s"--as the
Spaniards loved to call themselves--was itself conquered and killed.

It was a terrible disappointment to Columbus. The men in whom he had
trusted had proved false. The gold he had told them to get together they
had not even found. His plans had all gone wrong.

But Columbus was not the man to stay defeated. His fort was destroyed,
his men were killed, his settlement was a failure. It can't be helped
now, he said. I will try again.

This time he would not only build a fort, he would build a city. He had
men and material enough to do this and to do it well. So he set to work.

But the place where he had built from the wreck of the unlucky Santa
Maria his unlucky fort of La Navidad did not suit him. It was low, damp
and unhealthy. He must find a better place. After looking about for some
time he finally selected a place on the northern side of the island. You
can find it if you look at the map of Hayti in the West Indies; it is
near to Cape Isabella.

He found here a good harbor for ships, a good place on the rocks for a
fort, and good land for gardens. Here Columbus laid out his new town,
and called it after his friend the queen of Spain, the city of Isabella.

He marked out a central spot for his park or square; around this ran
a street, and along this street he built large stone buildings for a
storehouse, a church and a house for himself, as governor of the colony.
On the side streets were built the houses for the people who were to
live in the new town, while on a rocky point with its queer little round
tower looking out to sea stood the stone fort to protect the little
city. It was the first settlement made by white men in all the great new
world of America.

You must know that there are some very wise and very bright people who
do not agree to this. They say that nearly five hundred years before
Columbus landed, a Norwegian prince or viking, whose name was Leif
Ericsson, had built on the banks of the beautiful Charles River, some
twelve miles from Boston, a city which he called Norumbega.

But this has not really been proved. It is almost all the fancy of a
wise man who has studied it out for himself, and says he believes there
was such a city. But he does not really know it as we know of the city
of Isabella, and so we must still say that Christopher Columbus really
discovered America and built the first fort and the first city on its
shores--although he thought he was doing all this in Asia, on