The First Wise Traveler to the West - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 26

wondrous garden. He was shipwrecked on Jamaica, and when news of his plight reached
the governor of Hispaniola, no attempt at rescue was made for seven months.
Columbus died in Vallodolid, Spain in 1506, ill and knowing that he had been ill-
used, never conceding the failure of his mission to reach the Indies. In 1520 Hernan Cortes
(Cortez) landed on the American mainland, and at long last the gold and silver that Colum-
bus had promised began pouring into Spain, making it rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
For every mirvadi (a copper coin) invested in the voyage of 1492, Spain received 200 mil-
lion percent in return.
WHY DOES THE U. S. LEAD THE WORLD IN ITS REVERENCE FOR
COLUMBUS?
When the American War for Independence ended, the new nation yearned for non-English
heroes. Christopher Columbus was an obvious choice, an English language approximation
of the name that Cristoforo Colon had chosen for himself (Christ Bearer to the Colonies).
In 1781 King's College changed its name to Columbia (the feminine form of Columbus). In
1791 the American Congress agreed on a location for the country's new capital and named
it after two heroes, Washington and the District of Columbia. In 1792 the Boston sloop
Columbia, rounding South America, entered a river at the Washington-Oregon border. That
river was named in honor of the sloop. In 1803 President Jefferson commissioned a Corps
of Discovery led by Lewis and Clark to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory.
Fittingly, their westward journey ended at the Columbia River.
Memorializing Columbus in Latin America began after the Spanish colonies won their
freedom, the decade that began in 1811. Colombia, the country, and Cristobal, at the At-
lantic side of the Panama Canal, honor Columbus, as do seven Colons. In the United
States, commemorating Christopher Columbus began almost at the beginning of the repub-
lic and has never stopped. The first recorded celebration of October 12 occurred in 1792,
and it became a national holiday in 1892. In 1888 American Roman Catholics, barred by
Church decree from joining Masonic orders, created their own equivalent to Freemasonry,
the Knights of Columbus. Columbus is memorialized by place name as well. In the Un-
ited States the names Columbus, Columbia, Columbiana, and Colon are listed thirty-nine
times in Rand McNally's Atlas of World Geography . And when the United States entered
the space age, what better name to bestow on the first shuttle to orbit the earth than The
Columbia?