was very much smaller than it really is, and that Cipango was only three
thousand miles west of Spain. For a time people laughed at the idea of
sailing westward to Cipango and Cathay. But at length Columbus secured
enough money to fit out a little fleet.

[Sidenote: Columbus reaches America, 1492. _Higginson, 35-37; Eggleston,
3-5_.]

5. The Voyage, 1492.--Columbus left Spain in August, 1492, and,
refitting at the Canaries, sailed westward into the Sea of Darkness. At
ten o'clock in the evening of October 20, 1492, looking out into the
night, he saw a light in the distance. The fleet was soon stopped. When
day broke, there, sure enough, was land. A boat was lowered, and
Columbus, going ashore, took possession of the new land for Ferdinand
and Isabella, King and Queen of Aragon and Castile. The natives came to
see the discoverers. They were reddish in color and interested
Columbus--for were they not inhabitants of the Far East? So he called
them Indians.

[Illustration: SHIPS, SEA-MONSTERS, AND INDIANS. From an early Spanish
book on America.]

[Sidenote: The Indians, _Higginson, 13-24; Eggleston, 71-76_.]

[Sidenote: Columbus discovers Cuba.]

6. The Indians and the Indies.--These Indians were not at all like
those wonderful people of Cathay and Cipango whom Marco Polo had
described. Instead of wearing clothes of silk and of gold embroidered
satin, these people wore no clothes of any kind. But it was plain enough