by these two voyages, and he continued afterward for many years to occupy a very commanding position in respect to the principal plans for exploring distant seas, in which different nations were then engaged. During this period he acted sometimes in the service of the king of England, and sometimes in that of the king of Spain. He made several long voyages himself, and during one of them he explored a large portion of the eastern coast of South America, where he founded colonies, and met with many extraordinary and interesting adventures, which it would, however, be out of place to relate particularly here.

On his return from these voyages he was advanced to positions of great dignity and honor under the governments both of England and of Spain-positions which gave him a controlling influence in respect to the organization and management of many of the great commercial enterprises of the day.

THE VOYAGE OF THE SERCHTHRIFT.

Cabot continued to take a great interest in these enterprises to the very close of his life. There is an account of his going down to Gravesend, near the mouth of the Thames, on the occasion of the departure of a vessel called the Serchthrift, which

was going on an exploring voyage into the seas to the northeastward of England, when he was about eighty years old, in order to manifest his interest in the expedition, and to bid those engaged in it farewell, and he joined in the festivities of the occasion so far as to take his place among the young people in a dance at an inn in the town, where he gave a sort of ball to the officers of the expedition and the damsels of the neighborhood.

The occurrence is related by the commander of the vessel, who kept a minute journal of the incidents and events of the voyage, in the following

manner:

The 27th being Munday the Right worshipfull Sebastian Cabota came aboord our pinnesse at Grauesend accompanied with divers Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, who, after that they had viewed our Pinnesse, and tasted of such cheere as we could make them aboord, they went on shore, giuing to our mariners right liberall rewards. And the good old Gentleman Master Cabota gaue to the poore most liberal almes, wishing them to pray for the good fortune and prosperous succefs of the Serchthrift our Pinnesse. And then at the signe of the Christopher hee and his friends banketted, and made me and them that were in the company great cheere; and for very ioy that he had to see the towardnes of our intended discouery he entred into the dance himselfe, amongst the rest of the young and lufty company, which being ended hee and his friends departed moft gently, commending us to the gouernance of Almighty God.

Cabot died at last at a very advanced age and full of honors. He retained his interest in everything pertaining to navigation and discovery to the last, and on his death-bed, when his mind was wandering, he talked of voyages and proposed routes and distant seas. He said, moreover, that God had revealed to him a way of ascertaining the longitude easy and sure, but that he was forbidden to reveal it to any human being.

The latitude at sea was always very readily obtained, as the elevation of the sun at mid-day, or that of the north star at night, gives it almost directly; but how to ascertain the longitude was the great problem and perplexity of navigators in those times, and the question occupied the thoughts of every mathematician and astronomer, as well as of every vain and ignorant schemer, in the land. The difficulty in respect to longitude arose from the fact that, inasmuch as the whole sky, with the sun, the moon, and all the stars, are in a state of continual rotation from east to west-which is the way in which longitude is reckoned—there is no fixed point to observe in that direction, and no standard of measurement or comparison which any instrument that was in use among the navigators of those days could make the basis of its observations.

CHAPTER VI.

THE

DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA.

WHEN Columbus returned from his voyage and reported the results of it, the news spread rapidly throughout all the western part of Europe, and universal interest was awakened both among the governments and the people, in the new world which had thus been discovered. In the course of a few succeeding years a number of colonies were founded in the West India Islands, and in those portions of the continent lying contiguous to them, and various adventurers from among the higher classes of the population, especially from Spain and Portugal, came out with appointments to serve as governors, generals, secretaries, and in various other capacities, all expecting to make their fortunes out of the treasures of the new world, or to acquire renown by the exploits which they should perform in the conquest of it. This is not the place to relate in general the doings of these adventurers, as their exploits do not form directly a part of the history of our own country.

But there is one among them that must be at least alluded to, on account of the fact that the continent, when it came to be known that there was a continent, and that it was so far removed from the eastern shores of Asia that the name which Columbus had given to the lands which he had discovered -the Indies could not properly be extended to it, was called by his name.

AMERICUS VESPUCIUS.

He was an Italian merchant, a native of Florence. The nature of his business led him to take a great interest in everything relating to commerce and navigation. In the course of his travels about Europe he came at length to Seville in Spain, and he was residing there when Columbus made his first voyage. He afterward made several voyages to the newly discovered regions himself, but the accounts of them that remain are confused and contradictory. He is accused of having falsified his journals by ante-dating some of his voyages, and of having claimed credit for some that he never made, in order to enhance his merit in the estimation of mankind as a great discoverer. At any rate, after his return from such expeditions as he really did make, he was appointed to the office of grand pilot, as it was termed, under the govern