A School History of the United States | Page 5

Isthmus of Panama, crossed it (1513), and from the mountains looked
down on an endless expanse of blue water, which he called the South
Sea, because when he first saw it he was looking south.
Meantime another Spaniard, named Ponce de Leon (pon'tha da la-on'),
sailed with three ships from Porto Rico, in March, 1513, and on the
27th of that month came in sight of the mainland. As the day was
Easter Sunday, which the Spaniards call Pascua (pas'-coo-ah) Florida,
he called the country Florida.
[Illustration: Map of 1515][1]
[Footnote 1: Showing what was then supposed to be the shape and
position of the newly discovered lands.]
Six years later (1519) Pineda (pe-na'-da) skirted the shores of the Gulf
from Florida to Mexico.
%8. Spaniards sail round the World.%--In the same year (1519) that
Pineda explored the Gulf coast, a Portuguese named Magellan
(ma-jel'-an) led a Spanish fleet across the Atlantic. He coasted along
South America to Tierra del Fuego, entered the strait which now bears
his name, passed well up the western coast, and turning westward
sailed toward India. He was then on the ocean which Balboa had
discovered and named the South Sea. But Magellan found it so much
smoother than the Atlantic that he called it the Pacific. Five ships and
254 men left Spain; but only one ship and fifteen men returned to Spain
by way of India and Cape of Good Hope. Magellan himself was among
the dead.[1]
[Footnote 1: Magellan was killed by the natives of one of the Philippine
Islands. The captain of the ship which made the voyage was greatly
honored. The King of Spain ennobled him, and on his coat of arms was

a globe representing the earth, and on it the motto "You first sailed
round me."]
%9. Importance of Magellan's Voyage.%--Of all the voyages ever
made by man this was the greatest.[2] In the first place, it proved
beyond dispute that the earth is round. In the second place, it proved
that South America is a great continent, and that there is no short
southwest passage to India.
[Footnote 2: By all means read the account of this voyage by Fiske, in
his _Discovery of America_, Vol. II., pp. 190-211.]
%10. Search for a Northwest Passage; our North Atlantic Coast
explored.%--All eyes, therefore, turned northward; the quest for a
northwest passage began, and in that quest the Atlantic coast of the
United States was examined most thoroughly.
SUMMARY
1. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the Turks cut off the old
route of trade between Asia and Europe.
2. In attempting to find a new way to Asia, the Portuguese then began
to explore the west coast of Africa.
3. When at last they got well down the African coast it was thought that
such a route was too long.
4. Columbus (1492) then attempted to find a shorter way to Asia by
sailing westward across the Atlantic Ocean, and landed on some islands
which he supposed to be the East Indies.
5. The explorations of men who followed Columbus proved that a new
continent had been discovered and that it blocked the way to India.
6. The attempts to find a southwest passage or a northwest passage
through our continent led to the exploration of the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts.

7. The new world was called America, after the explorer Americus.
8. The voyage of Magellan proved that the earth is round.


CHAPTER II
THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES
%11. The Spaniards explore the Southwest.%--Now it must be noticed
that up to 1513 no European had explored the interior of either North or
South America. They had merely touched the shores. In 1513 the work
of exploration began. Balboa then crossed the Isthmus of Panama. In
1519 Cortes (cor'-tez) landed on the coast of Mexico with a body of
men, and marched boldly into the heart of the country to the city where
lived the great Indian chief or king, Montezuma. Cortes took the city
and made himself master of Mexico. This was most important; for the
conquest of Mexico turned the attention of the Spaniards from our
country for many years, and finally led to the exploration of the
Southwest. But the first explorers of what is now the United States
came from Cuba in 1528.
[Illustration: Map of 1530, Sloane MS.[1]]
[Footnote 1: Notice that the two continents begin to take shape, and
that as the result of Magellan's voyage is not generally known, North
America is placed very near to Java.]
In that year Narvaez (nar-vah-eth), excited by Pineda's accounts of the
Mississippi Indians and their golden ornaments, set forth with 400 men
to conquer the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico. At Apalachee Bay he
landed, and made a raid