The story of Columbus, apart from his discovery of America and his many thrilling adventures in the West Indies, should be one of absorbing interest to youth. It is the story of a man who in his youthful days conceived a vast project, for his time, adhered to it with inflexible resolution though confronted with obstacles that would have discouraged any ordinary man, suffered privations and hardships of the most trying kind, meeting threats against his life, shipwreck, physical ailments, poverty, malicious attacks of bitter enemies, shameful calumnies, the disgrace of being sent to Spain in fetters by Bobadilla, his jealous and cruel rival, and the ingratitude and dishonesty of the King of Spain, and yet accomplished a purpose even greater than that which first inspired him, for he died not knowing that he had discovered a new continent. He supposed to the last that the region he had found was the East Indies. The great navigator, seaman, and explorer passed his last days in poverty and neglect, and the rewards that the King had promised were enjoyed not by him but by his son Diego. But his fame is immortal.
