As far as Columbus was concerned he was sure that he had found some one of the outermost islands of Cipango or Japan.  So he dropped his anchors, ordered out his rowboat, and prepared to take possession of the land in the name of the queen of Spain, who had helped him in his enterprise.

Just why or by what right a man from one country could sail up to the land belonging to another country and, planting in the ground the flag of his king, could say, “This land belongs to my king!” is a hard question to answer.  But there is an old saying that tells us, Might makes right; and the servants of the kings and queens—­the adventurers and explorers of old—­used to go sailing about the world with this idea in their heads, and as soon as they came to a land they, had never seen before, up would go their flag, and they would say, This land is mine and my king’s!  They would not of course do this in any of the well-known or “Christian lands” of Europe; but they believed that all “pagan lands” belonged by right to the first European king whose sailors should discover and claim them.

So Columbus lowered a boat from the Santa Maria, and with two of his chief men and some sailors for rowers he pulled off toward the island.

But before he did so, he had to listen to the cheers and congratulations of the very sailors who, only a few days before, were ready to kill him.  But, you see, this man whom they thought crazy had really brought them to the beautiful land, just as he had promised.  It does make such a difference, you know, in what people say whether a thing turns out right or not.

Columbus, as I say, got into his rowboat with his chief inspector and his lawyer.  He wore a crimson cloak over his armor, and in his hand he held the royal banner of Spain.  Following him came Captain Alonso Pinzon in a rowboat from the Pinta, and in a rowboat from the Nina Captain Vincent Pinzon.  Each of these captains carried the “banner of the green cross” on which were to be seen the initials of the king and queen of Spain.

As they rowed toward the land they saw some people on the shore.  They were not dressed in the splendid clothes the Spaniards expected to find the people of Cathay wearing.  In fact, they did not have on much of anything but grease and paint.  And the land showed no signs of the marble temples and gold-roofed palaces the sailors expected to find.  It was a little, low, flat green island, partly covered with trees and with what looked like a lake in the center.

This land was, in fact, one of the three thousand keys or coral islands that stretch from the capes of Florida to the island of Hayti, and are known as the Bahama Islands.  The one upon which Columbus landed was called by the natives Guanahani, and was either the little island now marked on the map as Cat Island or else the one called Watling’s Island.  Just which of these it was has been discussed over and over again, but careful scholars have now but little doubt that it was the one known to-day as Watling’s Island.  To see no sign of glittering palaces and gayly dressed people was quite a disappointment to Columbus.  But then, he said, this, is probably the island farthest out to sea, and the people who live here are not the real Cathay folks.  We shall see them very soon.