(Discovery Day, October 12th)
_Showing that one should follow his faith, and maintain his belief,
if he expects to discover any great thing, or do any great work._
Nearly five hundred years ago in Genoa, Italy, there lived a man
who made his living by carding wool. His oldest son was named
Christopher Columbus. The boy loved the sea, and often sat on
the docks and watched the ships come in and go out. When he was
fourteen years of age he became a sailor, and learned all about
ships and the great ocean.
Most people at that time thought the world was flat. Columbus
and a few other wise men believed it was round, and that a ship
could sail around the earth, but there was nobody brave enough to
undertake so dreadful an enterprise. What was to keep people from
falling off the earth, and how could they live with their heads
downward, and how could a ship ever sail up again, once it was on
the under side of the earth?
When Columbus became a grown man he said he wanted to sail around
the earth. He spent all his own money trying to persuade kings and
wise men to help him. Nobody would listen to him long. At length he
became very poor. Even the children in the streets made fun of him,
and called him “the crazy stranger.”
At last Columbus came to the Court of Spain and applied to
Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of that country. They
examined his maps and charts and listened to his arguments proving
that the world was round. He asked them for ships and a crew, that
he might undertake the great voyage.
Ferdinand was opposed to the project. He had spent much money in
war and did not care to waste any more on so foolish an enterprise
as that proposed by Columbus. His wise men said the world might be
round, but they doubted it. Isabella, however, was much interested
in what Columbus had said. She begged the king to allow Columbus
to proceed and offered to sell her jewels to raise the money.
Thus it was that Columbus got his three ships and his men and
sailed away across the Atlantic Ocean one day in August to see if
the world was round. The weather was beautiful and the breezes blew
from behind, and the ships sailed on and on. The men grew afraid of
the big ocean and the great distance, but Columbus held his course.
They threatened to mutiny and turn back, but Columbus begged for
three days more.
At length land appeared and on October 12, 1492, Columbus landed on
the island of San Salvador. He bowed down and kissed the ground and
wept tears of joy. He did not know that he had landed on an unknown
shore, but we know now he had discovered our own America.