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It all happened 515 years ago today
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Location: Blogs Sly Comments |
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| Posted by: Emory Schley |
10/12/2007 4:57 AM |
Five-hundred and fifteen years ago this very day, an excited crew aboard Christopher Columbus' small flotilla sighted land after tossing about for months on an angry, vengeful ocean. At that point in their extended voyage, land must have been the greatest sight they could have been afforded, second only perhaps to an appearance of the Blessed Virgin herself.
And with that sighting, a whole new era opened up for Mankind. Three small ships, the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, opened a path from Old World to New, bringing Western culture to a paradise of forested lands with strange peoples, rolling savannas, mighty rivers, towering mountains and treasures beyond belief. Much has been written about that singular voyage and what it ultimately meant to the world at-large. But it happened half a millennium ago, and like the opening of Pandora’s Box, it can’t ever be undone. So we all have to make the best of it.
Earlier this year, I was in Erie, Pa., and while there, we took a tour of a reproduction of Columbus’ Niña. It’s amazing to realize that 28 crewmen could live in such a small confined space. The guide said the Niña was the favorite ship of Columbus of the three that made his historic voyage. The flagship Santa Maria sank, and during a storm the Pinta was separated from the other ships and declared lost. The Pinta eventually made its way back home, while the Niña carried Columbus. The great explorer had been looking for a shortcut to the Orient, and he believed until his dying day that he had found it, with the discovery of the New World.
Ol’ Chris would really have his mind boggled today, if he could see space satellites, airplanes, computers, television, motion pictures with sound, and all the other technological refinements we enjoy today. I think he would have been proud to have discovered such an amazing world, even if he did fail in his quest to find a shorter trade route to the East.
And oh, yeah, we have that shorter route now, too. I think it’s called the Panama Canal! |
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