peared to him as large as the city of Mexico and which he concluded was the first of the Seven Cities. On the return of Friar Marcos a force of three hundred Spaniards and eight hundred Indians was soon equipped and placed under the command of Francisco de Coronado, who set out in February, 1540, with the expectation of rivaling the exploits of Cortés. He found that the city reported by Marcos was only a pueblo, and, after wandering around as far north as Kansas, returned to Mexico after an absence of two years. Neither Coronado nor De Soto found the wealth they were in search of, and the regions they explored had no attractions for the Spaniards at the time as places for settlement, but their discoveries were of great geographical importance. The same year that Coronado returned to Mexico Cabrillo explored the coast of California as far as Cape Mendocino. Thus within half a century of the first voyage of Columbus Spaniards had explored both coasts and a large part of the interior of North America as far north as the fortieth parallel. Spain had no intention, as we shall see, of allowing others to settle in the regions she had explored. In 1562 Admiral Coligny, the leader of the Huguenots in France, The French sent out an expedition under Jean Ribaut to in Florida, form a settlement for the persecuted Protestants 1562-1565 in the new world. Ribaut explored the east coast of Florida and left a party of thirty men, but they soon abandoned the post and were picked up by an English vessel. In 1564 Coligny sent out a second expedition under René de Laudonnière, who formed a settlement and built a fort at the mouth of the St. John's River. Some of his followers mutinied and went on a plundering expedition to the West Indies. This soon stirred the Spaniards to activity. On September 6, 1565, a force of 2600 Spaniards under Menendez landed on the coast of Florida and founded St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States. The neighboring French settlement was completely blotted out, its inhabitants butchered in cold blood, and a Spanish fort erected on its site. The Atlantic seaboard is well suited naturally for what it was destined historically to be, the starting point in the The Atlantic colonization of the United States. The broad seaboard bays and deep rivers which intersect the coastal plain afforded direct water communication between the early settlements and Europe, while the Appalachian chain of mountains forming its western boundary was a sufficient barrier to prevent the early settlers from wandering too far inland until the population was fairly compact. It was not until the period of the Revolution that the settlers pushed over the mountains into Tennessee and Kentucky. The interior of the The interior of the continent is most easily reached by way of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, and thus it happened that the French explored the Mississippi Valley before the English crossed the Alleghanies. Their main route was not by way of Lakes Ontario and Erie, but to the headwaters of the Ottawa River, then by portage to Lake Nipissing, then again by water down the French River to Georgian Bay and so to Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior. continent reached by the Great Lakes The upper Mississippi was first reached through Wisconsin by way of the Fox River, but another route was soon developed by portage from the headwaters of the Chicago River to the Illinois, along the line of the present Chicago Drainage Canal. In the eighteenth century the various portages leading from the waters of Lake Erie to the Ohio River came into use, but the earlier development of these routes was prevented by the hostility of the Iroquois. The position of the Iroquois in central New York likewise blocked the natural route leading from Canada to the Hudson River. As the line of the Hudson is the principal break in the long stretch of mountains from Maine to Alabama, it was destined to be of great importance from a military as well as from a commercial point of view. The line of Its strategic importance was shown both in the the Hudson French and Indian wars and in the Revolution. From the present site of Albany there was a choice of routes leading to Canada. One led from the headwaters of the Hudson by way of lakes George and Champlain to the St. Lawrence, and the other up the Mohawk River and across by portage to Lake Ontario. Trails lead ing to the Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee Further south, population and commerce were both checked for a long time at the heads of navigation, and further progress was delayed until roads were cut across the mountains. Toward the beginning of the Revolution the routes connecting the headwaters of the great rivers east of the mountains with the tributaries of the Ohio became of great importance to the white man, who in cutting the first rude roads. through the forest followed closely the well-known Indian trails. The principal routes were those through southern Pennsylvania leading from the Susquehanna to the Alleghany; the well-known line of Braddock's march from the upper waters of the Potomac to the Monongahela; the trail from the headwaters of the James to the Kanawha, followed by Andrew Lewis in his march to Point Pleasant; and the "Wilderness Road," or "Boone's Trail," which led through the Cumberland Gap from eastern Tennessee into Kentucky. The North The Indian population of North America has been greatly overestimated. There were probably not over four or five hundred thousand in the present territory of the United States when the white man first appeared. The numbers have not greatly decreased, so that Indian: it is a mistake to suppose that the Red Man has number and been exterminated. He has been pushed back by the advancing wave of civilization and confined largely distribution |