Part 17

Before this time few people, even though they were kings and princes, knew how to read, because there were no books to teach them how to read and few books for them to read if they had learned, and so what was the use of learning.

You can see how difficult it must have been for people throughout the Middle Ages, without books or newspapers or anything printed, to learn what was going on in the world, or to learn about anything that one wanted to know.

But, now that printing had been invented, all that was changed. Story-books and school-books and other books could be made in large numbers and very cheaply. People who never before were able to have any books could now own them. Every one could now read all the famous stories of the world and learn about geography, about history, about anything he wanted to know. So the invention of printing was soon to change everything.

The Hundred Years’ War had at last come to an end soon after the invention of printing.

At the same time something else that was a thousand years old came to an end.

The Mohammedans whom we haven’t heard of for a long time, had tried to capture Constantinople in the seventh century, but had been stopped, as I told you, by tar and pitch that the Christians poured down on them.

But in 1458 the Mohammedans once again attacked Constantinople. This time, however, the Mohammedans were Turks, and they didn’t try to batter down the walls of the city with arrows. They used gunpowder and cannon. Cannon had been used at Crécy more than a hundred years before, but they had done little damage. Since that time, however, they had become greatly improved. Against the power of this new invention the walls of Constantinople could not stand, and finally the city fell. So Constantinople became Turkish, and the magnificent Church of Santa Sophia, which Justinian had built a thousand years before, was turned into a Mohammedan mosque. This was the end of all that was left of the old Roman Empire--the other half of which had fallen in 476.

Ever after the downfall of Constantinople in 1453, wars were fought with gunpowder. No longer were castles of any use. No longer were knights in armor of any use. No longer were bows and arrows of any use--against this new kind of fighting. There was a new sound in the world, the sound of cannon-firing: “Boom! boom! boom!” Before this, battles had not been very noisy except for shouts of the victors and the moans of the dying. So 1453 is called the end of the Middle Ages, and the beginning of the New Ages that were to follow.

Gunpowder had put an end to the Middle Ages. The invention of printing and that little magic needle, the compass, did a great deal to start the New Ages.

59

A Sailor Who Found a New World

What book do you like best?

“Alice in Wonderland”?

“Gulliver’s Travels”?

One of the first books to be printed and one that boys at that time liked best was

“The Travels of Marco Polo”

One of the boys who loved to read these stories of those far-away countries of the East with their gold and precious jewels was an Italian named Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus was born in the city of Genoa, which is in the top of the “boot.” Like a great many other boys who were born in seaport towns, he had heard the sailors on the wharves tell yarns of their travels, and his greatest ambition in life was to go off to sea and visit all the wonderful lands of which he had read and been told. At last the chance came, and, though only fourteen years old, he made his first voyage. After that, Columbus made many other voyages and grew to be a middle-aged man, but he never got to these countries he had read about in “The Travels of Marco Polo.”

Many sea-captains of that time were trying to find a shorter way to India than the long and tiresome one that Marco Polo had taken. They felt sure there was a shorter way by sea and now that they had the compass to guide them they dared to go far off searching for such a waterway.

By this time many books had already been printed. Some of these books on travel were written by the old Greeks and Romans and declared what was thought to be a crazy notion that the world was not flat but round. Columbus had read these books and he said to himself that if the world is really round, one should be able to reach India by sailing toward the west. It should be much easier and shorter that way than if one took a boat to the end of the Mediterranean Sea and then went over land for thousands of miles the way Marco Polo had gone.

The more Columbus thought of the idea, the surer he was that this could be done and the more eager he was to get a ship to try out his idea. But every one laughed at him and his notion as foolish. Of course, being only a sailor, he had no money to buy or hire a ship in which to make the trial and he could find no one to help him.

So first Columbus went to the little country called Portugal. Portugal was right on the ocean’s edge. It was to be expected then that the people of Portugal would be famous sailors, and they _were_--as famous as the Phenicians had been of old. So Columbus thought they might be interested and help. Besides, the king of Portugal was extremely interested in discovering new lands.

But the king of Portugal thought, as the others did, that Columbus was foolish and would have nothing to do with him. The king wanted to make quite sure, however, that there was nothing in Columbus’s idea. Furthermore, if there were any new land, he wanted to be the first to discover it himself. So he secretly sent some of his sea-captains off to explore. After a while they one and all returned and stated that they had been as far as it was safe to go and that positively there was nothing at all to the west but water, water, water.

