He encouraged him to make further discoveries and promised him that he should be governor of any new countries that he might find. In the spring of 1530 Cortes embarked for New Spain. With him he took his bride, the young and beautiful daughter of one of the nobles who had been his friend at court. To her he gave a beautiful jewel of five emeralds, of wonderful size and brilliancy, doubtless a part of the treasure of Montezuma that had escaped the wreck of "the melancholy night." For a while after reaching his estates he devoted himself to their cultivation, but this did not long content his restless and adventurous spirit. In the years 1532 and 1533 Cortes fitted out two squadrons that were sent on a voyage of discovery to the northwest. The peninsula of California was reached by one of these squadrons and a landing made on its southern point. In 1539 another expedition sent out by him went to the head of the Gulf of California, then doubling the peninsula, followed the coast as far north as the twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth degree of latitude.

Cortes now decided to fit out another expedition for the purpose of seeking a country in the north, where it was said great gold-fields existed. But Mendoza, who at this time controlled affairs in New Spain, wanted the glory of this discovery for himself and objected to Cortes' plan. Cortes decided to go again to Spain for justice. In 1540, with his eight-year-old son and heir, Don Martin, he

sailed for his native land. Reaching the capital, he found the emperor absent from the country. Although he was kindly received, nothing was done to right his wrongs. After waiting a year Cortes joined an expedition against Algiers. To his disgust nothing was accomplished in this attack upon the Corsairs. During a storm the vessel in which he and his son had embarked was wrecked and their lives were saved by swimming. At this time the valuable jewels he carried with him were lost,-"a loss," says an old writer, "that made the expedition fall more heavily on the Marquis of the Valley than on any other man in the kingdom except the emperor."

After the expedition returned to Castile, Cortes lost no time in laying his case before the emperor. But the emperor received him coldly. Cortes was growing old and was not likely to be of future service to the country. His undertakings, since his former visit, had been singularly unfortunate. Then Peru was returning so much more wealth from her gold mines than had as yet come from the mines of Mexico that his former successes did not seem so wonderful. In vain Cortes wrote to the emperor asking for attention to his suit. After three years of weary waiting he decided to return to Mexico. With his son he had gone as far as Seville when he fell ill of indigestion, caused, probably, by mental trouble. He sank rapidly, and on the 2d of December, 1547, he died.

CHAPTER X

PONCE DE LEON

PONCE DE LEON came with Columbus on the latter's second voyage to America. He served as a soldier in Cuba and other parts of the West Indies and was deemed worthy to be put in charge of the conquest of Porto Rico. He had been many years among the beautiful islands of the West and was growing old. Rumors came to him of a marvellous land of wealth lying to the north, where gold and treasures were in plenty,—a land of lakes and rivers, among whose glades was a spring fabled to possess the power of making an old man young again.

In the year 1512 the king of Spain gave to Ponce de Leon the right "to proceed to discover and settle the Island of Bimini." This was a name given by the Indians to a large tract of land which they said lay to the north of them, upon which the fountain of youth was to be found. Some trouble with the Indians in Porto Rico delayed Ponce de Leon for a time, and it was not until March, 1513, that he sailed from Porto Rico with three vessels in search of this land of promise. He first sailed among the groups of the Bahama Islands, searching for

the Island of Bimini; but not finding an island that fulfilled his hopes, he turned toward the northwest across the narrow seas separating him from a larger land.

One Sunday, the 27th of March, 1513, he sighted an unknown, low-lying coast. It was covered with a heavy growth of rich foliage, and flowering vines, even at this early season, spread themselves over and among the trees, and the whole land was full of beauty and fragrance. He happened to sight the land on Easter Sunday, called in Spanish Pascua Florida, and named it Florida.

Sailing slowly up the coast, on the 2d of April he landed in latitude 30° 8', a little above St. Augustine. As usual, he planted a cross and went through the ceremony of claiming all the land for his king, spreading the Spanish flag to the breeze and promising obedience.

After this ceremony the vessels sailed south

ward. They followed

Augustine

ROUTE OF PONCE DE LEON

the coast until the 20th of April, then landed. When the vessels tried to sail away again, they met with so strong a current that they could not go on and

were forced to anchor. One of the vessels was driven out of sight. Landing as soon as possible, the Spaniards found the natives so unfriendly that they had to drive them away. Finally getting away from this point, they sailed around the southern part of Florida and along the western coast as far north as Tampa Bay and possibly farther.

During this time Ponce de Leon made several trips inland. But on account of its flat and swampy character the country was not easily surveyed. The thickets of woods and vines and the oozy marshlands made it hard to get about and there was no sign of cities or of a wealthy kingdom. The fabled spring did not appear at all. The people dwelling in this new country showed themselves fierce and unfriendly. In fact they were quite dangerous and the Spaniards had constantly to be on guard against them.

It was September when Ponce de Leon again reached Porto Rico. It is said that while among the Bahamas he sent a ship under one of his captains and his pilot, who as a boy had sailed with Columbus, to look still further for Bimini; and these people when they came back thought they had found the island but they did not find the fountain of youth.

Ponce de Leon was so well pleased with his discovery that he soon after went to Spain to tell the king of the