THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID A POPULAE HISTOET OF THE DISCaVERY OF AMERICA. VOL. I. A POPULAR HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, FKOM COLUMBUS TO FEANKLIN. BY J. G. KOHL. 11 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY MAJOR R. R. NOEL LONDON : CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1865. Bid TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. I HAVE great pleasure in presenting to the public the translation of a work of an old and valued friend. Although J. G. Kohl is favourably known to English readers as the author of many excellent and lively works of travel, this is the first time that he appears before them in the character of historian. In twelve essays, or sketches, which may be com pared to the separate compartments of one vast picture, the author has given in a popular form a lucid digest of extensive physico-geographical and historical studies ; a masterly survey of subjects connected with, the his tory of an entire quarter of our globe. vi TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. The translation has been undertaken in the hope of adding a valuable work on America to English libraries, at a period when everything relating to the NEW WORLD excites the profound interest of the OLD. K. E. N. January, 1SG2. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. CHAPTER I. THE PRECURSORS OF COLUMBUS, AND THE OLD OCEANIC TRADITIONS AND FABLES. PAGE The Norman Eric the Red in Greenland (Anno 982) The Norman Biorn sees the Coast of Labrador (985) The Norman Leif in Vin- land (1000) Frisians sail from the Weser to the North (1035) Arabs sail from Lisbon into the Great Ocean (1147) Prince Madoc sails from Wales westward (1170) Vivaldi and Doria sail from Genoa into the Ocean (1284) Marco Polo travels in China (1280- 1295) Spaniards visit the Canary Islands since 1326 Madeira discovered by the Portuguese (1420) The Azores visited by the Portuguese since 1432 Cape Verde discovered by the Portuguese (1446) Earth. Diaz reaches the Southern Extremity of Africa (1486) 1 CHAPTER II. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Columbus sails from Spain, first Voyage (Aug. 3, 1492) Columbus leaves the Canary Islands (Sept. 6, 1492) Columbus sails across the Ocean in thirty-seven Days (1492) Columbus sees the New World (Oct. 12, 1492) After the Discovery of Cuba and Hayti, Columbus returns to Spain (March 14, 1493) Columbus sails Avith Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE seventeen Ships from Cadiz, second Voyage (Sept. 25, 1493) After the Discovery of the Lesser Antilles and Jamaica, Columbus returns to Spain (June 11, 1494) Columbus sails with three Ships from Cadiz, third Voyage (May 30, 1498) Columbus discovers the Con tinent of South America (Aug. 12, 1498) Columbus returns to Spain in Chains (Nov., 1500) Columbus sails with four Ships from Cadiz, fourth Voyage (May 11, 1502) After the Discovery of Central America, from Honduras to Darien, Columbus returns to Spain (Nov. 7, 1504) Columbus dies (May 20, 150G) . .45 CHAPTER III. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE EUROPEAN DISCOVERERS AND THEIR VOYAGES. Alonzo Nino and Christoval Guerra explore the "Pearl Coast" of Venezuela in the Summer of 1499 Alonzo de Hojeda (with Juan de la Cosa and Amerigo Vespucci) discovers the Mouth of the Ma- ranon, the Coast of Guyana, and the whole of Venezuela (Summer of 1499) Vincente Yaiiez Pinzon discovers Cape Augustin (Ja nuary to May, 1500) Rodrigo Bastidas discovers the Coast of New Granada as far as Darien (1501 and 1502) Hojeda, Cosa, Guerra, repeatedly visit Venezuela and New Granada (1502-1516) Juan Diaz de Solis and Pinzon discover the Eastern Coast of Yucatan (1506) Sebastian de Ocampo sails round Cuba (1508) . 90 CHAPTER IV. MAGELLAN AND THE FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. Vasco da Gama sails round Africa (A.D. 1497) Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovers Brazil (Easter, 1500) Francisco Serrano discovers the Moluccas (1511) Juan Diaz de Solis discovers the River La Plata (1516) Fernando de Magalhaes sails from San Lucar (20th Sep tember, 1519) Magellan winters in St. Julian s Harbour (April to August, 1520) Magellan discovers the Patagonian Straits (21st October, 1520) Magellan sails across the South Sea (December, January, and February, 1520-1521) Magellan killed on the Island of Matan (27th April, 1521) Sebastian del Cano returns to Spain with the Ship La Victoria (6th September, 1522) .... 130 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER V. MEXICO AND CORTEZ. PAGE Sebastian de Ocampo sails through the two Gates of the Gulf of Mexico (Anno 1508) Diego Velasquez conquers and colonises Cuba (1511-14) Francisco Hernandez Cordova discovers the Peninsula of Yucatan (1517) Juan de Grijalva sails along the East Coast of New Spain (1518) Fernando Cortez sails from Cuba (Feb., 1519) Cortez founds Vera Cruz (July, 1519) He arrives at the City of Tenochtitlan (Nov. 8, 1519)" The mournful Night" (July 1, 1520) Cortez completes the Destruction of Tenochtitlan (Aug. 13, 1521) He discovers California (1535-6) He goes for the last Time to Spain (1540) He dies (Dec. 2, 1547) . . . .170 CHAPTER VI. THE PIZARROS IN PERU. Columbus hears of "another Sea" (1503) Vasco Nunez de Balboa beholds the South Sea (1513) Andagoya goes to " Biru" (Peru), (1522) Francisco Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque found their Tri umvirate (1524) Francisco Pizarro conquers and seizes the Inca Atahualpa at Caxamalca (Nov. 16, 1532) Atahualpa s Execution (Aug. 29, 1533) The old Capital of Cusco taken (1534) The new- Capital of Lima founded (1535) Almagro discovers North Chili (1536) His Execution (1537) Benalcazar, Quesada, and Feder- mann meet on the Plain of Bogota (1538) Murder of Francisco Pizarro (June 26, 1541) Gonzalo Pizarro s Expedition to the East, and Orellana s Voyage on the Maranon, or Amazon (1541-42) Pedro de Valdivia discovers South Chili as far as Patagonia (1540-44) 219 A POPULAR HISTORY DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. CHAPTER I. THE PRECURSORS OF COLUMBUS, AND THE OLD OCEANIC TRADITIONS AND FABLES. The Norman Eric the Red in Greenland (Anno 982) The Norman Biorn sees the Coast of Labrador (985) The Norman Leif in Vinland (1000) Frisians sail from the "Weser to the North (1035) Arabs sail from Lisbon into the Great Ocean (1147) Prince Madoc sails from Wales westward (1170) Vivaldi and Doria sail from Genoa into the Ocean (1284) Marco Polo travels in China (1280-1295) Spaniards visit the Canary Islands since 1326 Madeira discovered by the Portuguese (1420) The Azores visited by the Portuguese since 1432 Cape Verde discovered by the Portuguese (1446) Barth. Diaz reaches the Southern Extremity of Africa (1486). ABSOLUTELY speaking, no event takes place on a sudden. In the physical, as in the moral world, all things hang together like the links of a chain. Unless deep root be taken, neither blossoms can come forth nor fruits mature. Even the flash of lightning which sud- VOL. I. B 2 POSITION OF AMERICA. denly blinds our eyes has been gradually prepared, and is but the culminating outbreak of a long process. In the history of geographical discovery we may like wise observe this gradually maturing character of things. In the disclosure of the American continent there was a long dawn. For centuries was America, so to say, like an ignis fatuus dancing before the eyes of the world, now and then faintly glimmering, then again vanishing into darkness, until at last Columbus and his followers held it fast, as it were, and made it cast anchor. I shall now attempt, in a short sketch, to pass in review before the eyes of my readers the different phases of the knowledge of the new world before the time of Columbus. America is a colossal wedge of land, which, from the eastern ends of Asia and the western coasts of Europe, stretches out midway from the northern towards the southern pole, and divides the waters of the globe into two parts. The Atlantic Ocean separates it from the east, the Pacific Ocean from the west ; and for centuries upon centuries it formed in its isolation a world to itself a world with peculiar plants and animals, with peculiar races of men ; yes, even with a perfectly original form of civilisation. At one point only in the extreme north west is the new world brought into connexion with the old, and there in a very remarkable manner. In Behring CONNEXION OF AMERICA AND ASIA. 3 Strait the two continents almost touch. They are only separated here by a small arm of water, which savages can easily pass over in their canoes. In winter they are even bound together by a compact bridge of ice, which extends from shore to shore ; and at other times a suc cession of islands stretches forth like a chain from one part of the globe to the other. It is therefore natural, that in speaking of the earliest knowledge of America, of the first intimation of it re ceived by the people of other parts of the globe, we should direct our glance to that point where the land of both hemispheres almost melts into one. Climate, the character of the soil, animate and inani mate nature, are, in fact, nearly alike on either side of Behring Strait. From the earliest times animals have crossed from one side to the other. The interchange of the seeds of plants can have been no less easy. And that human beings have wandered from one continent to the other, we are able to conclude from the circumstance that to this day the people on both sides are not only ex tremely alike, but because the Asiatic Tschukeseii con tinually seek a market in America, whilst the American Esquimaux not unfrequently extend their fishing and hunting excursions into Asia. The traditions of some of the races of North American Indians, and indeed the hieroglyphic chronicles of the Mexicans, point to this B2 4 NORTH-WEST COAST OF AMERICA. north-western corner as the place from which their dis persion and wanderings have commenced. These circumstances make it probable that it is to Behring Strait we must look for the first Columbus, who perhaps paddled across in the hollow trunk of a tree ; or for some Noah, who in a rude ark carried with him from west to east the seeds of organic life. But obviously any particulars of such an occurrence are as deeply buried in historical darkness as is the north pole in ice and snow. In the south-east of Asia was the cradle of the human race, and there along the south-eastern coast of the old continent are the seats of the earliest civilisation of the world, the realms of India, China, and Japan. The most eastern points of these realms are not far removed from the most western promontories of the American coast. They extend, it may be said, into waters which are half American. It is a fact, confirmed by all circumnavigators of the globe, that Chinese and Japanese vessels caught by storms in the waters of Kamtschatka have at times been wrecked on the Aleuten, on the west coast of America ; shipwrecked people from China and Japan have been found by the Russians in the north-east of Asia, and also by the English in the north-west of America. If we consider that the Chinese and Japanese are probably the ANNALS OF CHINA AND JAPAN. 5 oldest seafaring people in the globe, that they knew how to build large vessels before the birth of Christ, and per haps were even acquainted with the compass, we may then readily believe that from the earliest times some of their ships may have repeatedly gone to pieces on the American coasts, and that individuals of these nations were the first at least to set foot on the soil of the new world. It seems, therefore, but natural that it might be pos sible to trace the actual discovery of America to this western side of the country, and to establish such a fact in the history of civilisation. But nothing in confirma tion of it can be found in the annals of China and Japan. The learned men of these countries appear to have had no idea of the existence of a great continent on the other side of the sea ; and their emperors have never undertaken, nor encouraged, any expedition across the ocean for the purpose of discovery or conquest. There exists not even an obscure legend or tradition of such an event. America, so to speak, turns its back, its least inviting side, on Asia and the Pacific Ocean. On that side the shores are, for long distances, steep and without har bours. Massive and rude mountains extend close along the coast line, which has neither fertile plains, nor navi gable rivers falling into the sea. Besides, the approach 6 EAST COAST OF AMERICA. of the two continents takes place under the most un favourable circum stances in the icy north, whilst, in the more southern districts and milder climates, the two coasts fly off from one another, and are separated by a greater desert of waters than are any other countries of the globe. All her beautiful rivers, her fertile meads, the greater number of her most inviting harbours, the new world displays towards the east. Thitherward she stretches out her arms, she opens her mouths ; in this direction, if I may be allowed the expression, she turns her full face. On this side, moreover, she is separated from the old world by the comparatively narrow valley of the Atlantic Ocean, and her entire configuration seems, therefore, to have destined her to receive from this direction her saviour, or, at least, her conqueror. Thus we see that the coasts of America were prepared by nature to receive the impulse of universal progress from the east ; and, indeed, it may be said that the whole surface of our globe is adapted for the march of civilisa tion from east to west. Both in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the prevailing and regular currents of the atmo sphere, called by the English so appropriately the " trade winds," come from the east, and from this quarter, also, the principal currents of the ocean flow towards the west, thus necessitating that seeds, and animals, and man, should follow this track in an unceasing course, PHOENICIANS AND EGYPTIANS. 7 like that of the sun over the earth. But the long and tedious march of civilisation through Asia to the shores of the Atlantic had to be completed, before the hand, which America stretched out to the east to meet it, could be grasped. Following the course of civilisation, from its ancient seats in India, towards the west, we see that it was both slow and difficult, until at length it reached the inner most corner of the Mediterranean, of that remarkable sea, which may be called the cradle of European navi gation, and the point of departure for all voyages of discovery. Here, at a point where two arms of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, are stretched out towards the waters of the Mediterranean ; where three quarters of the globe, Africa, Europe, and Asia meet, once flourished the most ancient civilisation of Western Asia, that of the Phoenicians and the Egyptians. Of these nations the Greeks and the Romans were pupils, and through them, we, too, now look back in a spirit of reverence to those ancient teachers of the human race. Both Egyptians and Phoenicians, particularly the latter, became by degrees bold and successful navigators and traders. Their earliest maritime enterprises were natu rally in the waters nearest to their home, in the Red Sea and the [Mediterranean. In these they extended 8 VOYAGES OF THE PHOENICIANS. tlieir voyages from cape to cape, from island to island, until, as tlieir knowledge and skill increased, they ven tured on more distant discoveries. Advancing towards the west, and towards the south, in the first direction, they reached the great gate, which they called the Pillars of Hercules the present Straits of Gibraltar and in the other direction they came upon another re markable narrow passage, called at the present day the Straits of Bab-el-mandeb the Gate of Death. Long may these two dreaded gates have formed the boundaries of their voyages. But they were passed at last, and through them both Egyptians and Phoenicians sailed into the great oceans. In the childhood of navigation, however, all voyages were necessarily coastwise, and the Pillars of Hercules once passed, two water tracks presented themselves, one leading northward round Hispania to Gallia, Britannia, and the far north ; the other, along the African conti nent, towards the south. The Phoenicians, on emerging through the gates, sailed in both directions, continuing their discoveries and founding colonies on either side. In both directions they reached those great highways to America which Nature has pointed out. That to the north, leading by Britain and the distant Thule, only a few degrees of longitude from Greenland and America; that to the south, passing by the Canary TRACES OF THE THCENICIANS IN AMERICA. 9 Islands. It has been even handed down to us, in a way not altogether unworthy of credence, that the Phoe nicians sailed round the entire coast of Africa. Some authors, indeed, believe that such a circumnavigation was accomplished by them many times. If this were the case, it becomes almost probable that some of these mariners may have been carried to America and shipwrecked there. Africa extends so far towards the west, and South America advances so far eastward, that the ex treme points between these two quarters of the globe are little more than one thousand geographical miles apart. Moreover, this approach of the two countries takes place in latitudes where both wind and water currents lead almost of themselves to the west. Traces of the Phoenicians in America are believed to have been discovered by late investigators, and some there are who even assert that this people must long have carried on regular commerce with the Antilles and Central America. The investigations on this remarkable point can by no means be considered as brought to a conclusion. That the Phoenicians were acquainted with the more central parts of the Atlantic, which they had often reached, is placed beyond doubt by the fact, that the prevailing calms, and the extraordinary and far-ex tending beds of seaweeds in those regions, were known to them. 10 THE ANCIENT GREEKS. The Greeks, many of whose towns were founded by the Phoenicians and Egyptians, followed in the footsteps of these old masters in navigation. In their little archipelago, sailing from island to island, from the coasts of Peloponnesus to those of Asia Minor, their marine, like that of their predecessors, grew to consi derable importance ; and from the innermost recesses of the Mediterranean they gradually extended their dis coveries and then- trading speculations over all the waters on their side of the Pillars of Hercules, and, like the Phoenicians, they also passed beyond them. The names, even, of the Greek sailors who ventured upon the great ocean are known to this day. But the Greeks confined themselves for the most part to the inner seas. Thus the saying of Pindar, that " all that lay beyond the Pillars of Hercules was hidden by the gods from wise men as well as from fools," became proverbial. Such an extensive commerce as the Phoenicians esta blished who stand alone in this respect in ancient his tory was unknown to the Greeks. Much of the geo graphical knowledge possessed by the former people be came lost after the destruction of Tyre by the semi- Greek Alexander. The Greeks did not believe that Africa was a peninsula and could be sailed round, and they never attempted anything of the kind. Yet they appear to have preserved some traditions of the dis- SPECULATIONS OF GREEK PHILOSOPHERS. 11 coveries of the Phoenicians. They spoke of certain islands in the west, which they called the Islands of the Blessed, and which we now believe to have been the Antilles in America, known to have been visited by the Phoenicians. The remarkable and unfortunately too ob scure story of the great island Atlantis we may likewise take to have been handed down by Egyptian and Phoe nician sailors ; or perhaps it may be considered to have been the product of the speculations of the Greek philo sophers. It was not unknown to the latter that the inhabited earth was not a flat surface floating in water, but a round ball. Pythagoras taught this publicly to his scholars, and gave as a proof the shadow which he had observed on the occasion of an eclipse of the moon. The philosophers even made calculations of the size of the globe, and arrived at results which we cannot exactly call false. If it was known to the Greek philosophers that the earth was of a spherical form, and that the inhabitants of the continent with whom they were acquainted were spread out around the superficies of this globe like the leaves of a ehaplet, they must naturally have been pre pared to accept the consequence of such knowledge, and to conclude that the ocean must have its boundaries. They must, further, have come to the conclusion that it might be possible for bold and skilful navigators to 12 THE FABLE OF ATLANTIS. make the circuit of the earth ; that by sailing towards the west, either Asia must again be reached, or other land found in the middle of the ocean. This was the opinion of Plato, who has handed down to us the fable of the land Atlantis, describing it with many romantic details, and stating it to be in the west. He said, more over, that it was greater than Africa and Europe put together, as if he had beheld it rising up in the distant horizon, like a fata morgana. This land, he added, really existed once, but was afterwards destroyed by a great revolution of the earth ; and this addition of Plato we might be allowed to interpret in the sense, that once the great continent may have been known to seamen, but that later, when the old Phoenician spirit of adven ture no longer existed, this knowledge had become lost. That the Greeks in going to sea did not follow out the hints and intimations of their philosophers may be ex plained by the fact of this people being much more given to theoretical speculations than to venturesome undertakings in navigation. They said, or they thought, that it might be possible to sail round the world, if only in the west the sea had not been transformed into a great morass, in consequence of the destruction of Atlantis ; if only in the north, in consequence of the cold, the waters were not so thick ; and if in the south the heat did not cause everything to melt, or break out into flames. VOYAGES OF PYTHEAS. 13 The most distant voyages of the Greeks for the pur pose of geographical discovery were undertaken from their colony Massilia (Marseilles), in the western basin of the Mediterranean. The celebrated Marseilles trader and mariner, Pytheas, sailed far towards the north, pass ing by Great Britain and Scotland, and reaching the distant Thule, which some take to have been Iceland, but others believe to have been the Shetland Islands. Be this as it may, it is clear that this Pytheas was on the right way to the discovery of America, from the most eastern extremities of which he was only a few degrees of longitude removed when at Iceland or the Shetland Islands. But Pytheas believed it to be impossible to sail any farther, and for many centuries after his time the celebrated name of Thule continued to designate the extremest land to the north-west which could possibly be reached. In those times, when the art of printing was yet un discovered; when there was no diffusion of scientific knowledge, no universal literature, no Christian religion binding peoples together ; when that which is now taught to every child was preserved as a mysterious revelation in esoteric societies ; when each people progressed for it self, and jealously guarded its discoveries from strangers in such times it is conceivable that the sciences often put forth blossoms, and again languished and decayed, since 14 VOYAGES OF THE ROMANS. each people, so to say, had to recommence at the begin ning, and to toil through the circuit of its predecessors. When, therefore, the Greeks were at length succeeded by the Romans, the latter, in respect to geographical knowledge, inherited but little from the former. In the beginning- they knew nothing of the world beyond their little Campagna, and, starting from this, bit by bit they conquered the whole of Italy, and in the end all the sea board of the Mediterranean. At a later period they learnt navigation from the Carthaginians and the Greeks, the models of whose ships they imitated. Like these latter, . the Romans, too, were afraid of the Pillars of Hercules and the vast waves beyond. Like their prede cessors, also, they at length passed on into the Atlantic Ocean, again making discoveries on all sides which to them were new, although they had been made by others before. When in the Atlantic, the coasts of Morocco, Spain, and Gaul had become known to them, they sailed over to Britain under Caesar. Of his countrymen he was the first who took it for a large island, which others denied, believing that Britain was joined to other lands in the north. At length, in the time of the Em peror Claudius, the Roman general Agricola sent a fleet to the north, which sailed round the entire coast of Britain, subdued the Orkney Islands, and saw from afar the distant Thule. THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL CONCEPTIONS. 15 The Romans were soldiers and statesmen. They cared only to know as much of the world as they could rule, and their empire they called Orbis Terrarum. But this circle of land was thoroughly known to them, and they connected it by a wonderful and colossal network of roads. They made far better discoveries in the interior of their territories, and described them with more exact ness, than had been done by their predecessors, the Phoe nicians and Greeks ; for these latter had confined them selves principally to the coast lines. The Romans took little notice of that which they could not hold within the confines of their empire, and they paid little attention to the Egyptian and Greek myths of the Island of the Blessed, the Atlantis, and the lands in the west. Their authors do but repeat the old traditions they had received from the Greeks. Virgil had heard of an Atlantic land, which lay somewhere beyond the known world ; Tibullus of another world in the ocean, the other half of our globe. Another Roman poet speaks of new worlds, to the knowledge of which the sea was the only obstacle. Strabo even says that there was no other impediment to a voyage from Spain to India than the excessive breadth of the Atlantic Ocean. The prophetic Spaniard Seneca speaks in a similar way in his celebrated verses : " Yenient annis secula seris Quibus oceanus vincula rerum," &c. 16 " In later years ages shall come, in which Oceanus may unloose the bonds of things, and a vast land may lie ex posed, and Typhis may discover new worlds ; and there may no longer be an ultima Tlmle on earth." This remarkable prophecy is put into the mouth of the chorus in the well-known drama "Medea." Per haps Seneca derived his inspiration from reading the speculations of the old Greeks and Egyptians. Perhaps he had heard of some other extraordinary occurrences in the time of the Romans occurrences which one might almost look upon as a lifting of the veil which concealed distant countries, and as hints and greetings sent over by them to Europe. One of these occurrences, which took place not long before Seneca s time, appears to have made a deep impression on the Romans, and is spoken of by several of their authors. In the time when Metellus Celex was proconsul in Gaul, there appeared on the coast of Northern Germany a number of strange men of a copper-brown colour, who were supposed to have come from India. They had been shipwrecked at the mouths of the Elbe and Weser, and, being looked upon as great curiosities, they were sent by a German prince as a present to the above-named Roman governor. These strangers were taken for Indians who had been cast away and carried round the coasts of Asia and Scandi navia to Germany. We know nothing more of these ESQUIMAUX CAST ON EUROPEAN COASTS. 17 people; we know not what became of them, whether they lived long, nor whether any attempt was made to find out from themselves whence they came. If any attempt of this nature were made, it is just possible that these strangers may have learnt a little Latin, and that, in that case, the Romans may have obtained from them some knowledge of the land in the west in fact, of America. However probable it may have seemed to the ancients, who did not know how far Europe and Asia extend northward, that these men should have been of Indian origin, yet to us who know the difficulties of a voyage round the Asiatic continent, sucli a supposition can only appear entirely erroneous. These strange men, having no resemblance to any of the inhabitants of Europe known to the Romans, were no doubt Americans, pro bably Esquimaux. It is on record, too, that during the middle ages, natives of Greenland and other barbarians- have been more than once carried by winds and oceanic currents into the German Ocean, and wrecked on the- coasts of England and Norway, perhaps likewise at the mouths of the Elbe or Weser. Indeed, it may be said, that at no period of history has America failed to send across to our forefathers certain hints of her where abouts. The inhabitants of Europe, however, have not always been in a condition to be able to understand and VOL. I. C 18 THE GULF STKEAM. profit by such intimations. Ever since the days of cre ation, the great rotatory stream of the Atlantic Ocean has flowed from the coasts of Africa to those of America, accompanied in its progress by the trade winds. In the Gulf of Mexico this great current is broken, and it then turns northwards along the coasts of America. At Newfoundland it bends round to the east, and, con tinuing in this direction, it is thrown upon the coasts of France, Great Britain, and Norway. At all times this remarkable stream has carried with it cocoa-nuts, seeds, trunks of trees, carved woods, and other things from the new world, and cast them on the shores of Euro pean lands. Cocoa-nuts, in a state fit to be eaten, have been picked up on the coast of Ireland ; and in Iceland, Scotland, and Norway, American wood has been fished up and used in the building of ships and houses. Moreover, the winds which come from America have at all times held in their loftiest currents, and carried over to us, that remarkable dust which they sweep up from the summits of the Andes, or from the arid pampas of South America. This dust has been deposited on the north coasts of Africa, on the Pyrenees, and even on the snow-fields of our Alps ; and in it, in our days, a German natural philosopher has discovered atoms of American soil, of Brazilian rocks, and thousands of the AMERICAN PRODUCTS CARRIED TO EUROPE. 19 small light bodies of microscopic animals from the banks of the Orinoco. Just as the minute bodies of these animals have been carried over to us, have we also been visited from time immemorial by denizens of the deep from America. Whales and other far-roving fishes, and shoals of her rings, have ever gone backwards and forwards between America and Europe. If we reflect upon this interest ing exchange of Nature s products in all times for it may be said that Nature has long, long ago established her never-ceasing noiseless commerce between the old world and the new we may venture to assert that the people of Europe have long eaten of the fruits and fishes of America, have been covered by American dust, have used American wood for building purposes, and have even now and then shaken hands with natives of America, before it was proved to them that such a country existed. After the fall of Greece and Eome, in the times of the so-called migration of nations, thick darkness spread over those ancient seats of civilisation, the fair regions bordering on the Mediterranean, and over the neigh bouring parts of Europe. The Roman towns, the fos tering seats of knowledge, were destroyed. The annals of Greek and Eoman history became lost in part, and c2 20 THE DARK AGES. what remained but few could read, and fewer under stand. The whole of that orbis terrarum which the Romans had civilised was broken up into numerous small states but slightly connected, and amongst which peaceful intercourse either ceased altogether, or was greatly impeded. Under these circumstances, voyages of discovery, an extension of the geographical horizon, could no longer be thought of. That knowledge of the globe which mankind had possessed, became lost, and to such an extent, that belief in the spherical form of the earth entirely ceased. Not only the common man, tied to the clod of earth on which he stood, but likewise the instructors of the many, the men who were looked up to as oracles, taught and believed that the world that is, Asia, Africa, and Europe was a four-cornered flat sur face of earth, swimming in a boundless ocean. And that there are no antipodes the first Christian writers, the Fathers of the Church, caused to be admitted amongst their dogmas and made an article of faith. Even the Byzantine Greeks, the descendants of the old Hellenic race, were isolated from the rest of the world by the stream of wandering barbarians, who, both to the north and the south, continually passed along the confines of their dominions, and, indeed, occasionally under the walls of their city. The physical energies of these By zantines were entirely devoted to the defence of their THE FOLLOWERS OF MAHOMET. 21 ever-narrowing empire, whilst their intellectual powers were occupied with philosophical sophisms and religious quarrels, which they eagerly carried on in their isolated capital. For them the world without was full of storms and horrors ; and of all the trades, or arts and sciences, navigation, voyages of discovery, and geography were the last things they thought of promoting. Far more distinguished in these respects were the con temporaries and rivals of the Byzantines, the Arabs, the inspired followers of Mahomet. Scarcely had this ener getic and lively people received from their Prophet the mission to subdue and convert the world, scarcely had they begun to fulfil this mission by a series of rapid conquests tending to establish universal rule, than they commenced the cultivation of the sciences, particularly astronomy and its sister science, cosmology, with a zeal beyond all parallel. As conquerors and merchants, they penetrated far into Africa and Asia : in the first quarter, much farther than the Carthaginians had done ; in the latter, farther than Alexander the Great and the Komans. In the east they extended their explorations and conquests to the islands beyond India, and to the borders of the Pacific, and to China. To the west in Morocco, Spain, and Portugal they reached the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean. Their mariners sailed alono; the entire coast lines of these far- 22 ARAB ENTERPRISE. apart countries. Their geographers gave descriptions of them, and with far more circumspection, and with a more correct conception of the connexion of the whole, than did at that time the descendants of the Greeks and the Romans. Indeed, it was not the latter, but the Arabs, who, from amidst the general destruction, rescued the writings of Ptolemy, of Aristotle, and of so many other thinkers and naturalists, and who commenced their own intellectual work where that of Greeks and Romans had ceased. One of their great conquerors, on reaching the coast of the Atlantic, plunged on horseback into the breakers, and gave loud utterance to his desire for further con quests on the other side the waters. And, in reality, it seems that Arab seamen, if they did not actually reach America, yet succeeded in penetrating far into the Atlantic Ocean. The Arabian historians relate, amongst other things, that in Lisbon a society of mariners once existed, who called themselves the " Almagrurin," or " The Roving Brothers." Eight of these Almagrurin, it is said, in spired by the romantic desire of discovery, sailed forth in a vessel well appointed and provisioned, having sworn to steer towards the west, and not to return until they had penetrated into the farthermost corners of the sea of darkness (the Atlantic Ocean). After a passage of ARAB INTELLIGENCE AND POWER. 23 thirty-eight days they arrived at an inhabited island, which they called Gana, or the Sheep Island. From this, the farthest of the western islands, they turned back, and reached Lisbon in safety. It was the Arabs, likewise, who were the first to intro duce the sugar-cane and other southern fruits into Spain, from whence they were subsequently transplanted to America. Gunpowder, too, with which the Spaniards afterwards so terrified the inhabitants of America, was first used in the Iberian peninsula by the Moors. They also taught the use of the compass, and through them a knowledge of astronomy became diffused through the country. Indeed, they were the first to cultivate the study of the ancient authors, from whose works, at a later period, Columbus and his contemporaries derived their ideas of the nature of the world, connecting them with former views. And thus the Arabs have, directly as well as indirectly, in more w^ays than one, prepared the discovery of America by the Spaniards. The time when Arabian intelligence and power most flourished coincides with that of the reign of Charles the Great and his immediate followers. At that time all the countries from India to Spain were under the sway of the Arabs. At that period all the districts from Bokhara to Fez and Morocco may be said to have been filled with Arabs, who, as warriors, and also as geo- 24 THE NORMANS. graphers and naturalists, were constantly travelling about. At that time, too, the seas from Java and Sumatra to the Pillars of Hercules were ploughed by the ships and war-fleets of the Arabs. And just at this period, when this colossal picture of Arabian greatness was exhibited in the south, another people in the north, hitherto scarcely heard of, began to display an almost marvellous power at sea, and to acquire a far-extend ing rule over the ocean. I allude to the Normans, a people of Germanic origin, to whom we are now the more bound to devote some attention, since they come before us in authentic history as the first to discover America. From the time when Scandinavia was first peopled, the sterile character of the country forced the inhabitants to look to the sea, abounding in fish, as to one of the prin cipal means of existence. Our earliest records, therefore, of that people speak of fishermen and of flotillas of war. But for a long time the Scandinavians confined them selves to the neighbourhood of their own coasts and bays. That at the period I am speaking of when the Arabs flourished, and Charlemagne reigned they suddenly began to swarm like bees, is probably in part owing to the spread of Christianity and civilisation so far north. Everywhere we see that, before either Christianity or civilisation were introduced amongst a barbarous people, THE NORMANS. 25 they were preceded by storms, like the advent of spring. After the conquest of the Saxons, under the aegis of Charles the Great, the German empire began to acquire form and consolidation, and the Danes were conse quently soon hard pressed on their southern frontier. This impulse to union in Germany extended also to other countries, and had an influence in uniting the Danes and the nations farther north. Hitherto the Normans had been scattered, living under the rule of separate chiefs. But soon a royal leadership was established, and this kingly family became converted to Christianity. One of the consequences of this step was, that it led to frequent conflicts with the old and powerful chiefs. And these conflicts lasted many cen turies, until at length an organised and regular system of government took root. The discontented, however those to whom the new order of things was hateful, and who were enthusiastically devoted to the old religion of Odin took to their ships, and sailed forth into the world to seek for themselves new homes. Amongst sucli-like adventurers and discontented Nor man chiefs we may, for instance, count the Eurics, the founders of the Russian Empire, and Hollo, who esta blished the dukedom of Normandy in France. One of these chiefs, too, it was who founded the Norman rule in England. Others again, departing from Russia, entered 26 VOYAGES OF THE NORMANS. into the service of the Byzantine emperor as his body and praetorian guards. The Normans, moreover, coming from the west, crept through the Pillars of Hercules, and entered thus into the most remote parts of the Mediterranean. This was a novel occurrence in the history of the world. From the times of the Egyptians and Phoenicians down to those of the Normans, the basin of the Mediterranean had been, as it were, the nursery for seamen ; and all naval expeditions had been from east to west, cautiously passing through the Pillars of Hercules, as through a natural western portal. The Normans were the first to reverse this order of things. The great ocean had now, for the first time, been seen enlivened by ships, and many of them sailing from that direction east wards. It is a peculiar characteristic of the Norman navy, in contradistinction to that of the Greeks and Italians, the growth of whose fleets was in narrow waters, and be tween small islands, that, from its first starting into life, it displayed its courage on the great ocean. No sooner had the Normans sailed away from the coasts of their fatherland, than they were rocked on the billows of the Atlantic Ocean, and they were thus, of necessity, led to acquire those qualities and that skill which voyages in such waters demanded. How a people possessed of so THE NORMANS IN ICELAND. 27 little knowledge, knowing nothing of astronomy and the compass, managed to put to sea in their small and fragile vessels, is for us in many respects an enigma. But we must presume that, by their careful observation of Na ture, their constant practice, and their indomitable courage, they became qualified for distant expeditions, almost as well as seamen of the present day are qualified by large theoretical knowledge and perfected art. As we see in the Normans the first genuine children, of the ocean, it is not difficult to understand that they were likewise the first real discoverers of America, to which they were led by a very remarkable chain of peninsulas and islands. In the north-west our two continents are brought, as we have already said, into neighbourhood. After the Normans had conquered and settled in Great Britain, and especially in Scotland and Ireland, the dis covery of the neighbouring Shetland and Faroe Islands followed as a matter of course. When the lofty volcanic mountains of Iceland are in a state of eruption, they are visible to a great distance at sea. The ashes which they eject even cover the islands, and are carried as far as Scotland. To a people, there fore, in possession of Scotland and the Faroe Islands, the existence of Iceland could not long remain hidden, and about the middle of the ninth and tenth centuries it was discovered and peopled. More than a century af terwards, 28 ERIC IX GREENLAND. an Icelander, of Norman descent, whose name was Gun- biorn, was driven by storms towards the west. He re turned to his home, and spoke of land which he had seen in the direction in which he had been carried. One of his countrymen, whose misdeeds had earned him the ap pellation of Friedlos (the Restless One) (whose proper name, however, was Eireck Randa, or Eric the Red) filled with the spirit of adventure and the desire of con quest and plunder, sailed forth to look for Gunbiom s land, and steered towards the west. Instead of a com pass, he took on board with him a number of crows, and from time to time he cast one of these birds into the air to see whether its powers of vision or instinct would lead it to land, and thus guide him to the discovery of a con tinent in the west. He landed at length on the south point of a country, to which, on account of its green meadows, he gave the name of Greenland. This Eric, surnamed the Red, passed the winter in Greenland. On his return, both in Iceland and Norway, he sang the praises of the new country, and soon a large number of discontented men were found ready to emi grate and settle in Greenland, and to form there a new kingdom under Eric s rule. In a country resembling in so many respects that of their birth, and which has been, consequently, called the American Scandinavia, the Normans naturally felt themselves quite at home. Cliffs BIORX DISCOVERS AMERICA. 29 and fiords full of fish they found there, as in Norway ; and wild romantic clefts in the rocks, with patches of pas ture land between, as in Scandinavia, They earned over cattle, built houses ; they fished and sailed, both to the east and to the west, to make themselves acquainted with the extent and the capabilities of the coasts. That one or other of these Normans should have been carried far to the west by the north-easterly winds which prevail in those regions, we may consider to have been inevitable. The first to whom this happened was Biorn, the son of Heriulf, as he was following his father to Greenland. In his search for that country he got far out of his way to the west, and for a long time he sailed down the coast of a large tract of land. We possess an account of this unintentional voyage of Biorn, so minute that we are able to derive from it the conviction that he sailed down the coasts of Labrador and Canada ; and we are, conse quently, bound to consider this Norman chief as the first actual discoverer of the North American continent. At last Biorn found his way back to Greenland, and he told his countrymen of his discovery. One of them, named Leif, the son of that Eric who was the first to discover Greenland, hearing of Bib rn s report, determined to sail in the same direction, and to examine for himself the new country. He purchased Biorn s ship, manned it, and steered south-west. He came to a country, which, 30 LEIF S VOYAGES. on account of its rocky coasts and valleys, he called " Helluland" i. e. the land of rocks. It is now supposed that this was Newfoundland. From thence he and his followers sailed farther to the west and south, and, after a voyage of many days, he again met with land, which resembled the first, but was more wooded. He called it, therefore, " Markland" i. e. the land of the woods, It is believed to have been the Nova Scotia of the present day. Again Leif, the son of Eric, put to sea, and sailing round a vast cape, he cast anchor on the other side in a great bay. As the year was just coming to a close (it was the year 1000) he commenced building and making a settlement, which received the name of " Leif s Budin" (Leif s Booths). Here he wintered, making many distant excursions for the sake of hunting, or of discovery. One of Leif s companions, a man named Tyrker, a native of Lower Saxony, to whom he was much attached, was one day found to be missing. Search was made for him in vain, and he was given up for lost. He was seen again one evening, however, emerging from a wood, and holding up something triumphantly in his hands. As he drew near, his friends asked him what he had got. "Grapes! grapes!" he cried out, pleasure almost choking his utterance. " He knew them well," he added, " for they grew upon the banks of the rivers in his German fatherland." This incident induced Leif to call the THE NORMANS IN " YINLAND." 31 country "Vinland" (Wineland). It is now supposed that this name was applied in especial to the coast of Rhode Island, and in a more general way to the whole southern part of New England. In the spring of the following year Leif busied him self with cutting down trees, and, loading his ship with timber for Greenland, he sailed back to the north. On his arrival in Greenland, Leif gave such a favour able account of the lands which he had visited in the south-west, that the following year several new expedi tions to Vinland were undertaken. The Normans now became permanently settled in this new country, and they spread themselves out in it farther and farther. After their conversion to Christianity they built churches and founded monasteries, and at their farms, which in course of time extended upwards of four hundred geogra phical miles, principally along the western coast, they occupied themselves with the breeding of cattle, hunting, and fishing. An uninterrupted intercourse was kept up with the mother countries, Norway and Iceland, and from them they received new immigrants and necessaries. Ex cursions were likewise frequently repeated in a south westerly direction, and much extended. Most wonderful does it appear to us that these northern regions of Iceland and Greenland should so long have continued to be the centres from which the Normans 32 SUPPOSED SPREAD OF THE NORMANS. departed on excursions to the west and to the south, and that this people, on the discovery of America, should not have abandoned their cold and sterile countries to settle for xrood in milder climates. We can understand that o our whalers should quit our harbours in the summer, to contend for a few months against the Polar storms and the monsters of the deep, for they leave behind them comfortable winter quarters, to which they hope to return in the autumn. But that a people should make its home in the land of the Polar bears, and only quit it at times by way of summer excursions to the warm districts of the vine, is a phenomenon only to be met with in the history of the Scandinavians, those genuine children of the north. Some even believe that the Normans extended their ex cursions as far as Florida, and that this part of America was not unknown to them. There are authors, even Danes, who have gone still further in their bold specula tions, and who have pronounced the opinion that the bearded white-skinned men, of whom the Spaniards heard from the Peruvians, were descendants of the Normans. These white men were said to have resided on the banks of Lake Titicaca, and to have introduced there order, laws, and civilisation. A people in Central America, too, have been found venerating a god, " Wotan ; " and this name and worship have been supposed to have been derived from the Normans and their deity, Odin or Wodan. ANNALS OF THE WELSH. 33 We can trace the Norman settlements in Greenland during three centuries. Probably thus long may excur sions to America have continued. Nevertheless, the re markable discovery of this land in the end became lost, without further benefit to the world or to science. The Greenland colonies gradually declined, probably as much in consequence of the epidemic diseases which spread from Europe to that country in the fourteenth century, as of the disastrous conflicts with the natives. Nothing remained of the Normans but their graves, a few ruins of churches, some runic stones, and those laconic and life-like traditions, sketched in so masterly a manner in the annals of Iceland. And in the annals of another northern people, in those of the Welsh, mention is also made of an expedition to the far west of the Atlantic Ocean, which looks very like a discovery of America, and which appears to have followed the enterprises of the Normans, or to have been contemporaneous, perhaps, in connexion with them. After the death of Owen Guyneth, the ruler of North Wales so say the chronicles of that country his sons quarrelled about the succession to his dominions, and their contests lasted many years. One of these princes, named Madoc, who probably was vanquished, quitted his home, took to sea with his followers, and sailed towards the west in search of adventures and wealth. He left VOL. I. D 34 VOYAGES OF PRINCE MADOC. Ireland far behind him to the north and east, and arrived at a large and unknown country in the west. He found his way back over the waters, and 011 his return he spoke of the smiling and fertile districts he had seen, mocking his countrymen for their contests about such poor naked rocks as Wales possessed. He then built a great number of vessels, and taking as many people, women as well as men, on board as were willing to live in peace, he sailed again to the west, to the great country which he had dis covered. There he is said to have settled down, and later to have returned to Britain with ten ships to fetch fresh emigrants. After this nothing more is known of him. But in Wales old songs have been preserved by the people in honour of the princely ocean sailor. Attempts have been made of late to find out in what part of America this Welsh prince formed his settlement. Because Ireland was left so far to the north in his voyages, it has been supposed that in the West Indies, or some where about the Gulf of Mexico, traces of him must be sought for. Some have believed that the wooden crosses, which the Spaniards found erected on the coast of Yucatan, and which were held in veneration by the natives, must have been introduced by these British Christians. Others, again, are of opinion that they may have landed in Florida, or in the neighbourhood of the mouths of the Mississippi, and even fancy they have dis- TRACES OF THE WELSH IN AMERICA. 35 covered traces of the Welsh language, and of Welsh blood in the Indians of that district. An American writer of the present day has even taken the trouble to show that the traditions and the language of the so-called Mandan Indians, who now dwell in Central Missouri, prove them to be the descendants of the followers of Prince Madoc. Indeed, many have- found these Welsh wanderers again in one of the most remote tribes to the far west in California. In consequence of the supposed discovery of traces of Madoc s Welsh, spread so extensively throughout the whole of America, an Englishman has proposed that the new world should not be named, as at present, after Amerigo Vespucci, nor called Columbia, after Columbus, but rather " Madocia," after Prince Madoc. Another oceanic fable, resembling the tradition of Prince Madoc, is that of " the island of the seven cities," which had its origin in Portugal. According to this story, when King Roderick was conquered by the Arabs at Guadalete, and the Pyrenean peninsula was overrun by them, six Christian bishops, with the Bishop of Porto at their head, fled on board ship at the town of that name, and taking with them their treasures, sailed to a distant country in the west. They built there seven towns, and this country was consequently called " Isla de las siete Ciudades" As this stoiy was preserved by the D2 36 THE FRISIANS AND THE IRISH. people, Portuguese navigators were induced to try to discover the island. Once, it is further said, they actually found it, and communicated with the inhabi tants, who, on their part, anxiously inquired if the Moors, from whose rule they had fled after the death of King Roderick, still held possession of the peninsula. The question what might be found on the other side the water seems naturally to have occupied the minds of eveiy people dwelling upon the borders of the ocean ; and just as natural, too, was the supposition that not all was water in the background. Like the inhabitants of the Alps, who dream of paradisiacal valleys in the midst of the glaciers, so have these dwellers on coast lands fabled about sunken or still existing islands in the middle of the ocean, and attempts to reach these western wonder-lands have at all times been made by some of the bolder spirits. Even the Frisians, who dwelt at the mouths of the Weser, have taken part in these pre-Columbian voyages. Adam of Bremen relates that, at the time of the Arch bishop Alebrandus, about the year 1035, two vessels de parted from that port, manned by the people just men tioned, and sailed to the north-west. They are said to have penetrated far into the darkness of that foggy ocean, and to have seen an island, far beyond Iceland, which was rich in treasures and inhabited by giants. The Irish, likewise, who in the first bloom of their ANCIENT MAPS OF THE ATLANTIC. 37 civilisation and Christianity were great travellers, speak of one of their saints, the Bishop Brandon, probably a far-ranging pilgrim and mission ary, who once reached a large and beautiful island in the west, to which he intro duced settlers arid Christianity. It was therefore named by them St. Brandon s Isle. It was said, in clear weather, to be visible in the west, that its mountain peaks and valleys and its entire circumference could be then dis tinguished. When any attempt, however, was made to pass over to it, it was found impossible to be reached, for it always receded into farther distance. When at length all these and other oceanic traditions O and stories began to be collected by the chroniclers of old, and the western lands of which men spoke were marked upon their maps, the whole Atlantic Ocean be came studded with mythical islands. We can see in these old maps the island of the seven towns, the Saint Brandon s Isle, and others, drawn with as much distinct ness as if they had been surveyed by engineers. Usually, too, a very large island is to be seen upon them, called Antilia, and one styled " Brasil :" i. e. the island of log wood. Another island, called Ima, was supposed to be situated in the middle of the ocean ; and this island was said to be the most beautiful in the world, abounding in fertility and every desirable thing. Often may the shapes of the clouds and atmospheric phenomena have given rise 38 THE AZORES. to these fables of islands. Sometimes drifting icebergs may have been mistaken for islands by seamen carried by storms into unknown latitudes. Again, some of these fables may have reference to early and indistinct glimpses of the Azores, which lie so far away in the ocean. But when the Portuguese really discovered and explored these islands at the commencement of the fifteenth century, it was not supposed that the fabulous islands we have been speaking of were found. Perhaps the ever-active imagi nation of man added new fables to these Azores, and placed the old islands of the seven towns, those of Saint Brandon, and the red logwood, still farther away in the ocean. On the furthermost of the Azores, on the so- called raven island (Corvo\ an equestrian statue was vulgarly believed to stand upon the summit of a moun tain. A man, it was said, could be there seen seated on a horse, and without covering to his head. His left hand rested upon the mane of his steed, but his right hand was stretched out, pointing towards the west. This statue was said not to have been made by human hands, but formed by nature ; and Providence was thought to have given to the living rock this extraordinary configuration, to call the attention of European mariners to the west, and to those other islands to be found in that direction. At length, when Columbus, rightly interpreting the meaning of the equestrian statue on the raven island, dis- SOUTH-WESTERN LINE FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA. 39 covered the great country in the west, some of those fabulous names of islands and stories were earned over to America. The old name Antilia was given to the West India Islands, the Antilles. The name Brasil, which became lost in the Azores, was transferred to the great country known now as Brazil. The land of the seven cities was believed to be found in Mexico. And when at last no traces whatever of the seven bishops and the towns which they had founded could be there dis covered, they were looked for in the prairies, and in the mountains to the north of Mexico; and, until of late, these names have been seen to figure on the maps of that country. The stories and presentiments of countries in the west, of which I have just been speaking, received new nourish ment principally in consequence of the discoveries of the Italians, the Portuguese, and Spaniards, along the At lantic coast of Africa. The west coast of Africa runs, from Spain to the Cape of Senegambia, in a direct line to the south-west. A continuation of this line leads straight to South America. The Azores, the Canary Isles, and those of Cape Yerde lie also in this direction ; and this coast line and island chain may be considered to form a band or bridge connecting Europe and South America, just as the chain of islands and coasts, by way of Britain, Iceland, and Greenland of which I have spoken 40 THE ITALIAN POETS. above may be said to form a bridge between the north of Europe and North America. In like manner, as the latter is called the north-western, so may the former be styled the south-western highway to America. Voyages of discovery along the coast of Africa must in the end naturally lead to South America, just as those passing by Britain led to North America. Already, at the commencement of the fourteenth cen tury, the Canary Isles had been discovered, or rather, we should say, had been discovered afresh. The first colonists of the Azores (Flemings) went there in the year 1460. But one step more remained to be taken ; and if the Spaniards had not taken it, without doubt the Portuguese soon would. In prophetic verse, the poets of that time announce the event as near at hand : " In olden time, the mind of man was chained." Thus sings an Italian poet, not long before the time of Columbus : " And Hercules will look around and blush, To see how far the bounds, in vain he set, The eager boat will shortly overshoot. Another circle s half will soon be known, Since all now tends towards a centre. Deep beneath our feet are other towns, And powerful realms till now undreamt of. For see, the sun which flies towards the west, Greets other people with its longed-for light." Prophetic tales and poems, experiments, and actual ASIATIC WEALTH. 41 progress in discovery and knowledge, may thus be said to have prepared and illuminated for Columbus the western track across the ocean. And in like manner, by a long and glorious series of expeditions from Europe to the east, was America, or at least the Pacific, taken in the rear, and where this east and the west join there also new light was spread. Many of the cele brated travellers whom the kings in the west sent to the rulers of Asia, the great Khans of Tartary, had pene trated far into that quarter of the globe. Nearly all the greatest enterprises of man have had for their aim the Asiatic east, so densely peopled and rich in the products of nature. The grandest mi grations, expeditions of conquest or discovery, have all been owing to that remarkable contrast between Western Europe and Eastern Asia. In the Orient nature has scattered about with prodigal hand her choicest gifts ; precious metals, pearls, spices, silk, perfumes of every kind, and her grandest specimens of animals and plants. In Europe, on the other hand, comparatively so poor in natural productions, history has developed the most active, energetic, and acquisitive of peoples. To long and struggle for the possession of the rich east, the cradle of the human race, the seat of paradise, and the true source of all earthly goods and material welfare, have at all times characterised the inhabitants of Europe. 42 VENETIANS AND GENOESE. Desire to reach India inflated the sails of all the sea going nations of antiquity. Solomon and the Phoe nicians obtained the most beautiful of their goods from Ophir, the land of spices and pearls which lay in the east. The Greek god, Dionysius, the ever youthful dispenser of abundance and joys, came back in triumph from India to Greece. A longing for the east was deeply seated in the heart of Alexander the Great. The thought of seeing the Ganges and the great ocean in the east, filled him with enthusiasm, and like unto Solomon and Alexander, the Romans and their Luculluses derived their greatest riches from the Orient. In mediaeval Eu rope, the general longing for the east sprang more im mediately from the Crusades of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and these diffused a better knowledge of the Orient^ arid likewise gave rise to wants which from thence only could be gratified. The Venetians and Genoese, who supplied the Cru saders with the means of transport and provisions, con tinued afterwards to satisfy these wants; and, again, through their mediation there arose an intercourse and connexion between the east and west, more intimate even than in the days of the maritime nations, the Phoe nicians and Egyptians. The produce of the land of spices was brought by the Venetians to every European hearth ; and the palaces MARCO POLO. 43 and the Exchange of the lagune city attested to all the world the value of this commerce. Her famous traveller, Marco Polo, at length even reached the eastern end of Asia, a feat which before him no one had accomplished ; and he it was who gave to Europe a knowledge of Japan (called by him Ci- pango) and of the Pacific Ocean. His wonderful state ments and reports, written down by him during his im prisonment in Genoa, were spread through the whole of Europe, and contributed greatly not only to stimulate anew the longing for the Orient, but also to extend the knowledge of geography, particularly of the oceans. It was in accordance with Marco Polo s ideas that shortly before Columbus s time new maps were designed. Amongst others, a friend of Columbus, the Italian astro nomer, Toscahelli, made a map, on which the eastern part of Asia, and even Japan, were put down exactly as Marco Polo had described them. On this map, Japan was placed in the middle of the sea, to the east of Asia and to the west of Europe, and the course to it from the latter quarter of the globe was studded with those islands we have spoken of above, with the Azores, the island of Antilia, St. Brandon s Isle, c., so that Japan appeared easy to reach by sailing from island to island. A similar map, or a globe, was made by a German geographer, Martin Behaim, who had settled in the Azores, and 44 AMERICAN DAWN. whom the Emperor Maximilian pronounced to be the greatest traveller of the German empire. In the following chapter it will be my aim to show, in a condensed form, how at the end of the fifteenth cen tury, Columbus turned these maps to account ; how all these streaks of an American dawn were concentrated in his speculative brain ; how he paid attention to every sign and token from the west, to all the traditions and fables, until at length his whole being became imbued with the spirit of his golden dreams and his longing for the Orient. When he had tried the north-western way, by sailing as far as Iceland, and then that to the south west, along the coast of Africa, to the Canary Islands thus, as it were, feeling the ice it will be shown how at last, after indefatigable exertions, he spread his sails, and steered to the west into " the sea of gloom," and how, on his return, he called out to astonished Europe his Eureka, and laid a new world at the feet of his sovereign. BIRTH OF COLUMBUS. 45 CHAPTER II. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Columbus sails from Spain, first Voyage (Aug. 3, 1492) Columbus leaves the Canary Islands (Sept. 6, 1492) Columbus sails across the Ocean in thirty-seven Days (1492) Columbus sees the New World (Oct. 12, 1492) After the Discovery of Cuba and Hayti, Columbus returns to Spain (March 14, 1493) Columbus sails with seventeen Ships from Cadiz, second Voyage (Sept. 25, 1493) After the Discovery of the Lesser An tilles and Jamaica, Columbus returns to Spain (June 11, 1494) Columbus sails with three Ships from Cadiz, third Voyage (May 30, 1498) Co lumbus discovers the Continent of South America (Aug. 12, 1498) Columbus returns to Spain in Chains (Nov., 1500) Columbus sails with four Ships from Cadiz, fourth Voyage (May 11, 1502) After the Discovery of Central America, from Honduras to Darien, Columbus re turns to Spain (Nov. 7, 1504) Columbus Dies (May 20, 1506). THE first part of Columbus s life is unfortunately enveloped in thick darkness. Neither the date nor the place of his birth are known. But it is probable that he was born in Genoa about the year 1436. We know, how ever, with certainty, that in early youth he displayed an interest in those things with which he was to occupy 46 YOUTH OF COLUMBUS. himself all his days. At the school of Pavia, to which he was sent by his indigent parents, he applied himself to the study of geography and astronomy, acquiring that knowledge which was to be of such great use to him hereafter. Like all men of decided character who, in this short span of life, prepare themselves for great things, Columbus soon turned to that career which was to lead him to a brilliant goal. At the age of fourteen he took to the sea, and as a sailor gained a practical knowledge of all those waters around the coasts of Europe and Africa that were navigated in his day. In the south, the Portuguese had already advanced a considerable distance ; and in the north, expeditions to Iceland, and even farther, had, from olden times, been of frequent occurrence. But with respect to the west, a profound ignorance prevailed. In that direction no one had penetrated beyond the Azores. Now, it was in espe cial this " sea of gloom," as the Arabs were accustomed to call the Atlantic, which had a fascination for Co lumbus ; for it is just where darkness is thickest, that we generally find the champions of light prefer to direct their attacks. Not like the rest of his contemporaries on the south, just then emerging from obscurity, did Co lumbus fix his longing gaze, but on the totally unillumi- nated west. How it came to pass that this new idea took possession HIS CHARACTERISTICS. 47 of him, when the belief in the possibility of a western passage first arose in his mind, we are now unable to tell. And indeed we seldom can know how and when great minds receive the first impulses to their ideas. Co lumbus says himself in his different writings, " God had given him the idea," or " the Saviour had commanded him to take this way to the west." However, on his many voyages, as well as during his short periods of repose, he had always pursued his studies on the nature of the earth ; and he had likewise always endeavoured to increase his knowledge by intercourse with travellers and men of learning. It is one of the especial charac teristics of Columbus that he was no less competent to acquire theoretical than practical knowledge. TVhen tossed by storms, his spirit of inquiry was as remarkable, as was at all times his desire to profit by his predecessors and contemporaries, all of whom he soon surpassed in accuracy of knowledge. In his organisation were united great physical energy and strong ideality. In him a glowing imagination was happily combined with acute powers of observation and an eager desire to gain experience ; tendencies generally so opposed, that in most men either the imaginative or the practical side of their nature will predominate. But with Columbus a proper balance was maintained. There was something visionary in his nature, and yet when the 48 STUDIES OF COLUMBUS. time for action came, however great the dangers and difficulties of the moment, he was never found wanting in quick decision and energy. He paid particular attention to the accounts which Marco Polo and other travellers had given of the eastern parts of Asia. From these he gathered that Asia bent far round to the east on the terrestrial globe ; that it must be possible to sail to it from Europe by a westerly course, and that Cathay (China), or at least the islands lying to the east of it, and Cipango (Japan), would be reached after a voyage of no extraordinary duration. With untiring diligence he collected together whatever could be found in support of this view. All the passages in the writings of the Greeks and Romans, or of Ara bian geographers, all the prophetic sayings which had reference to the possibility of a western passage, he not only indelibly impressed upon his memory, but he like wise committed them to paper. He collected, too, all the fables and traditions of the inhabitants of the Azores and Canary Isles, and many little phenomena of nature which those islanders had observed, and which seemed to him to give intimation of land in the obscure west. And no sooner had the case appeared to him plain and conclusive, than he wrote essays on the subject to make it clear to others. HIS WANDERINGS. 49 When these ideas had become thoroughly impressed upon his firm mind, they were grasped for ever. To prove their truth became the aim of his life, which he determined to accomplish in spite of the impediments and disappointments which fate might cast in his way. But alone and unaided his object was not to be obtained. He required the legitimate and powerful protection of an established government. To procure this, however, he found a most difficult task, although at that time the rulers of Western Europe were in many respects able and distinguished. On the throne of Portugal there sat the enterprising John II.; on that of England the politic Henry VII.; and France was ruled by the warlike Charles VIII. ; and Spain by the victorious Ferdinand and Isabella. His head filled with grand thoughts, with his marine charts, his essays, and his proofs in his hands, Columbus wandered from land to land without being able to gain a hearing. He was led from one areopagus of the world s sages to another, from Genoa to Lisbon, and from Lisbon to Salamanca, and examined about his "novelties." Everywhere his proposals were rejected, for they were looked upon as the abortions of a heated imagination, of a " dreamer" who conceitedly fancied himself able to know and do more than the world had hitherto known and done. A western voyage round the VOL. i. E 50 PERSEVERANCE OF COLUMBUS. world is impossible, men exclaimed. "And yet it is possible/ Columbus murmured to himself, like as at a later period the great astronomer persisted in his " e pur si muove" when every one cried out " the earth does not move." Thus was Columbus, thirsting for action, doomed to waste the bloom of his manhood in tedious negotiations with potentates, in the ante-chambers of their favourites, in fruitless correspondence with learned men, experienc ing the torture of hopes deferred, of repeated disappoint ments, and having much personal distress and embar rassment to contend with. His want was often so great that he had no other means of subsistence than what he derived from the sale of maps, which he was skilled in making, and for which he found customers amongst sea captains. There were moments when he was actually reduced to beggary, and when he might be seen, leading his little son Diego by the hand, and asking for charity at the gates of monasteries. He was a beggar, whom people scoffed at, but who nevertheless earned in his head rich and glorious ideas. "With surprising perseverance he. continued to wander, tenax propositi vir, along his path of thorns, and, as is usual with great characters inspired by great thoughts, after every defeat he formed new hopes, and knocked at every door which seemed at all likely to be opened to him. The only faithful follower and con- HIS PLANS. 51 vert to his theory, whom as yet he had gained his brother Bartholomew, in many respects like himself he sent into distant countries, to France and England, to see if in either of these kingdoms a willing ear and a generous hand could be found. The greatest proof of his firmness, indeed it may be almost said of his obstinacy, was given by Columbus in 1492, when the court of Spain, consenting at last to grant him its protection, at the same time demanded con ditions to which he would not consent. To the concep tions of the magnificence of Carthay and India the sources of all that men most covet to the hopes of the inestimable benefit to result from a western passage across the Atlantic, to the thoughts of the grandeur of his whole scheme, had become indissolubly united the idea of his own personal greatness. It was his purpose to pierce the clouds that hung over our globe, to explore and conquer India, to spread Christianity there, and to stand forward as a missionary of the Church ; and he was determined to carry out his scheme from beginning to end just as it had been conceived and matured in his own brain. As head of a family, too, he wanted to pro vide for his children and his brothers. These and him self, the monarch who should assist him, the Christian religion, and the whole world, were to derive incalculable advantage from his undertaking. To this end it was E2 52 FIRST GREAT VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. that he required to be placed in authority, and to have the command of great pecuniary means. To commence with, therefore, he demanded for himself a share in the revenues to be derived from India, and the title and powers of a viceroy and admiral of the sea. But these the King of Spain refused at first. And Columbus, in whose head all these ideas had melted into one indivi sible glorious project, and who thought that the whole would be upset if a part were rejected, had the rare corn-age to turn his back upon the court, and, though near the attainment of his desires, to grasp his wanderer s staff anew, and seek his fortune somewhere else. He took the road to France. Happily the court of Spain came to its senses, and at the last moment sent couriers after Columbus, consenting to everything the extraor dinary man declared to be absolutely necessary. At last he sailed from the Continent ; at last, in com mand of three small vessels, he was again launched upon that element to which he had been accustomed from his youth. On this, his first great voyage across the ocean, Nature may be said to have favoured him in every way. Fine weather, the winds and water currents sped him on his course. Far different, however, was the state of things on board his fast gliding caravels, in consequence of the mental excitement and the want of confidence in those who accompanied him. In close contact with his crews, HIS PERSONAL AND MENTAL QUALITIES. 53 it became necessary for him to put forth all the energy and the deepest qualities of his mind. According to the description given of him by his son and biographer, Co- lumbus s body was well-proportioned, and his figure com manding. His face long, without being thin ; his eyes were bright and full of expression. Towards strangers and those under his command, he was kind and affable. He was simple in his dress. He ate and drank but little, and at all times he willingly submitted to whatever pri vations he found it necessary to inflict upon others. In conversation he was agreeable and winning, occasionally even eloquent. He was in the highest degree inventive, and thus always able to give an explanation, or at least a plausible ground, for whatever occurred. He was even not wanting in craftiness, and, when necessary, in the power to deceive others. Never were these various qualities of his mind more called into activity than on this first voyage across the ocean. As his crews were imbued with all the prejudices of their age in regard to the difficulties of a voyage to the west, every unusual and unexpected occurrence filled them with alarm. Because the wind blew constantly from the east, they feared it would be impossible to sail back to Spain. But Co lumbus told them that he would find another course, where westerly winds prevailed. When those extra ordinary beds of fuci, the far-spreading fields of sea- 54 CONSPIRACY OF THE CREWS. weeds in the central parts of the Atlantic were reached, the crews believed that they were come to the end of the world, to that morass or liquid medley of the elements of which the ancients had reported. Columbus hereupon ordered the sounding-line to be constantly used, and thus convinced his crews that beneath the green vegetable covering the waters were everywhere unfathomable. But when after weeks of sailing the promised land did not appear, the crews of the three vessels lost all heart, and loudly demanded to turn back. Columbus, however, continuing firm in his resolve, some of the most unruly of his men so at least relates his earliest biographer, his son Fernando entered into a conspiracy against him, and even went so far as to purpose ridding themselves of the obstinate foreigner who was leading them to destruc tion. Like the Roman soldiers who fell upon Archi medes in his study, the Spaniards intended to seize upon Columbus when engaged in his astronomical observations, to throw him overboard, and, on their return to Spain, to give out that the eccentric reader of the stars had fallen a victim to his folly when absorbed in his dreams. Although Columbus was not blind to the dangers which threatened him, he took pains to prevent it from being known, and, according to circumstances, he adopted the proper measures to keep up his authority. To some of COLUMBUS REACHES THE NEW WORLD. 00 the disaffected he spoke in the friendliest tone, others he threatened with punishment, but on all occasions he ap peared cheerful and full of courage and confidence. At length he succeeded with his sailors, as he had formerly succeeded with the courtiers. At length, too,, the waters became less deep, the wind changeable, as is usual in the neighbourhood of islands and mountains, singing-birds came on board, and a branch of a tree in blossom, and a thorny shrub with berries on it, came floating on the waves. These were no less welcomed by Columbus and his crew than the olive branch, brought by the dove, had been by Noah and his companions in the ark. The water, too, became less salt, and the air soft and fragrant. One evening a distant light was per ceived, and early the next day the long-expected pro mised land, the object of Columbus s dreams and calcu lations, was seen glittering in the rosy dawn. In truth, Columbus had brought his companions successfully across the ocean. He had enticed and forced them, as it were, by the aid of cunning, persua sion, and threats ; and they did homage to him now as their admiral and viceroy, as their saviour and lord, to whom in future they must look as their leader to wealth, glory, and power. According to his theory, Columbus believed himself to be on the coast of the east of Asia, or at least in the 56 COLUMBUS DISCOVERS HAYTI. neighbourhood, and everything that he met with in this his first entrance into the new world, was looked upon and judged in harmony with this view. Everything around confirmed his opinion. He sent out interpreters who could speak Arabic, or some other Oriental language, that they might converse with the natives and gain some news of the ruler of China, to whom he had brought a letter of recommendation from the King of Spain. Although he was unable to under stand the language of the poor islanders whom he took to be Indians, and whose land he therefore directly called India yet he interpreted the signs which they made in reply to his questions to imply that the great Khan of China was not far off. When he discovered the large island of Hispaniola, or Hayti, he was de cidedly of opinion that he had found Cipango, or Japan, teeming with gold and other valuable products ; and in the new plants he met with, he fully believed that he re cognised Oriental pepper, cinnamon, nutmegs, and even rhubarb, and other valuable spices. Unfortunately, Columbus entirely misunderstood the character of the country he had found. Instead of being the land he fancied it to be, abounding in the ripened fruits of a long-standing culture which waited only to be gathered its whole wealth and capabilities, on the con trary, different to those of Asia, consisted in its virgin HE RETURNS TO SPAIN. 57 soil, not requiring a conqueror, but rather planters, whose labour it would richly reward. Triumphing, he returned to Europe to bring to his king and the world the news of his victory. His voyage back was in every way a contrast to his passage out. His crews, now hurrying to their homes, were willing and obedient, but the elements were rude and unfavourable in the extreme. In consequence of the violent storms which tossed his little vessels on the waves, it even seemed extremely doubtful whether the time was yet come when the discovery of America was to be pro claimed and turned to account. Escaping the machinations of the Portuguese at the Azores, where it was intended to make prisoners of him and his crews ; happily escaping, too, from Lisbon, into which port storms had driven him, and where an attempt was even made to take his life, Columbus landed at last on Spanish soil. As the discoverer of new lands in the west, the admired and praised of all, now began that re markable triumphal progress from the mouths of the Guadalquiver to Barcelona, where Columbus was to pre sent himself to his monarch. Accompanied by a portion of his crews, he now passed through the same districts, which, as a poor wandering stranger, he had formerly visited. Indians, decorated with feathers, opened the procession. Parrots, and other birds and animals never 58 RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS. seen before, many valuable plants and aromatic spices, gold dust and golden ornaments of the Indians, were car ried behind him. The ringing of bells and crowds of people greeted him wherever he came. On arriving at the gates of Barcelona, the citizens, and many of the grandees of Castile and Aragon, came out to meet him. Only a few months had elapsed since he had vainly pe titioned the latter, and been scorned by them as a fan tastical adventurer. He was received in this manner by command of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who themselves awaited him in solemn audience, honouring him almost as if he had been a prince, and granting him a seat near their throne, like that of their son Don Juan. They listened to his wonderful statements, and then, kneeling down, returned thanks to Heaven. The hours which Columbus passed at Barcelona may be considered as the happiest of a life, at all other times so chequered by misfortunes. He was now the most popular man of the clay. Always either at the side of his good and gracious queen, or riding out with the king, who listened with kind and deep interest to his reports. All his wishes were gratified, and whatever he proposed was done. According to Las Casas, the historiographer of India, a modest smile might continually be seen play ing upon Columbus s lips, in proof that he felt the great ness of the honours accorded to him, without, however, HIS RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM. 59 over-elated by them. Poor Columbus ! such smiles *f combining the expression of happiness and humility, were never again for so long a time together to light up a countenance in which soon deep furrows were to be imprinted by new troubles and adversities. Nothing is more striking and characteristic of Colum bus and his times than the way in which, whilst making preparations for a second voyage, he indulged in the most enthusiastic and visionary ideas about religion. Not only to obtain the wealth of India, but in especial to be instrumental in spreading the Christian faith, was the object near to his heart. The Cross had lately triumphed in Spain. The expeditions of Columbus, following close upon the victories over the Moors in Granada, seemed, as it were, to be a continuation of these crusades, on the other side the ocean. Columbus, therefore, fancied that the time was come when the prophecies about the extension of Christianity over the whole face of the globe were to be fulfilled. The riches which he hoped to obtain were destined by Providence, he believed, to promote the triumph of religion. His thoughts consequently flew not only westward, sweeping over India to Arabia, but they turned likewise to the east, across the Mediterranean, and he dreamt of re-con quering Jerusalem, and christianising it by means of the revenues of India. Thus he hoped that he should 60 SECOND GREAT VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. be able to attack antichrist (Mahomet) both in the front and the rear. He would have liked now to have had it in his power to make a journey to Rome, to do homage to the head of the Christian faith, and explain to him the grandeur of his plans. The Pope, however, must, about this time, have heard something of Columbus s pious and enthusiastic anticipations, for in his first bull on American affairs, he styles him "his beloved son, Christofero Colombo." With a large fleet of seventeen well-appointed ships, having fifteen hundred men on board, Columbus sails a second time across the ocean. But the support of so large a number in the poor villages of the American islanders was naturally a thing most difficult to be accomplished. When, at a later period, the Portuguese discovered the true India, it was easy for them to take over even greater numbers of men. For no sooner did they gain possession of a town than they found in the country around an abundance of all the necessaries of life. But it was nol so in America, for there European settlements could only take root by degrees. All the great expeditions to this quarter of the globe turned out unfortunate. Moreover, amongst the fifteen hundred followers of Columbus, there were more warriors than field labourers ; more hidalgos, thirsting for adventures, than patient workmen. Many of these hidalgos had SUFFERINGS OF HIS FOLLOWERS. 61 served in the campaigns against the Moors, and they had imagined that in crossing over to a new land they were again to find castles and towns to be conquered glorious battles to be won. These were the deeds which they had been accustomed to perform, and their repetition on a new stage Columbus himself had unfortunately led them to expect. He had described his Espagnola as much larger than it was as " much greater in circumference than the whole of Spain." And behind those high mountains, which on his first voyage he had only seen from a distance, he actually believed that he should find all those things of which he had spoken, castles, towns, and kingdoms abounding in wealth. The knowledge how to provide great expeditions with everything necessary for long periods of time, is but of late date. The provisions and stores which had been put on board Columbus s ships were deficient in quantity, and badly packed. The consequence was that a consi derable part soon became unfit for use. To add to the difficulties, it was soon discovered that the inhabitants of the mountainous interior of the island were even poorer than those on the coast. The proper thing would have been, immediately on landing, to have sown some portion of the fertile soil with European grain, and thus to have secured the means of existence. But the Spaniards were not prepared for such a tedious process. They 62 DIFFICULTIES OF COLUMBUS. wanted to reap without sowing, and to accomplish great things all at once. All the men brought over as colonists soon fell sick ; hundreds died of hunger and misery, cursing the newly discovered land, and those that re mained lost all heart, and were seized with longings for their homes. Thus, from the very commencement, Columbus, who had to take upon himself the duties of lawgiver, found numerous difficulties in his way. It added greatly to them that he was a foreigner. The proud priests and hidalgos of Spain were unwilling to obey an Italian ; and when work was required of them, they abused and rated him an arrogant parvenu. When obliged to curtail their allowance of food, although he made no exception in his own case, he was accused of unheard-of tyranny. The punishment of disorderly conduct, without regard to rank or station, was looked upon by them as the severity and indifference of a man ignorant of old Spanish customs, rights, and dignities. Yet it was in the nature of the case that, in founding a new com munity, something approaching more to equality must necessarily be introduced than accorded with the old European ideas of rank and station. If Columbus entrusted the most important commissions to his beloved brothers Diego and Bartholomew the only ones of his companions on whose skill and integrity he could entirely HE EXPLORES THE COAST OF CUBA. 63 re ly the Spaniards considered themselves aggrieved, and the victims of an Italian clique. Moreover, as Columbus, according to his first agreement with the King of Spain, was to share in the profits and revenues to be derived from India, the Spaniards declared that they were made use of only to advance the fortunes of their leader and his family. Notwithstanding the difficulties of his position, his un wearied exertions at length established something like order in his community. He built two forts and a kind of town, which, in honour of his queen, he called Isabella. Some of the most dissatisfied of his followers he sent back to Spain. He sent some gold dust, too, and, although the quantity was small, he made a bril liant statement of all that he intended to do. Then, having appointed his brother Diego to take his place in his absence, and having ordered that small bodies of men should make excursions into the interior of the country for the purpose of reconnoitring and procur ing provisions, he again set out to look for that conti nental land of promise which he had not yet disco vered. He sailed to the west, along the south coast of the beautiful island of Cuba, which he explored as far as its western end, despite the difficulties in his way, and the slowness of his progress. Bright hopes and golden dreams 64 STATE OF THINGS IN HISPANIOLA. of the Chinese province Mango, supposed to lie here abouts ; of the fabulous Prester John, whose realm, long vainly sought for in India, Columbus hoped at length to find, inspired and led him on through the labyrinth of rocks and sand-banks which extend along that coast of Cuba. Throughout the voyage he had to contend against contrary winds and storms, and his bodily fa tigues and mental excitements were so great, that he nearly fell a victim to them on his return. His exhaus tion was so complete, that, on n earing his little colony Isabella, he looked more like a corpse than a living man, and his crew had begun to mouni for the loss of their admiral. In this sad condition he again entered the harbour. But new cares, and the necessity for new exertions, soon roused him from the bed of sickness on which he had been cast by the trials he had undergone. In His- paniola everything had fallen into confusion. The ex ploring parties, which he had ordered to be sent into the interior, had dispersed themselves over the island, and partly from actual want, and partly from cupidity, had been guilty of the most horrible cruelties and excesses towards the poor Indians. In the beginning, the Indians had looked upon the new comers in a spirit of reverence and wonder. But they had soon been disabused, and in their dismay, having combined in a general conspiracy COLUMBUS RETURNS AGAIN TO SPAIN. 