Resource Center OLLibrary
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and, on his return, gave a very glowing account
of his discoveries. This falling into the hands of a German writer
on geography, led him to give to the New World the name
America.
II.
THE
SPANIARDS1 IN
THE SOUTH. -- 1. The
Spaniards did not neglect to follow up the
discoveries of Columbus. It was not long before they had
discovered and taken possession of the principal West India
islands. They also sent expeditions to explore the coast of the
main 
land,
and in 1510 planted, near the Gulf of Darien, the first European
colony on the continent. Three years later, Balboa,
governor of the colony, crossed the Isthmus and discovered the
Pacific Ocean. He first saw it from a high cliff, stretching far
away to
1 Portugal, so prominent as a maritime power, attempted little in the explorations of North America. In 1500, Cabral, keeping far to the west in a voyage round Africa (see p. 8, ¶ 2, note 2), fell in with Brazil, and claimed it for Portugal. Gaspar Cortereal was commissioned by king to explore the western shores of the Atlantic. In 1501 he touched at several points on the American coast between New Jorsey and Labrador, and kidnapped fifty natives for slaves. Cortereal made a second voyage, from which he never returned. The Portuguese attempted no further discoveries in North America. Successful adventures in other directions engrossed their whole attention.
QUESTIONS. -- Why was the New World named America? 1. What is said of the Spaniards in the West Indies? On the coast of the main land? Of Balboa?
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the south, and hence named it the South Sea. This ocean
received its present name from Magellan, 
a
Portuguese, who, in the service of Spain, in 1520, sailed through
the strait that bears his name, and entered the Ocean, which he
called Pacific, because he found it so calm and free from storms.
A few months afterwards Magellan was slain at the Philippine
Islands, in a contest with the natives. One of his ships, however,
realized the idea of Columbus, in reaching India by sailing west.
This ship returned to Spain by the Cape of Good Hope, thus
accomplishing the first circumnavigation of the
globe.
2. Expeditions for discovery and
trade were early sent from Cuba to the west shore of the Gulf of
Mexico. The treasures they collected, and the rumors they gathered
of the wealth and magnificence of Mexico, led to the fitting out
of an armament under 
Fernando
Cortez, in 1519, for the conquest of the country.1
In two years Cortez subjugated the empire of Mexico, and it became
a province of Spain.2 The Spaniards had also
established a settlement at Panama, a little to the east of the
present city of that name. From this settlement Francisco
Pizarro made three attempts to conquer Peru. He set out on his
last and 
successful
expedition in 1531, aided by Almagro. The next year Peru, with its
riches and splendor, experienced the fate of Mexico. Although the
conquerors of Mexico and Peru displayed great courage and ability,
these qualities were offset by the meanest deception, the basest
treachery, and the most unrelenting cruelty.
III. THE
SPANIARDS IN THE
UNITED STATES. --
1. Ponce de Leon was the first who, under the patronage of
Spain, explored any part of what is now the United States. On
Easter Sunday, called by the 
Spaniards
Pascua Florida, he came in sight of land, which, from the day, he
named Florida. He landed near where St. Augustine now
stands, and claimed the territory for Spain.
De Leon was an old man when, in 1512, he
fitted out an expedition with the double design of finding gold
and of discovering a fountain, then generally believed to exist,
whose waters possessed the virtue of restoring and perpetuating
youth. He found no gold; and so far was he from finding the
fountain of youth, that some years afterwards he died of an
arrow-wound received in a contest with the Florida Indians.
2. In 1520
Vasquez de Ayllon, a Spanish adventurer, fitted out two
ships to search for slaves. He visited the coast of what is now
South
1 It illustrates the condition of the art of war at that time to state that, out of more than six hundred men who accompanied Cortez, only thirteen were armed with muskets.
2 Just three centuries after this conquest (1821) Mexico threw off the Spanish yoke.
QUESTIONS.--What is said of Magellan? What of one of his ships? 2. What is said of the conquest of Mexico? Of the conquest of Peru? Of the conquerors of these countries? Ill. 1. Who discovered Florida? Under whose patronage? Why was Florida so named?With what design did DeLeon fit out his expedition? The fate of De Leon? 2. Give an account of De Ayllon's voyage?
