I would like to have been among that small company of sailors in the moonlit, predawn moment. October 12. 1492. when a lookout aboard a small vessel hailed the sand cliffs of an island never before seen by the eyes of Europeans.

Had I rushed to the ship’s rail with Christopher Columbus. I would have witnessed his triumph and shared in the joy and amazement of his companions. Although I would not have known it at the time. I would have been present at the instant that began the European colonization of America.