65 to save their country, they had fallen upon the Spaniards in large bodies. In addition to these troubles, Columbus had cause to look with alarm towards Spain. There his brilliant pro mises had raised the expectation of brilliant results ; but hitherto, instead of the return of victorious conquerors, none but pale, emaciated, and disappointed men had come back. Columbus succeeded, however, in again establish ing order in the island. He appointed his brother Bar tholomew to the post of governor, and then hastened to return to Spain to try to revive the drooping zeal in that country. He brought back to the old country two ships filled with home-sick and discontented men, or such as deserved punishment for their crimes ; and in this me lancholy companionship, himself greatly depressed, and like a penitent pilgrim, dressed in the coarse garb of a Franciscan monk, he again set foot on Spanish soil. He found things not quite so bad as he had expected. The King and Queen of Spain did not take the former interest in the unprofitable American speculation, but they received him graciously, confirmed his dignities, and bestowed new honours upon him. A considerable tract of land in Hispaniola was offered to him as his private property, with the hereditary title of duke. But this Columbus, not wishing to excite further envy, was wise enough to decline. Nevertheless, a strong party was VOL. I. 66 COLUMBUS S THIRD VOYAGE. soon formed against him, consisting of the dissatisfied and envious, together with the enemies he had made by his conduct of affairs in the new world. All these gathered round a few men of rank and influence, who from the beginning had been Columbus s opponents, and at length the king himself became their centre. Ferdi nand had never been remarkable for enthusiasm and imagination ; reflection, statesman-like prudence and eco nomy having in him the upper hand. Columbus had to wait two years patiently in Spain until matters ripened for a third voyage. And when at last the necessary moneys and powers were granted by the king, the number of men required could only be got together by a most disastrous measure. Columbus had proposed that such criminals as had been condemned to severe punishments, should receive a pardon on condition that they entered into his service. This request was granted, and the prisons were emptied that his ships might be filled. Worse means to gain his end, Columbus could not have thought of. The many bad and immoral men whom he took with him on his third voyage to the new world, made his life still more miserable than the warlike knights and soldiers who accompanied him on his second voyage, had done. In. fact, these liberated criminals soon brought Columbus himself into prison, HE DISCOVERS THE CONTINENT OF AMERICA. G7 His third voyage was believed by him to be undertaken under the especial protection of the Holy Trinity, and when, after a tedious passage, he again discovered land in the west, he named it Trinidad ; this was in accord ance with his doings on his first voyage, which being, as he had thought, under the especial protection of the Saviour, the first land he had seen [had been named by him St. Salvador. All men of deep feeling seem to have had this idea of connexion with the Almighty. The piety of Columbus caused him to believe that the eye of God rested especially upon him. Without this faith, without this strong and dominant feeling, he would never have discovered the new world, nor on this occa sion the continent of South America ; to which his land of the Holy Trinity in fact belonged. Columbus perceived that the shores of the new country extended far to the right and to the left. But more than this, the mouths and branches of a mighty river (the Orinoco) convinced him that he had found a vast continent, He examined some of the mouths, and sailed northward along the coast of Paria, which enchanted him, for the woods were full of singing-birds and ani mals, the vegetation rich, and the climate most beau tiful. He sailed through the Dragon s Mouth," and came to a part of the sea which teemed with islands, the inhabitants of which possessed an abundance of F2 68 COLUMBUS AND THE SEAT OF PARADISE. pearls. Pearls ! beautiful, genuine, and large pearls ! To the great joy of Columbus, these much-valued and long hoped-for products of the East were found at last. These signs caused him now to believe that he was near to those beautiful southern Asiatic lands, where all that man most covets was to be found. Again, he gave full play to his enthusiastic feelings, and indulged in spe culations which may now be called fantastic, but which, if we will try to place ourselves in the position of Co lumbus at that time, we may look upon as the emana tions of a spirit always imaginative and youthful, and admire the more when we consider, too, the age to which he had attained. The newly discovered continent he took to be one of the outer bastions of Asia. The beautiful soft climate of this region, the tameness of the animals, and the friendly innocent character of the people whom he met with at first, caused him actually to fancy that he was not far from paradise. He took the Orinoco for one of those great streams which, according to the geographical views of the fathers of the Church, flow from that seat of bliss; and he further fancied that paradise itself would be found to lie somewhere in the upper districts of the river. For two reasons, Columbus was of opinion that the HE SPECULATES ON THE SHAPE OF THE EARTH. 69 continent before him must rise to a great height. Firstly, because the river contained a vast quantity of water rushing with great force into the sea; and se condly, because, like the rest of his contemporaries, he believed that the situation of paradise must be beautiful, cloudless, and lofty, and near to heaven. Columbus likewise now came to the conclusion that the form of the earth could not be spherical, as the astronomers taught, but rather like that of a pear, having the narrow end uppermost, and the larger, rounder end at the bottom. Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, he imagined to be situated on the broad end of the pear-shaped earth, and the land he was now approaching to be on the thin end. He expected to find paradise at the top, where likewise the Orinoco, one of the four great rivers of the world, would have its source. Unfortunately, the bad condition of his ships did not allow Columbus to follow up this new discovery, which, however brilliant in itself, must have appeared still more so in his eyes. But, amidst his magnificent reveries, thoughts of the colony in Hispaniola troubled him greatly, and unfortunately he was ever doomed to be checked in his progress by the leaden weight of these cares. It is much to be regretted that Columbus ever entertained the unlucky idea of governing a colony ; that he did not exclusively devote himself to the great and 70 COLUMBUS IS SUPERSEDED. glorious work of discovery, for which he was so emi nently qualified. In Hispaniola he again found everything in disorder. For two years he had to march backwards and forwards ; to enter into negotiations ; to break up a conspiracy here, to put down rebellion there, and occasionally to resort to severe measures even executions to purify a colony which he himself had filled with criminals. Many of these worthless and wicked men he had to hunt down and send back to Spain. At last, however, he succeeded in controlling the factions, in getting rid of, or gaining over, the dissatisfied, and once more he brought things into a tolerable condition. But just at the moment of his triumph, just as he had begun to think of new en terprises, a royal commissioner, invested with extraor dinary powers, arrived most inopportunely on the island. It was a misfortune that the unfavourable state of things in the Indies always became known in Spain just at the time when the dark clouds had passed away, and, consequently, that measures no longer appropriate were decided upon. Many of the rebels, and the useless ser vants of the state, whom Columbus had sent back to Spain, raised loud cries against him and his brother, who were unable to defend themselves. The most shameless of these men infested the streets of the principal towns in Spain, and they even ran after the carriage of the THE NEW GOVEKJs Y OR OF HISPANIOLA. 71 king and queen, crying aloud for bread, and the pay which, they said, was due to them, and had been kept back by the admiral for his own benefit. The two young sons of Columbus had been made pages to the queen, and, whenever they appeared in public, they were fol lowed and abused ; the people crying out, " See there the sons of the Italian traitor, who pretends to have dis covered India for our king ; but who lets Spaniards, nobles as well as citizens, die there of hunger." & It is not surprising that the king and queen at length should come to the opinion that Columbus was not equal to the work he had undertaken, and that it would be best to send a commissioner to examine into the state of affairs. Don Francisco de Bobadilla, a very impru dent man to say the least, was unfortunately chosen for this duty, and he was invested with very dangerous powers ; for he was authorised to arrest whomsoever he might, after due inquiry, find to be guilty, and if the interests of the state required it, to remove him from the island. Armed with such great powers, this man arrived at Hispaniola, as already said, just as Columbus had suc ceeded in arranging matters satisfactorily, with better prospects for the future. Bobadilla forthwith commanded Columbus to appear before his tribunal, and, always obedient to the orders of his sovereign, he hastened from 72 COLUMBUS A PRISONER. the interior of the island, where he was at that time. Had the admiral received a death warrant it could scarcely have been worse. Bobadilla, a man unaccus tomed to the exercise of power, and inflated by the greatness of the confidence reposed in him by the king, from the first held Columbus to be guilty, and without even granting him a hearing, he ordered him to be cast into prison. Chains were put upon him, too ; and to such _ treatment a man was subjected, who had grown grey in the pursuit of grand and meritorious objects, and who had not thought of resistance, but who, of his own free will, and in the spirit of obedience, had delivered himself up to his enemies. This treatment, moreover, Columbus had to experience on the soil of a country, which by the activity of his brain, by his calculations, he had discovered, and, as it were, raised up out of dark ness ; and the government and revenues of which be longed to him by right as his proper reward, and had been secured to him by so many royal decrees and docu ments. Applauded by the libertines, the criminals, and other lawless men, who at that time swarmed in St. Domingo, the capital of Hispaniola, Bobadilla took the reins of government in hand, and he directly ordered a ship to be got ready, under the command of a certain Captain Ballejo, to convey the victim who had fallen into his hands to Spain. HE RETURNS IN CHAINS TO SPAIN. 73 Columbus, who had ever been a faithful subject to his king, was unconscious of any crime. Nevertheless, when his hands were chained by royal authority, his courage sank completely, and he fully believed his enemies in tended to take his life. When, therefore, Captain Bal- lejo came to his prison to- take him to his ship, full of suspicion, he fixed his eyes upon him, uttering the words, " Ballejo, where wilt thou conduct me." " On board ship, your grace," the questioned man replied. " Speakest thou the truth, captain," the admiral demanded, for he still believed he was to be taken to the place of execu tion. " By my life," the honest and good-hearted sea man replied, " it is as I say." The character of a man, and what resources he has within himself, will best be seen when he is at the pin nacle of good fortune, or when he is plunged into the depths of misery. In both situations Columbus has been tested, and not found wanting. The venerable and re nowned admiral, whom the Pope had called his " beloved son Christofero," and whom others had styled the "Apostle of the Lord," in chains on board Ballejo s ship, is a picture as interesting and sad, on the one hand, and as sublime, on the other, as that of the Greek sage in the dungeon at Athens. The modest smile, which, according to Las Casas, continually played upon his features when he was at the height of his prosperity, sufficiently in- 74 LETTERS OF COLUMBUS. forms us how lie bore liis triumph ; and there are not wanting many scattered indications of the way in which he bore his chains. The best testimony of his mild and moderate disposition, of the equilibrium which his soul maintained amidst his trials and misfortunes, we gain from the letters which he wrote whilst in irons on board his prison-ship, quickly gliding back to Spain. These letters are still preserved, and as the valuable legacy of a great man, they may be of use to many as a brilliant example. The first person to whom he addressed himself was to Dona Juana de la Torre, a lady of estimable character, who once had been nurse to Don Juan, the heir to the Spanish throne : " Here I am, honoured lady," he wrote, " after such great exertions reduced so low that there is no one, however vile, who does not think himself privileged to insult me. If, instead of discovering India and hand ing it over to my king, I had plundered and destroyed the country ; if I had given it up to the Moors and un believers, nothing worse could have happened to me than I have had to experience. So strange a character is at tributed to me, that if I had done nothing but build churches and hospitals, I believe they would have been called the dens of thieves. Who would have thought such a thing could have been possible in a land like Spain, in which so much nobility of soul used to prevail ? SENSATION IN SPAIN. 75 But the day will come when the world will look upon that man as virtuous, who has not approved of the in sults which have been offered to me. For the deeds which I have performed are of such a nature that they will grow from day to day in the estimation of mankind. No doubt I may have committed errors, but, if so, I feel certain that it has been without the intention to do wrong. I think that my sovereigns will believe me, and that they will weigh everything in a just balance, as, according to Holy Writ, it will be done at the day of judgment, when all our good and bad actions will be weighed one against the other. If I could but appear before my queen and look her in the face, I feel assured that I should be able to clear myself in her eyes of that of which I am ac cused. The support which I have always received from my Saviour and my queen has alone given me strength and perseverance, and from my heart I wish that I might be enabled to contribute a little to make her majesty forget the deep pain caused her by the death of the Prince Don Juan." It is said that Isabella shed tears on reading this letter, which was communicated to her before she again saw Columbus. His arrival at Cadiz, a prisoner and loaded with irons, made a deep and painful impression on the Spaniards. Indignation at the shameful treatment of the celebrated 76 COLUMBUS LIBERATED. discoverer became general. At court, too, displeasure and regrets were great. No one seemed to know how things had come to this pass. The king immediately commanded that Columbus should be set free, and, with his own hand, he wrote him a kind and gracious letter. He invited him to court, and received him with many excuses and honours. In fact, all that kind words could do was done to heal his wounds. The removal of Bo- badilla, the murderer of his honour, and robber of his fortune, was likewise immediately decided upon. But with this the royal consolation reached its climax. Co lumbus was not reinstated in his former position and rights, nor to the day of his death did he ever again ob tain them. Instead of the proper satisfaction being given to him, Don Nicolas de Ovando, a Spaniard of high birth, who appears to have been qualified for his duties, was sent out to take the place of the unworthy Bobadilla. Nearly all the titles, dignities, and powers which belonged to Columbus were given to Ovando, and he was fitted out for his mission in a way far more complete than Colum bus had ever experienced. Ovanda s appointment, he was told, was to be only of a temporary nature, and that when things had been brought into order, all his rights and dignities would be re stored to him. But these fine promises were never kept. HIS FOURTH VOYAGE TO AMERICA. 77 The disagreeable and vexatious things which Columbus o had now to experience were sufficient to have prostrated completely a mind less elastic than his. But the active temperament of the man did not allow him to give way to brooding and despair. Foiled in one direction, he decided to try another. As his Antillas islands were kept from him, he formed a plan for exploring further the countries which lay beyond them. In this direction he hoped to bring wonderful things to light. Perhaps he was stimulated afresh by the splendid discoveries of the Portuguese discoveries which threatened to throw all that Columbus had achieved into the shade. The India, with all its real and supposed treasures, which Columbus had been looking for by a western passage, Vasca da Gama had actually reached, towards the end of the century, by the eastern track. Spurred by an honourable jealousy, Columbus longed to find a way to India, either across the open sea, or by sailing through a strait, for he still believed India to be not far distant from the Antillas islands. The consent of the court to a new expedition having been gained at last, Columbus sailed from Cadiz in May, 1502, with a fleet exactly like the one he had com manded in his first adventure. Again it consisted of a few small vessels only. Again he was accompanied by not many more than one hundred men ; and again he was 78 COLUMBUS STRANDED AT JAMAICA. without dignity or fortune, with no higher rank than that of a captain. Again, too, as the first time, he set sail to look for India proper, taking with him this time, as then, Arabian interpreters. But he was now not far from seventy years of age, and the poisoned shafts of envy, no less than his great and varied exertions, had told upon his constitution. But Columbus was like an old lion, still invincible, and though the strength of his frame was broken, a remnant of his youthful fire still glowed within his bosom. At no period of his life did he show in a more striking manner what he was capable of undergoing, both bodily and mentally, than in this fourth voyage, so rich in adventures, and on which he had continually to struggle against storms, difficulties, and dangers of various kinds. He discovered the far-stretching coasts of Central America, of Honduras and Yeragua, and he ended by running his leaky and wormeaten ships on the beach of the then uncultivated island of Jamaica, with out having discovered India or a strait leading to it. Bound to his stranded vessels ; bowed down by age, hardships, and sickness, Columbus may be likened to the fire-bringer Prometheus chained to the rocks of the Caucasus. The barbarous Indians, no less than his own mutinous crews, added to his sufferings. A year elapsed before he was relieved from his pe- HIS LAST HOMEWARD VOYAGE. 79 rilous position by the arrival of ships from Hispaniola, sent by Ins friends there to his rescue. Once more he landed on that island, and this time he was received with joy. He soon returned to Spain, where he arrived in the early part of November, 1504. Only one year and a half more of life was now remaining to him. C5 The last voyage, like those which had preceded it, pro duced its crop of enemies and opponents, and had brought them over to Spain. These men and their connexions reached to the court of the cold and selfish Ferdinand, whose willing ear was soon gained, for he had long become tired of Columbus. A few faithful friends still remained to him ; but unfortunately just at the moment when he most wanted their assistance, the death of the amiable and just Queen Isabella deprived them of pro tection. She it was who had ever placed confidence in Columbus, and had tried to have him rewarded as he de served. It was in the same month of his arrival at Seville, and when in consequence of the great toils and hardships of his last voyage he was cast upon the bed of sickness, that this noble-minded queen, like him broken in spirit by cares and misfortunes, breathed her last. He had now no one on earth to whom he could look with confidence and hope. He probably felt that his own life was fast ebbing to its close, and for the sake of others he grieved over the wreck of his worldly fortune, 80 TESTAMENTARY INTENTIONS OF COLUMBUS. over the loss of all the dignities, rights, and revenues which had been bestowed upon him. The fortune of his two sons, Diego and Fernando, then in the prime of life, depended entirely upon his. His excellent brothers, Bartholomew and Diego, would be reduced to beggary if he were robbed of all. Besides, he had many faithful dependents and followers, servants and friends, to whom he had made promises. Even the sailors and others who had accompanied him on his last voyage had been mise rably paid by the king, who considered this voyage to have been of little or no value. These men Columbus wanted to reward in a princely manner, if he could but get his due. Seven years ago he had drawn up a solemn document as his last will, and in the expectation of a vast increase in his revenues, he had made a family entail, arranging with great care for all eventualities. Not only had he considered this document as the corner stone of the grandeur and renown of his house, as the foundation of the welfare of his sons and brothers, but in it he had also left legacies to many other persons, and had not forgotten his native city and the poor and suf fering there. All these legacies and endowments could appear to him now in no other light than as ridiculous intentions, as fruitless plans, built upon sand, unless he could live to see his rights confirmed. In addition to this, Columbus felt deeply that his ho- COLUMBUS ILL AT SEVILLE. 81 nour was compromised by the pending dispute between him and the king. He was deprived of his dignities, of his title of viceroy, of his right to manage his own pro perty, although from the beginning he had expressly stipulated for these titles and rights as the outward tro phies of his deeds. Columbus in his present position must be regarded as a king would be contending for his crown, as a triumphant hero wishing to descend into the grave with all the insignia of his honours, but who was about to be robbed of them before his death. Under continued sufferings he was prostrated the whole of the winter of 1504-5 in Seville, and as he was only able to conduct his own affairs by means of correspondence, he sent his son to court that he might do all in his power there to forward his cause. We still possess the letters of encouragement and ad vice which Columbus from his bed of sickness wrote to his son. The severity of his malady depriving him of the use of his hands by day, these letters were written with difficulty at night. The counsel which he gives his son is always that of a kind father, and at the same time despite the want of consideration with which he had been treated of a subject full of the most loyal feelings to wards his sovereign. He repeatedly admonishes his son to be faithful in his devotion to his king, who is the head of Christianity, and from whom he still hopes to re- VOL. I. G 82 COLUMBUS s DISAPPOINTMENTS. ceive justice. He also commends his younger brother Fernando to his care. " I rejoice/ he says in one of his letters, " that your brother Fernando, is such a one as you have need of. He is your only brother. Ten brothers would not be too many for you. Attend, my son, to what I say. In the whole course of my life, I have met with no better friends than my brothers." The position of Columbus at the end of his glorious career was the same as it was at its commencement. Again he had to occupy himself with writing letters and petitions. But it was all in vain ; his affairs made no progress. In the spring of 1505 there was a temporary improvement in his complaint, and the old admiral de cided on a journey. He had made some vain attempts to set off during the winter. At that time the use of mules was forbidden to travellers in Spain, who had to ride on horseback. But Columbus was not strong enough to mount a horse, and the king at length granted an ex ception in his favour. And for this he was expected to be grateful ; he who deserved that his path should be smoothed for him in every possible way, and who had to purchase a mule with his own money ! And in this manner, mounting and dismounting with great difficulty, the old seaman, whom JEolus and his attendants had wafted so often across the ocean, undertook his last COLUMBUS S JOURNEY TO SEGOVIA. 83 journey. He had to pass over the rocky soil of Estra- madura, and across the rude sierras of Toledo and Gua- darama, to Segovia in the north of Spain, where at that time the court resided, and into which city the celebrated discoverer of the new world entered unnoticed, and took up his quarters at a small inn. He had neither house nor home. " This is my hard lot," he writes in one of his letters, " that after twenty years of service so full of difficulties and dangers, I possess nothing that I can call my own. I am weary in spirit, and sick in body, and everything that I and my brothers possessed has been taken from us. I am actually ruined. Hitherto I have sometimes wept for others. But may Heaven now be merciful to me, and the earth weep for me. Yes ! let him grieve for me in whose bosom, dwell feelings of pity, and the sense of truth and justice." At the time when these words were written by Co lumbus, his discoveries had already begun to bear fruit, and many a ship loaded with gold and other products had come back from Hispaniola. Many of the colonists had returned as wealthy men to Spain, and it was to the speculative genius of Columbus, now himself in penury, that they owed then* good fortune. Ovando and his officials were enjoying those emoluments and powers in Hispaniola which, according to agreement, belonged to G2 84 COLUMBUS S SUCCESSORS. Columbus, or to such men as he had the right to appoint. The administration of affairs in the colony was now comparatively easy, because the way had been smoothed by Columbus, and under his rule that period of child hood and tumult, which every new colony has to go through, had come to an end. His successors went much more arbitrarily to work than he had ever done,, and their treatment of the poor Indians, now completely subju gated, was characterised by such brutal severity as Co lumbus would never have allowed. " I never think of the Indies," he wrote at this time, " of my beautiful islands, without sorrow. It appears to me that the Spaniards now only go there to plunder them, and that they are permitted to do it, to the great damage of my honour. The time will come when it will be said that Columbus has shown the way to the Indies to thieves and robbers. What unworthy successors have not been given me ! But indeed it is an easy matter now, for I have pointed out the way. At present there is hardly a man in Spain, not even a tailor, who does not fancy himself able to be a discoverer of new lands." Ferdinand appears to have had little pity for Colum bus. He was deeply indebted to him, and in saying this the key to his conduct is given. It is only noble and amiable characters who are always ready and willing to THE KING S TREATMENT OF COLUMBUS. 85 pay the debt of gratitude. In the king s eyes Columbus appeared as an importunate creditor. If the latter could have obtained the fulfilment of all the stipulations in the original contract, he would have become on the other side of the ocean almost as great a man as the king was on this. Columbus may have, therefore, been regarded as a rival. He was, however, politely and even graciously received by the king in Segovia, who granted him several audiences, and listened with attention to his description of his last voyage, and of his discoveries in gold-produc ing Yeragua. As in former days, the descriptions of Columbus were in glowing colours, and when the old sick admiral, in whom occasionally the feelings of former power and enthusiasm revived, assured his majesty that he would yet render him services a hundred-fold more valuable than he had hitherto performed, if he were but reinstated in his offices and honours, the king listened with calm surprise, suppressing, perhaps, a contemptuous smile. After these conferences the king even praised Columbus, and assured him that he appreciated his ser vices. He likewise made many propositions for the de finitive arrangement of his affairs, expressing his willing ness to abide by the decision of arbitrators. He even approved of the arbitrators whom Columbus named, and altogether, so says Las Casas, the more Columbus and 86 THE LAST DAYS OF COLUMBUS. his friends supplicated, the more kind and condescending were the answers of the king. For one thing only Co lumbus begged most earnestly viz. that his affairs might be settled soon. " I believe," he said, " that the terrible delay in the settlement of my affairs, and the great cares consequent upon this state of things, are the principal causes of my illness." But it was just this point of celerity on which the king was obdurate. The arbi trators pronounced no opinion, and he himself gave no decision. At last, with a sigh, Columbus said, " It ap pears to me that I am contending with the wind." His strength was wasting away, and, soon confined to his bed, he could no longer so to court. He retired to Vallado- o o lid, in the neighbourhood of Segovia. The last streak of hope fell upon his death-bed, when he was told that the daughter of his beloved Queen Isabella, the Queen Dona Juana, had landed with her husband Don Philip I. in Castile, their hereditary land. The last letter which he wrote was to her, greeting her and her husband as a faithful vassal, and he confided this letter to his brother Bartholomew to deliver. Not many weeks after his departure, the old admiral breathed his last. He roused himself a few hours before his death, and added a codicil to his mil, con firming, in many respects, his original intentions. It COLUMBIA S WILL. 87 might naturally be concluded that in these last moments of his life, after so many false hopes and bitter disap pointments, he would have looked upon the elaborate arrangements in his original testament as glittering bubbles, and have given them up. But this was not the case. He again disposed of all the revenues of his ima ginary mayorasgo (entailed estate), as he had previously done. " To be sure," he added, in parenthesis, as if he recollected that he was bequeathing things which had no existence, " to be sure the revenues of my mayorasgo are not yet known, and I cannot estimate them in figures. But as my good brother, Don Diego, is now a priest, and is provided for in the Church, one hundred thousand ma- ravedes yearly out of the revenues of my mayorasgo will suffice for him. Yet, in truth, I cannot even promise him these one hundred thousand maravedes with certainty, for hitherto I neither have had, nor have I at present, any positive income. If, however, the rents from the pro perty bestowed upon me should be greatly increased, I then impress upon my principal heir, my son Diego, that it will give me pleasure if he will add to the yearly sum which I have bequeathed to my brothers." In this last testament he thought acrain of his father, his mother, and O O 7 7 of the wtfe he had long ago lost, and he ordered masses for their souls. A few tender words were likewise added, 88 DEATH OF COLUMBUS. addressed to Dona Beatrice Enriquez, the mother of his illegitimate son Fernando, whom he had known and loved at the time when he was wandering about in Spain a despised visionary. This last document of Co lumbus contains not one word of reproach to the sove reign who, instead of assisting and supporting him in his path, too often had resembled the rock on which his enterprises had been wrecked. On the contrary, like a vassal faithful unto death, he tells his son in the most earnest manner that the revenues to be derived from his mayorasgo which he must always husband and try to increase are to be ever devoted to the service of his king his master, to the increase of the state, and the spread of the Christian religion. Ought not Ferdinand to have paid a visit to so devoted a vassal in his last moments, to have handed to him on his death-bed the wreath of victory, and have confirmed all those privileges and rights which a short time after wards the decision of a court of law forced him to acknowledge ? He did nothing of the kind. And for saken by his king, receiving no consolation from any of those Spaniards who had become great through him, attended only by his son Diego and a few faithful ser vants, Columbus breathed his last. " In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum" were the last words COLUMBUS S REMAINS. 89 he uttered. This was on the 20th of May, 1506. In the course of the succeeding three hundred years more honours have been lavished upon his remains, by several removals and pompous funerals, than the living Co lumbus ever experienced. They were deposited in the first instance in Yalladolid ; then with much ceremony in Seville ; subsequently they were removed to San Do mingo ; and at last, in modern times, with great pomp, to the Havannah, where they now repose. 90 THE AMERICAN CONTINENT. CHAPTER III. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE EUROPEAN DISCOVERERS AND THEIR VOYAGES. Alonzo Nino and Christoval Guerra explore the " Pearl Coast " of Vene zuela in the Summer of 1499 Alonzo de Hojeda (with Juan de la Cosa and Amerigo Vespucci) discovers the Mouth of the Maranon, the Coast of Guyana, and the whole of Venezuela (Summer of 1499) Vincente Yanez Pinzon discovers Cape Augustin (January to May, 1500) Rodrigo Bastidas discovers the Coast of New Granada as far as Darien (1501 and 1502) Hojeda, Cosa, Guerra, repeatedly visit Venezuela and New Granada (1502-1516) Juan Diaz de Solis and Pinzon dis cover the Eastern Coast of Yucatan (1506) Sebastian de Ocampo sails round Cuba (1508). OF the five continents of our globe, that of America has the most elegant shape. Its long and graceful out line we may almost venture to compare to that of a statue. The history of discovery shows us how bit by bit this statue has been chiselled out, how by degrees the entire figure has been brought to light. It has been a CONTEMPORARIES OF COLUMBUS. 91 great work, in which, for three hundred years, every European people has taken part. Every voyage may be likened to a cut of the chisel on this piece of historical sculpture ; even- great discovery to a fresh line, a new stroke of the brush, on this vast picture. Columbus, as we have seen, led the way, and in his lifetime a number of lesser workmen followed in his track. Each of them added a new bit to the picture, by disclosing to the world some new coast line, the mouth of some hitherto unknown river, or some island in the ocean. The histories of these fellow-workmen of Columbus, his contemporaries and pupils the voyages of the expert Cosa, of the adventurous Pinzonen, the wild knight sans peur if not sans reproche of Alonzo des Hojeda, of the untiring Bastidas, and of other sea heroes, are highly in teresting even in all their details. These men brought to light the extensive coast of the countries now called Guiana, Venezuela, and all the corners of the Caribbean Sea. It would take up too much space, however, were I to attempt to sketch the characters of these remarkable men, to relate the principal events of their lives, their deeds, and to describe the coast-lands they visited. It will be more to the purpose to offer a few general re marks on the following heads viz. on their plan of proceeding ; on the outfits of their ships ; on the Euro- 92 THE WORK OF DISCOVERY. pean harbours from which they departed ; on the diffe rent persons who took an active part in such expedi tions ; on the way in which the physical conditions in the new world, and the people who were found in it, affected the progress of discovery ; and lastly, on the rights which the commanders believed their enterprises con ferred upon them. If we thus collect together, under general points of view, the leading features of the work of discovery, we shall be able to avoid repetition in future, and, at the same time, prepare the way for a better understanding of the narratives in the succeeding chapters. When we examine into the various projects and voyages of discovery, we see that a union of many favourable circumstances, and that the collective labours of different individuals, were necessary to success. And it is not always easy to say to whom the most merit was due. Usually, the man who conducted an expedition, under whose command a fleet sailed to the new world, or an army marched into the interior of the country, ob tained all the renown. But the palm seldom belonged to him alone. Many of the earlier Spanish discoverers were not mere captains of ships or leaders of troops, but had often sufficient knowledge of geography and astro nomy to enable them to work out systematic plans of discovery in their own brains. Occasionally, too, they INFLUENCE OF SCIENTIFIC MEN. 93 were possessed of pecuniary means, so that they pur chased ships and enlisted men with their own money, like Wallenstein in the Thirty Years War ; and in such cases they asked nothing more of the government than the necessary sanction, and, perhaps, some addition to their munitions of war, and a few pieces of cannon from the royal arsenals. Leaders of this class commonly figured as projectors, as naval captains, as capitalists, and as generals, all in one person. It was more usual, however, that these different parts were distributed amongst many actors. And in especial we may often find that the original idea of a particular discovery came from an entirely different person than the one who had the credit of it ; perhaps from a learned man living in some quiet retreat, and whom the world afterwards, paying attention only to the actual dis covery, has entirely forgotten. Every one has heard of Columbus ; but a few only know anything of the Italian cosmographer Toscanelli, or of the German astronomer Eegiomontanus, who prepared the way for Columbus by their studies and scientific inventions, and whom, there fore, we might venture to call the intellectual discoverers of America. And to come to modern times, every one has heard of the voyages and heroic deeds of a Cook, though few only know anything of the noiseless labours of a Banks or Barrington, to whose valuable writings, 94 GOVERNMENT SANCTION NECESSARY. plans, sketches of voyages, and instructions, so much of Cook s success was owing. It has ever been considered a fundamental principle of the law of nations, and also of maritime law, that no warlike expeditions should be undertaken by private per sons, unless they have the authority of some generally acknowledged power. The discoverers of new lands, therefore, if they did not wish to risk losing all the ad vantages and profits resulting from their arduous enter prises, had, above all things, to obtain the patronage of some European government to put the stamp of legality upon their plans. This often caused them no slight difficulty. Occasionally, powerful and enterprising mo- narchs have been found full of zeal for the increase of geographical knowledge : for instance, King Emanuel of Portugal and the Emperor Charles V., who bestowed great thought and care on everything necessary to pro mote the discovery of new countries. Other such rulers were Charles IV. of Denmark, who, with his own hand, wrote out instructions and letters of recommendation for the commanders whom he sent forth, and Elizabeth of England, the popular queen, who inspired all her navi gators and admirals with such remarkable zeal. Generally, however, monarchs and governments have been too much occupied with immediate and urgent affairs to render it an easy matter to gain their favour- THE PATRONS OF DISCOVERERS. 95 able attention to any distant undertaking involving risk. Speculators have, therefore, had to look out for me diators through whose hands their propositions and plans might pass until the necessary sanction could be gained. Usually they found a man of influence, a courtier, or a statesman, willing to undertake the part of patron, and sometimes even a prince of royal blood, whose leisure allowed him to be their protector and advo cate. As instances of such mediators, whose personal history and characters are in many ways interwoven with the history of the new" world, we may mention Prince Henry of Portugal, who drew around him all the navigators and admirals of his country; the Duke of Medina Sidonia in Spain, the patron of several navi gators; Prince Rupert of England, whose name has been given to the extensive lands around Hudson s Bay ; Admiral Coligny in France, who zealously supported all the enterprises of his persecuted co-religionists the Huguenots ; and lastly, the noble Sir Walter Raleigh, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth. In these enterprises of discovery in the new world, as indeed in all human undertakings which have had the stamp of novelty upon them, we see that the men in whom the new ideas originated were generally poor and without influence. Even their patrons and monarchs were sometimes in want of money. The discovery of 96 CO-OPERATION OF MERCHANTS. America having from the beginning been regarded from a commercial as well as a political point of view, wealthy merchants were usually appealed to at once. Indeed, of their own accord, many of them offered assistance, fore seeing the profit likely to accrue from taking part in those expeditions. Moreover, in these half-military, half-commercial undertakings, the co-operation of mer chants was particularly necessary, as part of the work could only be performed by them. The celebrated house of Berardi, in Seville, had consequently been early called upon by Ferdinand and Isabella to assist in fitting out Columbus in a proper manner. Beginning with this house of Berardi, down to our contemporaries, the English merchant, Booth, who fitted out Sir John Ross at his own expense, and the American merchant Grinnell, who promoted the Arctic expeditions of his countrymen, we have a long list of mercantile houses which have rendered great service to the cause of discovery, and the names of which have consequently be come immortal. Innumerable are the capes, the groups of islands, the rivers, the bays, to which the grateful dis coverers have given the names of their merchant patrons. As instances, I call attention to the fact that the extreme north end of the American continent, the desolate penin sula Boothia, is named after the merchant above alluded to; and the last strait in the south, the "Le Maire s THEIR ACTIVITY AS DISCOVERERS. 97 Strait/ is thus called after the merchant who, at his own expense, disclosed it to the world. Merchants, however, have not always been satisfied to promote the cause of geographical discovery simply by advancing capital and aiding expeditions in their native seaports, but many have crossed the ocean themselves. Thus, on board the earliest Spanish fleets, besides the military commander of the expedition, a learned astro nomer to ascertain the degrees of longitude and latitude, royal officials to watch over the interests of the govern ment and to receive of all the valuable things to be ob tained the so-called royal fifth, and an ecclesiastic to look to the interests of the Church and baptise the heathens, we find, too, in addition to these, that they took with them a mercantile agent, a " mercadero" to examine the various products and goods, and to trade with the Indians. Many of these commercial agents have taken an active part in the work of discovery, as the instance of the celebrated Amerigo, originally a clerk in the house of Berardi, sufficiently attests. Besides this celebrated merchant s clerk, after whom America has been named, many other merchants have girded on the sword, and with the compass in hand, as observers, as traders, as delineators of maps, and as con querors, have advanced into the new world. History has likewise handed down to us the names of many literary VOL. I. H 98 INFLUENCE OF LEARNED MEN. and learned men, of doctors, and others, who have acted in a similar manner. Of the men of this class I will here only mention the Spanish Doctor Enciso, who played so important a part in the conquest of the Isthmus of Panama, and who is the author of the oldest work ex tant on the geography of the new world ; and the " Bac- calaureus" Ximenes de Queseda, who, after he had ex changed the pen for the sword, raised himself from the position of a mere literary man to become the principal conqueror and founder of the extensive kingdom of New Granada. These two examples will suffice to show that, if we wish to make ourselves thoroughly acquainted with the history of the discovery of the new world, we must not only follow the navigators on board their ships, but we must look into the cabinets of princes and the count ing-houses of merchants, and likewise observe the men of learning in their studies, and take note of their specu lations. The most valuable portion of their men, their sailors, steersmen, and pilots, the earliest conquerors of America obtained in the small seaports of Andalusia. Palos, and the neighbouring towns of Huelva, and Lucar de Barrameda, not far from Cadiz, were some of the most celebrated seaports in Spain for the equipment of the American fleets. In these now obscure towns, at that period important and highly interesting negotiations EUROPEAN POINTS OF DEPARTURE. 99 took place. Great plans were matured in them, and from their maritime corporations came forth bold and talented men, who made the places of their birth cele brated in history. Indeed, the ancestors of many of those families, to which America gave wealth and power, were born in those little towns on the Guadalquiver. And in other countries, too, the inhabitants of which at a later period took part in the discovery of the new world, it was the same as in Spain. In France and in England, the guilds of fishermen, mariners, and mer chants of certain places displayed great activity, whereby these towns became of great importance to America, although now they have scarcely any connexion with that quarter of the globe. I shall presently have occa sion to mention the names of several such seaport towns. At this stage of our inquiry, we must not overlook the small ports in those groups of islands in the Atlantic nearest to Europe : the Azores, the Canary, and Cape Verde islands. These islands, and the colonists from Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands who dwelt on them, played an important part in the exploration of the ocean and the new world. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the ports of these islands formed centres and points of union for the " conquistador es." Scarcely a fleet sailed to America without calling at them to com plete the crews and provisions. Some of these fleets H2 100 ISLANDS IN THE ATLANTIC. took on board several hundred planters at a time, and many of the towns and districts of America have been peopled almost entirely by Canary islanders. The gaps thus caused in their population were soon filled up by fresh immigrants from Europe. And not only for members of the human race did these islands become centres and points of departure, but the same was the case in respect to many plants and animals. From a few pairs originally taken from them have descended nearly all the herds of cattle and horses, the sheep, mules, goats, and other animals with which the Spaniards and Portuguese have filled the wide plains of America. Some of them, to be sure, came from Anda lusia ; but, in general, it was found to be more advan tageous, both on the score of cost of transport and simi larity of climate, to take them from the islands half way between the old and new worlds. The same may be said of plants, particularly of the sugar-cane and cotton-tree. The seeds of many of those plants, which in the end became of such great value to the colonists in America, came from these islands. And it was to them likewise that seeds and cuttings of many of those American species of the vegetable kingdom, which subsequently became naturalised in Europe, were imported in the first instance. In Madeira, Terceira, and Teneriffe, many proofs may be seen at the present THE ORKNEY ISLANDS. 101 day of the important historical and intermediate part they have played in the exchange of animal and vegetable life between the old and new worlds. The fauna and flora of these islands have sprung from both quarters of the globe, and display a combination of tropical and northern elements. In the history of the northern discoveries of the Eng lish, the Orkney Islands have played a similar inter mediate part. From the earliest times down to our own, scarcely any expedition has left England for Hudson s Bay or the Arctic regions which has not put into Kirk- wall, or some other of the small ports of these islands, to complete the crews. Small as these islands are, yet their children are spread far and wide in America, and they have rendered signal service to the world, to commerce, and geography. When at last, in the manner pointed out, the com manders of expeditions had completed their plans and projects, their crews and stores, and had received on board their papers and all else necessary ; when, at last, they had sailed to the west, and reached the new hemi sphere, they forthwith came under the influence of cir cumstances altogether new. The great continent of the new world possesses an extraordinary variety in its cli- matical and other physical conditions. It displays vast plains, mountainous districts, seaboards of great variety 102 THE EUROPEANS FOUND AMERICA PEOPLED. of form, and several gulfs and bays. In the interior there are great rivers and lofty chains of mountains. Oceanic currents sweep along the coasts in different directions. All these conditions of nature have had a decided influence on the way in which the work of dis covery has been prosecuted, on the directions taken, and on the amount of energy displayed by exploring expedi tions. This vast] America, considered as a whole, may be compared to an organism containing many separate vessels and canals, in which the emigrating people of Europe circulated like a fluid mass poured into them, and just in such a manner and in such intervals of time as the course and the condition of these natural ducts necessarily led. If the European discoverers had found these countries entirely uninhabited, the conditions of their outspreading would have been comparatively simple. They would have had only to follow the natural paths, and to use their own powers of observation. But they found Ame rica already peopled. Long before their arrival it had been discovered and wandered over by the races of men whom they called " Indians." They were therefore influenced in their undertakings from the beginning by the state of things developed by these Indians, by the trading and maritime intercourse of these natives, by the DISCOVERERS PROFIT BY THE NATIVES. 103 paths of communication trodden by their hunters, by the states they had organised, or the districts they had culti vated. Immediately on his arrival in the new world, one of Columbus s first measures had been to enter into com munication with the natives of the small island of Guana- hani, and to take some of them on board as pilots. He inquired of them about the nature of the country, about other islands and lands, about the directions which led to them, and he followed the hints he thus obtained. In this way he gained possession of the treasure of expe riences which in the course of many centuries had been accumulated by the natives ; and the direction of his voyage was forthwith to some extent conditioned and altered by the old Indian lines of communication. And down to the latest times all the successors of Columbus have acted as he did. In almost every in stance the first intimations of new countries and of their natural capabilities have been derived from natives. The reports of the Cuban Indians of land in the west led the Spanish colonists of that island to Mexico. The inha bitants of the Isthmus of Darien spread the first news of the great ocean in the south. The road through the valleys of the Andes had been prepared for the Spa niards by the old Incas of Peru. Pizarro and Almagro, the conquerors of that realm, in all their enterprises 104 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE NATIVES. marched in the same directions as the generals of the Incas had marched before them. Even the travellers and discoverers of modern times, when they have come to a new part of America, have, above all things, made inquiries of the natives, and have got them to draw with a piece of chalk or charcoal on paper, on the bark of trees, or on the skins of buffaloes, the form of the land, an outline of the coast, or the course of the rivers, and they have shaped their plans and directed their courses according to the information thus obtained. In fact, at the present day, most of the principal high roads and railways in America follow the old tracks of the Indian hunters, the so-called " Indian trails." Indeed, it may be said that no discovery in America has been made without the aid of the natives. To our Arctic voyagers the Esquimaux have rendered great service by enabling them to find their way amidst the labyrinth of Arctic lands. But for the Indians, the Spaniards in Hispaniola, and the first English colonists in Virginia, would have had the greatest difficulties to encounter. It was the Indians who supplied them with food, who taught them the value of the indigenous plants and animals, and made them acquainted with many other things most necessary to their welfare. They likewise served the new-comers in every way, as huntsmen, as SERVICES RENDERED BY THE NATIVES. 105 porters and fishermen, and, in fact, became their slaves. Throughout the whole of America, our knowledge, our dominion, our discoveries and settlements, rest upon Indian foundations. Without the previous discovery of the country by the people called Indians, the exploration of the continent probably would not even to this day have advanced to the point it has reached. It was naturally of great importance to the new comers to derive all the aid in their power from those best acquainted with the new world. From the beginning, therefore, great attention was bestowed upon the study of the Indian languages. On the first voyage of Columbus, his companions had at once decided on taking back with them to Europe some of the natives of the islands they had discovered, that they might be taught Spanish, and thus be of use as interpreters. In some instances the safety and success of an expedition has entirely depended on those native interpreters, and they have consequently become important and celebrated personages. I may mention the beautiful Indian woman Marina, whom Cortez kept with him, and who served him so faithfully in his first negotiations with the subjects of Montezuma. Another instance is to be found in Felipillo, the inter preter of Pizarro, so frequently mentioned in history, of whom the conqueror made great use in his intercourse with the Inca Atahualpa, and who had so great an in- 106 INDIANISED EUROPEANS. fluence not only over the fate of this unfortunate prince, but over the whole course of events in Peru. On the other hand, Europeans have often been cast by shipwreck or other causes on the wild coasts of America, and then, continuing with the Indians as their companions or prisoners, have learnt their language. Subsequently such men have turned this knowledge to account, and have acted as mediators or guides when the conquests of their countrymen extended to the districts where they re sided. Such an Indianised European was often a valuable acquisition to the conquerors, whose enterprises would then greatly depend on the information and assistance derived from him. Spanish and Portuguese historians have consequently not failed to hand down to posterity the names of such men in their annals. In the earliest history of Brazil great mention is made of the Portuguese Diego. Wrecked in All Saints Bay, and left behind by his countrymen, he became known amongst the wild Indians by the name of Caramuru (the Fireman), in consequence of his fire-discharging gun. He became a chief, and subsequently, when his countrymen followed him to that part of America, and commenced building the town of Bahia, he played an important part. In the history of the discovery of America many similar instances may be pointed out, and, indeed, may be said to occur at the present day. LANGUAGES OF THE AMERICAN RACES- 107 One of the greatest difficulties the Europeans have had to contend with has been the extraordinary variety of the Indian languages. This goes so far that many totally different idioms are spoken in a district of no great extent. Now and then the Europeans were fortunate enough to find one language spread over a great extent of country. Long before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Incas of Peru had commanded that all the tribes in their vast realm should learn the language of Cusco, the so-called Quichua, and they accomplished their object. Whenever the Spaniards found any one language prevail ing over a large area, they soon mastered it. But, in contrary cases, they sometimes fixed upon one of the many tongues, and made it the organ of communication with all the neighbouring tribes, who were then obliged to learn this chosen language. Generally such a result came naturally, through the force of circumstances. Sometimes, however, it was accomplished upon a fixed plan, especially in later times, when the Jesuits extended their discoveries, for they zealously devoted themselves to the study of the languages as a necessary means of increasing their knowledge of the country and the spread of Christianity. They learnt the language of the first tribe they met with, or of that winch was most accessible and displayed the greatest intelligence. They then worked 108 LANGUAGES OF THE AMERICAN RACES. out the grammar, and wrote down their prayers and many other necessary things in this language, thus causing it in the end to spread oyer a great extent of country. Through the exertions of the Jesuits, the idiom of the Guaranis came into general use in the greater part of the La Plata territory, and it is become the language of the nursery, and is spoken by the children of the Spaniards of that country. Amongst those who assisted and prepared the way for the explorers of the new world, the learned men who first wrote out the rules of the Indian languages formed an especial and important class. The Portuguese An- chieta, the founder of the celebrated Brazilian town of St. Paulo, and the earliest European explorer of the sur rounding country, wrote the first grammar of the Tupi language, and thereby greatly contributed to make this language in the end the general medium of communica tion between the Portuguese and the natives all over Brazil. It is consequently called by the Brazilians the " lingua geral" (the universal language). In a certain degree the now fully extinct language of the Antilles has become an Indian " lingua geral" for the whole continent of America. At least a great number of expressions, which the Spaniards originally adopted from the inhabitants of those islands, are now spread through out the new world, and are in daily use by the Americans THE RIGHTS OF FIRST DISCOVERY. 109 of English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese descent, and indeed even by all Europeans. We have now, lastly, to bestow some attention upon another important point which has had a great influence on the course of events in America viz. on the opinions and principles which Europeans have adopted in regard to the right belonging to discovery. Their enterprises cannot, indeed, be thoroughly understood unless we make ourselves acquainted all in our power with these opinions and principles. I say all in our power, for neither nations nor learned men have ever arrived at anything like clearness and unanimity of opinion on what are called the rights of discovery. Although these form one of the most interesting, and even in our times one of the most practical points of international law, yet at the same time they are one of the most obscure, and one which authors have treated of the least. As God has given to man this planet to dwell upon, and to afford him the means of subsistence, it is clear that the right of first discovery and first possession is a good one ; indeed, it may be said to rest upon a Divine foundation. The Creator has placed, as it were, the earth and all its treasures at man s disposal. But as He evi dently extended His bounty to all mankind, it seems to follow that the condition annexed to this gift was not that one man should seize the whole, but rather that each 1 10 PRIORITY OF DISCOVERY. should take possession of only so much as he required for his existence. This axiom is the basis of all private pro perty, and, applied to the affairs of a state, of all sove reign and people s rights. Every state and every people appear to have a well- grounded claim to occupy all islands and lands not pre viously in the possession of another people, or state ; and thus it follows that the people who first discovered them have a claim superior to any who may come after. This natural and fundamental principle has, from the earliest times, been in the main adopted by all nations as something self-evident, as the rule of their conduct to one another ; and it has especially been adopted by the Portuguese and Spaniards when they first sailed into the Atlantic Ocean, and discovered the Azores, Madeira, Porto Santo, and other islands. But when the Spaniards and Portuguese came to the new world, they found it peopled in almost every direction. Scarcely an island of any size was to be met with which was not already inhabited and turned to account, either by a rude cultivation of the soil, by gathering the fruits which nature offered, or by hunting and fishing, accord ing to the capabilities and moderate wants of the natives. Here, therefore, it seemed there was no field for the ap plication of the so-called right of first discovery and first possession. That which the Almighty had bestowed upon TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS. Ill man was already, for the most part, found and taken pos session of. Nevertheless, from the beginning, the Euro peans have considered the American lands in the same light as if they had not been inhabited. In respect to them, they have always spoken of the right of first dis covery, and have disputed with one another about priority ; whereas, in reality, they ought to have spoken only of the right of first conquest of the right which is derived from violence and superior power. The proud Christians at once pronounced the natives of America not to be on an equality with Europeans ; to be a people having no claim to the rights of nations, or to the natural rights of man. In the beginning the monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, who were both pious and reflective, felt some scruples of conscience about this view, so hastily adopted and acted upon by their subjects. They were shocked at finding the Indians treated like mere animals, made slaves of, and dispossessed of their lands without their consent. They even issued some decrees against such proceedings. They ordered that the Indians should be treated humanely, and that they should be paid for the work they performed according to agreement. But these commands were of no avail against the cupidity of the planters, who in the new world cared little for the decrees of their monarchs in Spain, and found it so much more convenient to act as they liked. 112 SPANISH ESTIMATE OF THE INDIANS. Indeed, the more Spaniards went over to America, the more peculiar and decided were the opinions which there obtained amongst them concerning the character and the rights of the Indians. These opinions ran counter to the official opinions in the mother country, over which they ultimately triumphed. The good Queen Isabella did not stand quite alone in her compassion. A few zealous friends of the Indians stood forth, and Las Casas and others, whose warm hearts could feel for the sufferings of their fellow-creatures. These the king and queen allowed to advocate the cause of the Indians, and pub licly to dispute with their enemies the question whether they were beings possessing the attributes and rights of humanity or not. These disputations tended for the most part to the defeat of the good cause, and to strengthening the con viction of the majority that the Indians were barbarians devoid of reason, and consequently that it was not neces sary to take any more notice of them and their rights than of the " brutos do matto " (of the animals of the woods), as the Portuguese expression runs ; for on this question the latter entirely agreed with the Spaniards. For centuries had these Christians and the followers of Mahomet, the Moors, been fighting against one an other for life and death, and either party had consi dered every possible means of vanquishing its enemies CHRISTIAN INTOLERANCE. 113 allowable. During this contest, that strong feeling of contempt for all who did not share their faith, which from the beginning had inspired the Mahometans, be came prominent likewise with the Christians, and in the hour of their triumph their enthusiasm for their religion rose to such a pitch that it made them most intolerant. They believed it to be impossible that a heathen could be a human being. Only Christians, they said, were the children of God; and the natural rights of man, however divine their origin, were not applicable to heathens refusing to acknowledge their God. The earth belonged, they declared, to Christ and his vicar, and all other people not Christians Turks, Moors, and heathens they considered to be intruders, in unlawf ul possession of the soil, and whom it was a duty to baptise, or to drive away, or exterminate. When, therefore, after the first voyage of Columbus, the Pope drew his celebrated line of partition round the globe, the Spaniards were no longer in doubt that the half given to them, viz. America, ipso facto, belonged to them by right. They consequently considered the Indians as dispos sessed, and in their first messages they addressed them at once as their subjects. If they offered any opposition to the will of the Spaniards, they were not treated as ho nourable enemies and patriotic defenders of their country, VOL. I. I 114 THE SPANIARDS VIEW OF THEIR PROCEEDINGS. but as " rebels ;" and when prisoners were taken, these were not considered in the light of prisoners of war, but were punished as traitors to the State and the Church. Their doings in Mexico and Peru the Spaniards did not call conquest, but simply "pacification." Starting from the idea that all the heathenish Indians as yet, or subsequently to become known, were in the position of rebels against God and their king, the generals who advanced into their lands with fire and sword, were not looked upon as conquerors and actual disturbers of the peace, but as restorers of that peace which the In dians had broken. " Pacificadores" therefore, they were called. " La Pacification de las Indias" became the favourite phrase of the Spanish authors. It is a fine sounding expression for a most horrible business. Only a few truthful and humane authors, like Las Casas, have called it by its right name ; for he, in his history of Spanish America, entitled it " Historia de la Destruction de las Indias." (History of the Destruction of the Indies.) In accordance with the view that the Pope s bull of partition gave the whole of America to the Spaniards, the King of Spain in many instances even gave Christian names to such parts of the country as no Spaniard had ever trodden upon ; and, on paper at least, the land was divided into provinces, carefully measured out in miles THETR TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS. 115 and degrees of latitude. When, therefore, governors were appointed to these as yet unseen lands, and they came with their followers to take possession of them, they de luded themselves into the belief that they were entering upon a soil which of old belonged to the monarch of Spain, and they treated the natives as rebellious subjects. Usually, too, these governors were provided with written proclamations to the Indians, which in many respects closely resembled those fierce proclamations of a Duke of Alba on marching into the revolted provinces of the Netherlands. The Spanish historian, Herrera, has handed down to us one of these most horrible, but most remarkable docu ments in extensOj armed with which the Spanish " Pad- ficador" the wild knight Alonso de Hojeda, in the year 1510, marched from the coast of New Granada into the interior of the country. I give a translation of this document, so characteristic and instructive as to what the Spaniards were pleased to call the pacification of America, and because much in regard to the way the Spanish conquistadores went to work, which I cannot here relate, may be inferred from its tone. As procla mations of this nature were not drawn up without the aid of the Spanish clergy, and as it was considered abso lutely necessary to reveal to the savages a few ecclesias tical truths, it will be seen in this document what kind of i2 116 A SPANISH PROCLAMATION TO THE INDIANS. religious instruction it was which the Spanish warriors offered the poor Indians at the point of the sword. This proclamation runs as follows : " I, Alonso de Hojeda, servant of the most high and mighty Kings of Castile and Leon, the subduers of bar barous nations, their ambassador and general, notify to you herewith, and cause you to know, as well as I can, as follows : " That God, our Lord, the only and Eternal One, created heaven and earth, a man and a woman, from whom we, you, and all people in the world are descended. But as in the course of five thousand and some years, during which time the world has existed, a vast number of families have sprung from those two beings, it has followed of necessity that these descendants have spread over many lands, realms, and provinces. Now over all these peoples and realms God has given the supervision to one. This one is called St. Peter, and this St. Peter became lord over all men, and all men are required to worship him, and he became the chief of the whole human race. And God o;ave him the whole world to be O at his service, and under his jurisdiction, and he com manded him to reside in Rome, as the most suitable place from whence to govern the whole world and to pronounce the law to all people Christians, Moors, Jews, A SPANISH PROCLAMATION TO THE INDIANS. 117 heathens, of whatever sect and whatever belief they may be, and likewise to you. " And this St. Peter is called Papa, the Pope, which means so much as that he is the venerable head, or father and shepherd ; for he is the father and shepherd and ruler of all mankind. To this St. Peter all those who lived at that time rendered obedience, and the same has been rendered since to all who have been elevated to the pontificate, and it shall always be the case until the end of the world. " One of these aforesaid popes, as master of the world, made a gift of these islands and continents in the ocean to the Catholic monarchs of Castile, who at that time were Don Fernando and Dona Isabella, of glorious memory, and to their successors, with all and everything that they contain. " And this aforesaid gift is contained in certain writings drawn up by both parties, and these writings you can see if you wish it. a Now, from the above, it follows that his majesty, our king, is lord of all these lands, and the inhabitants of almost all the islands to whom it has been notified as Cuba, Hayti, and others have rendered homage unto him, and they obey him as subjects are bound to obey their king. And your brothers on the islands have done 118 A SPANISH PROCLAMATION TO THE INDIANS. this of their own good will, and without opposition, as soon as the above was made known to them. And they have obeyed the pious men whom the king sent to them to teach them our holy faith, and all of them, of then- own free will, have become Christians, and continue such. And thereupon his majesty commanded that they should be treated like his other vassals. And you now, you are, as you see, required and bound to do the same. " Wherefore, I beg and entreat you, as well as I can, that you will well consider all that I have said to you, that you will acknowledge the Christian Church as your mistress, and as the head of the whole universe ; and, in her name, the most high Pontiff, called Papa, and in his stead, his majesty, as the royal master of the islands and continents, according to that duly authenticated gift, and that you will agree to it without delay, and allow that the pious fathers whom I bring with me shall fur ther explain all this to you, and preach to you about it. " If you do this you will do well, and do that which it is your duty to do, and then his majesty, and myself, in his name, will receive you in kindness and affection, and leave you in possession of your children and pro perty, to do with them what you like, and besides, his majesty will bestow upon you many privileges and ex emptions, and otherwise extend to you his grace. THE LOGIC OF SPANISH PROCLAMATIONS. 119 " But if you will not do this, or obstinately delay un necessarily in doing it, I declare to you that, with the assistance of the Almighty, I will employ force, and will overrun your country with a powerful army, and attack you on all sides and in every possible way, until I shall have totally subdued you, and exacted obedience to the Church of his majesty. And then I shall make slaves of yourselves, your wives, and your children, and sell you as such ; and I shall take all your goods from you, and altogether do all the evil to you that I possibly can, and like as it is the custom to do to rebellious vassals who refuse to obey their lords. " And herewith I enter my solemn protest, that all the blood that shall be spilt, and all the mischief that shall be done, shall fall upon your guilty heads, and shall not be laid to the account of his majesty, or me, or of the noble knights who accompany me. And that I have thus spoken, and exhorted, and warned you, I re quest of the royal notary, who is present, to give to me a duly signed testimony." Herrera says this document served as a model on all other occasions in the Indies, and America swarmed, as it were, with Spanish proclamations of this nature. At a later period the Emperor of Mexico and the Inca of Peru were addressed in a similar way. The logic of these proclamations is, we see, of a pecu- 120 TRAGI-COMEDY OF THE SPANISH PROCEEDINGS. liar kind. It cannot be doubted that, to the minds of the poor Indians, they must have been quite incompre hensible. The tragi-comedy of the whole proceeding is heightened by the palpable effort of the authors to put their monstrous ideas in a popular form, and to make use of a tone and mode of expression such as are found in catechisms for children. The Spaniards, with out doubt, considered that they had done all in their power to make these difficult things plain to the chil dren of the forests. But we must not fancy that, in every instance, such proclamations even reached the ears of the natives. If interpreters were at hand, they were, doubtless, trans lated, to puzzle the brains of a few caziques. If, how ever, no interpreters were present, and no Indians ready to play the part of audience, it was thought sufficient to read aloud to the forests such-like warnings in the Spanish language, to pin the document to a tree for the edification of parrots and apes, and to get a royal notary to write underneath his probatum est. If we were not called upon to weep over the tragical results, we might laugh outright at the farce of these proceedings. These terrible countrymen and contempo raries of the comical Knight of La Maiicha believed O their consciences free when they had taken the above- mentioned steps ; and then, in cold blood, they let loose THE SPANIARDS VIEW OF THEIR RIGHTS. 121 the furies of war upon the only rightful lords and pos sessors of the soil. Not only to the original inhabitants, but to all other European nations who have followed them to the new world, have the Spaniards appealed to the Pope s gift and to the so-called right of first discovery, and have held up both as a shield and bugbear. They have, con sequently, always looked upon those who came after them as enemies, as lawless robbers and pirates, as plunderers of Spanish land and property ; in short, they have re garded their successors much in the same light as they did the poor Indians, whom they originally despoiled, and then punished as rebellious subjects for defending their country. But the right of discovery became at times a question of no small importance to the Spanish commanders and generals themselves. Columbus, as we have seen, had originally stipulated that he should be the governor over whatsoever lands he might discover on the other side the ocean, and that his rights should extend to his heirs. He had likewise bar gained that he only had the right to continue the dis coveries he had commenced, and to bring them to an end. Through this clause in his contract Columbus would appear to have claimed the whole of the new world, and to have laid an embargo on all other Spanish discoverers, 122 JEALOUSY OF THE SPANIARDS. just as the monarchs of Spain, in consequence of the Pope s bull of partition, had fancied that they could ex clude all other nations. But Columbus was as little successful in his expectations as the kings of Spain in theirs. In like manner as these were followed by other monarchs and other peoples, so did many other Spanish discoverers hasten to follow in the footsteps of Columbus. When these men had hit upon new fields of discovery when they had been the first to expend on them their labour, and in most cases, too, their capital it was but natural that they should think as Columbus had thought, that they should endeavour to secure for themselves the completion of their work and the profit likely to accrue from it, and that they should become just as jealous of other Spanish discoverers as Spain was jealous of other nations. In their agreements with the King of Spain they therefore imitated Columbus, and stipulated that they should be forthwith installed as royal governors over all the lands they might discover, and that the rights thus acquired should descend to their heirs. It thus became a settled opinion, that in accordance with the law of nations and the Pope s line of partition, all the lands to be discovered should belong to the King of Spain, and further, that in accordance with the personal rights of discovery, the hereditary governorship of particular dis- LITIGATION RESPECTING RIGHTS OF DISCOVERY. 123 tricts should belong to those who first took possession of them. In consequence of these claims which the navigators based upon the priority of discovery, there arose many interesting negotiations and lawsuits not only between the different discoverers, but likewise between these and the Spanish government. The most celebrated of these lawsuits was that which the family of Columbus carried on against the Spanish government respecting the amount of the discoveries of the admiral, of his rights and go vernorships. This lawsuit lasted ten years, and was at last decided against the King of Spain. In settling such cases, however, and all the disputes connected with them, many questions turned up, the answers to which were not easily found. The rule that the first discoverer should take precedence of all other discoverers, thus plainly expressed, appeared to all parties very natural and acceptable. But the application of this rule became most difficult when the claims of individuals embraced extensive lands, rivers, and seas. Although neither the rulers of Spain nor of any other countries have ever drawn up a formal codex of all the interesting questions which arose in the investigation of the rights of discovery, yet from the nature of their deci sions, no less than from the claims which the discoverers brought forward, it is plain that certain principles of 124 CLAIMS TO POSSESSION. such a codex, deduced from the general character of the cases, must have been present to the minds of all parties. When the disputes related to such smaller matters as gold and silver mines, distinctly marked eminences, and bays, the difficulties in the way of settlement appear not to have been great. He who was the first to see such things and to take possession of them, claimed them as his exclusive right. He called them by his own name, and got all the profit. But in respect to an extensive line of coast, the rule was established that so much only belonged to the first discoverer as he may actually have sailed along. The first case of this nature occurred when Columbus dis covered the continent of America near the mouth of the Orinoco. On that account it was not considered that he had obtained a claim to the whole continent. On the contrary, succeeding navigators were enjoined only to respect that part of the coast which Columbus had actually approached. On sailing along a coast, more or less of the interior can be seen. Therefore the further discovery and the taking possession of this interior was generally reserved for him who had been the first to see it. The oldest Spanish mapmakers were consequently always extremely careful to mark on their maps such parts of a coast as particular navigators had been the first to reach. CLAIMS TO POSSESSION. 125 We find on these maps certain parts of a coast marked with dotted lines, and a note added, to the effect : " Thus far Ponce de Leon s discovery extended ;" or, " To this point Francisco de Garay sailed." Small islands, which could be seen from every point of view, were considered to have been completely discovered by him who had touched any one part of their coast. But larger islands, as Jamaica, Hayti, Cuba, &c., were not considered as discovered unless they had been sailed round. This view of the case seems to have caused the son and successor of Columbus, the Admiral Diego Columbus, to have looked upon it as an act of scandalous injustice when the island of Jamaica, which his father had entirely sailed round, and consequently seen with his eyes, was taken from him. If the eyes were thus the principal agents in acquiring the right to possession of land, yet it was generally con sidered necessary that some more tangible act should follow. Such, for instance, would be the setting foot on the soil, touching it with the hands, laying hold of plants, stones, &c., by which means the discovery and claim to possession arising from the sense of sight would be con sidered as strengthened and completed. But with the Spanish and Portuguese commanders of fleets other usages, too, were in practice. Above all 126 CEREMONIES ON TAKING POSSESSION. things, they erected in the new lands a cross, an altar, or some other object belonging to the Church, which they consecrated, and they considered then that the whole surrounding country was sanctified and gained for Chris tianity and Europe. After this, mass would be per formed, and solemn processions undertaken to the north, south, east, and west, although the progress might not extend above a few hundred yards in each direction. Sometimes, instead of a cross or an altar, they piled up heaps of stones, or they cut crosses in the bark of trees with their knives, or the initials of their monarch s names, of Ferdinand and Isabella, of Charles V., or of Juan, or Emanuel, and to these they would add the arms of their countries. When this was done, a notary, who formed part of the expeditions, was employed to draw up a deed specifying the acts, and the land was then taken posses sion of for the benefit of the discoverer himself, as like wise, in optima forma, for his sovereign. Some of the Spanish ceremonies on taking possession of land were more ludicrous than solemn. The discoverer often ate of the fruits and berries of the country, to connect it, as he thought, the more closely to his person. The discoverer of the coast of Guiana, Vincent Pinzon, thought it good to drink some sea-water at different places, like the ducks when they drop down from a bank upon a pond. Balboa, the discoverer of the South Sea, EIGHTS BASED ON SETTLEMENT. 127 rode into the surf as far as he could go on horseback, and fancied that he thus took possession of this sea and all it contained for his king. His example has since been fol lowed by many other discoverers, who have sprung on horseback into the gulfs and bays they have come to, holding up their swords or standards as high as possible, like Lilliputians taking possession of a Brobdingnag country. In later times, a still stronger title to the possession of foreign lands than that of mere discovery or the sight of them could give, than the plucking of herbs and the eating of wild fruits, was derived from the fact of culti vation and settlement. And both the laws of discovery and of settlement have, down to our times, had a decided influence on the histoiy of America, on the numerous boundary quarrels and wars, and on the negotiations of different governments. As late as the last quarter of the last century, when the English established their celebrated fur factories on the north-west coast of America, the Spaniards protested against it, and demanded that the English should quit that coast, because it had been discovered by the com manders of Spanish vessels in former tunes. To this right of discovery on the part of the Spaniards the Eng lish opposed the right which they had derived from actual possession and use of the country. The Spaniards, 128 RUSSIAN CLAIMS. they said, may have been the first to see the coast, but they had never turned it to account, had not purchased furs, established fisheries and settlements on the coast, nor held any communication with the natives. The same kind of answer was given by the govern ments of the United States and England to the Emperor Alexander of Russia, when, in 1821, the whole north west coast of America down to the ,51st degree of lati tude was declared to be Russian property. The emperor rested his claim to this extensive line of coast, amongst other grounds, on the right of discovery, stating that Captain Behring had been the first to sail along it. But the North Americans and English protested against this claim, saying, firstly, that, according to the marine charts of the Russians themselves, their discoverers had sailed down no farther than the 55th degree of latitude; so that their claim to the right of first discovery could embrace no more than this. But, for the rest, the Eng lish said their ships and countrymen had for a long time past sailed and fished on that coast, and had traded much more with the natives than the Russians had done. In consequence of these protestations, the Emperor of Russia had to content himself with a boundary of less extent by some hundreds of geographical miles. Similar disputes have frequently occurred and been settled in a similar manner. But it must suffice to have EXTENT OF SPANISH POSSESSIONS IN AMERICA. 129 touched upon this subject, to have shown that with Columbus and his successors particular opinions about rights sprang up, which opinions, for three hundred years, have had an important influence on the history of the discovery, conquest, and civilisation of the new world. I shall now bring this chapter to a conclusion, with the remark, that at the beginning of the sixteenth century the Spaniards, by such acts as the putting up of crosses and altars, singing Te Deums, plucking up herbs, eating of wild fruits, and drinking of sea-water, put their seal, as it were, upon the land, and took possession of the coast of America for many hundred geographical miles down to a few degrees south of the equator. Beyond that great bastion of South America, which stretches far out to the east, and is now called St. Augustin, previous to that date no Spaniard had ever penetrated. How at last, under the flag of the King of Portugal, this point was passed how the beautiful regions of Brazil were discovered and how, at length, under Magellan, Spaniards penetrated southwards, till they sailed round this far-stretching coast and accomplished the first cir cumnavigation of the globe, it will be my task to relate in the following chapter. VOL. I. 130 FIRST DISCOVERIES IN AFRICA. CHAPTER IV. MAGELLAN AND THE FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. Vasco da Gama sails round Africa (A.D. 1497) Pedro Alvarez Cabral dis covers Brazil (Easter, 1500) Francisco Serrano discovers the Moluccas (1511) Juan Diaz de Solis discovers the River La Plata (1516) Fernando de Magalhaes sails from San Lucar (20th September, 1519) Magellan winters in St. Julian s Harbour (April to August, 1520) Magellan discovers the Patagonian Straits (21st October, 1520) Magellan sails across the South Sea (December, January, and Fe bruary, 1520-1521) Magellan killed on the island of Matan (27th April, 1521) Sebastian del Cano returns to Spain with the Ship La Victoria (6th September, 1522). THE Portuguese had begun to penetrate southward into the dark unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean as early as one hundred years before the time of Columbus. It was in driving the Arabs out of Portugal, and in pur suing them, that they were first led upon the track of dis covery and conquest along the coasts of Africa. Destroying the temples of the Moors, plundering PORTUGUESE VOYAGERS TO THE EAST INDIES. 131 their cities, and capturing negroes as they went, the Portuguese in the course of years extended their voyages from Morocco to the Canary Isles, from Cape Bojador to Cape Verde, from the slave coast to the coast of ivory. But the more they penetrated to the south and to the east the more they lost sight of their original purpose the pursuit of the Moors ; and in its place arose the hope of sailing round the wild coast of Africa, and of reach ing India by the open sea. In their earliest excursions they had, according to old custom, always crept timidly along the coast ; but by de grees they learnt navigation in the African seas. Vasco da Gama, the first voyager to the East Indies, had already set the example of leaving the coast, and, stand ing out far to sea, had taken a curved sweep round the south of Africa. His successor, Admiral Don Pedro Alvarez Cabral, who in the early part of the year 1500 set sail from Lisbon with a fleet of thirteen ships to take possession of the newly-discovered East Indies, had less to seek in Africa than his predecessors. His intention was to avoid that continent entirely, to keep clear of its dan gerous coasts, its scattered groups of islands, and the region of calms which surrounds them. Accordingly, he stood out farther west than Gama had done, to gain all the advantages of an open sea. K2 132 CABRAL DISCOVERS SOUTH AMERICA. But he was ignorant of those powerful ocean currents which, in the tropics, follow the course of the sun, and he thus unconsciously was carried still farther to the west than he intended. At Easter, A.D. 1500, when he thought himself in the very centre of the ocean, he saw, to his amazement, high peaks, beautifully wooded, misty mountains, and a long, far-extending coast rising out of the waves. He steered for some distance along this beautiful unknown country; he then landed with his whole army, and held a solemn mass, and he also erected a cross upon one of the mountains. But as he was obliged to continue his voyage to the East Indies, he sent one of his ships back to Europe to convey to his king, Don Manuel, the joyful intelligence of the discovery of the Isla de Santa Cruz (the Island of the Holy Cross), for so he named the new country, which he took to be a large island. The voyagers whom Don Manuel sent out in the fol lowing year to continue the discoveries of Cabral, soon ascertained that these new lands were in connexion with those already discovered by the Spaniards. Nevertheless, they took possession of them in the name of their king and country, in right of first discovery, and in accordance with the Papal bull of partition which both Spain and Portugal had adopted, with some alterations, in the cele brated Treaty of Tordesillas. According to this contract THE POPE S LINE OF PARTITION. 133 the line of partition was to run from pole to pole, at a distance of three hundred and seventy Spanish miles west of the Cape Yerde Islands, thus dividing the globe like an apple, and apportioning all the new discoveries to the east of this line to the Portuguese, all those to the west of it to the Spaniards. Although the astronomers of that time were unable to determine the direction of this line with exactness, and to lay it down on their maps, yet it was clear that the land of the Holy Cross, and a great portion of that shoulder of South America which stretches so far out to the east, fell to the share of Portugal. The voyagers who immediately followed Cabral explored the beautiful bays and estuaries of that vast country, and sailed many hundred miles along its coast, without reaching the end of the continent. In several of these expeditions the Italian, Amerigo Vespucci, took part. He was a man of a very active disposition, and not ignorant of astronomy ; and he was the first to give a circumstantial account of these discoveries in letters and other writings. These works, written in the Italian language, were soon trans lated into French and Latin, and were, in fact, almost the only means by which any knowledge of the new world could be obtained. They were eagerly read in France and in Germany, and the name of Amerigo was in everybody s mouth. The idea, consequently, became 134 AMERIGO VESPUCCI. prevalent, that the much talked of Amerigo had played the principal part in the discovery of the new world. Not many years after the death of Columbus, the learned German, Professor Waldseemiiller, of Alsace, expressed the opinion that these western lands ought by right to be called America, in honour of Amerigo. This seemed plausible enough to many of the hydrographers in Ger many and Italy, and they put down the name America on their maps, at first, however, applying this name only to the coast of Brazil. It was afterwards given to Central South America, and by degrees extended to the whole continent. The writings of Amerigo, and the newly discovered lands named in honour of him, attracted little notice among the Spaniards. Until of late they have never styled those extensive regions in the west of the Atlantic Ocean otherwise than Mondo Nuevo (New World), or Las Indicts Occidentales (the West Indies), and for some time, at least, the Portuguese continued to call the country which had fallen to them in consequence of Cabral s discovery, the land of the Holy Cross. But as this country possessed no large cities, no rich inhabitants, nothing but thick forests and naked savages, the Portu guese valued it but little at first. They considered it principally as a convenient station for their fleets on the way to the East Indies, as affording harbours of refuge, ORIGIN OF THE NAME BRAZIL. 135 and supplies of fresli water and wood. The only pro duct of any value of which they had an increasing sup ply to bring back to Portugal, was the flame-coloured logwood, which they called Brasil, from brasa (glowing coal), and which they found in abundance in the forests of the land of the Holy Cross. The importation of this wood led by degrees to the adoption of the name " Terra do Brasil" (the land of dyeing-wood), " for thus," as a pious Portuguese his torian has remarked, tl at the instigation of the devil, a mere worldly common wood, useful only for imparting a red colour to cloth, has blotted out the remembrance of that holy and sacred wood of the martyr which served to the salvation of our souls." The diamond-pits, the mineral treasures, the rich pastures, and fertile fields of Brazil, were scarcely known to the Portuguese till much later ; scarcely thought of, indeed, until they had lost their valuable possessions in the East Indies. At the commencement of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese had neither time to explore the interior of their wild " dyeing-wood country," nor did they feel themselves called upon to attempt to reach its south eastern extremity. It was, indeed, in their interest that no such end should ever be found, for a passage round America must lead straight to that half of the world 136 PORTUGUESE PROGRESS IN THE EAST. which the Pope had apportioned to the Spaniards. The Portuguese held, therefore, that it would be best for them that this vast country should be found to extend uninterruptedly to the south pole. In that case there would be but one way to the East Indies, that round Africa, which was now exclusively theirs. But the interest of the Spaniards required just the contrary. The line which marked the boundary of the Spaniards and Portuguese hemispheres seemed to run down the eastern side of America, thus cutting off the Spaniards from their western possessions. It was neces sary? therefore, to use every means in their power to break through or sail round this wall to take possession of their patrimony. It was the more urgent, because their rivals, the Por tuguese, had made such great advances on the eastern track. In rapid succession they had possessed them selves of one southern peninsula and island of Asia after another, of Arabia, of Upper India and Lower India, of Malacca, and Sumatra. Under the leadership of Francisco Serrano they had penetrated, in 1511, into the great labyrinth of the Indian islands, and reached the Moluccas, or, as they were generally called at that time, " Las Mas de las Especerias" (the .Spice Islands). Within ten years the Portuguese, with their victorious fleets and splendid conquests, had swept round half the THE MOLUCCAS. 