ler than this, while the little Nina was
hardly anything more than a good-sized sail boat. Do you wonder that the
poor people of Palos and the towns round about were frightened when they
thought of their fathers and brothers and sons putting out to sea, on
the great ocean they had learned to dread so much, in such shaky little
boats as these?

But finally the vessels were ready. The crews were selected. The time
had come to go. Most of the sailors were Spanish men from the towns near
to the sea, but somehow a few who were not Spaniards joined the crew.

One of the first men to land in America from one of the ships of
Columbus was an Irishman named William, from the County Galway. And
another was an Englishman named either Arthur Laws or Arthur Larkins.
The Spanish names for both these men look very queer, and only a wise
scholar who digs among names and words could have found out what they
really were. But such a one did find it out, and it increases our
interest in the discovery of America to know that some of our own
northern blood--the Irishman and the Englishman--were in the crews of
Columbus.

The Admiral Columbus was so sure he was going to find a rich and
civilized country, such as India and Cathay were said to be, that he
took along on his ships the men he would need in such places as he
expected to visit and among such splendid people as he was sure he
should meet. He took along a lawyer to make out all the forms and
proclamations and papers that would have to be sent by the Admiral
to the kings and princes he expected to visit; he had a secretary and
historian to write out the story of what he should find and what he
should do. There was a learned Jew, named Louis, who could speak almost
a dozen languages, and who could, of course, tell him what the people
of Cathay and Cipango and the Indies were talking about. There was
a jeweler and silversmith who knew all about the gold and silver and
precious stones that Columbus was going to load the ships with; there
was a doctor and a surgeon; there were cooks and pilots, and even a
little fellow, who sailed in the Santa Maria as the Admiral's cabin boy,
and whose name was Pedro de Acevedo.

Some scholars have said that it cost about two hundred and thirty
thousand dollars to fit out this expedition. I do not think it cost
nearly so much. We do know that Queen Isabella gave sixty-seven thousand
dollars to help pay for it. Some people, however, reckoning the old
S