1520 adjacent to Vera Cruz had attacked the Spanish garrison at that place, and that Montezuma himself had acted with hostility and treachery towards the Spaniards while they were marching on the city. As soon as the emperor was in his power, Cortez compelled him to acknowledge himself a vassal of the king of Spain and to agree to the payment of a sum amounting to six million three hundred thousand dollars, with an annual tribute afterwards. In the mean time, Velasquez, the Spanish governor of Cuba, jealous of the fame of Cortez, had despatched a force to Mexico to arrest his progress and to supersede him in the command. The expedition was led by PAMPHILO DE NARVAEZ, the same who was afterwards governor of Florida. His forces consisted of more than twelve hundred well armed and well disciplined soldiers, besides a thousand Indian servants and guides. But the vigilant Cortez had meanwhile been informed by messengers from Vera Cruz of the movement which his enemies at home had set on foot against him, and he determined to sell his command only at the price of his own life and the lives of all his followers. He therefore instructed Alvarado, one of his subordinate officers, to remain in the capital with a small force of a hundred and forty men; and with the remainder, numbering less than two hundred, he himself hastily withdrew from the city and proceeded by a forced march to encounter De Narvaez on the sea-coast. On the night of the 26th of May, 1520, while the soldiers of the latter were quietly asleep in their camp near Vera Cruz, Cortez burst upon them with the fury of despair, and before they could rally or well understand the terrible onset, compelled the whole force to surrender. Then, adding the general's skill to the warrior's prowess, he succeeded in inducing the conquered army to join his own standard; and with his forces thus augmented to six times their original numbers he began a second time his march towards the capital. While Cortez was absent on this expedition, the Mexicans of the capital rose in arms, and the possession of the country was staked on the issue of war. Alvarado, either fearing a revolt or from a spirit of atrocious cruelty, had attacked the Mexicans while they were celebrating one of their festivals, and slain five hundred of the leaders and priests. The people in a frenzy of astonishment and rage flew to their arms and laid siege to the palace where Alvarado and his men were fortified. The Spaniards were already hard pressed when Cortez at the head of his new army reached the city. He entered without opposition and joined Alvarado's command; but the passions of the Mexicans were now thoroughly aroused, and not all the diplomacy of the Spanish general could again bring them into subjection. In a few days the conflict began in earnest. The streets were deluged with the blood of tens of thousands; and not a few of the Spaniards fell before the vengeance of the native warriors. For/ months there was almost incessant fighting in and around the city; and it became evident that the Spaniards must ultimately be overwhelmed and destroyed. To save himself from his peril, Cortez adopted a second shameless expedient, more wicked than the first. Montezuma was compelled to go upon the top of the palace in front of the great square where the besiegers were gathered and to counsel them to make peace with the Spaniards. For a moment there was universal silence, then a murmur of vexation and rage, and then Montezuma was struck down by the javelins of his own subjects. In a few days he died of wretchedness and despair, and for a while the warriors, overwhelmed with remorse, abandoned the conflict. But with the renewal of the strife Cortez was obliged to leave the city. Finally a great battle was fought, and the Spanish arms and valor triumphed. In the crisis of the struggle the sacred Mexican banner was struck down and captured. Dismay seized the hosts of puny warriors, and they fled in all directions. In December of 1520, Cortez again marched on the capital. A siege, lasting until August of the following year, ensued; and then the famous city yielded. The empire of the Montezumas was overthrown, and Mexico became a Spanish province. Among the many daring enterprises which marked the beginning e of the sixteenth century, that of FERDINAND MAGELLAN is worthy of special mention. A Portuguese by birth, a navigator by profession, 151-7 this man, so noted for extraordinary boldness and ability, determinedto discover a south-west rather than a north-west passage to Asia. With this object in view, he appealed to the king of Portugal for ships and men. The monarch listened coldly, and did nothing to give encouragement. Incensed at this treatment, Magellan threw off his allegiance, went to Spain-the usual resort of disappointed seamen-and laid his plans before Charles V. The emperor caught eagerly at the opportunity, and ordered a fleet of five ships to be immediately fitted at the public expense and properly manned' with crews. The voyage was begun from Seville in August of 1519. Sailing southward across the equinoctial line, Magellan soon reached the coast of South America, and spent the autumn in explorations, hoping to find some strait that should lead him westward into that ocean which Balboa had discovered six years previously. Not at first successful in this effort, 1520 520 he passed the winter-which was summer on that side of the equatorsomewhere on the coast of Brazil. Renewing his voyage southward, he came at last to the eastern mouth of that strait which still bears the name of its discoverer, and passing through it found himself in the open and boundless ocean. The weather was beautiful, and the peaceful deep was called the Pacific. Setting his prows to the north of west, Magellan now held steadily on his course for nearly four months, suffering much meanwhile from want of water and scarcity of provisions. In March of 1520 he came to the group of islands called the Ladrones, situated about midway between Australia and Japan. Sailing still westward, he reached the Philippine group, where he was killed in a battle with the natives. But the fleet was now less than four hundred miles from China, and the rest of the route was easy. A new captain was chosen, and the voyage continued by way of the Moluccas, where a cargo of spices was taken on board for the market. of Western Europe. Only a single ship was deemed in a fit condition to venture on the homeward voyage; but in this vessel the crews embarked, and returning by way of the Cape of Good Hope arrived in Spain on the 17th day of September, 1522. The circumnavigation of the globe, long believed in as a possibility, had now become a thing of reality. The theory of the old astronomers, of Mandeville and of Columbus had been proved by actual demonstration. The next important voyage