137 globe. They had taken possession of almost all that was allotted to them by the Papal division. They stood on the eastern border of their patrimony, and if they went farther they would soon encroach on that of the Spaniards. As soon as the name of the Moluccas became known, the King of Spain believed that this encroachment had already taken place. It was from these small islands only that several valuable products, such as cloves and nutmegs, could be obtained. These much-prized articles had been known in Europe long before the age of dis covery, through the agency of the Chinese, Arabian, Genoese, and Venetian merchants. But where the land which produced them was situated, no one knew until it was reached by the Portuguese Serrano. People now looked upon these little Moluccas as a paradise, for it was imagined that where the hot rays of the sun could ripen aromatic spices, there must gold and a profusion of other treasures likewise be found. " In the Mo luccas," says an old Spanish author, "there are gold and silver mines, gold-dust, pearls, and precious stones, in abundance. Thence come cinnamon and pepper, nutmegs and cloves, ginger, rhubarb, and sandal-wood, camphor, amber, and countless other things most valu able as medicines as well as for the luxuries of life." The Moluccas appear to have been regarded as the 138 DE SOLIS DISCOVERS THE RIO DE LA PLATA. centre of all that is prized by man ; and when it was said that the Portuguese had, in 1511, made their way to this storehouse of earthly luxuries, the King of Spain, who at that time knew nothing of the immense width of the Pacific Ocean, fancied that the islands were situated not far west of America, and that they consequently fell within his domain. Thus the Moluccas were for a time the war-cry, and became, as it were, the pivot on which the navigation of Spain and Portugal, and endless diplo matic correspondence between the monarchs of these two countries, turned. Little had been previously known of the southern parts of the American continent ; but during this con test their outline and general character gradually emerged from obscurity. In the year 1508, and again in 1516, the King of Spain hads ent out small fleets, each time commanded by his celebrated navigator, Juan Diaz de Solis. He had commissioned De Solis to endeavour to sail south wards, round the land of dyeing-wood, to reach the " shady and back side" (las espaldas) of the new world, and then to seek a way to the Spice Islands. Neither of these expeditions went very far. On his second voyage, De Solis discovered the broad mouth of the Silver Stream, the Rio de la Plata, which he explored, in the idea of its being a strait leading westward. Here, FERNANDO DE MAGALHAENS. 139 however, he met with a tragic end, for he was killed by the savages. His companions, after giving to this mag nificent river the name of their departed leader, " Rio de Solis" sailed home with the sad tidings of their loss. For many years this Eiver Sou s, of ominous memory, was the southern ne plus ultra of the Spanish navigators, and the more inviting name of Silver Stream was not given to it till much later, when Sebastian Cabot had discovered that it formed a navigable communication with the silver mines of Southern Peru. At length, however, there appeared in Spain a man capable of accomplishing that task so often vainly attempted by others. Fernando de Magalhaens was a Portuguese nobleman of an ancient hidalgo family of Oporto. He was of an extremely ambitious and enterprising spirit, and in early youth, as an officer taking part in the military expedi tions of his countrymen in the East Indies, he had shown himself possessed of great courage. He had thus visited the great Indian archipelago, the limits of the then known world, and had learned the position of the Spice Islands, which he believed lay far within the Spanish half of the globe. Promotion and increase of pay having been refused him by King Emanuel, the mortified hidalgo, thinking his services ill rewarded in Portugal, solemnly took leave 140 MAGELLAN S SPECULATIONS. of his ungrateful country, and, with his head full of plans, proceeded to Seville, just then the resort of num bers of discontented Portuguese emigrants. Here he fell in with an astronomer named Kuy Faleiro, and, with his assistance, constructed a terrestrial globe, drawing the outlines of the continents partly according to the observa tions he had made on his voyages, and partly as he imagined them to be. Above all things, he put down on his globe the Spice Islands, the great centre of all his speculations, placing them far away in the sea at a great distance from the Asiatic coast ; then, drawing in purple the Pope s great line of partition, he showed that the Moluccas must fall within the Spanish hemisphere. As to the southern continuation of America, he said that it was extremely improbable it could reach to the polar ice, the part already known showing that the land bent back to the west as if it would terminate in a cape. He con cluded it would take a direction similar to that of Africa, and of all other lands extending far into the waters of the south. And even should no new "Cape of Good Hope " be found in America, yet, as the continent evi dently tapered towards a point, it was very likely to be broken somewhere or other by a strait. He himself was persuaded of the existence of such a strait, and througli it he proposed to sail to the Moluccas by the Spanish HE CONFERS WITH SPANISH OFFICIALS. 141 highway, or western passage round the world, instead of by the Portuguese highway, or eastern passage. Magellan is said likewise to have appealed to the au thority of the celebrated German knight and navigator, Martin Behaim, who, he declared, believed in the exist ence of a South American strait, and had drawn it on a map of the world, which he himself had seen in the King of Portugal s cabinet. I may here remark that we still possess some old representations of the globe made before Magellan s voyage, in which America is shown to be intersected by a strait in the south. But it must not on this account be assumed that Martin Behaim, or any navigator before Magellan, had actually seen such a strait. These maps were rather the work of men who had speculated and reasoned like Magellan, and who had given form, as it were, to their ideas and hopes in pro phetic pictures. With his globe, his theories, and the great projects he had built upon them, Magellan now presented himself before the officials and ministers of the King of Spain. This led to many conferences, and, like Columbus, he was examined by the learned men who "pestered him with many questions and cross-questions." All this soon became known, and as it was rumoured that the King of Portugal intended to take his life, and that his ambas- 142 MAGELLAN BEFORE THE KING OF SPATN. sador had already hired men for this purpose, the con ferences were held at night, the Spanish ministers pro viding Magellan with a guard to protect him on his return to his quarters with his maps and documents. It is probable that in this way the Portuguese did but raise Magellan in the eyes of the Spaniards, and cause them to set a higher value on those secrets of the former relating to other plans of conquests which he might be able to reveal to them. He was likewise soon received in audience by the young King Charles, who had just then arrived from Flanders, but who had not yet been raised to the imperial throne. Magellan s project naturally pleased the king, who no doubt saw in the little, robust, curly-bearded, muscular, determined-looking Portuguese, a man of that decision and energy of character he had need of. He forthwith approved of his project, and made him a knight of St. Jago, appointed him life governor of the Spice Islands, and ordered a fleet to be got ready to be placed under his command. Magellan, on his part, pledged his word and honour to the king that he would serve him as a faithful vassal, that he would discover for him the end of America, the American way to the Moluccas. But, nevertheless, there were many obstacles to be overcome before the fleet could be actually fitted out and ready to sail. Amongst the Spanish officers there were REMONSTRANCES OF PORTUGUESE AMBASSADOR. 143 many who envied the stranger on whom the king lavished such marks of his favour, and who executed the king s commands with dilatoriness and ill will. But the most serious difficulties came from Don Manuel, who, enraged at Magellan s conduct, and alarmed on hearing of an American strait, imagined he already saw the Spanish arms penetrating into the East Indies. Just at this time Don Manuel had demanded the hand of Dona Leonora, the sister of Charles V., and a Por tuguese ambassador, Don Alvaro da Costa, was in Spain, to bring the negotiation to a favourable issue. This diplomatist connected this marriage, which the emperor greatly desired, with the hateful American strait, and gave the Spanish court to understand that if the strait should be found, the princess would probably have to look elsewhere for a husband. The ambassador like wise told Magellan that his project would cause a dire misfortune in the Christian world, disunion between the courts of the two kingdoms ; and he told him, too, that he had insulted his own legitimate monarch in the highest degree, that he was injuring his country s in terests, and that his honour required of him to give up his plans and return to Portugal, where, the ambassador said, he might expect advantages. But Don Alvaro found Magellan as firm as Charles V. Magellan re plied, that his honour now demanded that he should re- 144 MAGELLAN S FLEET. deem the word which he had pledged, as a nobleman, to the King of Spain. The reply of the latter, couched in the most friendly terms, was to the effect that he had no intention of encroaching upon the possessions of the King of Portugal ; that the Papal line of partition would decide to whom the Spice Islands should belong ; that this was a question for later investigation ; and that, for the present, his expedition must take its course. In the end, matters turned out as the emperor had said. A strait was found, and nevertheless the Princess Leonora became Queen of Portugal. The Moluccas, however, long continued to be a bone of contention be tween the two kings. The equipment of Magellan s fleet was finished in Au gust, in the year 1519. His flag was consecrated in one of the churches of Seville, and Magellan took a solemn oath of allegiance to the king, as future governor of all the lands he was to discover " behind America," whilst, on the other hand, his officers, whom he had already named commanders of the towns and fortresses to be discovered, swore fidelity to him. His fleet, consisting of five ships, was provisioned for two years with biscuits, flour, lentils, cheese, dried fish, w r ine, honey, oil ; and it was supplied likewise with powder, and numerous articles to barter with the savages. One of the vessels the name of which has become almost as famous as the MAGELLAN SAILS FROM SPAIN. 145 Argo of the Greeks was called La Victoria. It was the only one that came back to Spain. Officers, soldiers, steersmen, and sailors included, Magellan had two hundred and forty men under his command. Amongst them were many experienced sea captains; a learned astronomer, Andres de San Martin, who was to take observations of the stars of the southern hemisphere, and to determine the position of the places they reached ; and an Italian, Pigafetta, a highly cultivated man, who became the histo rian of the expedition. The artillerymen, or, as they were then generally called, the bombardiers, were almost exclusively Flemings or Germans, for at that time the guns as well as the printing presses of Spain were, for the most part, worked by men of the latter country. Amongst them was a bombardier called Maestro Ance (Master Hans). The low German dialect, therefore, must have been associated with the Spanish language in the first voyage round the world. Regardless of the rumour that the King of Portugal had sent a fleet of war to the Brazils, and another to Africa, to take him prisoner, that he had likewise com manded his governor-general of India to meet him at the Moluccas with six ships of war, the undaunted Ma gellan put to sea, steering in the direction his predecessors had taken along the coast of Africa, and thence crossing to the Brazils and sailing southwards to the great river VOL. I. L 146 THE DISTRICTS NORTH AND SOUTH OF De Soils, which, as we have said, was at that time the ne plus ultra of discoveiy in America. Even here he began to search for a strait. He care fully explored and sounded the wide mouth of that river. He sailed far up it, and convinced himself, as Solis had done, that it was only a fresh-water river. After this he continued his course to the south, coming to utterly un known waters and lands. The cold and desolate regions of South America, on the eastern side of the continent, begin at the mouth of the Kio de la Plata. Everything around points out that a complete change in the organism of the continent there takes place. The warm currents of the sea, which pass along the coast of Brazil in a south-easterly direction, cease near the La Plata, and instead of them come the cold currents from the south which flow along the Pata- gonian coast. And, with the last outpouring of the equatorial current, the trade winds which accompany it from the east in like manner die out in the neighbourhood of La Plata. Carry ing with them the vapours of the Atlantic, these winds sweep over the coast of Brazil, imparting their fertilising moisture to the whole country as far as the feet of the Andes ; and they are the principal cause of the abundance of water and of wood throughout these lands. But, south RIO DE LA PLATA. 147 of La Plata, not a vestige do we find of these moist east winds. Here the air is dry, the atmosphere clear but cold, and the country, partly in consequence of this, is almost treeless. The mountaintius and hilly granitic districts which abound throughout the whole of Brazil, corne to an end near the La Plata, their southernmost spurs just reaching to the mouth of the river. South of it begin those singular monotonous plains swept by the cold south winds, which extend for hundreds of geographical miles to the southern extremity of the continent. In their geological and climatic conditions, as well as in their value to the human race, they are in most striking contrast to the hilly landscapes of the north. They stretch away in immense plateaus, thickly covered with fragments of rocks from the Andes; and there is rarely sufficient nourishment to sustain a kind of hard brown grass. Even dwarfed and prickly shrubs are a rarity. Whilst in the smiling valleys of the north both flora and fauna display a rich abundance and variety of plants and animals and of late years agriculture has flourished, towns and markets have sprung up on the great arteries formed by the principal rivers of the country in the south, on the contrary, the soil, un sheltered and strewed with fragments of rock, has suf- L2 148 MAGELLAN S EXPLORATIONS. ficed to sustain but a few races of animals, and a few savage tribes subsisting on the produce of the chase, and to this day withstanding every effort at civilisation. I pause here for a moment to call attention to the fact that in North America, too, we find a river and a valley forming as in the south a sharp line of demarcation between fertility and desolation. To the north of the great St. Lawrence, the desolate, icy, and almost un known Labrador contrasts just as much with the culti vated populous lands of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as do the wild pampas south of La Plata with the pleasing landscapes of the Banda Oriental and Monte Video. From the torrid zone in America, agriculture, civilisation, and the settlements of man, have spread both north and south to those two rivers ; but in neither direction have they extended beyond them. Magellan and his little fleet now sailed along the un known and dangerous coasts of this inhospitable region. Each bay, each bend of the coast, might now be the strait which he was seeking, so he explored carefully as he ad vanced, keeping as near as possible to the shore. By day he kept about a league from land, but at night he stood out to a distance of four or five. Thus, in the course of a quarter of a year, he made but little progress. He sailed into every river and into every harbour s mouth, in the expectation of seeing his hopes realised. When- HE WINTERS IN ST. JULIAN S HARBOUR. 149 ever he doubled a cape the idea was present to his mind that now, perhaps, he had reached the end of the new world. But the dark features of this desolate land still frowned upon him everywhere. He gave a name in his charts to every point he came to, and these names are still, for the most part, used by our geographers. Some of them for instance, " Bahia de los Trabagos " (Bay of Toils) tell us of the difficulties which Magellan and his seamen had to encounter before they could extricate the ships from the shallows and sunken rocks which prevail in that bay. Making thus but slow progress, the southern summer months, January and February, passed away, and in March the cold of the coming winter was already ex perienced. As they sailed farther, they had violent storms and constant unfavourable weather to contend against, and daily the crews prayed for grace to St. Jago of Gallicia, and the Virgin of Guadaloupe and Monte Serrato. In the beginning of April another deep inlet was found ; it was not the strait, but it formed a convenient harbour, which Magellan named St. Julian. He de cided to winter here, and continue his explorations in the spring. But his crews were terrified at this prospect, and at the sight of the gloomy country around the harbour. In those days it was a most uncommon pro- 150 ALARM OF MAGELLAN S CREWS. ceeding to pass a winter in an arctic or antarctic region. It was, in fact, the very first time that such a thing had been required of Spaniards. They were to be hugged in the cold embrace of winter, at a time, too, when in their own country they might have the full enjoyment of de lightful summer. A deputation came to the admiral, and represented to him that "it was time now to return to Spain. They had already penetrated farther than any one had ever done before. This was enough of glory. The end of America, or its long-sought strait, was never to be found by them. It was evident now, as many learned men had said, that this country was of immense extent. To force a passage farther was impossible, and their king had not sent them forth to do impossibilities. Hitherto Heaven and the saints had graciously helped them out of many difficulties and dangers, but at the south pole they would certainly come to a great pit, whence they could never emerge. Besides, provisions were running short, and many of their men had already perished in want and misery." This and much more they repeated, as a Spanish historian remarks, with deep sighs and tears. But Magellan had shown on former occasions that he was not easily moved, that he was a most zealous and ener getic character a man of iron, in fact. In replying to his crew, he told them he " wondered much how men who HIS REPLY TO THEIR DEMANDS. 151 bore the name of Castilians could show such cowardice. For his own part," he said, " he was convinced they would soon find the end of this land, or, at least, an outlet to the west. The king had commanded him to prosecute this discovery, and he was determined to sail on south wards, if even to the point where night lasted three months, and he would rather die than turn homewards like a coward. It was true that the winter would be severe in this place, still it was likely to be of short duration; and when spring came, it w^ould be easy to sail farther and search for and conquer the sunny islands where the spices grew, and so deserve well of king and country. As to provisions, the difficulties were not so great as they represented ; there was still many a barrel of good flour and wine on board, and then, to be more saving than hitherto, he would immediately give orders that himself and all officers and men should be put on half-rations. Besides, fish abounded in St. Julian s Bay, and they could hunt the wild animals and birds during the winter. For the rest, he impressed on his men this : above all, to trouble themselves about nothing, but implicitly to follow the commands which he should give them in the name of the king, and, when they sailed on in the spring, to look diligently to the lantern on his mainmast-head, and in silence to follow whithersoever it should lead them." 152 MUTINY OF MAGELLAN S CREWS. But this time Magellan s eloquence was not enough, and lie had to use force to gain his winter quarters. A conspiracy broke out, for the Spaniards not only dreaded the south pole, but submitted unwillingly to the au thority of a Portuguese. " This foolhardy foreigner, in whose clutches we are " so spoke both officers and men, much in the same way as the companions of Columbus had formerly done " has no mercy for Castilians ; he wants to destroy us all to gain the favour of Don Manuel his king." The fleet was divided into two factions, two ships re maining faithful to Magellan, the conspirators being masters of the other three. They hoisted the flag of re bellion, and demanded of Magellan that as they were the majority, he should come on board one of their ships to consult with them as to what was best for the service of the king. But Magellan, though the weaker, sternly re fused to negotiate, saying that he knew no one in these regions who had the right to command in the name of the King of Spain but himself, and he ordered the re bellious officers to come on board his ship, where that which was right should be done. But, as they did not come to him, he immediately pre pared to attack one of the rebellious ships, which the wind and the current had luckily separated from the others and driven towards him. With drawn sword he HE PUNISHES THE REBELS. 153 sprang on deck, unfurled the flag of King Charles of Spain, demanding of the astonished crew, " For whom are you?" "For the king and your grace," most of them exclaimed, as with one voice, when the question was thus put; and the ringleaders were soon made prisoners. By the exercise of cunning and force he soon gained possession of the other vessels, and he then relentlessly passed judgment on the offenders. Many were con demned to death ; but some of the officers, Juan de Carthagena and Sanchez de la Reina, were reserved for a more tragic fate. They were condemned to banish ment to be put ashore on the inhospitable coast of the new country ; and in the spring, when the fleet again set sail, this sentence was carried out, Magellan and his people, " with many sighs, and tears, and marks of tender ness," but without checking the course of justice, taking leave of their unhappy companions. It was during this winter in Saint Julian s Bay where the crews, according to Magellan s orders, were occupied in hunting, fishing, and repairing their vessels that the well-known name of Patagonia (still applied to this part of South America) first came into use, and the long- believed myth arose that this country was inhabited by a race of giants. The Indian races of South America, with the exception of the Pescherans, or Terra del 154 SOUTH-AMERICAN GIANTS. Fuegians, are, in fact, of tall stature. It may have chanced that in the tribe with which Magellan came in contact there were a few of those giants who are to be found exceptionally amongst all races of men. He saw, too, the enormous prints made in the sand by their feet thickly enveloped in furs, and he consequently named them Patagones, or large feet ; and the country gained the name of Patagonia. Some of these Patagonians came on board the ships. They devoured the food offered them in huge masses, like lions, and they were amazed at the smallness of the Spaniards. When they spoke, their voices sounded like the bellowing of oxen. They were clothed in skins, and yellow rings were painted round their eyes and round the whole face. The Spaniards wished to catch one of them to convey him to Europe, but eight men had great difficulty in securing him, and he soon died from loss of liberty. But wishing to take home some evidence about him, they stretched the long body on the deck and took its measurement. It was eleven feet. And Magellan s companions asserted on their return to Spain that there were others thirteen feet in height. All this sounded as if it had been taken from Homer s poetic history of the adventures of Ulysses. But in the sixteenth century classical reminiscences had more influ ence on the minds of men than prosaic realities. The MAGELLAN LEAVES ST JULIAN S HARBOUR. 155 Europeans who went to the new world seem never to have forgotten the stories of Pliny, Ptolemy, and So lomon. They sought and found eveiy where the Amazons of Herodotus, the Titans of Homer, and the Cyclops of Odysseus. Even long after Magellan s time, another circumnavigator related how the Patagonians, like Poly phemus, bombarded his fleet with rocks, and well-nigh destroyed it. Only in our times have the stories of the South American giants, implicitly believed by our fore fathers, been reduced to their proper proportions. At length the sun and the spring returned, and Magellan, at the end of August, gave orders to his men to break up. The news fell upon them like a clap of thunder. " We must go southwards," said he, " to find the strait, and not until we reach the south pole without discovering the strait, and not until the ships have twice lost their masts, shall we think of turning back." He told this, he added, that they might bear it well in mind. But, happily, they were not called upon to undergo such hardships, for, without knowing it, Magellan had wintered not far from his strait. In October, after a few days sail, and after he had doubled the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, he found himself in the mouth of that remarkable rent in the American continent which subsequently bore his name. Of all the American channels, Magellan s Strait is 156 THE PATAGONIAN STRAIT. the most remarkable. It is the only one which cuts entirely through the land, thus forming a navigable communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is one of the most wonderful clefts in the world, being upwards of three hundred and fifty miles in length, and of unusual depth throughout. In almost all parts of the strait and its branches the cliffs rise up perpendicularly from a depth of from one thousand to two thousand feet and upwards, and if it were possible to empty it of its waters, it would present a dark chasm of colossal proportions. In breadth it varies, for the most part, from about two miles and a half to five. But there are parts where promontories from either side stretch out so far as greatly to narrow the passage ; and, again, other parts where the rocks recede to such an extent, that the waters have the appearance of a sea. Thus is formed a succession of bays, or basins, the ap proaches to which navigators usually designate as the first, second, and third narrows. There are countless ramifications, which on either side of the strait wind like labyrinths through the clefts of this fissured region ; but the main body of water may be said to consist of two distinct portions, the eastern and the western. The eastern portion takes a south-westerly direction as far as the headland, now called Cape Froward (the southern most point of the mainland of America) ; the western CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STRAIT. 157 portion sweeps from this point somewhat more in a northerly direction. The eastern portion passes through the monotonous region of the pampas, which we have described, and participates in its clear atmosphere; the western, on the other hand, cuts through the wild and lofty labyrinth of mountains in which the chain of the Andes comes to an end. The strait is here enclosed between vast mountains clothed with impenetrable fo rests, exposed to constant rain and the never-ceasing fury of storms, and above which, here and there, snow capped peaks tower up. This immense channel affords but few good harbours, for the water in the bays and creeks, on either side, is too deep for anchorage, and is, moreover, exposed to violent gusts of wind, which rush down almost perpendi cularly from the mountains like atmospheric avalanches, lashing the waters into fury, and causing dangerous whirlpools. Many of the ravines and sounds connected with this strait are filled by glaciers, from which enormous masses of ice are frequently detached and dashed into the water. Tides and currents also from both oceans flow into the strait, and the meeting of these waters, likewise, often produces violent whirlpools. The main current, how ever, rushes from the east, and is so strong that formerly the return voyage was believed to be impracticable. 158 WONDERS OF THE STRAIT. Despite its generally uninviting character, this great channel is not without its charms. There are parts where the landscapes on both sides resemble a series of wild parks, the vegetation, owing to the constant moisture, gleaming with almost perpetual verdure. In some of the branches and sounds the aspect of nature is as sublime as in the high valleys of Switzerland, reveal ing exquisite landscapes in the background, and magni ficent mountains, when for brief intervals the storms abate and the curtain of mist clears away. The northern side of the strait is often enlivened by herds of beautiful guanacos and other animals of the deer family ; and, occasionally, ostriches from Patagonia come down to the shore, and a species of gaily-feathered parrots stray thus far from warmer regions. It is even not rare to see the golden wings of the humming-bird shine like sparks of fire amidst the snow-dust which the wind in this strait whirls about. But the waters of this region contain far greater wonders of organic life than the land. I will here only allude to that wonderful gigantic plant of Magellan s Strait, the so-called " Fucus yiganteus" which sometimes attains a length of four hundred feet, and which, when torn from its hold on the rocks, floats about in the strait like an enormous serpent. A modern naturalist says that he has found on the leaves of this plant one hundred different species of MAGELLAN ENTERS THE STRAIT. 159 living creatures, and that he never examined a single branch without discovering new and remarkable forms of animal life. If the large and matted roots are shaken, there will fall from them vast quantities of fish, mussels, sepia fish, crabs of every kind, beautiful holothurians, and crawling nereids of every variety of form. It was hi the beginning of November, in the year 1520, that Magellan came to the two gate-posts, or capes, which mark the entrance to this wonderful channel, and looked into it with intense expectation. He anchored within the gate, and sent on a ship to re connoitre ; it returned in a few days with the intelli gence that there must be a passage. The captain had sailed westward for three days without having seen the end of the inlet, and though soundings had been fre quently taken, nowhere had any material decrease in the depth been found. It had, moreover, been observed that the tide and the currents which flowed into the opening were much stronger than the ebb which returned, de cidedly indicating a connexion with another ocean. Magellan, who saw the object of all his hopes and wishes before him, rejoiced greatly, and he called a council of all his officers, captains, pilots, and astro nomers, near the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins. They ascertained that they had provisions for three months, and many were of opinion that this would be 160 MAGELLAN S IRON WILL. sufficient to carry them through the strait, and as far as the Moluccas; others, however and among them Estevan Gomez, a seaman, who afterwards became celebrated for his discoveries in North America, where he tried to find a second Magellan s Strait were of opi nion that the best course, now that they had determined the existence and position of the strait, was to return to Spain, and to prosecute the discovery with fresh forces and better-provided ships. On the other side of America, they said, they would probably find a vast ocean, which they were not now in a proper condition to cross. After listening to these and other opinions, Magellan replied : " For his part, things must come to such a pass, that they would have to cook even the leather on the masts before he would abandon this undertaking ; that in future no one should dare to speak of want on pain of death ; and with this," he added, " he commended them to God." Hereupon he hoisted his admiral s flag for the day and his lantern for the night, ordering all to follow, and sailed into the dark chasm. An eye-witness relates of Magellan, the inexorable " Admiral Forwards," that he ground his teeth and knit his brow into dark frowns whenever the word " return " was uttered, and it was dread of him which drove the first Spanish sailors through the stormy gates of the Pacific Ocean. However, one of his ships effected her ONE OF MAGELLAN S SHIPS ESCAPES TO SPAIN. 101 escape, the San Antonio, on board of which was the above-mentioned Captain Gomez. One day, after they had made considerable progress, Magellan sent her to reconnoitre one of the side inlets ; she never returned, and Magellan sought her in vain in all parts of the strait already explored. Officers and crew had mutinied, made for the open sea, and returned to Spain, where they informed the king (now the Emperor Charles V.) that they had quitted the service of the tyrant Magellan, whom he had placed over them, that at least one of his majesty s ships might be saved. Magellan had run fearful risks, they said, and had decoyed the emperor s subjects into a wild corner of the earth, whence neither he nor any one else could hope to escape. His return to Spain need never be looked for. Magellan spent several weeks sailing about in the labyrinth of waters, carefully exploring, till he found out the principal channel, and, by observation of the tides and currents, had become firmly convinced of the existence of a passage to the west. But as he him self considered a voyage across the western ocean as no light undertaking, and as he wished to owe the co-opera tion of his crews not to their fears only, he determined to hold another general council before finally attempting the passage of the strait. Like all autocrats, lie was intolerant of receiving VOL. I. M 162 MAGELLAN REACHES THE WESTERN END OF STRAIT. advice, and averse to discussion when his mind was made up on a particular point; but still deeming it advisable to conciliate his officers, he now resorted to the following expedient : he issued an order, dated the 21st of November, "All Saints Channel" (for so he had named it), saying he was " not the man to despise the reasonable opinions and advice of others, and therefore he requested all captains, pilots, maestros and contra- maestros, calmly to consider their present position, and each to write down his deliberate opinion whether he held it wiser to sail on into the western ocean or at once to return. His own opinion and decision should be made known to them on learning theirs." The officers, long acquainted with Magellan s " own opinion," and with his resolute character, wrote down their views, to judge by some of these interesting docu ments which have been preserved, with much timidity and circumlocution, and they sent in their papers. Ma gellan soon af terwards fired off his guns, weighed anchor, and steered to the west. He said he felt gratified, on reading their papers, to find his officers of the same mind with himself, and he swore by the knightly mantle of Saint Jago, which he wore, that he would now accomplish the enterprise. After a few days sail the fleet was clear of islands, rocks, and mountains, their horizon expanded, they lay at length between the two headlands of the HIS TRIUMPHANT FEELINGS. 163 western opening, one of which received the name Cabo Deseudo (the desired cape), and the other that of Cabo de la Victoria, and the broad ocean now rolled her gigantic waves before them. An old author says that at this spectacle Magellan was so overcome with joy that tears stood in his eyes. He returned thanks to God, and felt himself to be the. happiest and the most famed of men. "For," he said, "he had unlocked the west, had opened a new world to Spain and the emperor, and given to the. Spaniards the key of the hemisphere allotted to them by the Pope." Magellan and his contemporaries long after him believed this strait to be the only com munication between the two great oceans of the globe ; and on many of the charts of the time we find depicted near Magellan s Strait the well-known arms and device of Charles V.,. the two pillars in allusion to the Pillars of Hercules at the Straits of Gibraltar, and above, the words " Plus ultra." " Plus ultra ! " it was Magellan s motto as well as his sovereign s, and after a solemn thanksgiving his little fleet advanced into the dark and raging waters. He steered at once in a north-westerly direction to reach the temperate zone, and the equator where the Spice Islands lay. In a few weeks Magellan came to that region lying on both sides of the equator, which is remarkable for the prevalence of mild breezes constantly blowing towards M 2 164 THE PACIFIC OCEAN. the west. Under a clear sky, and favoured by these breezes, his ships now glided over smooth and noiseless waters which no keel had disturbed since the world began, and which, in their astonishment at finding a constant and apparently illimitable calm, were called by the crews "the Pacific Ocean" (el Oceano Pacifico) a name which this ocean still bears, although we are now become acquainted with so many stormy portions of it that it is not altogether applicable. For months they encountered but the same watery waste. Every day and every night they advanced in safety, but the same boundless horizon was ever before them. No conception had hitherto been formed of the magnitude of this ocean. Many had thought the Moluccas lay not far from Panama, In all history there is no in stance of such perfect isolation from the rest of the world as that of Magellan and his little band of companions. We can only compare their situation to that of the aero naut, when he has passed beyond the mountains and the clouds, and floats a ftiere speck in illimitable space. If Magellan had but taken a more westerly course on leaving the strait, he would have discovered a world of enchanting islands ; but by turning northward, he missed the large group which studs the south Pacific Ocean like a galaxy. Though ^Eolus and his winds did not trouble him, he experienced the greatest distress from want of MAGELLAN REACHES THE PHILIPPINES. -., 105 fresli drinks and food, and things came to such a pass that his threat about cooking the leather well-nigh became prophetic. Their biscuit had crumbled into dust, and the good Spanish wine had long since evaporated. Water even became so scarce that they were forced to cook their daily ration a handful of rice with salt water. The heat of the tropical sun had split the ship s timbers. The crews were decimated and enfeebled by disease, and the increase of rats and other vermin was so overwhelming that Magellan and those who remained with him were near experiencing the fate of the bishop in the Mouse Tower on the Rhine. At last a group of beautiful verdant islands, covered with cocoa-palms and sugar-cane, came in sight, and saved the Spaniards from their desperate situation. These islands were the first of the numerous group which lies south-east of Asia, the same which Columbus believed he had reached when, ignorant of the existence of the intervening continent of America, he first beheld the Antilles. As we have only America and what lies near this quarter of the globe in view, I must not here dwell on the wanderings and adventures of Magellan among these Asiatic islands, only observing that they fully rewarded the Spaniards for the many privations and dangers of their voyage. They discovered the Ladrones, the 166 * MAGELLAN KILLED. Philippine, and many other beautiful islands, where they made their guns heard, and set up the wooden cross. The kings of these islands were made to swear fealty to King Charles of Spain, and crowds of souls were admitted by Magellan s preaching and baptising into the Christian heaven. But in the fulness of his success Magellan s fate over took him. He rashly took part in the internal wars of these island kings, and accompanied the numerous army of the King of Zeba (who had been baptised) against his heathen enemy, the King of Matan, one of the most populous of the Philippine islands. It came to an en gagement, and the over-valiant Magellan unexpectedly found himself surrounded by overwhelming numbers. He fought on bravely, encouraging his men under showers of stones, arrows, and other missiles. But an unlucky spear hit him on the temple, felling him to the earth, and he died, as he had lived and done, a hero. The Pacific Ocean, which he had opened to the world, became his grave, and after him many celebrated circumnavi gators of the globe the Russian Behring, the English man Cook, and the noble Frenchman, La Perouse have likewise, as martyrs to the cause of discovery, met their death in these waters, some in a similar manner to Magellan. o Magellan s companions did, in truth, reach the Mo- THE VICTORIA RETURNS TO SPAIN. 167 luccas ; but they here came into collision with the Por tuguese as well as with the natives, and only one of Magellan s fleet, the famous Victoria, commanded by the only remaining officer, Sebastian del Cano, suc ceeded in reaching Spain in safety by way of Africa. Sebastian del Cano s voyage was long and perilous before he brought home his worm-eaten vessel. Her masts were shattered and her sails in rags, like the tattered flag of a much-tried regiment; but she was freighted with precious spices and with wonderful tidings fom the utmost parts of the earth, when, after three years spent in circumnavigating the globe, she anchored in the port of Seville with her thirteen Cas- tilians on board, the only survivors out of all the crews of Magellan s fleet. " Great," says an old Spanish historian, in reference to this event, " was the voyage of King Solomon s ships to Ophir, but greater the voyage of the fleet of the Emperor Charles." The perils and adventures of Ulysses were as child s play in comparison to those of Magellan and Se bastian del Cano. The voyage of Jason in the Argo, which is extolled to the skies, was as nothing beside that of the Victoria, which vessel, at least, ought to have been preserved for ever, as a lasting remembrance, in the arsenal at Seville, for that little ship moved like the sun round the world, and proved for the first time, in a pal- 168 ENLARGED VIEWS OF THE UNIVERSE. pable manner, to all mankind still doubting of the fact, that the earth on which we live is a sphere. Magellan and Sebastian del Cano solved this problem. True, they performed but one deed in their short lives, but it was a glorious one, accomplished with extraor dinary energy, perseverance, and nautical skill, in which, neither before nor since, have they ever been surpassed. They may be said to have lifted the earth from the shoulders of Atlas, from that old imaginary postament on which ignorance had placed it, and showed it to the eyes of an astonished world, floating, as the moon does, in space. They and their contemporary, Coper nicus, may be said to have effected this transforma tion. They gave life and motion to the beautiful firmament. From their discovery date the more en larged views of astronomers concerning the universe, and the spread of European influence to all habitable shores. After them, nothing could be thought unattain able. It was this which gave them their immortal fame ; but it w r as Sebastian del Cano, the survivor, who reaped all the personal advantages which ought to have been Magellan s : royal favour, universal admiration, a pen sion of five hundred ducats for life, and a coat-of-arms, with the most sublime device which has ever been be stowed upon a knight. Many knights have received a silver bar or two red or white roses in their shields. MAGELLAN S NAME GIVEN TO THE STRAIT. 1G9 King Ferdinand gave Columbus a circlet of islands in his shield, and another "conquistador" had a burning mountain. But Sebastian del Cano surpassed them all : the Emperor Charles gave him and his descendants a globe, with the significant motto " Primus circumde- disti me." Soon after Magellan s death, his name was given to that great strait, which, as Pigafetta, his celebrated Italian companion and historian, assures us, the Spaniards could never have reached without his energetic leader ship ; and, in a few years, his name entirely replaced that of " All Saints Channel," which he had given it himself. But this was his only monument. The wild region on both sides of the channel, Patagonia and the inhospitable Terra del Fuego, in which the south of the American continent ends, are even now in the same de solate primitive condition as when first visited by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century. 170 MEXICO AND CORTEZ. CHAPTER V. MEXICO AND CORTEZ. Sebastian de Ocampo sails through the two Gates of the Gulf of Mexico (Anno 1508) Diego Velasquez conquers and colonises Cuba (1511-14) Francisco Hernandez Cordova discovers the Peninsula of Yucatan (1517) Juan de* Grijalva sails along the east Coast of New Spain (1518) Fernando Cortez sails from Cuba (Feb., 1519) Cortez founds Vera Cruz (July, 1519) He arrives at the City of Tenochtitlan (Nov. 8, 1519) " The mournful Night" (July 1, 1520) Cortez completes the Destruction of Tenochtitlan (Aug. 13, 1521) He discovers California (1535-6) He goes for the last Time to Spain (1540) He dies (Dec. 2, 1547). LIKE as in Central Europe there is a gradual narrow ing of land towards the south, whereby the beautiful peninsulas of Italy and Greece are formed; like as the broad northern mass of Asia also contracts towards the south into the peninsula of Hindostan, that land cele brated no less in history, than for the rich gifts of nature; so likewise does the vast continent of North America gradually narrow towards the equator into that THE ISTHMUS-LAND OF AMERICA. 171 wonderfully rich peninsula, or Isthmus-land, called in ancient times Analmac (the land between two seas), and which now is styled Mexico. In all parts of the world we may remark that to be surrounded by the sea, has been favourable to the birth and growth of civilisation. Nearly all the oldest cradles of European, of Asiatic, and also of American culture, have been on peninsulas. The broad and cold northern regions of America, con sisting partly of nigged mountains, and partly of vast deserts of grass and endless forests of trees, formed a monotonous paradise for races of hunting savages. But as this huge mass of land extends southwards, it takes a more graceful and otherwise more favourable form. The rugged mountains begin to be broken up into high plateaus, or table-lands, of moderate extent. From these plateaus the land falls on either side in many ter races towards the sea; and in a narrow compass are found the greatest variety of climate, and a correspond ing richness of vegetation. Whilst some of the highest peaks of the land tower up into the regions of eternal snow ; whilst tropical heat and a tropical wealth of vege tation prevail over the lower coast districts, an almost constant spring smiles upon the valleys which lie between these two extremes. These regions^ where is the home of the cocoa-tree, of tobacco, of Indian corn, and of 172 CHANGES IN MEXICAN SOIL. many other valuable plants ; whence nearly a third of the most beautiful flowers and shrubs, which now deco rate our gardens, have come ; where silver, gold, copper, and other precious and useful metals abound, soon attracted the wandering races from the north, and in vited them to a permanent abode. The remarkable antiquarian researches of modern days on the great Central American Isthmus-land have shown that at the time when the Europeans first began to sail across the ocean, already a series of civilisations had bloomed and then vanished on the soil of Mexico. Barbarians from the north had repeatedly penetrated into the country, and each time, after having laid it waste, they ended, like the Tartars in China, in adopting the civilisation which clung to the soil. We are now enabled to distinguish, in this corner of the earth, four or five alternate periods of culture and decay ; to know that, on this changeful stage of light and darkness, tra gedies have been enacted of which the rest of the world remained profoundly ignorant. The wild Chechemecas followed the Tolketen, and the former were succeeded by the Acolhuas and the warlike Aztecas. The last laid the foundation of their realm, which in the end comprised a great part of modern Mexico, about the time of the Crusades. At the time when Columbus ploughed his first furrows COLUMBUS RECEIVES INTIMATIONS OF MEXICO. 173 in the ocean, this empire was in the zenith of its deve lopment, and the sway of its monarchs extended far. Twice did Columbus come so near to this land of pro mise, that it seemed as if the glory of conquering Mexico must have fallen to his share. The first time was in 1494, when he discovered the southern coast of Cuba. He sailed then almost through the gates of the Gulf of Mexico ; but he turned away from these golden portals because his provisions, and consequently his courage, failed. A second time, in the year 1502, when he dis covered the countries of Honduras, he received a yet more striking intimation of the west. A large Indian ship from the land of the Aztecas, laden with many strange and elegant products of nature and art, more beautiful than any Columbus had hitherto seen in his new world, fell into his hands. And the sailors, whom he questioned about their home, gave him plainly to understand where abouts it was. But at that time the imagination of Co lumbus was full of still greater wonders, which he be lieved awaited him in the south, and he neglected to turn the hint he received to account. Instead of direct ing his course to the west, where new glory would have gilded his sinking star, he sailed to the south, and expe rienced a series of misfortunes and sufferings which soon brought him to the end of his career. The Spaniards who followed in the steps of Columbus explored all the 174 VELASQUEZ SUBDUES CUBA. corners of the Caribbean sea, and the greatest part of the Atlantic coast of South America, before any one of them succeeded in penetrating into the large basin of the Mexican waters. The fair island of Cuba, the key and guardian of this sea, was long neglected by them, and not until 1511, almost twenty years after the island had been discovered by Columbus, was it decided to take possession of it, and to subjugate the natives entirely. The accomplishment of this task was entrusted to the Knight Diego Velasquez, who landing with a small army on the eastern coast, marched to the western extremity, subduing all the native tribes, and filling the land with settlements and towns. Scarcely had Velasquez, with equal skill and good fortune, finished his task, than he turned his eyes towards the unknown regions in the west, of which he soon received some intimation. The renown of Velasquez having attracted to him many of those Spaniards who thirsted for new adven tures and wealth, in 1517 he sent out a few ships, and placed them under the command of Francisco Hernandez de Cordova, a bold and wealthy nobleman, already the owner of considerable land and many Indians. Her nandez and his companions sailed from the western extremity of Cuba, and in a few days they caught sight CORDOVA DISCOVERS YUCATAN. 175 of a new coast, and steered along it in a westerly di rection. They saw that it was a beautiful country, inha bited by semi-civilised races who dwelt in populous towns, in which there were regular streets, temples, and lofty houses. They asked the natives how their home was called, and heard the word "Yucatan" in reply, which in their language meant, " I do not understand thee." But he Spaniards took it for the name of the country, and thus "Yucatan" came into use. But as the numerous towns and buildings in the new country reminded the Spaniards of their native land, they called it likewise New Spain. Later, this name, "Nueva Espaiia," was extended to the whole of Mexico, which soon afterwards was discovered. Hernandez did not sail much farther along the coast of Yucatan than the little bay of Campeche. Near to another town in that neighbourhood, a san guinary battle with the natives took place. Mortally wounded, and with his forces much reduced by hard ships, he returned to Cuba. On his arrival, he wrote to the Governor Velasquez a most favourable account of the countries he had seen, and ten days later he died of his wounds, and the fatigues he had undergone. Velasquez was enchanted with the report he received ; 176 SECOND EXPEDITION TO YUCATAN. with the account of the towns surrounded by walls ; with the specimens of cotton stuffs, and elegant idols and gold ornaments which those who came back had brought with them. In none of their previous voyages had the Spaniards made such discoveries as these amongst the American savages, and the rumour of rich culti vated lands in the west soon spread all over the island. The cupidity of the sailors and adventurers had always led them to those points where new countries were opened, and all now turned to Cuba, to place themselves under the command of Velasquez. This soon enabled him to get up a large army and a fleet, which in the fol lowing year left the shores of Cuba, under the com mand of Juan de Grijalva, a promising young nobleman of honourable character. Grijalva, like his predecessor, landed at Campeche, and other places on the coast of Yucatan, receiving from the natives valuable presents, or giving them battle, ac cording as they behaved towards them. He sailed beyond the non plus ultra of his predecessor, and soon caught sight of the lofty mountains of Mexico. After sailing many days to the west, he found a tolerably convenient harbour in which he cast anchor. The natives called this place Uloa, and Grijalva adopted the name, adding thereto his own Christian name, Juan, and San Juan de Uloa has continued to the present day GRIJALVA AND THE MEXICAN MONARCH. 177 to designate the fort which protects the celebrated har bour of Vera Cruz. The Spaniards had here reached the point from which, through convenient passes, the shortest way led to the high plateau surrounded by mountains, where the capital of the great king of this isthmus was situated. It was here that Grijalva and his companions received the first news of this monarch, who, they were told, was clothed from head to foot in armour of gold. It was here, also, that the spectacle of human sacrifices on the altar of the terrible war god of the Aztecas was first seen. The Spaniards were horrified at this sight, although, to gratify their lust of gold and territory, they had long accus tomed themselves to sacrifice human life wholesale. If the honourable and cautious Grijalva had possessed the ambition and the strong passions of a Cortez, he would probably have tried to seize the prize, and have attempted the conquest of the country. But as a faith ful and conscientious servant, he kept strictly to his in structions, which were that he should " reconnoitre the coasts, the harbours, and their capabilities." He there fore did not penetrate into the country, but sailed on to the north, examining the coast, and then returned to Cuba to be ill requited for his honourable conduct. Velasquez, who feared that some one of the other go vernors of the West Indian Islands would come before VOL. i. N 178 FERNANDO CORTEZ. him and obtain the prize, rated Grijalva severely that, with such favourable prospects, he had not disregarded his instructions and taken possession of the country, or at least of some station on the coast. He went to work im mediately to organise a new army and fleet, and he looked about for a new leader of a more enterprising character. Amongst the many knights and captains of energy and talent by whom he was surrounded, his choice fell now upon this one, now upon that, until at length he fixed his thoughts upon one who certainly was the best fitted for great undertakings, but, as regarded his own interests, was the most dangerous rival he could have found. The choice of Velasquez fell at last upon Fernando Cortez, of whose life, character, and doings, I must now give a short account. Like most of the Spanish adventurers born in narrow circumstances who have played a great part in the con quest of the new world, Cortez came from a small place in the neighbourhood of Seville, the centre of all the plans and projects connected with the west. His father belonged to a family of ancient nobility, whose pedigree, subsequently, was traced back to the old Gothic kings of Spain. He was so weakly at his birth that it was feared he could not be reared, but he grew up to become a lively, promising youth, full of talent. His parents destined him for the profession of the law, and in the HIS MARRIAGE AND RESIDENCE IN CUBA. 179 course of his preparatory education he gained some knowledge, learnt the Latin language, and even at tempted some literary compositions and verses. His lively spirit, however, did not allow him to make much progress on this tedious path, and, in his nineteenth year, he accompanied the governor Ovando, the successor of Columbus, to the new world, which at that time offered the best field for the ambitious. He began his career by accompanying his chief in his campaigns in the interior of Hispaniola, and thus became acquainted with Indian warfare. Subsequently he sailed with Velasquez, in the year 1511, to Cuba, as one of his officers, and he helped to subjugate this island. At the conclusion of this un dertaking he married a beautiful Spanish lady, Catalina de Xuarez, and he received a portion of land as his private property, together with a number of Indians as slaves. He now lived some time quietly as a West Indian planter, cultivating the soil and bringing over sheep and cattle from Spain, and he soon realised a fortune of some thousands of ducats. His frank and affable manners, his constant good humour and merry wit, made him the favourite of his circle, and gained him many friends amongst the commanders and rich planters. That he was of an ambitious, self-willed, and earnest disposition had not been remarked. On the contrary, he appeared to be somewhat superficial, frivolous, and N2 180 CORTEZ IN COMMAND OF AN EXPEDITION. fond of amusement. Until this time, too, he had shown himself obedient towards his superiors. This was the kind of man Velasquez wanted to command his army ; he thought that he could easily guide him, and that his ready money and many friends might be turned to good account in his outfit. But no sooner did Cortez find himself raised to a high position as commander of an army and a fleet, with a great object before his eyes worthy of every exertion to accomplish, than his whole nature seemed to be changed. He became serious, and he forthwith displayed the greatest activity in forwarding the outfit of the armada. He was the soul of the whole undertaking, inspiring the knights and the five hundred soldiers collected together, for whose complete equipment he not only spent all his ready money, but likewise mortgaged his landed pro perty. Velasquez, when informed by his creatures of the sudden change in Cortez, of his most enthusiastic and energetic conduct, became greatly alarmed, and, re penting his choice, decided on taking other measures. But Cortez soon got a hint of these intentions, and cun ningly decided to defeat them by getting out of the way. He at once raised the anchors of his not yet fully equipped fleet, and sailed along the south coast of Cuba, taking on board at different places, according to oppor tunity, the requisite provisions, ammunition, and horses. HE ARRIVES AT SAN JUAN DE ULOA. 181 In vain Velasquez sent after him with orders for his arrest ; Cortez gave the first great proof of his skill by escaping all the snares, and overcoming all the impedi ments, placed in his way. After completing the outfit of his ships as well as he could at the extreme western end of Cuba, he put to sea, in February, 1519, with eleven vessels, to steer to the new land of golden promise. Velasquez remained behind, a prey to impotent rage and grief, destined never to see Cortez again. But, at the last moment, he received from the latter a polite letter, in which he entreated him "not to believe all the evil reports of false and envious men." The same celebrated Spanish navigator, Antonio de Alaminos, who had steered the fleets of Hernandez ana 1 Grijalva, and was more experienced in the Gulf of Mexico than any other man, served Cortez as pilot. With his assistance he soon arrived at the Port of San Juan de Uloa, reached by Grijalva the year before, and where he had heard of the ruler in the interior clothed in gold. Cortez explored the coast still farther to the north, but, finding no better harbour, he landed his army, and decided to found there the first strong settlement. He organised a community, as citizens and soldiers, to take possession of the houses and fortifications, and he appointed magistrates in the name of the King of Spain. The town which Cortez thus founded he called " Villa 182 CORTEZ RECEIVES TIDINGS OF MONTEZUMA. Rica de la Vera Cruz" the rich town of the true Cross. Subsequently, its position was more than once somewhat changed, but it continued to be the root of the Spanish kingdom of Mexico. It formed, as it were, the mouth and the gate of New Spain, through which all those who arrived from the east passed, and by means of which connexion with the mother country was kept up. And in like manner has the line of march which Cortez took in penetrating from this place into the in terior continued since to be the principal route from the eastern coast to Mexico. Cortez remained on the coast only long enough to gain necessary information. He gathered that the much- dreaded king in the interior was called Montezuma, and that he was able to bring together powerful armies. He remarked, however, that the subjects of this mighty king complained of his tyranny, and that there was by no means unanimity in the country, so that he hoped to be able to gain over a party to himself, and, by dividing the natives, to subdue them. Montezuma, made timid by mysterious occurrences which had been interpreted to forebode the downfal of tys realm who, moreover, had for the last two years been alarmed by reports of the strangers who had landed on his coast armed with thunder and lightning sent one ambassador after another with rich presents, beautiful HE MARCHES INTO THE INTERIOR. 183 fabrics, rare pearls, precious stones, and elegant gold and silver ornaments ; things all of such splendour that, as a contemporary relates, the Spaniards believed it all to be a dream. The emperor hoped in this way to satisfy the cupidity of the new comers, and to prevail upon them to depart. But to Cortez and his followers, to whom thus the whole wealth of the country was revealed, a new stimulus was given to find the source of all these trea sures. In a speech full of glowing enthusiasm, Cortez assured his companions that he would make them the wealthiest men on earth. To Montezuma he sent word that he was merely come as ambassador of his king to pay him a short and friendly visit. But following the example of other energetic conquerors who have landed on a strange coast with the determination to conquer or die, he burnt his fleet and marched into the interior of the un known country. Like Napoleon, at a later period of history, on his march to Moscow, he proclaimed freedom to the disaffected subjects of the emperor, and ordered them to pay no more tribute. The news of this soon spreading abroad, preceded him on his march, and pre pared him everywhere a favourable reception. The vassals of the Aztecas, from the neighbourhood of Vera Cruz, joined his army and acted as guides. Secretly, however, Cortez sent messengers to Montezuma, assuring 184 RELIGIOUS ZEAL OF CORTEZ. him of his friendship, and entreating him not to believe any evil reports, but to wait calmly till they could meet. He likewise sent him back some of his ambassadors who had been arrested by his excited vassals, but whom he had liberated. The behaviour of Cortez was in all respects highly diplomatic, for he was no less astute and artful than energetic and courageous. On one point only was he unyielding, and this was in regard to his religion. Ac cording to the statement of one of his followers, he was " a very pious cavalier, very conscientious in the perform ance of the duties of his Church, in praying to the Virgin, to the Apostle St. Peter, and all the other saints." Wherever he went, whether amongst friends or foes, he ordered the temples to be destroyed, or cleared out and consecrated as Christian churches. That this undiplo matic conduct of Cortez did not ruin his undertaking is very remarkable. On all occasions when the heathenish temples had been purified from human blood, thoroughly cleansed, and the walls whitewashed, an altar to the Virgin was erected, her portrait placed above it, and the Spaniards then defiled before it in solemn procession, burning incense and holding tapers in their hands. The soldiers helped the priests to perform mass, swinging the censers, tolling bells, and shedding tears of emotion at witnessing the triumph of the Cross. Although the sol- HE VANQUISHES THE TLASCALANS. 185 diers of Cortez were but about five hundred in number, yet to men in this frame of mind great things were easy of accomplishment. They were five hundred heroes in spired by the strongest of human motives the lust of gain and fiery zeal for their faith. Marching through the hot plains on the western coast of the Mexican Gulf, in a few days Cortez and his followers climbed the heights of the central table-land, and beheld the gigantic peaks of the Orizaba, the Coffre de Perote, and other mountains which they had previously only seen from the ocean. On this plateau, surrounded by lofty mountains, they found an old-established com munity of bold republicans, who had maintained their in dependence of the Aztecas. Their chief town and their well-cultivated country were called Tlascala i. e. the place where corn grows. After many fruitless attempts to negotiate a peace with the Tlascalans, Cortez found himself obliged to attack them. He defeated them in a sanguinary battle, and marched into Tlascala, gaining at once, for his further operations against Montezuma and his capital, a position and allies, for the people became his devoted adherents. Throughout the whole of his brilliant career, Cortez gained more by his captivating manners, his gracious conduct, and his unfaltering courage, than by his victories. He possessed many qua. lities particularly suited to make a great impression on 186 PERSONAL QUALITIES OF CORTEZ. the half-civilised natives. He had the gift of eloquence, acuteness of intellect which enabled him to look into the future, steadfastness of purpose which never allowed him to turn back, presence of mind which no unexpected difficulties could disturb, and an enthusiasm for glory, which at all times and in all countries has proved to be the first quality of a hero. In one word, he possessed in the highest degree the art of gaining an ascendancy over others. Those whom he had vanquished he treated with generosity and kindness, making them believe that he was as zealous for their interests as for those of the Spaniards. In the character of his mind there was a striking resemblance to that of Alexander the Great, and he has been called the Alexander of the West. It has been said of him, too, as well as of the conqueror of the East, that his personal qualities were of more ac count in all his enterprises than his army. Thus the natives soon came to venerate him as a great chief. They called him their " Malinche," their " Calchichutl ;" that is, their emerald ; and the renown and great name of Cortez soon spreading far and wide, proved to be more efficacious in the conquest of Mexico than the steel of the Spaniards and the thunder of their cannon. By the addition of the now subservient Tlascalans, who from ancient times had been the most bitter op ponents of the Aztecas, and whom he had persuaded to ORDAS ASCENDS A LOFTY MOUNTAIN. 187 become Christians, Cortez found his army increased by many thousands. He formed his allies into companies under the command of Spanish officers, and he marched towards those mountains which surrounded the central valley in which was situated the capital of Montezuma. Two of the highest of these mountains were called by the Tlascalans " Popocatepetl," and " Iztaccihuatl," the fire mountain, and the white lady. Not long before, the first of these, to the terror of the natives, had raged most furiously, and sent forth greater volumes of flame than had been seen for a long time past, as if in rivalry with the Spanish ordnance. As they iieared the foot of this mountain on their march, one of Cortez s captains, the bold Diego Ordas, was seized with a desire to ascend this wonder of nature, and that longing was strengthened when he heard the Indians say that no mortal man had ever reached the summit. Cortez, who was willing to show the natives that Spaniards could easily accomplish that which they held to be difficult or impossible, allowed Orgas to depart. At first he was accompanied by Indian guides, but they soon took their leave, kissing the gar ments of the Spaniards, who were going, as they believed, to the mouth of hell. In a short time the countrymen of Ordas, too, lost heart, and wanted to turn back, but he told them it would be dishonourable in Castilians not to carry out whatever they had undertaken, even if they 188 THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. should lose their lives in the effort. They proceeded, therefore, and succeeded in reaching the rim of the crater ; and from this point a magnificent prospect was unrolled before their eyes. For the first time, they saw the country around Mexico, the centre of the Aztec realm, with its lakes, its numerous towns and villages. Ordas thought that he could count thirty large towns, and he told his companions that this was the chosen land which their good fortune had reserved for them. " The more unbelievers it contains," he added, " the better for us, the more wealth to be gained." On emerging from the narrow pass between the two mountains, Cortez himself saw the splendid country which Ordas had told him he had beheld from the lofty eminence he had climbed. He saw before him smiling lakes, cultivated fields, gardens full of flowers, and an extensive valley densely peopled, the existence of which was as unknown to his contemporaries as it had been to the ancients, although in this beautiful part of the globe many nations had already completed their history. This wonderful valley, in circumference about oi\e hundred and seventy-five miles, seems to have been des tined by nature for a centre of intercourse, for a resting- place of civilisation, for the development of power and extension of rule around. The soil is fertile, and the climate mild; the lakes, continually fed by mountain THE AZTEC AS. 189 streams, afford the means of irrigation. Surrounded by a fringe of high mountains, the possessors of the valley found protection; and the main rivers of the Mexican peninsula have their sources in this basin itself, or in the neighbourhood of it, and they flow in all directions, to the Atlantic as well as to the Pacific. Nearly all the branches of the human family which have penetrated into the land of Anahuac from the north, have at last sought repose in this beautiful cradle of Mexican culture, have built in it solid towns, residences for their kings, and then from this centre they have more or less extended their influence and their power. When Cortez discovered this region, the Aztecas had been settled more than three hundred years in their capital, Tenochtitlan, on one of the lakes, which, like an cient Rome, had grown by degrees to be the mistress of the whole valley, and at last of all the surrounding land between the two oceans. Like the Romans, too, the Aztecas appear at first to have formed a kind of aris tocratic republic, under bold hereditary chiefs; but in the end the extension of their conquests paved the way with them, as it had done with the Romans, for the rule of a single monarch. Cortez found this people at the height of their greatness and power, and with a despot for ruler. In a twofold respect this circumstance was favourable to his plans ; for, firstly, he found that the 190 DIPLOMATIC CONDUCT OF COETEZ. neighbouring and oppressed tribes were jealous of the Aztecas, and had become impatient of their rule, so that he could easily play the part of liberator ; and secondly, it enabled him to concentrate all his energy and power on one point, where, if he succeeded, all would be gained. He saw, too, at once, that if he could manage, either by cunning or force, in gaining over the powerful chief of the state, Montezuma, he would be able to issue orders in his name which would be respected far and wide. Anahuac resembled a ship, which belongs to him who has command of the rudder. Whenever in America a well-organised state was discovered by the Spaniards, as in Mexico, Peru, and Bogota, their conquests were rapid ; but when the natives were broken up into many warlike tribes, their progress was but slow. Cortez earned out his plans in a most cunning and in some respects wonderful manner. He repeatedly sent assurances to Montezuma that he was not a conqueror, but that he was coming only as ambassador of his king, who was the owner of all the land on the eastern side of the ocean, and had sent him to greet the powerful ruler on this side. In this way he enticed Montezuma to enter into friendly negotiations, and accord him a solemn meeting and welcome. He slipped thus into the capital, and obtained possession of a large building as residence, which he forthwith put into a state of defence, placing THE CITY OF TENOCHTITLAX. 191 his cannon in proper positions. When, in this way, he had provided for the safety of his little band, like a tra veller desirous of sight-seeing he went over the town, taking note of its position, its buildings, and of the roads or causeways with which the Mexicans had con nected their island city, their Venice, with the main land. In the market-places he found all the products of the neighbourhood He saw, too, magazines full of elegant stuffs, carpets made in a wonderful manner of the feathers of birds, and pictures representing flowers, animals, trees, rocks, and even landscapes, worked with the brilliant feathers of humming-birds. These pictures were so skilfully produced, that they equalled the works of Spanish painters. Indeed, some of them were subse quently admired in the world s metropolis of art, in Home, to which place they wandered as presents to the Pope. The shops were filled with various specimens of Mexican handiwork in gold and silver, so beautiful and ingenious that the Spanish goldsmiths, into whose hands some of these articles afterwards came, were quite at a loss to understand how they had been made, and unable to imitate them. There were even apothecaries shops in Tenochtitlan containing spices and medicines quite new to the Spaniards. Montezuma himself conducted the stranger over his palaces, his gardens, and his menagerie, and he ascended with him to the top of the lofty temples. 192 CORTEZ GETS MOXTEZUMA INTO HIS POWER. In the remarkable menagerie of the king, Cortez found a rich collection of the birds and animals of the country, some of which he described in his letters to the Emperor Charles V. From the summit of the great pyramid temple of the city, Cortez was able to see the whole of the beautiful surrounding country. It appeared to him to be the most lovely prospect in the world. t He could not suffi ciently feast his eyes upon it. To his companions he said, "What think ye, gentlemen, of the grace and bounty of God, in conducting us here after so many toils and difficulties, and such hard victories ? In truth, I think that from this city we shall be able to conquer many rich provinces, for of such only can it be the capital. If we can once get this city into our power, all the rest will be easy." With incomprehensible weakness and blindness Mon- tezuma yielded to the request of Cortez that he should quit his own palace and reside with the Spaniards, who had now turned their abode into a fortress. He soon found himself in the meshes of the crafty foreigner, and a prisoner in his own capital. One may almost see in this a prelude to what occurred at a later period in the capital of a European king I mean Warsaw where the ambassador of a powerful emperor, accompanied by HE LEARNS THE EXTENT OF AN AH U AC. 193 troops, in a similar manner accomplished the ruin of a great state and its monarch. Scarcely had Cortez Montezuma in his power, than he began, in his name and with his assistance, to rule over the still unknown empire, and above all things, to try to acquire a knowledge of its extent and resources. Montezuma himself he managed to keep in the proper humour by paying him daily visits, and occupying him with parades and exercises of the Spanish troops, with music, and other spectacles. He got Montezuma to draw him an outline of Anahuac, so that for us Euro peans this prince was the first geographer and map- maker of that region. From his mouth came the first accounts of Mexico which Cortez sent to Charles V., and according to which the European geographers of that time made their maps of that country. In conver sation with Montezuma, Cortez learnt the names of the different provinces subject to his rule. He gathered from him, too, that on the other side of Anahuac, at a distance of ten or twelve days journey, another great water would be found, and Cortez immediately con cluded this could be no other than the sea Balboa had discovered six years before viz. the Pacific. But in especial Cortez inquired of his prisoner whence the quantity of gold and silver came that he saw in Tenoch- VOL. I. 194 THE SPANIARDS IN THE CAPITAL. titlan, and Montezuma told him of several streams in which gold might be picked up, and of places where silver was found. Cortez even questioned the emperor about the coast-lands in the Gulf of Mexico, and to his surprise Montezuma produced a piece of cotton cloth, on which was drawn a line of coast extending about three hundred and fifty miles, with all the capes, and all the rivers flowing into that sea. Having gained all the information in his power from Montezuma, Cortez sent some of his captains to the distant provinces to reconnoitre, and gain further know ledge. To these Spaniards Montezuma gave guides and soldiers to act as guards, with orders to all his governors and their subalterns to do everything in their power to assist the messengers of his friend Cortez. The Spaniards were everywhere received as honoured guests, indeed as superior beings, and were even wel comed by the hostile tribes amongst whom the Aztecas dared not show themselves. Indeed, it almost appeared as if the whole of the country between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific was, without bloodshed, willing to lay itself at the feet of Cortez. He ruled in Tenochtitlan along with Monte zuma, and in his name he issued whatever decrees he pleased. By all he was regarded with admiration and a kind of mysterious awe ; and from all sides came envoys, FRIENDLINESS OF THE INHABITANTS. 195 presents, and assurances of friendship. The Mexicans were so taken by surprise, and so fascinated with their visitors, that they listened with composure when told that the gods they worshipped were not deities, but demons ; and they allowed the Spaniards to forbid the heathenish sacrifices in their temples, and even to erect an altar themselves to the Virgin, and to perform ceremonies in her honour, in the centre of the principal temple in the capital. Such concessions, the result of the first impressions of astonishment and fear on the part of the natives on the sudden appearance amongst them of such extraordinary strangers ; such a complete peace as encompassed Cortez on his first residence in Mexico, have been experienced by all the European discoverers on their first entrance in the new world ; in Peru, as in Mexico ; in Guatemala as well as on the St. Lawrence. But everywhere, too, has the first calm been followed by a storm, by a general conspiracy and uprising of the natives, and by a period of conflict, which has occasionally brought the Europeans to the brink of ruin, but out of which they have generally come victorious, although after great losses, and having recourse to the most sanguinary and fearful measures. They have then finished the work they had begun, but on the ruins of the states they had found, and on the graves of the exterminated natives. 02 196 EXPEDITION OF VELASQUEZ. If Cortez had not left enemies behind him in Cuba more dangerous to him than the Mexicans ; if he had been able quietly to draw from thence, by way of Vera Cruz and Tlascala, such supplies of men and ammuni tion as he needed to continue as he had begun, and thus gain a firm footing throughout the empire, perhaps all might have ended without convulsion. But his infuriated chief, before whose eyes, so to speak, Cortez had carried off the bride he expected to embrace, soon tore to pieces the web the latter had so skilfully woven. It was not without reason that Velasquez was enraged, for the re nown of Cortez s deeds soon spread all over the Antilles. Reports of his success attracted numerous adventurers to Cuba, and seated as Velasquez was in the gates of the Gulf of Mexico, it was easy for him to enrol them in his service. He soon got up a large army, which he placed under the command of Pamfilo de Navaez, a popular captain with the soldiers, and he sent him after Cortez to tear from him his booty. Navaez and his men, who were about twice the number of Spaniards Cortez had with him, landed at Vera Cruz and marched into the country. Cortez had long feared something of the kind, and soon receiving news of what had taken place, he saw himself obliged to fro forth at once to meet his enemies. He left his D captain, Alvarado, and a small body of troops, with HIS DEFEAT BY COPwTEZ. 197 Montezuma. But this monarch had likewise heard that other Spaniards were come, and that they spoke in a con temptuous way of his much-honoured " emerald/ whom they intended to arrest as a rebel, in the name of the king for whom he had professed himself to act. Cortez assured him, however, that the affair was not serious, and that these reports arose from a misunderstanding, which he would soon set right. Nevertheless, all these circum stances which Montezuma was unable to explain to him self, " confused his head," as Herara says, and they like wise destroyed the illusions of the Mexicans in general in respect to the " children of the sun," whom they now saw in conflict with one another. With the quickness of lightning, Cortez fell by night upon the army of Navaez, vanquished it, made prisoners of the leaders, and with the remaining soldiers, who joined his flag, he returned in triumph to Mexico. But in his absence, the state of things there had changed considerably. That which had " confused the head " of Montezuma, had roused all his subjects out of their sleep. It was now plain to all that Cortez had not come as a peaceful ambassador of his king, as he had pretended, for if this had been the case, he would not have entered into deadly conflict with his countrymen on Mexican soil. Besides, during his absence, his captain, Alvarado, seized with alarm at his position, with so small a band of 198 CORTEZ DRIVEN FROM THE CAPITAL. soldiers in such a populous city, had acted most im prudently and cruelly, had fallen upon the Mexicans, and committed terrible slaughter amongst them. This had greatly increased the unfavourable opinion of the Spaniards. That Montezuma still continued with the strangers, turned his subjects against him, and entering into a conspiracy, they determined to choose another ruler. The commands of Montezuma were no longer obeyed, and when the conspiracy broke out into open re bellion, and the Spaniards tried to make use of him as mediator, he was put to death by his own people. Thousands of infuriated patriots, no longer regarding the terrible effect of the Spanish guns, threw themselves on their fortified houses, which they took by storm, and Cortez had to retreat from Tenochtitlan. Heroically fighting, and with great losses, Cortez effected his escape, shedding torrents of blood in that fearful night emphatically called by Spanish historians, " la noclie triste " in which the Spaniards were sur rounded by the infuriated populace, like an isolated rock in the sea by the raging surf. He was obliged to quit the lovely valley of Mexico and to retire behind the mountains to the republicans of Tlascala, who rare in stance in the history of the Indians, or, indeed, of any people remained faithful to him in misfortune. And now he had to recommence, but with other means and in , PREPARATIONS TO ATTACK IT. 199 another way, the task of conquering Mexico. He had now to gain bit by bit that which before he had hoped to have secured by one bold grasp. Hitherto his messen gers had been able to travel in security all over Mexico, but he was now reduced to two places in the country to the harbour of Yera Cruz, where his garrison courage ously held its ground, and to the country around Tlas cala, the inhabitants of which continued his friends, and who were in consequence, at a later period, rewarded by the Spanish emperor with many privileges. At first he even lost the road between these two places Tlascala and Vera Cruz for the roving bands of Indians fell upon and overthrew the small bodies of Spaniards em ployed to keep the communication open. But Cortez succeeded in the end in getting command of the road, and was fortunate enough, at the critical moment, to re ceive fresh supplies of men and other necessaries. He now made frequent inroads into the districts around Tlascala, and again raised the sinking courage of his sol diers by repeated victories. He succeeded in completely subduing all the inhabitants of this table-land, by which he increased his army of Indian allies and gained large numbers of subservient workmen. His next step was to collect materials for ship-building in the forests of Tlas cala, for without ships he could not attack Tenochtitlan, built, like Venice, in the water, and whose inhabitants 200 CORTEZ ON THE LAKE. possessed innumerable canoes. It was on the causeways, connecting the town with the mainland, that the losses of the Spaniards had been greatest on that " sorrowful night." To the woods, therefore, he sent his Indian workmen, under the guidance of Spanish sailors, to cut timber, make tar and ropes. He set up forges, too, for the manufacture of nails and anchors. When his pre parations were ready, the courage of his followers raised afresh, his Indian army sufficiently powerful, he again advanced through the mountain passes into the valley of Mexico ; and after surmounting innumerable difficulties, and after many dearly-bought victories over the towns nearest to Tenochtitlan, he at length took up a firm po sition on the banks of the lake, opposite to that city. In long procession, thousands of Indians were employed in carrying the wood and other materials for ship-building over the mountains, piece for piece, to be deposited on the shore of the lake. The vessels were now con structed, and at length launched into the water to the singing of Te Deums. The fresh appearance of Cortez in their valley, the new wonder of those large " brigan- tines" gliding about with their full sails smoothly on the waters, so astonished and alarmed the natives, that nearly all the tribes went over to the Spaniards. In the city of Tenochtitlan, however, the Aztecas, having chosen a young and patriotic prince to be their king and leader, were determined to assert their independence. SIEGE OF TENOCHTITLAN. 201 This prince, Guatemozin by name, had sent messengers to all the northern and western parts of the empire de manding the assistance of all the vassals of the Aztecas, and promising them exemption from tribute if victorious. Many had obeyed this summons, and thousands of war riors were crowded together in the city ; but nearly as many, from deep-rooted hatred of their old oppressors, had come again to the side of Cortez, especially as he was now seen in possession of a fleet, and with his banner floating on the shore of the lake. Again Cortez had completely succeeded in dividing the people of the empire and in opposing them to one another in arms. He had nearly as many warriors as Guatemozin ; indeed, some of his allies from Tlascala, from Cholula, Tescuco, and other places, possessed older traditions and claims to rule than the Aztecas, and now that they found themselves powerfully supported, their long suppressed hatred of that race flared up, and they even fought more obstinately and mercilessly than the Spaniards. The siege and gradual conquest of the great city of Tenochtitlan, which lasted three months, and to which Cortez now proceeded, having previously, as it were, cut off all the arms and canals from the main body, forms one of the most extraordinary and terrible events in the history of the discovery of America. It has been com pared to the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem under Titus. It was the wish of Cortez to preserve this 202 DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY. remarkable town, and to shed as little blood as possible. Whilst pressing, therefore, on Guatemozin from all sides by land and water, he repeatedly summoned him to sur render ; but this young prince had inspired his country men with such heroic courage that the answer Cortez invariably received was : " Guatemozin and his warriors are determined to conquer or die, and to fight as long as a Spaniard or an Aztec shall remain alive." Day by day Cortez made his way into the town, in which every temple, every tower, and every house had been turned into a fortress. Every day he drew out hundreds from these buildings, dead or alive, delivering up the latter to the fury of his allies. As thousands were ready to take the places of the slain, he was obliged to commence a radical destruction of the town. This work of destruction lasted one hundred days, during which time one quarter of the town after the other, with its streets, temples and houses, was razed to the ground, and the rubbish used for filling up the canals. In these canals the Mexicans had found their chief protection, for whilst the large brigantines of the Spaniards were unable to enter them, the canoes of the citizens moved about in all directions. Now and then Cortez ascended a tower, or a temple pyramid, to see how much of the town there yet remained for him to conquer and destroy. One day he observed that nine-tenths of the old city had been made level with GUATEMOZIN A PRISONER. 203 the earth, and that Guatemozin and his remaining sub jects were collected together in the other tenth part. He wished at least to save this last portion of the city, and again he summoned Guatemozin to surrender. Many of the chiefs around him were known to Cortez ; he called to them by their names, and spoke to them so elo quently on the advantage of concluding a peace, on the horrors of further war, and useless shedding of blood, that tears ran down the cheeks of these men. They wept, but would not surrender ! and Cortez found him self obliged to take this last remaining portion of the town by storm. With his two valiant captains, Sandoval and Alvarado, who throughout the siege had proved them selves worthy to stand by the side of a Cortez, he at tacked the Aztecas from different sides. His Indian allies, whose passions and thirst for vengeance the stub born defence had raised to the utmost pitch, rushed head long and regardless of their lives into the streets yet filled with their enemies; fifty thousand of the latter were slain, and the rest of the town was transformed so completely into a mass of ruins and ashes, that, as Cortez himself said, in this old metropolis of. the Aztecas not one stone remained upon another. The young hero Guatemozin, whom some of his people had tried to save by carrying him in a canoe across the lake, was taken prisoner and brought before Cortez. The latter, seeing his grief, tried to console him by some nattering words. 204 CORTEZ PLANS A NEW CAPITAL. But, like a true patriot and hero, he repulsed these friendly advances, and tried to seize the dagger which Cortoz carried in his girdle, telling him that the only henefit he could bestow upon him, was not with his tongue, but with his steel, for now that his people had been destroyed, he desired only to die himself. But few great cities and few great people have fallen so heroically, and so completely with one blow, as the Aztecas and their capital, Tenochtitlan. Cortez resided for some time in the little town of Co- johuacan, not far from the mass of ruins he had created. It was here that he sketched out the plan of a new capital for the land, choosing the same situation as that of the old city. Hoping for a great future, he laid everything down on a grand scale, and in his letters to the Emperor Charles V., from his camp at Cojolmacan, he prophesied that the new city would soon be the largest and most beautiful in the new world. As he had done before, when residing with Montezuma, he again sent forth Spaniards in all directions. But they did not go now, as then, in small reconnoitring parties, to be received as welcome guests, with presents, with fetes, and to be admired as messengers from Heaven. They went this time as generals, crowned with laurels ; the bold Sandoval and the much dreaded Alvarado, ac companied by armies, by Spanish horsemen and artillery, and by large bodies of Indian allies, to demand tribute, SUCCESS OF CORTEZ. 205 obedience, subjection, and to settle themselves as lords and masters over all the table-lands and valleys they came to. In a succession of highly remarkable and eventful campaigns, the whole countiy between the two seas was within a few years made subject to the Spaniards. To the south, their rule extended to the volcanic mountains of Guatemala ; to the north, almost as far as the prairie lands of the Mississippi valley ; and to the west, to the Pacific, and along the coast as far as the Gulf of Cali fornia. In but a short time after the destruction of Tenochtitlan, Cortez was able to write to Charles Y. that he had conquered for him much larger and more beau tiful provinces in the new world, than his ancestors had ever possessed in the old, and he proposed to him to take in addition to his title of German Emperor, that of Em peror of Mexico. This was literally true ; only too true. Cortez s deserts were beyond all measure great. At that time he was the most extraordinary man, the most influential subject in the domains of Charles V. But monarchs have never loved powerful subjects long ; and Cortez had many ene mies at the Spanish court, who envied his greatness. His power over the minds of others was so great, that his friends repeatedly said that he alone in Mexico, in peace or war, was of more account than all the other 206 CORTEZ RETURNS TO SPAIN. Spaniards put together. He was generous, fond of pomp, and extravagant, and he possessed many other qualities fitting him for a popular ruler. In Spain, there fore, it was readily believed, when his enemies asserted that, just as he had disobeyed the orders of the governor of Cuba, he was now preparing to throw off the autho rity of his imperial master, and to found for himself a kingdom in Mexico. In fact, there were not wanting men in Mexico to instil this idea into his mind, to advise him to make himself independent of Spain. Of all the discoverers and conquerors of America, there never was one to whom such a step would have been so easy as to Cortez, for no other ever possessed such influence over the minds of many millions of natives and emigrants. But Cortez was, and continued, loyal. His letters to Charles V. sufficiently proved that he gloried in esta blishing a new empire, not for himself, but, above all things, for the good of his monarch and the Christian Church. Still, as his enemies and enviers allowed him no peace, he determined to return to Spain, to put an end to their machinations and do homage to the emperor in person. In 1528 he carried out this intention ; and his recep tion, both at court and by the people, was most favour able. His personal appearance and manners banished jealousy and suspicion in Spain, no less easily than they POLICY OF THE CROWX. 