1

Arrayed in scarlet, and bearing his sword in one hand, and the banner of the expedition in the other, Columbus landed, with his followers, and in the midst of the gorgeous scenery and the incense of myriads of flowers, they all knelt down and chaunted a hymn of thanksgiving to God. The natives had gathered in wonder and awe, in the grove near by, regarding the Europeans as children of their great deity, the Sun. Little did they comprehend the fatal significance to them, of the act of Columbus, when, rising from the ground, he displayed the royal standard, drew his sword, set up a rude cross upon the spot where he landed, and took formal possession of the beautiful country in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella. The land first discovered by Columbus was one of the Bahamas, called by the natives Guanahama, but since named by the English, Cat Island. The navigator named it San Salvador (Holy Saviour); and believing it to be near the coast of further India, he called the natives Indians. This name was afterward applied to all the natives of the adjacent continent,3 and is still retained.

2

The triumph of Columbus was now complete. After spending some time in examining the island, becoming acquainted with the simple habits of the natives, and unsuccessfully searching for "the gold, and pearls, and spices of Zipangi," he sailed southward, and discovered several other small islands. He finally discovered Cuba and St. Domingo, where he was told of immense goldbearing regions in the interior. Impressed with the belief that he had discovered the Ophir of the ancients, he returned to Spain, where he arrived in March, 1493. He was received with great honors, but considerations of State policy induced the Spanish government to conceal the importance of his discovery from other nations. This policy, and the jealousy which the sudden elevation of a foreigner inspired in the Spaniards, deprived him of the honor of having the New World called by his name. Americus Vespucius, a Florentine, unfairly won the prize. In company with Ojeda, a companion of Colum

5

'Almost all the natives of the torrid zone of America worshiped the sun as the chief visible deity. The great temples of the sun in Mexico and Peru were among the most magnificent structures of the Americans, when Europeans came.

2 It was a common practice then, as now, for the discoverer of new lands to erect some monument, and to proclaim the title of his sovereign to the territories so discovered. The banner of the expedition, borne on shore by Columbus, was a white one, with a green cross. Over the initials F. and Y. (Ferdinand and Ysabella) were golden mural crowns.

3 Chapter I, page 9.

4 Note 4, page 38.

5 Columbus carried back with him several of the natives, and a variety of the animals, birds, and plants of the New World. They excited the greatest astonishment. His journey from Palos to Barcelona, to meet the sovereigns, was like the march of a king. His reception was still more magnificent. The throne of the monarch was placed in a public square, and the great of the kingdom were there to do homage to the navigator. The highest honors were bestowed upon Columbus; and the sovereigns granted him a coat of arms bearing royal devices, and the motto, “To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a new world."

6 See the protrait of Vespucius at the head of this Chapter. The Italians spell his name Amerigo Vespucci Am-e-ree-go Ves-pute-se]. He died while in the service of the king of Spain, in 1514. He had made several voyages to South America, and explored the eastern coast as far southward as the harbor of Rio Janeiro.

bus during his first voyage, Americus visited the West Indies, and discovered and explored the eastern coast of South America, north of the Oronoco, in 1499. In 1504, he published a glowing account of the lands he had visited,' and that being the first formal announcement to the world of the great discovery, and as he claimed to have first set foot upon the Continent of the West, it was called AMERICA, in honor of the Florentine. This claim was not founded on truth, for Columbus had anticipated him; and two years earlier, Cabot, in command of an expedition from England, discovered Labrador, Newfoundland, and portions of the New England coast.

2

He made slaves.

Columbus made three other voyages to the West Indies, established settlements, and in August, 1498, he discovered the continent at the mouth of the Oronoco. This, too, he supposed to be an island near the coast of Asia, and he lived and died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his discoveries. Before departing on his third voyage, he was appointed Viceroy and High Admiral of the New World. During his absence, jealous and unscrupulous men poisoned the minds of the king and queen with false statements concerning the ambitious designs of Columbus, and he was sent back to Spain in chains. The navigator was guilty of serious wrongs, but not against his sovereign. of the natives, and this offended the conscientious Isabella. But she was soon undeceived concerning his alleged political crimes, and he was allowed to depart on a fourth voyage. When he returned, the queen was dead, his enemies were in power, and he who had shed such luster upon the Spanish name, and added a new hemisphere to the Spanish realm, was allowed to sink into the grave in obscurity and neglect. He died at Valladolid on the 20th of May, 1506. His body was buried in a convent, from whence it was afterward carried to St. Domingo, and subsequently to Havana, in Cuba, where it now remains.

It was an unlucky hour for the nations of the New World when the eyes of Europeans were first opened upon it. The larger islands of the West India group were soon colonized by the Spaniards; and the peaceful, friendly, gentle, and happy natives, were speedily reduced to slavery. Their Paradise was made a Pandemonium for them. Bending beneath the weight of Spanish cruelty and wrong, they soon sunk into degradation. The women were compelled to intermarry with their oppressors, and from this union came many of the present race of Creoles, who form the numerical strength of Cuba and other West India Islands.

