TO DAY IN HISTORY

Southland Times, Issue 20614, 12 October 1928, Page 6

TO DAY IN HISTORY

OCTOBER 12 Born: Edward VI., of England, Hampton Court, 1537; Pedro 1., Emperor of Brazil, 1798; Hugh Miller, geologist, Cromarty, 1802. Died: Pope Honorius 1., 638; Pope Boniface VIII., 1303; Maximilian IL, Emperor of Germany,, Ratisbon, 1576; Duke of Palmella, Portuguese statesman, Lisbon, 1850; Robert Stephenson, engineer, London, 1859. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. On the 12th October, 1492, Columbun with his followers landed at Guanaham or San Salvador, one of the Bahama Islands, and planted there the cross in token of the Divine mercy, which, alter guiding Him safely through a perilous voyage, had at last, in the discovery of the western world, crowned with success the darling aspiration of his life. La.id had been descried on the previous evening but it was not till the following morning that the intrepid admiral beheld the flat and densely wooded shores and by actually setting his foot on them realized the fulfilment of his hopes. It is now well known that although Columbus was unquestionably the first to proclaim to the world at large the existence of a new and vast region in the direction of the setting sun he cannot literally be said to have been the first European discoverer of America. The ancient Scandinavian or Norsemen, so renouned for their maritime enterprise, had, at the commencement of the 11th century, not only settled colonies in Greenland, but explored the ■whole east coast of America as far south as Lat. 41, 30 N., and there, near New Bedford in the state of Massachusetts, they planted a colony. An intercourse by way of Greenland and Iceland subsisted between this settlement and Norway down to the fourteenth century. There is also satisfactory evidence for believing that in the twelfth century the celebrated Welsh prince Madoc, having sailed from his native country with a small fleet, landed, and founded a colony on the coast of Virginia. But to Columbus belongs the merit of having philosophically reasoned out the existence of a new world, and by practically ascertaining the truth of his propositions, of inaugurating that connection between the Eastern and Western hemispheres which has affected so remarkable a revolution in the world’s history. It is a little curious indeed, that the belief which Columbus entertained at first', as to the land discovered by him being a part of India or China, was adhered to by him to the last, and he died in the idea that Cuba formed a part of the mainland of India. This notion so pertinaciously clung to by the great Genoese and Europe in general, was dispelled by Balboa’s expedition in 1513, across the Isthmus of Darien, and the discovery of the Pacific Ocean, while a little later the real position of these countries with respect to America was demonstrated by the expedition of Fernando Magalhaens, whose untimely death in the Philippine Islands deprived him of the honour of being the first circumnavigator of the world. Much obloquy has been thrown on Amerigo Vespucci, the Florentine navigator, for depriving Columbus of the honour of giving his name to the new world. How the denomination of America arose from Vespucci’s Christian name has never been satisfactorily explained, but it appears to be sufficiently ascertained that he himself is in nowise responsible for the circumstance. Vespucci, who was a man of considerable attainments, wrote an account of his American voyages, which was translated into German and obtained an immense popularity with that nation. It has been conjectured that the name of America was first applied in Germany to the New World, and from thence was adopted by the other countries of Europe.