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Carolina, then called Chicora, and having enticed on board his
vessels large numbers of the unsuspecting natives, immediately set
sail for Hayti. But he did not profit by his crime. One of his
ships foundered, and on board the other many of the captives died:
some of them, it is said, resolutely refused food, and died of
starvation. Stephen Gomez, who had accompanied Magellan on
his search for a passage to India south of America, sailed in 1525
on a voyage in the hope of discovering a similar passage north.
Such a passage was long sought for under the name of the
North-West Passage.1 He touched at various points on
the coast of what are now the Middle and Eastern States. Failing
in the great object of the expedition, he filled his ships with
Indians, to be sold as slaves. Three years later Pamphilo de
Narvaez made an unsuccessful attempt to conquer
Florida.
3. Fernando do Soto, who had gained a
brilliant reputation and immense wealth by service in Peru with
Pizarro, longed to add to both, by subduing the opulent cities
that, he believed, lay hidden in the unexplored regions of North
America. He obtained of Charles V. permission to conquer Florida,
under 
which
name was included all the eastern part of America north of Mexico.
He landed on the western coast of the peninsula, and, in the
spring of 1541, after two years of fruitless search for gold, be
came upon the Mississippi River,2 near the southern
limit of the present state of Tennessee. The next year he died on
its banks, and was buried in its waters.
After his death his followers,
with incredible toil and hardship, succeeded in building boats to
take them down the river. In these, more than four years after
their first landing in Florida, they arrived at a Spanish
settlement on the Gulf of Mexico -- a wretched and care-worn
remnant of the brilliant expedition that set out with De
Soto.
4. Nearly a quarter of a century later,
Philip II. of Spain commissioned Melendez de Avilez
to conquer and colonize Florida, and to expel a colony of French
Protestants3 established near the mouth of 
the
St. John's. The result of this expedition was, that in 1565 St.
Augustine, the oldest European 1565. town in the United
States, was founded by the Spaniards, and the French colonists
were, with the exception of a few Catholics, either driven from
Florida,4 massacred, or enslaved.
1 Finally discovered by Captain McClure, in 1850-54, but useless to navigation.
2 The Mississippi was not visited again by any European for more than one hundred and thirty years. See p. 67, ¶ 3.
3 See P. 15, ¶¶ 2, 3. 4 See p. 94, ¶ 13
QUESTIONS. -- Give an account of the voyage of Gomez, What of Do Narvaez? 3. What did De Soto undertake? What river did he discover, and when? His fate?--What of his followers? 4. For what was Melendez de Avilez commissioned? The result of his expedition?
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5. Spain was
earliest in the field of discovery and exploration in the
interior of North America, and on the Pacific
shores, In 1541 Alarcon sailed north along the Pacific
coast almost to San Francisco. The next year De Cabrillo
explored the coast to near the mouth of the Columbia. These
voyages were undertaken the purpose of finding a passage into
the Atlantic.1 The same year that Alarcon set out
on his expedition, Coronado, sailing along the eastern
shores of the Gulf of California, discovered the River Gila, which
he followed nearly to its source; he then struck east across the
mountains, and reached the upper waters of the Rio Grande. In 1580
Ruyz, a Franciscan friar, made a missionary tour through
the regions north of Mexico, traversing the country visited forty
years before by Coronado.
The
next year De Espejo extended the explorations of Ruyz, and
named the country New Mexico. In 1582 he founded Santa
Fé, next to St. Augustine, the oldest town in the
United States.
CHAPTER II.
FRENCH EXPEDITIONS.
I.
EARLY EXPEDITIONS IN
THE NORTH. -- 1. The
French attempted no discoveries in America until 1524, when
John
Verrazzani, a native of Florence, sailed in the service of
Francis I. Making land near Wilmington, North Carolina, he
explored the coast for a short distance south, then north as far
as the northern part of Nova Scotia. On his way he entered the
harbors of New York and Newport. He named the country New
France. Ten 
years
later, James Cartier made a voyage under a commission from
the King of France. Passing Newfoundland, he entered a bay, which
he named Bay of Chaleurs.2 The next year, on a second
voyage., he entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence,3 and
explored, as far as the Island of Montreal, the great river that
flows into it.
