2.  Early European Travelers.—­The people of Europe knew more of the lands of Asia than they knew of Vinland.  For hundreds of years missionaries, traders, and travelers visited the Far East.  They brought back to Europe silks and spices, and ornaments of gold and of silver.  They told marvelous tales of rich lands and great princes.  One of these travelers was a Venetian named Marco Polo.  He told of Cathay or China and of Cipango or Japan.  This last country was an island.  Its king was so rich that even the floors of his palaces were of pure gold.  Suddenly the Turks conquered the lands between Europe and the golden East.  They put an end to this trading and traveling.  New ways to India, China, and Japan must be found.

[Sidenote:  Portuguese seamen.]

3.  Early Portuguese Sailors.—­One way to the East seemed to be around the southern end of Africa—­if it should turn out that there was a southern end to that Dark Continent.  In 1487 Portuguese seamen sailed around the southern end of Africa and, returning home, called that point the Cape of Storms.  But the King of Portugal thought that now there was good hope of reaching India by sea.  So he changed the name to Cape of Good Hope.  Ten years later a brave Portuguese sailor, Vasco da Gama, actually reached India by the Cape of Good Hope, and returned safely to Portugal (1497).

[Sidenote:  Columbus and his beliefs. Higginson, 31-35; Eggleston, 1-3; American History Leaflets, No. 1.]

4.  Columbus.—­Meantime Christopher Columbus, an Italian, had returned from an even more startling voyage.  From what he had read, and from what other men had told him, he had come to believe that the earth was round.  If this were really true, Cipango and Cathay were west of Europe as well as east of Europe.  Columbus also believed that the earth 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.]