So Columbus in disgust then went to the next country--Spain--which at that time was ruled by King Ferdinand and his queen Isabella. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were just then too busy to listen to Columbus. They were fighting with the Mohammedans, who had been in their country ever since 732, when, you remember, they got as far north as France. But at last Ferdinand and Isabella succeeded in driving the Mohammedans out of their country, and then Queen Isabella became very much interested in Columbus’s ideas and plans and finally promised to help him. She even said she would sell her jewels, if necessary, to give him the money to buy ships. But she didn’t have to do this. So Columbus with her help was able to buy three little ships named the _Niña_, _Pinta_, and _Santa María_. So small were these three boats that nowadays we would have been afraid to go even out of sight of shore in them.

At last everything was ready, and Columbus set sail from the Spanish seaport of Palos with about a hundred sailors. Many of the sailors were criminals, who had been given a choice between prison and this dangerous voyage. They chose to risk their lives rather than to stay in prison. Directly toward the setting sun into the broad Atlantic, Columbus steered. Past the Canary Islands he sailed, on and on, day and night, always in the same direction.

See if you can get this idea--the idea that every one had at that time--that all there was of the world was what we have so far been studying about. Try to forget that you ever heard of North and South America. They, of course, knew of no such lands. Try to think of Columbus on deck scanning the waves in the daytime or peering off in the darkness at night, hoping sooner or later to sight, not a new land--he wasn’t looking for a new land--but for China or India.

Columbus had been out for over a month, and his sailors began to get worried. It seemed impossible that any sea could be so vast, so endless, with nothing in sight before, behind, or on either side. They began to think about returning. They began to be afraid they would never reach home. They begged Columbus to turn back. They said it was crazy to go any farther; there was nothing but water ahead of them, and they could go on forever and ever, and there would never be anything else.

Columbus argued with them, but it was no use. Finally he promised to turn back if they did not reach something very soon. As the days went on still with nothing new, the sailors plotted to throw Columbus overboard at night and so get rid of him. They would then sail home and tell those back in Spain that Columbus had fallen overboard by accident.

At last, when all had given up hope except Columbus, a sailor saw a branch with berries on it floating in the water. Where could it have come from? Then birds were seen flying--birds that never get very far away from shore. Then one dark night, more than two months after they had set sail, they saw far off ahead a twinkling light. Probably no little light ever gave so much joy in the world. A light meant only one thing--human beings--and land, land--land at last! And then on the morning of October 12, 1492, the three boats ran ashore. Columbus leaped out, and falling on his knees, offered up a prayer of thanks to God. He then raised the Spanish flag, took possession of the land in the name of Spain, and called it “San Salvador,” which means in Spanish, “Holy Saviour.”

Now, Columbus thought this land was India that he had at last reached, though of course we know now that a great continent, North and South America, blocked his way to India. In fact, it was only a little island off the coast of America where he had landed.

Strange men were the human beings he saw there. Their bodies and faces were painted, and they had feathers in their hair. As Columbus thought they must be people of India, he called them Indians, the name they still bear.

Columbus went on to other islands near-by; but he did not find any gold nor precious stones such as he had expected, or the wonders that Marco Polo had described; and as he had been away so long, he started back again to Spain the way he had come. With him he took several Indians to show the people at home, and also some tobacco, which he found them smoking and which no one had even seen or heard of before.

When he at last reached home safely again, people were overjoyed at seeing him and hearing of his discoveries. Everyone was wildly excited--but only for a while. People soon began to say it was nothing for Columbus to have sailed westward until land was found, that anyone could do that.

One day when Columbus was dining with the king’s nobles, who were trying to belittle what he had done, he took an egg and, passing it around the table, asked each one if he could stand it on end. No one could. When it came back to Columbus, he set it down just hard enough to crack the end slightly and flatten it. Of course, _then_ it stood up. “You see,” said Columbus, “it’s very easy if you only know how. So it’s easy enough to sail west until you find land after I have done it once and shown you how.”

Columbus made three other voyages to America, four in all, but he never knew he had discovered a new world. Once he landed in South America, but he never reached North America itself.

As Columbus did not bring back any of the precious jewels or wonderful things that those in Spain expected him to, people lost interest in him. Some were so spiteful and jealous of his success that they even charged him with wrongdoing, and King Ferdinand sent out a man to take his place. Columbus was put in chains and shipped home. Although he was promptly set free, Columbus kept the chains as a reminder of men’s ingratitude and asked to have them buried with him. After this, Columbus made one other voyage, but when at last he died in Spain he was alone and almost forgotten even by his friends. What an end for the man who had given a new continent to the world and changed all history!

