestowed the name of Hispaniola, but which has since resumed its native appellation. On landing, a party was dispatched into the interior, and found a large village, the inhabitants of which fled at their approach. Encouraged by the assurances of an interpreter, they at length ventured back, to the number of two thousand, and with gestures of the deepest reverence and submission, received the mysterious strangers. Every tribute of simple hospitality was afforded them, and the Indians brought, among other offerings, great numbers of tame parrots, as presents for their guests. Some of these birds had yellow rings on their necks, a peculiarity which Pliny had remarked of the parrots of India, and which confirmed the sanguine conviction of Columbus that he had arrived on some unknown shore of the Orient. The opinion was not confined to him. "The popiniays and many other things," afterwards writes the learned Peter Martyr, "doe declare that these Ilands savour somewhat of India, eyther being near vnto it, or else of the same nature." The voyagers were enchanted at the beauty of the island, the delicious mildness of the climate, and the gentle manners of the kindly inhabitants. Seldom has the savage life been found in a form more happy, innocent, and alluring, than that depicted by the early voyagers to these fortunate shores. The continual struggle for shelter, warmth, and food, which in general forms the misery of an uncivilized people, was here almost entirely unknown. The mildness of the air and the exuberant fertility of the earth freed them from the first evils of barbarism, and their mild and gentle temperament of character allayed the usual ferocity of savage enmity. War was unfrequent and not sanguinary, and in general the various tribes mingled together throughout the islands in perfect confidence and friendliness. Columbus is warm in their praise. "They are a very loving race," he informs the sovereigns, "and without covetousness; they are adapted to any use, and I declare to your Highnesses that there is not a better country nor a better people in the world than these. They love their neighbours as they do themselves, and their language is the smoothest and sweetest in the world, being always uttered with smiles. They all, both men and women, go totally naked; but your Highnesses may be assured that they possess many commendable customs; their king is served with great reverence, and every thing is practised with such decency that it is highly pleas ing to witness it." "They display," he says, elsewhere, "a frankness and liberality in their demeanour, which no one would believe without witnessing it. No request of any thing from them is ever refused, but they rather invite acceptance of what they possess, and manifest such a generosity, they would give away their own hearts." He set up crosses for their edification, and, from the readiness with which they imitated the Spaniards in making that holy sign, inferred, rather prematurely, that they were ripe and ready for conversion. They willingly gave their guests what gold they had, and still repeated the alluring accounts of islands, richer in the coveted ore, lying still beyond. A cacique or native chief of high rank, named Guacanagari, had dispatched an embassy of welcome to the strangers, and had enter |