Excerpt from Stories of American HistoryThe sailors did not believe that land was near. Columbus knew better. The water was green; sea-weeds floated past; birds flew over the ship; a log of wood came toss ing by; the smell of fields was in the air; fishes were caught; a sparrow alighted in the shrouds; and once, a great tree, with roots and branches, was driven over the waters.Columbus and the men watched for land till the sun went down. When it was dark he saw a light far away before the ship. The men on watch saw it, too. He called the sailors, and as they crowded around him, and saw a bright, shining mark moving back and forth, they shouted, land! Land! Co lumbus now hove-to his three vessels, and waited for day.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.