207 had sufficed to keep down discord and rebellion in Mexico. His journey through the country of his birth was like a triumphal inarch. The court bestowed upon him many tokens of favour, titles and fiefs; and the Emperor Charles V., the proud ruler over both the Indies, Spain, Italy, and Germany, paid a visit to his great captain when he was ill, and even attended to his nursing. From motives of state policy, however, it was not con sidered prudent to restore to the powerful vassal the same authority he had hitherto possessed in Mexico. The kings of Castile held firm to the principle that^ it was good to employ one class of men to make discoveries and conquests, and another class to administer the lands they acquired. The discoverers and conquistador es were for the most part young energetic upstarts, ready to risk their lives to gain for themselves a position in the world. But as men who owed all to their own merits, they were considered to be easily intoxicated by their good fortune, and were consequently regarded with suspicion, and re moved as soon as possible when they had done their work. Their places were then supplied by members of old aristocratic families, by men to whom wealth and power were nothing new, and who were supposed to have inherited the fidelity of subjects, and, at the same time, the arts of government. In accordance with this policy, a member of one of the 208 CORTEZ RETURNS TO MEXICO. most illustrious families of Spain, Don Antonio de Men- doza, was, after a little time, appointed Regent of New Spain, and sent over to Mexico with the magnificent title of Viceroy, a title which had never been bestowed upon Cortez, nor upon Columbus, nor any other discoverer or conqueror. Cortez had to content himself with the mili tary command and the title of Admiral of the South Sea. In the royal patent confirming his rank, he was in especial empowered and commissioned to make further discoveries on the other side of Mexico. He was promised that all the. new and rich lands he might discover in the South Sea should be his to rule over and govern. The golden beaker was once more cast into the abyss, and Cortez, who tried to seize the bait like the diver in the poem, lost his life in the attempt. At first, to be sure, the pill was nicely gilded. He was made a Grandee of Spain, and the district of Oaxaca, one of the most beau tiful valleys of Mexico, was bestowed upon him and his heirs, with the title of " Marques del Valle" He also received the hand of one of the richest and most dis tinguished Spanish heiresses, the young and beautiful Dona Juana de Zuiiiga. With this charming companion he again crossed the ocean, and went to reside on his estate on the southern slope of the Mexican mountains, where he built a mag nificent palace for his wife. As formerly in Cuba, he HE RESIDES ON HIS ESTATE. 209 now acted the part of a wealthy planter. He brought over from that island the sugar-cane, mulberry-trees, and other useful plants. He promoted, too, the breeding of silkworms, and introduced herds of cattle and merino sheep, the descendants of which soon spread all over Mexico. Even amidst the noise of arms, and in his journeys, he had always given his attention to the soil of the country and its capabilities, and he had soon discovered rich copper and tin mines in Mexico. He likewise had es tablished profitable salt works. Some of his companions, too, had discovered the silver mines of Zacatecas, and the abundance of precious metal which they yielded had begun already in Cortez s time to be spread all over Asia and Europe, whereby the prices of things, and luxury, were increased in an extraordinary degree. Cortez like wise paid great attention to the cultivation of that aro matic plant, from the fruit of which the Mexicans had long been accustomed to prepare chocolate, an article of diet now so much valued in Europe. He was un doubtedly the first European to drink this favourite be verage, flavoured with vanille, which Montezuma placed before him. Had Cortez continued in this way to the end of his life, if he had reposed upon his laurels surrounded by his family, cultivated the soil, and left behind him happy and VOL. I. P 210 CORTEZ THIRSTS FOR NEW ACHIEVEMENTS. prosperous descendants, it would have been no such unfa vourable lot. But he was still too young in mind and body to entertain such an idea. The world on the other side of Mexico was too large and too inviting for him. Besides, this was not the fashion with the Spanish conquistador es, scarcely one of whom had come to enjoy calmly the fruits of his exertions. The career of each of these energetic men, beginning with Columbus, was nearly the same. They appeared all at once in the horizon, like meteors, their imaginations overheated with exaggerated expec tations of the things to be brought to light in the new world ; for a time they performed chivalrous deeds, and then, unsatisfied and thirsting for still greater achieve ments, they met with unsurmountable difficulties, till at length their limited powers and span of life came to a tragical, or at least miserable, end. As " Margrave of the Valley," Cortez passed but a few calm years. He soon bethought him of the other title that had been bestowed upon him, of that of an Admiral of the South Sea, which had far more charm for his am bitious soul. The South Sea was at that time (1530) the popular cry. In its eastern part the Portuguese and Magellan had already discovered the much-coveted Spice Islands ; and the friend of Cortez, Francis Pizarro, had, on its southern shores, begun to conquer the golden empire of the Incas. This conquest seemed likely to throw into the shade all that Cortez had achieved. He now, therefore, turned his eyes towards the north-west, for that in this direction, as far as China, there was but a wild desert of waters he could not know. His imagi nation probably painted to him a whole chain of fertile islands and countries. Some voyagers, who had got out of their track to the north-west, had brought back ac counts and specimens of pearls from the Gulf of Cali fornia, and the news of a pearl land in that direction soon spread abroad. Cortez hoped to find a second Mexico or Peru. It was not long before he fitted out a small fleet at his own expense, and sent it forth to reconnoitre, under the command of his cousin, Hurtado. This expedition proving unsuccessful, he sent a second fleet under his captain, Fernando Grijalva. At last, as this fleet, too, although it had reached California, came back without .having accomplished anything, and with the loss of its com mander, he placed himself at the head of a new expedi tion. As he had formed such great expectations of the pearl-land of California, and as he did not trust to the statements of those who had returned, when they assured him that it was a wild, rocky country, he fitted out his vessels much in the way he did when he set out to con quer the empire of the Aztecas. He took with him a small army of warriors, whom he paid himself, a large p2 212 CORTEZ IN THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA. number of workmen, slaves, women, and one hundred and thirty horses, cattle, and provisions of every kind. He had set his heart on finding a second Montezuma in. the north-western regions. He intended to march at once, with artillery, to the gates of his capital, and forth with to build a second Vera Cruz, and a fortress, and to take possession of his land for Spain. To the harbour in the Gulf of California, where he succeeded in landing his troops, he gave a similar name Santa Cruz. But as in this totally uncultivated land his followers soon began to suffer from hunger and other hardships, he sailed in the spring of 1536 further up the gulf, in the hope of finding a more promising country. His was the first European keel to plough the waters of this rocky gulf. Storms from the north-west soon drove him back, and separated him fronrhis other ships, which he only found again at length on the coast opposite to the continent one here, one there after much difficulty in sailing about. For a long time he was tossed about in these wild regions, contending with adverse winds and storms, and undergoing great trials and dangers all to no purpose. Two full years passed in this way, for he was un willing to acknowledge his defeat, and take measures for his return. His friends in Mexico grew anxious about FAILURE OF HIS PLANS. 213 him, and the report spread that he was lost. His young wife, Dona Juanna, turned to the Viceroy Mendoza, and implored him to order out an expedition to look for her husband and persuade him to return home. Men doza sent a few ships ; and the Margravine of the Valley like as in our days the wife of another much lamented discoverer has done fitted out a couple of caravels at her own expense, and sent them to search for her husband. One by one, Cortez fell in with all these vessels, and at last, with a fleet of six ships, he sailed back to the harbour of Acapulco. The miserable rem nant of his Calif ornian colony at Santa Cruz, unable to hold out any longer, soon afterwards returned there too. Cortez had now spent more than two hundred thou sand ducats on his Calif ornian. expeditions, and had reaped nothing but difficulties and miseries, actually gained nothing but the unwelcome knowledge of a dreary land of rocks, and of a gulf abounding in reefs, and cliffs, and storms. Nevertheless, he was not the man to give up easily anything that he had taken in hand. At Tenochtitlan he had been often enough repulsed, and yet at last with glory he had gained his end. Who could tell to what El Dorado the Californian gulf might not be the terrible approach ! Perhaps the empire of 214 CORTEZ QUARRELS WITH THE VICEROY. Japan might lie not far in the rear, that empire which all the maps of that time placed in those regions, no great distance from America and Mexico. Cortez, therefore, decided on a fresh expedition, and as he had not enough money, his wife pawned all her jewels and valuables, as formerly Queen Isabella wanted to do to assist Columbus. To add to his difficulties, a dispute arose between him and the Viceroy Mendoza. An eccentric Franciscan monk, with overheated imagination, Marco de Niza, had .given an account to Mendoza of his pilgrimage and missionary journey to the Indian races in the north-west. The monk declared that, in that direction in the far distance, he had found the fabulous " land of the seven cities," which, long before Columbus s time, fancy had delighted to depict, with civilised nations, populous places, and monarchs clothed in gold. For such things, every Spaniard at that time had a willing ear, a cre dulous mind, a lively fancy. The viceroy, like Cortez, now began to believe in an El Dorado in the north, and like him, too, to prepare for its discovery and conquest. As Velasquez had formerly attempted, but with far better means and more determination, he now stepped in between Cortez and his expected booty, and ordered two great expeditions to be prepared, one by land, the other by water. Cortez, however, asserted that as general of HE AGAIN RETURNS TO SPAIN. 215 the South Sea coast, and admiral of that ocean, to him only belonged the right to undertake things of this kind. He quarrelled, too, with Mendoza about some other matters, and, involved in these difficulties, he again de cided, in 1540, to go to Spain to appeal to his king for justice against Mendoza, and press his claim for in demnification. The ships which he had begun to build, his estate, his plantations, and works in progress, his wife and family, he left behind and quitted Mexico, the land of his triumphs and renown, never to set foot on it again. He took with him his hopeful son, Don Martinez, who after wards became the second Marques del Valle ; and this young man partook of the last bitter trials of his father, whose career for some time past had been approaching its close. Cortez met with a cool reception in his ungrateful fatherland. He did not return to it this time, as for merly, in all the pride of youth, with the power of wealth, and crowned with fresh-plucked laurels. It had been said of him on that occasion that in his disposition were united the stormy character of March, and the genial softness of May. In neither respect would this comparison now apply. He was grown old and broken in spirit, and was able no longer, as in days gone by, to dispense favours and preferments. His last adventures 216 CORTEZ A SUPPLICANT. had brought no advantageous results, and he came now himself to solicit favours and gifts from others. But other stars had risen now, and ruled the day. In vain did Cortez write long letters to the emperor, grown deaf to his requests, for he took no interest in Ca lifornia, the land on which Cortez had spent all his ca pital. Letter-writing, begging for audiences, for advances, for payment of his dues, for justice ; seven long years were now passed by Cortez, who followed the emperor wherever he went. He accompanied him in his disas trous campaign in Algiers, where the victor of Tlascala and "Tenochtitlan performed his last heroic deeds. Soon after this, he wrote his last letter to the emperor, giving him a statement of the enormous sums he had spent in his service and for the glory of Spain, and en treating him once more to command the members of his council for Indian affairs to be more expeditious in in vestigating and satisfying his claims. But he found the contest with these obstinate bureaucrats far more diffi cult than with whole armies of Aztecas. Alternating between hopes and fears, at last he felt his energy fail, his strength decrease. He now turned his thoughts from Spain, and his steps towards the sea. He started for Seville to return to his family to do that, in fact, which he could long ago have done pass DEATH OF CORTEZ. 217 the remainder of his days in peaceful retirement in his valley of Oaxaca. But it was now too late. A violent attack of fever came on in Seville, and feeling his end approaching, he desired to be removed to a neighbouring village, where on the 2nd of December, 1547, he died in the arms of his son, and in his sixty-third year. The last part of Cortez s life resembles that of Co lumbus. They were alike, too, in this, that his name was not given to any of the countries or districts he had dis covered. The wild and stormy sea, only, on the rocks and reefs of which his sun had set, the Spaniards for some time called " Golfo de Cortes." But even] this re membrance of him soon vanished from geographical no menclature. Posterity, however, has given to Cortez durable and not despicable monuments of another kind. Some of the best Spanish historians, Solis and others, have described his life s drama; and its glory has in spired both poets and musicians. One of the greatest Spanish painters, Velasquez, has handed down to us in a beautiful picture, now preserved in Versailles, the noble and captivating features of our hero. A great sculptor of the eighteenth century, Tolsa, has contributed likewise to honour his memory in works of bronze and marble. And lastly, his bodily remains have been placed in a 218 CORTEZ S REMAINS. coffin made of crystal and bars of silver, and deposited in the centre of that remarkable spot of earth on which he destroyed a royal city that had existed three hundred years, and built another still more splendid that has now flourished equally long in which the descendants of Cortez and his companions, under the kings of Spain, lived for some centuries in indolent luxury, and almost fabulous splendour, and for the last few decades, as their own masters, in a wretched state of discord and party strife. THE SOUTH SEA. 219 CHAPTEE VI. THE PIZARROS IN PERU. Columbus hears of " another Sea" (1503) Vasco Nunez de Balboa beholds the South Sea (1513) Andagoya goes to " Biru" (Peru), (1522) Fran cisco Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque found their Triumvirate (1524) Francisco Pizarro conquers and seizes the Inca Atahualpa at Caxamalca (Nov. 16, 1532) Atahualpa s Execution (Aug. 29, 1533) The old Capital of Cusco taken (1534) The new Capital of Lima founded (1535) Almagro discovers North Chili (1536) His Execution (1537) Benalcazar, Quesada, and Fedennann meet on the Plain of Bogota (1538) Murder of Francisco Pizarro (June 26, 1541) Gonzalo Pi- zarro s Expedition to the East, and Orellana s Voyage on the Maranon, or Amazon (1541-42) Pedro de Valdivia discovers South Chili as far as Patagonia (1540-44). WHEN Columbus sailed along the north coast of the isthmus-land of Central America, in 1503, he heard from the natives that it was very narrow, and that there was another great ocean to the south of it. This " other ocean in the south" (the South Sea) had been therefore named and famed among the Spaniards before it had been seen by any of them, or one of their ships had sailed upon it. 220 THE SOUTH SEA. Although the land which divides the two seas was narrow, it was extremely difficult to traverse; it was covered by rude chains of mountains and primeval forests, through which every step and opening had to be cut with an axe : the way was still further encumbered by creepers and stems of trees, which had to be cleared away by the sword. Eleven years after Columbus, the bold conqueror, Vasco Niulez de Balboa, was the first who, after many vain attempts, succeeded in getting to the foot of the central mountains of the isthmus with a troop of Spa niards. From the summits of these mountains the Indians assured him that the " other sea " was to be seen : and Balboa, sword in hand, having ascended one of them alone, was the first European to whom this long wished- for sea became visible. Like Xenophon with his Greeks, he called his companions to him, crying, " To the sea! to the sea!" and there on their knees, at the sight of this great and unexplored portion of creation unfolded before them, they sang a Te Deum together. When, on descending the other side of the mountain, they tasted the salt water, and observed the mighty bil lows and their powerful flux and reflux, these discoverers immediately perceived that this sea must be a very ex tensive one, and must be a portion of the world s great BALBOA RECEIVES TIDINGS OF PERU. 221 ocean. What rich coasts might not surround it! and with what beautiful islands might it not be studded ! Balboa strode into the water as far as he could wade, and stretching his sword over the sea, took, in the name of his king, solemn possession of the same, and of all the lands and kingdoms which might lie in and around its coasts. He went beyond all precedent in these proceedings, for, seizing some Indian canoes of bark which he found on the shore, he sailed along the coast, and unfurling the banner of Castile, decorated with the image of the Virgin, he let it float over the breakers of the southern ocean. Balboa in his first expedition met with an Indian ca- zique, who told him much of a powerful empire to the south, assured him that there the people drew water in vessels of gold, and with a stick he made a sketch on the O 7 sand of that extraordinary animal of Peru, the llama. Although the wishes and plans of Balboa were thus di rected towards the south, yet after his tragic end, which soon took place, the next expeditions of the Spaniards along the South Sea were not in a southerly direction. On the contrary, they all turned at first to the north and west, where the land appeared narrower, and where they thought it might be possible to find a more convenient passage, perhaps a strait. Besides, they heard inviting accounts of Indian countries in this direction, as well as 222 PASCAL DE ANDAGOYA. in the other. The coast of the South Sea was known for hundreds of miles, as far as Guatemala and Mexico, for it had been already explored and put down on the Spanish maps, but no one had attempted discovery to wards the south. It was not until the Spanish governor- general of this region, Don Pedro Arias de Avila, had transferred his residence from the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, where the city of Panama and other colonies had sprung up, nor till the European settlers had increased, that the tidings which the cazique had given Balboa were remembered, and taken into con sideration by a few enterprising men. The first who made his appearance was a young ca valier called Pascal de Andagoya, who, in the year 1522, sailed some distance southwards, till he came to a river and a cazique, both called Biru. Andagoya there heard the same tidings of the south which Balboa had re ceived ; but an unfortunate fall from his horse disabled him from continuing his journey. His illness forced him to retire from the scene, and he was obliged to content himself with writing all he had experienced and seen on the river Biru, in a little book which is still preserved as a rarity. He made the name " Biru" known, and it be came customary after his time to call all southern enter prises, t6 Voyages to the river and cazique of Biru," or, briefly, " Voyages to Biru or Peru ;" and this name, given JUAN DE BAZURTO. 223 at first to a limited locality, was, in course of time, ex tended by the Spaniards to great kingdoms, in which until then it had been entirely unknown. A rich planter of Hayti, Juan de Bazurto, was the suc cessor of the invalided Andagoya in the southern or " Biru " undertakings. He intended to lead a brilliant expedition to the south, but sickness and death overtook him in the midst of his great preparations. And now three men came forward who were the inheritors of his eagerness for the south, and of his, as well as of Anda- goya s, knowledge and experience. They had more favour able fortune on that same field of action from which fever had taken Bazurto ; the fall from his horse, Anda goya ; and the axe of the executioner, Balboa. These three men were Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and Hernando de Luque, all three inhabitants of the Isthmus of Panama, where they had lived for many years as flourishing planters. They determined to devote their united strength to the discovery, conquest, and division of the countries to be found to the south, and, though all were advanced in years, their enthusiasm for the undertaking was so great, that they swore an alliance before the altar, and, like crusaders, received thereon the blessings of the Church. The extraordinary union thus made by these three Spanish adventurers has been likened, and not without 224 THE TRIUMVIRATE. justice, to the triumvirate of the Roman emperors; and, indeed, the persons and distribution of parts in both tri umvirates were not dissimilar. Hernando Luque, the Lepidus of the three, was a rich peace-loving ecclesiastic, by no means such " an enemy of rest " as was his confederate Pizarro. He was to re main at Panama, there to watch over the interests of the triumvirate, to take care of their property, to regulate their affairs with the officials, to furnish the requisite supplies, and to induce others to join in the expedition. Like Lepidus, Luque soon withdrew from the scene, without being much enriched by the booty, or having much share in the fame of the enterprise. Pizarro, the most restless and passionate of the three, was to lead the way in command of the vessels. He continued always at the head, and in the field of action no obstacles stopped him. He soon showed remarkable military and administrative talents, and as he was the first to reach the wished-for goal, he also was the first to grasp at and secure for himself all power and authority. Almagro was appointed to serve as a connecting link between Pizarro, who led the van, and Luque, who brought up the rear. He brought Pizarro supplies of provisions and munitions of war, and conveyed intelli gence of his success and progress back to Panama. He thus may be said to have occupied from the first the FRANCISCO PIZARRO. 225 position of adjutant to Pizarro, in after times he had to give way to him, as Antony did to his more powerful adversary, Octavius. Francisco Pizarro was a contemporary, a fellow-coun tryman and personal friend of Fernando Cortez. He was born, like him, on the hot rocky table-land of Estre- maclura. Like Eomulus, he is said to have received his first nourishment from an animal, and, like the Emperor Diocletian, he grew up a rough and ignorant herdsman in the valleys of his pastoral home. As so many of his fellow-countrymen had done, he escaped from this ig noble life at last, possessed of little knowledge, it is true, but as a youth of glowing imagination and strong desire for action ; for from Seville wondrous stories of the trea sures and adventures to be found in the new world had spread around. When, and in what manner, this young herdsman arrived in the new world, no one has taken the trouble to note down. We first hear of him in 1510, among the followers of the captains who at that time went to take possession of the Isthmus of Darien ; and soon after wards as one of the companions of Balboa, with whom he sang the Te Deum on the mountain on the discovery of the South Sea. On all occasions, when he was needed, and in numerous expeditions which were undertaken from one sea to another in order to subjugate and plunder the VOL. I. Q 226 FIRST PERUVIAN EXPEDITION. native tribes of Indians, Pizarro is to be found distin guishing himself, and in these raids he did not forget to take care of his own interests. He acquired, besides the reputation of being a fearless soldier, a considerable sum of money, and this was always of the first importance to the most distinguished and talented of the conquistadores striving for the lead in new enterprises; for, as I have previously stated, the kings of Spain very seldom opened their coffers to fur ther such expeditions ; on the contrary, they expected that their vassals in this, as in every other particular, should provide for themselves, while the government contented itself with awarding them privileges and titles, and its approval of their proceedings. At their own expense, therefore, the three confederates fitted out a ship and got together a crew, of which Pizarro took the command, and, in the year 1524, he sailed forth in a southerly direction. The difficulties he met with before he reached his goal were immense ; to overcome these, and to get to the entrance of the king dom of the Incas by the unknown ocean track, took Pizarro as many years as, in after time, it took weeks to sail thither The nearest lands to the south of Panama are unin viting in the highest degree ; lofty mountains and thick impenetrable forests extend to the shores, and wherever a PIZARRO S DIFFICULTIES. 227 small piece of flat country was seen it was covered with unfathomable morasses, for this is at once the cloudiest and hottest of the rainy quarters of the world a paradise for snakes, crocodiles, and other amphibious creatures. The uninhabited coasts afforded no good landing-place, and winds and violent currents setting towards the north are almost constantly opposed to a southern voyage. Hunger, want, sickness, and plagues of every kind soon overwhelmed the little troop of men who were col lected in this terrible wateiy vestibule of Peru, where thunder, lightning, and tempest never ceased. For four years Pizarro battled against these difficulties with the utmost tenacity. He was the soul of the whole expedition ; at times, the only healthy and courageous man among them. He tended the sick, consoled the dying, and cheered the drooping spirits of the survivors. More than once almost all of his company died off, and their places had to be supplied by fresh recruits from Panama. More than once his ship was eaten from be neath his feet by worms, or destroyed by tempests ; but, like a general whose horse has been shot beneath him, he always embarked in a fresh ship brought to him by Almagro. Month by month he kept advancing farther south ; he never retraced his steps, and, when all threatened to leave him, he would plant his standard on some promontory Q2 228 BARTHOLOMEW RUIZ. or on some desert island, and keeping those still un daunted with him, he would .send the rest back to Pa nama, whence new supplies were necessarily despatched to him. Pizarro found his best assistant in his skilful pilot, Bartholomew Kuiz, who always went ahead as pioneer in his vessel, while Pizarro was investigating the neighbour hood, making inquiries among the Indians, or by plunder, by entreaty, or by hunting and fishing, getting supplies for his men. This man Kuiz, whom the King of Spain afterwards made an Admiral of the South Sea, succeeded at last, in the third year of the expedition, in passing the equinoc tial line, and emerged from this quarter, so stormy and rainy on the north side, into a more genial climate. There he encountered the first subjects of the great empire of the south ; he met one of their great " balsas" or rafts with sails, which had been used by this people from the most ancient times; on board of it he found specimens of the beautiful productions and wares of the south. The natives told him of the kings who governed this country and of the great cities possessed by them. Ruiz returned to Pizarro with his encouraging report at a time when the latter was least able to take advantage PIZARRO ORDERED BACK. 229 of it, and when his whole enterprise hung, as it were, by a single thread. Pizarro and his triumvirate were at that time ex tremely unpopular at Panama; nothing had as yet re turned thither from the south but invalided men, de cayed ships, and tidings of death and of terror. The three were called by the people " a company of fools," who had thrown away their property and risked their lives to gain only trouble upon trouble. The governor was terrified at the number of royal subjects who had been sacrificed to the undertaking, led, as it were, by their reckless leader only to the shambles. Don Pedro de los Rios, at that time newly appointed governor to the Isthmus countries, successor to the before- mentioned Pedro Arias, sent out a ship, under the com mand of a certain Taf ur, with authority to bring back Pizarro and his confederates, to make an end of the whole unlucky undertaking, and to forbid any further expeditions (so fatal to the Spaniards) in search of that will-o -the-wisp, Peru. Tafur found Pizarro and his men on a little island on the coast, to which they had given the name of " Cock s Island" (Isla del Gallo), and on which they had just passed a winter season amidst incessant torrents of rain and continued peals of thunder. Almost all the party 230 PTZARRO S DETERMINATION. rejoiced at the intelligence brought by Tafur, and as if they had heen Christian slaves redeemed from the Moors, blessed the decree of the governor as an inspiration of Heaven. Pizarro, meanwhile, was occupied in reading a letter from his friends Luque and Almagro, secretly conveyed to him, by one of Tafur s crew, and in which they charged him notwithstanding all commands to the con trary, on no account to waver in his decision or to yield, promising him that they would use every effort, in spite of all prohibition, to fit out a ship, and by some means other to come to his assistance. Pizarro, after reading this letter, stepped into the middle of his men, and draw T ing a line with his sword on the ground, placed himself on one side of it, and said, " This line divides the north from the south, he for his part should remain on the south side of it, and no power on earth should take him alive out of the neighbourhood of the object he had so long striven after ; if any among them felt as he did, they must now stand forward and come on his side of the line." Moved by this speech, and by the resolution of their leader, twelve of the number came forward and joined him, promising to persevere with him in the attainment of their object, whatever might be the consequences. Tafur did not dare to use force against these twelve BAY OF TUMBEZ. 231 men, whose names are all written in the annals of Spain, and who were afterwards raised to the rank of nobles and knights by the king of that country. He therefore sailed back to Panama without them. Pizarro and those who remained with him supported themselves by fishing and hunting, at times being obliged to feed on snakes, crabs, and crocodiles. They every morning sang a thanksgiving to God, and every evening a " Salve Eegina ;" they bore in mind and rigidly ob served all the festivals enjoined by the Church, till at length, after five long months of conflicting hopes and fears, they saw the long-expected ship appear. The untiring pilot, Bartholomew Kuiz, whom Almagro had sent, landed amidst the rejoicings of those he came to deliver, and, under his guidance, the voyage towards the south was forthwith determined upon and began. They crossed the equator for the second time, and sailing with a favourable wind, they soon reached that creek which we now call the Bay of Guayaquil. Pizarro called the bay by the name of Tumbez, after the first Peru vian city which he beheld from thence. This indenta tion forms the only gulf of any importance on the Peru vian coast, and contains many islands and harbours ; and running far inland, makes a natural division of the country, which has, moreover, always been a political one; dividing on one side Northern Peru, or Quito, 232 PIZARRO RETURNS TO SPAIN. from Southern Peru, or the old country of the Incas (" Quichuat"), with their ancient capital, Cuzco, on the other. Pizarro soon discovered that this was the true entrance to the land he sought, and determined at this portal to build his first fortress, and thence to begin his conquests. The coast, however, he found was already occupied by thickly peopled villages and towns, and on board his ship he had only sailors, who possessed few means of defence besides their own two hands. Bold to a fault as he was, he saw that he must have a few horses, and sharpshooters, and some guns, in order to attack a great Indian empire. He, therefore, returned to Panama, and from there sailed immediately to Spain, everywhere making known the result of his discoveries in the great "Bay of Tumbez." He likewise gave a description of it to the Emperor Charles V., to whom he was presented at Toledo, and to whom he gave several Peruvian llamas and many other products of the new land of wonders ; above all, specimens of its treasures in silver and gold. The delighted emperor made Pizarro knight of St. Jago, and governor, chief judge, and general-in-com- mand of the new Spanish States to be founded in the South Sea : his friend Luque was appointed bishop ; and Almagro raised to the rank of commandant of all PIZARRO S BROTHERS. 233 the fortresses. The emperor also ordered his herald to devise a new coat of arms for Pizarro; but the chief necessaries, men and money, he left him to provide for himself. Pizarro obtained the greatest assistance in his little native place Turillo, in Estremadura, which he visited in order to convey to his relatives and the friends of his youth the glad tidings of the golden treasures of Peru and Tumbez. Among the former, there were no less than four of his brothers and half-brothers, Fernando, Gonzalo, Juan, and Martin Pizarro, who enlisted under the banner of Francisco, and proceeded to the new world, where a wonderful, but in the end a tragical, destiny awaited them ; for these illegitimate children of a poor country gentleman, after having raised themselves to almost regal power, and for a long time played the part of great lords, all came to untimely ends some by im prisonment, others by the axe of the executioner or the daggers of the exasperated conspirators. The Pizarros at last got together at Panama a fleet of three ships, provided with some small cannon, twenty- five horses, and one hundred and eighty foot soldiers, only a few of whom were armed with firelocks. The re membrance of the arduous toils and the sufferings which for four years had been experienced on the passage from Panama to Peru, had an unfavourable effect on the 234 PIZARRO BUILDS A FORT. adventurous spirit of the colonists. The Pizarros had also to encounter opposition from Almagro and his ad herents, who considered themselves unfairly treated by the emperor in his distribution of honours. Pizarro, however, was able for the present to prevent the breach from becoming serious, by assuring his confederate (who afterwards became his rival) that the country of Peru which they were now about to conquer was so large, that it would be quite possible to give him a province of his own. Inspired by this hope, Almagro promised soon to follow to the south with fresh ships and recruits. Contrary winds prevented Pizarro from reaching the Bay of Tumbez at once ; landing, therefore, one hundred miles to the north of it, he marched thither by land. It was now his first care to establish a strong position, and to secure good harbourage at this entrance-gate to Peru. He therefore founded here the first Spanish colony and fortress in Peru, and consecrated it to the Archangel Michael. From this place he despatched to Panama the emeralds, gold, and silver, which he plundered from the neigh bouring Peruvian villages, and he soon formed a small army of the soldiers who now hastened to him from thence, as well as from Nicaragua, Guatemala, and the other Spanish provinces in the South Sea, to take part in the now highly popular adventure. HE HEARS OF ATABALIPA. 235 From his fortress of San Miquel, Pizarro explored the country around, and soon heard of a rich and power ful prince called Atahualpa, or Atabalipa, who with a great many was encamped in the valley of Caxamalca, on the other side of the mountains, and whose dominion extended to a great distance to the south. As Pizarro had now sufficient men to be able to leave a garrison on the coast, and to have, besides, a small army of sixty horsemen and one hundred and twenty foot soldiers, he prepared to ascend the high mountains, and to seek " Atabalipa" in his valley. Pizarro was at that time as ignorant of this Ata balipa, and of the nature of the inland country, and of its state and affairs, as was Atabalipa of these bearded men, armed with thunder and lightning, and riding on long-haired, long-legged monsters, who were climbing the mountains to seek him. It was at first only by slow degrees, and as it were piecemeal, that the Spaniards learned the condition of the country, which may be described somewhat as follows : That lofty chain of mountains, the Cordilleras de los Andes (or the copper mountains), which with their pa rallel ranges run along the whole west coast of South America, form an elevated district of a very varied cha racter, a collection of high valleys many ways connected, of mountain plateaus and fruitful slopes. The extraor- 236 THE ANDES. dinary variety of elevations in the terraces, which volca nic agency has produced in this wonderful belt of moun tains, causes a corresponding variety of climate, and consequently of vegetation. Just at the equator may be found every change of seasons, and all varieties of climate, ranging from the greatest heat of the tropics to the iciest cold of Greenland. There are in this region high and extensive table-lands where mild spring weather is ever present, which are always covered with verdure, and, like the Alps, afford the finest pastures. A number of nutritious plants suited to agricultural purposes, and among them the potato, owe their exist ence to these high valleys of the Andes ; and in them also lives the llama, the only beast of burden which has been discovered, which is tameable, and has been tamed by the inhabitants of the new world. The existence of this creature and its capabilities were alone sufficient to give the tribes of the Andes an advantage over the people of the wide flat plains, with their impenetrable, forests in the west of South America. This advantage was still further increased by the mineral wealth of the moun tains, and, above all, by that useful metal from which the mountains derived their name, and which may be said to have been an essential element in promoting the civilisation of the dwellers in the Andes. They learned THEIR KINGDOMS. 237 how to obtain the copper, which did not exist in the flat lands of the west; how to melt and harden it, to the uttermost, with an admixture of tin, and to make from it durable and useful implements. Armed with these they were enabled to obtain many of the riches of nature, and to overcome many of the natural difficulties which lay in their way. Mechanical skill and the arts were developed among them, together with husbandry; pro perty increased, and with it a kind of citizenship sprang up among the people. Rulers and lawgivers were esta blished, and founders of religion, who kept the people in awe by fear of the anger of the gods, and thus large cities and kingdoms came to be established. If the half- civilised kingdoms of the Andes were far below the standard of cultivation of the old world, on the other hand, their condition was as far above the barbarian state of the dwellers in the plains to the east. These plains resembled a tropical Siberia in their uniformity, and though they comprehended an extent of country as great as the half of Europe, not a stone fit for building was to be found. Along the whole chain of the Andes a certain kind of Indian civilisation had existed ; and when the Spaniards began to ascend these mountains, they found amongst them many half-civilised tribes. To the north was the 238 THE REALM OF THE INCAS. kingdom of the Moscas, or Muyscas, contained in the upper basin, or valley of the river Magdalen a, and on the rich and fruitful table-land of the present Santa Fe de Bogota. Farther to the south, the tribe of the Scyris had founded the kingdom of Quito, along the equator, and at the foot of Chimborazo, where the Andes divide into two parallel chains, extending at almost the same distance for four hundred miles, and thus forming one of the most productive of these elevated valleys. Still more to the south lay the largest and most famous of all the kingdoms of the Andes, that of the Incas, whose cradle seems to have been in the rocky basin of Lake Titicaca, sunk deep between these colossal mountains ever soaring heavenwards. On the shores and islands of this great fresh-water lake more an cient and numerous ruins are to be found than on the whole South American continent. The Peruvian legends said that the light and the sun came forth from it. It may have been in the course of hundreds of years the centre of many states, the last of which was the kingdom of the Incas, or " Lords." At first the dominion, laws, language, and religion of these Incas, was confined to the basin of this lake and to some neighbouring upland valleys, in which their celebrated capital, Cuzco (which means navel or axis), was established. By long-con- THE REALM OF THE INCAS. 239 tinued conquests, however, they gradually extended their dominion over many of the neighbouring tribes. They built bridges over the chasms and torrents of the Andes ; made roads for many hundreds of miles over the mountain ridges as well as round them, and erected their stone temples and strongholds in many of the valleys. Their kingdom was bounded on the west by the sea, and on the east by the savages and their primeval forests; and these together forced the Incas to extend their dominion along the mountains and coasts to the north and the south. At the time of the Spanish discovery of America this kingdom had reached its greatest prosperity. Two Incas quickly following each other, Yupanqui and Huayna Capac, had penetrated to the south through the desert of Atacama, and to the north beyond the Bay of Tumbez, or Guayaquil ; and had in the former direction established their dominion as far as the coast of Chili, and in the latter obtained Quito, the old king dom of the Scyris. The Inca, Huayna Capac, was in power at the time when that triumvirate of bold Eu ropeans was formed against him, and he ruled over a country along the lengthy chain of the Andes, not less extensive than that kingdom once held by the Emperor Theodosius on the shores of the Mediterranean. Un fortunately, like Theodosius, Huayna Capac had, shortly 240 THE TWO SONS OF THE INCA. before his death, divided his kingdom between two of his / o sons. To one of them, called Huascar, he gave the southern portion, the centre of the old kingdom of the Incas Cuzco and its lands; to the other, Atahualpa, was committed the north, the newly conquered kingdom of Quito. The consequence of this division was, that these kingdoms, like old and new Rome, became rivals, and the brothers waged war with each other. The Spaniards reached the country while embroiled in this war, and at this moment Atahualpa had been victorious over Huascar in a bloody engagement, and had made him prisoner. He was resting with his troops in the valley of Caxamalca, considering what next he could do utterly to exterminate his brother s party, and to bring the whole kingdom under his own dominion, when Pizarro, with his " men of fire," his " mouths of thunder," and his " long-haired monsters with feet of iron," stormed the mountains, and at once cut short the Inca in his plans, and broke the thread of the many-centuried his tory of Peru. Like a flash of lightning, Pizarro with his two hundred desperadoes appeared among the Peruvians, and the way in which he subdued their thousands long accustomed to battle, and but just returned from blood shed, is unique of its kind, and almost incomprehensible, if it were not remembered that the Peruvians gave to PIZARRO S POLICY. 241 the foreigners the names of " children of the sun," "sons of the gods," and that in the panic which over whelmed the whole nation, they literally believed that all-powerful divinities, and not frail mortals, were in conflict with them. Pizarro appears to have taken the policy of Cortez for his model, and above all things to have striven, as he did, to get the chief ruler into his power, and then with his assistance to subjugate the whole people: he car ried out his object, however, with a more impetuous and ruthless hand than did his predecessor. He marched into the midst of the camp of the Incas, and there he declared to his men that each one must make a fortress of his own breast that they must, above all things, feel assured that God would be with them in this heathen country, as with the three men in the fiery furnace, and that St. Jago, the great patron saint of Spain, would himself fight in their ranks. When the decisive moment came, the iron of the Spaniards fell irresistibly on the golden shields and breastplates of the Peruvians, and a merciless slaughter ensued, conducted upon a pre viously arranged plan, in which every man played his appointed part so well, that the whole may be likened to a dreadful drama performed, act by act, with a terrible precision. Just at the right moment, when the Inca Atahualpa VOL. I. R 242 SLAUGHTER OF THE PERUVIANS. with liis followers and courtiers, in all their barbaric pomp and splendour, were drawn up in order, and stood like victims adorned for the sacrifice, then thun dered out the two small cannon which the Spaniards had dragged over the mountains ; the trumpets sounded, the naked swords of the invaders flashed out, and the fiery-snorting horses dashed upon the terror-struck Peru vians. The Spaniards, knowing both the magnitude of the prize and the extremity of their own danger, fought like madmen, and each one drove masses of the enemy before him ; " even the sixty horses," says an eye-witness, "on the previous day tired with the journey, and pa ralysed by the cold of the mountains, caught the ex citement, as if inspired by their bloodthirsty riders." Meanwhile, Pizarro had kept his eagle eye fixed on him alone for whom this scene of terror was prepared: he dashed through the tumult up to the Inca, and with his own hand dragged him from his golden seat; then making him his prisoner, he protected him sword in hand from the rash blows of the Spaniards. So great a panic seized the remainder of the Peruvians, that in their flight they threw down a part of the walls of Caxa- malca, in the market-place of which city this massacre took place. The panic, which scattered the army assembled round PERUVIAN TREASURES. 243 Atahualpa, fell, like an electric shock, on the whole land, and at one blow laid the people obedient and submissive at Pizarro s feet. He ruled now, as far as Atahualpa s influence extended, for the king slept beneath the daggers of the Spaniards, and every act of disobedience imperiled his life. The detached horsemen, whom Pizarro now sent through the dominions of the Inca to explore and raise contributions, went from one end of the country to the other without let or hindrance, or rather were received as royal envoys, and as promptly obeyed. He sent his bro ther Hernando to the west, in search of the gold of the sepulchres and sanctuaries, which lay along that coast of the sea. The brave knight Fernando de Soto was, however, the first who journeyed along the ridges of the Andes, and by the great road, that triumph of art, which led over bridges and viaducts, and by steps cut out of the mountain steeps, to the ancient residence of the Incas, the famous city of Cuzco. He went by Pizarro s and the Inca s command, to rob its temples of their golden treasures. Atahualpa, now panting for freedom, had, as ransom, promised the Spaniards, who thirsted for gold, a room filled with the precious metal ; so now from Cuzco, and from all the sanctuaries of the coast, came Ions; caravans of * o R2 244 PIZARRO S TREATMENT OF THE INCA. llamas, laden with vessels of gold and silver, and caskets of jewels. The subjects of the Inca and the generals of the kingdom came to pay their contributions, and the hall soon filled to the height of the well-known line drawn on the wall ; yet, notwithstanding, the prison doors of the Inca remained unopened. In fact, he found himself confined within even closer limits, sepa rated from his subjects who hitherto had been permitted to visit him ; loaded even with iron chains about his neck and wrists, and at last he was to be tried for life or death. Pizarro s position, and with it his schemes, had under gone a change. Of gold he had now abundance, both to reward his own soldiers and to secure the services of others. Many youthful knights had arrived, and among them his friend Almagro ; he now, therefore, felt him self strong enough to secure, by force, the countries and cities into which he had hitherto only insinuated himself with the help of his royal captive. The latter had now done his part, and was of little further use ; for the present no more gold was to be obtained through him, and it was becoming irksome to his subjects to obey an imprisoned monarch. The existence of Atahualpa was only a burden to Pizarro : if he were at any time to escape, he might, by means of his powerful name, unite the whole of Peru against the Spaniards ; but once out 245 of the way, the magic of his name would be gone, and discord might again be raised among his subjects. Pizarro could then choose the one who best pleased him of the princes who aspired to the title of Inca, and he himself could exterminate singly any generals who might, on their own account, raise an opposition to him. It is said that Pizarro was also influenced by personal dislike and private revenge. The imprisoned Inca had shown more interest in Pizarro s brother, Hernando, in the noble knight De Soto, and other officers, than in Pizarro; and once, when this ill-educated soldier had with shame to confess that he could neither read nor write, the Inca plainly showed in what contempt he held him. In short, Atahualpa was doomed. Pizarro caused him to be brought to trial. He accused him of sending secret orders into the country to call out the troops against the Spaniards, and to encourage rebellion. His court-martial condemned the unhappy prince to be burnt alive, but Pizarro commuted this to death by strangling, after the Inca had allowed himself to be baptised. The consequences which Pizarro had foreseen followed on this catastrophe; for the other legitimate Inca ? Huascar, the above-named brother of Atahualpa, had long been dead, and the Peruvians did not know whom to obey. Many pretenders to the crown started up. Several generals of Atahualpa s training, who found them- 246 PIZARRO IN CUZCO. selves at the head of no insignificant bodies of troops, acted for themselves, and like King Darius s generals, whom Alexander the Great destroyed, they marched into whichever province they had the most hope of securing. Thus fell the ancient dynasty of the Incas, like a build ing shaken down by an earthquake. Pizarro, with a power increased tenfold, broke up from Caxamalca, and plunging into the conflicting waves of this tumult, marched upon the capital, Cuzco. Pizarro s will alone, determined and enduring, ruled in his camp, the centre of an undivided power. On his way, he put to night, without difficulty, some troops of Indians who dared to oppose him, and, leaving a Spanish gar rison at all places of importance, he made his triumphal entry into the capital, which surrendered without resist ance, and in which he immediately erected the cross of the Christian Church and organised the Spanish rule. Meanwhile, in order to combine some ceremony and flattery with his violence, and to soften the change to the Peruvians from the old to the new order of things, he gave them once more an Inca. He caused Prince Manco, a legitimate son of the old Inca, Huayna Capac, and brother of the murdered Atahualpa, to be pro claimed grand seignior, and for the last time gave the inhabitants of the ancient royal residence the spectacle of the coronation of an Inca. HE FOUNDS A NEW CAPITAL. 247 It was conducted with all the old customary pomp on such occasions, only that this time the Christian priests mingled their hymns with the heathen ceremonies of the Peruvians, and that Pizarro himself placed the diadem on the head of the young prince, pledged henceforth to be his willing tool ; moreover, he appointed his brothers, Gonzalo and Juan Pizarro, to be guardians and co- regents. When Pizarro had thus subjugated within three years the very heart of Peru, from the Bay of Guayaquil to Cuzco, he turned his thoughts towards the sea-coast, and towards opening a communication between the conquered country and Europe. The people of the Andes had no genius for the sea ; they had built all their populous cities on the mountains ; and on the sea-coast they had only their cities of tombs, their oracles, and their temples. Whereas the Spaniards, who were borne by the foam of the sea itself to this land, and whose only communication with their native country was by way of the briny ocean, . now turned to the seaboard as the most important part of their new kingdom. Pizarro laid out a series of sea- coast towns, the principal of which he called after his birthplace, Truxillo, and he sought out a well-adapted central site, which should afford good harbourage, to build a new and beautiful Spanish capital for his kingdom. This he found in the neighbourhood of one 248 ALMAGRO SENT TO CHILI. of these sanctuaries and burial-places, in a beautiful valley called by the Peruvians Rimac. Here he f oun ded a great city, which he named " La Ciudad de los Reyes" (after the three kings of the East), but which became famous among the Spaniards under the name of the valley of Rimac (changed into Lima). As Pizarro, with the increase of his almost regal re venues, acquired an increasing taste for architecture, and as during the remainder of his life he always in times of leisure returned to Lima to tend and enlarge this colony of his, it soon became the richest and most beautiful city of Spanish South America, and is consi dered, at the present day, the most agreeable capital of the whole continent. He sent his brother Hernando to Spain, to report to the emperor all that had passed, and he agreed with his confederate and rival, Almagro, that the latter, equipped and supported by Pizarro, should proceed to conquer the yet untouched southern province of the Inca kingdom, called by the Peruvians the " cold country," or Chili, and that he should there form an independent govern ment. These Spanish conquistadores dealt out kingdoms, and flung great provinces at each other, as soldiers would the loaves and cakes of a plundered bakehouse. So far everything appeared to be wisely and skilfully SUFFERINGS OF HIS FOLLOWERS. 249 settled, but all did not long run smoothly in this even track. The weak Peruvians even were not to be so readily chained at a single blow, and without any further convulsion or attempt to regain their freedom. Pizarro s work, like the settlement of Cortez, and of all Spanish colonists, had still to submit to a rough ordeal. The people, never wholly subjugated, broke out into tumult and general revolt; and, worse than this, even in the midst of their danger, the jealousies of the Spaniards and the rivalry of the two triumvirs reached its highest point. Almagro, however, began his descent upon Chili, he being for the first time in command of an expedition of discovery. He marched at the head of a great army of Spaniards and Peruvians through the basin of Lake Titicaca, enclosed as it is by the highest mountain peaks of the Andes, and over the elevated and rugged ridges of this chain he proceeded southwards towards the lovely country of the coasts. He and his people suffered untold calamities, owing to the un favourableness of the weather and the want of food. The poor Peruvians, used by the Spaniards as beasts of burden, sank down by hundreds under their load, and many of the Spaniards and their horses were frozen to death on the icy heights. Many years after, when the Spaniards again were journeying along this road, they 250 ALMAGRO S RETURN. found the stiff and uncorrupted bodies of their country men, with their horses, leaning in many places on stones and rocks, like statues standing clothed and fully armed, lance in hand. Chili, though one of the mildest and most productive of the provinces of South America, and the richest in useful metal and mineral treasures, did not please Almagro, and after exploring some extent of country to the south, in great dissatisfaction he began to retrace his steps. Unless the avaricious Spanish adventurer, disin clined to work, could grasp his wealth, ready coined to his hand, or draw it from the surface of the soil, the richest countries did not satisfy him; they must offer him" populous cities and temples lined with gold, ready for plunder. Added to this, Almagro had heard from friends who had hastened after him, that during his absence a letter had arrived from the emperor, formally appointing him governor of his southern dominions, which were to be called " New Toledo." The limits of his dominions, to the south of Pizarro s province, so Almagro was told, were so fixed by the emperor, that apparently not only Chili, but also the southern coast of Peru and the city of Cuzco were in cluded within them. Almagro had long set his hopes on this city; he therefore gave ready credence to this re- DISUNION OF THE SPANIARDS. 251 port, and hastened along the coast, over the numerous torrents and ravines with which Chili is ploughed like a field, and through the desert waste of Atacama which divides it from Peru, back towards the north. Here he found his countrymen in the extreme of peril, in the midst of the wide-spread revolt and conspiracy of the Indians ; Francisco Pizarro almost cut off in his new " city of the kings," and his brother equally sur rounded in the old Inca city of Cuzco. The presence of a common enemy is generally enough for fellow-countrymen to drop all party strife, but these haughty Castilians did not hesitate to begin a civil war in the middle of an unassured conquest, and like the fire men of the cities of our own United States, to cast a burning brand at each other in the midst of public cala mity. Almagro, with his " men of Chili " (his party already bore this name), defeated first both Peruvians and Spa niards, and made himself master of Cuzco, making Pi zarro s brother prisoner, and putting himself in his place as the legitimate regent of the south, appointed by the emperor. The ambitious old man did not, however, long enjoy his splendour, for the restless Pizarro, having en ticed fresh troops from the north, in his turn defeated the Peruvians, and soon after the Spaniards. In a bloody encounter, the famous " Battle of the Salt Mines," 252 PIZARRO S PEACEFUL DOINGS. in which, however, neither of the two rivals commanded in person, the men of Chili were defeated, Almagro himself taken prisoner, and, like Atahualpa, loaded with chains, led before the court as a rebel, and finally stran gled (1537V And now Pizarro having successfully overcome this danger, and having neither Spanish nor native rival in the field, pursued a more pacific and beneficent policy in the last years of his life. He turned to beautifying his Lima with churches and gardens, founded Arequipa and other cities which still flourish ; he imported from Europe plants and animals, husbandmen and handicraftsmen, and so established a European state on the foundations of the old Indian power. He also carried on discove ries and investigations in all the vast adjoining coun tries. He sent his captain, Pedro de Valdivia, to that southern land of Chili which had first been opened up by Almagro. This Valdivia was one of the most active and honourable of the conquistador es. In the course of many years of wonderful expeditions, he subjugated and colonised this beautiful country, as far south as the fron tiers of the wild, freedom-loving people, the Araucans, who bordered on Patagonia. They withstood him, and the succeeding governors of Chili, for many centuries, as heroically as in our times the Circassians have baffled DREAMS OF THE SPANIARDS. 253 tlie Russians. A Spanish poet, Ercilla, has sung their praises in a long epic poem. To the north and west, also, the unbridled bands of Spanish adventurers poured forth like torrents. The Roman empire grew but very slowly, stone by stone ; it was built up in the course of centuries ; but the under takings of the Spanish conquerors of America had more of the impetuous spirit of discovery and of conquest which characterised the Macedonian Alexander in Asia. The fame of Peru had risen in the Spanish sky like an aurora borealis, whose golden and many-coloured rays of hope spread far into space. Fancy pictured more than one rich country on the far side of the Andes in the great unknown east. There, in the eastern forests, the last scions of the Incas were supposed, on the subjugation of Peru, to have taken refuge with untold treasures ; there, also, the Ama zons must dwell with their queen, who possessed countless pearls and jewels, and where a neighbouring king and his companions were accustomed to powder their whole bodies daily with gold dust, and who decorated the roofs of their palaces and city walls with pinnacles of pure gold. The officers and brothers of Pizarro, impatient to seize upon these treasures, each took in command small bodies of Spanish troops, and assigning to each a different 254 SPANISH EXPEDITIONS. quarter, they marched forth into the undiscovered wilds. As each soldier was leader of a hundred Indian fol lowers, obedient servants, and porters, these armies often amounted to many thousand men, and they were accom panied also by caravans and llamas laden with the heavier baggage. In these adventurous marches, a use- fid, though not very noble, animal played an important it might be called an historical part, namely, the pig, which had by this time spread in all parts of Ame rica in an incredibly rapid manner. The pig is an in defatigable campaigner of great endurance : it throve in every climate of the new world, and was quite at home in marshes as in forests. Almost all the Spanish marches of discovery, including the later ones in North America, were therefore followed by great herds of swine, without which many of their undertakings would have been im possible ; and to the present day this animal is, in many districts of America, the principal support and resource of the backwoodsman. These marches were also as well furnished with horses as the scarcity of this noble animal would allow; three thousand ducats were often paid for an ordinary steed, but then a man on horseback, a Spanish centaur, was in himself sufficient to put a whole army of these Americans to flight. Iron, another highly valuable article, was no less rare and costly ; the price of an iron sabre in the first years of the conquest THEIR FATE. 255 being fifty ducats, and rather than use iron, the horses were often shod with silver and had bridles of gold. The return of these splendid and richly-equipped troops generally presented a very different picture. The dwindled remnants were often seen coming back to the mountains or coasts of Peru without horses or Indian convoy, barefooted and clad in rags, or, like savages, in the skins of tigers and wild-cats, worn with misery and illness, and disappointed in all their hopes. In exceptional cases, the reality, it is true, exceeded all previously raised expectations, and this was peculiarly the case with the richest silver country of the world, in the south-west of Peru, at the sources of the silver stream (La Plata). Almagro had ridden through this region, close upon the splendid silver mountains of Potosi, in his march towards Chili in the year 1535; but driven forwards by the wild desire of gain, dissatisfied and disdaining the land he saw around, he little dreamed that what could most abundantly satisfy his lust for treasure lay beneath his horse s hoofs. Four years later even Pizarro bestowed large districts of the so-called province of Charcas, in this land of silver, upon some of his officers, without at all suspecting what a treasure he was giving from his hands. But shortly after, and during his lifetime, many silver mines were 256 SOUTH AMERICAN SILVER. opened in this district, and great rocks of silver rising out of the earth were discovered in the midst of the forests. Pizarro himself built Ciudad de la Plata (the silver city), which was soon followed by the rich and luxurious Potosi. Now began that rolling stream of silver, so forcibly described by Humboldt, which flowed from Potosi, first to the neighbouring South Sea harbour of Arequipa, built by Pizarro; thence it made its way by Lima and the Isthmus of Panama to the Atlantic and to Europe; thus into the coffers of the King of Spain, into the cabins and sacks of the French, English, and Dutch pirates who lay in wait for the Spanish silver fleets ; and lastly, into the pockets and homes of the citizens of the European towns, whose whole manner of life was trans formed by the changes it caused in the value of precious metals and the prices of all things. Among the many bold undertakings of the officers of Pizarro, two must be especially mentioned, besides that of Valdivia to Chili, because they, in a remarkable manner, extended the discoveries in America. First, the march and journey of Sebastian Benalcazar, whom Pizarro had sent, in 1534, to the north, in the direction of Quito, and secondly, the consequent expedition of Gonzalo Pi zarro to the mighty river Amazon. The two chains of the Andes, which enclose the EXPEDITION OF BENALCAZAR. 257 country of Quito, stretch far on to the north, and run near each other in long-continued parallel lines. Between them lie similar plateaus or elevated valleys, like that of Quito, which are only here and there intercepted and divided hy cross chains from the great Cordilleras. First comes the lofty valley of Ibarra, then that of Pasto, and lastly, that of Popayan. They lie together like enclosed portions of one giant range of valleys. The generals of the Peruvian Incas had already carried their arms in this direction considerably beyond Quito, and the im petuous Spaniards, more fortunate than they, not only swept over the whole mother country of the Incas, but also took up and completed the conquests which they had begun. The above named Benalcazar had scarcely established himself in Quito, when, in 1535, he commenced an ex pedition up these same valleys. At the head of three hundred picked men he stormed all the denies occupied by the Indians ; advanced first into the valley of Ibarra, then into the second, of Pasto, in which he established a city of the same name still existing and finally reached that extensive and beautiful valley in which a famous Indian chief, called Popayan, held sway, and at the head of a large army placed himself upon the defensive. After several engagements, Benalcazar defeated him in a decisive battle (1536), and established the capital of a VOL. I. S 258 BENALCAZAR S PLANS. Spanish dominion in the midst of this fruitful valley, giving it the name of the vanquished cazique, Popayan, While, in 1537, he superintended in person the build ing of this city, he sent his captains with small troops of men to explore the neighbouring valleys in all directions. As they brought him the most favourable reports of the capabilities of the neighbourhood, and as he remarked that in the Popayan district the rivers began to flow northward, he conceived the idea that the N6rth Sea, " Mare del Norte? must be near, and that he could gain it by following the track he was on. In fact, in Po payan, Benalcazar was, without knowing it, in the neighbourhood of the sources of the great river Mag- dalena. Enchanted by the charms of the beautiful productive country in which a perpetual spring reigned, inspired by the spirit of acquisition the incitement of all the Spanish captains and mad with -the victories gained over the Indians, he forgot Quito, Spain, and everything that he had left behind him, even the Pizarros and the Almagros, who meantime had fallen out with one another, and got into their difficulties with the Peruvians. Benalcazar thought that as the lands which he had discovered did not belong to Quito or Peru, or to the kingdom of Pi- zarro, any more than they did formerly to the dominion THE PLATEAU OF BOGOTA. 259 of the Incas, he might, therefore, make them into a kingdom of his own. Marching northward to the river Magdalena, he reached the productive plateau of Bogota, in which the Muyscas held their ancient kingdom : and on this plateau took place the famous meeting of the three conquerors, who, at the same moment, all reached the same spot, marching thither from the most opposite directions. First came Benalcazar from the south, down from the sources of the river ; then the famous conquistador, Quesada, who had worked his way up from the northern sea, along the river Magdalena, after many toilsome expeditions ; and lastly, the commander of the German troops, Nicolaus Federmann, who at the command of the Emperor Charles V., and at the expense of the rich merchant Welser, of Augsburg, had, from the east, from the basin of the Orinoco, climbed the mountains and plateau of Bogota. Under the shock of these three invaders the ancient kingdom of the Muyscas of Bogota was utterly scattered and destroyed. After the victory they found themselves face to face, and in their astonishment stood for some time with their swords drawn in support of their con flicting claims. They chose the nobler part, however, and holding out the hand of peace, they journeyed back s2 260 BEN ALCAZAR S EXPLOITS. to Spain to place the settlement of their singular conten tion at the feet of the emperor. Benalcazar was beyond a douht one of the greatest of the Spanish discoverers. He opened northwards from the Bay of Guayaquil as much of this beautiful country as Pizarro had to the south of the bay. He made known to the world the whole eight hundred miles of the chains of the Andes stretching from this bay in a north-north easterly direction. His name will always be memorable in the history of discovery as the conqueror of the king dom of Quito, the founder of the cities San Francisco de Quito, Ibarra, Popayan, Cali, and Timana, and as the first discoverer of the source of the great rivers Cauca and Santa Magdalena. He himself brought the first accounts of these regions to Europe. He performed more than any of the cap tains of Pizarro s school, except Pedro de Yaldivia, who had conquered as far to the south, as Benalcazar had to the north. Benalcazar not only himself completed all these great discoveries, but he set on foot many other undertakings which later were taken up and pursued by succeeding captains, and especially was this the case with the third great expedition of this period, that famous and much- vaunted journey of Gonzalo Pizarro to the so-called land GONZALO PIZARRO. 261 of cinnamon, and farther down, to the mightiest river of the new world, the Maraiion or Amazon. The incitement to this expedition arose in two ways from the foregoing undertakings of Benalcazar. When the latter had conquered Quito and had gone farther to the north, the Marquis Franz Pizarro began to doubt his loyalty, and sent his brother Gonzalo to take pos session of Quito while Benalcazar was absent, and to hold it as his deputy. Gonzalo, it is said, received this mission with especial joy, and as he was much beloved by the troops, being a spirited, generous, and skilful leader, many soldiers and knights crowded to join him. Their joy was not so much on account of the evergreen Quito, as at the prospects of a new and vast undertaking beyond it, which had for some time been disclosed. The Spanish conquistador es of this age had but little pleasure in what was already gained and known. The unknown, with its possible and immeasurable treasures, was to them the most attractive, and floated like a vision of the promised land before their eyes. As I have said, they looked down from the heights of the Andes towards the measureless plains of Central South America, into which the mighty rivers ran from the mountains, with longing and excited expectation. They could not believe that the small girdle of the Andes 262 THE LAXD OF CINNAMON. could be the only richly cultivated district of the con tinent, and that every other part was only a wilder ness inhabited by naked Indians. They thought that there must lie some new Perus ; and their inflammable imagination now sought in these lands new countries of marvels, new nations and kingdoms. Like the u far west" of the Anglo-Americans on the east coast of the northern continent, the Spaniards in Peru, who had begun their principal colonisation along the west coast, had their "great east" before them, from which they ever expected new wonders to emerge. While Benalcaz^r built the city of Popayan, one of his officers, Gonzalo Diaz de Pineda, had descended the Andes to the east of Popayan and Quito, and had come to a region which the old Peruvians had called "Los Quixos" after a race of natives. He had found here some Indian merchants who dealt in the bark of a tree like cinnamon, and who told him that farther to the east were woods full of " canela," or cinnamon-trees. The Spa niards of Pineda likewise understood these merchants to say that farther east there were nations, all the men of which went about clothed from head to foot in suits of golden armour. Pineda had only a small portion of the small army of Benalcazar, and he did not feel himself strong enough to carry out this undertaking. On his return to Quito and Popayan, the fame of the " Quixos" EXPEDITION TO IT PREPARED. 263 country spread abroad, and the Spaniards, who, like Co lumbus, always sought for Oriental spices, called it the "Land of Cinnamon" (La Canela). Great expectations were entertained of this district as it lay near the equator, and in the same degree of latitude as the Spice Islands. Gonzalo Pizarro, therefore, " a great enemy to repose," as Herrera calls him, had scarcely reached Quito before he yielded to the wishes of his followers and adherents, and, sounding his drums, prepared an expedition . He committed his beautiful dominion of Quito to the guardianship of his captain, Puelles, and made every pre paration for an " entrada" into the land of Canela. He assembled three hundred and fifty picked soldiers, among them one hundred and fifty horsemen, and no less than four thousand Indians, as servants, hunters, and herds men. He also collected all the cattle to be found in Quito, and is said to have taken five thousand pigs, sheep, and goats, and more than one thousand dogs, on this expedition, from which, after two years of wandering and suffering, he brought back nothing but the remem brance of many terrible scenes and a small handful of sick and weary men, clad only in rags. Even when Gonzalo Avith his long caravan was far on his way, and had already passed some of the eastern branches of the Andes, small bodies of men still attempted to follow him ; among others, Francisco de Orellana, with 264 PROGRESS OF THE EXPEDITION. thirty horses. Driven by the desire to take part in the " Canela" expedition, this knight dashed after Gonzalo, and with sabres and axes cutting his way through the forests, straight over mountain and valley, overtook the main body two hundred miles eastward of Quito. The soldiers received him with shouts of joy, little suspecting that this man would prove a most reckless traitor, and bring upon himself the curse of the whole army. At the same time, it was to his zeal of discoveiy, and his conse quent disobedience to orders that the expedition owed its geographical importance. As long as Gonzalo Pizarro and his men journeyed in the old domains of the Incas everything went tolerably well. The inhabitants of the Andes were peaceable and submissive, and did what they could as guides to further the undertaking. When, how ever, they reached the plains, they came among the wild tribes of naked savages who had always lived at enmity with the Incas, and who transferred their jealousy to the Spaniards, as the dwellers on the Andes had transferred their friendship. As they were descending the last spurs of the Andes the earth shook, and even the mountains trembled ; the ground opened in several places, and lightning and fire flashed out of the clefts and rents in the rocks, as well as from the clouds, and several Indian villages were swal lowed up before the eyes of the Europeans. It was one DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED. 265 of the most terrible earthquakes that had ever been ex perienced in the new world, and it seemed almost as if Nature wished to mark each memorable undertaking of the Spaniards by some convulsion of the elements. When Benalcazar marched on Quito the mountains of the Andes, which had been quiet for many years, sent out fire and flames ; in Mexico, also, at the invasion of the Spaniards, the whole face of nature was disturbed. The courage of the Spaniards, whom nothing terrified, only rose higher as thus they marched on, through fire and water, through heat and cold, into the wilderness. The cold of the mountains had already killed many hun dreds of the poor Peruvians, and now, in the plains, a suffocating heat, bogs, morasses, and rising floods over whelmed them. The face of the country was buried in mud and slime, and they thought it must be the drain of the universe. A ceaseless stream of rain poured down from heaven for fifty days, and the little army almost perished, like Pharaoh in the Red Sea, in this rainy land, which was flooded far and wide. Gonzalo and his Spaniards were, however, more persistent than Pharaoh and his Egyptians. They survived, and found at last their " canela" trees. They gathered from the poor inhabitants of the forest, so they thought, that there must be mighty kingdoms farther to the east, with numerous populations and great cities, held by powerful kings and chiefs, and an RIVER NATO DISCOVERED. abundance of canela-trees and of gold. Highly pleased with this report, they continued their journey, leaving behind them a large portion of their herds, in order that they might march more quickly and with less toil. Gonzalo was always in advance, reconnoitring, with a troop of the best mounted men, and in one of these ex peditions he discovered a great river. This was the so-called Rio Napo, one of the greatest of the upper tributaries of the Maraiion, and the inhabitants of the district assured him that the river ran into a much greater one, which they called " The Sweet Sea." As the Spaniards thought that all desirable things must be found in the neighbourhood of the "Sweet Sea," Gonzalo concentrated here the whole of his scat tered army, and determined to proceed down the Napo. They found themselves much reduced, and their con dition did not improve in their march along the river, in the course of which cultivation ceased and the means of subsistence became more and more precarious. There were no bridges here, as over the rivers of the Peruvian Andes, and on the upper part of its course the stream was neither navigable nor fordable. They had no choice, therefore, but to journey on through swamps and woods, and over rocks, and if they attempted a passage they had to fight the numerous troops of Indians who had assembled against them. They found no sort THE RIVER CROSSED. 267 of nutriment, but an abundance only of natural wonders, which they seem to have appreciated, even in the midst of their deprivations. They came upon a magnificent waterfall, the collected waters of the Napo, descending "many hundred feet" from a ledge of rock, and further on they found an extraordinary mountain ravine, into the deep abyss of which rolled the waters of this giant stream ; and here the walls of rock, two hun dred fathoms deep, approached each other at their sum mits to within a distance of thirty feet. The Spaniards, desirous of seeing if the country were not better on the other side of the Xapo, set themselves to build a bridge over this gate of rocks ; and this they accomplished in spite of hot skirmishes with the natives. But alas ! the country was no better on the other side. They were now so driven by hunger, that they began to kill their horses and their dogs. Hundreds of Peruvians, and even many Spaniards, died. Those who remained, however, inarched always forwards, still in the neigh- hourhood of the hot and rainy equator. Sometimes they met with a tribe of Indians who cultivated maize, with which they, for a while, prolonged their lives. At last, they came to the end of the country of rapids and rocks, and determined to build a ship which could carry the rest of their provisions and utensils, and which might, at the same time, serve as a ferry from one bank 268 A BRIGANTINE PREPARED. to the other. As the rain poured in ceaseless torrents, they built, first, large sheds for their forges and other workshops. The trees which they felled were then dragged under shelter, prepared, and dried as far as possible. They had to use their swords as axes, and it cost them much pain and trouble to obtain fuel for the forges. Instead of pitch and tar, they collected a great quantity of gum which dropped from the bark of the trees, and with this they covered their planks and joints. As they had very little rope, and no tow, they used their old clothes for caulking. Each gave what he had for the common good, and " the more tattered the garment was, the better it was fitted for the purpose." They also killed the remainder of their horses, and forged nails and rivets out of their shoes. Gonzalo was the first in everything, and forged, sawed, planed, and felled trees like the rest. At last, after months of toil they finished the brigantine, which was destined, like the ship Argus, in which Jason and his companions traversed the Danube, to accomplish one of the most extraordinary voyages in the world. They loaded the ship with the heaviest of their remaining baggage, with every horse-shoe and nail still left, and with their gold, and their precious stones, which they now prized less than the iron. They also put their sick on board, and thus toiled on for two months more, the ORELLANA SAILS DOWN THE RIVER. 269 army on land, and the sick in the ship near them. When next they met with natives, and asked if they should not soon reach a beautiful, rich, and populous country, they were answered as usual in the affirmative, and told that it was but three or four days journey to the junction of the river Napo with the " Sweet-water Sea." This gave the Spaniards fresh courage, and Gonzalo Pizarro en trusted to Orellana the command of the brigantine, and of fifty well-armed soldiers, with the commission to go down the Napo as far as the " great stream," there to collect as much provision as he could, and to return as quickly as possible to succour the army, which would meantime march on along the bank. Orellana started, and as the Napo was very rapid, succeeded in reaching the mouth within three days. Gonzalo s army, however, marched long weeks and months through bogs and thickets, sinking fast into the greatest distress, and tormented with anxiety as to the fate of their brigantine, on which they had placed all their hopes, but which did not return. Many who had still preserved their favourite horses and dogs, were now obliged to slaughter them, and finally they found themselves reduced to eat unknown roots and herbs, and the shoots of the palm-tree. When they at length reached the junction of the Napo with the Amazon, they found to their terror only 270 DEFECTION OF ORELLANA. another river as wild and desolate as the first. This dis covery, and the narrative of the half-naked Spaniard who met them here, was the crowning point of the irdespair. In this countryman, wandering like a ghost in the forests, they recognised the Cavalier Hernando Sanchez de Vargas, who had gone on board the brigantine with Orellana, and who now related to them the history of the unprecedented treachery of its commander. When Orellana reached the mouth of the Napo, he found neither gold, nor canela, nor food even, and decided, after due consideration, on continuing his course down the long-sought river, and steering for the Atlantic Ocean, to which it most probably would lead him. It was true that he had come down the current of the Napo in three days, but the return he thought could scarcely be accomplished in as many months ; and even if he were to succeed in retracing his steps, what report had he to make to Gonzalo but that there was no better prospect on the Maranon than on the Napo. He might, indeed, have cheered them by bringing back their clothes, their iron, and their utensils ; but, attracted by the unknown country which lay before him, and forgetting all behind, Orellana acted as did almost every Spanish captain in a similar situation he raised the standard of revolt, spread the sails of the brigantine, POSITION OF GOXZALO PIZAEBO. 271 which his forsaken friends had built, as already de scribed, and sailed eastwards down the great river, which thus became known to the world, and which for many years bore the name of the deserter, Orellana. A few right-thinking men on board the vessel protested against the proceedings of their commander, but he, having won over the majority of the crew, was able to reduce these few to silence. Some he pardoned, thinking that they might still be useful, but the noble Cavalier Vargas of Badajoz, who inveighed against him most loudly, and had opposed him most violently, he landed on the shores of the Marafion, in the wilderness, where he, as we have said, told his melancholy tale to Gonzalo and his people. They now found themselves in the centre of the South American continent, many hundreds of miles from any Spanish settlement, and in the midst of a land which, instead of assuming a more cheering aspect, became only more wild and more forbidding. To con struct another vessel was out of the question, as they had not a single piece of iron left ; it seemed equally difficult to return to Quito, for they had taken a whole year to reach the melancholy place in which they now found themselves, and, being in every respect weaker, it would take them at least another year to return. Nevertheless, to return was the only course left to them, 272 RETURN OF THE SURVIVORS. and Gonzalo Pizarro, a man of intrepid courage, pre vailed upon his men, in a comforting and encouraging speech, to submit patiently to the necessity. Clearing a way for themselves through the dense primeval forest with their hands and swords, swimming over innumerable rivers, and living by hunting, not dis daining even snakes, toads, and locusts, they toiled on for another year. At length, to their inexpressible joy, they found stones and rocks in the valley of a river, by which they knew that they were approaching the moun tains ; and when, after several weeks of laborious march ing, they caught sight of the peaks of the Cordilleras, in their joy they fell on their knees and thanked God as if their own native land had been before their eyes. They felt like shipwrecked mariners cast on the mountains from the forest levels and seas of herbage of the eastern O regions. Of all the troops of splendid horses and other animals they brought back only two dogs, one belonging to Gonzalo, the other to one of his officers. Almost all the four thousand Peruvians had met their death in the morasses, forests, or on the snow-mountains; and among them a brave native, who attended devotedly on Gonzalo as his slave, or body-servant. Gonzalo (the very man who, for the most trifling reasons, had caused so many poor Indians to be cut down on the journey) " loved AFFAIRS AT QUITO. 273 this one so dearly that he shed as many tears at his death as if he had been his brother." The Spanish battalion had sunk to a handful of some eighty men, and were not better clad than the savages of the Maranon ; some had skins of tigers and wild cats on their shoulders, others had only mats of grass and leaves round their loins, and every one was barefooted. Most of them still kept hold of their swords, but the leather sheaths had long been lost, and the blades were almost eaten away by rust ; the men themselves were so weather- stained and so full of scars and wounds that they could scarcely distinguish each other. When they appeared in the mountain valley, the news of their return soon spread to Quito, which, at this time, contained but a few desponding Spaniards, for during Gonzalo s two years absence (1540 1542) everything in Peru had changed for the worse. The whole land had fallen meanwhile into a second civil war. Almagro s son Diego, who had, with his father s adherents^ con spired against the Marquis Pizarro, and had slain him in his palace of Lima, had for some time maintained him self at the head of affairs. Many of Pizarro s party had, however, taken arms against Diego, and among them Vaca de Castro, the new governor sent by the king, had entered the field. Quito and ah 1 the neighbouring colo- VOL. I. T 274 PLIGHT OF THE SURVIVORS. nies were consequently depopulated and ruined, all the men capable of bearing arms being drawn off to the scene of war, the cities of Lima and Cuzco. Gonzalo Pizarro had long ceased to be talked of, and his followers had long been believed to be lost in the de solate plains of the East. When, therefore, the dwellers in Quito suddenly heard that he was coming over the mountains in such sad plight, they were seized at once with joy and with deep compassion. They were only able in their haste to collect a few horses and some provisions, with which a small band went out to meet Gonzalo and his followers. They found them about one hundred and twenty miles from Quito. Both parties were moved to tears at this meeting. As the deputies from Quito had provided horses and clothes for twelve men only, they offered these to Gon zalo and his still remaining officers, but neither these latter nor Gonzalo himself would accept this distinction ; they would have no preference shown them over their faithful soldiers, and therefore remained wrapped in skins until they could all be equipped and mounted to gether. At the sight of this magnanimity the twelve deputies began themselves to be ashamed of their clothes . They wished to have some share in the glory of these martyrs, and, casting off their boots and mantles, and ENTRANCE INTO QUITO. 275 wrapping themselves like the others, in skins, they packed everything else upon their horses, which they led by the bridle, and went barefoot by Gronzalo s people for the remainder of the journey. In this manner they made their entrance into Quito, where they all went to the church, as they were, to return thanks to God for their safe deliverance. With the conclusion of this me morable expedition -of Gonzalo Pizarro, which, as has been shown, resulted in the discovery of the greatest river course of South America, as well as of the prin cipal source of its civilisation, this short account of the discovery of Peru may be brought to a close. For now, the whole extent of the land in its main outlines and its principal bearings, north, south, and east, was, so to speak, ploughed up, and made known from the Carribean Sea to the Straits of Patao-onia. EXD OF VOL. I. C. WHITING, BEAUFORT IIOUSE ; STRAND. CONTENTS OF VOL II. . CHAPTER I. THE NAVAL HEROES OF QUEEN ELIZABETH, AND THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. PAGE John Cabot discovers North America (June 24, anno 1497) Ponce de Leon discovers Florida (1513) Coligny s Huguenots in Florida (1562, 1568) Sir John Hawkins s Expeditions (1562, 1565, 1567) Sir Francis Drake s Voyage round the World (1577, 1578) Sir Humphrey Gilbert s first Attempt at Colonisation (1583) Sir "Walter Raleigh s Voyage to Virginia (1584 and 1602) John Smith Colonises the Bay of Chesapeake (1607) The Dutch discover New Belgium (New York, 1609) The Puritans build Boston (1630) Oxenstierna founds New Sweden on the Delaware (1638) The English conquer New Belgium (1664) Penn founds Pennsylvania (1682) Oglethorpe founds Georgia (1732) 1 CHAPTER II. THE FRENCH AND THE FUR-HUNTERS IN CANADA. The Cabots discover the Fish-banks of Newfoundland (anno 1497) Caspar de Cortereal discovers Labrador (1500) Giovanni Verazano sails along the Coasts of North America (1524) Jacques Cartier discovers the Gulf of St. Lawrence (1534) Jacques Cartier dis covers the River St. Lawrence and Canada (1535) Roberval and Cartier go to Canada (1542) Roberval and his Fleet disappear (1548) Samuel Champlain founds Quebec (1608) Samuel Champ- lain organises the Province of Canada, and explores the Lower Lakes (1608, 1635) Father Mesnard discovers the Upper Lakes (1660) The Jesuits Allouez and Marquette complete the explora tion of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan (1666) . . . .58 CHAPTER III. THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE JESUITS. The Captains of Governor Garay discover the Mouths of the Mis sissippi (1519) Pamphilo de Navaez is lost at the Mouths of the Mississippi (1529) Cabeza de Vaca wanders about for nine Years in the Lands to the south-west of the Mississippi (1529-1537) Fer nando de Soto discovers and navigates the Lower Mississippi (1540- 1542) Moscoso s Retreat (1543) The Jesuit Marquette goes down the entire Mississippi in a Canoe (1673) 103 b VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. THE MARCH OF THE RUSSIANS AND COSSACKS THROUGH SIBERIA TO AMERICA. PAGE Annika Stroganoff sends his People over the Ural (anno 1570) Jermak Timofejeff and his Cossacks ride over the Ural (1578) Jermak gains Possession of " Sibir" (1580) The Cossacks reach the Lena (1628) The Cossacks gain Possession of Kamtschatka (1690- 1706) The Cossacks hear of the " Great Land," (America) (1706) Peter the Great orders the Discovery of the "Great Land," (North- West America) (1723) Behring and Tschirokoff reach America from Siberia (1741) The Russians take Possession of North- West America (1760) 144 CHAPTER V. THE NORTH AND THE ENGLISH. Martin Frobisher s Voyages to "Meta Incognita" (anno 1572-1578) John Davis discovers Davis s Strait (1585) Henry Hudson dis covers Hudson s Bay (1610) Bylot and Baffin discover Baffin s Bay (1616) John Ross begins the Series of Arctic Expeditions of Modern Times (1818) William Edward Parry penetrates into Lancaster Sound in the American Polar Sea (1816) Sir John Franklin s Land Journey to the Coasts of the American Polar Sea (1820-21) Sir John Franklin s last Voyage (1845) M Clure dis covers the North- West Passage, and proves that America is sur rounded by Water (Oct. 1850) 185 CHAPTER VI. