Chapter 2

[Footnote: Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, 1435. He was trained for the sea from his childhood. Being the eldest of four children, and his father a poor wool-comber, much care devolved upon him. It is said that at thirty his hair was white from trouble and anxiety. His kind and loving disposition is proved by the fact that in his poorest days he saved part of his pittance to educate his young brothers and support his aged father. Columbus was determined, shrewd, and intensely religious. He believed and announced himself to be divinely called to "carry the true faith into the uttermost parts of the earth." Inspired by this thought, no discouragement or contumely could drive him to despair utterly. It was eighteen years from the conception to the accomplishment of his plan. During all this time his life was a marvel of patience, and of brave devotion to his one purpose. His sorrows were many; his triumph was brief. Evil men maligned him to Ferdinand and Isabella. Disregarding their promise that he should be governor-general over all the lands he might discover, the king and queen sent out another governor, and by his order Columbus was sent home in chains! No wonder that the whole nation was shocked at such an indignity to such a man. It is sad to know that although Ferdinand and Isabella endeavored to soothe his wounded spirit by many attentions, they never restored to him his lawful rights. From fluent promises they passed at last to total neglect, and Columbus died a grieved and disappointed old man. At his request, his chains were buried with him, a touching memorial of Spanish ingratitude.]

COLUMBUS AT THE COURT OF PORTUGAL.--He accordingly laid his plan before King John of Portugal, who, being pleased with the idea, referred it to the geographers of his court. They pronounced it a visionary scheme. With a lurking feeling, however, that there might be truth in it, the king had the meanness to dispatch a vessel secretly to test the matter. The pilot had the charts of Columbus, but lacked his heroic courage. After sailing westward from Cape de Verde islands for a few days, and seeing nothing but a wide waste of wildly tossing waves, he returned, ridiculing the idea.

COLUMBUS AT THE COURT OF SPAIN.--Columbus, disheartened by this treachery, betook himself to Spain. During seven long years he importuned King Ferdinand for a reply. All this while he was regarded as a visionary fellow, and when he passed along the streets, even the children pointed to their foreheads and smiled. At last, the learned council declared the plan too foolish for further attention. Turning away sadly, Columbus determined to go to France.

[Footnote: "It is absurd," said those wise men. "Who is so foolish as to believe that there are people on the other side of the world, walking with their heels upward, and their heads hanging down? And then, how can a ship get there? The torrid zone, through which they must pass, is a region of fire, where the very waves boil. And even if a ship could perchance get around there safely, how could it ever get back? Can a ship sail up hill?" All of which sounds very strange to us now, when hundreds of travelers make every year the entire circuit of the globe.]

COLUMBUS SUCCESSFUL.--His friends at the Spanish court, at this juncture, laid the matter before Queen Isabella, and she was finally won to his cause. The king remained indifferent, and pleaded the want of funds. The queen in her earnestness exclaimed, "I pledge my jewels to raise the money." But her sacrifice was not required. St. Angel, the court treasurer, advanced most of the money, and the friends of Columbus the remainder,--in all about $20,000, equal to six times that amount at the present day. Columbus had succeeded at last.

COLUMBUS'S EQUIPMENT.--Though armed with the king's authority, Columbus obtained vessels and sailors with the greatest difficulty. The boldest seamen shrank from such a desperate undertaking. At last, three small vessels were manned; the Pinta (peen'tah), Santa Maria (ma-re-ah), and Ninah (ne-nah). They sailed from Palos, Spain, Aug. 3, 1492.

INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE.--When the ships struck out boldly westward on the untried sea, and the sailors saw the last trace of land fade from their sight, many, even of the bravest, burst into tears. As they proceeded, their hearts were wrung by superstitious fears. To their dismay, the compass no longer pointed directly north, and they believed that they were coming into a region where the very laws of nature were changed. They came into the track of the trade-wind, which wafted them steadily westward. This, they were sure, was carrying them to destruction, for how could they ever return against it? Signs of land, such as flocks of birds and fresh, green plants, were often seen, and the clouds near the horizon assumed the look of land, but they disappeared, and only the broad ocean spread out before them as they advanced. The sailors, so often deceived, lost heart, and insisted upon returning home. Columbus, with wonderful tact and patience, explained all these appearances. But the more he argued, the louder became their murmurs. At last they secretly determined to throw him overboard. Although he knew their feelings, he did not waver, but declared that he would proceed till the enterprise was accomplished.