The wonderful stories of gold-bearing regions, told by the natives, and exaggerated by the adventurers, inflamed the avarice and cupidity of the Spaniards, and exploring voyages from Cuba, St. Domingo, and Porto Rico, were undertaken. The eastern coast of Yucatan was discovered in 1506; and in 1510, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, with a colony, settled upon the Isthmus

1 First in a letter to Lorenzo de Medici, and then [1507] in a volume, dedicated to the Duke of Lorraine. These publications revealed what the Spanish Government wished to conceal. Note 4, page 47.

2 In his second voyage [1493], Columbus took with him several horses, a bull, and some cows. These were the first animals of the kind taken from Europe to America.

of Darien.

This was the first colony planted on the continent of America. Crossing the Isthmus in search of gold in 1513, Balboa saw the Pacific

BALBOA.L

Ocean in a southerly direction from the top of a high mountain, and he called it the "South Sea." In full costume, and bearing the Spanish flag, he entered its waters and took possession of the "seas, lands," etc., "of the South," in the name of his sovereign.

2

In the year 1512 Florida was discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon, an old visionary, who had been governor of Porto Rico. With three ships he sailed for the Bahamas in search of a fountain which unlettered natives and wise men of Spain believed to exist there, and whose waters possessed the quality of restoring old age to the bloom of youth, and of making the recipient immortal. It was on Easter Sunday, March 27, 1512, the Pasquas de Flores of the Spaniards, when the adventurer approached the shores of the great southern peninsula of the United States and landed near the site of St. Augustine. The forests and the green banks were laden with flowers; and when, soon after landing, Ponce de Leon took possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, this fact and the holy day were regarded, and he called the beautiful domain, FLORIDA. He continued his searches for the Fountain of Youth all along the coast of the newly-discovered country, and among the Tortugas (Tortoise) Islands, a hundred miles from its southern cape, but without success; and he returned to Porto Rico, an older if not a wiser man. He soon afterward went to Spain, where he remained several years.

4

While Ponce de Leon was absent in Europe, some wealthy owners of plantations and mines in St. Domingo, sent Lucas Vasquez d'Ayllon, one of their number, with two vessels, to seize natives of the Bermudas, and bring them home for laborers. It was an unholy mission, and God's displeasure was made manifest. A storm drove the voyagers into St. Helen's Sound, on the coast of South Carolina, and after much tribulation, they anchored [1520] at the mouth of the Combahee River. The natives were kind and generous; and, judging their visitors by their own simple standard of honor, they unsuspectingly went upon the ship in crowds, to gratify their curiosity. While below, the hatches were closed, the sails were immediately spread, and those free children of the forest were borne away to work as bond-slaves in the mines of St. Domingo. But the perpetrators of the outrage did not accomplish their designs. One of the vessels was destroyed by a storm; and almost every prisoner in the other refused to take food, and died. The fruit of this perfidy was a feeling of hostility to white people, which spread throughout the whole of the Mobilian tribes, and was a source of much trouble afterward.

1 This little picture gives a correct representation of those armed Spaniards who attempted conquests in the New World. Balboa's fellow-adventurers became jealous of his fame, and on their accusations he was put to death by the Governor of Darien, in 1517.

2 The day, in which is commemorated in the Christian Church the resurrection of Jesus Christ. • Feast of flowers. Chapter VIII., page 29.

4

Page 51.

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Ponce de Leon returned to the West Indies soon after D'Ayllon's voyage, bearing the commission of Governor of Florida, with instructions to plant settlements there. In his attempts to do so, the angry natives, who had heard of the treachery of the Spaniards, attacked him furiously. He was mortally wounded, and almost all of his followers were killed. D'Ayllon was then appointed governor of the country which he had discovered and named Chicora. He went thither to conquer it, and was received with apparent friendship by the natives on the banks of the Combahee,' near the spot where his great crime of man-stealing had been perpetrated. Many of his men were induced to visit a village in the interior, when the natives practiced the lesson of treachery which D'Ayllon had taught them, and massacred the whole party. The commander himself was attacked upon his own ship, and it was with difficulty that he escaped. He died of his wounds at St. Domingo.