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON THE RESULTS OF THE DISCOVERT OF AMEEICA TO COMMERCE, NAVIGATION, SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND POLITICS. Introduction of European Diseases Changes in the Condition and Habits of the Natives of America Destruction of the American Civilisation Extinction of the Red Race Development of New Races Changes in the Aspect of Nature, and in the Climate through the Cultivation of the Soil and the Introduction of New Animals and Plants : Sugar, Coffee, Cotton, Negro Slavery Spread of American Plants and Animals in Europe: Potatoes, Tobacco, Maize, Medicines, Turkeys Changes of Political and Commercial Power and Hegemony in Europe Zenith of the Power of the Por tuguese and Spaniards, and. its Decline Decline of Italian Com merce; of German Commerce; of the Hanse Towns Freedom of the Netherlands Rise of the English Influence on Sciences Cosmology Astronomy Botanical Gardens Menageries Na tural Sciences Ethnography History of Man Impulse to Inven tion Increased Moral and Physical Mobility of European Nations Modern Languages and Literature Spread and Stability of the Christian Religion 231 A POPULAR HISTORY DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, CHAPTER I. THE NAVAL HEROES OF QUEEN ELIZABETH, AND THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. John Cabot discovers North America (June 24, anno 1497) Ponce de Leon discovers Florida (1513) Coligny s Huguenots in Florida (1562, 1568) Sir John Hawkins s Expeditions (1562, 1565, 1567) Sir Francis Drake s Voyage round the World (1577, 1578) Sir Humphrey Gilbert s first Attempt at Colonisation (1583) Sir Walter Raleigh s Voyage to Virginia (1584 and 1602) John Smith Colonises the Bay of Chesa peake (1607) The Dutch discover New Belgium (New York, 1609) The Puritans build Boston (1630) Oxenstierna founds New Sweden on the Delaware (1638) The English conquer New Belgium (1664) Penn founds Pennsylvania (1682) Oglethorpe founds Georgia (1732). THE east coast of the United States, from Florida to Canada, is about 1600 geographical miles long. Pa rallel with the coast, in the same direction, runs a chain of mountains, the lines of which are six or seven times repeated, and are called the Alleghany, i. e. the endless mountain ranges. The district between these mountain VOL. II. B 2 THE ATLANTIC SLOPE. walls and the coast line is a beautiful strip of land 200 to 350 geographical miles broad, called by the Americans " the slope of the Atlantic," because its numerous rivers all flow into that ocean. This Atlantic slope is at the present day by far the most important portion of America, Along its shores now lie the largest and most flourishing commercial cities, and more important interests and hopes are bound up in it than in any other part of the American coast of the same extent, Like Central Europe, towards which its face is turned, it runs through the whole of the temperate zone. Its climate greatly resembles that of the best portions of our continent, whose natural productions and inhabitants flourish in it to great advantage. Columbus gave to tropical America, which he dis covered, the name of Western India. The north-west of the New World (the countries round Hudson s Bay) has been called American Siberia, and the north coast (Greenland and Labrador) the American Scandinavia. The east coast, with its adjacent countries, might with justice be called the American, or New, Europe. To Englishmen belongs the merit of having recognised the importance of this region ; of having maintained their ideas respecting it, and haying finally brought them to a fortunate issue. FIRST ENGLISH EXPEDITION. 3 They were the first to prove the existence of this coast, and to display their sails and pennants along its shores. This took place very soon after Columbus s first voyage, and before the close of the fifteenth century, in the reign of Henry VII. Columbus had made known his projects and ideas to this king by sending to him his brother Bartholomew, and offering (though vainly) to undertake for him the work of discovery in the West. Thus he had been the first to awaken in the king a desire after the transatlan tic world. Henry VII., stung with vexation at the opportunity he had lost, set to work to gain a share in the prospects now opened in the West. A few years after Columbus s first voyage across the ocean, he despatched an exploring fleet in that direction, which, in the dearth of skilful English navigators, was commanded, like almost all the earlier expeditions of Europeans, by an Italian, the Venetian Giovanni Cabot. To keep out of the way of the Spaniards, and for other reasons, Cabot did not turn to the South, but sailed across the ocean in a north-westerly direction, and discovered the great island of Newfoundland, with its abundant fish-banks, and on the 24th June (in the same year), on St. John s Day, the continent of North Ame rica, part of the present Labrador. He sailed down B2 IGNORANCE OF GEOGRAPHY. along the coast southward until, as he said, he thought himself in the same degree of latitude as the straits of Gibraltar ; that is, nearly as far as the boundary of the present state of North Carolina, and then he returned to England. Thus he had seen the principal part of that wild and barbarous coast in which the English sub sequently played so great a part. Had the importance of Cabot s discovery been under stood at that time, and the requisite means for prose cuting it been at command, this discovery might have been called sufficiently great ; but wild coast-lands, which must be cultivated with the sweat of their brows, were not at all to the taste of the English. They, like the Spaniards and all their contemporaries, wanted to find vast realms abounding in wealth, in splen did castles, and cities with which a profitable commerce might at once be set on foot. The precise nature of the land they had seen was unknown to Cabot and his Englishmen. They, like Columbus, thought it was a part of Asia the northern and eastern points of that northern Tartary which they believed stretched out far towards Europe. In the oldest maps of the world which we still possess, Labrador, Newfoundland, &c., are represented as con nected with Asia, something like the peninsulas of Kamschatka and Corea. CABOT S DISCOVERY NEGLECTED. 5 It is not surprising that in England the rejoicings over this discovery were not great, and that the English, who at that time possessed neither a superabundance of inhabitants nor a navy of any importance, should not immediately seize these paltry countries, which they rather looked upon as in the way of their plans. Nor need it excite our astonishment that Cabot had no suc cessor; that his soon almost forgotten voyage should remain isolated, and that nearly a century should elapse before the English called their old Cabot and his voyage then become famous to remembrance, that they might found on it their right of discovery and their claim to the country. The only immediate practical result of this discovery proceeded from the knowledge of the rich fisheries en the banks of Newfoundland, which, soon after Cabot s expedition, were visited and made profitable by European fishermen ; though here, also, the English at first allowed other nations, especially the French, to take the lead. The north coast of the United States is indicated in the oldest maps of the world by rough and uncertain strokes, as if a cloud or a mass of rocks was intended to be represented, and the vague inscription is appended, " Here land has been seen by the English." At the southernmost point the busy little coral insects working from antediluvian times have added a supplement to the C) PONCE DE LEON. Atlantic slope, have built up a large and marvellous penin sula, four hundred miles in length. This reaches nearly to the tropical zone and to the Antillas Islands, possessed by the Spaniards ; and it may have served as a primaeval bridge for the migrations of the ancient American tribes. Now, the Spaniards could not help knowing, through their islanders, of this country to the north of Cuba. After their fashion, the Indians spoke of many strange and fabulous things in it, among others of a far-famed " Fountain of Bimini," which cured the sick and caused the old to become young again. Sixteen years after Cabot, the Spaniard Ponce de Leon, Governor of Porto Rico, sailed to the north, to seek the " wonderful country of the well of lif e and the spring of youth, Bimini." He discovered this land on an Easter Sunday, which day is commonly called by the Spaniards " Pascua Florida" (the Festival of Flowers), and on this account, as well as because the country lay before his eyes decked in all the full beauty and fra grance of its spring flowers, he called it " La Florida" (the Island of Flowers). Ponce de Leon sailed round it, and several Spanish navigators followed in his track, continuing his discoveries on the west as well as the east side of the coral peninsula. As early as the year 1525 the Spaniards had sailed along the whole coast of the United States, from New- FLORIDA. 7 founclland to Cuba, and had taken possession of it for their king, in so far, at least, as such ceremonies as the putting up of crosses and coats of arms, cutting the king s name on trees, drinking sea-water, and waving flags could make it their own. They had, moreover, already given names to the principal capes, harbours, and bays of this coast. They called, for example, New York and the Hudson River, "the Harbour of St. Antonio ;" our Chesapeake Bay, near which lies Balti more, " the Bay of the Virgin Mary ;" and the river of our present Philadelphia they named " the Bay of St. Christopher." The name of Florida, originally only applied to a part of the country, was soon extended by the Spaniards to the whole of the territory of the pre sent United States, and they continued to call it thus for two hundred years. It is a pity that this pretty name has not been retained for the whole country, for then the citizens of the United States, whom a geo grapher scarcely knows how to designate briefly, would have had one proper name for both land and people. Those citizens who believe that " decrepid Europe," as they call it, becomes rejuvenated in their country, might then, likewise, have appealed to the historical fable of the " Well of Youth" as a pretty and very significant prophecy. These Spanish names, which were paraded on the maps of the world, remained, however, only 8 THE REFORMATION IN FRANCE. empty words, out of which nothing grew no colonies, no emporiums, no well-organised provinces. The Spaniards were certainly jealous enough concern ing everything in the half of the world which they had received from the Pope, and, as long as they could, they tried to stop foreigners from entering upon the wild eastern coast of America. But they did not see why they should build and plant in the north as long as they could reap, without sowing, in the south. The east coast lay fallow, as it were, till the middle of the sixteenth century. As it promised neither gold, nor silver, nor spices, it was only of necessity, when nothing else was left, that people were driven to it. It was not a country which could enrich the crowns of kings with brilliants and pearls. It was a country for exiles, for the banished, and it is only by degrees that this despised land has become the corner-stone of the continent. The first fugitives, who sought not an empire to plunder, but rather a piece of earth to cultivate and live upon in freedom, came to this east coast from France, about the time of the wars of the Reformation. On the extension of the Reformation to France, from the beginning, its spread became connected with the maritime undertakings of the people of that country. It took root in especial in several of the French harbours, and La Rochelle, St. Malo, and other sea-ports, soon ADMIRAL COLIGNY. 9 formed the chief bulwarks of the Huguenots. Their great and most zealous patron and leader, Coligny, was High Admiral of France under King Charles the Ninth, and it may have been that the Huguenots, from the first, cast their eyes across the ocean to the new country as the proper field for their new religion. The French corsairs and freebooters, who, in the sixteenth century, swarmed in the tracks of the Spanish and Portuguese, were not unfrequently commanded by Huguenots, who probably felt but little scruple in warring against Catholic kings. The first attempt at a Protestant colony in the new world was made by Admiral Coligny and his adherents in the year 1554. His aim was to reach the coast of Brazil and the beautiful bay of Rio Janeiro, which had long since been descried by French fleets in the track of the Portuguese. This attempt was, however, entirely frustrated. The French who were settled in the dis trict, where later the imperial capital of Brazil has been built, fell into disunion and dissensions, and such of them as remained were driven from the beautiful bay of Rio Janeiro in the year 1560, by a fleet-of-war which the King of Portugal sent out against them. Upon this, Coligny turned his thoughts to the coast of Florida, which was not occupied by the Spaniards, and he sent thither many Protestant naval heroes in the 10 HUGUENOT COLONY. name of the king. These men explored the coast more carefully than it had hitherto been done, and they built a couple of forts, which they maintained for some years against famine and the native tribes. From their forts they likewise penetrated into the interior of the country, following the course of the rivers. These excursions were made in the territory of the present states of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, which were the first lands explored by the French. They drew maps and inviting pictures of this attractive country, which found their way to France, were there printed, and after- Wards translated and published in England. This Huguenot colony, which they called " la Floride Frangaise" was the first positive settlement which had been made by Europeans in the countries of the United States, and also the first plan of colonisation of the same nature as those which England afterwards so frequently carried out. Unfortunately, it came to a most tragical end. The Huguenots received but little support from the Catholic king, Charles the Ninth ; the King of Spain, therefore, sent a superior fleet and army to take them by surprise. All those who did not fall defending themselves were taken prisoners (men and women) and at once executed, or rather murdered. The Spanish admiral, Menendez, who ordered this horrible butchery, caused a monument to be erected on the place ITS FATE. 11 of execution, where the victims still lay on the ground, or hun on trees, and on this monument he had the O / words engraved, " This bef el them not as Frenchmen , but as heretics." The Nemesis, however, soon followed ; for, as King Charles the Ninth of France took no notice of this atro cious affair, a French nobleman, Gourgues, fitted out a fleet at his own expense, and falling as unexpectedly on the garrisons which the Spaniards had left in Florida, he took them prisoners and put them all to the sword ; and, instead of the Spanish monument, he raised a French one, on which was inscribed, " This bef el them not as Spaniards, but as murderers." The French Protestant project of exploring and colo nising the east coast now fell to the ground, for troublous times came for the Huguenots. Admiral Coligny and his followers, in that night of terror called the " Feast of Blood," suffered the same kind of death at the hands of their own king as the King of Spain had inflicted on their sea-captains and colonists in America. The disco veries they had made on the other side of the ocean con tinued to exist only in the papers and maps which they left behind them, and these coming afterwards into the possession of the English, were, in many ways, turned to good account by them in all their undertaking s. It is one of the most interesting tasks in the history of 12 FRENCH EXILES IN ENGLAND. discovery and of geographical science, as in that of all human knowledge, to trace out how the ideas are com municated hy inheritance from individual to individual, and from nation to nation ; to see how, and under what circumstances, one people, so to speak, inoculates another; how the impulse once given works on through races, and from neighbour to neighbour ; and how, as one man retires from the arena, his successor takes the torch from his hand and carries its light still farther. The English, in the greatest work which they have accomplished in America, the exploration and colo nisation of the United States, have, in many cases, been the scholars and successors of the French. The ac counts which the latter gave of the beauty and fertility of this region, and its fitness for rnan to dwell on, of its abundant harbours and rivers, and its temperate Euro pean-like climate, first kindled the desire of the English for the undertaking. They not only received this intel ligence by means of the printing-press, but also by word of mouth ; for many of the French fugitives and Huguenots came in person from Florida to England, where they were presented to Queen Elizabeth. These Frenchmen, too, who, at that time, were far better acquainted with the Atlantic Ocean than the English, frequently served them as pilots and steersmen in their voyages to the west. I could here give particulars to TIMES OF HENRY VIII. 13 show how the English, in their earliest distant voyages, were always very desirous of having some of these French pilots on board their ships. Even the famous statesman, Sir Walter Raleigh, who afterwards did so much for the east coast of America, received his inspiration from the French. In his youth he fought on the side of the Huguenots, and it is pro bable that he made the acquaintance of Admiral Coligny, whose life and deeds so much resemble his own. Previous to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the English had taken but little part in the transatlantic expeditions. At the period when the discoveries of the Spaniards and Portuguese most nourished, England, for forty years, was ruled by a narrow-minded despot, who, principally occupied with domestic affairs and internal dissensions, was little suited to inspire his subjects with a lively spirit of enterprise. The maritime trade of England was also, at that time, for the most part in the hands of the Hanse- atic merchants, and England had neither so important a merchant service nor a navy as the Spaniards, of even as the French, had long possessed. All that Henry VIII. could do was to free the commerce of his country from dependence on foreigners, and lay the foundation of a future navy. Even in the period following the death of this despot, though the navy gradually increased, yet the condition 14 QUEEN ELIZABETH. of the country was little favourable to great enterprises. Many rulers followed each other in rapid succession, and just at the time when the French, as the declared ene mies of Spain, were busy in forwarding the work of dis covery in America, the Queen of England, by a marriage with Philip II., prevented the English from coming for ward as discoverers or conquerors on a continent which the King of Spain considered to belong to him from one end to the other. Such opportunities were only opened to them when they, like the French, became the declared enemies of the possessors of the new world. This salutary change, this enmity, the English owed to their anti-Catholic queen, Elizabeth, whose reign commenced in 1558. Under this energetic and popular princess, the long-checked energies of the people, that had been gradually though silently preparing for action, suddenly burst forth, and she it was, also, who fostered the youthful efforts of the nation in navigation and dis covery. She it was who built England s wooden walls ; the gracious queen, like Peter the Great, often busying herself personally with their construction. She went herself on board the newly built ships, shook their rough captains by the hand, and drank with them a cup at parting. She consecrated their flags, and she, the Maiden Queen, stood on the balcony of her palace at Greenwich, amidst the thunder of cannon, when her sea- SIR JOHN HAWKINS. 15 captains sailed past, waving her handkerchief to them as a sign of good wishes. If they returned victorious, with her own hands she hung chains of gold round their necks, and knighted them. She thus inspired them with self-sacrificing zeal and heroism, and many a British seaman in foreign lands, when surrounded by difficulties and dangers, found, in his enthusiasm for his energetic maiden queen, new strength and courage. In this respect, they resembled Columbus, to whom the thoughts of his gentle queen Isabella always gave support. The first naval hero of Elizabeth s time of any import ance, of whom it can be said that he placed himself at the head of the movement, is Sir John Hawkins. He might be called the English discoverer of the West Indies, or the British Columbus. His life, his first attempts, and his final successes, present, in many respects, parallels to the life of Columbus, and to his trials and experiences. It is curious to remark how almost all the seafaring nations who took part in the discovery of America, each in its turn has passed, step by step, through the same phases as the Spa niards. The French, the British, and the Dutch, each accom plished their own discovery of America after the example of the Spaniards. They each found their way first to 16 VOYAGES OF THE ENGLISH. the Azores, to the Canary Islands, and then to the An tilles, and thence further. Hawkins, too, began with small voyages to the Canary Islands, and there he made zealous inquiries about the condition of the West Indian Islands. In 1562, from the Canaries he crossed the ocean, in the old route of Columbus, by the aid of the trade winds, and, like him, too, he returned by way of the Azores to England. In a second voyage, in 1565, he extended the field of his operations, and, again like Columbus, he sailed into the middle of the Central American Archipelago, made his way through all the Spanish possessions round Cuba, and reached the coast of Florida at a time when it was still occupied by the French Protestants. He was the first Englishman who conferred with them, and gathered from them a knowledge of the condition and advantages of the country ; and he was likewise the first to convey such knowledge to England and spread it abroad. These reports, which he brought home were, to be sure, very exaggerated, but they were naturally on that account only the more attractive to the English. The east coast of America was described as a second Eden ; myrrh, frankincense, storax, gums and spices, of course were there in abundance; and, moreover, gold, pearls, and silver ; and scarcely any of the creatures of Paradise were said to be wanting, not even the unicorn. ENGLISH EXPEDITIONS. 17 "For," said the reporter to Hawkins s expedition, "as it is proved that there are lions and tigers in this country and that nature invariably follows the rule of placing inimical races of animals together the dog near the cat, the falcon near the sparrow, and the rhinoceros near the elephant so it is evident that the unicorn, the deadly enemy of lions and tigers, must be found in North America." "And one may suppose," he continues, "that in a land which contains the veritable unicorn, many other prodigies and treasures may be discovered, all of which, with God s help, time will yet disclose to us." By means of similar arguments and reports the Eng lish were allured to the country, which subsequently be came famous for their colonisation. A succession of naval heroes followed on the track of Hawkins, as they had done on that of Columbus. These expeditions resembled each other in a great degree in respect to their line of route as well as in the objects to be gained. They generally went straight from England to the Canary Islands, and thence to the coast of Africa. Here they hunted down negroes, and filling their ships with a cargo of these wretched slaves, so welcome to the Spanish colonists, and avoiding the Spanish fleets on reaching the West Indies, they sold their slaves, or witli threats they forced them on the planters for whatever VOL. II. C 18 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. price they chose to give. After this they pursued the Spanish ships, and if they found themselves strong enough for an attack, they lay in wait for the royal silver fleets, and they generally returned to Europe, laden with plunder, through the West Indian Gibraltar, the Straits of Florida. As the age of the Portuguese and Spanish heroes was already past, the youthful English navy gained ground with great rapidity. It soon was seen in the South Atlantic Ocean, and, in the year 1577, the English Ma gellan entered upon the scene. Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman who sailed round the world, again found the straits that had been discovered by Magellan. He unfurled the English flag in the Pacific Ocean, and sailed round the whole of the great continent of America as far as California, which he called New Albion, going up much farther to the north than any Spaniard had done before him. The American discoveries made by Hawkins, Drake, and their contemporaries were partly re-discoveries of tracts of land which the Spaniards had already begun to neglect ; they were, however, in many cases, disclosures of regions never seen before. They burst upon the whole Spanish possessions like a tempest, and, like it, more destructively than beneficially. They overshot their mark, as is usually the case in the first vigour and GILBERT AND RALEIGH. 19 pride of youth. Like the Spaniards themselves, who had begun in the new world by plundering the Aztecs and Incas before they founded new settlements, the English first begun by plundering the Spaniards in the hemisphere belonging to them; and tfyeir easy con quest caused them to overlook things of much greater importance. More than twenty years of Elizabeth s reign were consumed before any one thought of esta blishing a solid, useful, permanent, and agricultural settlement. Such an idea was first fully and clearly developed in the minds of two brothers Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh one of whom met with his death in attempting its realisation, whilst the other, during his whole life, made the most strenuous efforts in the cause. Both were born in the family and on the estate of a country gentleman, in the western extremity of Southern England, where, from childhood, the ocean had worked upon their young imaginations and in fluenced their boyish sports. Both made themselves acquainted, by diligent study, with the history of that ocean ; in other words, with the history of the Spanish discoveries in America; and both perceived in which direction the largest field for English colonisation and conquest was to be found. When they attained the age of manhood, they both of C2 20 FATE OF THE COLONISTS. them wrote down their views on this subject, and pub lished them. The elder brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, succeeded at last in gaming the support of the Queen, who sanctioned his undertaking, and gave him a small fleet. This was the first fleet which ever left the shores of England not freighted with over-rapacious, slave- hunting men, but with workmen, handicraftsmen, miners, engineers, and scholars the true seed for a colony. Their destination was the barren east coast of the country which had been so attractively described by the French, and was still called Florida. Sir Humphrey proposed to reach it on the northern track by way of the banks of Newfoundland, and not by the Spanish course through the Antilles. Unfortunately, he did not get much beyond these banks. His largest vessel went to pieces on the coast of that desolate island, Nova Scotia, and all the elements of colonisation were scattered on its beach. This island, so celebrated for shipwrecks, was called by the English " Sable Island." Sir Humphrey Gilbert himself, however, in attempting to return to England with the remainder of his followers in two small vessels, was overtaken by a storm in the middle of the ocean, and swallowed up by the waves. It was in this storm, and shortly before he sank for ever, that he called out to his terrified companions, " Brothers ! be consoled, we are as near Heaven on the sea as on RALEIGH S EXERTIONS. 21 shore." These memorable words have become proverbial in the English navy. I may here remark that many of the pithy and striking sayings current amongst English seamen were first pronounced by the naval heroes of Queen Eliza beth s time on their expeditions to America. Only one small vessel returned to England with the news of the destruction of the father of the project of colonisation in North America. But the brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the much more celebrated Sir Walter Raleigh, the knightly lover and powerful favourite of Queen Elizabeth, prevented the plans of his shipwrecked brother from falling to the ground. He it was who steadfastly supported every naval enterprise, and he may well be called the Coligny of England. For a long course of years he employed all his energies, his influence with the queen, and his capital, which had been greatly increased by the queen s bounty, in the furtherance of these plans. Year after year Raleigh equipped and sent forth so many small fleets to the east coast of America in the cause of exploration and colonisation, that the English poet Spencer, in one of his odes, gave him the title of " The Shepherd of the Ocean." His captains discovered in especial that portion of the coast which now belongs to North Carolina. And in 22 VIRGINIA. the great bays and sounds of this coast, which we at present call the Sounds of Pamlico and Albemarle, on a little island called Roanoke, the first English colony in America was founded, and called the City of Sir Walter Raleigh. From this basis the surrounding country, with its rivers, inlets, and harbours, was carefully explored. Their descriptions of this region, like all the first descriptions of the discoverers in America, were in the highest degree inviting. It seemed as if a paradise had been discovered. The maiden Queen of England, at whose feet Raleigh laid this Eden, never yet trodden by -the foot of greedy Spaniard, and inhabited only by the children of nature, called it Virginia the virgin land and she bestowed it upon her beloved Raleigh, that he might explore, con quer, colonise, and govern it. The name Virginia was soon extended to the whole east coast, to the north as far as Newfoundland, and to the south to the peninsula of Florida ; for the queen and Raleigh claimed this whole extent of country (although they only knew one part of it) as belonging to the Eng lish since the time of Cabot. It is to be regretted that this beautiful name of Vir ginia, which recals many flattering hopes and pleasant circumstances connected with its origin, has not con tinued to designate the whole of the United States, in- THE ARMADA. 23 stead of a limited portion of them only. It would have suited those who love to call their native land " a virgin country" and who, in many respects, have aright to do so even better than the name of Florida. The progress of the English in this virgin country was, however, very slow. Neither Raleigh nor Eliza beth gained any advantage whatever from their costly efforts, their fine inventions, and their colonial settle ments. Before the daughter-country could be esta blished the mother-country had to defend herself against an attack of the Spaniards which threatened her destruc tion. King Philip prepared his great Armada to con quer the British Islands, and thus at once to put an end to the source of so much mischief to his possessions in America. The queen was obliged to call in her Drakes, her Frobishers, her Grenvilles, and other sea-heroes, from all parts of the ocean ; and, by the help of these brave men and an opportune storm, the naval forces of the Spaniards were dispersed. But, after this, such a rage for capturing or destroying the ships, harbours, and colonies of the enemy seized the English navigators, who followed close on the heels of the Spaniards, that for the remainder of the century, and Elizabeth s reign, the peaceful colony of Virginia was entirely forgotten. In the midst of all these storms, however, Ealeigh himself 24 ENGLISH PIRATES. constantly thought of the city on the Roanoke, named after himself ; but it was difficult for him to collect money for new equipments and the succours so much required. Shipowners and capitalists found it much more ad vantageous to fit out privateers to bring back richly- laden Spanish galleons than to invest their money in the purchase of agricultural implements, cattle, and seeds, which only after the lapse of years could return interest for the outlay. Even the commanders and crews of the new expeditions which Raleigh managed to fit out and send off, together with the emigrants, either changed their minds on the way, or at sight of the desolate coast of North America, and, carried away by the universal passion, they degenerated into pirates, turned their helms about, and sailed to the south to take part in the chase of the Spanish silver galleons. His colonists and pioneers in Virginia were conse quently destroyed by hunger, by want of every kind, and by the attacks of the now irritated natives. Twenty years later it was found out that in a general revolt of the Indians all the colonists had been slain, just as the Huguenots of Coligny had been destroyed by the Spaniards. The end of both these great men resembled the fate of their colonies : Coligny was murdered by his king because he was a Protestant, and Raleigh s monarch, EXGL1SH AS COLONISTS. 25 James I., brought him to the scaffold on the pretext of his being a traitor. Notwithstanding that in the begin ning of the seventeenth century Raleigh s Virginia was but an empty name, a barbarous uninhabited coast, strewn with wrecks and the bodies of European colonists, yet he had not lived or striven for it in vain. His own and his brother s projects of colonisation had been im parted to many minds. He had awakened in his native land a general interest for such schemes destined to be displayed as soon as the storms and the war-fever against Spain should become somewhat abated. If the seeds which he had planted in the new world had not come to maturity, yet his ideas had taken root in the old, and were ready to put forth fresh buds under favourable circumstances. The English have been re peatedly praised for their capacity for exploring and colonising new countries. No one would wish to deny them this aptitude, but it must at least be acknowledged that they attained it very slowly, and after many unlucky attempts; more gradually, indeed, than other nations. The first Spanish colony which Columbus founded at Hayti had certainly as unfortunate a fate as almost any of the first settlements of the Europeans in America. But in the following year the Spaniards at once founded new colonies, which soon so increased in prosperity, making such constant progress that there 26 SLOW PROGRESS. never could be any idea of their being abandoned. Thirty years after the landing of Columbus, Hayti, Cuba, and other countries of the West Indies, abounded not only in mines and pearl-fisheries, but in settlements, gardens, sugar plantations, pasturages, and a number of small but promising towns. One hundred and thirteen years after the first voy ages of their Cabot along the coast of the United States, and forty years after their queen had given to the country the name of Virginia, the undertakings of the English on the coast often hung by a thread, and were frequently on the point of being abandoned. And from this date more than two hundred years had to pass over before any considerable advance into the interior of the country was made. The discoveries of the Spanish and Portuguese, when compared to the progress made by the English, are like the flight of an eagle. In regard to the latter, however, with greater justice might be applied the words of our poet, Schlegel, on the growth of the Roman empire : " But Laviniuin was first founded, then Alba, Of Rome, no mortal yet had heard ; Its birth dawned slowly into light, No greater ere was seen. The fates strove all they could." Besides the causes already adduced, this tardiness and ENGLISH DIFFICULTIES. 27 the whole peculiarly piecemeal development of the English power on the east coast were partly owing to the natural conditions and the original political state of this region. The extension of the Spanish domi nion was, as I have said, often rendered easy by the fact that they here and there found states of great extent ready organised, and when once they obtained possession of their rulers and the centres of their power, their sway immediately became equally great. The English, on the other hand, found on their east coast a multitude of small and disunited savage tribes, whose different languages and customs they were obliged to learn, and with whom they had to wage a guerilla warfare regular campaigns or expeditions not being possible. The Spaniards, moreover, on the Orinoco and the La Plata, and the French on the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, met with vast navigable rivers, which, when they had been once discovered, forthwith opened a way for hundreds of miles into the interior. The discoverer, who reached the mouth of one such river, sailed imme diately upwards gaining with one blow an empire. On the east coast of the United States, there were no such noble far-extending rivers. This coast is, as it were, divided by nature into small parcels. There were innumerable small rivers, which, at a little distance from 28 ISOLATP;D EXPEDITIONS. the coast, are partly broken up by cataracts. Every where there are small bays, inlets, and harbours, one seeming to be as good as another, and no one fitted to attract attention by its great superiority ; as, for example, the Bay of Guayaquil on the coast of Peru, or the es tuary of the La Plata on the coast of Brazil. And not far from the coast, a sixfold barrier of rude thickly- wooded mountains extends. The character of the coast-lands, so broken up and separated from one another, rendered them little suited to be taken possession of by any montirch or heroical adventurer. They were, so to say, organised by Nature for a republic ; and, like the detached valleys of Swit zerland, they were favourable to the establishment of many little communities, which communities, however, could only take root along the coast, and had to gain strength and to become united before they could break through the barrier which cut them off from the interior. Accordingly, in the course of the seventeenth century, we see a succession of expeditions, often consisting of but a few vessels, sometimes of one ship only, go forth laden with discoverers and colonists to settle like swal lows on the eaves of a long building on one or other point of the coast. These floating cradles which were rocked across the ocean, carrying with them the germs of a new state, belonged for the most part to the CHESAPEAKE BAY. 29 English, who first began the work, and who were finally destined to keep the whole for themselves. But other nations thronged to those parts of America likewise : the Dutch, Swedes, the Germans ; indeed, all the branches of the Germanic race and of Protestant faith, whose desire for civil and religious liberty drove them to abandon their old homes. It is not my business here to enter into all the in teresting details of these most remarkable and eventful American expeditions, their various motives and aims; but, in so far as necessary to the completion of the history of discovery in America, I must call the attention of the reader to the principal points as tersely as possible, and, as nearly as I can, in chronological order. The first solid, and in the end successful, colony (though often near to destruction), was established by the English at the entrance of that combination of harbours, inlets, and rivers, which we now call Chesa peake Bay. The deep opening of this bay had been seen by the captains of Sir Walter Raleigh, and some London merchants and wealthy noblemen, soon after, established a company to form a settlement there. From the year 1606 this company dispatched many expeditions, and on the so-called King s River, a town was built and named Jamestown, in honour of James I. 30 JOHN SMITH. For an entire century this town continued to be the capital of that part of the country called by the English " Southern Virginia." Soon after the establishment of this colony, one of the emigrants, John Smith, took the lead in its affairs, and by his energy and statesman like wisdom he saved it from ruin. He was, also, the most active explorer of the neighbourhood. In a small boat, accompanied by a few English noblemen and seamen, he sailed up and sounded all the innumerable creeks, rivers, and harbours of that incomparable bay which extends inland for upwards of four hundred miles. He gave them the geographical names which they bear to this day, made a map of them, which one hundred years later, was the best of its kind; and he described them in writings, of which thousands of copies were dis tributed all over England. This governor, John Smith, is looked upon as the father of the present State of Virginia, whose great arte ries all converge towards this bay. Jamestown and the waters of Chesapeake Bay forming, as it were, the nucleus of the State w^hich by degrees grew up around them. It was he, too, who fixed upon, and drew upon the maps, those points around the bay on which the nourishing cities of Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, and Norfolk were built, and thus, in a certain way, he may be called their creator. " THE PILGRIMS." 31 At the time when this took place in the south, a com pany of merchants and politicians was formed in the city of Plymouth, in the west of England, for the purpose of exploring and colonising the north portion of that long coast which was then called North Virginia, but which soon afterwards received the name of New Eng land. For twelve years this company, year by year, sent out ships and men to the cold, rocky and* sterile country without being able to bring about a permanent settle ment, but they at least became acquainted with all the harbours, bays, and mouths of rivers, and spread this knowledge in England, thus encouraging voyages in that direction. At length, in 1620, a handful of persecuted emigrants, driven more by accident than by design to this coast, succeeded in bringing about that which neither kings nor mercantile companies had been able to achieve. These were the hundred and two Puritans on board the ship " Mayflower" which, like another Noah s Ark, has be come celebrated in America who in the new world sought an asylum from the persecutions of the Anglican Church. As they had been banished several years from their native country, and beating about, vainly seeking an un disputed " biding-place," which, even in Holland, had been denied them, they called themselves " The Pil grims." 32 THE " PILGRIMS ROCK." These pilgrims clung to the rocks of the new land like shipwrecked and homeless men, driven by their great need as well as their stern resolve ; at length they built "New Plymouth," the first permanent English city in the north, as Jamestown was in the south. There, on the celebrated "Pilgrims Rock," in the midst of all the evils which the American Pandora in flicted on all the first settlers, their little banner waved on high. As the oppression of the Nonconformists and Puritans still continued in the mother country, new wan derers followed soon on the footsteps of the "Pilgrim Fathers," and increased their numbers. In the year 1628 a party came over who founded Salem, the second oldest city of New England, and two years after, a more numerous one followed, who built the present capital of the north of America, the rich city of Boston. Soon afterwards, the Archbishop of Canterbury taking severe measures against the Puritans, they fled by thou sands across the ocean to establish a church according to their own wishes, or, as they said, "according to the injunctions of the Bible," and to escape the edicts of faith and the dogmas of the king and his bishops. The great bay of Massachusetts received them all, and, like Chesapeake Bay in the south, it became the cradle of all the future States, and the point whence all farther discoveries and conquests were undertaken. NEW COMMUNITIES. 33 The want of room and arable ground on the sea -coast was soon felt; the settlers began to explore the in terior, to purchase new tracts of land from the Indians, and to push the settlements up the rivers discharging themselves into the bay. But more than to any other cause this extension was owing to the dissensions which broke out among the colonists. The Puritan, and often w&ra-Puritan Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth, Salem, and Boston, were far from conceding to others that freedom of faith and conscience which they had in vain demanded for themselves from the English bishops. They wished to maintain their Church and religion in their purity, and strictly in accordance to their own views and purposes, and in the spirit of intolerance they excommunicated all those members who refused implicitly to conform to all their favourite dogmas. This gave rise to further migrations, to the dispersion of various parties over the country, to the discovery of new districts suitable for settlement, of convenient rivers and harbours ; and thus new communities were founded, from which, at last, have sprung the present states of New England called Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, states which have long venerated the old town of Massachusetts on the bay as their parent colony. This further dispersion and founding of new and VOL. II. D 34 PURITANISM. flourishing; states was owing to circumstances similar to O O those which had originally led to the exploration and colonisation of the whole of New England. Religious differences were at the bottom, and the leaders of these branch colonies and exploring parties, which pressed on wards to the north and west, were, for the most part, schismatic ministers, whom the Puritans had banished. As the descendants of their followers have increased like the sands of the sea, these state-founding preachers are now as much honoured by millions of people as Abraham or Jacob, Lycurgus or Solon. It may be said that this peculiar spirit of Puritanism, associated, however, with other qualities of the restless and inflexible Anglo-Saxon race, still continues to work, and has called into life many new creations in the far west of America. The northern and southern fields of English explora tion and colonisation had for a long time no connexion with each other. They were separated by a broad strip of country not yet in the possession of the English, and not only were these two colonies fed by emigrants of a different character, but different ocean tracks led to them. Virginia, even in Cromwell s time, was reached by the old Spanish southern course, by way of the Antilles, while to new England the voyage was by the north, THE DUTCH. 35 across the banks of Newfoundland. The intermediate space was unknown to the English, and it was here that another European people, the Dutch, managed to fix themselves. The war of England with the Spaniards in Elizabeth s time, and the first development of the English navy, were contemporary with the revolt of the Netherlands a country which had equally broken with Rome against the Spanish yoke ; and the consequences of this revolt were the same, namely, an extraordinary flourishing of the navigation of the Low Countries, numerous voyages of discovery, and numerous transatlantic conquests. These achievements of the Netherlanders they owe in part to their alliance with the English, and in part to following their example. Like the English, the Dutch sent forth corsairs, who swarmed round and pursued the Spanish squadrons, and, like the English, they rose from pirates to the position of naval heroes. With English and French adventurers in alliance, they made their ap pearance early in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. The great Dutch navigators of the ocean had frequently English and French pilots on board. With similar motives to those which had first led the Spaniards and Portuguese, and indeed all maritime nations across the ocean, the Dutch were inspired by the longing for the treasures of the East ; and at the D2 36 LE MAIRE. end of the sixteenth century they founded their Ori ental Company, which forthwith began to drive the Portuguese from one East Indian position after another. Like their predecessors, the Dutch found America on their way to the East, and American interests grew to such importance in the beginning of the seven teenth century, that to their Eastern Company they added a Western, or rather West Indian, Company. For some time it appeared as if these two Dutch mercan tile companies were destined to divide the world between them, just as the Pope had already divided and appor tioned it to Portugal and Spain. As the Spaniards under Magellan, and the English under Drake had done, the Dutch, too, sailed round the south of America into the Pacific Ocean, and here, under their captain, Le Maire, they discovered the ex treme point of the continent, Cape Horn, so called after the little Dutch town of Hoorne. On the way thither they began to inspect Brazil for themselves, and to make conquests there, driving away the Portuguese, at that time subjects of the King of Spain, as they had already done from the East Indies. Like the English, and almost contemporaneously with them, the Dutch at last turned their attention to the east coast of North America, and here discovered the most beautiful harbour, and the most important river of the whole Atlantic slope, which the English had till HENRY HUDSON. 37 now overlooked. This memorable discovery was made in 1609, by a naval hero of Queen Elizabeth s time, Henry Hudson, who was in the service of the Dutch. This great navigator explored the coast for the Dutch, in parts which had continued unknown to his country men. The river which he found was the one that still bears his name, the beautiful river " Hudson" of New York. Of all the rivers and river valleys of the Atlan tic slope, not one has such a world-spread importance as this. It is a wild mountain chasm filled with water, which, cutting far into the country, and running due north from the south, like a vast canal, is navigable to a point not far removed from the great river St. La\v- rence, with which, however, it is brought into connexion by two branch rivers and valleys. Hudson, after regaling the inquisitive inhabitants on the banks of the river with Dutch beer, sailed up the river for more than two hundred English miles, and observed how extremely well qualified it was for com merce and colonisation. This voyage was performed in his little vessel " The Half-Moon," which is as celebrated in New York at the present day, as the before men tioned " Mayflower" of the Pilgrim Fathers is in Boston, or as the " Victoria" of Magellan was once in Seville. At the mouth of this river, on one of the most beau tiful harbours of the coast, lying between the English 38 NORTHERN PROTESTANTS. colonies in the north and the south, the Dutch built their u New Amsterdam," and they founded there the North American province of "New Belgium," which flourished contemporaneously with Virginia and New England, and became the nucleus of the New York of the present day. Scarcely had this Dutch settlement begun to nourish than ships freighted with European seeds and agri cultural implements, with hands eager for work, and heads filled with Protestant ideas, came to the coast to seek an asylum. These ships, which came the be ginning of the third decade of the seventeenth cen tury, bore the Swedish flag, and they endeavoured to press in between the Dutch and the English at the mouth of the river where now the wide-spreading city of Philadelphia is situated. The great King Gustavus of Sweden and his chancellor, Oxenstierna, had, like all the northern Protestants, cast their eyes on North America, in order to open an asylum for their poor ; and in especial for those Protestant Germans whom the Thirty Years War had left in the most terrible state of destitution and oppression. To these they issued a very remarkable pro clamation. The ships just alluded to, therefore, brought over Germans as well as Swedes, likewise Finns. They held on there for about twenty years, and their little com munities and churches laid the basis of the present State f Delaware. But their neighbours, the Dutch, considered SPREAD OF THE ENGLISH. 39 them usurpers and intruders, and they sent out, in the year 1655, their general, Stuyvesant, who brought New Sweden under the dominion of New Belgium. Not long afterwards, however, this flourishing New Belgium was looked upon as a usurpation, and swallowed up by the people of New England. England, at first the ally of the Dutch, had at last taken arms against her neighbour, whose power in creased so rapidly, and, under Cromwell, the two coun tries had become the bitterest enemies. In a series of wars and sanguinary engagements the power of the Dutch on the Atlantic Ocean was broken. At the peace of 1654 they were obliged to acknow ledge the superiority of the English. In the same year they gave back all their Brazilian conquests to the Portuguese, who had meanwhile freed themselves from the yoke of the Spaniards, and ten years later they lost their New Belgium, together with the New Sweden which they had added to it. Cromwell was the first who thought of taking it from them, and this intention was again entertained under his son, but the uncertain state of affairs in England at that time prevented it being fulfilled. But when Charles II. had re-established the throne, internal peace prevailed ; and after the discoverers and colonists from New England in the north, and from Virginia in the south, had approached from either side 40 LOSSES OF THE DUTCH. to the settlements of the Dutch, the time arrived for decisive measures, and, in 1664, without much bloodshed these broad districts on the Hudson and Delaware were taken possession of by an English fleet. The Dutch were now driven out of almost all their American positions and entirely from the mainland. At this day they only retain two little West Indian islands and part of the coast of Guiana to do what they like with. The Netherlands, however, in the flood-tide of its power and prosperity, produced the most learned geo graphers, naturalists, and the most correct and inde fatigable designers of maps in Europe. Their historical, nautical, physical, and cosmographical works relating to the discoveries of this time, and particularly of the earliest history of America, are most important, and take rank next to those of the Spaniards. Moreover, in the State of New York, which the English established on Dutch foundations, the character and customs of that people have had considerable influence, traces of which may be observed at the present day. The settlers in New Sweden, at the mouth of the Delaware, had not spread themselves far into the inte rior of the countrv. Even on this side the Alleo-hanies v O there were extensive land and river districts still unex plored, on which, however, not long after the English conquest, an Englishman, celebrated in the history of discovery and colonisation in North America, cast his eyes. WILLIAM PENN. 41 It was William Perm, and from him this country received its name of " Penn s-sy Ivan-land," or Penn sylvania. This Penn was a gentleman possessed of considerable property, the son of a distinguished admiral. He had early taken the greatest interest in the perse cuted sect of the Quakers, and, inheriting from his father a claim on King Charles II. for 16,000/., he requested that monarch to give him, instead of the money, the above-mentioned woodlands of the Susque- hanna and Delaware rivers. Charles, who was often in difficulties, gave Penn and his Quaker followers possession of, and government over, the whole tract of land lying between 40 and 43 degrees of latitude west of the river Delaware, and, in 1682, the " Quaker-king" landed on the coasts of the new world, bringing with him, at once, not fewer than two thousand of his co-religionists, who, subsequently, spread all over the country. The Swedish and Dutch settlers still re maining in the country did homage to Penn as their feudal lord, and he took possession of the neighbouring country, fixed his capital at Coaquanock, a little place inhabited by Swedes and Indians, which was hence forth called The Brother City," or Philadelphia. He made arrangements, too, with the Indians of the Dela ware and Susquehanna, whereby they likewise gave up to him their original right to the land which the king had already bestowed unon him. 42 WILLIAM PENN. After this, he gave to his state such peculiar and humane laws, that, if the " pious experiment" had succeeded, and had not, in the end, been overthrown, it would have been one of the happiest and most Chris tian states which the world has ever seen. Penn, " the great and good Miquon," as his Indians called him, w r as an unwearied traveller, and, before he went to America, had become acquainted with France and other parts of Europe. He undertook, too, many journeys of discovery in his American dominions ; he explored almost the whole of the River Delaware, which he sailed up to a distance of about three hundred Eng lish miles from its mouth. He repeatedly made excur sions into the territory of the Indians on the Susque- hanna, and the world owes its first authentic intelligence and its comprehensive knowledge of these two rivers to the papers subsequently published by him. The news that William Penn had opened a "new asylum for the poor, the good, and the oppressed of all nations," on the other side of the ocean, spread through out Europe, and from Scotland and Ireland, from the Netherlands and the Rhine, where Penn himself had seen the great misery of the people for just at this time France had made a wilderness of one of the most beau tiful provinces of Germany numbers hastened to the land of promise on the banks of the Delaware and Sus- THE GERMANS. 43 quehanna. In the first instance they settled near the mouths of these rivers, and then near their falls, in the central parts of these watercourses ; at length they mi grated farther " backwards into the woods," as they ex pressed it. In the beginning of the eighteenth century "the woods" were cleared further and further, the wild ani mals and the natives being driven farther to the west ; at first as far as the celebrated "Blue Ridge," the most easterly chain of the Alleghanies, and which forms the horizon of the district surrounding the mouths of the Susquehanna and Delaware, but in the end they had to take refuge in the labyrinthine valleys of the mountains themselves. The Germans, who came in greater numbers to Pennsylvania (which was more an agricultural than a commercial state) than to any other of the coast-lands, and who filled many of the most beautiful districts with rich and prosperous villages, took a prominent part in the opening up of the Susquehanna. The northern and central parts of the Atlantic coast, with their numerous bays and harbours, had, as we see, not only been made known as far as the foot of the Alleghanies, but filled with settlements some of them flourishing towns whilst in the south the coast lands con tinued to be a terra incognita. This was partly due to the singular nature of that country ; the rivers which 44 SWAMP LANDS. How through it from the Alleghanies are not nearly so deep and navigable as the Hudson, the Delaware, or some other of those rivers which pour their waters into Chesapeake Bay. In the summer season, too, they are almost entirely dried up. The character of the coast, however, formed the greatest impediment. It is flat and sandy, and runs in long straight lines unbroken by bays. From Florida to Chesapeake Bay there are no inviting harbours, there is no prominent cape behind which shelter can be found. Behind the long sand-banks and the suc cession of downs lie flat lagoons, and, further inland, ex tensive swamps. Near to the south shore of Chesapeake bay is the celebrated "dismal swamp," still further south comes the " great alligator swamp," and then, as far as Cape Florida, a complete series of marshy lands extending many hundreds of miles, and which it has not yet been possible to reclaim entirely. In the interior of the country are far-stretching deserts of sand, and, imme diately behind them, equally extensive and monotonous forests of firs called the " Pine Barrens." A point not far removed from Cape Hatteras has gained a melan choly celebrity on account of the numerous shipwrecks which there have taken place, and Cape Fear and other promontories show by their names that they deserve no better reputation. There are, indeed, a few accessible SLOW PROGRESS. 45 harbours and bays, but for the most part they are not capable of receiving ships of the first class. The first settlements which the French and English attempted in this neighbourhood in the sixteenth century the one near to the then famous Port Royal, and the other in the neighbourhood of Roanoke, so often named above made scarcely any progress, partly in consequence of the natural obstacles just enumerated. For one hundred years afterwards, up to the end of the seventeenth century, these great coast-lands were still hidden in darkness and unknown. Their first ex plorers, the Spaniards, whose zeal for conquest and dis covery had died out, kept them guarded by little garri sons in their old forts in the south as in former times, and they were glad to know that there was a great wilderness lying between them and the rapidly rising colonies of the English in the north. Not only the Spaniards, but the rest of Europe, knew this desert as far as Chesapeake Bay by the name of Florida only. Here, too, as almost everywhere before the real work of discovery, conquest, and settlement was undertaken, small parties of adventurers acted as pioneers. And Vir ginia, like New England, became the mother of many branch states. The first wars with the savages had caused many small bands of Virginian planters to take flight, and these, driven into the woods, or putting to sea to seek a 46 NEW ENGLAND MEN. new country, landed, in 1622, on the coast of Carolina, in the same district where formerly the French Protes tants and the earliest English settlers of Koanoke had located themselves. The first Virginian colonists col lected round Albemarle Sound; they made journeys among the savages, and played among them, as an old historian describes it, "the part of Christian mission aries." In the year 1653 the settlers in these lost and for gotten outposts were visited by an English gentleman, a Mr. Brigstock, and he wrote a description of the country, which was long considered the main source of informa tion about it. And soon afterwards, from New England, the seeds of new settlements were scattered in Carolina. The New England men roamed over the continent, as well as over the sea, to seek their fortunes. In the year 1660, a little barque, steered by these " New England men," appeared in the neighbourhood of Cape Fear. The ad venturers disembarked, discovered the Cape Fear river, and bought from the natives a small piece of land on which they founded a little colony of agriculturists and herdsmen. Some colonists had come over, likewise, from the Bermuda Islands. All these journeys, descriptions, and attempts at coloni sation fixed the attention of the English on the south, CAROLINA. 47 r and King Charles II., at the request of some lords and cavaliers, was induced in 1665 to bestow on the Duke of Albemarle and some other lords the whole of the ter ritory of the " Virginian lakes" (the neighbourhood of Chesapeake bay), then occupied only by a few scattered settlers, as far as the Savannah river from the 36th to 31st degree of latitude, and extending westward from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. He gave them absolute proprietorship over this vast territory ; power over life and limb ; the right to appoint a governor ; to make laws at pleasure ; to let out all the royal fisheries, forests, and mines, and to call the land after his name, Carolina. What right Charles II. had to give away this country, says an English historian of that time, is not our affair to inquire. Suffice it to say the king did it, and the lords proprietors immediately sent over, to turn their deeds of presentation to account, a palatine with authority to appoint a governor. One of their partners, the famous politician and phi losopher, the Earl of Shaftesbury, was commissioned to draw up in proper form all the laws and regulations of a constitutional government. This was so well thought out, and so skilfully done, and instituted so many social ranks and interests to preserve the balance of power ; and it either created or provided for the creation of so many great titles (palatines, admirals, chamberlains, land- 48 CHAKLESTOWX. graves, marshals, head constables, &c.), on paper, that a ready made empire, so to speak, was established as regards territory and written institutions at least, at a time when this new state possessed but a few hundred subjects. From the year 1670 the first ships with settlers went over to this new Canaan. The first points that they sought and colonised were in the neighbourhood of the O O earliest of all the French settlements on the north in the districts around the great Sound of Albermaiie, where also Roanoke lay ; and in the south, near the bay of Port Royal and the " May river." Soon, however, another region lying between these two, the country around the mouths of the little rivers Ashley and Cooper, in conse quence of its good pasturage and arable soil, was found the most attractive. And here the centre of Carolina was formed, and the city built, which, in honour of King Charles, was called " Charlestown," and which continues at the present day the largest and most populous city of the Atlantic slope. A governor, sent by one of these lords, took over the first citizens and plan of this city, which latter was as elaborate as the constitution of the state. As entire tolerance and freedom for all religious sects was one of the first principles of the new state of Caro lina, dissenters came from all parts of England and Scot land, and also from new England, where there was not liberty enough. COLONY OF CAROLINA. 49 Dutchmen, too, came from New York dissatisfied with the conquest of New Belgium^by the English, and at last there arrived many Huguenots from Languedoc. The little colony thus soon increased in numbers and extent. Negotiations and wars with the Indians, and collisions with the neighbouring Spaniards, led to the first con siderable expeditions into the interior. Very soon the natives were divided into the so-called Spanish and English Indians, fighting against each other with the help of their European patrons. The Spaniards, who longed to serve the English as they had served the French heretics in the same neighbourhood, attacked a Scotch settlement which had established itself at a distant southern outpost, and entirely destroyed it. To revenge this and other outrages, the English marched to the south in the beginning of the eighteenth century, with twelve hundred men under their then governor, Moor, of Charleston. They vainly besieged the Spanish city of St. Augustine, but on this occasion many planters saw, for the first time, those regions which subsequently formed the State of Georgia. But long before this there must have been men in Carolina, who, for purposes of trade, rambled far into the interior. A Colonel Bull is mentioned at the end of the seventeenth century as " a great Indian trader." VOL. IT. E 50 CAPTURE OF INDIANS. Unfortunately, travellers of this kind have not left us any account of their discoveries. Probably they scarcely reached as far as the foot of the Alleghany mountains. But expeditions of another and most detestable kind were likewise undertaken by the English, recalling the early Spanish times of horror ; namely, excursions into the interior to hunt down and capture Indians to make them slaves. In the beginning of the eighteenth century it is related of a governor of Carolina, that he granted concessions and liberty to various persons to penetrate into the interior for the purpose of seizing as many Indians as they could, to bring them away, and sell them as slaves. Among the colonists who in the beginning of the eigh teenth century distinguished themselves by explorations in the w^est and towards the mountains, was a German Swiss, called Christopher Guffenried. He came in 1708 from Berne to America, landed in North Carolina, and he experienced many adventures and dangers on his way towards the west. A bold man, relying on his Swiss rifle, he fought his way through the unknown woods, and into the Indian land beyond the furthest settlements. In the course of time, plague and small-pox diminished here, as elsewhere, the savage tribes, whilst the axes of the colonists cleared the woods and paved the way to the beautiful highlands of the Alleghanies. DECAY OF SPANISH POWER. 51 Before these mountains, however, were ascended and crossed, one more branch state was developed in the south, and it extended to the extreme end of the eastern coast. King Charles had contented himself, as I said, with the country as far as the river Savannah, which he had fixed on as the southern boundary to his province of Carolina. But to the south-west of this river there were other attractive rivers and valleys, those of the Altamaha, the Santilla, and the Apalachicola. That the Spaniards did not now hasten to make the land which had been so often watered by the blood of their forefathers their own, was owing to their want of power. They stood still within the palisades of their little Augustino. England, however, with its internal troubles, was as unceasing in supplying men impatient of oppres sion and adversity, as she was fertile in the supply of aiding and creative minds. The colonists of Carolina, in the before-mentioned expeditions against the Spaniards and Indians, had, by repeatedly traversing the above- named river districts, become well acquainted with the land, and they pronounced it to be " the most beautiful country in the whole universe." About the year 1730, an association of distressed Irish men and persecuted Protestants was formed for the pur pose of seeking a new asylum. One of the directors of E2 52 GEORGIA. this company, the famous General Oglethorpe, embarked in 1732 with a troop of colonists. He became the founder and lawgiver of an extensive new state in the southern part of North America, which received the name of Georgia, after the reigning king, George I. Oglethorpe was also the first who again explored and described this great district. He landed at the mouth of the great boundary river Savannah, sailed up it for some distance, and on its southern shore he fixed upon the most favour able spot for colonisation. It is on this very spot that Savannah, the populous capital of Georgia, has been built. Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, was a kind-hearted, energetic, and skilful leader, who won the hearts of the people, like Captain Smith, the founder of Virginia, or the Quaker Perm, " the star of Pennsylvania." His fame spread among the Indians, w r ho formed alliances with him, giving him in the first instance all their terri tory to the south of the Savannah on the Ogeechee, on the Altamaha to the river St. Mary, and as far up these rivers as the flow of the tide. The St. Mary s river be came the boundary between Georgia and Spanish Flo rida, and still separates these two states. Not only did the fame of Oglethorpe and his country, Georgia, soon spread among the Indians of the Savannah, but likewise in the alpine valleys of the province of Salzburg, then greatly oppressed, and also in the Scotch SUMMARY. 53 Highlands. Many British and German Protestants came over, and the country began even to be called " Southern New England." Thus, as we have seen, towards the middle of the eighteenth century by the two hundred years labour of the English and their Protestant brothers ; by means of the Huguenot Coligny, who was murdered in the cause ; by the exploits of the " sea heroes" of Queen Elizabeth, who freed the ocean, along the coast, from the Spanish fleets of war; through the judicious efforts of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, who set colonisation before their country men as a labour of love ; by means of the severity of King James and his bishops, who turned the Puritans into emigrants ; through Cromwell, who drove the Ca valiers in great numbers from their castles into the wilderness ; in consequence of the revolution of the Netherlands, which inspired the Dutch with ideas of governing the world ; by means of the bloody tumults of the Thirty Years War which drove out poor persecuted Germans and Swedes, and the dragonnades of Louis XIV., which compelled French Reformers to seek an asylum among the Indians all the provinces of the east ern slope of North America were discovered and colo nised. Then, as the small New r Sweden was absorbed by the greater New Holland, and as this New Holland 54 THE ALLEGHANIES. again experienced the same fate by the mightier Eng land, till at last, the English overthrowing everything before them driving out, in the northern New Scotland, the French, and, in the Southern Florida, the Spanish the whole long chain of plantations became united under one head and blended into one nation. And now colonisation and order prevailing along the coast-line, there came a time when, from this basis, the endless barrier of the mountains was to be overcome. The Alleghaiiies, almost uninhabited and covered with thick woods, had long remained a dark labyrinth, a fabu lous terra incognita to the colonists. They called them the " Blue Mountains," because their points only ap peared now and then in the clouds of the horizon. At first, as they had a very uncertain idea of the western extent of the continent, whose eastern coast they inha bited, they thought that the western base of these moun tains was washed by the breakers of the South Sea. Of the products, people, and animals, which were to be found in the labyrinthine valleys of these blue moun tains, the most wonderful things were related. " I not only heard," writes a famous traveller in 1735, not much more than a hundred years ago, " of the extraordinary animals in those mountains, but I myself saw there elephants, the wildest horses, twice as large as our species of horses, and made like greyhounds in their hinder THE " FRENCH WATERS." 55 quarters. I saw oxen there, also, with ears like dogs, and another species of singular quadrupeds, greater than bears, and without a head or neck, and whose mouth and eyes nature, for security, had placed in the middle of the breast." A very wonderful book might be written about the fabulous animals and monstrous creatures with which fancy, invention, or insufficient examination had peopled the woods of the new world; I say, also, "insufficient examination," for it is quite possible that any one, seeing a buffalo from a distance, with high shoulders and droop ing head, sunk in the thick hair which covers his breast, might receive an impression of him similar to that given in the above description. The idea that the waves of the South Sea washed the western base of the Blue Mountains must have been abandoned at the end of the seventeenth century, when the French discovered the Mississippi. After that it was seen that many long rivers flowed down from the western slope of the Alleghanies, and the English called them "the French waters." The knowledge of the " Far West," and of its magnificent plains spread among the inhabitants of the coast, and many of them came now and then to the tops of the mountains in order to look in that direction. "On one of these mountains," so says an English cc- 56 HERBERT S SPRING. lonial author of that time, "there is a spring called Herbert s Spring ; from this the waters flow towards the west, and it is only removed a hundred steps from the farthest source of the rivers which flow into the At lantic Ocean. Our people come very often to this spring to satisfy their thirst and curiosity, and in order to be able to relate afterwards that they have drunk of the French waters. Many of them only come as far as this point, and for a short time, but many remain longer, either charmed by the beauty of the surrounding scenery or from some other cause ; and in consequence a saying is spread abroad that Herbert s well, from which the wes tern plains can be seen, possesses magic properties, and that whoever drinks of its waters continues for seven years, unable to tear himself from the spot." The inhabitants of the coast came so often to this enchanted Herbert s well, and to many similar spots, to look out towards the west, and to drink the French waters, that at last, after they had freed themselves from the English yoke, they were seized with a remarkable thirst for land, with a passionate desire for discovery and conquest. Like a swelling stream which, here and there perco lating its banks, finds other channels, so, first of all isolated adventurers, and then small bodies of men, and soon greater numbers, made their way over the wall of WESTERN TERRITORIES. 57 the Alleghanies. We know the histories and the names of all these adventurers, of these little troops of pilgrims journeying westward, and they are preserved as the first heroic pioneers of the west in the annals of the coast states, each of which contributes its portion. This percolating process did not long continue ; by the close of the eighteenth century the people swarmed across the Alleghanies, the boundary of the territory we have been considering, and since then their history has become a long triumphant procession, and the wearied eye scarce can count the conquests. 58 THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. CHAPTER II. THE FRENCH AND THE FUR-HUNTERS IN CANADA. The Cabots discover the Fish-banks of Newfoundland (anno 1497) Caspar de Cortereal discovers Labrador (1500) Giovanni Verazano sails along the Coasts of North America (1524) Jacques Cartier discovers the Gulf or St. Lawrence (1534) Jacques Cartier discovers the River St. Lawrence and Canada (1535) Roberval and Cartier go to Canada (1542) Roberval and his Fleet disappear (1548) Samuel Champlain founds Quebec (1608) Samuel Champlain organises the Province of Canada, and explores the Lower Lakes (1608, 1635) Father Mesnard discovers the Upper Lakes (1660) The Jesuits Allouez and Marquette complete the exploration of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan (1666). A GLANCE at the map of the world shows us that the Atlantic Ocean represents a broad valley, extending from pole to pole, and lying between the old and new worlds. There are two points in especial where this wide valley becomes comparatively narrow. One of them is in the south, between Africa and South America, where, from the latter continent, the peninsula of Brazil reaches out THE GULF STREAM. 59 far towards the east. Of this nan-owing of the ocean, I have already spoken, and shown how it was crossed by the Portuguese in the time of Columbus, who took possession of Brazil. The other point where the ocean narrows is in the north, between France, Ireland, and North America. At this point the great continent stretches out its arms, so to speak the hammer-shaped peninsula of Nova Scotia, and the broad triangular land of Labrador towards Europe ; and still further to the east there is the great island of Newfoundland with its moss-covered rocks. Near Newfoundland, the warm waters of the Gulf stream, coming from the south-western tropical regions, meet with the cold currents from Baffin s Bay and the Greenland seas, which, as they flow from the north-east, bring with them icebergs laden with stones, earth, and other debris usually found on glaciers. At a point to the east of the above-named country, where these icebergs meet with the warm current of water, for countless centuries have they melted away, and the rocks and other debris which they have carried with them, have fallen to the bottom of the sea, helping to form that great sub marine deposit which we now call the " Banks of New foundland." These banks, like all others of the same character, are 60 NARROWING OF THE OCEAN. the resort of innumerable shoals of fish, and under the surface of the sea they bring the soil and products of America somewhat nearer to Europe. From this point to the nearest European countries, Iceland and Ireland, there is an open sea, from one thousand six hundred to two thousand miles wide ; and as the remaining coast-line of America bends round far to the west, this point is plainly the most remarkable as regards a connexion between the Ois- and Trans-Atlantic worlds. If at any point in pre-historical time America received inhabitants from Europe, this would seem to have been the most probable one. Here lies that " Helluland" (stone-land), and that " Markland" (wood-land) which I have already spoken of as fragments of America, and which, long before Columbus, had been reached and named by the Normans of old. This narrow part of the ocean, too, it is, which, in our days, has been found to be the most suitable for connecting the two great divisions of the earth with an electric wire. No sooner had Columbus, and in his lifetime, turned the eyes and the sails of all the seafaring nations to the west, than this outstretching bastion of North America caught the attention of the captains of King Henry VII. ; like as the bastion of Brazil had attracted the notice of the sailors of King Emanuel of Portugal. BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 01 The Portuguese came to the latter under their cele brated knight, Cortereal, on a voyage round the world, which they hoped to accomplish in this direction. They have left there nothing, however, beyond a few names which are still in use, and amongst which the name of the country, Laborotors (workmen), or " Labrador," is the best known. It was so named by the Portuguese, be cause they had caught there a few strong and well-built Indians, which raised in them the hope to find workmen as useful as those to be procured from their slave-coast of Africa. To the outstretching northern lands the English, under the celebrated Cabots, had likewise come in the hope to meet with an open sea, and a northern passage round the world. The Cabots called the land " Terra Nova" or Newfoundland, a name which is now used only for an island. The Cabots brought back, too, the first news of the enormous shoals of fish on the banks of Newfoundland. These fish, they said, were called by the savage natives " lacallaos." In consequence of the poor prospect that the circum navigation of the globe could be accomplished by way of North America, the European monarchs soon ceased to send expeditions in that direction. But the inviting news of the fish-haunts in regions not so very far removed from Europe soon spread in the small fishing ports of 62 FRENCH FISHERMEN. France and Spain, particularly in those of Normandy, Brittany, and Biscay. In these harbours, from olden times, there hVed a race of bold and experienced fishermen, accustomed to follow the whales and roying herrings far into the stormy Bay of Biscay. Scarcely had they heard of the fish " bacallaos" which, as already said, the Cabots had discovered, and which, they were told, appeared in such numbers on the banks of the new country that the ships actually stuck fast in them, than their fisher imaginations were just as much inflamed as those of the Spaniards about their El Dorados. They extended their fishing-grounds beyond the aboye-mentioned nan-owing of the ocean, and made their appearance on those banks. There came to them Portuguese and Spanish Bis- cayans ; and, especially, very frequently the barques of the little seaports in Normandy and Brittany, Honfleur, Havre de Grace, Dieppe, St. Malo, La Eochelle, and the English soon followed. This extraordinary fishery, which down to our times has played such an important part, and given rise to so many political disputes and negotiations, began in the lifetime of Columbus, and soon after his death there was scarcely any part of America, not excepting the Antilles, where European sails were more frequently seen than on the banks of Newfoundland. BACALLAOS. 63 The Indian name bacallaos, or bacaillosj or bacalieu, was introduced into the languages of all seafaring nations, and the fish themselves, salted and dried, found their way into the kettles of all good Christians. The fisher men of Lower Germany adopted the name, too, trans forming it, however, into " Kabeljau" It was even applied to the land which lay immediately behind those banks ; and the wild coasts to which the seamen some times took refuge from storms, or to repair their vessels those of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Canada were all classed together, and called lt la Terre des Monies " or " Terra de Bacallaos" In fact, there exist old maps of America, on which the name " Kabeljauland" is given to a good portion of the country now belonging to the United States. u Kabeljau^ or salted codfish, were the forerunners of the discovery of Canada, in like manner as spices, gold mines, or other treasures of nature, had enticed Euro peans to other parts of America. The French, who, in especial, as already said, profited by these fisheries, soon followed the retreating fish further to the western waters and the neighbouring coasts. Indeed, not long after the Atlantic navigation had been opened by Columbus, the French took a very active part in the discovery of the new world. We find their enterprising seamen, who were constantly quarrelling 1)4 FRENCH NAVIGATORS. with their neighbours on the other side of the Pyrenees, following the Spaniards in all directions. As freebooters and corsairs, they followed them to the Azores and Canary Isles, and, by the aid of the trade winds, to the Antilles. In the first years of the sixteenth century, too, before the Portuguese had settled in Brazil, the French appeared on the savage coasts of that land, and there cut logwood and loaded their vessels with it, as well as the Portuguese. It is to be regretted that the earliest history of the French voyages across the ocean is so very obscure. We have no authentic information of the way in which they developed their marine, nor how they learnt the secrets of the Spaniards. The maps which they made of their discoveries are lost, and the names of their bold heroes, the contemporaries of Da Gama, Cabrel, and Ma gellan, are nowhere mentioned. In Spanish and Por tuguese authors there appear occasionally only these " Corsarios de Francia" when they anywhere interfered with their people ; when they burnt one of their towns in the Indies, or drove them from a silver mine ; or when their monarchs found it necessary to send forth war fleets to the coast of Brazil, or elsewhere, to free the country of this plague. After such mention, they again escape us entirely, and even in the annals of their own country scarcely any mention of them is made. FRANCIS I. 65 The cause of this is plain enough. The kings of France, who had rejected the proposal of Columbus, and who, after the Papal partition of the world, had lost the proffered opportunity of gaining America for themselves, left everything in their country to private speculation. As long as they were at peace with Spain and Portugal, they had to appear to be ignorant of the bold ventures of private persons. Therefore, officially, no notice was taken of their most brilliant doings, nothing reported, and nothing written down. And the men of Brest, of Dieppe, and Rochelle, on their return, sold their booty, and enjoyed the profits as quietly as possible in their native seaports ; and they related their adventures in the new world to their townsfolk only, by whose descendants all was for gotten. In the northern districts of America, likewise, to which we are now giving our attention, everything was left to private speculation ; and French fishermen long busied themselves in these waters, sailed about and made all kinds of discoveries, without either a monarch or any historiographer troubling himself about them. All this was changed, however, when Francis I., the rival and enemy of Charles V., and who cared not for Spain, ascended the throne. This regenerator of arts and sciences took the navy under his royal protection, and promoted voyages for the discovery of distant lands. VOL. II. F 66 JAMES C ARTIER. In the year 1524 he sent vessels to America under the command of an Italian, Verrazano, who discovered for France the entire coast of the present United States. And again, in 1534, about the same time that Pizarro conquered the empire of the Incas for Charles V., the rival of Francis, the latter was persuaded by his admiral, Chabot, to send out two government ships under the command of Jacques Cartier, partly for the benefit of the sailors of Normandy and Brittany, to explore the countries lying behind their fisheries, and partly to see if a way could not be found between the islands by which to sail to China. Cartier, the first discoverer of Canada and the St. Lawrence, made three extraordinary voyages to these regions. On his first voyage, he penetrated only into the great gulf which lies behind Newfoundland, of which the fishermen on the " banks" already knew something. The French Newfoundland voyagers called it simply " la Grande Bale ;" the Spaniards, however, in conse quence of its form, " el Golfo Quadrado" (the four-cor nered gulf). It is now called the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Cartier explored the bays and creeks in this gulf, in the hope of finding an outlet to the west, a passage to China and the Pacific. At length, he believed he had found one. He came to a strait in the background of which no more land could be seen, and the natives told THE ST. LAWRENCE. 67 him, moreover, that the water extended to the west with out interruption. He named it the Strait of St. Peter (Detroit de St. Pierre). It was in reality the wide mouth of the river St. Lawrence. The lower half of this river flows through a fissure six hundred geographical miles long, which runs in an almost straight line to the north-west. It has more the appearance of a colossal strait than of a river. It is everywhere broad, and it opens towards the sea like the end of a trumpet. To give an idea of the vast size of this river, it is sufficient to say that the tide, as far as Quebec, three hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, sometimes rises as much as twenty feet. Altogether the tide extends about as far up the river as the source of the Rhine is distant from its mouth. Whales and other sea monsters enter the river too, and ships can sail up its whole length. When, therefore, C artier looked into the mouth of the St. Lawrence, he took it for a marine channel, for a second Magellan s Strait. But, as autumn had now come, he was unable to penetrate farther, and he hastened back to France to bring Francis I. the joyful news ; and the following year he was sent again, with more ships, to complete his discoveries. Cartier sailed direct to his " St. Peter s Strait," and as he ran into a small bay on St. Lawrence s day, he called it " la Bale F2 68 THE ST. LAWRENCE. de St. Laurent" From this little bay at its mouth the entire river, in the course of time, received its name. Whilst sailing upwards with favourable wind, Cartier must soon have become convinced that he was in no Ma gellan s Strait. The shores approached nearer to one another, the water became brackish, and then sweet, and the current continued against him. Instead of an ocean into which he had hoped to penetrate, he found a beau tiful, well-watered, and thickly peopled country. His first voyage up the river, like all the first steps of Europeans in the new world, may be compared to a tri umphal march ; for instance, to that of Bacchus to India. To this god, too, he dedicated the first large and beauti ful island, filled with fruit-trees and vines, that he met with, calling it "lie de Bacchus" It was situated in face of the future capital of Quebec. The astonishment of the wild natives at the advent of the Europeans, their natural curiosity, the joy they ex perienced at receiving presents of knives, glass beads, metal looking-glasses, and gay ribbons, appeal s every where to have made the first meeting of the two races agreeable. Suspicion and enmity always came later. Cartier was everywhere received with open arms by the natives, and he gave them banquets on board his ships. Men and women sang and danced, and at all points of the great stream the caziques concluded THE INDIANS. 69 friendly alliances with him. They brought, too, their sick, their blind, their lame, their mutilated, and weak old men to the river to be cured by him. C artier pro nounced a Pater-noster over them, and hung little copper crosses round their necks, which they were told to kiss. Here and there, too, he erected crosses on the promon tories overhanging the river, to consecrate the land to Christianity. And on these crosses he wrote the words : " Over this land rules Francis I., King of France ;" words which the wild inhabitants stared at as something mysterious, but which would have caused a great change in their conduct had they understood their meaning. Occasionally, Cartier thought it advisable to awaken the drowsy echo of the Canadian woods, and to make the trees crash with shots from his cannon. This so asto nished the wild natives, that they behaved as if the sky was falling upon their heads, and they howled so ter ribly, that it seemed to Cartier as if hell was let loose. It amused them more when he now and then ordered his trumpets to be sounded. The banks of the river were charming, often what we should call romantic ; for the most part lofty ledges of pointed rocks, or slopes extend ing to the water s edge, with wood and meadows inter mixed. Here and there fruitful plains came in view, covered with Indian corn; for this grain was already cultivated by the natives in that northern land. In the 70 CANADA. woods on the heights, and on the groups of islands in the river, a great variety of trees flourished, of which oaks, elms, poplars, birch and walnut trees, and especially large spruce and other firs, were the principal. Amidst the dark masses of the latter, the light-green leaves of the sugar sycamores shone out, like oases ; and between all these variegated scenes flowed the river, always majestic, broad and interminable, like the deep and constant tones of the base, mingling with the softer and melodious sounds of other instruments in a symphony. The settlements of the Indians were everywhere nu merous, and whenever Cartier pointed to any of them, inquiring the name, he always heard the word Canada in reply. Probably this was nothing more than a general term for village or town. But as the word was con stantly repeated, Cartier thought it was meant to apply to the country; the French consequently soon called the whole country Canada, and the stream " la Grande Riviere de Canada" Having stationed two of his ships in a harbour, not far from the spot where Quebec is now situated, he went up the river in the third, taking with him his boats, and several enterpising young French noblemen. He got as far as an Indian village called Hochelaga, where he came to a bar of rocks, and a rapid, and found that navigation was at an end. LAND AND WATERS. 