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 other by prophecy; and he considered that he was the instrument in God's hands for bringing them all about.

On the 9th of May 1502, Columbus again set sail from Cadiz on a fourth voyage of discovery. During this expedition he touched at some parts of the South American continent, and also at some of the formerly-discovered islands; but he failed in making any important discoveries, in consequence of the bad state of his vessels, which were old, and unfit for sailing. With a squadron reduced to a single vessel he now returned to Spain, where he heard with regret of the death of his patron Isabella. This was a sad blow to his expectations of redress and remuneration. Ferdinand was jealous and ungrateful. He was weary of a man who had conferred so much glory on his kingdom, and unwilling to repay him with the honors and privileges his extraordinary services so richly merited. Columbus, therefore, sank into obscurity, and was reduced to such straitened circumstances, that according to his own account, he had no place to repair to except an inn, and very frequently had not wherewithal to pay his reckoning. Disgusted and mortified by the base conduct of Ferdinand, exhausted with the hardships which he had suffered, and oppressed with infirmities, Columbus closed his life at Valladolid on the 20th of May 1506. He died with a composure of mind suitable to the magnanimity which distinguished his character, and with sentiments of piety becoming that supreme respect for religion which he manifested in every occurrence of his life.

Columbus experienced the fate of most great men—little esteemed during his life, but almost deified after his decease. Fedinand, with a meanness which covers his memory with infamy, allowed this great man to pine and die, a victim of injustice and mortification; but no sooner was he dead, than he erected a splendid monument over his remains in one of the churches of Seville. The body of Columbus was not destined, however, to be indebted to Spain for even this posthumous honor; it was afterwards according to the will of the deceased, transferred to St. Domingo, and buried in the cathedral there; but on the cession of that island, to the French, in the year 1795, it was transferred to Havana, in the island of Cuba, where we hope it will rest in peace.

The discoveries of Columbus laid open a knowledge of what are now termed the West India Islands, and a small portion of the South American continent, which this great navigator, till the day of his death, believed to be a part of Asia or India. About ten years after his decease the real character of America and its islands became known to European navigators; and by a casual circumstance one of these adventurers, Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine, had the honor of conferring the name America upon a division of the globe which ought, in justice, to have been called after the unfortunate.

MAGELLAN—FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.

Ferdinand Magellan was by birth a Portuguese, decended from a good family, and born towards the end of the fifteenth century. In consequence of certain services in the Indian Seas, he applied to the government for some recompense; but being treated with neglect, he left his own country to seek employment in a foreign land. In company with Ruy Falero, an eminent astronomer, and one of his associates, he traveled into