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II.

ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORING AND COLONIZING

AMERICA.

(1513-1600.)

For Authorities for this Chapter see Appendix, page xxiv. The small figures in the text refer to Authorities cited on page xxx of the Appendix.

THE COUNTRY.

THE NATIVES. EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERY
OF AMERICA ON EUROPE.

16. The miraculous spring; Ponce de Leon discovers Florida. Early in the sixteenth century a Portuguese historian wrote to the Pope, "There is an island about three hundred and fifty leagues from Hispaniola (Hayti). . . on which is a never-failing spring of such marvellous efficacy that when the water is drunk, perhaps with some attention to diet, it makes old people young again." Ponce de Leon, a Spanish cavalier, who was, as his epitaph 32 declared, "a lion by name and still more by nature," resolved to set out in search of this marvellous spring. He hoped thereby to find new lands and new life at the same time. It was It was a compliment to America that men believed it could give all things, not only gold and fame but even one's lost youth,

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De Leon sailed (1513) from Porto Rico with a picked crew in search of the miraculous fountain. On Easter Day Spanish called Pascua Florida or "Flowery Easter" they discovered land. De Leon and his men went ashore a few miles north of where the Spaniards later founded St. Augustine. He called the land Florida from the name of the day on which he had discovered it. Later (1521) he returned to colonize

Florida. The Indians resisted his attempt to seize their country, and in the fight the stout-hearted old cavalier received his death wound.

17. Balboa discovers a new ocean; Magellan names it; Spanish exploration of the Pacific coast. Meanwhile Balboa, the Spanish governor of a colony on the Isthmus of Darien, set out (1513) to discover a sea said to exist in the southwest. After an exhausting march of nearly three weeks, over rocky hills and through vine-tangled forests, the expedition reached the foot of a mountain where he called a halt. Climbing to the top of this height the Spaniard looked down upon the shining waters of the "South Sea." No white man had ever before beheld that greatest of the oceans of the globe; next after Columbus, Balboa had made the most remarkable geographical discovery recorded in history. A few days later, wading into the waters of that sea, he drew his sword and declared that the Kings of Spain should hold possession of the South Sea and of its coasts and islands "while the earth revolves, and until the universal judgment of mankind." 34

Seven years later (1520) Magellan entered that ocean on his voyage round the globe. He found its waters so calm that he named it the Pacific.

Cortez had begun the conquest of Mexico, and in the course of a little more than twenty years (1520-1543) Spain had explored the Pacific coast of North America as far as Oregon.

18. Narvaez attempts to conquer Florida; the adventures of Cabeza de Vaca. While Cortez was plundering Mexico, Narvaez started from Spain (1528) to conquer Florida; but lost his life in the undertaking. Cabeza de Vaca and three survivors of the expedition were wrecked on the coast of Texas.

He and his companions managed to escape from a long captivity among the Indians, and set out to cross the country to the Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast. After two years of wandering, they arrived (1538) at the city of Mexico.

Cabeza carried to the Spaniards of the Pacific coast reports of the existence of the wonderful stone and adobe cities of the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona. This led to the great exploring expedition undertaken (1540) by Coronado.

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19. De Soto's expedition; the Indians. When Cabeza returned to Spain (1537) he reported that Florida was "the richest country in the world." Ferdinand de Soto, who had been with Pizarro in South America, heard this report with savage delight. He liked the "sport of killing Indians," and hoped to strip the Florida chiefs of their gold as Pizarro had stripped the unfortunate ruler of Peru.

In 1539 De Soto landed with an army of six hundred men at Tampa Bay, Florida. The Indians fought heroically against the invaders, but their arrows were no match for the arms carried by these white "warriors of fire."

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The Spaniards chained a num

ber of natives in gangs, forced them to serve as guides through the forest, and made them carry their baggage and "pound their corn."

