world, but merely a new route to Asia, this suggestion seemed very proper, and soon the word “America” began to appear on maps as the name of Brazil. After a while it was applied to all South America, and finally to North America also. 7. The Pacific discovered; the Mexican Gulf Coast explored. A few years after the publication of the little book which gave the New World the name of America, a Spaniard named Balboa landed on the 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 (pōn'thā dā lā-ōn'), sailed with three ships from Puerto Rico, in March, 1513, and on the 27th of that month came in sight of the mainland. As the Map of 15151 CUBA HISPANIOLA AMERICA 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 1 Showing what was then supposed to be the shape and position of the newly discovered lands. MCM. HIST. -2 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 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. 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. 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." 2 By all means read the account of this voyage by Fiske, in his Discovery of America, Vol. II., pp. 190-211. CHAPTER II THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES - Now it must 11. The Spaniards explore the Southwest. 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 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. 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. 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 inland. On returning to the shore, he missed his ships, and after traveling westward on foot for a month, built five rude vessels, and once more put to sea. For six weeks the little fleet hugged the shore, till it came to the mouth of the Mississippi, where two of the boats were upset and Narvaez was drowned. The rest reached the coast of Texas in safety. But famine and the tomahawk soon reduced the number of the survivors to four. These were captured by bands of wandering Indians, were carried over eastern Texas and western Louisiana, till, after many strange adventures and vicissitudes, they met beyond the Sabine River.1 Protected by the fame they had won for sorcery, and led by one Cabeza de Vaca, they now wandered westward to the Rio Grande 2 (ree'-o grahn'-dā) and on by Chihuahua (chee-wah'-wah) and Soñora to the Gulf of California, and by this to Culiacan, a town near the west coast of Mexico, which they reached in 1536. They had crossed the continent. 12. "The Seven Cities of Cibola." The story these men told of the strange country through which they had passed, aroused a strong desire in the Spaniards to explore it, for somewhere in that direction they believed were the Seven Cities. According to an ancient legend, when the Arabs invaded the Spanish peninsula, a bishop of Lisbon with many followers fled to a group of islands in the Sea of Darkness, and on them founded seven cities. As one of the Indian tribes had preserved a story of Seven Caves in which their ancestors had once lived, the 1 Now the western boundary of Louisiana. 2 Rio Grande del Norte - Great River of the North. credulous and romantic Spaniards easily confounded the two legends. Firmly believing that the seven cities must exist in the north country traversed by Vaca, Mendoza, the Spanish governor of Mexico, selected Fray Marcos, a monk of great ability, and sent him forth with a few followers to search for them. Directed by the Indians through whose villages he passed, he came at last in sight of the seven Zuñi (zoo'-nyee) pueblos (pweb'-lōz) of New Mexico, all of which were inhab The kind of cities found by Marcos and Coronado in the Rio Grande valley ited in his time. But he came no nearer than just within sight of them. For one of the party, who went on in advance, having been killed by the Zuñi, Fray Marcos hurried back to Culiacan. Understanding the name of the city he had seen to be Cibola (see'-bo-la), he called the pueblos the "Seven Cities of Cibola," and against them the next year (1540) Coronado marched with 1100 men. Finding the pueblos were not the rich cities for which he sought, Coronado pushed on east |