CHAPTER I　DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION, 1000-1600

10. Meaning of the Word “discovery.”—According to Webster's International Dictionary, the word “discovery” is used in two ways:“[1]to obtain for the first time sight or knowledge, as of a thing existing already, but not perceived or known, and[2]to disclose or lay open to view（what has been secret, invisible, or unknown）.” From this definition it appears that one person, or group of persons, might well have been the first of Europeans to see the shores of America, and another person, or group of persons, might have first made known the existence of the New World to the people of Europe; in other words, there might have been two discoverers or even more, each entitled to the honor, —at all events something like this seems to have happened as to America.