Later Voyages and Death of Columbus. 9 



were fresh — it was only the Orinoco river. He coasted for some 

 distance along the shore of the Caribbean sea still looking for 

 the straits, and then set sail for Hispaniola (or Cuba), where he 

 had left his brother governor. On arriving he found his brother 

 deposed and imprisoned. Columbus himself was put in chains 

 and sent home. The captain of the vessel offered to remove his 

 chains, but he refused, saying that they had been put on by 

 order of the king and could be removed only by him. 



While Columbus was vainly searching in the new Avorld for 

 the Orient, Vasco de Gama found it for Portugal in 1497 by sail- 

 ing around the cape of Good Hope and crossing the Indian 

 ocean to India and the Spice islands. He returned to Lisbon 

 bringing all manner of precious stones, silks and satins, and 

 spices of every kind. Columbus for the time was forgotten, and 

 it was only after a long detention that he was permitted again to 

 sail toward the western world. 



On his fourtli and last voyage Columbus landed at Honduras, 

 followed the coast of Nicaragua and the isthmus of Panama, 

 and then sailed along the Caribbean sea vainly searching for the 

 straits that would lead him to the promised land. 



On his return from this voyage the queen, his friend, was dead, 

 and the last eighteen months of his life were spent in poverty 

 and sickness at Vallaclolid, where he died in 1506, so little known 

 that the local records of the city, which give many insignificant 

 details, make no mention of his death. 



After Columbus had opened the way it was eas}^ for other 

 navigators to follow where he had led. Two other Italians, 

 John Cabot and Sebastian, his son, sailed from England in 1497 

 nearly clue westward for Cathay. They discovered Newfound- 

 land and sailed thence northeastward along the coast of Labra- 

 dor, and were probably the first discoverers of the continent 

 of America. The next year they made another voyage to 

 Newfoundland, and tlien followed the coast of North America 

 southward, probably reaching tlie Carolinas. These voyagers, 

 still seeking Cathay and the Spice islands, cared little for a land 

 of hills and rocks, where neither gold nor silver was found. 



Two generations pass before we hear of any further English 

 expeditions to the new world. 



The most noted of the folloAvers of Columbus was Americus 

 Vespucius, like Columbus and the Cabots an Italian, a pilot 



2— Nat. Geog. Mag., vor,. V, 1S9S. 



