EDNA DEAN PROCTOR. COLUMBUS Give me white paper! This which you use is black and rough with smears Of sweat and grime and fraud and blood and tears, Crossed with the story of men's sins and fears, Of battle and of famine all these years, When all God's children had forgot their birth, And drudged and fought and died like beasts of earth. "Give me white paper!" One storm-trained seaman listened to the word; What no man saw he saw; he heard what no man heard. In answer he compelled the sea To eager man to tell The secret she had kept so well! Left blood and guilt and tyranny behind,-- Sailing still West the hidden shore to find; For all mankind that unstained scroll unfurled, Where God might write anew the story of the World. EDWARD EVERETT HALE. COLUMBUS AND THE MAYFLOWER O little fleet! that on thy quest divine Sailedst from Palos one bright autumn morn, Say, has old Ocean's bosom ever borne A freight of faith and hope to match with thine? Say, too, has Heaven's high favor given again Such consummation of desire as shone About Columbus when he rested on The new-found world and married it to Spain? Answer,--thou refuge of the freeman's need,-- Thou for whose destinies no kings looked out, Nor sages to resolve some mighty doubt,-- Thou simple Mayflower of the salt-sea mead! When thou wert wafted to that distant shore, Gay flowers, bright birds, rich odors met thee not, Stern Nature hailed thee to a sterner lot,-- God gave free earth and air, and gave no more. Thus to men cast in that heroic mould Came empire such as Spaniard never knew, Such empire as beseems the just and true; And at the last, almost unsought, came gold. But He who rules both calm and stormy days, Can guard that people's heart, that nation's health, Safe on the perilous heights of power and wealth, As in the straitness of the ancient ways. LORD HOUGHTON. CHAPTER II IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS The news of Columbus's discoveries soon spread through western Europe, and in May, 1497, John Cabot sailed from Bristol, England, in the Matthew, and discovered what he supposed to be the Chinese coast on June 24. The thrifty Henry VII gave him the sum of £10 as a reward for this achievement. Cabot was the first European since the vikings to set foot on the North American continent. THE FIRST VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT [1497] "He chases shadows," sneered the British tars. "As well fling nets to catch the golden stars As climb the surges of earth's utmost sea." But for the Venice pilot, meagre, wan, His swarthy sons beside him, life began With that slipt cable, when his dream rode free.