Another important discovery was made in 1517, by Francisco Fernandez de Cordova, who commanded an expedition from Cuba: the rich and populous domain of Mexico was revealed to the avaricious Spaniards. Cordova's report of a people half civilized, and possessing treasures in cities, awakened the keenest cupidity of his countrymen; and the following year Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, sent another expedition to Mexico, under Juan de Grijalva. That captain returned with much treasure, obtained by trafficking with the Mexicans. The avarice, cupidity, and ambition of Velasquez were powerfully aroused, and he determined to conquer the Mexicans, and possess himself of their sources of wealth. An expedition, consisting of eleven vessels, and more than six hundred armed men, was placed under the command of Fernando Cortez, a brave but treacherous and cruel leader. He landed first at Tobasco, and then at San Juan de Ulloa, near Vera Cruz [April 12, 1519], where he received a friendly deputation from Montezuma, the emperor of the nation." By falsehood and duplicity, Cortez and his armed companions were allowed to march to Mexico, the capital. By stratagem and boldness, and the aid of native tribes who were hostile to the Mexican dynasty, Cortez' succeeded, after many bloody contests during almost two years, in subduing the people. The city of Mexico surrendered to him on the 23d of August, 1521, and the vast and populous empire of Montezuma became a Spanish province.

2

3

Florida continued to command the attention of the Spaniards, in whose minds floated magnificent dreams of immense wealth in cities and mines within its deep forests; and seven years after the conquest of Mexico [1528], Pamphilo

1 D'Ayllon named this river, Jordan, for he regarded the country as the new Land of Promise. 2 Pronounced San-whahn-da-Ooloo-ah.

3 The Mexicans at that time were making rapid advances in the march of civilization. They were acquainted with many of the useful arts of enlightened nations, and appear to have been as far advanced in science, law, religion, and domestic and public social organization, as were the Romans at the close of the Republic.

4 Born at Medellon, in Estramadura, Spain, in 1485. He went to St. Domingo in 1504, and in 1511 accompanied Velasquez to Cuba. He committed many horrid crimes in Mexico. Yet he had the good fortune, unlike the more noble Columbus, to retain the favor of the Spanish monarch until his death. When, on his return to Spain, he urged an audience with the emperor, and was asked who he was, the bold adventurer replied, "I am the man who has given you more provinces than your father left you towns." He died in Estramadura, in 1554, at the age of 69 years.

de Narvaez having been appointed governor of that region, went from Cuba, with three hundred men,' to conquer it. Hoping to find a wealthy empire, like Mexico, he penetrated the unknown interior as far as the southern borders. of Georgia. Instead of cities filled with treasures, he found villages of huts, and the monarch of the country living in a wigwam. Disappointed, and continually annoyed by hostile savages, who had heard of the treachery at the Combahee, he turned southward, and reaching the shores of Apallachee Bay, near St. Marks, he constructed rude boats and embarked for Cuba. The commander and most of his followers perished; only four escaped, and these wandered from tribe to tribe for several years before reaching a Spanish settlement in Mexico. Yet the misfortunes of Narvaez did not suppress the spirit of adventure, and Florida (the name then applied to all North America) was still regarded by the Spaniards as the new Land of Promise. All believed that in the vast interior were mines as rich, and people as wealthy as those of Mexico and Yu

3

catan. Among the most sanguine of the possessors of such an opinion, was Ferdinand de Soto, a brave and wealthy cavalier, who had gained riches and military honors, with Pizarro, in Peru. He obtained permission of the Spanish emperor to conquer Florida at his own expense, and for that purpose, was appointed governor of -Cuba, and also of Florida. With ten vessels and six hundred men, all clad in armor, he sailed for the New World early in 1539. Leaving his wife to govern Cuba, he proceeded to Florida, and on the 10th of June landed on the shores of Tampa Bay. He then sent most of his vessels back, and made his way, among hostile savages, toward the interior of the fancied land of gold. He wintered on the banks of the Flint River, in Georgia, and in the spring crossed the Appallachian Mountains, and penetrated the beautiful country of the Cherokees."

DE SOTO.

This, all things considered, was one of the most remarkable expeditions on record. For several months, De Soto and his followers wandered over the hills and valleys of Alabama, in vain searches for treasure, fighting the fierce Mobilian tribes,' and becoming continually diminished in number by battle and disease. They passed the winter of 1541 on the banks of the Yazoo River, in the land of the Chickasaws. In May of that year, they discovered and crossed the Mississippi River, probably not far below Memphis; and there, in the presence of almost twenty thousand Indians, De Soto erected a cross made of a huge pine tree, and around it imposing religious ceremonies were performed.

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1 They took with them about forty horses, the first ever landed upon the soil of the present United States. These all perished by starvation, or the weapons of the Indians.

2 Page 13.

3

Page 42.

4 Pizarro was a follower of Balboa. He discovered Peru in 1524, and in connection with Almagro and Lucque, he conquered it in 1532, after much bloodshed. He was born, out of wedlock, in Estramadura, Spain, in 1475. He could neither read nor write, but seemed eminently fitted for the field of effort in which he was engaged. He quarreled with Almagro, civil war ensued, and he was murdered at Lima, in Peru, in 1541.

5 De Soto had a large number of horses. He also landed some swine. These rapidly increased in the forests. They were the first of their species seen in America.

6 Page 27.

7 Chapter VIII., p. 29.

8 Page 30.