The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-12
The Discouery of America
By Frederic J. Haskin.
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 Today marks the four hundred ana sixteenth anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. By that act the great navigator muitl- piled the world by two. He opened up Ia new and wonderful era In history and gave to the civilized world the be- rintng of an object lesson in discovery, settlement, colonization, selfgovern ment and general progress such as It had never known before. sucn as IL sail never see again. He placed period after meriaeval history anu modern history Is dated from nis Voy- age to the New World. During tne period that has elapsed since then the whole human race has made unparal- lelled advances in civilization, m science and commerce.. and in all the
 arts of peace and war
 The man whose hand lifted the veil that had hidden half the world TOT forty centuries or more, might weii have been called Admiral or tne ocean" Te who gave a new world to c,astile and Leon",-according to the Inscription on the monument erected to him seven years after his death by the unRratefuI Ferdinand-should nave been accorded the highest honors Wlth- 1 in the gift of. his sovereign. But dis corerers, like prophets, are often Wlth out honor among their own people. ana history does not record more roman tic, more pathetic carer than tha' oA the great Columbus.
 Not even the date of his birth Is positively known, being placed all the way from 1430 to 1456. Even as seven cities claimed Homer. dead'. ten local tiles contest igor the honor Of Colum- bus nativity, but in his will he says: | q was born in Genoa. some trace ms teraf h hfS hl- lief in the prophecy of his name, Col onbo signifyinK life of the sea-" He sailed on the Mediterranean. to the Canaries. and some say, to Iceland. lie becana convinced that the way to the Indie9 lay to westward, and since with the fall of Constantinople had come the closing of the eastern routes 10
 European merchants, some other route ot the Orient must be found He spent
 wears in trying to convince the skepu- cal and after the kings of spain ana Portugal had scoffed at his theories. Queen Isabella, her treasury depleteo bv wars with the floors, pawned her l jewels for the paltry $7.ooO necessary l to equip this the greatest exploration | expedition of the world.
 IL is safe to say that if modern ex-
 nIorers had to undergo such difficult | ties and resort to such lengths as did l Columbus to obtain money for their 1 exnedftions, many would stay at home. Contract Columbus outfit and it's cost | with that of Commander Peary who sails in a modern vessel squipped Witn every device necessary to insure suc- cuRs. with that of Walter Wellman, whose alrship expedition was dinanced | bv his newspaper; with that Of the Duke of Abruzzi, the contents of whose princeIy coffers are sunk in the frozen | north. After making four voyages to the | New World, on one of which he was | taken back to Spain in chains, Colum- | bus died in poverty at Valladolid In | Isns He was buried under an impos- l ing monument at Seville in 151S, but his remains were transferred to the l cath erdrai at San Domingo In 1bS6, | where good evidence says they still lie' | though they were supossed to have | been moved to Havana over two cen- l turies later.
 one of the most pathetic things about Columbus carer is that he never knew
 he had discovered a new world. Al | first he thought he had reached India. | hut there seems to have been some
 doubt in his mind later as he sailed along the Caribbean coast searching for a passage through the land. He
 was wiser than he kenw. for today the Panama Canal, nearing completion, IS about 10 open d ulISSh AON'O NO -S ent.
 Another pathetic fact Is that the con
 ttnent discovered by Columbus was not
 named for him. Not even San Salvador
 retains the name he gave 1t, the maps
 now marking it Waiting Island. after an Englishman who settled there some
 years ago. This island, the halfway | house between New Yorw and Panama, marked by a lighthouse built with sub | scriptions collected by Chicago news
 paper in 1892, is not recognized by one
 nerson in fifty aboard the passing ves- | sela as the place where Columbus first landed on American soil. Amerigo
 Vespucci claimed to have fist touched inc mainland of the continent, so when l Waldseemuller suggested that the new
 land be called America in compliment
 to this intrepid map maker and explor-
 er none objected.
 Fuor hundred years after its descov-
 cry the New World paid great tribute
 to its discoverer at the Chicago Cofum- bian Exposition, and since then various | cities have erected monuments to his
 memory, one of the finest of these Is | that about to be erected in front of the
 new Union Station in Washington
 Although the New World was not
 named for Columbus, one of it's coun-
 tries, the Republic of Colombia, bears
 his name North America perpetuate'
 bis memory In British Columbia and 1T
 the District of Columbia, the seat oi
 the great American Republic and oi
 the American Propaganda. Besides
 these there are on this continent
 seventy nine cities. towns and villages
 efghty-two countries, three provinces