Brief History of the United States | Page 8

this be authentic, it will give the priority of the discovery of the American continent to Cabot by four years, and decide that Cape Breton, and not Labrador nor the Orinoco River, was first seen by European eyes. Very little is definitely known of John Cabot, and even the time and place of his birth and death are matters of conjecture.]
SEBASTIAN CABOT continued his father's discoveries. During the same summer in which Columbus reached the shore of South America, Sebastian, then a youth of only twenty-one, discovered Newfoundland, and coasted as far south as Chesapeake Bay. As he found neither the way to India, nor gold, precious stones, and spices, his expedition was considered a failure. Yet, by his discoveries, England acquired a title to a vast territory in the new world. Though he gave to England a continent, no one knows his burial-place.
We shall now follow the principal explorations made within the limits of the future United States, by the SPAINIARDS, FRENCH, ENGLISH, and DUTCH. The Spaniards explored mainly the southern portion of North America, the French the northern, and the English the middle portion along the coast.

SPANISH EXPLORATIONS.
Feeling in Spain.--America, at this time, was to the Spaniard a land of vague, but magnificent promise, where the simple natives wore unconsciously the costliest gems, and the sands of the rivers sparkled with gold. Every returning ship brought fresh news to quicken the pulse of Spanish enthusiasm. Now, Cortez had taken Mexico, and reveled in the wealth of the Montezumas; now, Pizarro had conquered Peru, and captured the riches of the Incas; now, Magellan, sailing through the straits which bear his name, had crossed the Pacific, and his vessel returning home by the Cape of Good Hope, had circumnavigated the globe. Men of the highest rank and culture, warriors, adventurers, all flocked to the new world. Soon Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, and Jamaica were settled, and ruled by Spanish governors. Among the Spanish explorers of the sixteenth century we notice the following:
PONCE DE LEON (pon'-tha-da-la-on') was a gallant soldier, but an old man, and in disgrace. He coveted the glory of conquest to restore his tarnished reputation, and, besides, he had heard of a magical fountain in this fairy land, where one might bathe and be young again. Accordingly he equipped an expedition, and sailed in search of this fabled treasure. On Easter Sunday (Pascua Florida, in Spanish), 1512, he came in sight of a land gay with spring flowers. In honor of the day, he called it Florida. He sailed along the coast, and landed here and there, but returned home at last, an old man still, haying found neither youth, gold, nor glory.
[Footnote: About eight years afterward, De Ayllon (da-ile-yon') made a kidnapping expedition to what is now known as South Carolina. Desiring to obtain laborers for the mines and plantations in Hayti, he invited some of the natives on board his vessels, and, when they were all below, he suddenly closed the hatches and set sail. The speculation, however, did not turn out profitably. One vessel sank with all on board, and many, preferring starvation to slavery, died on the voyage. History tells us that in 1525, when De Ayllon went back with the intention of settling the country, the Indians practised upon him the lesson of cruelty he had taught them. His men were lured into the interior. Their entertainers, falling upon them at night, slew the larger part, and De Ayllon was only too glad to escape with his life.]
BALBOA crossed the Isthmus of Darien the next year, and from the summit of the Andes beheld the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Wading into its waters with his naked sword in one hand, and the banner of Castile (kas-teel) in the other, he solemnly declared that the ocean, and all the shores which it might touch, belonged to the crown of Spain forever.
DE NARVAEZ (nar-vah-eth) received a grant of Florida, and (1528) with 300 men attempted its conquest. Striking into the interior, they wandered about, lured on by the hope of finding gold. Wading through swamps, crossing deep rivers by swimming and by rafts, fighting the lurking Indians who incessantly harassed their path, and nearly perishing with hunger, they reached at last the Gulf of Mexico. Hastily constructing some crazy boats, they put to sea. After six weeks of peril and suffering, they were shipwrecked, and De Narvaez was lost. Six years afterward, four--the only survivors of this ill-fated expedition--reached the Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast.
[Illustration: DE SOTO'S MARCH]
FERDINAND DE SOTO, undismayed by these failures, undertook anew the conquest of Florida. He set out with 600 choice men, amid the fluttering of banners, the flourish of trumpets, and the gleaming of helmet and lance. For month after month this procession of cavaliers, priests,