PART II.

THE ERA OF EXPLORATION.

1. THE SPANISH EXPLORERS.

The Enterprise of Spain and Portugal.-To-day Spain and Portugal are two of the most unenterprising nations of Europe. Four centuries ago they were the two most enterprising. While England and France showed very little of the spirit of adventure, Portugal was busy in the effort to circumnavigate Africa, and afterward in developing its rich Eastern trade, and Spain was equally active in taking possession of the new-discovered continent of America.

Spanish Exploration in the North.-But the Spanish adventurers were principally attracted to the gold-yielding lands of the south, and made few and tardy settlements in the territory of the present United States. There was little there to attract the cupidity of treasure-seekers, while the hostility of the natives brought nearly every expedition to a disastrous end. It is our purpose to tell the story, somewhat briefly, of these various Spanish efforts, as preliminary to the beginning of actual United States history.

The Fountain of Youth.-The first of these Spanish ventures was made in 1513. There was a story extant that somewhere in Eastern Asia was a magical fountain, whose waters would give perpetual youth to whoever might drink of them. The Spaniards in Cuba still believed that they had reached Asia, and some statements of the

Indians gave them the idea that this fountain of youth lay not far to the north.

A Spaniard of Porto Rico named Juan Ponce de Leon (hwän pōn'tha da lã-on', often called pons de le'on), eager to regain his lost youth, set sail to the north in 1513, and on Easter Sunday saw land, which he named "Tierra de Pascua Florida,” equivalent to "Land of Flowery Easter." Perhaps the abundant flowers he saw had something to do with the name of Florida, which this country has ever since borne. De Leon was the first to land on the coast of the present United States, but the fountain he sought could not be found, and he returned an old man still. He came again in 1521 and tried to make a settlement in Florida. But he had not the Cuban Indians to deal with, and was attacked and mortally wounded. Death, instead of youth, was the meed of the old knight.

De Ayllon's Enterprise.-Other navigators sailed still farther north, some of them with the hope of finding a passage through the continent to Asia, that discovered by Magellan being too far south. In 1520, Vasquez de Ayllon (vǎs'keth dã il-yon') sent an expedition to the Carolina coast, and in 1526 he attempted to found a settlement, which is supposed to have been on the James River, near the later site of Jamestown. Sickness and Indian hostility brought this enterprise to an end.

Expedition of De Narvaez.-Mobile Bay had been entered by Spanish explorers, and the Indians there found to wear ornaments of gold. This fact excited the cupidity of the Spaniards, who thought it possible that a kingdom rich as that of Mexico might be found in this region. In 1528, Panfilo de Narvaez (păn'fi-lō dā när-vä'ĕth) sailed there with four ships and four hundred men. These adventurers, instead of gold, found only hunger, hardship, and death.

Hostile Indians assailed them, wide swamps and deep rivers lay in their path, food was scarce, and they were at length glad to embark on the Gulf of Mexico in boats of their own construction. Cabeza de Vaca, an officer of the expedition, discovered one of the mouths of the Mississippi River. Soon after they were wrecked on the coast of Texas, some of the men being drowned, and others captured by the Indians. Four of these captives-Cabeza, two sailors, and a negro-had remarkable adventures. They were carried about by the Indians, made their way from tribe to tribe, and finally escaped westwardly, where they travelled over two thousand miles of unknown land. Finally, eight years after their capture, they reached the Gulf of California, where they were rescued by Spaniards from Mexico. They were the only survivors of the expedition.

De Soto's Expedition.-A second effort to discover an Indian empire north of the Gulf was made by Fernando de Soto, governor of Cuba, in 1539. Starting with nine ships, nearly six hundred men, and over two hundred horses, he landed at Tampa Bay, in Florida, and advanced thence very slowly, being constantly opposed by hostile Indians. For two years the adventurers made their way against unceasing difficulties, traversing more than fifteen hundred miles without finding riches or civilized peoples. In the spring of 1541 they reached the banks of the Mississippi, being the first white men to gaze on that mighty stream.1

1 De Soto had been with Pizarro in Peru, and hoped to conquer as rich a realm in Florida. He had all the daring and cruelty of the Spanish conquerors, and took with him blood-hounds to hunt the Indians and chains to fetter them. A drove of hogs was also taken, to insure a supply of fresh meat. The Indians taken were treated as

Crossing the broad flood, they journeyed for months up its western side, finding hardship and hunger, but no treasures. In May, 1542, they reached the Mississippi again at the mouth of Red River. Here De Soto died. He was buried at night in the bed of the great stream he had discovered, and the remnant of his men, building boats, made their way down the river and across the Gulf to the Spanish settlements in Mexico. Nearly half of them had died. The remainder were a miserable, half-naked, and half-starved band of disappointed adventurers.

Explorations on the Pacific.-The Mexicans told their Spanish conquerors that most of their gold came from a land lying northwest of their country. Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, sent several expeditions in that direction. California, as they named the country, was explored, but no gold found, its golden treasures being destined to lie untouched until a much later day. In 1542, Cabrillo (kǎbrēl'yō) made a voyage along the coast of California. He died on the way, but his pilot explored the coast for a considerable distance northward.

Coronado's Expedition.-Cabeza de Vaca, on reaching Mexico after his escape from the Indians, had much to tell about what he had seen and heard of in his long journey. Stories had been told the wanderers about the pueblo settlements to the north, magnified in imagination to the "seven cities of Cibola." A monk was sent to spy out the land, and came back reporting opulent cities, rich in gold and silver. Francisco de Coronado started north in 1540 to explore this country, with a large force of Spaniards and

slaves or beasts of burden, and shot or maimed if they refused to aid their foes. Their villages were burned, their granaries plundered. As a result they were inveterately hostile.

Indians. He visited the Moqui and Zuñi pueblos, discovered the Grand Cañon of the Colorado River, but found none of the wealth reported. He continued his journey perhaps as far north as the Platte River, in Nebraska. He returned to Mexico in 1542, disgusted, if not insane with disappointment, at the failure of his high hopes of treasure and conquest.

The Spanish Possessions.-The Spaniards had thus explored much of the territory of the United States. They laid claim to the whole of it. But their only actual possession in the East was the small settlement of St. Augustine, which they founded in Florida in 1565. In the West they had settlements in California and New Mexico. The latter territory was explored in 1582 by Espejo (ès-pā'hō), who founded Santa Fé, the second oldest town in the United States.

2. THE FRENCH EXPLORERS.

The Newfoundland Fisheries.-The first display of French enterprise directed toward the new world was by the fishermen, not by the government, of France. The Cabots had reported immense shoals of codfish on the banks of Newfoundland. In a few years afterward the hardy fishermen of Brittany and Normandy, attracted by the promise of a rich harvest, crossed the ocean to these new fishing-grounds. Some of them sailed farther in and discovered an island which they named Cape Breton, and as early as 1506 John Denys entered and explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Early French Explorers.-The King of France knew little of what his fishermen were doing. Francis I., who became king in 1515, mocked at the claims of Spain and Portugal to possess all new lands east or west. "Show