The islands of Japan, were, he thought, only a few leagues away to the west.

They were really, as you know, away across the United States and then across the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles farther west than Columbus could sail.

But according to his reckoning he hoped within a day or two to see the cities and palaces of this wonderful land.
When they sailed from the Canaries a reward had been offered to whomsoever should first see land.

This reward was to be a silken jacket and nearly five hundred dollars in money; so all the sailors were on the watch.
At about ten o'clock on the evening of the eleventh of October, Columbus, standing on the high raised stern of the Santa Maria, saw a moving light, as if some one on the shore were running with a flaming torch.

At two o'clock the next morning--Friday, the twelfth of October, 1492 the sharp eyes of a watchful sailor on the Pinta (his name was Rodrigo de Triana) caught sight of a long low coastline not far away.