20. De Soto discovers the "Great River" of the West; his death. In the spring (1541) the Spaniards came to the banks of the "Great River" of the West. At the point where they first saw it, the river "was about half a league broad," of "great depth," with "a strong current," "the water was always muddy, and timber and trees were continually floating down." Such is the first description by Europeans of the Mississippi.

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De Soto and his party crossed this mighty stream probably not far below the present city of Memphis, and pushed on to the vicinity of the Hot Springs of Arkansas. In the spring, utterly discouraged, they set out to reach the Gulf of Mexico. They got as far as the point where the Red River unites with the Mississippi. There (1542) De Soto died, and was secretly

buried at midnight in the turbid waters of the "Great River" which he had discovered. His followers built boats, and dropping down the stream succeeded at length in reaching Mexico.

21. The seven wonderful cities; Coronado's expedition; Onate's expedition. But the effect of Cabeza de Vaca's reports did not end with De Soto's disastrous expedition. Some Indians had told the Spaniards in Mexico that there were seven wonderful cities full of gold, silver and precious stones about forty days' journey northward in a region called Cibola. Cabeza, then in Mexico, said that he too had heard of these remarkable cities. The cupidity of the Spaniards was excited to fever point. A negro who had been one of Cabeza's former companions was sent out as guide to a monk who was directed to bring back an account of Cibola. They penetrated Arizona and New Mexico, and came in sight of one of the marvellous cities. The next year (1540) Coronado, the Spanish governor of a Mexican province, set out with an army to conquer Cibola. After a terrible march over mountains of rock and through suffocating deserts, Coronado reached one of the cities the pueblo of Zuni, it is supposed-and took it by assault, but found no gold or precious stones.

From this point he sent out an exploring party in search of a strange river. They discovered the Cañon of the Coloradothe deepest gorge known to exist in the earth's crust. Led on by stories of gold to be found farther north, Coronado pushed forward until, according to his own computation, he reached the fortieth parallel of latitude. Here, first of white men, he hunted buffalo perhaps on the plains of Kansas. The next year (1541) he reached the banks of a branch of the Mississippi and set up a cross bearing the inscription: "Thus far came the general Francisco Vasquez de Coronado." 36 Had the bold explorer kept on eastward from New Mexico he might have met his countryman De Soto, who had crossed the Mississippi and was moving westward."

More than half a century later Onate, a Spanish military leader, founded Santa Fé (1605),88 the second oldest town in the United States; his name cut on the smooth white sandstone of "Inscription Rock," between Santa Fé and Zuni, is still distinctly legible.

These men cared nothing for America itself, but only for what they could get out of it. Cortez summed up their motives in a single sentence when he told the Mexicans: "We Spaniards are troubled with a disease of the heart for which we find gold, and gold only, a specific remedy."

22. French explorations; Huguenot colonies planted at the south. Meanwhile, a party of Frenchmen dared to dispute the claims of Spain to the exclusive possession of the North American continent. Cartier had already discovered and explored the St. Lawrence (1535), and had named a lofty hill on an island in that river Montreal. Not quite thirty years later (1562) Admiral Coligny, the champion of the French Protestants, sent out a number of Huguenot emigrants to plant a colony at the South. Their object was to build up a Protestant commonwealth at Port Royal, on the coast of what is now South Carolina. The attempt failed. Two years later a new Huguenot colony settled near the mouth of the St. John's River, Florida, and built Fort Caroline. Here they were joined by Jean Ribaut with reinforcements.

23. Philip II. sends Menendez to exterminate the Huguenot colonists; St. Augustine; the massacre; De Gourgues's revenge. Philip II. of Spain was startled by hearing of these trespassers on his American dominions. French pirates had (1555) burned the Spanish settlement of Havana and butchered all of the inhabitants. Philip was eager for revenge; he was resolved to show no mercy to men who in his eyes were not only intruders, but "heretics." Pedro Menendez was sent over with a fleet to deal summarily with the Huguenots.

Menendez arrived in time to catch sight of Ribaut's vessels, but could not overtake them. He then dropped down to a

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