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have been so natural to give the name of Columbus to the new
world which he gave to Castile and Leon, that much wonder has
been expressed that America was not called Columbia, and many
efforts have been made to give to the continent this name. The
District of Columbia was so named at a time when American
writers of poetry, were determined that "Columbia" should be the
name of the continent. 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