The ladies now sought the deck of the “Hallena,” and were soon followed by the gentlemen, who smoked their fragrant Havanas, enjoying every moment’s vacation from business anxieties at home.  The yacht, like a slender greyhound, in charge of the first officer was swiftly running towards the Isle of Elba, en route to Naples.  The stars never shone more brilliantly in the Italian sky, and land breezes were mingling their rich odors with the salt sea air.

The spell of Columbus’s great discovery stirred the soul of Harry Hall.  Holding his half-smoked cigar, he repeated the familiar couplet,

  “Man’s inhumanity to man
   Makes countless thousands mourn.”

“Strange that four centuries go by before even Genoa erects his monument, which we have admired to-day; though monuments to the memory of Columbus have been erected in many cities, yet, how tardy the world was to appreciate the value of Columbus’s discovery, a third of the land of the globe.  How pitiful the last days of Columbus, who, old and ill, returning in 1504 from his fourth voyage to the new world, found his patroness Isabella dying, and Ferdinand heartless.  With no money to pay his bills, Columbus died May 20th, 1505, in poor quarters at Valladolid, his last words being, ‘Into thy hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit.’  It is now natural perhaps that many cities should claim his birth and his bones.”

“Yes,” said Lucille, “how encouraging some of the world’s kind epitaphs would be if they were only spoken before death came.  Two hemispheres now eagerly study the inspiring story of Columbus’s faith, courage, perseverance, and success.”

Henley said, “Captain Hall, you are young yet, but by the time you reach my age you will have little use for the sentiment young people so often indulge in.  When New York tries her hand with expositions she will doubtless deal with facts.  The truth is, Columbus was human like the rest of us, and followed in the wake of others for his own personal aggrandizement.  He was not the first man to discover America.  The Norsemen antedated him by five centuries.”

“What if the Norsemen did first discover America?” said Colonel Harris.  “The discoveries of the vikings were not utilized by civilization.  It is held by the courts that a patent is valid only in the name of the inventor who first gives the invention a useful introduction.  Columbus’s discovery was fortunately made at a time when civilization was able with men and money to follow up and appropriate its advantages.”

“The true discoverer of America,” said Henley, “I believe to be Jean Cousin, a sea captain of Dieppe, France, who crossed the Atlantic and sailed into the Amazon River in 1488, four years before Columbus reached San Salvador.  Then Spain, Portugal, the States of the Church, Ferdinand, Isabella, and Columbus attempted to rob Cousin of his bold adventure.  In brief these are the facts:  Jean Cousin was an able and scientific navigator.  In 1487 his skill so contributed in securing a naval victory for the French over the English that the reward for his personal valor was the gift of an armed ship from the merchants of Dieppe, who expected him to go forth in search of new discoveries.[A]