Soon, signs of land silenced their murmurs. A staff artificially carved, and a branch of thorn with berries floated near. All was now eager expectation. In the evening, Columbus beheld a light rising and falling in the distance, as of a torch borne by one walking. Later at night, the joyful cry of "_Land!_" rang out from the Pinta. In the morning the shore, green with tropical verdure, lay smiling before them.

THE LANDING.--Columbus, dressed in a splendid military suit of scarlet embroidered with gold, and followed by a retinue of his officers and men bearing banners, stepped upon the new world, Friday, Oct. 12, 1492. He threw himself upon his knees, kissed the earth, and with tears of joy gave thanks to God. He then formally planted the cross, and took possession of the country in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella.

The wondering natives, who crowded the shore, gazed on them with awe. They supposed the ships to be huge white-winged birds, and the Spaniards to have come from heaven. How sadly and how soon these simple people were undeceived!

FURTHER DISCOVERIES.--Columbus found the land to be an island, which he named St. Salvador. He supposed that he had reached the islands lying off the eastern coast of India, and he therefore called the dark-hued natives, Indians. Careful inquiries were also made concerning the rich products of the East, such as spices, precious stones, and especially gold. The simple people had only a few golden ornaments. These they readily bartered for hawks' bells. Cuba, Hayti, and other islands were discovered and visited in the vain hope of securing Oriental treasures. Columbus even sent a deputation into the interior of Cuba to a famous chief, supposing him to be the great king of Tartary!

At last, urged by his crew, he relinquished the search, and turned his vessels homeward.

HIS RECEPTION, on his return, was flattering in the extreme. The whole nation took a holiday. His appearance was hailed with shouts and the ringing of bells. The king and queen were dazzled by their new and sudden acquisition. As Columbus told them of the beautiful land he had discovered, its brilliant birds, its tropical forests, its delicious climate, and above all, its natives waiting to be converted to the Christian faith, they sank upon their knees, and gave God thanks for such a signal triumph.

[Footnote: The body of Columbus was deposited in the Convent of San Francisco, Valladohd, Spain. It was thence transported, in 1513, to the Carthusian Monastery of Seville where a handsome monument was erected, by command of Ferdinand and Isabella with the simple inscription--"To Castile and Leon, Colon gave a new world." In 1536 his body, and that of his son Diego, were removed to the city of Saint Domingo, Hayti, and interned in the principal chapel. But they were not permitted to rest even there, for in 1796 they were brought to Havana with imposing ceremonies. His final resting place in the Cathedral is marked by a slab elaborately carved, on which is inscribed in Spanish,

"Oh, rest thou, image of the great Colon, Thousand centuries remain, guarded in the urn, And in the remembrance of our nation."]

SUBSEQUENT VOYAGES.--Columbus afterward made three voyages. In 1498 he discovered the mainland, near the Orinoco River. He never, however, lost the delusion that it was the eastern coast of Asia, and died ignorant of the grandeur of his discovery.

HOW THE CONTINENT WAS NAMED.--Americus Vesputius (a-mer-i-cus ves-pu-she-us), a friend of Columbus, accompanied a subsequent expedition to the new world. A German named Waldsee-Mueller published an interesting account of his adventures, in which he suggested that the country should be called America. This work, being the first description of the new world, was very popular, and the name was soon adopted by geographers.