Of all the men of whom we have heard, whether kings or queens, princes or emperors, none can compare with Columbus. Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, Charlemagne, were all killers. They took away. But Columbus _gave_. He gave us a new world. Without money or friends or luck, he stuck to his ideas through long years of discouragement. Although made fun of and called a crank and even treated as a criminal he never

gave up, gave out, nor gave in!

60

Fortune-Hunters

The New World had no name.

It was simply called the “New World,” as one might speak of the “new baby.”

It had to have a name, but what should it be?

Of course if we could have chosen the name, we should have called it “Columbia” after Columbus. But another name was selected, and this is how it happened.

An Italian named Americus made a voyage to the southern part of the New World. Then he wrote a book about his travels. People read his book and began to speak of the new land that Americus described as Americus’s country. And so the New World came to be called America after Americus, although in all fairness it should have been named after Columbus; don’t you think so? Children sometimes have names given them which they would like to change when they grow up. But then it is too late. So we often speak and sing of our country as Columbia, although that is not the name on the map. And that is why we call a great many cities and towns and districts and streets Columbus or Columbia.

After Columbus had shown that there was no danger of falling off the world and that there really was land off to the west, almost every one who had been hunting for India now rushed off in the direction Columbus had taken. “Copy cats!” A genius starts something; then thousands follow--imitate. Every sea-captain who could do so now hurried off to the west to look for new countries, and so many discoveries were made that this time is known as the Age of Discovery. Most of these men were trying to get to India. They were after gold and jewels and spices, which they thought they would find in India in great quantities.

Now we can understand why people might go long distances in search of gold and precious stones, but they also went after spices--such as cloves and pepper--and you may wonder why they were so eager to get spices? You yourself may not like pepper very much, and you may dislike cloves. But in those days they didn’t have refrigerators filled with ice, and meats and other foods were often spoiled. We would have thought such food unfit to eat. But they covered it with spices to kill the bad flavor, and then food could be eaten that otherwise one could not have swallowed. Spices didn’t grow in Europe--only in the far east. So people paid big prices to get them, and that is why men made long journeys after them.

A Portuguese sailor named Vasco da Gama was one of those who were trying to get to India all the way by water. He did not, however, sail _west_ as Columbus had done, but _south_ down around Africa. Others had tried before to get to India by going south and around Africa, but none had gone more than part way. Many frightful stories were told by those who had tried but had at last turned back. These stories were like the tales of “Sindbad the Sailor.” They said that the sea became boiling hot; they said that there was a magnetic mountain which would pull out the iron bolts in the ship, and the ship would then fall to pieces; they said that there was a whirlpool into which a ship would be irresistibly drawn--down, down, down to the bottom; they said there were sea-serpents, monsters so large that they could swallow a ship at one gulp. The southern point of Africa was called the Cape of Storms, and the very name seemed to be bad luck, so that it was changed to Cape of Good Hope.

In spite of all such scary stories, Vasco da Gama kept on his way south. Finally, after many hardships and many adventures, he passed round the Cape of Good Hope. Then he sailed on to India, got the spices that then were so highly prized, and returned safely home. This was in 1497, five years after Columbus’s first voyage, and Vasco da Gama was the first one to go to India by water. Spain had the honor of discovering a new land. Portugal had the honor of first reaching India by water.

England also was to have the honor of making discoveries. In the same year that Vasco da Gama reached India, a man named Cabot set sail from England on a voyage of discovery. His first trip was a failure, but he tried again and finally came to Canada and sailed along the coast of what is now the United States. These countries he claimed for England, but he returned home, and England did nothing more about his discoveries until about a hundred years later.

Another Spaniard named Balboa explored the central part of America. He was on the little strip of land that joined North and South America which we now call the Isthmus of Panama. Suddenly he came to another great ocean. This strange new ocean he named the South Sea, for although the Isthmus of Panama connects North and South America, it bends so that one looks _south_ over the ocean.

Then came the longest trip of all. A Portuguese named Magellan wanted to find a way to India _through_ the New World, for he thought there must be some opening through which he might pass this new land that blocked the way. He tried to get his own country to help him. But again Portugal made the same mistake she had made in the case of Columbus. She would not listen to Magellan. So Magellan went to Spain, and Spain gave him five ships.

With these five ships Magellan sailed off across the sea. When he reached South America he sailed south along the shore trying to find a passage through the land. One place after another seemed to be the passage for which he was looking, but each one turned out to be nothing but a river’s mouth. Then one of his ships was wrecked, and only four were left.

