houting, and begging him to take them
with him on his next voyage to Cathay.

He was as anxious as any one to get back to those beautiful islands
and hunt for gold and jewels. He set to work at once, and on the
twenty-fifth of September, 1493, with a fleet of seventeen ships and a
company of fifteen hundred men, Columbus the Admiral set sail from Cadiz
on his second voyage to Cathay and Cipango and the Indies. And this time
he was certain he should find all these wonderful places, and bring
back from the splendid cities unbounded wealth for the king and queen of
Spain.

CHAPTER VIII. TRYING IT AGAIN.

Do you not think Columbus must have felt very fine as he sailed out of
Cadiz Harbor on his second voyage to the West? It was just about a year
before, you know, that his feeble fleet of three little ships sailed
from Palos port. His hundred sailors hated to go; his friends were few;
everybody else said he was crazy; his success was very doubtful. Now,
as he stood on the high quarter-deck of his big flag-ship, the Maria
Galante, he was a great man. By appointment of his king and queen he
was "Admiral of the Ocean Seas" and "Viceroy of the Indies." He
had servants, to do as he directed; he had supreme command over the
seventeen ships of his fleet, large and small; fifteen hundred men
joyfully crowded his decks, while thousands left at home wished that
they might go with him, too. He had soldiers and sailors, horsemen and
footmen; his ships were filled with all the things necessary for trading
with the Indians and the great merchants of Cathay, and for building the
homes of those who wished to live in the lands beyond the sea.

Everything looked so well and everybody was so full of hope and
expectation that the Admiral felt that now his fondest dreams were
coming to pass and that he was a great man indeed.

This was to be a hunt for gold. And so sure of success was Columbus that
he promised the king and queen of Spain, out of the money he should make
on this voyage, to, himself pay for the fitting out of a great army of
fifty thousand foot soldiers and four thousand horsemen to drive away
the pagan Turks who had captured and held possession of the city of
Jerusalem and the sepulcher of Christ. For this had been the chief
desire, for years and years, of the Christian people of Europe. To
accomplish it many brave knights and warriors had fought and failed. But
now Columbus was certain he could do it.

So, out into th