JOHN CAB'-OT, a navigator of Bristol, England, by studying his charts and globes, decided that since the degrees of longitude diminish in length as they approach the pole, the shortest route to India must be by sailing northwest instead of west, as Columbus had done. He easily obtained royal authority to make the attempt. After a prosperous voyage, he came in sight of the sterile region of Labrador, and sailed along the coast for many leagues. This was _fourteen months before Columbus discovered the continent_. Cabot supposed that he had reached the territory of the "Great Cham," king of Tartary. Nevertheless, he landed, planted a banner, and took possession in the name of the king of England. On his return home he was received with much honor, was dressed in silk, and styled the "Great Admiral." The booty which he brought back consisted of only two turkeys and three savages.

[Footnote: There is a map of Cabot's preserved at Paris, on which the land he first saw, and named _Prima Vista_, corresponds with Cape Breton. On it is the date 1494. If this be authentic, it will give the priority of the discovery of the American continent to Cabot by four years, and decide that Cape Breton, and not Labrador nor the Orinoco River, was first seen by European eyes. Very little is definitely known of John Cabot, and even the time and place of his birth and death are matters of conjecture.]

SEBASTIAN CABOT continued his father's discoveries. During the same summer in which Columbus reached the shore of South America, Sebastian, then a youth of only twenty-one, discovered Newfoundland, and coasted as far south as Chesapeake Bay. As he found neither the way to India, nor gold, precious stones, and spices, his expedition was considered a failure. Yet, by his discoveries, England acquired a title to a vast territory in the new world. Though he gave to England a continent, no one knows his burial-place.

We shall now follow the principal explorations made within the limits of the future United States, by the SPAINIARDS, FRENCH, ENGLISH, and DUTCH. The Spaniards explored mainly the southern portion of North America, the French the northern, and the English the middle portion along the coast.

SPANISH EXPLORATIONS.

Feeling in Spain.--America, at this time, was to the Spaniard a land of vague, but magnificent promise, where the simple natives wore unconsciously the costliest gems, and the sands of the rivers sparkled with gold. Every returning ship brought fresh news to quicken the pulse of Spanish enthusiasm. Now, Cortez had taken Mexico, and reveled in the wealth of the Montezumas; now, Pizarro had conquered Peru, and captured the riches of the Incas; now, Magellan, sailing through the straits which bear his name, had crossed the Pacific, and his vessel returning home by the Cape of Good Hope, had circumnavigated the globe. Men of the highest rank and culture, warriors, adventurers, all flocked to the new world. Soon Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, and Jamaica were settled, and ruled by Spanish governors. Among the Spanish explorers of the sixteenth century we notice the following:

PONCE DE LEON (pon'-tha-da-la-on') was a gallant soldier, but an old man, and in disgrace. He coveted the glory of conquest to restore his tarnished reputation, and, besides, he had heard of a magical fountain in this fairy land, where one might bathe and be young again. Accordingly he equipped an expedition, and sailed in search of this fabled treasure. On Easter Sunday (_Pascua Florida_, in Spanish), 1512, he came in sight of a land gay with spring flowers. In honor of the day, he called it Florida. He sailed along the coast, and landed here and there, but returned home at last, an old man still, haying found neither youth, gold, nor glory.

[Footnote: About eight years afterward, De Ayllon (da-ile-yon') made a kidnapping expedition to what is now known as South Carolina. Desiring to obtain laborers for the mines and plantations in Hayti, he invited some of the natives on board his vessels, and, when they were all below, he suddenly closed the hatches and set sail. The speculation, however, did not turn out profitably. One vessel sank with all on board, and many, preferring starvation to slavery, died on the voyage. History tells us that in 1525, when De Ayllon went back with the intention of settling the country, the Indians practised upon him the lesson of cruelty he had taught them. His men were lured into the interior. Their entertainers, falling upon them at night, slew the larger part, and De Ayllon was only too glad to escape with his life.]

BALBOA crossed the Isthmus of Darien the next year, and from the summit of the Andes beheld the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Wading into its waters with his naked sword in one hand, and the banner of Castile (kas-teel) in the other, he solemnly declared that the ocean, and all the shores which it might touch, belonged to the crown of Spain forever.

