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Show Discovery Day J ONG before Chrisiopnrr Columbus discovered the uland which the natives living on it culled Gusnahanl and which he claimed for Spain and renamed San Salvador, he had made two other important discoveries. If he had not, probably prob-ably he never would have visited these parts seeking a short westerly route to India nor ran we ever know by what other name our Indians In-dians would have been called. Columbus' first important discovery was that he didn't like the trade of weaving, taught to him by his father in Genoa. Though he became proficient in the art and followed it for a time, he gave it up. His second valuable discovery was that of a Cooperative mother-in-law, consequent upon his marriage to Felipa Moniz Perestrello mother ef little Diego, the schoolboys' hero who had died before the great voyage of discovery began. Quitting his looms, he took to seafaring about twenty years before hit discovery of America. The stories of those years are not found in most school histories, but are still tnpnntch adventure tales. He survived a sea fight one time on hia way to England. He made his way by ship to the northern seas. He was settled down, as much as a man of his predilections could be. in commerce com-merce at Lisbon, when he wooed and won Felipa. The mother-in-law angle came into the story When she gave him certain papers of Perestrello which determined Christopher to devote himself to the sea solely for discovery. ! Before he set sail with the Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria from Palos, he had many adventuresome adven-turesome voyages hither and yon, had performed j distinguished services for Spain and after a romance ro-mance with Beatrix Enriquez de Arana became I the father of Ferdinand. This was a smart piece ef work, as King Ferdinand sat upon Spain's throne. He was aa smart when he founded a town and named It Isabella, i Every schoolboy knows the rest of the story i the setting out on August 3, 1402, the mutiny en ! route, the first sight of land, the birth of Co- lumbut' notion that Cuba was Japan (a belief he ( held to his death), the accusations lodged against him In Spain before his return, his arrival after the homebound trip, being restored to grace by his sovereigns, and hia second expedition, from i which ht returned to Spain In irons, prisoner i of Francisco de Bobadilla. Fortune did not altogether turn against him, (or ha was outfitted with ships for another expedition ex-pedition to find the route to India, a heroic and dramatic enterprise that ended in tragedy, Columbus Co-lumbus and tha survivors of tha venture returning return-ing to 6 pain from Santo Domingo. Isabella, his gret hope, had died. King Ferdinand spurned 11 hia appeals for aid. ' Columbus died at Valladolid In 1306. A wanderer wan-derer almost hia whole life, hia body was denied rest In death. First buried in Seville, it, with that of Diego's, was removed to tha cathedral Of San Domingo, Haiti. When it was ceded to tha French, tha bodies were placed in the cathedral ca-thedral at Havana. After Spain's loss of Cuba, tha bones of father and son were returned to Seville. It la not tha birth of Columbus that Is celebrated cele-brated today, for authorities place it between 1438 and 1457. To pay respect to his memory, to honor him for tha fortitude with which he bora disappointments and cruelties, to mark adat that changed the history of the world and advanced ad-vanced tha time of the settling of America and of reeling on its soil a new pattern of government seertlng th right of tha Individual to "life, liberty and the pursuit qf happiness" with equality equal-ity of opportunity and of protection under the law. we, call October 13 Columbus day. It Is a legal or public holiday In 39 states. There la now a fairly abundant literature en Columbus. His earlier years furnish stimulating. stimu-lating. Inspiring and thrilling reading. They afford an unexampled opportunity to study what part ha played as a forerunner of momentous event. In those early years he formed the spiritual spir-itual hardihood, the moral fiber, the leadership men were later to respect, which gave him his place In history. |