With these four ships he still kept on down the coast until he finally reached what is now Cape Horn. Through the dangerous opening there, since called after him the Straits of Magellan, he worked his way. One ship deserted and went back home the way it had come. Only three were then left.

With these three ships he at last came into the great ocean on the other side, the same ocean that Balboa had called the South Sea. This Magellan named the “Pacific,” which means “calm,” because after all the storms they had had it seemed so calm and quiet. But food and water became scarce and finally gave out. Magellan’s men suffered terribly from thirst and hunger and even ate the rats that are always to be found on shipboard. Many of his men were taken sick and died. Still he kept on, though he had lost most of the crew with which he had set out. At last he reached what are now the Philippine Islands, where the people were savages. Here he and his men got into a battle with the natives, and Magellan was killed. There were now not enough men left to sail three ships, and so one of these was burned, and only two were then left.

Two of the ships, however, out of the five with which Magellan had started out, still kept on. Then one of these was lost, disappeared, and was never heard of again, and only a single ship named the _Victoria_, remained. It seemed as if not one ship, not one man, would be left to tell the tale.

Around Africa the _Victoria_ struggled. Magellan’s men, worn out with hunger and cold and hardships, still battled against wind and storm. At last a leaky and broken ship with only eighteen men sailed into the harbor from which it had set out more than three years before. And so the _Victoria--Victory!_--Magellan’s ship, but without the heroic Magellan--was the first ship to sail completely round the world. This voyage settled forever the argument that had been going on for ages, whether the earth was round or flat, for a ship had actually sailed around the world! And yet in spite of this proof for many more years thereafter there were people who still would not believe the world was round, and even to-day there are people who say the world is flat, but now we call them _cranks_.

61

The Land of Enchantment or the Search for Gold and Adventure

All sorts of marvelous tales were told about the wealth and wonders of the New World.

It was said that somewhere in the New World there was a _fountain of youth_, and that if you bathed in it or drank of its water, you would become young again.

It was said that somewhere in the New World there was a city called El Dorado built of solid gold.

So every one who liked adventure and could get enough money together went off in search of these things that might make him famous or healthy, wealthy or wise, or forever young.

One of these men was Ponce de León. Ponce de León was looking for the _fountain of youth_. While searching for this life-giving water, he discovered Florida. But instead of finding the fountain of youth, he lost his life in fighting with the Indians.

Another one of these men was de Soto. He was searching for El Dorado, the city of gold. While doing so he discovered the longest river in the world--the Mississippi. But instead of finding El Dorado, de Soto was taken sick with fever and died. Now, the Spaniards, to make the Indians fear them, had said that de Soto was a god and could not die. So in order to cover up the fact that de Soto had actually died his men buried him at night in the river he had discovered. They then told the Indians that he had gone on a trip to heaven and would presently return.

The central part of America was called Mexico. Here lived at that time a tribe of Indians known as Aztecs. These Aztecs were more civilized than the other Indians that the explorers had come across. They did not live in tents but in houses. They built fine temples and palaces. They made roads and aqueducts, something like those of the Romans. They had enormous treasures of silver and gold. And yet the Aztecs worshiped idols and sacrificed human beings to them. Their king was a famous chief named Montezuma.

A Spaniard named Cortés was sent to conquer these Aztecs. He landed on the shore of Mexico and burned his ships so that his sailors and soldiers could not turn back. The Aztecs thought these white-faced people were gods who had come down from heaven and that their ships with their white sails were white-winged birds that had borne them. They had never seen horses, some of which the Spaniards had brought over across the water, and they were astonished at what seemed to them terrible beasts that the white men rode. When the Spaniards fired their cannons, the Aztecs were terrified. They thought it was thunder and lightning that the Spaniards had let loose.

Cortés moved on toward the Aztec capital, the City of Mexico, which was built on an island in the middle of a lake. The natives he met on the way fought desperately, but as they had only such weapons as men used in the Stone and Bronze Ages, they were no match against the guns and cannons of the Spaniards.

Montezuma, their chief, wishing to make friends with these white gods, sent Cortés rich gifts, cart-loads of gold, and when Cortés reached the capital city Montezuma treated him as a guest instead of an enemy and entertained him and could not do enough for him. Cortés told Montezuma all about the Christian religion and tried to make him a Christian also, but Montezuma thought his own gods just as good as the Christian God, and he would not change. Then suddenly Cortés took Montezuma prisoner, and terrible fighting began. At last Montezuma was killed, and Cortés of course succeeded in conquering Mexico, for though the Aztecs fought desperately and bravely, shot and shell were too much for them.