Lord Roberval was afterwards
appointed viceroy of these regions, and, with Cartier, undertook
to colonize them; but the attempt was abandoned, and the
viceroyalty relinquished.
1 See p. 13 ¶ 2, and note 1.
2 Bay of heats, -- so named from the intense summer heats which he experienced there.
3 Cartier entered the gulf on the day of St. Lawrence, and gave the name of that saint to It. The Island of Montreal, and the city built upon it, owe their name to a beautiful hill near the centre of the island, which he named Mont Real (Royal Mount).
QUESTIONS. -- 5. What is said of Spain in the Interior of North America and on the Pacific coast? What is said of Alarcon? Of De Cabrillo? Of Coronado? Of Ruyz? Of De Espejo?
1. When did France begin to make discoveries in America? Describe the voyage of Verzazzani. Describe the voyages of Cartier. -- What is said of Roberval?
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II.
THE
HUGUENOTS.--1. The celebrated
Coligny obtained from King Charles IX. permission to
establish in America a settlement for French Protestants, --
Huguenots, as they were called. John Ribault 
led
the expedition. In 1562 he reached Port Royal entrance, and built
a fort, which, in honer of his king,1 he named
Carolina, a name afterwards applied to the neighboring
territory. Leaving a garrison of twenty-five men, he returned to
France for supplies and reënforcements. But France was
distracted by civil wars. Aid could not be obtained, and the
colonists soon abandoned Carolina.
2. Two years
later, a second colony of Huguenots came over, under
Laudonniere, who had sailed with Ribault on the former
voyage. This colony established itself on the banks of the St.
John's, in Florida. A second Fort Carolina was built. The next
year Ribault arrived, bringing emigrants with their families, and
abundant supplies. Spain, however, would not consent that land
claimed2 by her should harbor Protestants, and
Melendez3 was commissioned to "root out the
heretics." He took the settlement by surprise, and put most of the
inhabitants to death with inhuman atrocity, "Not as Frenchmen, but
as heretics," as he declared.
3. The French
government made no attempt to avenge the destruction of the
colony, but French Protestants were aroused to the highest pitch
of indignation. Dominic de Gourgues sold his property,
collected contributions from his friends, and fitted out an
armament to retaliate upon the Spaniards. In 1568, he surprised
the Spanish forts erected near the ruins of Fort Carolina, and
hanged the garrisons, placing over them the inscription, "Not as
Spaniards and mariners, but as traitors, robbers, and murderers."
De Gourgues, haying accomplished his purpose of revenge, embarked
for France. His king disowned the expedition, and Florida returned
to the possession of Spain.
III. LATER
EXPEDITIONS. -- 1. In 1603,
Samuel Champlain was sent out by a company of Rouen
merchants.
He made a careful examination of the country about the St.
Lawrence, and selected Quebec as the proper site for a fort.
Soon after, a patent was given to the Sieur
de Monts, conferring on him a territory extending, under the
name of Acadia, from forty to forty-six degrees north, or
from near the latitude of Philadelphia to 
near
that of Fredericton, New Brunswick. Under this patent, the first
permanent French settlement in America was established, in 1605,
on the western coast of Nova Scotia, and named Port
Royal.4
1 Charles, in Latin Carolus. 2 See p. 12. § III. ¶ 1. 3 See p. 13, ¶ 4. 4 See p. 84, ¶ 2
QUESTIONS -- 1. Give an account of Ribault's expedition. 2. What can you tell of a second colony of Huguenots? Fate of the colony? 3. How was the destruction of this colony avenged? III. 1. Give an account of Champlain's expedition. What is said of De Monts? What was the extent of Acadia? What is said of Port Royal?
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© 1999, 2000, 2001 for NEGenWeb Project by Ted & Carole Miller