"These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread" (Genesis 9:19).

This date is the supposed date when Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, and his story is one of great hardship, Christian faith, and courage, crowned finally with worldwide acclaim.

But it is now generally recognized that he was not even the first to discover America. Leif Ericson and the Norsemen not only found it before he did but explored large sections long before Columbus came.

But Leif was not even the first. The evidence is mounting that the ancient Phoenicians reached America well before the time of Christ. There is even some evidence that the Egyptians and Chinese may also have come before Leif Ericson. All this is very uncertain, of course.

Even if so, however, they still were not the first. Various tribes of immigrants now known as the American Indians were the real discoverers of America, long before anyone else, probably not too long after the dispersion at the Tower of Babel. Because of the wicked rebellion of all the clans against God, instigated by Nimrod at Babel, the Lord suddenly corrupted the original language into a vast "babble" of different languages, evidently one per family, "and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth" (Genesis 11:9). "All the earth," it says, and that would seem to include America.

Some probably traveled by land up through Asia, crossing the Bering Strait land bridge during the Ice Age, some came by sea from Europe or Asia or Africa.

They came in many different tribes and languages and established their "nations" throughout the American continents. And there they were ready to greet Leif and Christopher Columbus when these late comers finally arrived. HMM