DE NARVAEZ (nar-vah-eth) received a grant of Florida, and (1528) with 300 men attempted its conquest. Striking into the interior, they wandered about, lured on by the hope of finding gold. Wading through swamps, crossing deep rivers by swimming and by rafts, fighting the lurking Indians who incessantly harassed their path, and nearly perishing with hunger, they reached at last the Gulf of Mexico. Hastily constructing some crazy boats, they put to sea. After six weeks of peril and suffering, they were shipwrecked, and De Narvaez was lost. Six years afterward, four--the only survivors of this ill-fated expedition--reached the Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast.

FERDINAND DE SOTO, undismayed by these failures, undertook anew the conquest of Florida. He set out with 600 choice men, amid the fluttering of banners, the flourish of trumpets, and the gleaming of helmet and lance. For month after month this procession of cavaliers, priests, soldiers, and Indian captives strolled through the wilderness, wherever they thought gold might be found. They traversed what is now Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. In the third year of their wanderings (1541) they emerged upon the bank of the Mississippi. After another year of fruitless explorations, De Soto died. (See Map, Epoch I). At the dead of night his followers sank his body in the river, and the sullen waters buried his hopes and his ambition. "He had crossed a large part of the continent," says Bancroft, "and found nothing so remarkable as his burial-place." De Soto had been the soul of the company. When he died, the other adventurers were anxious only to get home in safety. They constructed boats and descended the river, little over half of this gallant array finally reaching the settlements in Mexico.

MELENDEZ (ma-len-deth), wiser than his predecessors, on landing (1565) forthwith laid the foundations of a colony. In honor of the day, he named it St. Augustine. _This is the oldest town in the United States._

[Footnote: Many Spanish remains still exist. Among these is Fort Marion, once San Marco, which was founded in 1565 and finished in 1755. It is built of coquina--a curious stone composed of small shells.]

EXPLORATIONS ON THE PACIFIC.

California, in the sixteenth century, was a general name applied to all the region northwest of Mexico. It is said to have originated in an old Spanish romance very popular in the time of Cortez, in which appeared a character called California, queen of the Amazons. The Mexicans told the Spaniards that most of their gold and precious stones came from a country far to the northwest. Cortez, therefore, immediately turned his attention to that direction, and sent out several expeditions to explore the Californias. All these adventurers returned empty-handed from the very region where, three centuries afterward, the world was startled by the finding of an El Dorado such as would have satisfied the wildest dreams of Cortez and his credulous followers.

_CABRILLO_ (1542) made the first voyage along the Pacific coast, going as far north as the present limits of Oregon.

_NEW MEXICO_ was explored and named by Espejo (es-pay'-ho) who (1582) founded Santa Fe, which is the second oldest town in the United States. This was seventeen years after the settlement of St. Augustine.

EXTENT OF THE SPANISH POSSESSIONS.

Spain, at the close of the sixteenth century, held possession not only of the West Indies, but of Yucatan, Mexico, and Florida.

[Footnote: A writer of that time locates Quebec in Florida, and a map of Henry II. gives that name to all North America.]

The Spanish explorers had traversed a large portion of the present Southern States, and of the Pacific coast. All this vast territory they claimed by the rights of discovery and possession.

[Footnote: The conquests of the new world enriched Spain, which became the wealthiest and most powerful country in Europe. This made other nations all the more anxious to find the western passage to India. The routes by the Cape of Good Hope and by the Straits of Magellan were long and dangerous. To find the shorter northwestern route now became the great wish of all maritime nations, and has been anxiously sought down to the present time.]

FRENCH EXPLORATIONS.

The French were eager to share in the profits which Spain was acquiring in the new world. Within seven years after the discovery of the continent, the fisheries of Newfoundland were frequented by their mariners.

[Footnote: Cape Breton was named by the fishermen in remembrance of their home in Brittany, France.]

VER-RA-ZA-NI (zah-ne), a Florentine, was the first navigator sent by the French king to find the new way to the Indies. Sailing westward from Madeira (1524), he reached land near the present harbor of Wilmington.

