2-710-072 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Columbus and his Train Entering Barcelona', (1877). In 1493, Italian navigator and colonist Christopher Columbus paraded captive Native Americans through the streets of Barcelona in Spain. Sponsored by Ferdinand and Isabella, Columbus set out to discover a westward route to Asia. He landed on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1492, claiming it for Spain. The priests who accompanied him forcibly converted large numbers of the indigenous population to Christianity. From "Our Country: a Household History for All Readers, from the Discovery of America to the Present Time", Volume 1, by Benson J. Lossing. [Johnson & Miles, New York, 1877]