The ship Columbia, from which the great river of the West takes that name, had received this name under the same circumstances about the same time.

The city of Columbia, which is the capital of South Carolina, was named with the same wish to do justice to the great navigator.
Side by side with the discussion as to the name, and sometimes making a part of it, is the question whether Columbus himself was really the first discoverer of the mainland.

The reader has seen that he first saw the mainland of South America in the beginning of August, 1498.

It was on the fifth, sixth or seventh day, according to Mr.Harrisse's accurate study of the letters.

Was this the first discovery by a European of the mainland?
It is known that Ojeda, with whom the reader is familiar, also saw this coast.