ves, you cannot work out your salvation no more than the Moors or the Turks who are ignorant of or despise faith in Jesus Christ (P. J. Riga).We give credit to Columbus for being the first to discover the Americas when in fact he was not the first at all. The Americas were not "new" or "undiscovered" to anyone, just coincidental; like a stone tripped over at night (William Howarth). The first people to discover the New World, or western hemisphere, are believed to have traveled across a "land bridge" from Siberia to Alaska, an isthmus since broken by the Bering Strait. From Alaska, these early Native Americans could then have spread through North, Central, and South America. In 1997, archaeologists confirmed evidence of human habitation in the Americas at least 12,500 years ago at a site in Chile known as Monte Verde. Carbon-14 tests show that humans lived about 8000 bc near what are now Front Royal, VA; Kanawha, WV; and Dutchess Quarry, NY (World Almanac & Book of Facts). If one was to say that he was the first to sail to the Americas they would still be wrong. Nearly two centuries before Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic, some Africans say, the emperor of Mali abdicated his throne and made a voyage to what is today Brazil. King Mande Boukari, also known as Abubakari II, and his historic trip have been forgotten because the oral historians of the day excised records of it. To make bad matters worse a mutiny during the trip destroyed any logs of the expedition (World Press Review). The only difference in the explorers is the fact that Columbus kept written records. There is a balance to the madness that Columbus had created. The most traditional view hails him as the discoverer of America--one who inspired a wave of European explorers and adventurers to the "New World." In this light, Columbus stand tall as a heroic pioneer and rugged individualist; he symbolizes the essence of intellectual curiosity. Likewise, from this perspec...