71 Canada, and indeed the whole northern half of North America, the entire surface of all the wide districts grouped round Hudson s Bay, consists of broad plateaus or table-lands of granite, which stretch out in succession, or are shoved one upon another, something like large plates of ice when a frozen river is broken up by thaw. On the flat surfaces of these plateaus, extensive rivers flow, or there are large and small lakes, and when the ends of the plateaus are reached, the waters shoot down to other deeper-lying table-lands. According to the height and abruptness of these terraces, the falls are either mere rapids, or waterfalls, called by the French a saults" (jumps), or they are powerful cascades, or cataracts. In this way it comes that no other great country in the world is so full of foaming and whirling waters, and again, adjoining these, of smoothly flowing rivers, of stagnant lakes and swamps, alternating with one another for thousands of miles. To one of those waterfalls belongs the Niagara, the king of cataracts. As the rocky plateaus of this country are often pushed, as it were, as far as the sea, it follows that, occasionally, there are large rivers which, though they flow smoothly in the interior of the land, nevertheless, when they reach the sea, suddenly leap wildly into the briny waves, in stead of, as is usually the case, celebrating their nuptials with the ocean in a calm and temperate fashion. Thus 72 CATARACTS. it comes that from the decks of ships scenes may be ad mired which in other lands can only be found by travel ling to the high mountains in their interior. As these plateaus sometimes are very far-stretching, there is time for the rivers to grow to great dimensions, and when these breaks in the table-lands occur, the most powerful rivers are seized with a frenzy such as is now unknown to older rivers in other countries. The cataract region of the great river of Canada begins at once where navigation with sea-ships ceases at that village of Hochelaga, which, as I have already said, C artier reached. Here the river, which hitherto had been deep and smooth as a looking-glass, all at once is seen in violent motion. It is split up into a number of seething veins of water, which for many miles wildly toss about, and in masses of white foam wind their way through a labyrinth of dark-coloured rocks. In the midst of this uproar, the Ottawa, the largest tributary of the St. Lawrence, joins its waters to the latter, and in both rivers there is now a continuation of rapids, whirl pools, waterfalls, and cataracts extending upwards for many hundred English miles. From this point there is no other water transport possible, except in the peculiar canoes of the country, made of the bark of birch-trees, which, owing to their elasticity, float amidst the rocks as safely as a fish, whilst their lightness renders them easy to be carried where cataracts occur. MONT ROYAL. 73 In the harbour of Montreal, which was subsequently built at this spot, long could the singular spectacle be seen, that goods brought in these little canoes were o o shipped immediately on board sea-going vessels ; whilst on our German rivers from the hollow trunks of trees used as boats by our mountaineers, down to the three- masters in our seaports, there is a long catalogue of other intermediate vessels used for the transport of goods. As Cartier s voyage came to an end at the above-men tioned point, and as he wished at least to have a further view of the country, he ascended a beautifully-shaped hill, which raises its head in this remarkable locality at the union of the waters, and surrounded by arms of the rivers and fertile meadows. From the top of this hill the silver thread of the Ottawa and the rapids of St. Lawrence may be seen shining far away from amidst the dark forests. The inhabitants of Hochelaga told Cartier that at a distance of ten days journey there was a great sea, out of which the river flowed. The beautiful hill with the rich and varied view was called by Cartier " Mont Royal" and from this circum stance the town, which subsequently was erected at its foot, obtained the name of Mont Real. Cartier now re turned to his other ships stationed lower down the river, and as the year was near its close, he wintered there. In the following year he sailed back to France with a whole budget of good and promising news. 74 ILLUSIONS. It would have been quite enough if C artier had told his king, Francis, nothing but the simple truth. A vast, navigable, hitherto unknown river, offering the richest fishery in the world, and with fruitful fields on either side ; added to this, interminable primeval forests, from which more timber could be cut than the French navy would ever require ; in the woods an abundance of wild animals, opening the prospect of a new trade in valuable furs : all these would have formed a sufficiently hand some present for a great monarch. But with such prosaic matters as these neither the heated imaginations of discoverers nor kings could be satisfied. In addition to what he had seen himself with his own eyes, Cartier had gathered a great deal more from his Indians from their signs and pantomime, for, to be sure, he did not understand their language and all this information had reference to gold and silver mines and other trea sures ; so that at last the country really looked just as a discovery in the new world naturally ought to look. To comprehend the conduct, the expectations, and illu sions of Cartier, we must not forget that he himself had but very obscure ideas of the position his Canada occu pied on the globe. He, like Columbus, believed he had been in Asia, and with each step that he advanced to wards the south-west he expected to reach China or Japan ; and the great sea of which the Indians informed ILLUSIONS. 75 him, and which was nothing more than our great Ca nadian lakes, he held to be a gulf in the South Sea. Even Francis I. announced to the world in a royal edict that his captain Cartier had made great discoveries in Asia. At that time the idea had not been given up that the upper part of Asia, far to the north of Peru and Mexico, stretched out towards Europe. All the real and imaginary riches connected with the name of Asia were likewise expected to be found in Canada. Cartier and his contemporaries, starting from this preconceived idea, proceeded therefore when they exa mined the natives about their country, much as the holy office of the Inquisition had used to do when examining a poor wretch accused of disbelief and heresy, and deter mined in every case to make out these crimes. If Cartier showed the Indians the silver whistle of his steersman, or the golden chain presented to him by the king, and asked them if they had ever seen such metals in their country, if upon this they said they had seen things as shining, it was clear that the land was full of gold and silver mines. But if they shook their heads on being shown such articles, that was not taken as a proof that no mines existed, but merely held to show that the wicked or jealous Indians wished to keep these treasures secret. From the summit of the Royal Mountain, where the 76 THE SAGUENAY. Indians told him of the great sweet-water sea in the west, C artier understood them to say that in that direc tion was the road to a land rich in cinnamon and spices. The Canadians, so he reports, called cinnamon in their language, " canadeta." In the ravine of a rocky part of the great river, the French discovered quarry crystals, and they took them for diamonds. To the present day these rocks, now covered by the works of the citadel of Quebec, are called, " le Cap des Diamants." At other places they found red and green crystals. But they were rubies, emeralds, and turquoises in the eyes of the French men, and one of the party naively remarked at the time : " Je ne veux pas prdtendre quails sont trcs fins, mais cela fait pourtant plaisir a voir." On discovering the river Saguenay, Cartier pictured to himself a perfect El Dorado at its source. This river, which to this day bears the same name, and which runs into the St. Lawrence to the north of Quebec, is certainly a puzzle ; but only to geologists. Its waters fill a very remarkable cleft in the earth, and its depth is unfathom able, being greater than that of the St. Lawrence, and even of the sea near Newfoundland. Cartier, who care fully sounded it at different points, ascertained this fact, and he fancied that such an extraordinary river must lead to most extraordinary things. On questioning his Indians, he fancied he made out GREAT FRENCH EXPEDITION. 77 that the source of this river was in the " kingdom of Saguenay," which abounded in gold, silver, precious stones, and every other valuable product of nature : and this kingdom we see, in fact, like a northern Peru, put down in all the maps of the world made according to Cartier s description. Later pilgrimages in that direc tion have at least done something to increase our know ledge of the geography of the north. That to these notions of the country around the source of the Saguenay soon were added wonderful stories of pigmies, giants, and of peoples with one leg, or without heads, was a matter of course. For such like fabulous people, existing only in the imaginations of the men of that period filled with the fables of Herodotus and other authors of antiquity were the usual additions to reports of any new discovery of land, from the Straits of Magellan northwards as far as Greenland. * No wonder that, with such accounts in his hands, Francis I. should begin to think of accomplishing great things. He behaved, however, towards his navigator Cartier as Ferdinand had done to Columbus. He held him to be a man of too little importance to make the most of these great things, and to govern a large kingdom. He therefore named one of his noblemen, the Messire Jean Francois de la Roche, Seigneur de Roberval, to be Viceroy of " New France ;" for this 78 FATE OF THE EXPEDITION. " Nouvelle France" was the name with which all that Verrazano and Cartier had discovered i. e. about the whole of North America was distinguished. To make his deputy still more important, the king bestowed upon him the following seemingly appropriate titles : viz. Lieutenant-General of the Provinces and Kingdoms of Canada, Saguenay, Hochelaga, Terre-Neuve, Baccallaos, or the Cod-fish Land, and Koyal General-Intendant of the " Great Fish Banks." He likewise equipped for him a fleet, on board of which numbers of barons, viscounts, and other noblemen entered as volunteers. Cartier, the originator of the whole affair, had to be content to take part in the expedition as chief pilot. I pass over here the undertakings of this great gen tleman, which added little to the work of discovery. Cartier went up his great river once more with this expedition as far as his Mont Royal, and from thence he once more cast his longing gaze towards the unex plored west his China. But he did not get beyond his former ne plus ultra. Roberval and his noblemen expe rienced many hardships in that wild land. At length he disappeared entirely in the north, like the Portuguese knight, Cortereal, and so many other northern voyagers, in a manner enveloped in historic darkness. Probably he was wrecked on the coast of Labrador, and lost with all his sailors and ships. With this the glittering LA XOUYELLE FEANCE. 79 bubble burst. In the mean time King Francis died, and Cartier, too, the French Columbus, died in the middle of the same century, in the neighbourhood of his native town, St. Malo, where he had quietly settled down. No expeditions to North America took place under the kings Henry II., Francis II., and Henry III. This was principally owing to the unquiet state of France during these reigns, and partly because the disappear ance of the Viceroy Boberval and his crews had caused great alarm. During the whole of the second half of the sixteenth century the Nouvelle France was scarcely anything more than a name. The enterprises of Cartier and Roberval fell at last, in France, so completely into forgetfulness, that not even all the highly remarkable original reports of these voyagers were preserved, and in the end traces of Cartier were sought for, and later dis coverers were able to give out their doings for some thing new. In our times, to be sure, Cartier, like Columbus, has come into such favour again, that in Canada his Sa- guenays and Hochelagas are grown quite popular, and to give here only one instance travellers may now even put up at inns in that country named after the wild Indian caziques with whom Cartier once had inter course. Multa renascentur, qua jam cecidere, cadentgue. In 80 INTERMITTENT PROGRESS. the history of all human affairs we may observe a certain remarkable ebb and flood. In the discovery of America, too, great progress has been made at certain periods only, some of which are centuries re moved from one another. Such especial periods of progress may be found in the history of almost all parts of the new world. In their first attempts the disco verers have often obtained results which afterwards cost very great exertions to regain. Fifty years after Magellan, his strait was so far forgotten that many doubted of its existence. A Spanish poet spoke of the expedition of Magellan as of an on dit, and expressed the opinion that, as the strait had never again been heard of, it might have been filled up by an earthquake, or stopped up by blocks of ice. Soon after the time of Cortez the Mississippi, as I shall have to relate, was well known to the Spaniards ; and one hundred and fifty years later the French raked it up again, as it were, out of the total obscurity into which in the mean time it had fallen. The earliest discoveries of the Russians in America, of the English in Baffin s Bay and other districts, fell entirely into forgetfulness, and were not finally made known till the work of discovery had been taken in hand for the second or third time. This intermittent pulsation, this awakening to fresh PORTS OF NORMANDY AND BRITTANY. 81 activity after long pauses, may be seen in the develop ment of political events, as a sort of up and down, like the outbreaks and the slumbers of a volcano. The history of the discovery of America yields us this satis faction, that at least each succeeding effort has been better prepared and more successful than the previous ones ; that at least the grandchildren and great-grand children have been able to grasp the palm which their ancestors only touched. The breaks in the progress of the history of Canada are plainly enough connected with the men of genius and of great energy who, from century to century, arose in France under its kings, and who furthered French interests at home and abroad. Francis I., as we have seen, began the work of discovery ; the great and good Henry IV. continued it, and Louis le Grand, as will be shown, may be considered as having brought it to a conclusion. The failures of Roberval and Cartier had produced at least one good result. Whales had been seen by Cartier in great numbers at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. He had brought home, too, some packs of the glossy skins of beavers. Speculators in the ports of Normandy and Brittany turned this knowledge to account, and thus kept up a slight connexion between their country and Canada. VOL. II. G 82 THE FUK-TRADE. The fishermen and merchants of St. Malo, Cherbourg, Honfleur, La Rochelle, &c., continued their cod-fishing expeditions, and at the same time the whales were pur sued to the mouth of the river, the way to which G artier had pointed out. The men who were employed on these expeditions frequently went up the river, and their usual summer rendezvous was at the mouth of the deep Saguenay, where they boiled their blubber. On this river they were accustomed to meet the Indians, who came down it in their canoes, and if they were not adorned with the diamonds and emeralds of the kingdom of Saguenay, they at least brought with them furs and other produce of their hunting. The fur-trade now grew into importance. And in consequence of this trade, and especially of beaver-hunting, the French by degrees travelled over and explored the country of the St. Lawrence, and the whole north of America ; whilst their successors, the English, from the same cause, at a later period, explored the western portion as far as the Pacific, and the northern as far as the polar seas. Probably about this time the name of St. Lawrence, after the little bay at its mouth which Cartier had dedicated to that saint, came to be applied to the whole river. A merchant of St. Malo, named Pontgrave, was, properly speaking, the chief promoter and originator of SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIX. 83 the fur-trade. By repeated voyages to the Saguenay, and the trade in train-oil and the skins of beavers, he realized a fortune. When it became known how pro fitable this trade had been to him, a company was formed in Rouen, in which many enterprising men took part, and amongst the rest an influential Huguenot, M. de Monts, and another highly energetic nobleman, Samuel de Champlain. De Monts became the director of the company, and Henry IV. gave him an exclusive privilege to trade in furs, for all the lands lying between New York of the present day and Labrador. For, at that time, the kings of France considered all this part of America as belonging to them, although the English likewise laid claim to the whole of the southern portion of it. M. de Monts, who himself headed many expeditions to America, fixed upon this southern part in especial for his schemes of conquest and discovery ; but they were entirely frustrated by the English, who, coming from Virginia, soon destroyed his colony. In Samuel de Champlain, however, the French found a man who led them to great things; for he was possessed of distinguished and statesmanlike qualities, and determination of purpose. It was he who, fixing his eyes specially on the north of New France, the river St. Lawrence, in the course of a long and active life G2 84 QUEBEC. established the power of France in these districts, and may be called the creator and father of Canada. Above all, Champlain founded a settlement on the St. Lawrence, a thing long desired in France. He chose for this purpose the point indicated by nature, where, near the Bacchus Island, the principal narrowing of the majestic stream, a change from a gulf-like appearance to that of a narrow channel, takes place. To this point the largest sea-going vessels can sail with ease. It had long been named by the Indians Quebejo, also Quelobec, which meant narrowing of the river; and from these words, the name Quebec has been derived. The sweet-water sea in the west, of which his pre decessor, C artier, had long ago reported, raised likewise in Champlain the old hope to find there a passage to the South Sea and China. He got his Indians to sketch out the outline, and give him a description of the lakes in the west as far as they knew them, and he heard that the hindermost and largest lake was quite salt, and so long that no one had ever seen the end of it. He thought this must be the South Sea, and he hoped that his Quebec, in which, in 1608, he built his first wooden huts, would come to be a town of great importance. He in tended to make it the principal depot for the transit of goods from the South Sea to the Atlantic, to raise it to be something like what San Francisco in California is at the present day. LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 85 Champlain and his companions were the first to be come acquainted with the Indian tribes, the Hurons, the Algonquins, and the Iroquois names which were un known to Cartier, but which have been preserved to the present day. The Hurons and Algonquins lived on the left bank of the great river ; the Iroquois on the right bank, to the south. These tribes from the opposite sides of the river had long been at war with one another. Champlain took part with the northern Indians, and he went with them to the south in their expeditions against the Iroquois, who, after this, constantly opposed the French, allying themselves with the Dutch, and at a later period with their successors, the English of New York and Boston. The Iroquois w^ere accustomed to come from the in terior on their plundering excursions down a tributary of the St. Lawrence, called by the French the River Riche lieu. Champlain, with his Hurons and three French musketeers, took this way to look for them. This led him to the discovery of a long and smiling lake, out of which the river came, and to this day it is called Lake Champlain. Like a knight of olden times in search of adventures, and accompanied only by one faithful groom, Champlain made excursions up the Saguenay, and up the Ottawa, and other rivers not explored by Cartier, so that he was the first to fire off a musket in these districts. He has 86 CHAMPLAIN S TRIALS. been called the " knight-errant of Canada ;" but he wan dered about to some purpose. Along with his taste for adventures, which in those days even statesmen shared, the idea of founding a new state interested him most. He had a great capacity for colonisation, and all along the St. Lawrence there is scarcely any old position of importance not connected with Champlain s name. His trying journeys, his wars, and his negotiations with the Indians, caused him, as had been the case with Columbus, much less suffering and trouble than the political intrigues in his fatherland. After the death of the good King Henry IV., there was a constant change of viceroys for New France. Now the Prince of Conde, now the Marshal de Montmorency, and now a Duke de Ventadour, was placed at the head of the affairs of a country which none of these men had ever seen. One of their doings was to take away the old privileges from a trading company, to give similar privileges to a new one. Champlain was frequently called back to France by affairs of this kind, and, like Columbus, he was obliged, times without end, to give up his exploring jour neys and the founding of settlements. The interest, however, which Cardinal Richelieu and other influential men, following his example, subse quently took in Champlain s undertakings, at length crowned his efforts with success. He was appointed THE JESUITS. 87 governor of Canada, and died as such in the year 1635, in Quebec, the town which he had called into life. His remains are deposited there, like as the body of Colum bus has been placed in Cuba, and that of Cortez in Mexico. Champlain had not only trading speculations and colo nisation at heart, but, like nearly all the earlier dis coverers, he took especial interest in the spread of Chris tianity and the conversion of heathens. He is reported to have said that " the salvation of a soul was of more value than the conquest of a kingdom." Twenty years before his death he invited some Mendicant monks, and ten years later he called the Jesuits to his aid. From the St. Lawrence these brothers soon spread amongst the natives, either by following in the footsteps of Cham- plain and the French fur-traders, or else preceding and opening a way for the latter. We are greatly indebted to the Jesuit missionaries for the further disclosure of the districts around the St. Lawrence. They were, for the most part, brave and well-informed men, who, now travelling on foot, now in the bark canoes of the country, extended their excursions far to the north. Almost all the subsequent discoveries of importance were under their direction, and from their careful reports a knowledge of a large portion of North America has been derived. And, in especial, they were 05 THE CANADIAN LAKES. the first to explore and make known that wonderful basin, that lake system of the west of Canada, in all its extent and capabilities. Much has been sung and said about the four or five brilliant stars in the Southern Cross, but these five Cana dian lakes which it has pleased nature to develop in the upper regions of the St. Lawrence, spread more light on this earth, and are still more worthy of the poet s praise. Taken together, they exceed the Caspian Sea in extent. Not one of them but is about the size of a Ger man kingdom. Their basins are deeply hollowed out, and in some places they are twice the depth of the Baltic in its deepest parts. They are therefore as navigable for large vessels as the sea, and this, too, for a distance of between eight and nine hundred miles in the middle of, a continent. The waters of all are sweet, and those of the largest lake are so clear and so agreeable to the taste that they are in great request, and transported to distant places. Each of the more western of these lakes lies upon higher table-land than its neighbour, and the isthmuses which separate them are pierced by canals, in which the waters that pour from the upper lakes form numerous cataracts and whirlpools. Large peninsulas extend into these basins, like vast wedges, separating them from one another. These peninsulas are remarkable for fertility and beauty, and each one forms the main territory of a THE CANADIAN LAKES. 89 separate state, viz. of Upper Canada, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The produce of these lake-peninsulas is greater than the kingdom of Saguenay. Two of them abound in the most fruitful corn-fields, and the third has hidden under its woods such a wealth in metals, in iron and copper ore, that here only the embarras de richesses, the difficulty of breaking up and transporting such masses, checks their being turned to account. An obscure report of the existence of these lakes reached, as we have said, the ears of C artier, and after him we find a " mare dulcium aquarum" (a sweet-water sea) figure in all the maps of the new world, the outlines of which, however, were sketched in a very vague man ner. Some geographers made it in connexion with the South Sea ; others fancied it to be a bay of the Arctic Sea, for which, as is known, the Caspian Sea was once held, until its northern end was discovered. The second great explorer of Canada, Champlain, knew, to be sure, something more about these lakes. He knew that there were several basins, and the one most to the east, Lake Ontario, he had himself reached and* made the circuit of. But even he held fast to the idea that these lakes were in connexion with the South Sea, and, as I have already said, he got out of his Indians, by questioning them, that the hindermost of them, in its western portion, again became " salt." The Jesuit missionaries, who were destined to solve 90 FREXCH MISSIONARIES. this problem, entered into these inner lake regions in two ways, both natural channels of communication : one to the south-west, along the main stream, the St. Lawrence ; the other to the north-west, along the principal tributary, the oft-named Ottawa. By the first way, which led them into the territories exposed to the inroads of the wild Iroquois, they came upon the Lakes Ontario and Erie. Many of the bold missionaries who penetrated into these wilds met with the death of martyrs. But others were always ready to come forward and follow in the footsteps of their predecessors. They attempted, in especial, but long in vain, to check the savage fury of the Iroquois, who, from the south, threatened the milder tribe of the Hurons, and the French colonists themselves, with destruction. In the year 1640, the first missionary, Father Breboeuf , came in this direction as far as the falls of Niagara, of which he gave a glowing description. Others following him, built their little forest chapels which the savages sometimes burnt down on the southern shores of fhose lakes ; set up missionary sta tions which were often destroyed and began the work again where their predecessors, killed by the Iroquois, had left it. Thus, by degrees, they worked their way round both the lakes, Ontario and Erie, which, however, at the time, went by the names of " Cats Lake" and "LakeFrontenac." FRENCH MISSIONARIES. 91 The other way, along the Ottawa, was somewhat less thorny than the south-western pilgrimage to the terrible Iroquois. For, in the first direction, dwelt the somewhat milder races of the Hurons and Algonquins, who some times were glad to have a missionary amongst them, and occasionally even begged the great " Ononthion" (for so they called the French Governor-General of Canada, and also the King of France) to give them one. When they acted thus, however, it was not so much from any pious longing for Christianity, as the Jesuits fancied, as from the superstition that the prayers of the missionaries had power over the wild animals they hunted. Besides, they looked upon the missionaries as a means of enticing the fur-traders and other colonists, who usually followed in their track, and with whom they liked to have dealings. A missionary, when " Ononthion" had granted their request, was often as favourably situated with the Indians as their way of life would allow. They took him with them in their canoes, and if he showed himself capable of supporting the toils and privations of Indian forest excursions, if his prayers proved useful to banish bad weather and to charm the fish and wild animals, they made much of him, and brought their children to be baptised. But, on the other hand, if things did not go favourably, they would treat their spiritual chief and teacher as their servant and slave. And if he did not 92 FATHER MESNARD. render them good service, they became thoroughly tired of him, took from him his useless prayer-books, and threw them into the water, driving him from them into the forests ; or they even killed him when at his prayers, as a troublesome and superfluous member of their com munity. In the year 1660 the Jesuit Mesnard accepted an in vitation of this kind, and, with a troop of friendly Indians, he worked his way up the then not unbeaten path of the Ottawa. He took his turn at rowing with the Indians, helped them to carry their boats when they came to cataracts, swam like one of themselves ; and if there was want of food, he fished, or pounded the bones of the wild animals which he collected, and boiled them up into broth. In this manner he reached the upper district of the Ottawa, and from thence he went over with his Indians to the northern shore of Lake Huron. He found there the celebrated cataracts, which he dedi cated to the Virgin Mary, and which to this day are called the " St. Mary Falls ;" and he likewise reached the great " Lac Superieur" the largest and most remote of Canadian lakes, which he was the first to discover. He passed the winter on the southern shore of this lake, giving the names of various saints to its capes and bays. In the following spring, Father Mesnard, always trusting in Him who feeds the birds of the air, and having FATHER ALLOUEZ. 93 at times no other nourishment than such as could be obtained from the pounded bark of trees and moss, penetrated into the western portion of the lake, to look, as he said, even in this hiding-place, for souls for Christ. To the groups of small islands which he found in that direction he gave the name of the " Apostles Islands," which they are called to this day. But he never came out of this corner again. Having quitted his companions, he disappeared in a wood, and it has never been ascertained how he lost his life. Many years afterwards his breviary, his waistband, and a portion of his journal were discovered in the tent of a Sioux Indian on the Upper Mississippi; and it was remarked that these savages held the relics of this martyr in great veneration, making them offerings of food and other things at their meals, as they did to their spirits. Not long after it had become known at Quebec where news of him had been anxiously expected that this mes senger to the far west had been lost, the Indians from from the Upper Lake again came with the request for a missionary. This the authorities demurred in grantino-. But the apostolic men, it is said, opposed the opinion of their superiors, and this time Father Allouez, a man still more celebrated in the histoiy of the discovery of Canada than Mesnard, joined the four hundred Indians 94 THE UPPER LAKE. who had come for him, and went with them to the north west. In the year 1666 Father Allouez reached the cataracts of St. Mary and the Upper Lake. At first, like his pre decessor, he travelled along the southern shore about one hundred leagues, lived two years near the Apostles Islands, where Mesnard had disappeared, and built him self there a small chapel. His reputation spread in the neighbourhood ; from far and near the Indians brought him their children and sick, and came to look at his religious services and listen to his prayers in a spirit of reverence. The good missionary held communication with more than twelve nations. By means of the far- spread language of the Algonquins, which in these regions plays about the same part as French in Europe, he was able to make himself understood by these people. We now hear for the first time the names of many Indian nations, which are still known, and in part have become celebrated as the names of states of the Ame rican confederation. For instance, the name of " Illi nois," now applied to a great river and large state, and that of " Knistinaux," are far spread in the north at the present day. From all these people Father Allouez derived informa tion about the nature of the countries they came from. The most remarkable was the news he gathered from PJVEK ST. LOUIS. 95 the Sioux, who came from a great distance. Their country, they said, extended to the north to the end of the habitable world. To the west there were other nations, in the rear of whom, however, the land was cut off, and there was the " great stinking water." They described to him the beautiful wide prairies of their own country, on which numerous herds of cows browsed, and the great river where many beavers dwelt, and which w r as called " Messepi." In the far west was the home of a terrible kind of bears of enormous size and strength, and many of their people fell a sacrifice to them. This is, without doubt, the now so celebrated, and in the west so much dreaded, " grizzly bear," with which American travellers at a later period became acquainted in the Rocky Mountains, and of which, as of many other animals, the first information was obtained through Father Allouez. From his little mission and chapel Father Allouez made many excursions in the neighbourhood. He travelled, too, along the northern shore of the lake, and reached at last its extreme western end, which terminates in a pointed bay, like the form of a wedge. Tin s point has since been called " Fond du Lac? A river runs into it, which Father Allouez, in honour of the king then reign ing in France, called the Eiver St. Louis. This little River St. Louis is the most western water 96 LAKE MICHIGAN. of the whole St. Lawrence region, and as it is at the same time the largest contributor to the Upper Lake, it may be looked upon as the source of that powerful river. " New France," so often a prey to storms, was in the enjoyment at that time of a profound and bene ficial peace, of which advantage was taken in the cause of discovery and extension of power. New missionaries came over from France to America, and hastened after Father Allouez ; the Father Claude Dablon, the Father Marquette (the celebrated discoverer of the Mississippi), and many others. The two just named were posted to the mission at the " Falls of St. Mary." Others were sent to other branches of the Algonquins, who came up in numbers, since just at that time the Iroquois left them at peace. It was now that the south-west branch of the great Canadian lake system was first discovered. This lake, Michigan*, or, as it was first called, " Lake Illinois," had continued unknown the longest. Here, too, Father Allouez took the lead. He travelled, or, as the Jesuits called it, "worked," in a beautiful vineyard, in that fair land to the west of the just-named lake, where green meadows and woods of beautiful foliage, in which vines, wild plum, apple, and wal nut trees abound. The humid lower grounds nearest the rivers were covered with wild corn (called by the French, folk avoine), which served the Indians for food, PIONEERS. 97 and on which, too, the large " woolly Illinois oxen" (for so Father Allouez calls the buffaloes) likewise fed. It was a part of the fertile and now so much valued terri tory of Wisconsin. The long journeys of Father Allouez, together with those of Father Marquette, may . be considered to have concluded the discovery of the St. Lawrence, and com pleted the knowledge of Canada, at least in its main features. In the year 1672 the Jesuits were able to present to the great King Louis a map they had made, on which were drawn tolerably correctly the outlines of all the Canadian lakes, and their connexion with the St. Lawrence. Like as in the history of great wars, so in the history of discovery, the muse has only put down the great names of those individuals who have performed some thing decisive, who have worked with intelligence and consciousness, and given a marked progress to our know ledge. But just as the main bodies of armies have their light corps of sharpshooters, skirmishers, and volunteers, who are the first to enter the enemy s land, to bring down their opponents, and the first to make roads and bridges, so there was in Canada, in addition to the pri vileged government officials, to the Pope s consecrated messengers, an obscure mass of private persons, who, on their own account, sought adventures in the wilderness ; VOL. II. H 98 COUREURS DES BOIS. often accompanying those missionaries and officials, but often, too, preceding them, and showing them the way, or else following in the tracks of the prominent heroes, and then adding to the details of geographical know ledge. The class of men called in Canada " coureurs des bois" (wood-runners), became conspicuous soon after the kings of France had bestowed privileges upon their merchants and officers, and it increased in numbers and importance the more the discoveries and the fur-trade in Canada ex tended, and the more these monopolies were found to interfere with the interests of the public in general. Enterprising individuals, dissatisfied with these re straints on commerce, followed the example of Cham- plain, shouldered their muskets, and pushed up one of the rivers not yet occupied by the privileged, or the servants of the Church; or they arrived at lakes not yet ex plored, gained an influence with Indian tribes not yet baptised, purchasing from them their beaver-skins on their own account, Frequently these men accommo dated themselves to the mode of life of the Indians, whom they accompanied, as welcome allies, on their hunting or war excursions. Not only did they follow the example of Champlain, but of the Jesuit missionaries too. Like them they prayed over the sick, or made the sign of the cross over COUREURS DES BOIS. 99 the dying, performed wonders, and told the wild Indians bible histories, which pleased those children of nature so exceedingly, that they often repaid them with whole packs of beaver-skins. Simply as story-tellers, these "^coureurs des bois" have often attained great influence and wealth amongst the Indians, for whom they wrote down on bits of paper the names of Mary, Joseph, Moses, and the prophets, demanding to be paid for such amulets with the skins of beavers. These remarkable wood-runners, men with hardened frames, and well acquainted with the nature of the country and the customs of the natives, have in the end completed the work of the Carriers, Champlains, and the Jesuits. They ventured wherever a beaver or a bear could live ; and from the Canadian lakes they have spread themselves over the whole of the wide north west of America. They have given the names now in use to almost all the localities. They have circulated amongst the people in Canada the report of every new lake, river, or range of mountains; and they reached the Eocky Mountains, and lastly associated in the first instance with the British, and later with the North Americans the South Sea. The British and the United States beaver-hunters were their pupils, and it was only by the aid of the French Canadians that they found their way in the H2 100 RECAPITULATION. western labyrinth. Even our modern Franklins have required the assistance of these men to reach the polar seas ; and, next to the English, there is no other language so spread throughout North America, as the French. Amongst the so-called wood-runners, beaver and fur hunters of Canada, occasionally there were very clever men, some of whom belonged to the educated classes. Through them many admirable descriptions of countries when first discovered, and many accounts of primitive modes of life, have been added to our literature. If we now take a survey of the history of the discovery of Canada in its totality, the following is the result. We see that fish, especially whales and cod-fish, were the first to show the French the way to the gates of the country ; that in the reign of Francis I. fabulous stories and hopes of El Doradoes led them through these gates ; that under Henri IY. the rumour of the sweet-water sea, and the hope built upon it of reaching the South Sea and China, led them into the interior ; that under Louis XIV. zeal in gaining converts brought them to the end of the Great River, and that the animals with valuable furs at length did the rest. The French, however, who for the most part only filled Canada with monks and adventurers, got scarcely beyond this fur-hunting which is but the rudest way of PROGRESS IN CANADA. 101 turning a country to account and beyond that hunting for souls, which, with all the zeal bestowed upon it, has produced but few lasting results. It is only since they lost the country to the British, i.e. since 1761, that it has been gained in the full sense for Europe and humanity. Only since then have all its capabilities been discovered, and those inner treasures disclosed which had continued hidden to the French. Since that time has begun a much more profitable kind of hunting, that after fertile fields and useful metals, after convenient harbours and localities in which to build new towns. The French of Louis XV. s time consoled themselves for the loss of the country about which their Cartiers, Champlains, and their great monarchs had displayed such enthusiasm and energy, by saying, " What have we in fact sacrificed in Canada but a few snow-fields more or less." But these " snow-fields" have given the lie in a striking manner to those witty courtiers of a weak king. They now yield an income of more than 30,000,000/., and have a population of more than five million Christians. The block-house stations of the fur-hunters have been trans formed into large emporiums of commerce ; the Indian villages, in which a Jesuit had once set up a little wooden chapel, have grown into a wreath of splendid towns, re flected in the clear lakes ; and on these lakes, where 102 PROGRESS IN CANADA. formerly a praying missionary or an adventurous coureur des bois glided along in a bark canoe, now may be seen whole fleets of floating wooden palaces, flying backwards and forwards like weavers shuttles, and adding to the webb of the world s commerce. In all the corners of the Upper Lake, in each of its bays and harbours, has this commerce taken root, and sown the seeds from which new towns, like fresh blossoms, will come forth. Neither the old Kabeljau fishers of Honfleur, nor Carrier of St. Malo, with his imagination full of the gold mines and one-legged people of the king dom of Saguenay, nor Samuel Champlain with his long ing for China, ever dreamt that their undertakings were the preludes to such brilliant results. THE MISSISSIPPI* 103 CHAPTER III. THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE JESUITS. The Captains of Governor Garay discover the Mouths of the Mississippi (1519) Pamphilo de Navaez is lost at the Mouths of the Mississippi (1529) Cabeza de Vaca wanders about for nine Years in the Lands to the south-west of the Mississippi (1529-1537) Fernando de Soto discovers and navigates the Lower Mississippi (1540-1542) Moscoso s Retreat (1543) The Jesuit Marquette goes down the entire Mississippi in a Canoe (1673). OF all the noble rivers which, like arteries, extend over the continent of America, the Mississippi certainly deserves the palm. Its size and the position it occupies in a political and culture-historical respect, cause it to be the most important of all. It has the advantage of all great rivers whose course is from north to south, that it passes through many zones, and connects regions of varied produce with one another. Whilst the St. Lawrence, flowing from west to east, passes through cold countries only ; whilst the Amazon 104 THE MISSISSIPPI. and the Orinoco, both running parallel to the equator, flow only through regions of tropical heat ; the Missis sippi springs out of the pine forests of the north, and sweeps down to the hot sugar-fields of the Gulf of Mexico. The La Plata is the only other American river resembling it somewhat in this respect, and it might be called the Mississippi of the south. In its course through the heart of North America, at almost equal distance from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Mississippi receives on the one side all the waters of the Alleghanies, and on the other all those of the Rocky Mountains, spreading out between them a wonderful system of navigable canals connected through the great central stream. It stands there, like a gigantic production of nature, with its far-reaching arms, adapted to bring into connexion the most fruitful states of North America. It may be compared to an Atlas bearing on his shoulders the western and eastern portions of this division of the globe. The numerous tumuli and other remarkable earth works and monuments, which in modern times have been discovered and examined on the banks of the Mississippi, have proved that this river has likewise a history of great antiquity. It appears that half-civilised nations have formerly been spread far up its valleys, but that here, too, as elsewhere, destructive migrations and extensive FRANCISCO DE GARAY. 105 convulsions have taken place, and that an age of iron has alternated with an age of gold. But the history of these events reaches so far back, that it is as dark and turbid as the waters of the Missouri. Happily, we have not to occupy ourselves here with attempts to throw light upon this subject. We have only to relate by what circumstances this gigantic water course and its labyrinth of valleys were first made known to Europeans. The renown of having been the first to introduce some knowledge of America s greatest river belongs to a contemporary and rival of Cortez, the Spanish governor of Jamaica, Francisco de Garay, who sent a fleet to the unknown shores in the north, where he hoped to find a second Mexico. His captains discovered and sailed along for the first time the whole of the flat, sandy, and un inviting north coast of the bay into which flow the waters of the Mississippi (the Gulf of Mexico), and they brought home the unwelcome news that a desolate land from Florida to the mountains of Mexico bent round in the form of a bow. In the middle of this bow, however, they said that a great river poured out its waters, which they had named the river of the Holy Ghost (" Rio del Espiritu Sa?ito"}. It is in the highest degree improbable that these cap tains of Governor Garay executed the difficult experi- 106 PAMPILO DE NAVAEZ. ment of sailing into the mouth of the barricaded Missis sippi. But its dirty waters whirl far enough out upon the heavy salt waves to be perceptible at a great distance. Besides, the trunks of trees, large floating masses of wood, bushes, and other refuse of the forests, which the stream sweeps down into the sea, make known its exist ence at a distance of fifty English miles from the shore. For some time the Spaniards continued to call the Mis sissippi which they may be said rather to have received intimation of, than to have discovered the Holy River ; and the large unexplored country in the north was named on the oldest Spanish maps, the Land of Garay. (" Tierra de Gamy"). About eight years after the above expedition, Garay having died in the mean time, the governor, Pampilo de Navaez, another celebrated contemporary and rival of Cortez, decided on trying his luck " in the north." He thought that behind the uninviting shore a beautiful and rich interior might be hidden. To explore this in terior, he landed with a small army, equipped at his own expense, on the coast of Florida, and he then began to march about both to the north and the west, along the Gulf of Mexico. But this march came to a disastrous end. The wild and impassable character of the country, and the bold and hostile races in Florida, placed great diffi- CABEZA DE VAC A. 107 culties in his way. His troops, decimated by hunger and the arrows of the Indians, soon were in a wretched state. After a year of toilsome marching about and fruitless exertions, he at length decided to return across the sea, and in place of ships he constructed boats as well as could be managed. But these fragile vessels were caught in a storm near the dangerous mouth of the Mississippi, and Navaez with all his remaining followers but one were swallowed by the waves. The man who escaped from this wreck was one of Navaez s officers, called Cabeza de Yaca (the Cow s-head), who became celebrated for his extensive travels and ex traordinary adventures. He contrived to gain the good will of the savage races in the north of the Gulf of Mexico by making himself in various ways useful to them. He was inventive, and he served them now as their slave, now as an industrious trader, now as their doctor and adviser, so thai; he was looked upon as a won derful being, and was able not only to preserve his life amongst these savages, but to pass freely from tribe to tribe, often as a chief and clever leader in their wars. In this way, in the course of nine years, he wandered over the prairies of Texas of the present day, and across the mountains to the north of Mexico, where he appeared suddenly amongst his countrymen, who too regarded him with astonishment and wonder. 108 FERNANDO DE SOTO. The extraordinary things that this Cabeza de Vaca afterwards related to the Emperor Charles V., his reports of lovely valleys, of grand rivers and mountains abounding in metals, of the land of cow-herds (as he called the prairies of Texas with their herds of buffaloes), agayi excited the imaginations of the Spaniards, who, since the destruction of Governor Navaez, had thought no more about the lands to the north of the Gulf of Mexico. And now the remarkable man entered upon the scene who passes for the first Spanish discoverer of the Missis sippi, and who, as such, is represented in all his glory on a large and celebrated wall-painting in the Capitol of Washington. We must therefore say a few words about his wonderful doings and extraordinary fate. Fernando de Soto, for this was his name, is reckoned by the Spaniards to be one of the four first and most dis tinguished " conquistadores" of the new world, the other three being Columbus, Cortez, and Pizarro. Like these, Soto was the son of a poor Spanish noble man, who, as an historian expresses it, possessed nothing but his coat of arms, his sword, and his shield. As a young man eager for action he went to the West Indies, and with Pizarro to Peru. He was that often-mentioned knight whose portrait figures in many pictures ; who, as envoy of Pizarro, was the first to see the Inca Atabalipa, FERNANDO DE SOTO. 109 and whose foaming and rearing steed struck the suite of the Inca with astonishment and terror. Soto was likewise one of the three emissaries whom Pizarro, directly after his first successes, sent to the golden Cuzco, and who were the first Europeans to make this long journey through the valleys of the Andes. Subsequently, he received a splendid portion of the spoils of Peru, the division of the Inca s treasure alone bringing him in 100,000 ducats for his share. Having thus ob tained wealth and greatness, he, like many others, grown tired of Pizarro s rule, left him and returned to Spain. This must have been about the year 1536. He made his appearance with great splendour. He was liberal and generous, and the reputation of being a bold and enterprising leader had preceded him. He was in the prime of life, arid an author who was acquainted with him, describes his person as stately and well made, his countenance cheerful and kindly, somewhat dark in colour (inoreno de color), and his " bearing equally good on horseback or on foot." He was, therefore, soon sur rounded by a number of friends and proteges, and he found no difficulty in obtaining the hand of the noble and beautiful Dona Isabella de Bobadilla, a lady be longing to one of the most illustrious houses of Spain. But the intoxication which seized him, like all the others who had taken part in plundering the new world, 110 GREAT EXPEDITION. the ungovernable thirst for gold, desire of territory, and craving for adventures, did not allow him to remain long quiet. Like all these pupils of Cortez, these sword- girded apostles of Pizarro, he fancied that there must be other Incas, Perus, and Montezumas to be found. And as he saw all the new countries in South America already occupied, he turned his eyes to the north, where no at tempts had been made since the terrible loss of Governor Navaez, and where, as it seemed, he could rule undis turbed. He therefore petitioned the emperor for the right of discovery and conquest in Florida ; for this name, which the Spaniards had originally given only to a peninsula, had gradually been extended as already pointed out to the whole of the broad territories to the north of Cuba. Under this word was comprised, not only the present United States, but also Canada. Charles V. granted his request, and gave him in addition the governorship of the Island of Cuba, as a necessary base of operations, as a safe point of departure and retreat, as a magazine for stores, and harbour for equipment. Excited by the grandeur of the campaign and the re nown of the leader, men thirsting for action poured in from all sides. Amongst them were many noblemen, and even knights, from the neighbour-country of Portu gal. Things wore the appearance of preparations for a GREAT EXPEDITION. Ill crusade. Many young heirs sold their birthrights, in vested the capital thus obtained in the enterprise, and girded on the sword with which they hoped to achieve greatness. Some of the most distinguished courtiers of the emperor were unable to resist the entreaties of their sons, and gave the intoxicated youths permission to take part in the expedition. Many of these noblemen were accompanied by their young wives, and Soto likewise took with him his fair Dona Isabella. With this, too, as with all the other crusades to the new world, there was no lack of priests and monks for the conversion of the heathens in North America. Soto was unable to accept all the offers he received, so he formed a corps of about one thousand picked men in the prime of life. With these, in ten ships of war and twenty merchant vessels, he sailed from the Guadal- quiver in the spring of 1535. This great armament went forth upon the path of death, for very few of those who took part in it were destined ever to see their father land again. In Cuba, which was then full of herds of cattle that had become wild, the expedition was furnished with fresh provisions. Above all things many pigs, always the companions of the Spaniards on their distant expeditions, were taken on board. Soto paid particular attention to have his troops well mounted. He knew by experience 112 LANDING IN FLORIDA. how greatly horses terrified the natives of America, and at that time Cuba was the country which supplied Mexico and neighbouring lands with those noble animals. For himself, he selected a body-guard of sixty lances. When he had settled the affairs of his government in Cuba, appointed new officials, and installed his wife as regent in his absence, he sailed for Florida. Several rich planters in Cuba, veterans from the time of Velas quez, joined his expedition, some of them with their vassals, and servants, and negro slaves. Soto and his followers, like their unfortunate prede cessor Navaez, landed on the west side of the narrow peninsula of Florida of the present day, which they greeted as the land of promise, and then, like Navaez, they marched into the interior. His earliest exploits, though remarkable in themselves, are of no importance for our history. In the first in stance, fighting continually with the natives, he ad vanced in a north-easterly direction through the present states of Georgia and Carolina. But as he here did not meet with the northern Atabalipa he was looking for, he gradually turned to the west. This march took up a whole year, arid his army grew like an avalanche. For not only did the herds of cattle he had brought with him increase on the verdant pastures of Florida, but the prisoners of war were added to his army as slaves, every COMBATS WITH THE NATIVES. 113 Spaniard receiving some for his service. This avalanche was destined, however, soon to melt away like an icicle exposed to the sun. Soto soon gained the experience that in Florida the children of the soil differed as completely from the ener vated and oppressed subjects of the Incas and Monte- zumas, as that land itself did from Peru. Although his army was much greater than those of Cortez or Pizarro, and neither he himself was wanting in military talent nor his followers in courage, still he was not able to accomplish such heroic and brilliant deeds as those great leaders had done. All the combats with the independent skin-clad tribes of hunters in North America were on both sides very sanguinary, and the horses did not produce the same effects in inspiring terror as in Peru. In one of the battles these noble animals were killed by dozens ; and at the conclusion of another combat six hundred Spa niards had seven hundred wounds to bind up. But the hardest blow Soto and his companions received was in their winter quarters in the " land of the Chickasaws," not far from the Mississippi. They had built for them selves a town of huts, made of straw and reeds, and surrounded it with a wall and ditch. This encamp ment was suddenly attacked by the wild Indians, led by one of their caziques, a " malignant traitor" as the VOL. II. I 114 LOSSES OF THE SPANIARDS. Spaniards call him, but without doubt a brave patriot in the eyes of the natives. After surprising the sentries in the dead of the night, the Indians in great numbers stormed the encampment, and with horrible war yells, and bearing lighted torches in their hands, they set the town of straw on fire. Many Christians were put to death in sleep ; a large quantity of arms, their store of powder, their horses and cattle, were lost in the flames. Here, amongst the w r ild natives of Florida, the same fate well-nigh befel Soto that Arminius met with amongst the Germans in the Teuto- burger forest. His terrified soldiers dispersed themselves. It was the first time that a large corps of Spaniards fled before Americans. Soto, who always slept in his armour, got his men again together, and at last drove his enemy from the field. But it was difficult to replace the loss of European arms and tools. The Spaniards had to con struct forges on the smouldering ruins of their encamp ment to enable them to make the weapons serviceable that had been injured by the flames. The bellows for these forges were constructed of the skins of buffaloes, and the barrels of old firelocks. New staffs for their lances were cut in the forests. The good European woollen cloaks had to be replaced by mats which they learnt to make of reeds, after the fashion of the natives. THE BANKS OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 115 Breeches were made of the skins of deer, and waistcoats and jackets of those of the wild cats. In place of their iron armour the skins of the wild cows supplied covering for their feet, and also shields, and instead of helmets they made themselves caps of the skins of bears. Clothed in this extraordinary way, more resembling a horde of Tartars than young Spanish noblemen and Castilian heirs, they drew near to the Mississippi. The loss of their European salt was the cause of much misery and disease. They learned, however, from their Indian prisoners that the ashes of a certain herb contained a little salt, and they searched for it everywhere, mixing its ashes with their food. They likewise followed the buffaloes to certain places (the so-called buffalo licks), where the earth is salty, and they extracted as much of this salt as possible. Rising from their winter quarters like phoenixes but, as phcenixes, wonderfully changed and robbed of their fine feathers the Spaniards at length DISCOVERED THE GREAT RIVER, of which they had long heard, THE HIGH BANKS OF THE MISSISSIPPI of our day. The Indians thereabouts called it "Chucagua," and they counted twelve different names of the river in use amongst other tribes. Soto s Spanish biographers usually call it " el Rio Grande de la Florida" (the i2 116 WANDERINGS OF SOTO. Great Eiver of Florida). It was the same to which, as we have seen, the contemporaries of Cortez gave the name of the Holy Ghost River. When Soto and his companions stepped upon the high banks, and beheld the sweeping flood of water, their hopes revived. To such a powerful stream, they thought, must belong a powerful kingdom. They built boats and rafts to proceed up the river, and again began to question the natives about a great Indian monarch. These Indians naturally knew of a cazique somewhere or other, who, to their poor ideas, was a very powerful personage ; and thus Soto was led from the " cazique of Chiska" to the " cazique of Chasquina," and from the last to the " cazique of Capaha," and so on to others. But they were none of them Montezumas. They were merely uncivilised, poor, and half-naked princes, ruling over tribes of hunters. Of these chiefs, who occasionally met Soto in a friendly spirit, he made inquiries about the nature of the northern countries. He also made religious speeches to them about the mysteries of the Christian faith, teaching them to make the sign of the cross, as every Spanish discoverer held it to be his duty to do. Occa sionally he made his priests and monks display the cere monies of the Christian church on the banks of the Mississippi, and get up great processions, which highly WANDERINGS OF SOTO. 117 pleased the Indians, and attracted them from great dis tances. When, at length, he had reached the district to the south of the point where the Ohio joins its waters to those of the Mississippi, and his prospects still did not improve ; where, on the contrary, he gathered from the Indians that, to the north, the country became more wild, so that only herds of buffaloes could exist in it, he gave up this direction. But he planted here, at his northern non plus ultra, an enormous cross, as Godfrey of Bouillon had done on the w^alls of Jerusalem. For this purpose the Spaniards dragged the largest trees that could be found in the forests to a hill on the banks of the Mississippi, where they put up the cross. All now passed round it, like pilgrims, in solemn procession, for this ceremony was meant, at the same time, as a formal taking possession of the country in the name of the emperor. It is said that twenty-nine thousand Indians had come together on this occasion, and that they held up their hands to Heaven as if in prayer. Soto now turned to the west. He had heard of mountains in that direction, in which he again hoped to find his El Dorado. In a tedious march, during the year 1541, he passed through the territory of the even now but little populated state of Arkansas. But the Mexican 118 SOTO S FOLLOWERS. mountains were far, and, disappointed in his hopes, he at last found it necessary to return to the Mississippi, on the banks of which river were cultivated fields of Indian corn, woods abounding in vines, walnut, and other fruit- trees, and where roebucks and other kinds of deer were more frequently met with. It was no wonder that these unceasing and fruitless marches at length made the troops impatient and dis satisfied, and long to return to Cuba and Spain. But Soto, whose firmness of purpose nothing could turn, had no sooner become aware of this spirit amongst his followers than he stepped upon a large stone in the centre of the camp, and rated both men and officers in terms of greatest severity. He demanded of every man, he said, the performance of his duty, and the obedience due to himself. After their brilliant departure from their country, he expected that they would all feel ashamed, as he should do, to appear again before their young wives and the emperor in such miserable guise, dressed in furs and skins like barbarians. As for him self, he added, he was determined to explore this land further, until he had found the great king of the north. And he wished them to understand that as long as he had the command no one need flatter himself with the hope of leaving Florida until this task should be ful filled. DEATH OF SOTO. 119 This speech, which Soto delivered with proud bearing and threatening tone of voice, had the effect of silencing his followers and confirming them in their obedience ? for they all knew that Soto was not the man to be trifled with. Nevertheless, this speech was like the song of the dying swan. The following spring, when they had again taken up their quarters on the banks of the Mississippi, a profound melancholy came over Soto, for he felt himself thoroughly disappointed in all his expectations. He who until now had been a pattern to all in bearing privations and suf ferings, who had always shown himself cheerful and ready, the first in every danger, suddenly broke down. He was seized with violent fever, which carried him off in a few days. Before his death, he took leave in a touching manner of all his companions, and appointed the second in command, Luis de Moscoso, to be his suc cessor. The Spaniards, fearing that if they were to bury their illustrious dead in the usual way, the Indians would disturb his grave, cut down one of the largest trees they could find, hollowed it out, and placed the coffin in its centre, together with many heavy stones. In the dead of night, and shedding many tears, they sank the tree into the bed of the river, like as their distant ancestors, the west Goths, had done with the body of their Alaric when they cast it into the waters of the 120 MOSCOSO. Busento, in Lower Italy. They told the Indians, how ever, to quiet them, that the much-dreaded child of the sun, Soto, had only gone on a short journey to Heaven, whence he would soon return. The memory of Soto is still preserved amongst the in habitants of the southern states of the American Union. The dykes and walls of earth, which are frequently found scattered about in that country, are called to this day " Soto encampments." And many of the rivers, places, and districts, and even the Appalachian mountains, bear the same names in our geographies as those which Soto first made known and were used in the history of his remarkable march. Soto s successor, Moscoso, now began his preparations for taking over the rest of the army, about three hundred and fifty Spaniards and some forty horses, to the colonies. After an unsuccessful attempt to work their way west ward through the prairies of Texas, he decided to go down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, and to build ves sels to accomplish this purpose. The old musket barrels and other iron that they had still remaining were turned into axes, saws, nails, and anchors. Wood was cut and kept in store in their winter quarters (1542). Of the Indians they bought a quantity of cloaks and other stuffs made of a plant of the genus malva. Their old cloaks were used for calking, and the new ones were sewed together to RETREAT OF THE SPANIARDS. 121 make sails. Of the same plant as the natives made their cloaks, and which grew in profusion in the swamps of the Mississippi, they manufactured the necessary ropes ; and thus, after a great deal of trouble, they managed to complete seven small brigantines. The horses were slaughtered and their flesh dried, and the voyage down the stream was commenced. But scarcely had the retreat begun, than the people of the country rose like a lion when he sees his hunter taking to flight. If the Spaniards had been unable to find a Montezuma, an avenging Guatimozin, however, was upon their heels. A young, warlike, and patriotic cazique of the valley of the Mississippi, named Qui- gual-tan-gui, was at the head of all the tribes which had conspired to pursue the Spaniards. The Mississippi swarmed with a fleet of canoes, painted red, yellow, and blue, which followed the fugitives day and night, causing them great sufferings. Fighting continually, and experiencing many serious losses, Moscoso at length reached the delta and the mouth of the Mississippi. As he put to sea, the Indians sent forth terrible yells of triumph, considering themselves the victors. After a long and dangerous voyage along the coast, the remainder of the Spaniards, clothed in the skins of animals and covered with scars, at length, in the autumn of 1543, reached their countrymen in Mexico. 122 MISSISSIPPI IN FORGETFULNESS. For four years no news had been received there of this once splendid expedition. In vain had the regent of Cuba, Dona Isabella as the wife of Cortez had done under similar circumstances sent out ships every year to search for her husband. The commanders of these vessels looked for signs of him everywhere along the far- stretching coast of Florida, and they even went as far as " Bacallaos" (Newfoundland), affixing on the trees, near all the harbours and bays where they landed, letters and other tokens for Soto. But, as we have said, it had been all in vain, and when Dofia Isabella had learnt where her husband had found his last resting-place, as a young and mourning widow, she returned to Spain. The Mississippi now fell into forgetfulness. After this disastrous expedition of Soto, and the knowledge that he had even frequently expe rienced deep falls of snow in his winter encampments, the Spaniards became aware that there was nothing for them in the north. " IN THE SOUTH, IN THE SOUTH, there is our happiness," was more than ever the ruling idea. For the next hundred years no Spaniard, and indeed no European, saw the Mississippi again. The extreme points of the delta, formed of the mud and wood refuse of the river, which, like long tongues of land stretch out far into the sea, may at the utmost have been yearly sighted by the Spanish silver fleets when following the course laid MOUTHS OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 123 down for them along the northern portion of the Gulf of Mexico. But when they beheld these tongues, the Spaniards would scarcely have thought of the grand river of Florida, in the bed of which the great conqueror, Fernando de Soto, lay buried. They called them merely "el Cabo de Lodo" (the dirt or morass cape). In truth, a name of meaning, for it tells plainly enough the reason why the discovery of the Mississippi proceeded so slowly. All the other great streams of America, the St. Lawrence, the Orinoco, the Amazon, the La Plata, meet the sea in broad and deep bays, which cut far into the land, and of themselves invite all navigators, so to speak, to enter and sail up them. They all open their mouths like a trumpet, whilst the Missis sippi closes its mouths almost like an oyster. A few decades after the death of Columbus, therefore, all these rivers were not only discovered, but sea-ships sailed up and down them. But the Mississippi ending in " dirt and morass capes," led no one into it of itself. And this, the most important river of the new world, which now sees more vessels floating in its waters than all the others put together, long continued a book with seA~en seals. To the above cause it is owing that the Mississippi, at last, was not, like the other rivers, opened to Europe by vessels entering up it from the sea, but rather by its 124 THE HISTORY OF DISCOVERY. having been navigated downwards, from its source to the ocean. One hundred and thirty years after the Indians had chased the remnant of Soto s warriors out of the mouth of this river, the small bark was carried to a point, not far removed from its source, which was des tined to float down its whole length, and thus make it known to the world. In studying the history of discoveiy, it is particularly interesting to find out how events have followed just in such a way as the nature of things, the character of the countries and the seas necessarily developed them. This study enables us to see that many things are providen tially connected, both as to time and place, which at first sight appear accidental. For the most part this fact may be proved in detail; but I must be content here with pointing to it in a general way. What I wish to assert is, that the history of discovery in a manner may be compared to the growth of a flower : that everything has progressed, become developed, and has branched out of a certain necessity. The man who directed the rudder of that little bark, which, as I have said, floated down the Mississippi al most from its source, was Father Marquette, a member of the, at that time in America, and indeed everywhere, so powerful order of the Jesuits. I cannot here mention for the second time this won- ORDER OF THE JESUITS. 125 derful order, without doing that which I ought, perhaps, to have done long ago, calling attention to the extraor dinary energy which its members from the first displayed in the discovery of the new world. This order was founded just at the time when the work of the discovery was in full progress. Scarcely was the society formed, than the first idea of its mem bers was to draw the new world into the bond of Chris tian faith, to establish a universal moral community, and thus to gain the fulfilment of the unity promised by the prophets. Even the personal scholars, envoys, and contemporaries of Loyola went on board the ships of the Portuguese, and sailed with them to the east ; and also on board the ships of the Spaniards and French, and sailed with them to the West. In the Orient, particularly in Japan, China, and the Moluccas, they penetrated further, and acquired a more intimate knowledge of things than any Europeans had done before them ; they built up with wonderful rapidity a far-spread Christian church, though open to the objec tion that it was set up far too quickly to last. But in the West, the greatest field for their activity awaited them. They not only followed the Spanish ships, but when they got to the new world, they placed themselves everywhere at the head. They extended their explora- 126 THE JESUITS IM AMERICA. tions into the most distant corners, as well into the thick pine forests of Canada, where the ice seldom melts, as into the primeval woods of the tropics, where the air is ever hot and suffocating. They sought out the American savages in their hiding- places, not with the terror of the sword, but unarmed, with the cross and the hymns of their church, which the barbarians found so fascinating and irresistible that it has been said the Jesuists had become possessed of the lute of Orpheus, by means of which they had brought peace into the wilderness, and made the wolves their servants Yet they were often torn to pieces by these scarcely tamed wolves, for such is the fickle nature of the Indians, that occasionally they will rise against their benefactors. As early as the year 1569, scarcely twenty years after the arrival in Canada of the first Jesuits, the Indians had enriched the society s calendar of martyrs by more than fifty that had suffered death in their cause, and been placed amongst the saints. But the fathers always came back in all mildness to their children, to continue the work which they had begun. Amongst a long list of names registered in the culture- history of the new world, we may cite : Anchieta, the Thaumaturgus (worker of miracles) of the new world ; Almeida, a born Englishman, now, his reverers say, an THE JESUITS IN AMERICA. 127 angel ; and Robrega, surnamed " the father of the children of the forest." Men such as these put a stop to the long-standing bloody feuds of the Red Skins, to that war of all against all, and in Paraguay, as well as on the Amazons and at the feet of the Andes, they were the first to sound the bell of peace in the little chapels which, with their own hands, they had erected. When the Jesuits obtained greater power and means, they by degrees transformed their little chapels into splendid large churches and colleges ; and as they alone adopted a sound system, by means of which the Indians could be brought together, and, if not civilised, at least tamed, their little Indian missions in the course of time grew into powerful Indian states, in which these people were ensured as great a degree of civil order and freedom as their wild nature seems to be capable of. Throughout America the Jesuits have been the cham pions of Indian freedom, and as such they have fre quently experienced quite as much, or even more, perse cution from their own countrymen as from the barba rians. At the head of the latter they have at times retired into the wilderness, far from the slavery-loving colonists, the so-called Christians, that they might pre serve the freedom of their adoptive children, and form communities suited to their requirements. And these benevolent doings have not been destined to end, as all 128 JESUIT MISSIONARIES. the earlier and latter attempts to civilise the red races have ended in their destruction. The missionaries and discoverers whom the order of the Jesuits sent forth were for the most part not only possessed of the courage of martyrs, and of statesman like-qualities, but likewise (and this is here particularly worthy of note) of great knowledge and learning. They were enthusiastic travellers, naturalists, and geographers ; they were the best mathematicians and astronomers of their time. They have been the first to give us faithful and circumstantial accounts of the new lands and peoples they visited. There are few districts in the interior of America concerning which the Jesuits have not supplied us with the oldest and best works. We can scarcely attempt the study of any American language without meeting with a grammar compiled by a Jesuit. In addition to their chapels and colleges in the wilder ness, the Jesuits likewise erected observatories ; .and there are few rivers, lakes, and mountains in the interior, which they have not been the first to draw upon our maps. There was a time when the general of the order of Jesuits in Rome, into whose hands maps, reports, and grammars streamed from all parts of the globe, must have been the best informed man in the world. He stood at the head of a realm greater than the empire of the Macedonians and Romans which conquered with HISTORY OF THE JESUITS. 129 the breviary, the rosary, and the songs of the Church ; which, with its many arms, embraced the whole globe, and whose envoys and servants penetrated as well into the secret cabinets of emperors and kings, as to the hidden sources of the streams and waters of the old and new worlds. " Who can read the history of the Jesuits outside of Europe, without a certain, to be sure divided^ admiration ? What skill have they not everywhere displayed ! What a spirit in the finding and adaptation of means ! What science in turning every item of knowledge to account ! What a courage of self-denial ! What heroism in indi viduals ! Patience, fervour, and dauntlessness cannot be carried further than the Jesuits have carried these virtues !" In a work written AGAIXST THE JESUITS, a distin guished French author, where he comes to speak of the activity of this order in Asia, breaks out in the fore going words. In us, who have here to occupy ourselves with the histoiy of geography in America, where we can learn so much more of them than in Asia, a little scientific sympathy for the JESUITS were still more pardonable, although, in our enmity and war against JESUITISM, we do not yield to that Frenchman in the least. But I now return to that little barque, which, as already said, at the end of the seventeenth century floated down VOL. II. K 130 THE WISCONSIN". the Mississippi, carrying a Jesuit in it, and which has led me to these somewhat lengthy, though I trust not inappropriate, remarks. The French Jesuits, as related in the foregoing chapter, had already reached and explored the western corner of the great lakes of the St. Lawrence system. They had there heard, from the Algonquin tribes dwelling in those districts, of a great river which flowed in the rear of those lakes, and which they called Missepi, or Mets- chasepi, or Mississippi that is, the father of waters. The fame of this river was already spread, in parti cular amongst the people on lake Michigan (or as it was then called, Lac des Illinois), and from times far hack the Indians had been accustomed, on their hunting and war excursions, to carry their canoes from the tributaries of that lake, across the present state of Wisconsin, to the waters of the Mississippi. These historic facts point out the way which the French discoverers were necessarily led to follow. The last cross planted by the Jesuits stood at that time at the source of the so-called little Fox Eiver, which flows into lake Michigan, exactly on the border of the water shed of the two great systems, the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. On the other side of this cross, was the Mesconsin flowing towards the Mississippi. The name of this river, afterwards changed into " Wisconsin," has MARQUETTE S VOYAGE. 131 become celebrated as the appellation of a state. It was here that the missionary Marquette, full of desire to ex tend the rule of the cross, and to convert the people on " the father of rivers," in the month of May, 1673, com. menced his remarkable journey of discovery. He had as companions, the Sieur Jolliet, a citizen of Quebec, a, man of great energy, and five experienced French fur- hunters. In two barque canoes, these Mississippi dis coverers glided down the Wisconsin river, amidst its numerous fishes and birds. The scenery they passed through resembled that of a beautiful park. But the accounts which the natives gave them of the west were not inviting. The latter were astonished when they heard what these few Frenchmen were about to undertake, and they did their best to dissuade them from the pursuance of their plan. They told them it was extremely difficult to navigate the great river; that it was full of monsters that devoured both men and canoes. At one place, they said, there was a gigantic demon whose roaring could be heard at a great distance, and who cast all who came near him into an abyss ; and the country, moreover, was full of roving bands of warriors, from whom the worst was to be feared. These descriptions probably had reference, on the one hand, to the beautiful and cele brated St. Anthony Cataract, on the Upper Mississippi ; K2 132 THE MISSISSIPPI. and on the other, to the tribe of Sioux Indians, who although the relators had reason to fear them, were not the enemies of Europeans. Father Marquette, who was the soul of the under taking, told the friendly Indians, however, that he had a highly important mission to the west, for it was to spread there the knowledge of the true God. In this cause, if necessary, he was ready and willing to sacrifice his life. But he would be on his guard against demons and bands of warriors, and he hoped to avoid injury from either. As they floated upon the clear waters of the Wisconsin, Father Marquette and his companions were led through flowery and fertile pastures and woodlands, close by islands and hills covered with beautiful trees, from which hung festoons of wild vines. Numbers of deer and wild cows broused beneath oak and walnut trees. The voyage was in every way prosperous, and about five weeks after their departure from Lake Michigan, they glided out of the Wisconsin into the great Father of Waters, whose waves, here crystal bright, rolled between banks of great beauty to the south. At this sight, says father Marquette in his journal a few rare copies of which still exist their joy was great. They took the geographical latitude of these points tole rably correctly, and gave themselves up to the smoothly and still southward flowing stream. THE MISSISSIPPI. 133 They went down the river for about sixty leagues without seeing anything but large herds of buffaloes, and great quantities of various other animals and birds, extensive pastures on the one shore, hills and mountains of many forms on the other. Now and then they landed, made a fire and cooked their dinner, returning, however, soon to their canoes, for fear of being surprised by enemies ; and by night they always cast anchor, and slept as far as possible from land. At last, after a pleasant voyage of eight days dura tion, they saw the first signs of inhabitants, in a well- trodden path, and soon afterwards an Indian village of the tribe of the Illinois. These people received the strangers in a friendly way offering them the pipe of peace. Marquette found that the French were as well known by report to the inha bitants of the Mississippi, as this river itself for some time past had been known to the French. He discovered, too, that European articles of trade had preceded the Frenchmen. He saw French clothes and iron utensils. He even found European firelocks in use, which had come thus far by the intervention of other tribes. But this was only the case on the eastern banks of the Mis sissippi. The people on the western bank knew nothing of the Europeans, of their fabrics, and especially nothing of their powder and guns, with the thunder of which 134 THE MISSISSIPPI. their neighbours on the eastern bank kept them in a state of surprise and alarm. It is a most interesting fact, everywhere repeated in America, that the goods and even the animals of Eu ropeans, and with them many of their habits and cus toms, became known to the Indians before they saw the Europeans themselves. A similar phenomenon, as is known, was observed amongst out old German ances tors in the times of the Roman Empire, for then both Roman coins and goods had been carried by Mercury much further than Mars had transported his cohorts. Father Marquette made particular inquiries of these people about the nature of the river he had discovered, and the direction of its course. He, however, could learn nothing more than that it sprang from several lakes amongst the nations far up in the north ; how far it had to flow, and into what sea it poured, they could not tell. At first Marquette was in much doubt on the latter point. His mind fluctuated between three probable seas. At one time he thought the river would turn to the west, and empty itself into the Gulf of California, or into the South Sea. Then he fancied it might take an easterly direction, and flow into one of the rivers which the Eng lish had discovered on the coast of Virginia, the size and the sources of which, however, were unknown to them. THE MISSOURI. 135 At last lie came to think that the river might continue to flow to the south and pour into the Gulf of Mexico. It does not appear that Father Marquette was acquainted with the Spanish reports of the expedition of Soto into the countries of the Mississippi. They are never men tioned at ah 1 in his memoirs. Until the end of June, he and Ins companions re mained with the Illinois, with whom they continued on friendly terms, receiving from them much assistance for the prosecution of their voyage. The course of the Mis sissippi continued southwards, and they floated peacefully down its beautiful clear waters. But this pleasant voyage was suddenly interrupted on arrivirig at a point where another exceedingly rapid and turbid river rushed into the Mississippi. It was a great mass of water in which floated many trees and bushes ; indeed, whole islands, and the noise it made was almost like that of a waterfall. It was the wild Missouri, called, however, by the natives, according to Marquette, the Pekitanoni. We find this name used in French books and maps for forty or fifty years afterwards. Yet in the map made by Marquette, we see the name Missouri put down, though only to designate an Indian village or tribe. From these Missouri Indians in the neighbourhood of the confluence of the rivers, with whom the French soon 136 MARQUETTE S CONCLUSIONS. had much intercourse, the name of the stream, " la Riviere des Missouris" was derived. Marquette perceived that this great river came from the west, in which direc tion, according to one of his suppositions, the Mississippi was to flow. He probably now came to the conclusion that the con tinent must extend very far towards the west, and the South Sea be a great distance off. He would further have concluded , that the intermediate land could not slope down towards the ocean, but rather that it must rise to a great height. He gathered, too, from the natives, that the Pekitanoni came from countries very remote. All this confirmed his opinion that the Missis sippi emptied itself into the Gulf of Mexico. He heard likewise from the Indians that there was another river beyond the sources of the Missouri, which river flowed in a westerly direction and poured into a sea. This sea, he thought, must be the South Sea. He formed the resolution, if God in His grace should grant him health, at a later period to extend his dis coveries in that direction. He had no conception of the great difficulties in the way of such an undertaking, and that not till one hundred and forty years after his time, two bold Europeans, the celebrated Lewis and Clark, the explorers of the Missouri, would succeed in carrying out his plan. THE OHIO. 137 Meanwhile, he continued his voyage southwards, and in a few days, after passing between romantic rocky scenery, he reached a part where another large tributary joined the Mississippi from the east. The children of the country called it Wabous-Kigou (the river Wabous). Without doubt it was the river which the French later called Wabash, and the principal channel of which sub sequently received the name of Ohio, i.e. the beautiful river, the name Wabash continuing to be applied only to one of its branches. The course of the Ohio, which river the natives told him came from the east, from countries inhabited by neighbours and enemies of the Iroquois, would now have put an end to Marquette s hypothesis, that the Mississippi might turn to the east and fall into the Atlantic ocean on the coasts of Vir ginia or Florida. Such a vast stream of water coming from that quarter proved that there must be mountains between the Mississippi and the sea. Further down the river, below the confluence of the Ohio, Marquette found that the inhabitants on the left banks were possessed of iron instruments, of hatchets, knives, and even of guns and powder and shot, although since Soto s time no European could ever have ap proached their country. They told him that they pro cured these things from the east, through the interven tion of Europeans in that direction without doubt of 138 THE CALUMET. the English settlers in Virginia. At that tune the English had not crossed the Alleghany Mountains, yet articles of their manufacture had everywhere preceded them as far as the Mississippi. From the other side, from the west and south-west, similar forerunners of the Europeans likewise appeared to have reached the Mississippi from Mexico. Father Marquette speaks of Indian nations possessing horses. This is not to be otherwise explained than that some of the wild horses of Mexico, descendants of the races in troduced by the Spaniards, had already wandered across the prairies to the west as far as the Mississippi. Thus things introduced by the Spaniards as well as by the Anglo-Saxons met at that river long before the interests and the arms of these two peoples came in conflict. Marquette and his companions always took with them the " calumet," the pipe of peace, which the Illinois Indians had made them a present of, and they always held it up to the inhabitants of the river district in proof that they had none but peaceful intentions. At times they came into situations of great danger, but the calumet and their breviary, their religious songs, and their general quiet appearance, helped them over dif ficulties. It was of great use to Father Marquette that he could speak six Indian languages, and amongst them the ARKANSAS INDIANS. 139 Illinois, which was understood far down the river. At a point considerably to the south, they again met with a great river and an Indian village called "Akamsa." Tliis word, without doubt, was subsequently altered into Arkansas, the name now in use for the great tributary of the Mississippi which comes from the Rocky Moun tains in the west. Aided by the people whom he met here, who under stood Illinois, Marquette imparted to them some know ledge of the mysteries of the Christian faith. " He was not certain," he said " whether they understood what he told them about Heaven ; but it was a scattering of the good seed, which at some day might bear fruit." He may have been the more disposed to believe this, as the Arkansas Indians were extremely friendly and willing to serve him. They prepared sacrifices, and slaughtered dogs for him every day. He found them, too, acquainted with agriculture, and Indian corn much in use, just as Soto had formerly experienced on the Mississippi. But Marquette heard no traditions of that warlike leader, who, however, had been everywhere about in these districts, and who must have left impres sions behind him so totally different from those made by Marquette with his religious usages and peaceful companions. The Arkansas people informed him that he had still ten days journey to the sea, and that the 140 THE PROBLEM SOLVED. river continued as hitherto to flow on to the south. They did not know the nations which lived at the end of the river, as they were separated from them by others who were their enemies. Marquette was now quite con vinced that the river could flow into no other sea than the Gulf of Mexico, from which he believed himself to be distant only one and a half degrees of latitude. To solve this problem appears to have been considered as the main purpose of the expedition, and that it had now been accomplished without going down to the sea. Besides, Marquette thought it would be extremely dan gerous to penetrate as far as the gulf, not so much on account of the hostile Indians, as of the Europeans. The Indians he had previously met with had been de scribed to him as dangerous enemies, and yet he had always managed to get on with them in a friendly way. But with the Spaniards, whose power extended all over the Gulf of Mexico, it would be quite a different thing, for they considered all the lands to the north of that gulf as having been discovered by, and as belonging to them ; as conquered and watered by the blood of their forefathers, and as bestowed upon them, moreover, by the head of the Church. On the shores of that gulf, Marquette expected to meet with Spanish settlements, or at least with Spanish ships. In this case his fate would have been sad, for the RETURN VOYAGE. 141 Spaniards looked upon all other discoverers in America with jealousy and hate. Had Marquette fallen in with any of that nation, he would probably have been im prisoned for life, and all the advantages of his discovery- would have been lost. The Spaniards even hid from the world their own discoveries ; how much more would this be the case in respect to those made by foreigners. At the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi, the little party of French explorers held a council, and decided to return to the north. On the 17th of July, therefore, they left their southern non plus ultra, and commenced their dangerous and tedious voyage in their little canoes against the current of the Mississippi. On their passage up the stream they discovered, a little above the point where the Missouri pours into the Mis sissippi, another river coming fronr the north-east called now the Illinois. Inquiries of the natives, and his own reflection, brought Marquette to the conclusion that this river would lead him by a more direct way than the Wisconsin to Lake Michigan. He took with him one of the native chiefs, who was well acquainted with the navigation and the nature of the stream, and arrived at last at the southern shores of the lake near to which is the source of the Illinois. Those extensive, beautiful, and fertile lands, forming the great state of Illinois of the present day, Marquette 142 MARQUETTE S END was therefore the first European to travel through in their whole length, and likewise to describe. " Never," he says, u have I seen anything to surpass these districts in excellence of soil, of pastures, of wood, and also in the abundance of game of deer, stags, birds, swans, ducks, and even of beavers." In the autumn of the year 1673, he reached Lake Michigan, from which he had departed in the spring, at a point near to where the present large and nourishing commercial city of Chicago is situated. Soon afterwards, however, he suffered the death of a martyr, falling under the tomahawk of a wild Canadian. His BONES were buried in the neighbourhood of the sources of the Mississippi ; SOTO S, inclosed in an oak-tree, were sunk in the central part of the river ; and THOSE OF NATAEZ left to bleach at the bottom of the sea in front of the Mississippi delta. The French fur-hunters and adventurers now soon followed in the steps of their countryman, subjugated the Mississippi regions, and gradually explored the greater part of its tributaries. In the course of the eighteenth century many small settlements were esta blished by the French on the bluffs of the river, and then it was made over by them to the Spaniards. But at the beginning of the nineteenth century it came again into the hands of the French. It was as if a game at ball was being played with the Titan river and Napoleon at .THE MISSISSIPPI REGIONS. 