country to live, Christmas, which is so
generally a family day, must of necessity be a lonely, homesick one.
They carry with them the memory of happy customs, of loved ones far
away, and of observances which can never be held again. So many of the
earliest Christmasses in America were peculiarly sad ones to the
various groups of settlers; most especially was this the case with the
first Christmas ever spent by Europeans in the New World.

The intrepid mariner, Christopher Columbus, entered the port of Bohio,
in the Island of Hayti, on St. Nicholas Day, December 6, 1492, and in
honor of the day named that port Saint Nicholas. The _Pinta_ with her
crew had parted from the others and gone her own way, so the _Santa
Maria_ and the _Nina_ sailed on together, occasionally stopping where
the port seemed inviting. While in one of these, Columbus heard of
rich mines not far distant and started for them. The Admiral and his
men were tired from continued watching, and as the sea was smooth and
the wind favorable, they went to sleep leaving the ship in care of a
boy. Who he was no one knows, but he was evidently the first Christian
boy to pass a Christmas Eve on this continent,--and a sad one it was
for him. The ship struck a sand-bank and settled, a complete wreck, in
the waters of the New World. Fortunately no lives were lost, and the
wreckage furnished material for the building of a fortress which
occupied the men's time during the remainder of the Yule-tide.

The _Nina_ was too small to accommodate two crews, therefore on
Christmas Day many of the men were wondering who were to stay on that
far-away island among the strange looking natives of whom they knew
nothing.

The Chief of Guarico (Petit Anse), whom Columbus was on his way to
visit at the time of the disaster, sent a fleet of canoes to the
assistance of the strangers, and did what he could to make them happy
during the day. The Spaniards and the natives worked until dawn on
Christmas morning, bringing ashore what they could secure from the
wreck, and storing it away on the island for future use. Strange to
relate, they succeeded in saving all of their provisions, the spars,
and even many of the nails of the wrecked _Santa Maria._ But what a
Christmas morning for Columbus and his men, stranded on an island far,
far from home, among a strange people! There were no festivities to be
observed by that sad, care-worn company of three hundred men on that
day, but the followi