made many slaves in order to send them to Castile.  Of course, there is no doubt whatever as to the truth of this latter charge; but Columbus was not alone in this respect—­indeed, at that time there was no single adventurer who had penetrated to these new regions without making slaves whenever the opportunity arose.  And it may be said in common fairness to the individual explorers that no other method was understood, and that this procedure was considered entirely legitimate.

It is unnecessary to enter here into the troubles and tribulations of Columbus’s first voyage.  The details of the men’s discontent and of the leader’s courage, persistence, and strategy have been the subject of thousands of works.  The great contrition, moreover, of his mutinous crew, when after five weeks’ sailing they sighted land, and their sudden admiration and almost worship of the great navigator, afford too familiar a subject to be dealt with here.  Suffice to say that Columbus took possession of this first land—­the island which he believed to form part of a continent—­in the name of the Crown of Castile and Leon, christening this herald of a new world San Salvador.

For a while the shock of this triumph appears to have deadened all other considerations, but only for a while.  Columbus, like every other navigator of the period, had gone out in search of glory, and of gilded glory for preference.  The very first thought, therefore, which took possession of the minds of both the Admiral and his men, when the first exultation had died away in favour of more practical affairs, was that of gold.  To this end they cruised about the new seas, visiting Cuba, Haiti (or Hispaniola), and other islands.

After a while Columbus discovered some traces of the coveted metal, but these to his heated imagination were mere chance fragments of the golden mountains and valleys which lay somewhere beyond.  It was time, he determined, to seek for further assistance.  Leaving a small company of the Spaniards in the Island of Haiti, the inhabitants of which had proved themselves friendlily disposed, he sailed for Europe, taking with him such specimens of the New World as he thought would chiefly appeal to the Spanish Court.  Among this merchandise were samples of the products of the Western Islands, small nuggets of gold, and human merchandise in the way of captive Indians.

When his heavily-laden ships arrived in Spain the entire nation broke out into thunders of acclamation.  Queen Isabella received him with even more than her accustomed amount of graciousness, while the coldness which had characterized Ferdinand’s attitude towards him had now become altered to fervent enthusiasm.

The Court of Spain, convinced of the value of these new possessions, lost no time in applying to Pope Alexander VI. for his sanction of their dominion over the New World.  This the Pope granted, drawing the famous line from Pole to Pole, which was to serve as a dividing line between the colonies of Spain and Portugal.