first seen by the crew of the Pinta, who fired a cannon and instantly began to chant the Te Deum, in which they were speedily joined by the crews of other ships. As they drew near, extensive flat and verdant fields were seen, other parts of the island were clothed with wood and diversified with rivulets. Overjoyed at the sight the crews repented of their disobedience to Columbus, and, passing from one extreme to the other, they looked up to the man whom, a short time before, they had threatened and insulted, as one whom God had endowed with penetration and perseverance above the common lot of mortals,—in which opinion they were undoubtedly not far from the truth. Arrayed in gorgeous robes, Columbus landed, set up the royal standard, and took possession of the new land for the crown of Castile and Leon, all his followers kneeling on the shore, kissing the ground and weeping in the extravagance of their joy, while crowds of natives watched their proceedings in speechless amazement. They regarded the strangers as a superior order of beings, who had thunder and lightning at command, and believed them to be children of the sun, who had descended to stay for a little among the children of men. Thus were the West India Islands discovered, on Friday, the 12th October, 1492. The island on which they landed was one of the Bahama group, and was named by its discoverer San Salvador in memory of our Saviour. Columbus imagined that he had come upon the East Indies, but he had made a far more important discovery. He had touched the confines of the New World, that mighty continent which was named America after a Florentine merchant and seaman, Amerigo Vespucci, who did indeed visit the New World two years after Columbus, but who had not a shadow of title to the honour, which was conferred upon him, long after the discovery was made, by either an ignorant or a false Frenchman, who republished a narrative of Amerigo's voyage, and claimed for him the right to have the continent named after him. During that year and on several successive voyages, Columbus discovered and named many of the neighbouring islands. He also discovered the continent of South America in 1498. But we must not omit to mention that the continent of North America had been discovered previous to that time-in 1497 by John Cabot, a Venetian pilot resident at Bristol, and his son Sebastian, who was born in England. We would fain linger a while with Columbus; it is not our purpose, however, to write his memoir. Other matters claim our attention, The discoveries of the Spaniards under Columbus close the records of the fifteenth century. Those of the sixteenth open with the exploits of the Portuguese under Vasco da Gama, and the Spaniards under Ferdinand Magellan. The former, doubling the Cape of Good Hope, sailed to Calicut, and was thus the first to achieve the longdesired object of proceeding from Europe to India by sea. The latter in 1519 discovered and passed those straits on the extreme south of America that bear his name, but his career was cut short by his being murdered by the natives of one of the Philippine islands. CHAPTER X. SHIPS OF THE FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. DURING the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, the navy of England made long and rapid strides in improvement, especially under the fostering care of Henry VII. Indeed, the Royal Navy may be said to have begun to assume real importance in that monarch's reign, although it had nominally existed for more than a hundred years. The "Great Harry," built in 1488, was probably the first threemasted man of war that ever belonged to the nation, and she was the first vessel in which port-holes for cannon on the lower deck were cut. Previously, the guns were discharged over the bulwarks. The largest of Henry's ships, named "Le Grace de Dieu," may be appropriately styled the father of the British navy. She was 1000 tons burden, had four masts and carried 80 guns; she was built in 1515. But the first really gigantic ship of those days was built in the reign of Charles I. at Woolwich dockyard about the year 1637, and was named 66 THE ROYAL SOVEREIGN." The annexed engraving gives a good idea of her appearThis vessel is sometimes spoken of as "the Sovereign of the Seas." The following account of her was published ance. at the time of her destruction by fire in 1696, and is quoted from "Charnock's History of Marine Architecture : "The Royal Sovereign was the first great ship that was ever built in England; she was then designed only for splendour and magnificence, and was in some measure the occasion of those loud complaints against ship-money in the reign of Charles I., but being taken down a deck lower, she became one of the best men of war in the world, and so formidable to her enemies, that none of the most daring among them would willingly lie by her side. She had been in almost all the great engagements that had been fought between France and Holland; and in the last fight between the English and French, encountering the 'Wonder of the World,' she so warmly plied the French admiral, that she forced him out of his three-decked wooden castle, and chasing the Royal Sun before her, forced her to fly for shelter among the rocks, where she became a prey to lesser vessels, that reduced her to ashes. At length, leaky and defective herself with age, she was laid up at Chatham, in order to be rebuilt; but, being set on fire by negligence, she was, upon the 27th of this month (January), devoured by that element which so long, and so often before, she had imperiously made use of as the instrument of destruction to others." A very elaborate and quaint description of this vessel was sent to Charles I., from which we give the following extract verbatim. The author, Thomas Heywood, after describing minutely her decorations, goes on to say, "There is one thing above all these for the world to take especiall notice of, that shee is besides tunnage just so many tuns in burden as their have beene yeares since our blessed Saviours incarnation, namely, 1637, and not one under or over. A most happy omen, which though it was not first projected or intended, is now by the true computation found so to happen. It would bee too tedious to insist upon every ornament belonging to this incomperable vessel, yet thus much concerning her outward appearance. She hath got two galleries of a side, and all parts of the ship are carved also with trophies of artillery, and types of honour, as well belonging to land as sea, with symboles, emblemes, and impresses appertaining to the art of navigation; as also, their two sacred majesties badges of honour, armes, eschutcheons, &c. . . . . "Her length by the keele is 128 foote, or thereabout, within some inches. Her mayne breadth or widnesse from side to side 48 foote. Her utmost length from the foreend of the sterne, a prora ad puppim, 232 foote. She is in height, from the bottome of her keele to the top of her lanthorne, 76 foote, she beareth five lanthornes, the biggest of which will hold ten persons to stand upright, and without shouldring or pressing one the other. "She hath three flush deckes, and a forecastle, an halfe decke, a quarter decke, and a round house. Her lower tyre hath thirty ports, which are to be furnished with demi-cannon and whole cannon throughout, being able to beare them. Her middle tyre hath also thirty ports for demi-culverin, and whole culverin. Her third tyre hath twentie-sixe ports for other ordnance. Her forecastle hath twelve ports, and her half decke hath fourteene ports. She hath thirteene or fourteene ports more within board for murdering-pieces, besides a great many loopholes out of the cabin for musket-shot. She carrieth, moreover, ten pieces of chase ordnance in her right forward, and ten right aff, that is, according to land service; in the front and the |