180 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



and it is an interesting thing to me that this nation, this continent, had 

 its birth out of a spirit of initiative which was at that time absolutely 

 unparalleled in the life of the world. Let me go back just a moment to 

 Italy. What do we owe to Italy? Here was Marco Polo, the young 

 Italian who worked his way, when about seventeen years of age, to the 

 country of Kublai Khan, the great Mongol. He stayed there several 

 years and then worked his way back to Italy. There he wrote his trav- 

 els, and those travels got into the hands of Christopher Columbus, an- 

 other Italian. Christopher Columbus came to believe that the world was 

 round. At the western entrance of the Mediterranean there stands on 

 one side magnificent Gibraltar, and on the other side the great promon- 

 tory of Africa. They are called the "Pillars of Hercules." Legend has 

 it that at one time these mountains separated the Mediterranean from 

 the Atlantic, and that Hercules tore them apart. Up to the time that 

 Columbus made his great voyage, it is true that boats had slipped out 

 and run up and down the coast, but there was the great ocean stretch- 

 ing to the west upon which no man had dared try his skill or risk his 

 safety. Columbus, believing that the world was round, sought to go 

 around it, and finally he said, "I will steal out through the Pillars of 

 Hercules, and I will sail and sail into the golden west" — in the hope 

 that he could find a way to India. India had been reached by vessels 

 prior to that time from the South by closely hugging the coast, but 

 Columbus hoped to discover a more direct route, and so with the cross 

 of Christ upon his breast he sailed away in search of the great Khan 

 that Marco Polo had reached, and when he discovered the islands upon 

 the American coast he called them "Marco Polo Islands." This shows 

 that Columbus gives to Marco Polo the credit for helping to inspire him 

 to make that great venture upon the unknown seas. 



Joaquin Miller, in a wonderful poem, has voiced the sentiment of 

 Columbus, the spirit of daring and initiative in exploring new fields, 

 which is the spirit of America, the spirit of "Sail on and on." Miller 

 says: 



Behind him lay the gray Azores, 



Behind the Gates of Hercules; 

 Before him not the ghost of shores; 



Before him only shoreless seas. 

 The good mate said: "Now must we pray. 



For lo! the very stars are gone. 

 Brave Adm'r'l, speak; what shall I say?" 



"Why, say: 'Sail on! sail on! and on!'" 



"My men grow mutinous day by day; 



My men grow ghastly wan and weak." 

 The stout mate thought of home; a spray 



Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. 

 "What shall I say, brave Adm'r'l, say. 



If we sight naught but seas at dawn?" 

 "Why, you shall say at break of day: 



'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'" 



