| Show OLD STORY OF VOYAGE OF 1492 abi copher C columbus was a brave big man with a long red freckled face such was the description of the discoverer of america 1 in one of the first printed accounts of ills his discoveries the new world by chael published at strassburg in 1534 which has just como come to light in the alie collection of old scientific books in the smithsonian library herrs accounts are quite naive thus lie he relates the columbus story lie he had good hopes that lie could discover before sundown several islands which would be of great pleasure and use to tile the people with regard to those islands that lay in front of india lie he himself expected to find costly pearls and nil all sorts of precious stones also spices and much gold the king and queen made fun of him us its a man who was engaged in a foolish task and let the alic thing go as it a good joke at last after eight years had gone by and christopher continued to beseech the king the king began to take the proposition a little more to heart to find out what hat was back of that man and why lie he stuck to ills his proposition then the king commanded that a galley bo be outfitted and lie he also supplied two swift ships with provisions and whatever else was necessary when these ships were ready columbus sailed froni from the spanish coast on the first day of the autumn month in the year after the birth of christ 1402 and thus went on ills his long desired journey after lealnd the lie canaries which were infested with cannibals relates columbus sailed for thirty three days and nights steadily llly toward the setting sun and saw no land at last lie ho saw while on watch an island and as lie came closer he saw six islands two large ones one of these lie he called Ill and the other lie called johanna they have never been able to determine definitely whether tile the island johanna was an island or not still as they sailed along tile the coast they heard many birds sing especially nightingales which lived in the lie thick forests in the winter wint cri they also saw much fresh water there which was pleasant to drink and many large and beautiful ports as they sailed with the northwest wind ind after they had miles mid and still found no end cod they it to be a n part of a continent therefore they considered to q retrace their journey to this the storms contributed tor for the musts masts began to loosen therefore collim columbus bu s coinman commanded ded the ship to tat be burned turned jn the direction of the ra S ng sun thus they came soon to the island which they named lil and there they explored the land diligently then toward midnight as they neared a tape cape tile the large larce ship struck a roe rock so that it went apart the boat could not sink however because th estone was so flat quickly they transshipped trans shipped to another boat and saved their companions who were now halt half dead rut but when they reached the land and saw the inhabitants Ita lits the latter led fled quickly into the thick forest lust just like hen n dog 11 chases a rabbit smithsonian anstr institution bulletin |
