FROM. COR DOW AST Or@ A RAG

(Fourth Paper.)

THE FIRST CITY IN THE NEW WORLD.

Uy

‘ ROM the Bahamas Columbus
Y I i sailed southwardly, discover-
Yi Wy ing Cuba; then he coasted its north-

i y/ x ern shores to its eastern cape, and

% stretched across the channel to a

great and mountainous island the

Psi a natives called Bohio, but now
Ea WS :

known as Hayti.

De Se These wanderings consumed SO
es much time, that Christmas week

still found him on the coast of
Hayti, And Christmas Eve brought him disaster. I am sorry to say that a boy
caused the trouble, though it was all through the fault of Columbus himself.
They were sailing over a calm sea, when the Admiral, feeling the need of sleep,
gave the helm to one of his captains. But as soon as Columbus had gone below,
the captain turned it over to a boy, and himself went to sleep. The flag-ship
drifted on a reef, and soon went to pieces; but an Indian chieftain sent men
out from shore and saved all the crew and the wreckage, and took the men to
his town. Columbus, finding the two little vessels left to him too small for all to
return in to Spain, left forty men with the Indians, built them a fort, and con-
tinued the homeward voyage. The wreck occurred on Christmas Eve, and he
called the fort erected La Navidad, or the Nativity. It was the first structure
known to have been erected by Europeans in the New World. -

Soon after the Admiral’s arrival at court, royal orders went forth for the
preparation of a fleet of seventeen vessels, to be well manned with most ex-
perienced seamen and pilots, and also to carry miners, carpenters, husbandmen
and mechanics.

Besides the crews and mechanics, great numbers of adventurers desired to
embark. These last included many hidalgos of high rank, lured by the stories
of gold and silver to be had for the seeking in that far-off land. They were
the most worthless of all recruits for colonizing. They were brave, but brutal
and unscrupulous. Many of them had fought in the Moorish wars; and, eager in
their schemes of plunder, they carried fire and the sword amongst a peaceful
people who had never lifted their hands against one another except in
self-defense.