For, you see, no one as yet imagined that Columbus had discovered America.
They did not even know that there was such a continent.

They thought he had sailed to Asia and found the rich countries that Marco Polo had told such big stories about.
Columbus, you may be sure, was "all the rage" now.

Wherever he went the people followed him, cheering and shouting, and begging him to take them with him on his next voyage to Cathay.
He was as anxious as any one to get back to those beautiful islands and hunt for gold and jewels.

He set to work at once, and on the twenty-fifth of September, 1493, with a fleet of seventeen ships and a company of fifteen hundred men, Columbus the Admiral set sail from Cadiz on his second voyage to Cathay and Cipango and the Indies.

And this time he was certain he should find all these wonderful places, and bring back from the splendid cities unbounded wealth for the king and queen of Spain..