undertaken to the shores of America was in the year 1520. LUCAS VASQUEZ DE AYLLON, who had been a judge in St. Domingo and had acquired great riches, conducted the expedition. He and six other wealthy men, eager to stock their plantations with slaves, determined to do so by kidnapping natives from the neighboring Bahamas. Two vessels were fitted out for the purpose, and De Ayllon commanded in person. When the vessels were nearing their destination, they encountered a storm which drove them northward about a hundred and fifty SC leagues, and brought them against the coast of South Carolina. The ships entered St. Helena Sound and anchored in the mouth of the Cambahee River. The name of Chicora was given to the country, and the river was called the Jordan. The timid but friendly natives, as soon as their fears had subsided, began to make presents to the strangers and to treat them with great cordiality. They flocked on board the ships; and when the decks were crowded, De Ayllon, watching his opportunity, weighed anchor and sailed away. A few days afterward an avenging storm sent one of the ships to the bottom of the sea, and death came mercifully to most of the poor wretches who were huddled under the hatches of the other. Going at once to Spain, De Ayllon repeated the story of his exploit to Charles V., who rewarded him with the governorship of Chicora and the privilege of conquest. Returning to his province in 1525, he found 1525 the natives intensely hostile. His best ship ran aground in the mouth of the Jordan, and the outraged Indians fell upon him with fury, killing many of the treacherous crew, and making the rest glad enough to get away with their lives. De Ayllon himself returned to St. Domingo humiliated and ruined. Thus ended the first disgraceful effort to enslave the Indians. 1526 In the year 1526, Charles V. appointed the unprincipled PAMPHILOL DE NARVAEZ governor of Florida, and to the appointment was added the usual privilege of conquest. The territory thus placed at his disposal extended from Cape Sable fully three-fifths of the way around the Gulf of Mexico, and was limited on the south-west by the mouth of the River of Palms. With this extensive commission De Narvaez arrived at Tampa Bay in the month of April, 1528. His force consisted of two hundred T and sixty soldiers and forty horsemen. The natives treated them with P suspicion, and, anxious to be rid of the intruders, began to hold up their gold trinkets and to point to the north. The hint was eagerly caught at by the avaricious Spaniards, whose imaginations were set on fire with the sight of the precious metal. They struck boldly into the forests, expecting to find cities and empires, and found instead swamps and savages. They reached the Withlacoochie and crossed it by swimming, they passed over the Suwanee in a canoe which they made for the occasion, and finally came to Apalachee, a squalid village of forty cabins. This, then, was the mighty city to which their guides had directed them. Oppressed with fatigue and goaded by hunger, they plunged again into the woods, wading through lagoons and assailed by lurking savages, until at last they reached the sea at the harbor of St. Mark's. Here they expected to find their ships, but not a ship was there, or had been. With great labor they constructed some brigantines, and put to sea in the vain hope of reaching the Spanish settlements in Mexico. They were tossed by storms, driven out of sight of land and then thrown upon the shore again, drowned, slain by the savages, left in the solitary woods dead of starvation and despair, until finally four miserable men of all the adventurous company, under the leadership of the heroic De Vaca, first lieutenant of the expedition, were rescued at the village of San Miguel, on the Pacific coast, and conducted to the city of Mexico. The story can hardly be paralleled in the annals of suffering and peril. But the Spaniards were not yet satisfied. In the year 1537 a new expedition was planned which surpassed all the others in the bril L 1539 liancy of its beginning and the disasters of its end. The most cavalier of the cavaliers was FERDINAND DE SOTO, of Xeres. Besides the distinction of a noble birth, he had been the lieutenant and bosom friend of Pizarro, and had now returned from Peru loaded with wealth. So great was his popularity in Spain that he had only to demand what he would have of the emperor that his request might be granted. At his own dictation he was accordingly appointed governor of Cuba and Florida, with the privilege of exploring and conquering the latter country at his pleasure. A great company of young Spaniards, nearly all of them wealthy and high-born, flocked to his standard. Of these he selected six hundred of the most gallant and daring. They were clad in costly suits of armor of the knightly pattern, with airy scarfs and silken embroidery and all the trappings of chivalry. Elaborate preparations were made for the grand conquest; arms and stores were provided; shackles were wrought for the slaves; tools for the forge and workshop were abundantly supplied; bloodhounds were bought and trained for the work of hunting fugitives; cards to keep the young knights excited with gaming; twelve priests to conduct religious ceremonies; and, last of all, a drove of swine to fatten on the maize and mast of the country. When, after a year of impatience and delay, everything was at last in readiness, the gay Castilian squadron, ten vessels in all, left the harbor of San Lucar to conquer imaginary empires in the New World. The fleet touched at Havana, and the enthusiasm was kindled even to a higher pitch than it had reached in Spain. De Soto left his wife to govern Cuba during his absence; and after a prosperous and exulting voyage of two weeks, the ships cast anchor in Tampa Bay. This was in the early part of June, 1539. When some of the Cubans who had joined the expedition first saw the silent forests and gloomy morasses that stretched before them, they were terrified at the prospect, and sailed back to the security of home; but De Soto and his cavaliers despised such cowardice, and began their march into the interior. During the months of July, August and September they marched to the northward, wading through swamps, swimming rivers and fighting the Indians. In October they arrived at the country of the Apalachians, on the left bank of Flint River, where they determined to spend the winter. For four months they remained in this locality, sending out exploring parties in various directions. One of these companies reached the gulf at Pensacola, and made arrangements that supplies should be sent out from Cuba to that place during the following summer. In the early spring the Spaniards left their winter quarters and continued their march to the north and east. An Indian guide told them of |