143 length, tired of the game, sold the Mississippi with all belonging to it like Esau his birthright for a mess of porridge for a few million dollars to the United States. And these citizens of the United States have flooded the river districts with population. In a short time they have poured eight million " w6rkmen" into its valleys and branches, and, as if by magic, have called into life laro;e and beautiful towns and harbours, in which fleets o 7 of gigantic steamers are gathered together, like swans upon our pools. Under their hands the wild natural park of the Mississippi has been turned into a garden of Ceres and Pomona. Artificial vineyards flourish upon the shores, and the river of the savage Sioux and the barbarous Choctaws begins to contest the palm with Father Ehine. And, lastly, they have explored its fur thest reaching arms and sources in the Rocky Mountains, and have worked their way up them, and to the South Sea, where in all haste they have laid the foundation of a new great state. 144 THE RUSSIANS. CHAPTER IV. THE MARCH OF THE RUSSIANS AND COSSACKS THROUGH SIBERIA TO AMERICA. Annika Stroganoff sends his People over the Ural (anno 1570) Jermak Timofejeff andhis Cossacks ride over the Ural (1578) Jermak gains Pos session of "Sibir" (1580) The Cossacks reach the Lena (1628) The Cossacks gain Possession of Kamtschatka (1690-1706) The Cossacks hear of the " Great Land," (America) (1706) Peter the Great orders the Discovery of the "Great Land," (North- AVest America) (1723) Behring and Tschirokoff reach America from Siberia (1741) The Russians take Possession of North-West America (1760). AT the beginning of the eighteenth century, nearly all the nations of Europe had shared in the common work of the discovery of America, and colonies from all of them were already established in the new world. Each of them had long taken their part in it : the Spaniards and Portuguese, who had from the first placed themselves at the head of the movements, had had the lion s share ; the Dutch, the French, the Britons, who streamed in THE RUSSIANS. 145 succession to win the sceptre of the ocean-dominion, had followed in the track of the former, and, in spite of the Papal bull of partition, had laid hold of considerable territories for themselves. The two latter ruled over almost the whole eastern portion of North America, and next to them, in icy Greenland, the small but daring Danish people had fixed themselves. Even the in habitants of central Europe, the Germans and Italians, had many times made their appearance on the further side of the Atlantic Ocean, either on their own account, or in the train of other nations, as useful colonists, expert admirals, and scientific discoverers. But that, finally, even those who dwell in the extreme east of our continent, the Russians, should have found their way to America, may justly be regarded with astonishment. For they are not only the furthest distant of all the Europeans in a direct line from the main body of America (a meridian drawn through the centre of America goes through the centre of Russia in Europe), but they appear also to be hopelessly separated by a wide expanse of immeasurable desert. Neverthe less, their Cossacks have found their way through the labyrinth of Siberian wastes to America, and have, by their own exertion and in their own way, brought to pass a new and especial discovery of the new world. To all the other nations of Europe, Columbus showed the VOL. n. L 146 THE RUSSIANS. way ; but the enterprises of the Russians had nothing to do with Columbus. All the other nations spread the SAIL and reached the new world by the WATERY OCEAN PATH; the Russians alone mounted on horseback and opened the OVERLAND ROUTE. They made, in fact, a RIDE ROUND THE WORLD. All the other nations followed the sun from the east to the land of the west ; the Rus sians alone arrived there from the west and rode to meet the sun, and their migration was exactly opposed to the universal direction of civilisation and colonisation, from Southern Asia across Europe, towards America. Work ing onwards through the whole of Northern Asia in a wonderfully rapid course of conquest, they arrived in a short time at the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and there produced their own Columbus, who established their claim on the Siberia of America. In a scientific point of view, the merit belongs to them of having solved the problem which so long occupied the navigators and the learned men of Europe, the question whether, and how, the two great divisions of the dry portion of the earth s surface were united with, or separated from, each other. In a political point of view, the appearance of the Russians in the North American seas was a new phe nomenon with manifold results of importance, and whose development goes on increasing even at the pre sent day. THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. 147 The remarkable expedition, at once of discovery and of conquest, made by the Eussians and Cossacks, which was to lead them across the Pacific Ocean, took its rise on the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas. And it is sufficiently remarkable that the first impulse to this movement, as to those of the Spaniards and Portuguese, should have been given by the strife of Christendom with Islam. About the middle of the sixteenth century the Eussian empire, after the conquest of the Tartar principalities of Kasan and Astrachan, had a tolerably extensive circumference. In the east, it was bounded by the long chain of the Ural Mountains separating Europe and Asia. These mountains were for a long time the Pyrenees of the Eussians. Already, in earlier times, they had crossed these Pyrenees for trade and for warfare, though they had never acquired a permanent influence over their neighbours in the east. The first beginning was made by the speculating procedures of the now w T ell-known family of Count Stroganoff. A certain Annika Stroganoff, who is regarded as the ancestor of this family, had set up salt works in the Ural, in the land of the Sisenes, and people from the east resorted to him to exchange costly furs with salt. These furs, the hide of the little animal which the Eus sians name " Sobol," (sable), were the object that allured the Europeans across the Ural. It was these same sable L2 148 THE STROGANOFFS. furs, which are exclusively peculiar to the country of Siberia, that led them further, through [the whole of Northern Asia, through the forests from land to land. The whole conquest of Siberia might be named a chase of the sable, pursued for a hundred years half round the globe. It was to buy sables that Annika Stroganoff first sent his people across the Ural Mountains, and thus they came as peaceable traders as far as the great river Ob. As by these speculations they brought about great ad vantages to the empire, the Czars bestowed on the Stroganoffs large districts on the Kama in the western part of the Ural, which they provided with colonies and towns, and by the possession of these, became chieftains of great power. In the year 1578, the grandson of the first Stroganoff received a visit from a Cossack chieftain, by name Jermak Timofejeff, who with his followers had, in Cossack fashion, led a life of war, the life at once of a robber and a hero, in Southern Eussia, and was now in flight from the powerful hostility of the Czar Ivan Vasiljevitsch II. The Cossacks fled from the powerful state now forming in Eussia, as once the Norwegian Jarls of the ninth century before the kingdom established in Scandinavia, and in like manner, and in consequence of a similar oc casion, did their nation increase in power and greatness. THE TARTARS. 149 Jcrmak had with him some thousands of mounted fol lowers, and his host Stroganoff, who feared these Cossack robber knights, told them of the lands in the east, and of the rivers which led thither, and which his people had discovered in the course of their travels. Jermak and his followers, led by the guides of Stro- ganoff, passed in the year of 1578, across the Ural, going up the valley of the river Tschussovaja, and then down ward along other rivers to the great Ob. They found there a little Tartar sovereignty, a fragment of the great monarchy of Ghengis Khan, such as the sovereignties of Kasan, Astrachan, and Crim had been, and whose chief city " Sibir" lay in the centre of the region of the Ob, in the country where now stands the great Siberian capital, Tobolsk, on the Irtish. That world-defying, courageous spirit which Ghengis Khan and Tamerlane had once breathed into the Tar tars, had long been quenched. Their little kingdom, in which cattle-breeding, the chase, and traffic were pur sued, still existed only because they had as yet found no powerful enemy. The Cossacks, on the contrary, were just then in full strength and flower of their national development. They were the young and fresh scholars of the Tartars, against whom they had often served the Muscovites as avant-garde. And this body of Jermak s Cossacks, flying 150 JERMAK. from their native country before the wrath of the Czar, must have been especially inspired with the courage of despair. At home, on account of their misdeeds, they had no mercy to expect, and when once they had crossed the Ural, there was no alternative for them save to con quer or die. They attacked thenceforth everywhere with the greatest bravery the superior power of the Siberian Tartars, and at last, after many a battle and skirmish, gained possession of their capital city, in which Jermak, after three years campaign, established himself as its commandant. Meanwhile, as his little force of ad herents had greatly melted away with these combats and exertions, he could not expect to be able to maintain himself with these alone in the sovereignty of his new possessions ; but, on the other hand, he might well hope that after so praiseworthy and promising a feat he might meet with favour in his own country. He therefore made a virtue of necessity, and sent to his Muscovite Czar a rich selection of sable fur, and the tidings that he had conquered for him the kingdom of Kutschum Chans, Sibir on the Ob, that he laid it all at the feet of his liege lord, and besought him, therefore, for confirma tion of his post, and a despatch of reinforcements. Both were granted, and thus was Russia thrown into a career of discovery and conquest, which, beginning with Northern Asia, was, as we have said, to reach to China, the Pacific Ocean, and America. SIBERIA. 151 The name Sibir, which at first was attached only to a town, a small principality on the Irtish, received a wider signification the further the conquerors went, till at last it distinguished nearly the half of one of the quarters of the globe. In spite of its size, Siberia is yet a very uniform country, confined by the sameness of its cha racteristics to a strict geographical and historical unity. Bounded on the north by the Frozen Ocean, on the west by the Ural, on the south by the gigantic mountain range of Central Asia, it exhibits within these limits the same colossal level flat, stretching from east to west, and has everywhere the same products, the same plants and animals. In short, almost throughout, communication and traffic meet the same advantages and the same difficulties. In the eastern direction no confining mountain walls arise ; but a crowd of streams, which interweave the whole land and belong to the greatest and fairest rivers of the world, stretch their arms, so to speak, towards each other in the midst of the plain. They are all navigable, mostly without cataracts, and approach each other so closely with their sources and tributaries, that from one to the other only small isthmuses are formed, over which goods have to be earned. These isthmuses, named by the Russians " woloks," once passed over, and other river districts reached, an uninterrupted far-extending voyage in all directions may be undertaken. In the whole of the old world there is scarcely another 152 SIBERIA. net of navigable streams so large and so closely inter woven as this of Siberia. On account of the likeness of these streams, which ALL spring in Central Asia, and ALL towards the north, fall into the so-called " Tunds" (ice- morasses) of the Polar Sea, the same mode of navigation is alike available for all. The same form of boats pre vails through the whole of Siberia ; also the same sledges, the same beasts of burden or draught, are made use of in the whole country. The peoples of the lands, although distinct in race and speech, had, even from ancient times, a great uniformity of customs, usages, and social economy. Their discoverer, or conqueror, had no strange modes of cultivation to study, no new arts to learn. Everywhere are the same half-nomads, taming the reindeer, hunt ing with dogs, riding on horses, armed with bows and arrows. Hence we may see how natural it was that an enemy of superior force, if once he came from the west across the Ural Mountains, and coveted the possession of this country, should grasp the whole from river to river, and scarcely stop, save before the mountains in the south, the ice in the north, and the great ocean in the east. The Cossacks were, in truth, such an antagonist to the Siberian races. They were, so to speak, born, brought up, and trained for the conquest of Siberia. Their own European country, in which their schooling had been passed, was in many respects like the Siberian regions. It THE COSSACKS. 153 was, like them, flat, cold, abounding in snow and steppes, and had a network of streams of similar character. From the earliest times the Cossacks constructed river boats and sledges of a like kind, and were accustomed to mount their horses, now to take to their barks, and thus trans form themselves from horsemen to sailors, from sailors to horsemen. With their wretched river boats they had in earlier times accomplished the boldest expeditions up and down the river, and over the stormy Euxine to Asia Minor and Constantinople. Their race of horses also, bred in the steppes of southern Asia, were, so to say, made for the conquest of Siberia. These creatures are small, light, and agile, as is suited to such far-extending plains, where the stages and daily marches must be long. Like their masters, they were accustomed to hunger, thirst, cold, and the en durance of great fatigues, and knew, like the chamois, how to scrape their scanty nourishment out of the snow. When grass was wanting, they devoured fish, as the Ice landers do. Moreover, their acquaintance with the later European kind of arms with iron, guns, powder, and shot gave the Cossacks no small superiority over the native children of Siberia. As regarded weapons of war, the Tungouses, the Yakoutes, Buriates, and Mongols were still on the footing of Tamerlane s soldiers. They had only bows 154 THE COSSACKS. and arrows, and the greater part of them were as unac quainted with iron as the American Indians. The Cos sacks commonly carried with them some small cannon or carronades, whose fire-breathing mouths raised among these nomad hordes as great a panic, and gave to the Cossacks as great a superiority in war, as was the case with the Mexicans and their subjugators the Spaniards. In like manner as the physical nature and training, were the moral characteristics, the political customs, and the usages of the Cossacks in a high degree appropriate to an undertaking of the kind proposed. All Siberia was full, so to speak, of men living solitarily, of many small scattered tribes and peoples. It was, therefore, ne cessary to divide beforehand the forces of the invaders ; small bodies of troops had to be distributed everywhere ; many a time they had to make a dozen warriors suffice to subjugate and keep in check a whole tribe ; often some hundreds only could be spared for the occupation of a river-territory or a kingdom. It follows, of course, that for this there would be need not so much of large, well- disciplined armies, trained to mechanical obedience, as of light troops in many divisions, easily moved, skilful, and self-acting. The Cossacks, whose name originally signifies freemen, had developed in themselves a kind of republican con stitution, a sort of self-government of course only after THE COSSACKS. 155 Cossack fashion. With them all were equal by birth, as is customary among robbers. The councils were held by all and in the presence of all, and each one might freely express his opinion. They chose themselves their supe riors, their " hetmans" and " sotniks," and they obeyed them when they saw that they tended to the good of the community. But at times they deposed their leaders, and placed others from amongst themselves at their head. Thus was every one accustomed to be himself either lord or servant, according as circumstances required of him. Thus have we often seen Cossacks of common birth who have placed themselves at the head of a corps and acted as generals ; others who were arrayed as am bassadors, and who undertook and executed diplomatic missions to some Mongol or Bashkir monarch, or even to the Emperor of China. The greatness of their under takings, the zeal for discovery and conquest which had been awakened in them, the passion for the acquisition of land, all these things filled the common Cossacks with a like heroism, and aroused their faculties in a like manner, as had been the case with the Almagros, Pizarros, and other leaders of the Spaniards, who could not read or write, and yet conquered and governed empires. The first river-territory that the Cossacks reached was, as I said, that of the Tobol. At the point where 156 MARCH OF THE COSSACKS. its chief streams unite in one powerful artery, they forth with built their first "ostrog," or, as it was called in America, their first "fort." This, in consequence of the influx of new comers, was gradually transformed into the important city of Tobolsk, which now placed in the centre of the district of the Tobol, speedily became the focus of the population, the head-quarters of the newly organised government, and the starting-point of all more distant enterprises towards the east. From the first, the principal march of the Cossacks and Russians went right through the centre of the whole land of Siberia, equi distant from the gigantic mountain masses of the south and the inhospitable morasses, the frozen " Tunds," and the shores of the polar seas in the north. This line be came the principal route of traffic of the country. In this, cutting as it did across the centre of the great river- region, the chief colonies of the country were founded : eastward from Tobolsk, in the territory of the Ob, the city of Tomsk ; eastward from this, on the Yenisei, the city Yeniseisk ; then Irkoutsk, on the Lena ; still more eastward, in the midst of the district of the Lena, Yakutsk ; and finally, quite in the east, on the sea-coast, Okhotsk. These cities grew successively one out of the other, like the sprouts and knobs in the stem of a fir-tree ; and SIBERIAN TRIBES. 157 for every following river-province the former ones served as points tfappui for the several enterprises. Every time that this train of conquest and immigra tion arrived at an important line of river, a pause was made. They fixed themselves firmly; they organised their new territories. They built boats, went both up and down the river exploring down even as far as the Frozen Ocean and founded even there little settle ments, harbours, and towns, but which never became so important as the inland cities, because the Frozen Sea was not so well fitted to attract a brisk commerce from near or far. While, then, they secured the whole line of the river, and made tributary all the Ostiaks, Samojedes, Tungouses, Yakoutes, or whatever people dwelt there at the time, the flood of colonists and hunters had in the mean while begun to pass over, by an adjoining stream, into another river-territory. They had heard of a new large river in the east, a new nation, a new, yet unexplored region for the chase and for sable-trapping. The Cos sacks themselves were a light troop, but they were pre ceded by a still lighter, more flying avant-garde, the so-called " Promischlenniks." These were certain free booters who hunted on their own account, and at their own risk, whom no one could control, who swarmed everywhere in the woods, housing amidst morasses 158 THE YENISEI. prowled over by wild beasts, and in this manner pre ceded the regular body of Cossacks. The (( Promisch- lenniks" had made all the first discoveries in Siberia, and brought home the earliest tidings of everything new. From them the waivodes and hetmans of the Cossacks received the first information when a new expedition was in readiness, or an enterprise ripe for execution. They served the regular soldiers and the officially appointed explorers as pioneers; and even to them a parallel is found in the history of American discovery, in the " coureur des bois" of the French, the beaver-trappers of the English, and the Paulists of the Portuguese, who on that condition served in like manner the leaders of great expeditions as forerunners, guides, and skirmishers. In the manner we have portrayed, the Cossacks had already discovered the "Joandesi," or "Yenisei," the most mighty central river of Siberia, which intersects the whole country in the middle with a wide fork, and cuts it into the two halves of Eastern and Western Siberia. Here they heard, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, of the existence of another river in the east the mighty Lena and in the spring of the year 1628, ten of them strapped on their snow-shoes, and sped across into this region under the command of their " Desatnik" (that is, a decurion, or commander of ten men) Wasilei Bugor. Arrived at the principal stream, they built a THE LENA. 159 boat and proceeded downward some way. Everywhere among the Yakoutes and Tungouses did these ten Cos sacks spread dismay, and everywhere they collected the wonted tribute of sable-skins. In order to hold the people to their oath of dependence, Bugor posted two Cossacks on the centre of the Lena ; two, four hundred miles above ; and two more, four hundred miles below. In three years he returned to the Yenesei with a rich store of sable-skins to give a report of Ins expedition. It may be asked whether, even in the history of America, so extensive a conquest was achieved with so small an army, by a general, in fact, in command of ten men. Other, and somewhat larger troops of Cossacks soon followed Bugor, the first conqueror of the Lena. In 1632, a Cossack chieftain, Beketoff, went far down the Lena, and built the first fortified " ostrog" on this river, in the midst of the Yakoutes. This was the so-called " Ostrog of the Yakoutes," out of which arose later the city of Yakoutsk, the capital of all Eastern Siberia, which finally served as the head-quarters for all more distant expeditions from the east to the Frozen Ocean, to the Pacific, and to America. The Lena, in its upward course, reaches, like the Yenisei, that famous basin of water which lies amidst the Altai mountains, and is named by the surrounding tribes the " Baikal." As the Russians now possessed both lines 160 LAKE BAIKAL. leading to this basin, they began their remarkable voyages to this lake, which is enclosed in a wide moun tainous gap, and which showed them the way to China and to Mantchooria. The captain Curbat Ivanoff was the man to whom belongs the honour of the first suc cessful expedition to Lake Baikal, and who was followed by many others. This expedition to the Baikal brought the Russians to another world, to half-civilised tribes, to natural scenes rich in wonders, into the region of the Amoor, which falls into the Pacific Ocean, a region renowned for its silver mines. The brilliant accounts given of all this failed not to excite the greatest sensation in the " ostrogs" and " slobodes" of the Siberian Cossacks. Countless " Promi- schlenniks" banded together under self-chosen com manders. The cities of Yakoutsk, Yeniseisk, and others already scarce sufficiently occupied, became again almost depopulated ; to fill up these gaps, other emigrants from Europe followed. All betook themselves on the way to the Baikal, the Amoor, and the silver mines. The poor tribe of the Burates were almost trodden down by them on the way. A somewhat similar result took place to what we in our days have witnessed in the discovery of the gold- teeming regions of California. The history of the dis covery and colonisation of Siberia is rich in movements THE AMOOR. 161 of this sort, in such chase of treasure, in such passionate popular wanderings towards delusive goals the sources of gold and wells of life as mark the history of America. Just at the time when the Russians came to the Amoor, in Northern China, the Mantchoos had completed their conquest of this empire. The Mantchoo forces were thus diverted to the south, and their original home on the Amoor would in consequence be somewhat dispeopled and enfeebled when these unexpected guests from Europe arrived there. With scarcely a conflict the bands of Cossacks sailed and rowed, so to speak, through the heart of Mantchooria down to the mouth of the river Amoor, stormed Chinese fortresses, subjugated many Mantchoo princes, chased away or subdued the inhabiting tribes, the Daurians, the Gilaks, and other Mongol races. And when at last Chinese forces appeared, the little squadrons of the Cossacks put thousands of imperial soldiers to flight. All this happened about the middle of the seventeenth century. It is true the Russians have been obliged since to yield back the greater part of Mantchooria and the district of the Amoor to Russia ; but it was in conse quence of these expeditions that the cities of Irkutsk (1661), and Nertschinsk (1658) were founded, as also that the whole country of Daurian with its abundance VOL. II. M 162 SEA OF OKHOTSK. of silver mines has remained to Kussia. Moreover, the affairs of Russia and China were from this time closely and permanently connected, and an intercourse of com merce was opened which lasts to this day. From the mouth of the Amoor the Cossacks reached and navigated (1645) that remarkable sea which till then had been wholly unknown to us Europeans, which forms a side basin of the Pacific Ocean, and is called by the Mantchoos " Tung Lam" (the Sea of Tung), by us the Sea of Okhotsk. Some years before some Cossack hordes, seeking a nearer way out from the Lena, had reached the northern part of this sea. The Lena stretches towards Yakutsk far to the east, and the Tung Sea in the same country to the west. The isthmus between the two pieces of water was very soon traversed on horseback and on snow-shoes, and an " ostrog," which obtained the name of Okhotsk, built on the sea. The city which grew out of this has remained to our times the chief Russian port on this sea. From the Lena, Siberia extends, gradually narrow ing, about one thousand six hundred miles further to the east. The length of the rivers decreases with the breadth of the land, and the mighty Lena is followed by the smaller Yana, Indighirka, Kolyma, and at last, in the THE INDIGHIRKA. 163 f urthest corner, by the still more insignificant Anadyr, all diminishing like the strings of a harp. The discovery of these more distant rivers of Siberia began in 1638. Some Cossacks, under the guidance of a certain Busa, reached the Yana by water from the mouth of the Lena, while others, under the Sotnick Ivanoff, on horseback, penetrated to its sources from Yakutsk. Here they heard of the Indighirka, and in the year following they trotted on to this river. The Yukagirs who peopled this country were utterly unacquainted with the Cossack cavalry, and showed more terror of the horses than of the men, just as did the Mexicans at the apparition of Cortez s sixteen Centaurs. Yet among these very people have the Kus- sians established their numerous hordes of horses and cattle, as the Spaniards have done among the Indians of America. Moreover, at the time of the irruption of the Cossacks, Siberia was more densely peopled than now another trait in common with America and another parallel is furnished by the fact that in both cases the same disease followed on the steps of the European in vaders, the small-pox, which carried off whole tribes in Siberia, as in America. Sixteen Cossacks on the Indi ghirka took captive the ruling prince of the country. On their neighing steeds they charged his forces, armed only with bows and arrows, entirely vanquishing them M2 164 LAND OF THE TSCHUKTCHI. them with great slaughter. In 1640, they had com pleted the conquest of the whole river, eight hundred miles long. Forthwith they again pricked up their ears, and listened to tales of new rivers in the east, of the Alaseia, and the Kolyma. Strengthened by additional troops, they proceeded in 1646 to subdue this region also. East of the Kolyma, where Siberia approaches its termination, dwells the valiant and remarkable tribe of the Tschuktchi, whose land, if it did not allure with sables and silver mines, had yet another not less precious article depo sited by the revolutions of nature on its shores, and along the banks of the river. This consisted of those remarkable accumulations of fossil ivory, the teeth of a long-perished race of huge animals, the so-named mam moth, or primeval elephant. These had indeed been al ready discovered in other parts of Siberia, but the largest masses are deposited here in the north along the shores of the land of the Tschuktchi. These precious wares, which had great influence in the conquest of Siberia, and in attracting emigrants to the north, and which even at the present day play an important part in Siberian traffic, are also found in the icy northern regions of America. In 1646, the first expedition in search of mammoths teeth left the Kolyma for the land of the Tschuktchi. Here the inhabitants related of a new large mountainous land, IVORY LAND. 165 which lay towards the north pole, and the outline of whose coasts could be seen from time to time from the Siberian continent. This land they said was rich in ivory, and there were the most beautiful teeth heaped up there in high banks and mounds. Many believed that this land was peopled and connected with Nova Zembla in the west, and with America in the east. The Cossacks committed themselves, with a daring which a well-prepared Arctic navigator of our time can scarcely understand, to their fragile " Lotki," or boats, covered with leather and bound together with leather thongs, and sought to reach that & O / O promised land of ivory in the north pole. They sailed without compass out into the middle of the ice, and struggled with the icebergs. At times their " Lotkis" were shattered like the Greek ships on the rocks of the Bosphorus, at times they froze up amidst the sea one hundred versts from the shores, and there bade defiance to the winter, in order in the following summer to ad vance a few steps further. Some of them may have reached that remote northern land ; but it is not certain. The voyages thither which had been ventured on in the first passionate ardour of Siberian conquest, appear after this to have gone out of fashion, and the whole " ivory- land" of the east to have been utterly forgotten again. It is only in our time that, through the travels of Baron Wrangel, more light has been obtained concerning this 166 KAMTSCHATKA. land, and that it lias been recognised as a chain of large islands of which the largest is now called " New Siberia." It took longest to unveil that long south-eastern strip of Siberia which we call the peninsula of Kanitschatka. This country, which is about the size and shape of Italy, is surrounded by the ocean, and only connected with the continent by a narrow isthmus. Its southern portion projects six hundred geographical miles from the main land into the sea. The name of Kanitschatka was known by report in Yakutsk since 1690. Some years later, the first party of riders set out thither under the leadership of the Cossack colonel, Atlassoff, who passes for the actual discoverer and conqueror of Kamtschatka. The Eussians found in Kamtschatka Japanese writings, and also some Japanese sailors cast ashore there. This, and the fact related to them by the people, that their land stretched much further still to the south, induced the Russians at first to believe that Kamtschatka reached as far as Japan, and such an extent is given it by the oldest maps which we possess of this land. Like the first Spaniards in Peru and Mexico, the first Russians in Kamtschatka were highly honoured, almost deified, by the natives. The Kamtschatkans did not believe that a human hand could harm them, or that resistance was possible, till the Cossacks, by shedding a comrade s blood? THE KOUFJLE ISLANDS. 167 Lad themselves proved to them that they were mortal. The American Indians, as is known, had a like belief in regard to the companions of Columbus, till undeceived by a similar occurrence to the above. After many repeated expeditions, after many battles fought with the liberty-loving inhabitants, the Kussians, overturning all before them, arrived at last, in the year 1706, at the extreme southern extremity of Ivamtschatka ? where they saw before them the chain of the little Kou- rile Islands, the southernmost of which certainly come very near to Japan. It appeared as if the Cossack lust of conquest and thirst for discovery would never be appeased or re strained. They threw themselves forthwith on the islands of the Kouriles, and opened the way to Japan, Eke as, earlier, along the Amoor, they had found them selves on the direct way to the Celestial Kingdom. In 1712-1713, a Cossack, by name Iwan Kosirewskoi, who afterwards became a monk, led several expeditions to the Kourile Islands, and sent reports of them to Moscow, which contained a tolerably correct description of their position and natural characteristics as far down as Japan. Thus did the Eussians, after the lapse of a century, full of indescribable toil and exertions, full of warlike enterprises and ravages, reach the extreme end of the old 168 THE GREAT LAND. world, that fabulous land of Gog and Magog, in which men, in the latter part of the middle ages, when it was to be found nowhere else, had placed the realm of the imaginary Prester John, and in which, since Herodotus s time, had been located one-legged, or one-eyed, and other strange peoples with dogs tails or ravens claws. They now, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, found themselves on a line of coast more than twelve hundred miles long, opposite the north-west end of America, which here faces Asia. As a matter of course, ere long they proceeded thither, as they had done to China and Japan. The first news which the Eussians obtained of the "Great Land" (Bolscliaia Semla) in the east sounded very uncertain, and had, too, some re semblance to those first indications of regions in the west which Columbus had once collected. Tall stems of firs, and other trees, which did not grow in Kamtschatka, were thrown, from time to time, by the currents from the east on the shores of this peninsula. Numberless flocks of land birds used at times to come thither from the east and then go away again in that direction. Whales would come from the east with harpoons in their backs, such as were not known in Kamtschatka ; and from time to time foreign-built boats and other unusual objects were stranded there from the east. At last, it was remarked also that the waves of the sea in the east of Kamtschatka AMERICAN SIBERIA. 169 had not so long a swell as in the south on the open ocean, whence it was concluded that this was in fact an inner sea, which must be encompassed in the east by some land, just as it was in the west by Asia. The Tschuk- tchi were the nearest neighbours to America, and it was not possible that some distinct tidings should not come from them to the Russians of a country in the east, to which, from remotest times, they had been in the habit of crossing over. In their numerous conflicts with them the Russians had, from time to time, taken captive men who wore teeth of the walrus in their lips and spoke a perfectly foreign language. These were Americans, who were either trading friends or prisoners of war of the Asiatics. From these people it would have been heard by many that the " Great Eastern Land" was no island, but a large unlimited territory, with great rivers and full of woods and mountain ranges. Many even main tained that in clear weather this land could at times be descried from the capes on the coast of the country of the Tschuktchi. The north-west of America had in Asia an especially good repute, for although it is rough and unfruitful in comparison with southern plains, and had not unjustly received the name of the American Siberia, yet it is not to be denied that in those parts where the new and the old world look so close in each other s faces, the for- 170 NORTH- WEST OF AMERICA. mer bears by far the mildest and most alluring aspect. The eastern extremities of Asia are lashed by the keen eastern tempests, and stand bleak, bare, without vegeta tion, the greater part of the year in ice and snow. The western shores of America, on the contrary, are pro tected from the east by high mountains. They are open to the mild westerly winds and ocean currents; they have a damper climate, and, in consequence, a more vigorous growth of trees and plants. In parts they are covered with fine forests down to the sea-shore. Here there is a contrast which is known to repeat itself in all northern countries. The ruder Sweden in the east con trasts in like manner with the milder Norway in the west ; the desolate eastern coasts of Greenland buried in polar ice, with its western coasts inhabited and at times gay with verdure. Thus the great eastern country, the " Bolschaia Semla," rich in harbours, shelter, woods, and sea and land animals, might well, as I have said, become by report among the Asiatics " a Promised Land ;" and this report may in the earliest times have played its tempting part in the first emigration of the primitive po pulation of Asia to America. All these attractive rumours circulated in Kamtschatka, in Okhotsk, Avatcha, and the other east-Asiatic ports founded by the Russians. They reached at last Moscow and Petersburg, and there found an attentive ear and a KAMTSCHATKAN EXPEDITIONS. 171 thinking head in which they fixed themselves. This head belonged to Peter the Great, who formed for himself the plan of reaching the great eastern land, America, from Siberia. The Czar Peter, who had himself either executed or prepared everything great that had been done in Russia, had shortly before his death drawn up instructions for his admiral, Count Apraxin, in which he enjoined him to take measures to have ships prepared in order with them to explore the coasts, and also to examine whether any of these were anyhow connected with the much-praised easteni land, or were separate from it. It was then from this command of Peter the Great, first fulfilled by his successors and executrixes, Kathe- rine I. and Elizabeth, that those renowned voyages and expeditions of discovery arose, which are known under the name of the "first" and "second Kamtschatkan expeditions," and which were both placed under the com mand of the distinguished Dane, Vitus Behring. The first of these two expeditions of discovery set out from Petersburg under Katherine I. in the year 1725, and was finished in three years. They did not in this touch the shores of America, and yet they believed that they had nearly obtained the certainty that it was not a part of Asia. Captain Behring sailed along the coasts of Kamtschatka, the country of the Tsclmktchi, so far to the north-east, till he observed, under 67 18 lat., that 172 SECOND EXPEDITION. the coast curved round again to the west. From this he concluded that Asia was here surrounded by the sea. Under the Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, the foundress of the University of Moscow and the Academy of Fine Arts in Petersburg, that expe dition which was called the " second Kamtschatkan," took place. This was one of the noblest, most fruitful in results, most brilliant enterprises of scientific discovery which had ever till then been executed, as well with regard to the aim which hovered before the adventurers, as also to the means and powers expended upon it. By it, in the first place, was North- West America dis covered ; in the second place, the northern seas and islands of Japan were navigated and explored ; in the third place, all Northern Asia was travelled over, accurately defined and described in a geographical point of view, and at length the question so long agitated by the English of the northern voyage round America back to Europe, solved. Several of the most distinguished Russian and German learned men and sailors, the already proved Behring, Spangberg, Tschirikow, the astronomers, natu ralists, and historians, Gmelin, Steller, and others, were hereby called into play. Not only Germans, but also English, Swedes, and French. Delisle, Lesseps, Walton, Waxel, were employed. In regard, too, to the energy and endurance with which it was carried on and accom- SECOND EXPEDITION. 173 plished, this enterprise stood as yet completely alone, for it lasted sixteen years. Finally, as to the desired result, a number of the most valuable historical and sci entific works have been produced by it, and the whole northern half of Asia, and a part of America, have for the first time been scientifically investigated and made known to the world. All Siberia was, so to speak, flooded with men of science and their associates, as before with Cossacks, and the expedition was organised so as to embrace the whole region into a vast net. By tedious and toilsome pro cesses the necessary means of subsistence, materials, and instruments were amassed at every station and central point. Along the rivers, along even the four thousand odd miles of coast on the icy sea, here and there were stationed magazines of supplies for the explorers and their attendants. From six to seven months were some times taken up in transporting the trees out of the forests to the ports in which the vessels were to be built for the voyage of discovery Every one of these men of science had his region indicated to him in which he was to labour. Every captain had his river, which he was to reconnoitre, and his line of coast, which he was to explore. And almost at the same time small kindred expeditions sailed from all the rivers of Siberia and began at once their laborious work between ice and morass. 174 BEHRING. Each of tliem had assigned to him the mouth of a neigh bouring river or a cape as the goal of his voyage, which he was to reach, sail round, and where he was to place him self in connexion with the other nearest expedition. Some of these exploring bands brought their mission to a speedy and successful end. Others were repeatedly beaten back, foundered, built new ships, and only after years of effort and adventure reached their goal or perhaps never reached it at all. I cannot here give details of the fate and the successes of each of these remarkable enterprises. The voyage to the east, which principally concerns us here, was reserved by Captain Behring for himself. Captain Tschirikow accompanied him as second in com mand ; and these two, with their ships St. Peter and St. Paul, sailed at last, on July 4, 1741, out of the Kam- tschatkan harbour Avatcha, which was in consequence called St. Peter and St. Paul s Harbour, into the great eastern sea. And this same port has remained the chief harbour of preparation, or else the chosen place for rest and reparation for all the north-eastern voyages under taken down to our time. Behring, like La Perouse, Cook, and Kotzebue, put in here and collected his forces for arctic enterprise. This place, situated at the world s end, has indeed numerous monuments raised to Eussian, French, English, and German circumnavigators of the MOUNT ELIAS. 175 world and discoverers, who there reached the termination of their toils. To find the actual mainland of America, Behring and Tschirikow steered out of the Siberian waters south- eastwards into the vast Pacific, and cleft its waves where before them it had never yet been furrowed by keel of European ship. They cruised about for months on this water waste, keeping on as much as possible towards the south-east, and their voyage was neither so brief nor so prosperous as the quiet westward voyage of Columbus towards the same land, whither the steady trade -winds had borne him, with sails always spread, within thirty days. Both ships became separated from each other in a storm, and they at length saw land at two different points, and some where about 57 lat., on the edge of that deep curve which the American coast forms there, southward from that colossal mountain which the Kussians have named Mount Elias, and which, surpassing Mount Blanc many thou sand feet in height, rises there a far-loooking watcher in the inner corner of this bay. They observed that from this spot the shores of Ame rica inclined on one side to the south, and on the other turned back to the west to Siberia, whence they came. The two captains, separately, followed this coast to the west in their homeward voyage, touched it at various 176 BEHRING S ISLE. points, described their positions, discovered the chain of the Aleutian Isles, which on the outward voyage they had sailed past in tending too far to the south, and after half a year s voyage Tschirikow prosperously reached Kamtschatka and the haven of Peter and Paul. Meanwhile commandant Behring and his partners in misfortune were tossed about and maltreated by storms, clouds, and snow-drifts. Sickness and death weakened and diminished their little company so sorely that at times there were not men enough in condition to set the sails and manage the rudder, and sometimes for days together the ship was driven hither and thither without steersman, a prey to the billows. At last, not far from Kam tschatka, they were wrecked on a desolate island, where Behring, after long illness, found a miserable death, and which was named from him " Behring s Isle." The rest of his party, after pining on this island a whole year in vain hopes of deliverance, constructed a bark from the fragments of their ship, ventured to sea in it, and at last reached the haven of Kamtschatka. They arrived, weakened by hunger and privations of all kinds, and in need of everything. In but one point they were well provided, namely, with the skins of a newly-discovered furry animal the sea-beaver, as they called it of which they had zealously pursued the chase on their island. The German naturalist Steller, the celebrated describer THE SEA-OTTER. 177 of Kamtschatka, who returned with this little band of sufferers, brought back for himself three hundred skins of this new animal, each of which would at that time be worth in the Chinese market one hundred dollars. This creature, whose delicate dark skin was the only thing that Behring s people saved from the shipwreck, has played in the history of the waters of the Northern Pacific, and in the discovery of North- Western America, too important a part not to deserve here an especial notice. The sea-beaver, or, as we now universally call it, the sea-otter (Lutra marina), inhabits exclusively the coasts of Kamtschatka, the Kourile, the Aleutian isles, and North America, as far down as California ; in no other part of the world is it found. The fur is most handsome and costly in the northern regions ; towards California it becomes of less value. It has probably long been known and prized by the Japanese, who from old times have had intercourse with the Kourile Islands. They and the inhabitants of Korea brought to the Chinese its beautiful fur, black as ebony, glossy, and streaked with silver hairs, which was sold for its weight in gold in Pekin. But neither the Japanese nor the Chinese were aware of the extensive prevalence of this animal in the north ; this was discovered, as we have mentioned, by the ship wrecked Kussians under Behring. And when, in their VOL. II. N 178 THE SEA-OTTER. intercourse with, the Chinese, they made the second dis covery, that the greatest profits could be drawn from the traffic in the skins of this animal, a desire seized them again to visit the coasts and islands of America, haunted by the sea-otter, and work out this new branch of trade. The sea-otter became for the conquest and colonisation of the Aleutian Isles and the north-west coasts of America, the same means of allurement, the same connecting link that the sable had been for that of Siberia. The chase of the sable had brought the Cossacks from the Ural to Okhotsk and to the Amoor. The chase of the sea-otter brought them thence by water one thousand versts further to the east, and to the new continent. Just as a crowd of Cossacks and freebooters on horse back had hastened after Jermak on his crossing the o Ural, so did similar freebooters in ships follow the Rus sian Columbus, Behring, on his opening the eastern ocean. On the part of the government no new ex pedition was so soon again undertaken. For some time following, all was done by private persons, merchants, hunters of sea-otters, and " Promischlennicks." It is to these latter, that Russia is indebted for being endowed, or burdened, in addition to her steppes in Europe and frozen morasses in Asia, with that great desert of the North American peninsula, which is almost twice as large as Germany. From 1743, every year saw one or more RUSSIAN TRADERS. 179 expeditions accomplished, starting from Kamtschatka or Okhotsk, and ever penetrating further eastward from isle to isle, from promontory to promontory. These undertakings were for the most part carried on by the speculating spirit and the capital of rich Rus sian merchants in Europe, from Moscow, Tula, Novo- gorod, &c. The poor inhabitants of the Aleutians were as much harassed and diminished in then number as the sea-otters. From 1760 these trading voyages began to touch at the islands adjoining the American continent, the great island Kodiak, and the continent itself at the penin sula Alaska. A regular trading company was then esta blished, organised like the great English trading com panies, which undertook the whole business of otter- hunting, and other advantages to be derived from the Aleutian Isles and neighbouring lands, which they were further to explore and occupy. The only Europeans settled on those shores of Ame rica which lie on the Pacific Ocean were then the Spaniards. They swayed these regions on a line of more than eight thousand miles from Cape Horn, in the south, northwards to California, and, according to their own claims, which they always supported with the old Papal bull of partition, further yet, "as far as these coasts extended to the north." 180 JEALOUSY OF THE SPANIARDS. The discoveries of the Russians, and their steady advances towards the east and south, could not fail to excite the notice and solicitude of the Spaniards. The Spaniards had indeed under Cortez made some attempts to discover the north-west of America. But neither these attempts nor these expeditions under the viceroy Mendoza (the successor of Cortez) had brought them far beyond California. The rainy, stormy, mountain ous, barbaric North- West appeared to them not very attractive, and they were the more willing to leave it in the unexplored obscurity which covered it, from the fear that the clearing up of this darkness might assist the English in finding out the long-sought north-west passage. But when all at once there appeared from cpite another country wholly unexpected guests and rivals in the Pacific Ocean and in the north of America, the Spaniards waked out of their apathetic inactivity, and the viceroys of Mexico set themselves in motion to meet the Russians, and watch what they were about. From the year 1774, they sent out a series of expedi tions towards the north-west, which sailed up the coast of America as far as the huge mountain Elias, the islands of Kodiak, and Unalashka, in order to look after the newly-arrived Russians. They touched at many points on the coast, and seized possession of them where they did not already find them occupied by the Russians. They CAPTAIN COOK. 181 pushed, too, their settlements, forts, and missions, further up towards the north, and at last took possession of those admirable ports of California, Monterey and San Fran cisco. At the same time the English also set themselves in movement towards the north of the Pacific and the north-west of America. In the year 1776, they sent their great navigator Cook, who had already made two celebrated voyages in the South Pacific, on a third voyage, whose direction was round Cape Horn towards North America. Cook reconnoitred just those countries which till then the Spaniards and Kussians had regarded as their exclusive province of discovery, and did it, too, i$ a more satisfactory and effective manner. His pioneer ing expedition was followed by a host of English trading enterprises. In the course of the decade 1780-90, many English captains sailed towards North- Western America, and threw themselves especially on those parts which lay central between the Russian possessions in the north and the Spanish in the south, lands in which the sea- otter skins were yet so abundant that the barbarous in habitants used this costly fur for their ordinary mantles, bed-coverings, and tent-hangings. These articles, secured by the English traders, were brought over to China to adorn the proud mandarins of the Great Chan. The French, too, sent at the same period their much- 182 NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. admired, much-lamented La Perouse to the Pacific and the sea-otter coasts of North- Western America. A complete and general racing of the different nations now took place towards these, till then wholly neglected, parts of the earth. And in the next, as in the before- mentioned decennmm, a host of private as well as government expeditions encountered each other, of Rus sians, Spaniards, English, and French, and at last of a people who, at the beginning of this race, took only a very late and very modest part, but who were destined in our century to compete with the Russians as arbiters in the North Pacific namely, the North Americans from the Free States, or the " Boston men," as they were at that time called, after the state which fitted out the greater part of these expeditions. It is not my design to enter here, where I treat of the progress of the Russians, into these voyages of other nations, and I have noticed them only to show how great a movement the Russian Cossacks set going in their capacity of first discoverers when they proceeded from the Ural Mountains, through Siberia, to America, and how the great work of the discovery of America was accomplished in the north-west, where it had so long stood still, if not by their sole act, yet by the impulsion they gave. I may in passing, and at the conclusion, draw atten- ACQUISITIONS OF RUSSIA. 183 tion to the far-extending political consequences of that march led by the old equestrian chieftain Jermak three hundred years ago. Including her last acquisitions in Mantchooria, Russia now occupies in these districts, from the neighbourhood of Pekin to that of the gold regions lately discovered near Vancouver s Island, an extent of coast of more than four thousand geographical miles. No European or Asiatic power there holds sway over a like extent. And although statistics give us no great ac counts of the wealth, culture, population, and political importance possessed by these regions, there is yet no foretelling of what development they may still be capable. There are to be found amongst them many favoured portions, such as the romantically beautiful country of Kamtschatka, with many a sheltered valley capable of cultivation ; the navigable river Amoor, which equals the Danube in size ; and of America the most favourable coast districts in such high latitudes. What surprises are before us in a nearer inspection of the mineral treasures of this reach of coast, after what we have experienced in the neighbourhood of Vancouver s Island, we cannot yet presume to determine. Russia holds, so to speak, in the grasp of her gigantic arms, the whole northern, half of the Pacific. She has become there the neio;h- O bom- of England, of the United States, and of the Em perors of China and Japan ; and, there, as elsewhere, 184 RUSSIAN AMBITION. she has become closely connected with the politics of the two former, and also concerned in the approaching changes and revolutions of the latter. It is not so long ago that Eussia has pushed her colonies along the American coasts, already even down to the golden gates of San Francisco in California; that she has stretched a hand even into the centre of the Pacific, and was on the point of appropriating one of the Sandwich islands ; and that she entertained the idea, which idea was moreover publicly announced in a ukase of the Emperor Alex ander, of closing the whole Pacific north of the Sand wich Isles against foreign ships, and making it a "Kus- sian lake," a " mare clausum" or, as it were, a Siberian sea. But the freedom of the seas was ensured against these daring plans by an energetic and successful protest of all the powers. We seize, however, this occasion to remark how fain Russia is to recur to that testament of her Peter the Great, Jn which, as I said, an article on America and the Pacific Ocean is to be found. THE EUROPEAN VOYAGES. 185 CHAPTER V. THE NORTH AND THE ENGLISH. Martin Frobisher s Voyages to "Meta Incognita" (anno 1572-1578) John Davis discovers Davis s Strait (1585) Henry Hudson discovers Hudson s Bay (1610) Bylot and Baffin discover Baffin s Bay (1616) John Ross begins the Series of Arctic Expeditions of Modern Times (1818) William Edward Parry penetrates into Lancaster Sound in the American Polar Sea (1816) Sir John Franklin s Land Journey to the Coasts of the American Polar Sea (1820-21) Sir John Franklin s last Voyage (1845) M Clure discovers the North- West Passage, and proves that America is surrounded by Water (Oct. 1850). I HAVE already had opportunities of observing that, beginning with Columbus s first voyage, of all the great expeditions of discovery made by the enterprising Euro pean nations which have added to our knowledge of the new world, scarcely any have had this new world itself for their aim. As with Columbus and with the Portu guese, it was much rather the rich and populous Orient which they proposed for their goal. It was only by 186 MARITIME HIGHWAYS. chance that they stumbled on America, and the first re joicing at its discovery had no reference whatever to that country itself. It was India, the renowned of old, which they believed they had reached, and for which that re joicing was meant. To their annoyance the Europeans found the vast and barbarous barrier of America in their way, and circum stances almost forced them against their will to take notice of and explore it. It interested them much more to try to break through this barrier, or to avoid and sail round it somewhere or other. By degrees it became known that the basin of the Atlantic, lying between the old world and the western continent, was a long and comparatively narrow valley. The only wide and convenient way out of this valley had from the first been taken possession of by the Portu guese. The passage round the Cape of Good Hope was called " the Portuguese Highway ;" it might be called, too, the South-Eastern Passage. The second outlet through the southern end of America was found at length, as we have seen, by the Spaniards under Ma gellan. At that time it was called " the Spanish High way ;" and it might also be called the South- Western Pas sage. Thus, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, both the principal accesses to the much-coveted India were already in the possession of the southern, and, at THE NORTH-EAST OF EUROPE. 187 that time, the chief maritime nations of Europe, and were partly blocked up by their stations and f orts, or at least by their fleets. When, therefore, about the middle of that century, the northern nations likewise learned how to undertake long voyages, and, impelled by the longing for India, began to think of circumnavigating the globe, there remained nothing for them but either to make themselves masters of the Spanish or the Portu guese passage, or to find out a new one for themselves. Being too weak at first to think of conquest, they chose the latter alternative, and they cast their eyes in the first instance on the north-east of Europe. The configuration of the lands and seas in that quarter was at that time almost unknown. Scarcely any concep tions about them existed but such as had been derived from Pliny, Strabo, and Ptolemy, whose works were constantly consulted about the north-east, just as they had formerly been cited by Columbus in respect to the west. As is now well known, these ancients had no con ception of the great extension of Europe and Asia to the north and the east. They fancied the great ocean quite near, and reaching so far to the south that many of their geographers looked upon the Caspian Sea as a southern bay of the northern ocean. In consequence of such ideas, it was believed to be possible to sail round Asia in the north, and when once, in the time of the Emperor 188 CAPE TABIN. Titus, as has been already related, a few Esquimaux were cast upon the shore of the North Sea, they were taken for natives of the East Indies whom storms had driven westward round the coasts of Asia and Europe. On such false foundations in the sixteenth century did the geographical notions about the northern districts of Asia rest. It is true the Russians, who at that time had already crossed the long belt of mountains the Ural which separates Europe from Asia, and who had extended their rule, their hunting-grounds, and their fisheries to the shores of the Frozen Ocean, may have long had more correct ideas. But the Russians had not yet entered into the circle of civilized European nations, and had, as it were, to be discovered themselves by the latter. The English, who had studied Pliny, believed that the Asiatic continent ended in the north in a certain cape, called by the Romans Cape Tabin ; arid that if a voyage round this cape could once be accomplished, there would be found a sea way to China and India leading direct southwards. This Cape Tabin, therefore, became in the sixteenth century, so to say, the " Cape of Good Hope" for northern Asia. These geographical notions, and the hopes built upon them, led to a whole series of so-called north-eastern voyages. The English were the first to try this way. In the beginning of the second half of the sixteenth centuiy, ENGLISH ENTERPRISES. 189 their admiral, Sir Hugh Willoughby, and his companion, Richard Chancellor, sailed in this direction, provided, like Columbus on his voyage to the west, with passports and letters of introduction to the Great Khan and the Emperor of China. It will not surprise us with our present knowledge to learn that they were not able to deliver these letters, which stuck fast with their bearers in the icy bays to the north of Russia. However, these enterprises were not quite without result. If the English were unable to reach the Great Khan, they found at least Russia, made their appearance by way of Arch angel before the Czar at Moscow, and laid the founda tion of that commerce between Russia and England which has lasted to the present day. This discovery of Russia directed the thoughts of the English from their north-eastern passage to India; the most beneficial re sults of it being several journeys to Archangel, to Mos cow, and, by way of the latter city, to the Caspian Sea. Nevertheless, the possibility of circumnavigating the globe by a north-eastern track was by no means given up. Only another people took the enterprise in hand. It seems as if every seafaring nation had to go through the same circle of speculations, errors, and experiences. Towards the end of the century, the Dutch, seeing the English so much occupied with Russia, believed they could anticipate them in the north-east. At that time the ener- 190 DUTCH ENTERPRISES. gies of tliis people, like those of the English, had, in vic torious conflicts with Spain, become developed, and their full-blown powers craved new occupations and enterprises. Learned men came forward, too, amongst them, who, fol lowing in the track of the old Greeks and Romans, con verted one-half of Asia into water, and enterprising mer chants gave willing credence to all they said. When, therefore, the Captains Cornelius Cornelsen and William Barenz, the first who were despatched to the north-east, dis covered and sailed through the strait of Waygatz, reached a cape in the mouth of the river Ob, and then returned speedily with the joyful tidings that they had found Pliny s Cape Tabin, had even glanced round this point, and also received distinct information from the natives that the coast here extended directly to China, universal enthusiasm was kindled in Holland. A fleet of seven large vessels was soon fitted out, and -the cities of Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, and others, as well as the Stadtholder, William of Orange, hastened to forward the under taking. It is intelligible that this expedition, as like wise a third, did not gain the ends for which they were fitted out. At great cost of money and labour, nothing further was attained than the discovery of the desolate snow-clad coasts of Nova Zenibla, and soon after the equally frozen rocks of Spitzbergen. However, the Dutch, in seeking a way to India, found SMEERENBERG. 191 at least shoals of whales and walruses, just as the English had found Russia and her products, and the Spaniards the Antilles, Mexico, and Peru. It is with nations as with individuals: we strive often after the high and dazzling aims that float before our fancy; we seldom reach them; but our earnest efforts find unlooked-for compensation on the way, and we are led aside to results and objects which at first we never contemplated. Like as in England the far-famed mercantile Musco vite Company had been formed for the pursuit of Eussian trade, in the same way in Holland the Greenland and Spitsbergen Company (Spitzbergen was then held to be a part of Greenland) arose from the capture of whales. The Dutch at last perceived that in the north good har poons and fishing-tackle were better guides to wealth than all the letters of introduction from Prince William to the Emperor of China. They soon after founded, not far from the north pole, on one of the extremest capes of Spitzbergen, that remarkable settlement, Smeer- enberg, where at the most flourishing period of the fishery about two hundred vessels and ten thousand men were collected, and forgetful of Cape Tobin, handed over to Russia the task of accomplishing the slow and toilsome discovery of the way to China and North Asia. This was found in the Overland Route described in the foregoing chapter. 192 ENGLISH ENERGY. The English meanwhile, with tJieir views on India and China, had betaken themselves in another direction towards the north-west corner of the Atlantic Ocean, the only spot where it still appeared possible to emerge from this narrow basin. To this corner England was attracted more than any other country of Europe by her geogra phical position. The shape of her island, stretching far to the north-west, pointed like a magnet in that direction. "Our field is the north and north-west," exclaims an English author of that period, " the only field which the partition of the world has left to us." And when once this idea had taken fast hold of the nation, they devoted themselves to it with a patience and endurance which was really admirable. The long series of their enter prises for the discovery of the north-west passage has not its equal, if not in consideration of the results obtained, yet with regard to the energy, forethought and heroic spirit with which it was carried on. For three centuries have these English expeditions to the north-west been unweariedly pursued, with some few intervals, down to our days, forming, as it were, the fit crown and conclu sion to the whole work of American discovery. In order to understand the extraordinary tenacity of English belief in a non-existent passage, we must keep before our eyes, first, the important advantages promised by the discovery of such a route, and secondly, the pre- IDEAS ABOUT NORTHERN ASIA. 193 possession which ancient representations as to the nature of the American continent had fostered in men s minds. Half Siberia, as we have said, was ignored. The most northern districts of Asia were named India Supe rior (Upper India), although in reality nothing but Kamtschatka is to be found there. Japan was placed more to the north, and nearer to America, and therefore to Europe, than it is in fact. So they thought that from England to Japan and Upper India was but a single bound, and that bound once made, the highway of the Spaniards and Portuguese would be quite useless, and thus the treasures of the East would flow in from the north to England in far greater abundance. What was not to be hoped from such a passage ! How earnestly must it not be sought ! The belief prevailed, too, that Nature had contrived the two great halves of America according to a certain harmonious plan. As she had made a channel (the Straits of Magellan) in the south, there must needs be a similar outlet in the north, and as if its existence had been fully made out; a name was given to it, that of the " Straits of Anian," derived from an old tradition. Also it was argued that the continent must come to a point in the north as it does in the south, and break up into islands. Another argument brought forward to esta blish the necessity of the case was that, else, the great VOL. ii. 194 HOPES OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. breadth of America in the north would destroy the equi librium of the globe. It is true, soon after Columbus, the Cabots, the Cor- tereals, the Verazzani, and many other mariners whom I have already mentioned, had sailed along a large portion of North America, and had stumbled everywhere against mountains, capes, and frontiers of cliff. But had these men narrowly explored all the creeks, all the hiding-places and mysterious recesses there? As far as their own practical and cursory reconnoitring went, might not the whole be just as well a large complex of islands as the connected mass of a continent ? From Florida to the ice-fields of Baffin s Bay there is not a branch of the sea, not a creek, on which the hope of a north-west passage had not been hung in turn, not the mouth of a river or bay into which some navigator had not sailed, in the expectation of opening a communication with the west. Nor is there a mountain in the interior of the land, from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, which some pioneer wandering towards the west has not climbed with the idea that the prospect of the South Sea would pre sent itself to hun at the top, as once to Balboa from the mountains of the Isthmus of Panama. Not only do we easily believe what we wish, but in all ages there have been found inventive minds who make it their business to flatter our wishes with delusive FABULOUS VOYAGES. 195 phantoms. And it was the effort to gratify the ruling desire of northern Europe that gave birth to many fabu lous tales of voyagers who had actually gone round North America and sailed out from the Pacific Ocean into the Atlantic. This was first asserted of a Por tuguese, Martin Chaque, who, in a voyage from India to Portugal, about the middle of the sixteenth century, was said to have been driven on the Pacific towards the north ; then, continually sailing north-east, to have run by many islands, and at last to have come out into the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland. In the same manner the report sprang up in Ireland that some years after this Chaque, a certain Andreas Urdaniata had really found a passage across in the year 1557. He had, it was related, sailed out of the Pacific Ocean, right through America to Europe, and had carried the information to the King of Portugal. The latter, however, it was said, had strictly enjoined on him silence about his adventure, lest when the English heard of it they should prove seriously annoying both to him and the King of Spain. But of all the untrustworthy accounts of voyages of this kind, the one that made the greatest noise in the world, and was most universally accepted, was that of the far-famed Greek, Juan de Fuca. De Fuca had been long a seaman in the Spanish sendee, and in that capa- 02 196 FABULOUS VOYAGES. city made many voyages in the east and west seas. He offered to an English diplomatist, whom he came across at Venice, to enter Queen Elizabeth s service, and show the English the " Straits of Anian" (the northern Straits of Magellan) and the north-west passage through Ame rica to Cathay (China). He had, he said, discovered it on a mission from the viceroy of Mexico. Under 47 of lati tude the continent of America, by his account, curved at California to the east, in a wide opening in which he had sailed right on for twenty days. Then the water ex panded again, and he perceived at once that he was in the North Sea, and had found the entrance into the At lantic Ocean. Upon this discovery he had speedily turned back into the Pacific Ocean, returned to Mexico, and made his report to the viceroy, but neither from him nor from the King of Spain had he received the reward he expected for so great a discovery. The Englishman to whom De Fuca imparted this could not at first make him any offer in the name of his govern ment. When, afterwards, this was practicable, and they sought De Fuca, they found he had died in the mean while. Similar legendary tales of voyages, rumours, traditions, myths, have sprung up at divers times like ignes fatui, and appeared to the north-west explorers like guiding stars. They all had this in common, that they were MARTIN FROBISHER. 197 related and accepted as true amongst the English, the Dutch, and especially in the north of Europe, but that they were first borrowed from the southern nations, the Spanish and Portuguese. The North desired to find the north-west passage, the South desired that it should not be found. The Spaniards and Portuguese had gone to work so secretly with their discoveries, their colonies, and their charts, that they were popularly held to be omni scient, and it was maintained that they had long known the north-west passage, and had passed backwards and forwards through America, carefully letting no one find out where this passage lay. In the year 1572 Queen Elizabeth despatched for that purpose Martin Frobisher, who undertook three voyages to the north-west of America, discovered several islands, sailed through a narrow channel, which was named after him, "Frobisher s Straits," and several more passages, which he firmly believed to lead to Cathay. Queen Elizabeth gave to this remote land the mystical name of " Meta Incognita (the unknown goal), and this Meta Incognita, this Cape of Good Hope of North Ame rica, long played there the same part and deceived men with the same vain hopes as in the north-east the before- mentioned " Cape Tabin." Elizabeth wished to build a fort there to secure to herself the route thence to India, in the same manner as the Spaniards had secured the 198 META INCOGNITA. south-west passage through the Straits of Magellan. She wished likewise to have gold mines worked there, her trusty Admiral Frobisher having brought back with him small quantities of a certain bright yellow stone which the London goldsmiths in their blindness pro nounced to contain gold. On his third voyage, in the year 1578, Frobisher arrived there with no fewer than fifteen vessels. All, however, ended in smoke, the gold- dust, of which they had carried whole ship -loads to Eng land, being at last recognized as a very common kind of earth. The fortress and settlement perished in ice and snow, the ships were dispersed, and the geographical dis coveries of Frobisher were so uncertain, and wrapped by himself in such mystery, that it has long since continued to be a question where, in fact, he got sight of the north, what land was Queen Elizabeth s Meta Incognita, and what might be the channel called Frobisher s Straits. Nevertheless, it is said that Queen Elizabeth was "well satisfied" with her brave knight Frobisher, and the result of his voyages. She believed that he had clearly proved the possibility of a passage to China. The English merchants were of the same opinion, and soon after Frobisher s death similar expeditions were got up, both by government orders and at the expense of private individuals. George Weymouth, John Davis, Henry DAVIS S STRAITS. 199 Hudson, Thomas Button, Baffin, were the names of the men who, at the end of the sixteenth, and at the begin ning of the seventeenth century, with China and India in their heads, and new letters of introduction to the Great Chan in their pockets, ran one after the other, from Bristol, Plymouth, Fahnouth, and other small har bours of Western England, and directed their course north-west, to reach and to sail round the " unknown goal," and so " to get to the rear of the Spaniards and Portuguese in the Pacific Ocean." Almost every one of these believed that he had really found the straits which led thither, or, at least, had seen them from a dis tance, and almost every one then, without having com pleted the passage itself, returned home speedily with this joyful news. The hope was kept alive especially by the information of Davis, who, in 1585, passed through the wide straits named after him Davis s Straits, and found, everywhere to the north and north-west} sea, full of ice it is true, but still sea. And when the great navi gator Hudson, who made in the regions of the north more numerous and important discoveries than an} of his predecessors, had opened the other great straits and the wide inland sea which yet bears his name, the whole mystery was at last supposed to be solved. They re garded Hudson s Straits as those very Straits of Anian 200 HUDSON S BAY. so long and so vainly sought for, which linked together the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and Hudson s Bay itself, as a part of this western sea. All eyes and all expectations were now, of course, directed to Hudson s Bay, in which, like his predecessor, the Portuguese Cortereal, Hudson himself had perished. Many of his countrymen followed him, and another northern nation, the Danes, took part in these Hudson s Bay expeditions. Denmark was just at that time ruled by a king who knew how to stimulate the development to the national power, as Faucis I. in France, and Elizabeth in England, had done. This king was her much-lauded Christiern IV. He, like James I., sent a series of navigators to Davis s and Hudson s Straits, to Greenland, to Anian s Straits, and the " unknown goal." But the only result, which in the end all these English and Danish voyagers to their Vexation obtained, was the knowledge that Hudson s Bay was again blocked up by land, that none of its inlets and creeks led to the west, but rather that it represented a large basin or gulf, like the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, on this occasion, every corner of that sea was explored and thoroughly made known, and, if neither in England nor Denmark these experiences were thought sufficient to found upon them a South Sea Company, at least in Denmark a " New Greenland," and in England CHECKS TO DISCOVERY. 201 the far-famed "Hudson s Bay Company" were established, the latter growing at last out of that lately discovered in land sea into the sovereign of all North America, and appropriating a more extensive territory than perhaps in any period of history was ever possessed by a trading company. After all the hopes that had been built on Hudson s Bay being a direct road to the west, the confident asser tions that it had a western outlet, the large sums that the Danish and English kings had spent upon it, the sight of rocks, glaciers, woods, and morasses on all sides present ing an impassable barrier to all further advance, might well, as it did, fill with despair the adherents of the north-west passage, and cause the whole idea for a long time to be put aside. To this were added the internal disquiet and revolu tions of England in the middle of the seventeenth century. It is true, these drove many Britons forth upon the ocean ; but these were poor persecuted people, who sought a new fertile country in America where they might exist in peace. The waste lands of the north could not allure them, nor did they at all feel themselves called to the business of geographical discovery, or to the difficult accomplishment of a passage to China. Cromwell, indeed, did much towards the development of England s naval power. But his only object w r as 202 HUDSON S BAY COMPANY. to strengthen the warlike part of it, in order to intimi date hostile neighbours. He no more cared for geo graphical discoveries than those emigrant " Pilgrim Fathers." The erection of the Hudson s Bay Company was, or became, a third hindrance to the progress of North western exploration, an obstacle that began in 1669, and operated for a long while unfavourably. The privileges of this company were very extensive. They were to possess for their own all the coasts and regions round Hudson s Bay, and alone enjoy the right of trading and fishing there. Thus did all those northern seas and lands come into the hands of this company, who found it accord with their interests to close the bay, to refuse entrance to all curious or invidious comers, and, as the Spaniards had done with the South Sea, to make it a mare clausum. They erected several forts on the shores of Hudson s Bay, despatched thither every year, at fixed periods, vessels which brought English wares, and re turned with the rich furs which their governors and agents had obtained from the American Indians. They did not trouble themselves about geographical discoveries, and tried for a long time to hinder them. They were, in truth, as much afraid as the Spaniards of the dis covery of a north-west passage. Such a discovery, they thought, might turn the whole stream of commerce and NORTHERN PASSAGE. 203 the voyages of private speculators that way, and all their privileges and fur monopoly would then come to an end. They were, in fact, accused of having, by corruption, be guiled into false and unfavourable statements the cap tains of the exploring ships which once, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, the English Government did send for the investigation of certain not well-known re cesses of Hudson s Bay. These highly privileged fur- traders kept extremely close the geographical informa tion which they had obtained concerning North America, and the charts and memoirs of their archives, and, in a word, endeavoured to veil in clouds from the great public the whole region that they had explored, and to keep it, as it were, completely under lock and key. Hudson s Bay appeared no longer to offer an opening anywhere, and with regard to the great gulf named after Baffin, the extremely laconic reports of that old illus trious navigator were considered sufficient to the effect that this, like the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson s Bay, was completely surrounded with land and mountains. There is another direction, too, which I have not as yet touched upon, but which can only be regarded as a branch of the north-west voyages in which the gates of discovery appeared for a long while to stand open, namely, directly across the north pole between Green land and Spitzbergen ; and simultaneously with the al- 204 NORTH TOLE LEGENDS. ready described north-west voyages took place a series of attempts which may be called POLAR VOYAGES, or voyages for the discovery of a NORTHERN PASSAGE. About the middle of the sixteenth century, at an epoch, therefore, when no one had ventured far beyond the European " North Cape," the above-mentioned parts of the globe were believed to be formed as follows. Just at the north pole it was supposed there stood a black colossal rock which lifted its lofty head to the fixed Polar star. Around this polar rock, they asserted, flowed an open sea, and this sea was encircled in all the quarters of the compass by four islands of equal size. Four colossal straits or currents proceeding from the great ocean di vided these islands, and through these channels the superfluous waters of the ocean flowed away, collected themselves in the basin that surrounded the pole, and, dashing loudly round the " polar rock/ plunged into the innermost abysses and bowels of the earth. The legend added, that these four large islands were very fruitful, and had the finest and healthiest of climates (" insulce optima et saluberrimce"), and that those nearest to the Atlantic ocean were inhabited by a race of pigmies. This traditional picture of the polar regions is to be found amongst others in the works and maps of the cosmographers of the Emperor Charles Y. When the English and Dutch, at the end of the sixteenth century ? NORTH POLE LEGENDS. 205 began their voyages towards the north-east, towards Norway and Russia, and when they gradually discovered the outlines of Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, and Green land rising out of the ocean, they found the sea around the pole for the most part barricaded by an impenetrable belt of icebergs and fields of ice. But those old ideas of O a fair and friendly " isle of pigmies" at the frozen pole, and the picture, so natural to men under all circum stances, that beyond their misty horizon lay something far more beautiful a very ancient Greek legend had, indeed, already placed this land of the happy and ever- healthy hyperboreans, this earthly paradise, high up to wards the north pole these representations, I say, in duced the belief that at the north pole would be found again open sea, quiet and navigable waters, and a mild climate, if only it were possible to pierce through the terrible barriers of ice off Greenland and Spitzbergen. Many mariners affirmed, from their own observation, that the climate became again to the north better and quite warm ; north of Spitzbergen the sun had melted the tar from the ships planks. Nay, poetry and illusion here, too, lent their aid to the excited imagination, and here, as in the north-west expeditions, reports of polar voyages actually executed were popularly current. Several Dutch men boasted that they had penetrated to the north pole ; and one of them said that he had twice sailed round the 206 POLAR EXPEDITIONS. north pole with the polar star right over his head, under the brightest sunshine, on water smooth as a mirror, and with sails swelled by most favourable gales. All this led to the conjecture that it was possible to arrive at the Pacific ocean and China, if not by the north east passage along the shores of Asia, nor even by the north-west route through America, yet by a northern passage between Greenland and Spitzbergen. This idea was all the more eagerly entertained, that this direct northern route is of course the straightest line that can be drawn between China and England, and the shortest of all the ocean ways. Already in the beginning of the sixteenth century, under the protectorate of the still flourishing "Muscovite Company," which devoted so much attention to all particulars relating to the north, had a series of expeditions been fitted out, to pursue this direc tion. The great sea hero, Hudson, had himself led one of these early polar expeditions, and other navigators followed in his wake. But all either remained stuck in the blocks of ice encircling the pole, or they were driven aside from their original purpose by the profitable and alluring whale fishery which met them on the way, and thus degenerated from adventurous discoverers to mere fishers for whale-oil and seal-blubber. The voyage of a certain Captain Fotherby in the seventeenth century was the last of this first series of polar voyages. After him ARCTIC VOYAGES. 207 for a time men contented themselves with the whale fishery, left the pole alone, and went no further than the pursuit of these living lumps of fat led them. Taken altogether, this state of things lasted through the eighteenth century, though even this period was not without various continually renewed attempts. But these attempts led scarcely to any new discoveries ; for even the great Cook, when he sailed through Behring s Straits, could only attain to a northern non plus ultra which we in these days should describe as a tolerably southern region. The English may have prosecuted these discoveries in the ice and darkness of the pole less energetically because they had in the mean while found the other route to India through the light and fire of the tropics. By sailing round Africa they had taken pos session of India, as the Portuguese had formerly done, and had enough to do to organise their southern water- tracks and acquisitions. Then came the continental war, which arose out of the French revolution, and gave a blow to all the peaceful and scientific undertakings of England. But soon after the peace of Paris began that unpa ralleled succession of voyages to Arctic America, which, pursued during a full half-century, have at last ended in our days with the result that the furthest extremities of the American continent have been unveiled, the north- 208 ARCTIC HEROES. west passage explored, and the new world for the first time entirely sailed round on salt water, and laid before our eyes as an island. The first of these astonishing voyages was made by Captain John Ross, in 1818. This "Nestor of the modern arctic heroes/ as the English name him, had the commission to pierce through Baffin s Bay into the realm of Boreas, and force his way by Behring s Straits out into the South Sea. On the fulfilment of such a voyage the English Parliament had set a reward of 20,000/. ; on the attainment of at least half the way, a lesser prize of 5000/. But Eoss reached neither the one nor the other goal. He went all round Baffin s Bay, and returned home with the tidings that old Baffin had been quite right ; the whole of Baffin s Bay was, in fact, as he had represented it, a land-locked basin of water. Even in the background of the so-called Lancaster Sound, said Koss, he had plainly seen land and moun tains too, and this, likewise, was nothing but a gulf. But on this latter important point William Edward Parry, commander under old Ross, was not of the same opinion as his chief. Strong objections were raised by this young, bold, sharp-sighted man against the exist ence of the "mountains" and "backgrounds" of Lan caster Sound. No one had set foot on these moun tains, not even a boat had ever approached them. Per haps they were only floating icebergs, or even mere CAPTAIX PARRY. 209 clouds. To subject this point to investigation, Parry set out next year with two ships. He soon arrived at the mouth of Lancaster Sound, and sailed up it, first in strained and anxious expectation, but soon in triumph. The mountains of old Ross had disappeared, the sea was open and free, and a long, wide channel showed itself, which Parry called "Barrow s Straits." Through the ice-fields which he met here and there he forced, sawed, bored his way with his ships, and so advanced three hun dred German miles far westward into the Northern Ocean, into an archipelago of large islands, which no mortal eyes from Europe had seen before him, and which were rightly named, after him, " Parry s Isles." He had already overstepped the western line, for the attainment of which the British Parliament had offered a reward of 5000 /. ; already had he announced to his crew that now the other "20,000?. line" would be reached; already he believed Behring s Straits near, and thought they must succeed in sailing over into the waters of Eastern Asia. Already, I say, Parry believed himself to have touched the goal, when at the farthest capes of the large "Melville Island," at the end of the long straits he had sailed through, a sea full of icebergs and storms appeared before him. During his efforts to pierce through it, the brief hours of the arctic summer fleeted away, and as early as August the northern winter VOL. II. p 210 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. stretched forth its grim arms and took the bold adventurer and his comrades prisoners. They wintered twelve hun dred miles from the north pole, in deep ice and snow, and in a five-months night, occupied with astronomical and other observations, with geographical and naturo- historical excursions, in a waste where for hundreds of miles all around them, there was not a sentient being, and whither, in spite of all the exertions of thirty long- years after, no one has succeeded in penetrating again. Never yet had an incursion into the arctic chaos that pierced so far and so prosperously been executed. Contemporaneously with Parry s voyage the English government had given orders for an expedition by land, which was designed to penetrate the territories of the Hudson s Bay Company towards the north, in order, if possible, to hold out somewhere a helping hand to Parry, and which was placed under the command of the noble Sir John Franklin. Franklin reached with indescribable toil the extreme end of the mainland which before him had merely been seen from two points in the far distance, by two celebrated travellers of the fur company, Mackenzie and Hearne wintered in its neighbourhood, travelled over it, discovered and explored a stretch of coast upwards of eight hun dred miles long, but sought in vain for Parry, who, as I said, had in the mean while stuck fast in the ice one MARTYRS OF SCIENCE. 211 thousand miles north of him. The disasters and priva tions which Franklin, his scientific friends Dr. Richardson and Hood, and their other admirable companions under went on this journey can scarcely be described in a small compass. They wandered about for months in open boats, on those inhospitable shores, struggling with storms, breakers, masses of ice, and hostile Esquimaux. When the usual preserved food of travellers in those regions, the " pemmican," as it is called (buffalo flesh, dried, scraped, and packed in leathern sacks), was come to an end, they were compelled to support themselves with difficulty on the berries and mosses which grow scantily on the rocks of the north coast. For festivals and holidays they had to wring their repasts from bears and wolves, and whatever skin and bone these savage beasts left behind them they carefully collected, dried, and pulverised between stones, and prepared their soup from such refuse. When not a bone more was to be found under the snow, they felt their own meagre bodies, and examined their clothing, to discover if yet a piece of leather or a strap remained to stew. Partly forsaken by their people, whom famine and cold were decimating, threatened by some mutinous spirits with conspiracy and murder, the little suffering band the martyrs of science crept over the unknown region of ice in the direction of home, constantly, even in the midst of the greatest dis- 212 LANCASTER SOUND. tress, keeping their scientific aims before their eyes. Even when their fever-shaken skeleton forms were already under the hand of death, they made their astronomical, meteorological and magnetic observations, and with their trembling, frostbitten, emaciated fingers, put them to pa per. If then, in order to relieve their feeble shoulders, they at last threw almost everything aside, they still preserved their journals and reports for the government and the nation. They could at last scarcely, with their changed and ghastly voices, which sounded as if coming out of the grave, make communications to each other, or exhort each other mutually to ENDURANCE, COURAGE, and HOPE. A couple of friendly Indians, heaven-sent mes sengers, who at last came one day among these few de spairing sufferers with some just-shot venison, saved and preserved for us Franklin, who was to give the world so many more disclosures still as to a part of our globe never before visited, and who, undismayed by the want and anguish already endured like Schiller s diver a second and a third time plunged into the cold gloom of the north to fill the goblet of science. Parry, too, returned again more than once and com pleted his earlier discoveries. Old Koss also returned once thither, convinced himself of the navigableness of Lancaster Sound that arctic Gibraltar which he once fancied closed and planted the British flag on the spot SEARCHING EXPEDITIONS. 