[Footnote: A letter of Verrazani's giving an account of this voyage, and, until of late, thought to be reliable, is now considered by many to be a forgery perpetrated by some Italian anxious to secure for his country the glory of the discovery.]

He supposed this had never been seen by Europeans, although we know that Cabot had discovered it nearly thirty years before. He coasted along the shores of Carolina and New Jersey, entered the harbors of New York and Newport, and returned with the most glowing description of the new lands he had found. He named the country New France. This term was afterwards confined to Canada.

CARTIER (kar-te-a) ascended the River St. Lawrence (1535) to the Indian village of Hochelaga (ho-she-lah-ga) the present site of Montreal. The town was pleasantly situated at the foot of a lofty hill which Cartier climbed. Stirred by the magnificent prospect, he named it Mont Real (Mong Ra-al), Regal Mountain.

[Footnote: Cartier had discovered and named the Gulf and River St. Lawrence the previous year. In 1541-2, he and Lord Roberval attempted to plant a colony near Quebec. It was composed chiefly of convicts and proved a failure.]

JOHN RIBAUT (re-bo) led the first expedition (1562) under the auspices of Coligny.

[Footnote: Jean Ribaut, as his name is given in Coligny's Ms. and in his own journal published in 1563, was an excellent seaman.]

[Footnote: Coligny (ko-lon-ye) was an admiral of France, and a leader of the Huguenots (Hu-ge-nots), as the Protestants were then called. He had conceived a plan for founding an empire in America. This would furnish an asylum for his Huguenot friends, and at the same time advance the glory of the French. Thus religion and patriotism combined to induce him to send out colonists to the new world.]

The company landed at Port Royal, S.C. So captivated were they, that when volunteers were called for to hold the country for France, so many came forward "with such a good will and joly corage," wrote Ribaut, "as we had much to do to stay their importunitie." They erected a fort, which they named Carolina in honor of Charles IX., king of France. The fleet departed, and this little band of thirty were left alone on the continent. From the North Pole to Mexico, they were the only civilized men. Food became scarce. They tired of the eternal solitude of the wilderness, and finally built a rude ship, and put to sea. Here a storm shattered their vessel. Famine overtook them, and, in their extremity, they killed and ate one of their number. A vessel at last hove in sight, and took them on board only to carry them captives to England. Thus perished the colony, but the name still survives.

[Footnote: The most feeble were landed in France. It is said that Queen Elizabeth while conversing with those sent to England, first thought of colonizing the new world]

LAUDONNIERE (Lo-don-yare), two years after, built a fort, also called Carolina, on the St. John's River.

[Footnote: The history of this colony records an amusing story concerning the long life of the natives. A party visited a chief in the midst of the wilderness who gravely assured them that he was the father of five generations, and had lived 250 years. Opposite him, in the same hut, sat his father, a mere skeleton, whose "age was so great that the good man had lost his sight, and could speak one onely word but with exceeding great paine." The credulous Frenchmen gazed with awe on this wonderful pair, and congratulated themselves on having come to such a land,--where certainly there would be no need of Ponce de Leon's fabled fountain.]

Soon the colonists were reduced to the verge of starvation.

[Footnote: Their sufferings were horrible. Weak and emaciated, they fed themselves with roots, sorrel, pounded fish-bones, and even roasted snakes. "Oftentimes," says Laudonniere, "our poor soldiers were constrained to give away the very shirts from their backs to get one fish. If at any time they shewed unto the savages the excessive price which they tooke, these villaines would answer them roughly: 'If thou make so great account of thy merchandise, eat it, and we will eat our fish;' then fell they out a laughing, and mocked us with open throat."]

They were on the point of leaving, when they were reinforced by Ribaut. The French now seemed fairly fixed on the coast of Florida. The Spaniards, however, claimed the country. Melendez, about this time, had made a settlement in St. Augustine. Leading an expedition northward through the wilderness, in the midst of a fearful tempest, he attacked Fort Carolina and massacred almost the entire population.