213 discovered by him, which is the central point and pole of all the magnetic forces vibrating in the heart of the ter restrial globe. And when finally the noble Franklin, in the year 1845, entered for the third time jmto that El Dorado of natural wonders and the most exciting sea- adventures, and there with one of the most splendid out fits which England ever supplied, and with a picked com pany of officers and sailors, and young amateurs of arctic sports disappeared from sight, and when the Secretary of the Admiralty had said that this expedition of Frank lin s should be the last despatched by England for the circumnavigation of America, this prophecy was so far from beino; fulfilled, that it actuallv was the cause of the o / J north swarming w r ith fleets. In the year 1847, Franklin s expedition was expected to return. On its non-arrival that year anxiety arose, and when in the next it still remained away, the anxious wife and troubled friends of the missing hero o stirred up the government, and the whole British nation, to use the most vigorous measures for his rescue. A searching expedition went out in 1848, under the com mand of the experienced south and north pole navi gator, the younger Ross, to Baffin s Bay, and a second went forth to sail round the world to Behring s Straits, in order to watch and work at the two outlets of the great polar basin. These two searching expeditions were fol- 214 SEARCHING EXPEDITIONS. lowed, in 1849 and 1850, by a succession of others. The Hudson s Bay Company, too, ordered a journey by land through the deserts belonging to them, under the charge of the scientific inquirer, Dr. Richardson, the faithful friend and former companion in suffering of Franklin. The American merchants took the warmest share in this benevolent chase, and one of them, Mr. Grinell, presented the government with a sum of money which served to fit out two vessels. The whole civilised world looked on these noble and remarkable exertions of the Anglo-Saxon people for the recovery of their countrymen and friends with the greatest sympathy and earnest expectation. Although se veral earlier scientific expeditions for instance that of La Perouse had disappeared similarly, and been sought for with similar zeal, yet anything to equal this had never yet been experienced. For three hundred years the north-west passage had been the cherished idea, the object of constant pursuit to the British. Many of the dearest memories of their naval service were associated with it ; their most distin guished navigators had either taken part in or been formed by it ; and now the most beloved of all, on whom more than on any other had the world placed its hopes that he would set the crown on the work, had vanished together with all his brave comrades without a trace. CHARACTER OF FRANKLIN. 215 Sir John Franklin, the gentle and spirited discoverer of the north coast of America, with whose great sufferings in behalf of science and the great national object the whole nation was acquainted, and which had called forth the sympathy of the whole reading public of Europe, a man whom neither the cannibals nor the hideous aspect of a death by starvation had deterred, and moreover a man of whom the Indians themselves related with wonder that he had not the will to hurt a fly, that he drove the mos quitoes out of the tent with only a fly-flap, without doing them any harm, or had merely blown away these bloodsuckers from the hand that held the pen, such a man, I say, who was perhaps even then as once before on the Sea of Bears, living on moss, shaken by fever, a half-starved skeleton, suffering in silence, and en couraging his faithful little band by his example, still wandering about on some concealed icy shore, such a man was worth saving ! His despairing widow, and the many mourning families of the other hundred and fifty brave officers and crew, were worth consoling. A wonder ful emulation was suddenly kindled. In the course of the last ten years no fewer than thirty-five well-fitted out ships, with more than one thousand zealous and experienced sea men have one after another gone forth. Behring s Straits, Baffin s Bay, Lancaster Sound, Barrow s Straits, and other branches were beset with watchers. In every opening, 216 EFFORTS TO SUCCOUR. in every frozen portal, in every recess, where one could clierisli the least hope of the discovery, did these search ing expeditions labour in an indescribable conflict with the savage powers of Nature, and the regions of the north pole were thus more full of life than they had ever been. The most extraordinary means, the most unusual tele graphs were contrived in order to convey tidings and signals to their countrymen, still perhaps breathing some where. The ships sent up here and there little balloons with letters fastened to them, in the hope that the wind might blow them far off, and bring them to Franklin. They forged copper collars, and engraved on them news for Franklin; then they caught wolves, foxes, birds, and other creatures, fixed the collars round their necks, and let them loose again, in the hope that Sir John might shoot one of these animals, and make use of the signals thus conveyed. They put aside all that could possibly be spared of the provisions, packed dried meat, and other food that would keep a long while in bags and chests, buried and walled them up here and there on the coast, and then wrote on the rocks: "There, under that block, north-east from this rock, two hun dred steps from the sea-beach, lies food for Sir John Franklin and his comrades ! " In every Esquimaux hut, too, they deposited a similar EFFORTS TO SUCCOUR. 217 writing, and commissioned these migrating people to spread the tidings everywhere they could in those ice- labyrinths and snow-wastes. Wherever a projecting headland or conspicuous crag was to be found, they painted it white and wrote in great red letters a similar greeting to Sir John Franklin. In this manner they filled the whole northern archi pelago with guide-posts, letters, questions, and sighs. And when they found him nowhere, they finally con cluded that he had broken through the polar circle of ice and rocks to the " Polynia" the free and open sea round the pole, of which the old fables began to be revived. There, thought they, he was perhaps wandering like a swan frozen up in a tank, round and round the dark pole, seeking in vain for an outlet to the brighter south. That this representation was false, as was probably the whole idea of the ocean-pool encircling the pole we first learned a short while ago, since it became a certainty that Franklin found his death, not as a triumphant dis coverer of the north pole, but as one defeated and already on his return to England. His grave, or the last traces of him, have been found and recognised in a tolerably southern latitude, in the territory around the mouth of the great Fish River. Parry and Franklin these were the two chief names in the history of the discovery of the north of America. These 218 PARRY AND FRANKLIN. were the two men who earned out there the most de cisive actions. The one disclosed the arctic Pillars of Hercules, Lancaster Sound, and Barrow Straits, through which alone it is possible to penetrate with ships into the northern labyrinth. The other was the first to unfold the northern continental coast of America. Lyons, Kae, Belcher, Beechey, Keene, and all the others who followed them, have only built upon the foundations already laid, traced further the northern shores sketched by Franklin, and pointed out the various branches of the great channel first disclosed by Parry. Nevertheless, each one of these men brought back with him one or two stones wherewith to build up the edifice of North American discovery one a new peninsula, another an island, the third a stretch of coast, the fourth an ocean- strait or a great river ; and moreover they brought with them their excellent journals published over all the world, which are rich to overflowing in the most in teresting observations and speculations on climate, natural history, and ethnography. And thus, from all these fragments and scattered links of the chain, we are able to put together the whole picture of the north as it has existed unobserved since the beginning of the world, and been able to follow to its remotest boundaries the whole terrestrial life which there seems to vibrate in low and faint pulsations. RESULTS. 219 Our zoologists now know the most remote haunts of the cetacea and fishes which animate the polar seas. They no longer ask whither in summer the birds of passage fly, they have found out their nests, which they build there on the smooth ice, and from which they swarm forth to the south. They know how far the reindeer, the elk, the remarkable cloven-footed creatures, yet clad in fur, like the bear the musk oxen which may well be called the " horned cattle of the north pole," pursue their excursions, and how far they can find pasture. They have seen the last traces which the polar bear prints on the snow, and heard the furthest howl of the wolf die away in the noiseless air of the pole. The botanist has inspected all the stages of vegetation, from the lofty pines of Canada downwards to the scanty- dwarf willow-bushes, which straggle here and there on the North American coasts and on its " barren grounds" as on the edges of the Alpine glacier down to the yet lowlier grasses and mosses which lend in spring a streak of greenness even to " Parry s Island ;" down to the microscopic little fungi which in the "Arctic High lands" here and there at least tinge the snow with red. Nor have the ethnographer and the historian gone out from these admirable voyages of discovery with empty hands. For so complete has been the investigation of one of the most remarkable races on the earth, that we 220 THE ESQUIMAUX. now know scarcely any people in the world so fully as the Esquimaux. We now overlook almost all the far extending localities of these races who have attached themselves to the northern coasts for a length of so many hundred miles, and scattered their children as far as the whale, the seal, the moose, and the musk-ox wander. These poor Esquimaux, whom our ancestors abhorred as devil-worshippers (" everywhere here the devil is worshipped," is written in large letters on a mediaeval map of North America, and in the reports of the first discoverers of the Esquimaux land we may read that the English sailors sometimes compelled these people to pull off their boots in order to see if they had not cloven-feet like the Evil One), these calumniated Esqui maux, I say, are now better known. We have seen that there are in their ice-huts thinking beings, even poets and philosophers, that even there the glorious spark which God kindled in the breast of the first man glim mers still, and at times breaks forth in a bright flame, that even there, on the everlasting snow-fields, a sprightly human race is swarming and stirring, and that wit and frolic gush forth in the time of youth (read Parry s description of Esquimaux boys) even at the north pole. Parry, Franklin, and many more of the men who led these arctic expeditions, were characters not only so per severing, bold, and energetic, but also so benevolent, SCIENTIFIC APPLIANCES. 221 gentle-hearted, scientifially educated, and at the same time guarded against all external temptations, as only the hu manised Christian modern times have produced. In their natures were coupled a solid moral strength and manly firmness, with the tenderest susceptibility of feeling, a beautiful union most frequently found in the noble and masculine British race. They were in a much higher degree fitted for the arduous work of exploration amongst savage countries and peoples than any of their predecessors. The arts and sciences which they found in existence furnished them with an abundance of means and apparatus to use on their way which could never before have been supplied to an investigating discoverer. Their ships and boats were constructed on a system invented especially for the north, and prepared for the rough handling which they would receive from the icebergs and floes. Their scientific pre parations were most brilliant, and if we look over the list of the instruments sent with them, the newly-invented appliances for the minutest measurement of time or the manifold properties of air and water, for the investiga tion of the sea in all its depths, for the definition of electric and magnetic forces, one is tempted to say that what were sent out to the north pole were not ships, but floating observatories and mathematical astronomical cabinets. Even the petty arts and artificers of common 222 CREWS OF MODERN EXPEDITIONS. life were called on to serve after their fashion. They contrived the most suitable clothes to bestow on the northern voyagers, and chemists and cooks invented the most trustworthy methods of packing and preserving the provisions, till they brought it to the point of making flesh, milk, and eggs capable of keeping fresh for years, and thus the discoverers were enabled to maintain life through several winters, far from all the slaughter houses, vegetable-markets, and poultry-yards of the old world. The officers were chosen from among the best and most educated men, and even in the common sailors as if the cause were indeed a holy one moral qualities were more carefully sought for than would usually be the case in recruiting for the convent and the monastic orders. Only such as were of blameless morals were accredited with the courage and endurance which were so necessary for the attainment of the difficult goal. The followers of Columbus, without zeal for discovery, tried to throw him overboard ; Hudson was murdered by his ; and a like fate befel many other renowned adventurers of the early time at the hands of their rebellious crews, who could not enter into the great plans of their leaders, and who were impatient of the exertions demanded from them. No such case has ever occurred in the modern British north-west expeditions, and the annals of these WISE MEASURES. 223 form iii this respect a spotless page of history on which the philanthropist s glance is fain to linger. The scurvy, that dreaded pest of seamen, had often swept away whole crews, and caused the finest enterprises to founder. But now such wise measures were taken against the enemy, that sometimes these expeditions did not lose a single man. All the anti-scorbutic plants had been carefully studied, and well-filled medicine chests provided. The commanders even built close to the stoves in their cabins little hot-houses, in which they cultivated the plants which were beneficial against scurvy. These plants, deprived of light through the long polar nights, grew up colourless and white, but kept, nevertheless, all their wonted healing qualities. For the relief of tedium and inactivity (the founda tion of so much evil), which lead naturally to discord and sickness of soul and body, care was taken. Musicians were taken on board, and collections of instructive and entertaining works provided. In the melancholy winter- quarters of the north, where the snow lay piled moun tain-high round the vessels and made all exit impossible, they set going games on the ice. The officers instituted schools on board, and daily instructed their men. They published journals, under an officer s editorship, in which every one put down his ideas. Masked balls were set up, and stages erected, on which the mimetic talent was exer- 224 ENGLISH ACHIEVEMENTS. cised, the commanders of tlie vessels themselves writino- appropriate plays. Thus many a one returned from those gloomy snow wastes to England, whence he had departed a mere ignorant seaman, not only better and more patient, but also more skilful and more instructed. The English have expended almost as much time and toil on the scientific conquest of this their northern ice- labyrinth, as on the subjugation of the golden realms of India. These two acquisitions are both to be ranked among their greatest and most splendid national under takings. In a comparison of the results to which they attained in each, one can scarce refrain from a smile while contrasting the populous Bengal and all its rich abundance with Boothia, the haunt of three hundred poor seal-fishers; Melville Island, inhabited by polar bears, with the sunny Ceylon so rich in all forms of cre ation; the world-famous Calcutta, Delhi, and Benares of Hindostan, with the obscure "Iglooliks" and "Unumacks" of the Esquimaux ; when we see how there one populous principality after another was annexed, often with but little show, and here with what triumph the discovery of the melancholy Bathurst s Island, or the stormy passage through Regent s Inlet was greeted ! " Victoria Land," " King George s Sound," " Coronation Gulf," what splendid names were invented, what comfortless soli- A CONTRAST. 225 tudes were honoured with them, and yet thought worthy of an almost more detailed and graphic description than was given to many an Asiatic kingdom. The comparison might, as I have said, provoke a smile. Yet how pleasant are not the observer s feelings if he then compares the manner in which these strangely contrasted conquests were achieved, and draws a parallel between the actors in the two scenes ! Here all was transacted in kindness and friendship with the natives, who there were reduced to a senile condition. Indeed, the British ships which appeared on those frozen shores were for the period of their stay places of refuge, hospitals, and poor-houses for the suffering humanity there, for the poor native Esquimaux, in which the hungry were fed, the sick ministered to, and the naked clothed. Among the many efforts, enterprises, and labours, which brought all this to pass, and which I regret not to be able to paint here in detail, I must, in conclusion, place only one fact and one remarkable point of time in a somewhat clearer light. I mean the interesting inci dents and circumstances in consequence of which it was finally made out that America was completely sur rounded by salt water, and that the long-sought " north west passage" really existed. Among the various search expeditions which were des- YOL. n. Q 226 CAPTAIN M CLURE. patched in quest of Franklin, was one which, in 1850, under the command of Captain Collinson, was sent to Behring s Straits in order thence to work its way east wards. Captain Collinson himself was not able to ac complish this. But his subordinate, Captain M Clure, who, in his ship Investigator, had been by an accident separated from him, after awaiting in vain for some time the appearance of his chief, took the command and the whole business into his own hands. Continually in the history of American discovery, as in the history of wars, does it occur that disobedient but daring commanders meet with the chief successes. M Clure in the course of a summer pushed along the edges of the north coast of Kussian America. I may here remark, as an almost universal fact in the north, that the easiest passages were everywhere close along the edges of the land, and not in the open expanse of the seas. The mainland is sooner warmed through by the summer sun than the mass of deep water, and the ice is first melted there. The . streams of the interior, whose temperature is somewhat higher also, in pouring down to the shore melt the ice around. Finally, the ice bergs which dip deep into the water cannot come so near the shallow beach, and so they fix themselves firmly to the bottom at some distance from it. In Baffin s Bay, in WINTER HARBOUR. 227 the Russo- American waters, and in all the other wide straits and gulfs, the centre is usually more filled with huge closely packed masses of ice than the sides, and the ships have to creep along the edges of the mainland. Madura, then, as I said, had in the course of the summer of 1850 penetrated eastwards through the cen tral pack-ice of the Polar Sea, from station to station, and had at last reached the neighbourhood of those parts to which Parry had made his way from the west in 1819, namely, Banks s Land. He approached near to locali ties often ploughed by English ships, and hoped to pene trate to them, and so accomplish the circumnavigation of America. But amidst these hopes he was frozen in upon the south side of the same strait on whose northern bank, thirty years before, the equally strong hopes enter tained by Parry had been wrecked in the ice. It was only by help of sledges over the frozen strait that he was able to reach again from the west "Winter Har bour," the same bay in which Parry, in 1820, coming from the east, had wintered ; and again he left letters there in order to apprise any European arriving at the place of his presence and his head-quarters. This was in October, 1850. And this period must be regarded as the actual date of the discovery and completion of the passage around America. Q2 228 THE INVESTIGATOR. While M Clure waited in vain two summers and win ters in his blocked-up vessels for the watery gates to open, a couple of ships had, in fact, arrived from the other and westerly side through Baffin s Bay and Bar row s Straits, at Parry s former winter quarters. These were the ships Resolute and Intrepid, commanded by Captain Kellett, who belonged to Sir Edward Belcher s expedition. Kellett could no more proceed further west ward with his ships than M Clure eastward. He soon, however, learned the vicinity of the latter from the letters found, which, after the custom of Arctic navigators, he had, as before mentioned, strewed on the neighbouring shores and hidden under signal posts in the ice. In the spring of 1853, Kellett sent a sledging party westward, over the ice of Banks s Strait, to seek for M Clure. It was the afternoon of April 6, a memorable day in the annals of American discovery. All on board the Inves tigator, M Clure s ship, was still. His men haggard, wasted, weakened by hunger, sickness, cold, and hard ships of all kinds, had just been preparing a grave for one who had died. They perceived in the east on the ice a dark moving point. They conjectured it at first to be a bear or some other of the wild beasts who were their wonted companions and visitors. The dark spot came nearer. It was a man! and behind him MEETING OF THE ARCTIC VOYAGERS. 229 came other human forms and the barking of dogs. These strangers, whom they gazed on in amaze, were Englishmen. They announced themselves as Lieutenant Pirn and comrades, the leaders of the sledge party des patched by Kellett. An indescribable scene followed when the news flew like lightning amongst the cabins and sick berths of the vessel. Many at first declared it a joke, an error, or a vision. Their minds seemed bewildered and incapable of taking in the truth of what they heard. At least when the reality, in the shape of the said Lieutenant Pirn sprang on board the ship, all feelings found vent in a loud cheer of delight, and " from all corners and O crannies of the ship pressed forth the sick, the speechless, the lame, and the blind, as speedily as their weak and frostbitten limbs would bear them (I use here the words of an eye-witness), " to see the messenger of Heaven, to put their ear to the mouth that addressed them, and to shake his hand." The north-west passage was thus decisively discovered. For the FIRST TIME European sailors, coming from op posite quarters of the world, could shake hands on the uppermost ice-capped crown of the far-stretching statue of America. The whole Continent had been sailed round, all save a very small intervening portion, and 230 MEETING OF THE ARCTIC VOYAGERS. even on this small portion, as they traversed it by a bridge of ice, they had at least salt water under their feet. Now, first, it could be said that the work begun by Columbus nearly four hundred years before had been completed ; and, in pointing to that meeting of the Arctic voyagers, I here conclude the historical picture of the great work which I have endeavoured in a narrow com pass to sketch. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 23 CHAPTEE VI. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON THE RESULTS OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA TO COMMERCE, NAVIGATION, SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND POLITICS. Introduction of European Diseases Changes in the Condition and Habits of the Natives of America Destruction of the American Civilisation Extinction of the Red Race Development of new Races Changes in the Aspect of Nature, and in the Climate through the Cultivation of the Soil and the Introduction of new Animals and Plants: Sugar, Coffee, Cotton, Negro Slavery Spread of American Plants and Animals in Europe: Potatoes, Tobacco, Maize, Medicines, Turkeys Changes of Political and Commercial Power and Hegemony in Europe Zenith of the Power of the Portuguese and Spaniards, and its Decline Decline of Italian Commerce ; of German Commerce ; of the Hanse Towns Free dom of the Netherlands Rise of the English Influence on Sciences Cosmology Astronomy Botanical Gardens Menageries Natural Sciences Ethnography History of Man Impulse to Invention In creased moral and physical Mobility of European Nations Modern Languages and Literature Spread and Stability of the Christian Re ligion. NEITHER the renowned march of Alexander the Great to Asia, nor the noisy deeds of the Crusaders, 232 THE WORLD OF THE ANCIENTS. nor even the destructive eruptions of Alaric or Ghengis Khan, have been so important, nor have had such conse quences for humanity, as the quiet voyage of Columbus with his three small vessels across the ocean. Three hundred and seventy years have elapsed since that event took place, and its consequences, the impulse which it gave to mankind, the good and the evil to which it has led, have had time to become developed. They are of so vast and powerful a nature, that he who shall attempt to speak of the incidents and results of that Herculean work of the maritime nations in the narrow compass of a chapter, appears to be standing before a Chimborazo which he wants to climb in an hour, before an ocean of occurrences which he wants to empty with a nutshell, or to sound with an inch rule. Before Columbus and Vasco da Gama to speak within bounds not more than the sixth part of the land and water superficies of our globe was known to the civi lised nations. They dwelt on this sixth part, as it were, upon a large island. They were islanders who knew nothing of the rest of the world. For thousands of years they had moved about and played their parts on this narrow stage. The much-dreaded ocean which sur rounded the so-called Orbis terrarum, its powerful tides and waves, and the storms which raged upon it, shut men up in their island as with a wall or barrier of clouds, THE WORLD OF THE ANCIENTS. 233 and our unskilled, prejudiced, and timid forefathers sat within this barrier like prisoners in a cage. It was Columbus who opened the door of this cage, who pierced the wall, and threw down the barrier of prejudices. He smoothed the wild ocean, and trans formed it from an impediment into the grand arena of commerce for which the Creator had intended it. The island called world was, so to say, frozen in before Co lumbus. He thawed the ocean, poured oil upon it, and set all around in motion ; to such effect, that the most distant things, which till then had seemed unattainable, now were seen to be connected by the most intimate and natural ties. Let us imagine that for cycles upon cycles a commu nity of thinking beings had dwelt upon one of those spheres of the universe which we call stars, but that suddenly another sphere, a planet or comet, should shoot through space, dip into the atmosphere and the waters of the first star, and, becoming united with it, would thenceforth form a double star. Let us then think of the revolution such an occurrence would produce in the condition of the old star, and we can then picture to our selves the state of things on our earth before and after Columbus. America rose out of darkness like as if it had been a new planet joined on to the old. From the first, this 234 THE NEW WORLD. was felt to be the case. " He gave us a new world," were the pithy words which King Ferdinand himself wrote down for Columbus s tomb. In this inscription all is comprised. It is now my task to develop in as few words as possible the full meaning of this laconic epi taph. In this attempt I could, and indeed I ought to, go through the entire history of the last four hundred years, and show, step by step, how the importance of the ocean and of America has grown in ever-increasing propor tions up to the present day; how, since the time of Columbus, scarcely anything has taken place with us without the ocean and America glimmering in the back ground ; and how at present there can be scarcely any change in the moral condition of any part of the globe which is not interwoven, so to speak, with American or oceanic elements. But, as I have said, I must be brief, and endeavour at once to seize the points of all those facts and events which are most characteristic and important. In this attempt I shall mainly adhere to the following points of view : 1. The effects of the discovery of Ame rica on that continent itself; 2. On the trade, general intercourse, and politics of the old world; 3. On the intellectual and moral character of subsequent genera tions ; 4. On science and Christianity. THE ABORIGINES. 235 As America itself was plainly the first to be affected by its discovery, as it experienced the consequences of the meeting of the two worlds earlier, more rapidly, and in a far greater degree than the old "island," I shall begin with that country. The old population of America, so poor in means of defence, soon succumbed to the stronger and higher- gifted Europeans. Its peculiar civilisation sickened and died in the embrace of a foreign culture, and the seeds of new people and new states were spread over its wide regions. From ah 1 sides new inhabitants, new animals, and new plants were introduced. As with the children of the soil, so likewise were the indigenous plants and races of animals in part exterminated, and nature, the whole physiognomy of the land even the climate be came greatly changed. The history of the SUBJUGATION and DESTRUCTION of the RED RACE by the WHITE, forms one of the most horrible chapters in the annals of mankind. Nowhere has less value been attached to human life ; nowhere have nations, possessed of superior power, in flicted so pitilessly on their weaker fellow-creatures such fearful acts of cruelty and oppression as in AMERICA. Nowhere, too, has a race been seen weaker and less capable of offering resistance to its oppressors than the aborigines of that country, whose pulse, according to the 236 WORK OF EXTERMINATION. experiences of medical men, has twelve fewer beats in the minute than the average pulsation of the inhabitants of the old world. The natives of America have been mowed down like grass, have melted like snow in the hard grasp of the iron knights of Spain. Possibly the circumstance that the latter found them selves so greatly in the minority amidst the redundant population of the new world may have contributed to make their conduct so terribly severe, their wars so fear fully bloody. In small bodies, they were often only enabled to save themselves by the most unflinching cou rage. They had everywhere to gain their ends by the employment of desperate means, and in their situations of difficulty they gave way to the passion of merciless destruction. They accustomed themselves to exterminate the In dians like birds of the forests, and they took to their aid savage animals, the fearful bloodhounds, some of which were so distinguished for their capacity to worry that the kings of Spain granted them pay and rations like their warriors, and whose names, " Berecillo" and others, have been handed down to posterity in the annals of Spain like the names of their masters, the Pizarros and consorts. As food for cannon in the sanguinary battles, with the steel and under the axes of their unlawful execu- SUFFERINGS OF THE INDIANS. 337 tioners, by the teeth of their savage war-hounds, and, if all these did not do the work quick enough, in the flames of huge pyres, hundreds of thousands of the original in habitants of America came to a dreadful end. Still more met their death in cruel bondage, as slaves, driven to the performance of work more arduous than any to which they had ever been accustomed. They were yoked to the plough, forced to penetrate into the bowels of the earth to search for gold, to dive to the bottom of the sea to bring up pearls; they were abused as beasts of burden, made to carry the Spanish officers, their baggage, their cannon, over end less mountains, across bogs, and through forests of vast extent. Thus hosts upon hosts met their death, and those who escaped the horrors of war, and, as slaves, did not sink under the lashes of their taskmasters, were carried off by disease. Many of the European diseases, particularly the small pox, attacked the Indians with a deadly force. It seemed as if these OLD European pests in their contact with the NEW race were, like the Europeans themselves, possessed of a peculiarly destructive power. They raged amongst the people of the new world like fire amongst the dry herbage of the prairies. The sufferings and the torments which burst upon 238 EPIDEMIC SUICIDE. the poor Americans from the Pandora s box which the Spaniards opened upon them, were so unsupportable to this people, that even hope flew away from the bottom of that box, and unable to bear the sight of these terrible men, their steel and fire, suicide became general. It was seen to spread in America like an epidemic, to an extent far beyond all parallel in the history of any other people. The entire populations of islands driven to despair, sought in death a release from their sufferings, and whole families, bidding farewell to their beautiful island homes, cast themselves from the rocks into the sea. And this did not occur in the time of the Spaniards only. The Portuguese, the English, and the French, who followed the Spaniards to other regions of America, did not display a much gentler spirit ; and as their ad vent was accompanied by many of the same evils and terrors, the spectacle of whole populations committing suicide has, down to modern times, been repeated in other parts of the country. On the Mississippi and the Missouri, when the Eu ropeans reached the sources of these rivers, and sur rounded the tents of the native hunters; when their diseases spread amongst them, and wolves and foxes penetrating into their tents devoured the dying ; in those regions, too, the remnants of nations filled with despair RAPID DISEASE. 239 sought relief in self-destruction. Entire tribes vanished thus in anguish and in terror of Europeans. However violently the old conflicts of the American tribes may have raged amongst themselves (according to what we are told), yet they can have been but as child s play in comparison with the scourge of war which the Europeans let loose upon them. For, despite these ancient animosities, we found America occupied in every valley and in every corner by a cheerful people. But when the Europeans had completed their work of dis covery and colonisation, in many broad regions the aborigines had been trodden down and had vanished like autumn flowers when winter comes. A few decenniums after the first voyage of Colum bus, the statements of the former great numbers of the Indians seemed incredible and fabulous. The Jesuit Charlevoix reports that only one hundred years from the commencement of the French conquest no more than the twentieth part of the original inhabitants re mained. On this side the Mississippi, in lands half as large as Europe, no further TRACE of them is found. Those American people in whom a peculiar civilisa tion had begun to be developed were interrupted in their growth and stifled in their childhood. The anni hilating blows of the Spanish conquistador es fell more especially on the supporters of that civilisation than 240 AMERICAN CIVILISATION. on the masses of the people. The heathen augurs, the old regal races, the distinguished men of the country, and the teachers of the people, were hunted down in Mexico and Peru more than the common man. And their works of art were destroyed, and their hieroglyphic writings burnt by Christian priests. The masses who remained were robbed, so to speak, of their brains and their eyes, of those organs by means of which a kind of higher education had been, and could alone continue to be, imparted to them. The Euro peans, who neither adopted their language nor customs, had no power to give them anything in place of what they had lost. The natives forgot their ANCIENT knowledge and arts, without acquiring NEW. They scarcely acquired a habit, feeling, or instinct of civilisation. Their old heathen worship was exchanged for a grotesque Catholicism and the coarsest Christianity. At the present day they speak their old language, as in the time of Cortez, and even now they seem to us to be the creatures of another w T orld. In many districts of America, in consequence of the irruption of Europeans, the natives became more com pletely savages that they had been before ; this was the case, for instance, with the tribes spread over the wide CHANGES IN ANIMAL LIFE. 241 prairies of the Mississippi, the endless pampas of Pata gonia, and the La Plata territory. In former times, the latter lived as peaceful pedestrians in the society of dogs and herds of guanacos that they had tamed. But when the Europeans came and brought over the horse, the races of hoofed animals increased like the sands on the shore ; and when, in consequence, these tribes learned to ride, their habits and customs became entirely changed. They became equestrian robbers, far more active and much wilder than they had been before. The horned cattle, too, which had been introduced into the country, became wild and spread over vast districts. It was the same with dogs, which, in many places, were transformed into thoroughly savage animals, associating with wolves and jaguars. Similar changes took place in pigs, which, in the course of time, became transformed into entirely peculiar races of wild swine, their nature and the shape of their bodies altering to such a degree that nothing like them had ever before been seen in America, nor yet in Europe. European animals increased to such an extent in some of the regions of America, that they even altered the aspect of the country, revolutionising the character of the soil and plants. From the plains, for example, over which wild horses in thousands scampered, many peculiar VOL. II. R 242 CHANGES IN NATURE. American plants and bushes disappeared. But other grasses which resisted their tread took their place, and became masters of the soil. Thus many large strips of bushland were transformed into useful pastures. The class of insects, too, was just as much affected as the vegetation. Even the habits of indigenous birds and beasts of prey, like those of the Indians, became changed. And in many districts, hawks, kites, jaguars, and pumas, increased in proportion to the increase of carrion. But the European conquerors and settlers, and the iron to which their hands were accustomed, did far more than their animals to alter the nature of the new world. Their ploughs, their axes, and their deadly firelocks brought about in certain districts a state of things en tirely new. The American forests, which had hitherto known only the weak stone hatchet of the Indians, were soon thinned by iron axes and the sharp teeth of saws ; and whole ranges of mountains in Mexico and elsewhere were in a short time robbed of their beautiful primeval woods. Here and there, the climate in consequence became greatly modified, and moist districts changed into dry. In many places a noisome aridity obtained. The plough and the spade, which followed the de structive axe, revolutionised still further. They trans formed the natural wilderness into an artificial garden, FRUIT-TREES. 243 and in Canada and the Brazils the climate was gradually improved and made milder, although the first turning up of the soil produced peculiar diseases and fevers. Some of the plants which had been long cultivated in the old world and brought over to the new for instance, the vine from Europe, the tea and spice-plants from Asia, for which it was hoped to gain new ground in tropical America, have resisted all efforts to make them thrive. Despite the similarity of latitude and climatical conditions, the nature of the new w^orld appears to be opposed to these and some other forms of vegetation, and for some reasons, still unexplained, she refuses them the right of citizenship. Many other cultivated and nutritious plants and fruit- trees of the old world the new has willingly adopted, and even improved in quality. Our wheat succeeds admirably in Southern, as well as Northern America. Several kinds of fruit, too, . as oranges, apples, and peaches, flourish in many districts and climates of America; whilst lemons, pears, and apricots thrive not so well. Peach-trees are found in all parts of the new world ; in Chili, in Buenos Ayres, and the United States they grow everywhere luxuriantly, and the fruit is finer than in its old Persian home. Africa and the South Sea islands have likewise sent useful presents to the great continent lying between R2 244 VALUABLE PLANTS. them: Asia sent the banana, and Otaheite the bread- tree. Much more important, however, has it turned out for America, and indeed for the world s commerce, that she has so readily adopted those remarkable plants in regard to civilisation and trade, the sugar-cane, the coffee-tree, and cotton-plant, to which rice may be added, and that soon after the discovery of the countiy such extensive regions were set apart for their cultivation. Although derived from Asia and Africa, they have taken root in America to such an extent that we are now almost accustomed to look upon them as American pro ducts. Sugar has become in such a preponderating manner the staple article of the West Indies, that they have been named par excellence the "sugar islands." Coffee is become the life-blood of Brazilian trade, and the importance of cotton is brought more prominently forward than ever in consequence of the civil war now raging in America. For America itself these plants are especially remark able, because with them the sable inhabitants of Africa have wandered into the countiy, and taken the place of the diminishing natives. After Columbus, Africa, like Europe, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, but, to be sure, poor Africa did not willingly go to sea. By her hard hearted sister and neighbour, Europe, ill-treated and AFRICAN SLAVES. 245 enslaved, she was dragged over to the new world in chains and fearful sufferings. Before the discovery of America, European slave-hunts in Africa and the trade in negroes had already begun. But without America, on whose soil negroes thrived just as well as coffee and sugar, this iniquitous trade would never have obtained that enormous importance and extension which we have seen. Together with the sanguinary and pitiless extirpation of the natives of America, the dragging of Africans to that country must be reckoned as the most terrible, most iniquitous, and ever to be lamented consequences of Columbus s discovery. Each of these abominable mis deeds and crimes, committed for centuries by the mari time nations of Europe, has produced results equally fearful as regards the lot of the victims, and, be it said, the morals of the cruel evil-doers. A celebrated author has observed, that for the wealth and the gifts of the new world mankind has paid a high price in general morality, and that the benefits have been purchased by the misery, the tears, and the blood of one hundred thousand human beings sacrificed yearly. In making this reflection, the author s eyes were fixed on those two just-named black and fearful pages in the history of the nations who discovered America. These cursory remarks on the events under considera- 246 EUROPE S DEBT TO ASIA. tion, in their bearings on the ONE side of the ocean, must here suffice. In passing over to the OTHER side, to Eu rope, it seems to me best that I should again begin with the interchange of plants and animals, and the influences on our habits and customs resulting therefrom; that I should then proceed to consider the political and com mercial changes, and lastly conclude with pointing out the altered position of Christianity, of civilization, of sciences, and the highest interests of humanity. When Europe, originally poor in natural products, had received, through Demetrius and Triptolemus, wheat ; through Bacchus, the vine ; cherries through Lucullus ; and the silkworm through the Emperor Justinian ; and when, on other occasions, she had received a few more plants and gifts valuable as food or luxuries from teem ing Asia, she obtained nothing new of like value until the discovery of America. Until the time of Columbus Europe was greatly in Asia s debt; but since that time she owes so much to America that it becomes a question whether, in the last three hundred years, she has not been more indebted to the new world than to the seat of paradise, since the creation of this earth. In this Asiatic paradise there was neither potatoes, nor Indian corn, nor tobacco, nor many other of those American plants which have gained THE POTATO. 247 so great a spread, and have produced such extraordinary and lasting results amongst us. The introduction of the potato alone has made the discovery of America of more importance to posterity than all the rich gold and silver mines of Peru, although, as we shall soon see, the latter have been the cause of many remarkable political revolutions. The potato is a vegetable quite peculiar to America, indigenous there as well in the north as in the south. It is one of the whole- somest and most admirable articles of food, and it is not the least of its good properties that it is day after day agreeable to every palate. It succeeds well and can be propagated readily in every kind of soil, and almost in every quarter of the globe. It can be cultivated at small expense, suits the fields well, and, until the latest times at least, has not been subject to disease. In consequence of these and other invaluable pro perties, when once those prejudices, which even the most beneficial innovations have always to encounter, were overcome, the potato spread both in and out of Europe in a manner without parallel in the history of any other nutritious vegetable. It has travelled from America, through Europe, through Asia and Siberia, to Kamtschatka, thus making the cir cuit of the globe, causing everywhere in its progress 248 INDIAN CORN. noiseless revolutions, but not the less remarkable and, in general, beneficial. Since the time when the Englishmen Hawkins and Kaleigh brought over these American roots, periods of scarcity and famine have been much less destructive, and the population of many countries consequently has greatly increased. The potato, too, has brought cultivation and inhabitants into many poor mountainous districts of Europe. In Germany, the culture history of many of the sandy regions in the north begins with the introduction of this vegetable, which, for example, has had more to do with the history of the Mark Brandenburg and the growth of Prussia than at first sight appears. Another of America s gifts, not less valuable in many parts of the old world, is that celebrated corn called maize a name derived from the language of the Antilles which Columbus brought to Spain in returning from his third voyage, and which, in his life-time, was eagerly cultivated in that country. From the oldest times this plant has formed a national and staple article of food in America. Its culture has been observed amongst all the aborigines of that country, as well in the north as in the south. This nutritious plant was eagerly received by many of the European na tions, and at present, in many parts of Italy, Turkey, and TOBACCO. 249 Southern Germany, it is the principal corn to be seen in the fields, and has become a favourite, indeed national, article of food. With the introduction of another American plant, a most peculiar Indian custom has spread, and indeed be come firmly rooted amongst us. On his first voyage, Columbus observed with astonishment the natives of his island, San Salvador, sitting idle on the beach, inhaling and puffing out again the smoke of a burning weed. The reeds by means of which they brought the hot smoke into their mouths they called "tabaco" and from this has been derived the name of that remarkable plant, which, like the American potato, has wandered from land to land, making the journey round the world. The Spanish and Portuguese sailors were the first to adopt the Indian custom of intoxicating themselves with the leaves of this narcotic plant. But the English culti vated it in their colonies sooner than any other European people, and they have done the most to promote its spread. They and the French introduced this plant into European gardens, where it was cultivated by botanists and apothecaries, who looked upon it as a wonderful curative remedy, called it a royal plant, and pronounced it to be a panacea in a hundred forms of disease. In France and England smoking first came into fashion at the courts, and tobacco received the name of the 250 SPREAD OF TOBACCO. " Queens weed/ after the Queens Elizabeth of England and Catherine de Medici of France. At a later date smoking was introduced by English soldiers and travellers into Russia ; and at the com mencement of the seventeenth century English and Dutch navigators had carried the custom to all parts of Asia and Africa. Although smoking was subsequently forbidden by many European rulers, and in spite of the severe pu nishments, even mutilations and death, which many Asiatic czars and pashas inflicted on those who indulged in tobacco, nevertheless the invention of the American red skins spread in all directions in an astounding manner until it made the circuit of the globe. It was welcomed by all the races of men, with red or black, white or yellow skins, by all nations and ranks, bar barous or civilised, by high and low, anthropopagi or eaters of vegetables ; and in the tents of the Arabs and Tartars, as well as in the palaces of sultans and great moguls, the custom soon prevailed. The variety of tastes in the human race has become proverbial. There is no exception to this rule so uni versal and remarkable as that in favour of this American weed and Indian custom. In the taste for tobacco and in passionate indulgence in its use all mankind are in harmony. TOBACCO SMOKING. 251 If we consider what a powerful influence tobacco has had upon the health and habits of men, on agriculture, on our state governments, and on politics, we may in truth say that through this plant alone the discovery of America has produced results of a most astonishing cha racter in all the other quarters of the globe. Smoking has caused our habits to become in many ways less sociable, and has greatly injured family life. By men withdrawing to envelop themselves in smoke, the intercourse of the sexes became loosened. And as tobacco diminishes the appetite but increases thirst, taverns and coffee-houses, and other establishments for the sale of beer and wines, came into fashion. We have to thank the discovery of America for much of that kind of so-called sociability to be found in places of public resort. Had there been a Roman plebs after the time of Columbus, " Tabac et circenses" and not " Panem et circenses? would have been the cry. America, the home of tobacco, has further continued to be its greatest producer. But it has been cultivated too in other countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa and the agriculture of many extensive districts has con sequently been greatly changed. Many branches of industry and trade which were unknown before the introduction of tobacco have since become prevalent amongst us. 252 AMERICAN FLOWERS. Since that time, too, many countries and provinces, our knowledge of which was very slight, have become of importance through the cultivation of that plant. It has caused many towns and ports to flourish, and as the rulers of states soon saw in the astonishing demand for tobacco a means of increasing their revenues by taxing it as a luxury or by monopoly of its sale, it has played an important part in the laws and fiscal arrangements of almost every country. Potatoes, maize, and tobacco are the most prized gifts which we have received from the American flora. But we have only to think of the pine-apple, now in all our hot-houses, and of such generally admired flowers and plants as azaleas, dahlias, mongolias, sun and passion flowers, asters, fuchsias, and the amaryllis, which adorn our gardens, to become aware how much we owe to the exertions of Columbus, Cortez, and their followers, in bringing over to Europe the seeds, bulbs, and cuttings of these and many other plants now become naturalised amongst us. Many of the luxurious products of America cannot be made to thrive with us. But commerce brings them to Europe in such vast quantities, that there are few ware houses and store-rooms without them. I will here only mention the nourishing and aromatic fruit from which a favourite beverage is prepared, which Cortez was the CHOCOLATE. 253 first European to taste when received by Montezuma as his guest in Mexico. It was subsequently introduced by the Spaniards into Spain, and the old Aztec name " cliocolatl" has been received with but little change into every language. The chocolate-tree or cacao, the delicious vanille creeper, and some other spice and aromatic plants, are exclusively American products, so thoroughly belonging to that country that it has been found impossible to bring them to perfection in any other part of the globe. "With, several plants belonging to the American tropics this has, however, not been the case. In Africa (in ad dition to maize), the cassada plant, the pine-apple, cap sicum, and the precious nopal, or Indian fig-thistle, on which the cochineal insect breeds, thrive admirably ; and these American gifts have long been cultivated by the negroes, and some of them are now likewise cultivated by the French in Algiers. Although soon after the discovery of America many Europeans died of peculiar diseases brought over from that country (amongst the rest even a monarch, Francis, king of France), the American woods have on the other hand filled our apothecaries shops with valuable medicines. I shall here only call attention to a few, known amongst us by their ancient American names : for instance, the copaiva balsam, sassaparilla, sassafras (found every- 254 AMERICAN MEDICINES. where in that country, and which once was in such favour with our sick that whole shiploads were brought over to Europe) ; further, the precious w^ood from Guayana, quassia, jalap, ipecacuanha, and lastly, the wonderful quinine, one of the most powerful restorative remedies which Heaven has granted for human debility, and which is found only in the forests of Peru. The old inhabitants of America were great botanists, and well acquainted with the curative properties of their plants, and we have learned a great deal from them. But it would be necessary to make extensive studies, and to deliver a course of lectures on the subject, if w r e would collect and communicate all that European physicians, apothecaries, and the sick owe to America, and point out how the ancient American knowledge has, since the time of Columbus, been instilled into our minds and mixed up with our concerns. America stretches out between two wide oceans, and, just within the tropics it is broken up into numerous islands and narrow isthmuses. Thus, in contrast to the broad mass of Africa in like latitudes, it has a humid climate, a superabundance of rivers and rainy districts. It consequently teems with vegetable wealth; but in variety of races of animals it is far behind the old con tinent. Whilst from America s thick and inexhaustible pri- TURKEYS. 255 meval forests new wonders of vegetation have continually come to us down to the present day (I have only to point here to the queen of flowers, the splendid Victoria Regia), our homesteads, on the contrary, have received from thence but one domestic animal, the so-called turkey. In many parts of Europe, particularly in the Danubian Provinces, where it gets its favourite food, Indian corn, this fowl thrives and increases to a great extent ; yet for size and beauty of plumage, and, I may add, for the delicacy of flesh, our European specimens are not to be compared to those in the woods of America. After these remarks on maize, tobacco, potatoes, ipe cacuanha and turkeys, as well as on the changes they have caused in our fields, our kitchens, our materia medico, and in our habits and customs,. I must beg the reader to mount with me into a higher region, to take a survey of the great political and commercial revolutions the dis covery of America has produced. In the beginning it appeared as if all the gain by this event was to fall to the share of Spain and Por tugal. The rulers of these two countries, between whom the Pope had divided the globe like an apple, soon began to boast that in their realms the sun never set. Por tugal attained to such an extent of power and glory as 256 SPANISH POWER. has seldom been equalled by any other nation of like numerical amount, and never so suddenly acquired. For a considerable time the Portuguese were the boldest and most skilful sailors of Europe, and the heroic deeds they performed inspired the imaginations of poets. And Spain, which in the ten years succeeding the discovery of America had increased the number of its ships from a few hundreds to more than a thousand, and into which country all the treasures of Mexico and Peru were poured, soon became, under its monarchs Charles V. and Philip II., the terror of our quarter of the globe. For some time Spain was the most power ful state in Europe. Her soldiers, accustomed to all climates, and to brave dangers and difficulties of every kind, were in the sixteenth century the most valiant and most dreaded warriors. Wherever the Spanish regiments appeared, says Jetter, " upright like tapers, with stern looks, and, how great soever their numbers, marching as with one vast tread, there the ground trembled, on this, as well as on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, and people s hearts shrivelled up within them." It seemed to them " as if the sky was hidden behind a black cloth, which hung down low above their heads." It appeared, indeed, as if Spain was to have command not only of America, not only of Europe, but of the whole world. She reached the summit of her power in DECLINE OF SPAIN. 257 the year 1580, when Philip II. took also possession of Portugal, with all its dependencies in the Brazils, in the East Indies, and other parts of Asia. But scarcely had Spain reached this summit of power than she began to decline. The seeds of decay had long been within. She had shot up too rapidly, and even during her growth was like a hollow tree. The poisonous seeds, the destroying evil rooted in part in the constitution which meanwhile Spain had received on its own account, as well as on account of its colonies in America. Before the victories over the Moors, and the discovery of America, Spain had been a complex of vigorous states possessing very liberal constitutions. It contained a number of industrious towns, which were almost in dependent in regard to their municipal affairs, like our free German Imperial cities, and in which hand-works and manufactures flourished. The state of things at that time in Spain may be compared to the Confederation of the United Netherlands, or of Switzerland. But with the conquest of Granada, and the union of all these states and towns into one empire and under one head, all those separate constitutions were gradually thrown overboard. Centralisation levelled in Spain, as it has everywhere done. When the nation as conquerors went beyond its bor- VOL. n. S 258 DECAY OF FREEDOM. ders; when the bravest of its sons fought in Italy, in Africa, in Germany, and Flanders, and lastly in Ame rica, the military spirit gave birth to a decided despotism in the monarchs, and these, whilst the best blood of the people was being spilt abroad, undermined at home, and at length destroyed the old foundations of the consti tution. With the discovery of America and its gold and silver mines, a thirst for gold spread amongst the popula tion. The Spaniards consequently neglected the preser vation of their civil freedom, and with it, too, the cul tivation of those surest sources of wealth and happiness, productive labour in agriculture, mechanical arts and trade. The Emperor Charles, in his celebrated war against the towns, destroyed the freedom and the bloom of the Spanish municipal institutions, just at the time when Cortez conquered Mexico. Amidst the noise of arms, and the greed of discoveiy and conquest, liberty, in dustry, and mechanical arts received a withering blow. " Not to him who plunders it does the world belong, but to him who cultivates it with the sweat of his brow." It is not the glittering coins and precious metals which form the basis of their welfare, but industry and know ledge are the true supports of the power and prosperity of nations. The Spaniards came to forget these truths THE INQUISITION. 259 in a remarkable degree, and partly in consequence of their grand conquests in America. The same glowing zeal for their faith, which had in spired them with the power to expel the Moors, and filled them with enthusiasm in crossing the ocean, in over leaping its bounds, became fanaticism, and gave birth to that monster, the Inquisition. This inquisition, originally intended to act against the descendants of Jews and Moors for the pure-keeping of the Christian faith, by degrees turned against every freedom of thought, every liberty of action, against science and art ; and, as it at last was used to confiscate honestly gained wealth and to plunder industry, it became the most fearful aid to despotism, the most appalling instrument with which tyrants have ever oppressed, lamed, and paralysed a people. The narrow-minded system of government which the kings of Spain had established at home, they also introduced throughout their American colonies. The full power of the nation was granted no field for display in the new world. Nothing was allowed to be undertaken except in the name of the government ; and in Spain certain privileged places only were permitted to trade with the colonies. In the several provinces of Ame rica, no interchange of goods was allowed. The one dared not supply the wants of another ; whatever each required had to be brought direct from the mother country. 260 RESTRICTIONS ON COMMERCE. Many agricultural plants were forbidden to be intro duced into America. The great ocean, which seemed to invite freedom of commerce, was put under lock and key, as it were, like an inland canal with its sluices. Only at certain times, and in certain prescribed courses, were the three-masters allowed to sail, and then with a regularity like that of the Dutch Treck-schuyts. The vast Pacific Ocean the Spanish kings tried to turn into a mare clausum to make of it an inland lake. Every year they sent from Acapulco one or two ships over to Asia. The cargoes which they took, and those which they brought back were always alike, according to fixed orders ; and even the directions in which the vessels steered continued for two hundred years always the same. All foreign nations were absolutely forbidden to enter into the new world. It is plain that regulations such as these amongst Eu ropean nations, so little resembling the Chinese, could not be maintained, for any length of time, that the au thors of such a system in reality were preparing their own ruin. When Spain no longer possessed any flourish ing towns, produced nothing suited to America s wants, it had to purchase of other industrial peoples those things which itself and colonies required. As it would not allow other Europeans the least share in its trade, it drove them to extremities, induced them to turn pirates, SYSTEMATIC SMUGGLING. 261 to lay in wait for the silver fleets and plunder them of their wealth. The colonies, too, being allowed no inter course with one another, and being obliged to purchase in the mother country at fixed and exorbitant prices the goods they required, naturally grasped at any means to procure them from other nations who offered them on far cheaper terms. Thus an extensive system of smug gling was called into life, which nothing sufficed to check. In a short time, not a twentieth part of the goods- which were transported from Spain to America were produced in the former country. Nineteen parts of every twenty came from Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. According to the calculation of the historian Robert son, the American gold and silver mines produced yearly the value of from six to seven million pounds sterling. In three hundred years, this would have made the enormous sum of two thousand million pounds. Had this money remained in Spain and been advantageously laid out in that country, almost every man might in time have become a small capitalist. But from what has been stated, it may be readily inferred that all this money did nothing to promote the wealth and prosperity of the people. A portion of it was paid to English smugglers, another portion came into the hands of English, French, 262 EUROPEAN POWERS. and Dutch buccaneers, and the money that actually reached Spain did not remain there. The indolent, arrogant Spaniards, with their pride of birth, saw it slip through their fingers, and circulate amongst the pro ducing and trading nations. It served but to strengthen their rivals and enemies, and their own rebellious sub jects, the Netherlanders. Briefly to recapitulate : through the discovery of Ame rica Spain was raised in the first instance to a dazzling and Europe-terrifying height, but ruined in the end, and with it Portugal too. Just the reverse, however, was the result of that event on neighbouring kingdoms and peoples on France, England, and the Netherlands. In consequence of the discovery of America, in the first instance, they were thrown into the background ; but in the end they eman cipated themselves, partly by means of America and the ocean, from Spanish supremacy, and remained the victors. In the beginning the Kings of Spain pressed hard on France from every side. They destroyed her influence in Germany, drove her from Italy, kept down the Ne therlands with their troops, and tried to destroy the freedom of her cities in the same way as they had already done in the cities and provinces of Spain. For some time every nation was consumed by jealousy and ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND HOLLAND. 263 dread of the Spanish supremacy, and even England, when her Queen Mary gave her hand to Philip, the ruler of Spain, seemed, like the Netherlands, about to become a dependency of that empire, and to fall under the tyranny of the inquisition. But the rise of England under Elizabeth, of the Netherlands under William of Orange, and the fall of Spanish influence in France through the exertions of Henry IV., were events which took place almost at the same time ; and equally contemporary were the growth of powerful fleets in these three countries, and their conquests and colonisation in America; those of France in Canada, of the English in Virginia, and of the Dutch in New York and Brazil. We are unable to assert that at that time these other nations were much more enlightened, or had adopted more liberal views and principles of trade and political economy than the Spaniards and Portuguese. On the contrary, the French, like the Spaniards, had made their colonies a government affair : and the Dutch, when they became powerful at sea, were just as exclusive and jea lous of foreigners as the Portuguese. All of them English, French, and Dutch granted monopolies and privileges, and established companies not only to exclude foreigners, but likewise to prevent their own unprivileged countrymen from trading. 264 RIVALS OF THE SPANIARDS. They were all of them, too of which we have plenty of evidence no less greedy of gold than the Spaniards and Portuguese. If, instead of the Spaniards, any one of these nations had been the first to get possession of the gold and silver mines of the new world, the fate of this one would have been the same as that of Spain. Not to their self-denial and liberal principles do they owe their success, but to the peculiarity of their position. This position obliged them to some extent to try to find out some better way of going to work. In regard to Spain, they were all of them, as it were, in the opposi tion, and this forced them all by degrees to develop their national energies. Besides, the best parts of America were already occupied, so that they had to put up with the poorer northern regions, and these could only be turned to account by a laborious cultivation. England in especial owes to its eager rivalry with Spain that aspiring and enterprising character, that inventive in dustry and perseverance, now so remarkable in its inha bitants, and which originally they did not at all possess. This rivalry ended in placing the rule over the ocean in their hands, and enabled them everywhere to reap where the Spaniards and Portuguese had- sown. And like as the poet said to the Romans, " For you has Carthage flourished, for you has Alexander conquered," so also THE GERMANS AND ITALIANS. 265 might the English be told that for them Columbus dis covered, Gama sailed, and Magellan sacrificed his life. The discovery of America and the freedom of the seas proved in the beginning the most detrimental to the trade and prosperity of Central Europe, particularly to that of Germany and Italy. Until that discovery, both these people, the Italians and Germans, had been and from the same cause, trade with the East the most prosperous of our quarter of the globe, as their flourishing commercial ports and republics attested. The Italians had their Genoa, Venice, Florence, and other wealthy cities ; whilst the Germans had their com manding Hansa in the north ; and in the south, the great emporiums of commerce and exchange, Niirnberg and Augsburg, in which the Rothschilds of that time, the Welsers and Fuggers, resided. When Spain and Portugal raised their tridents, Venice began to decline ; though other circumstances have likewise to be taken into account as contributing to this result. With the fall of Venice and the decrease of the importance of the Mediterranean, the south German cities lost their vitality, and the days of the German Fuggers came to an end. When England soon afterwards bestirred herself and took part in American enterprises; when she became 266 THE NORTHERN POWERS. possessed of an ocean fleet and freed herself from the tutelage of the Hansa, this remarkable confederacy of German towns fell too, and we are justified in saying, partly in consequence of the discovery of America. German trade ceased, not to rise again to importance till later times, and then, to be sure, in another way, and through the aid of America. At last the Northern powers were drawn into the Ame rican whirlpool. Denmark and Sweden sailed across the ocean, and obtained colonies in the new world. And even Eussia, from the time of Peter the Great, emerged from its forests, built a fleet, removed its capital from the in terior of the country to the sea-coast, and when it had completed its march through Siberia, by this road it too acquired its portion of the new world. Thus, with the sole exception of Turkey, all the states of Europe were busy on the waters of our planet, and stretching out their arms all round the globe. From this time every European revolution became a world-re volution ; every European war, a w T ar all over the earth. When America at length began to free herself from the rule of Europeans, other principles came back from thence : principles which not only disturbed the power of states, but changed their constitutions and interior organisations. Beginning with Columbus, when he planted his little PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 267 towns in Hispanola, it had been seen that a certain equality of rank is necessary to the founding of a colony. This principle, as old as the American colonies, was loudly pronounced when the free states threw off the English yoke. In their celebrated Declaration of Inde pendence, they proclaimed that "all men are free and born equal." This American phrase and declaration acted like oil upon the flames of the French revolution, and since then, partly receiving it from America, a democratic tendency is perceptible in the human race. Since the discovery of America, a revolution in the department of science has been no less remarkable than in commerce and politics. Natural history, geography, astronomy, and, in fact, all physical sciences, were the first to derive benefit from that event. Until the age of discovery, natural sciences and geography were confined to very narrow limits. Until then they were cramped by the doctrines of Aristotle, of Pliny, and Ptolemy, whose rule had endured two thousand years ! Natural history had made no progress since the days of Aristotle ; and no one had dared to question the astronomical system of Ptolemy. In the middle ages, instead of astronomy, we had astrology ; instead of physics, magic ; instead of che mistry, alchemy ; natural science resembled, so to speak, 268 PHYSICAL SCIENCES. a mummy tightly swathed in ancient ligaments, which the learned- men had handed down from generation to generation as they had received it from the Egyptians and Greeks. Columbus awakened this chrysalis from its sleep, and caused it to spread its golden wings. Since then it has taken a lofty flight. Already in his first voyage Columbus began to specu late on the size and the form of the earth, and the thinkers who succeeded him have continued to reason on this subject until we have come to our present accurate conceptions of our planet. He also, in his first voyage, took careful note of the direction of the winds and the oceanic currents, and the impulse he gave to observation has led by degrees to our present knowledge of the atmosphere and waters around our globe, to the sciences of meteorology and oceano graphy. We have to thank Columbus, too, for the first obser vations on the deflections of the magnetic needle, which laid the foundation of the important science of the earth s magnetism. Columbus, Cortez, and Magellan, and all the other Spanish and Portuguese conquerors, were careful ob servers of nature. In the new world they found much to attract their attention, for, if some things were similar NATURAL HISTORY. 269 to those in Europe, yet none were exactly alike, and the greater number entirely different. Even their military reports were always mixed up with observations on the plants and animals of the new world, and to the gold and pearls and prisoners of war that they sent to their kings, were added marsupials, armadillos, and llamas, and other specimens of transatlantic animals and plants. These specimens were admired at court, were drawn by artists, and the earliest maps of the world were plen tifully adorned with pictures of newly discovered crea tures and shrubs. The idea of zoological gardens came probably direct from America, in imitation of Montezuma, whose large and old-established menagerie Cortez described in his letters to the Emperor Charles Y. Until that time, instead of menageries, so-called bear-gardens only had been known in Europe. Botanical gardens, too, came into fashion soon after the discovery of America. That of Padua was esta blished in 1533, and soon afterwards those of Bologna, Wittenberg, Leipzig, and Zurich. Collections of transoceanic curiosities soon followed the zoological and botanical gardens, and from them, in the course of time, our rich museums of natural history have grown. Even European monarchs began to take an interest 270 SCIENCE OF NATURE. in, and to cultivate, natural sciences. For example, the greatest warrior and politician of his time, the Emperor Charles V., was a great lover of nature. In the monas tery of St. Justus he derived great pleasure from con versations with learned men on natural history, and his memory is honoured by gardeners for having introduced to Europe one of the most beautiful of flowers, the fra grant carnation. Without the discoveries in the ocean, merely by the help of Aristotle and the few products of Europe, the natural sciences would certainly never have become that which they now are the favourite and most cultivated sciences of our time. Before Columbus, scientific systems and classifications of nature, a Linnaeus, a Cuvier, were impossibilities. There could be no connected system of the universe, no conception of a vast organism, of a plan in creation, as long as only a small part of the picture, a few pieces of the great machinery, were known. If it is true that God created the universe according to a plan, that in this creation all things are in harmony, that there is a chain without breaks, and in which one link passes into another in close connexion if all this be true, it was as impossible before the time of Columbus to speak of a science of nature as it would be for any one to solve an arithmetical problem without being acquainted ASTRONOMY. 271 with all the factors. Only since the discovery of Ame rica have we been able to take a survey of nature s store house. If we cannot understand all we see in it, if we are still unable everywhere to perceive the perfect har mony of things, yet, at least, we know wliat we have be fore us. Above all, in consequence of the discoveries of the Spaniards and Portuguese, a great impulse was given to astronomy. What could this science be as long as the other half of the firmament was unknown ? as long as it was doubted whether the earth was round or flat? as long as it was believed that our earthly home this atom, this drop, in the ethereal ocean formed the chief object of the universe, and that the stars did but fly around it like the sparks around a blacksmith s forge ? Since the times of Columbus and Magellan, the earth has been taken from the old postament on which poetry and igno rance had placed it, and shown to float with us like a balloon in illimitable space. Progress in astronomy, again, made it easier for us to find our way upon this earth. In their old dwelling- place, Europe, the nations knew their way everywhere, as they believed, perfectly well. There was no induce ment to find out new methods for taking surveys and for the construction of accurate maps. But the new world was a very labyrinth to the discoverers who found 272 MAP MAKING. themselves quite unable to know where they were with out the aid of charts and maps. Besides, the rivalry of the Portuguese and Spaniards, to whom the new world had been apportioned, spurred them to seek the surest means of ascertaining longitudes and latitudes, and of acquiring correct maps of their possessions. Nearly all the new methods for ascertaining longi tudes have, in the first instance, been tried on the Ame rican coasts ; and all the inventions for the improvement of the compass, the quadrant, watches, chronometers, and other instruments necessary for land-surveying and navigation, have been called forth with reference to America and other new countries. Such great pains were taken, that in the maps made in the earliest times of discovery we find the outline of Africa and the parts of America already known drawn far more correctly than many parts of Europe for instance, than the Scandina vian north. But not only to engineers, cartographers, and natural historians were new and vast regions opened by the discovery of America, but likewise to ethno graphers and philologists. Before the voyage of Co lumbus, the investigations of the latter were confined to a comparatively narrow field ; for they had never even dreamt of many of the varieties and phases of the human race. In the transoceanic lands the philologists met with UNIVERSAL HISTORY. 273 entirely new classes of languages, with peculiar qualities never till then heard of, and quite different from those in the body of any other language. To our historians, likewise, perfectly new phenomena were disclosed. In regard to culture-historical develop ments and moral conditions, they found much to study totally dissimilar to the experiences of the old continent. Now, for the first time, it became possible to speak of a universal history of a history of the human race. All other sciences, too, if not immediately affected by the discovery of America, were indirectly advanced by this event, and their stand-points were raised and altered. The daring voyage of Columbus across the ocean had burst many bonds, had dissipated many prejudices, and awakened a new and bold freedom of thought. On all sides the view became extended, and the spirit of inquiry greatly strengthened. New ideas in one department gave rise to new ideas in another. In the same year in which Columbus died, Copernicus discovered his new system of the universe ; in the same year in which Cortez conquered Tenoch- titlan, Luther burnt the Pope s bull at Wittenberg ; at the time when Frobisher attempted to sail round the north of America, Pope Gregory XIII. improved the calendar. The invention of the telescope in 1590, of the thermometer in 1630, of the barometer in 1647, of VOL. II. T 274: IMPULSE TO INQUIRY. the air-pump in 1650, and of other important scientific instruments in the following years, if they had no direct reference to America, were nevertheless links in the great chain of inventions, of which the astrolabes and ships-pumps constructed by the Spaniards and Portu guese were the first. One of our German historians of America has said with truth : " The most important result of the ocean voyages and discoveries is not the addition to our know ledge of geography per se, but the opening in all direc tions of new channels of reciprocal communication in the interest of all mankind." All the great thinkers and philosophers of modern times Bacon, Grotius, Leib nitz, Newton, Montesquieu, Locke, and Kant would probably never have appeared without Columbus, and but for him, in every case, they would have been very dif ferent from what they were. It may safely be said that before Columbus, men like them, imbued with the free spirit of investigation, were very rare, but that after him they shone forth in greater numbers, like the stars of the southern heavens. Even with poetry, with the bloom of our literatures, and with the history of our national languages, the age of discovery and its powerful impulses are more inti mately connected than is generally acknowledged. Like as the voyages of the Argonauts, and the ex- BLOOM-PERIOD OF LITERATURE. 275 peditions of the Hellenes to Asia Minor inspired Homer ; like as the Crusades inspired Tasso, and the discoveries of Gama in the East Indies set the muse of Camoens in activity, and called forth the classical epic of the Portuguese ; so, too, has the Spanish muse been greatly occupied with the adventures and wonders of the new world, and these, in addition to the "Argentina" and "Araucania" of Ercilla, have called into life many another epic. The bloom-period of Spanish literature followed quick upon the bloom-period of the power of the Castilians, and of their wonderful deeds and sufferings in the new world. In England, too, Shakspeare followed soon upon the sea-heroes of Queen Elizabeth. In writing one of his dramas, " The Tempest," Shakspeare seems to have had a discovery of his countrymen, that of the Bermu das Islands, present to his mind. With the Nether- landers, too, the culminating periods of their power at sea and of their literature followed close upon one another. The Europeans of whatever country who went over to America, were for the most part sailors, soldiers, farmers, merchants, and other workmen who could speak no other than the so-called " vulgar" languages ; the " good Latinists" were rare. In the colonies and states planted by those men 276 VULGAR LANGUAGES. from the beginning, no other than the vernacular lan guages were used. In this respect, therefore, the dis covery and colonisation of America resembled " a step ping out of the boundaries of the Koman Empire," an emancipation from the trammels of Latin and all con nected with it. Since that time, all the European national languages have travelled round the world; and although, before Columbus, men could get on better by the aid of Latin, yet, after him, the modern languages gradually extended their arms to other hemispheres, and necessarily became an object of zealous study. Nearly all the accounts of travel, all the historical and geographical works relating to the new world, have been written in the vulgar tongues. There are very few works on America in Latin, not even amongst those which were published at the time when the histories and geo graphies of many European countries were still written in that classic language. Many of the treatises on those departments of science and knowledge to which the age of discovery gave birth for example, on navigation, oceanography, the principles of commerce and mer chandise were, from the beginning, written in the national tongues, and have never been subjected to Latin swaddling-clothes. And not only did the imagination, the thoughts, and IMPULSE TO NAVIGATION". 277 the investigations of great minds receive a loftier and freer impulse, in consequence of the development of the ocean navigation, but likewise to all the concerns of man an increased and general activity was given. All the European nations bordering on the ocean spread their wings soon after the discovery of America, or rather it was not till then that their pinions grew, that the sails of their fleets so long neglected were seen to enliven the ocean. Before the discovery of America, marine affairs were scarcely thought of in the states of Europe ; but from that time they have formed an im portant branch of government. Indeed, it may be said that America, the long-conti nued work of discovery, and the experiences gained thereby, gave growth and vigour to the navies of Europe. The commanders of the fleets sent by Queen Elizabeth to America, were the heroes who were called upon to oppose the Spanish Armada. The fish-banks of Newfoundland and other American waters have been the school in which French, Dutch, and English sailors have acquired their skill. The Greenland whale fisheries, and the three centuries of voyages to discover a north-west passage, have had their share, too, in perfecting our mariners. And also in other ways has America been the nursery of European fleets. Cuba supplied the Spanish docks 278 THE YANKEES. with the best wood for ship-building. The Portuguese fleets L were built almost entirely of Brazilian timber ; and even England was for a long time supplied with Brazilian ships. Moreover, out of her own bosom has America herself sent forth one of the most skilful, brave, and active sea faring people, the Yankees, who are now to be found on every sea, flying with the wind all over the world, as if it were their own domain. If I were to attempt to sum up the characteristics of these Yankees in one word, the one that would best suit is " restlessness." Our activity, our navigation, our commerce, have, as we have seen, continually grown in value and propor tions since the discovery of America, and this event soon gave rise to improved means of communication by land as well as by water. When large three-masters swept backwards and forwards across the ocean, bringing to our ports the products of distant continents in vast quan tities, the old pack-horses and mules with panniers no longer sufficed for the transport of these goods into the interior. Nations began by degrees to make their roads as smooth as the ocean. Water-courses were improved, the construction of harbours, canals, and high-roads commenced. It is not irrelevant to the subject we are discussing to observe that the great monarch who had the most to do with the discovery of the new world, IMPROVEMENTS IX COMMUNICATION. 279 Charles V., was the same who ordered the construction of paved roads in Spain, and who was the first to esta blish a post communication in Germany and elsewhere. Every revolution in the navigation of the sea brought about a reform in continental roads (although these re forms often lagged greatly in the rear). Nearly all the inventions for the improvement of locomotion have come from maritime nations from the English, Dutch, and the Yankees. When the steam-engine had once been put upon the water to supply the place of the wind, it was naturally soon taught to run and draw upon land, to do the work of horses. Without the discovery of America, without the circumnavigation of the globe, without the entire change of the speed introduced by these events into the movements of man, we should probably not now possess macadamized roads, railways, or telegraphs. Indeed, it may be doubted whether we should have had the conve nient foot pavement in our cities to expedite the trans action of business. America and the ocean are like powerful springs, driving and urging on the great mechanism of modern life. America nourishes in all our gardens, our fields, our towns ; and the ocean, with its currents and its tides, penetrates into our inland canals. It is not solely to feed the snorting broods of Auiphitrite that Neptune 280 CHRISTIANITY. \vields his sceptre, he strikes as well at the very root of the earth. His Quos ego, far resounding over the briny seas, reaches the ears of rulers as plainly as those of the denizens of mountains and other retired nooks of continents, and moves their hearts. But of all that he has done since Columbus and the Spaniards presented him with a new trident, nothing is of such force and meaning as the altered position to which the ocean has elevated Christianity. If we consider and compare the position of Chris tianity, its geographical spread before the discovery of America, with its present position in the world, we must be astonished at the narrow space it formerly occupied. Despite the exertions and baptising wars of Charle magne, and despite the Christian migrations in the cen turies of the Crusades, it can hardly be said that, from the times of the first Councils (" Consilien") in Asia Minor, Christianity had made any important local pro gress. Indeed, it had probably lost more in the South than it had gained in the North. Two great portions of the globe had been lost to the Church the whole of Western Asia, where the Apostles had travelled as far as India, and the whole north of Africa, where at one time hundreds of Christian towns and bishoprics had flourished. CHRISTIANITY. 281 Even in our small Europe, Christianity was confined in narrower boundaries. The two centuries of efforts on the part of the Crusades had produced scarcely any result. If we sum up their doings, they can be looked upon in no other light than as failures. Indeed, they pro duced the very contrary of what was intended. Instead of vanquishing the Crescent, and driving it back, these Crusaders drew it out of its hiding-places, and brought it further into Europe. The Mahometan Turks con quered the whole south-east of Europe, Greece, and the countries of the Danube, as far as Vienna; and the Islam-worshipping Tartars ruled Russia to the confines of Poland and Germany. On the other side of the Pyrenees, too, the Koran was to be found close to the Bible. Before Columbus, the condition of Christianity, after fifteen centuries of conflict, was pitiable. It was con fined within a narrow compass, hard pressed, and pro bably the number of its adherents were fewer than in the days of the Emperors Constantine or Justinian. It is only since the discovery of America and the ocean paths, that the stability of the Christian religion has be come a certainty. Only since then have the words of Christ, " Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," become a truth and full of meaning. Since that time Christianity is become a world-wide VOL. ii. U 282 THE CRUSADERS. religion, the faith of the globe. From that time Europe began to understand its mission namely, to civilise all mankind and it need no longer be feared that this work of civilisation should retrograde like that of the Mace donians and Romans. It has been said to be the peculiar mark of the civili sation of modern times, " that all the culture-forms of the Orient, those of the Mussulmans, the Hindus, and the Buddhists, when opposed to the Christian European form, lose all their power, becoming partly subordinate, partly weakened." And that it should be thus we have not to thank those high-born knights with the Cross on their armour, but rather the oft-mentioned navigators O and their crews. They, too, had the Cross on their pennants. They, too, sailed forth to conquer Jerusalem. All their undertakings, the whole history of discovery, sprang mainly from the conflict of the Cross with the Crescent. I have said above that in pursuing the Moors the Portuguese were led upon the watery paths, and that the Spaniards, just at the time when they planted the Cross on the walls of the Alhambra, received the impulse to the discovery of America. These discoveries, therefore, in their cause, in their tendency, and in respect to their object, were mainly religious enterprises. The Christian missionary spirit gave them a colouring, and the pious desire of convert- SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY. 283 ing and baptising played as great a part as the greed of land and gold. The Russians likewise, as I have shown, were led to America by their war with Mahometans, from whose yoke they freed themselves, and whom they pursued in Siberia, as the Portuguese had pursued them in Africa. The importance of the discovery of America in for warding the spread of Christianity seems from the first to have been understood by the contemporaries of Co lumbus. They gave form to their feeling in this respect in a symbolic and very characteristic manner ; for in the old maps of the new discoveries of Christopher Co lumbus, they drew the picture of St. Christopher on the coast of America wading through the surf, and carrying the infant Christ on his shoulders. Christopherus, the mariner-pilgrim, has carried the mustard-seed to all the shores of the world, and since then Christianity and civilisation in their onward pro gress may be compared to that wonderful East-Indian tree which derives its nourishment and secures its ex istence through many hundred channels, dropping its branches down to the earth to take root, again to shoot upwards. In the foregoing sketch of the consequences of that series of events, deeds, enterprises, and exertions of the bold Europeans, in which Columbus led the way, I have 284 SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY. only attempted to seize the most prominent and import ant points, to plant a few sign-posts, as it were, for the guidance of others. Much that I have omitted the ima gination of the reader will supply. He who will study and investigate for himself, will understand more and more why a NEW ERA is dated from the year 1492, why our historians consider the ANCIENT history of man to be then concluded. After the discovery of the new coun tries, from the time when, in consequence of this disco very, all parts of the world, all its inhabitants, may be said to have commenced a common life, into this life a new and stirring spirit, a new soul and this a CHRISTIAN soul was breathed. With justice, therefore, historians date from this time the beginning of MODERN HISTORY. THE END. C. \Vlin ING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. V (^ ^Y^ ifsiV-- , jpp ,* rr ^ ,, . c-. . i ,-. .JAN I 1 1961 LD 21A-50wi-8, 57 (C8481slO)476B General Library University of California Berkeley YB 2054 M316755