the third of August, 1492. First sailing south to the Canary Islands, they boldly took a westerly course, and in ten weeks landed on the island which Columbus named San Salvador. Just which one of the Bahamas Columbus touched upon will probably never be known.

From thence he sailed south to the coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo, taking possession of those islands in the name of the king and queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella. Having lost his flagship, the Santa Maria, in a storm, he sailed for home, taking with him several natives, whom he called Indians, because he thought the island a part of the East Indies. He also brought back with him many curiosities from these new lands. His return to Spain was hailed with joy by the king and queen, who bestowed great honors upon him.

8. Effects of the Discovery.-Perhaps no single event in history surpasses in importance this first voyage of Columbus. It is true he did not discover the mainland of North America, but he opened up the way, thereby making its discovery an easy matter.

The return of Columbus set the world on fire. The printing press in every city of Europe spread the news broadcast throughout the continent. "The revelation of the amazing fact that there were lands beyond the great ocean, inhabited by strange races of human beings, roused to passionate eagerness the thirst for fresh discoveries.

Three powerful motives urge man to action—the desire for wealth, the desire for power, and the desire to spread his peculiar religious tenets. These caused the voyage of Columbus, the success of which threw open a vast field for the exploitation of each. The business world, the governing class, the church, responded with alacrity to the call, and the sea of darkness was soon ablaze with the sail of the adventurer and the explorer, to be followed later by the white sails of commerce.

9. Later Voyages of Columbus.-Columbus made three

other voyages to the New World. In the autumn of 1494 with a large expedition he set sail on his second voyage for the purpose of taking possession of the new-found islands. He explored the southern coast of Cuba; founded a colony on Santo Domingo; and discovered the islands of Jamaica and Porto Rico. He returned to Spain in 1496 to solicit reënforcements, provisions, and funds.

On his third voyage, in 1498, he touched upon the continent of South America, having reached the mainland at the mouth of the Orinoco River. Notwithstanding that he believed the Orinoco to be a continental river, he still held to the view that he was upon the eastern coast of Asia. Proceeding thence to the colony which he had founded in Santo Domingo he found he had been superseded in command by a new governor who preferred charges of cruelty against Columbus and sent him in chains to Spain. On his arrival there the charges against him were investigated and he was released at once.

On his fourth and last voyage, made in 1502-1504, he explored the coast of Central America, while still in quest of a "waterway to the far east." No man ever held more tenaciously to an idea than did Columbus to his belief in the direct western passage. Though he heard rumors of an ocean lying beyond Central America, he still persisted that it must be the Indian Ocean.

He returned to Spain, and, it is said, died in poverty and distress in 1506, neglected by his king and his fellow-countrymen.

10. The Norsemen in America-1000, A. D.-It is believed by some historians that America was first discovered by Europeans in the year 1000-five hundred years before Columbus set foot upon the island of San Salvador. This first discovery is represented to have been made by the Vikings of Norway and Iceland. It is held that these hardy and bold seamen crossing from Greenland, ranged the shores of Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the New Eng

land coast as far south as Long Island Sound. They gave the name Vinland to the southern portion of this new country on account of its yielding grapes in abundance. Even the names of some of these early explorers have been handed down-that of Leif Ericson being the most prominent among them. It is claimed that settlements were made at several points along the coasts of the region explored and that remains of these early settlements have been found from

northern Labrador to Newport.

The most noted ruin pointed out is that of the Old Mill at Newport. Some authorities insist that there never were any such voyages, even holding that the Newport Tower was built centuries later than the time of Leif Ericson; while still others believe that the Vikings touched upon the shores of northern Labrador in the tenth or the eleventh century. It took five centuries of most severe schooling to prepare the European for the task of conquering and peopling a new continent. But when the time did come and the cry of "Land! Land!" rose joyfully from the deck of the Spanish caravel in the western seas, Europe was ready, and the whole continent responded with enthusiasm to the call. Not to the son of Eric the Red, whose voyages are all but lost in the mythland of history, but to the son of the Genoese woolcomber belongs the glory of the discovery of America.

CHAPTER II

THE RACE FOR POSSESSION

SPANISH, 1492-1582

PORTUGUESE, 1500-1502

FRENCH, 1524-1687

DUTCH, 1609-1613

ENGLISH, 1497-1607

11. The Line of Demarcation.-The opening of the sixteenth century was marked by great activity in Spain. Exploring expeditions were leaving her ports thick and fast for the New World. According to a papal decree issued from Rome in 1493, on account of the Columbus discovery Spain was to have all lands, no matter by whom discovered, lying west of a line drawn from the North to the South Pole at a distance of one hundred leagues to the west of the Azores and Cape Verd Islands. This line as at first drawn not being satisfactory, it was located in the following year, by treaty between Spain and Portugal, three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verd Islands. It is known in history as the Line of Demarcation, and crossed Brazil east of the mouth of the Amazon River. Upon this decree of a Roman pontiff the Spanish and the

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Portuguese divided their interests. In the course of events the latter directed their attention to Brazil, the coast of Africa, and the eastern route to India; the former, to the West Indies, the lands bordering upon the Gulf of Mexico, and that portion of South America lying west of Brazil.

England and France, feeling that they had lost their great opportunity in not having extended aid to Columbus, looked askance at this decree of Pope Alexander VI., and later disputed the right of the papal authority thus to dispose of the undiscovered lands of the world.

The French, during the century, entered the continent of North America by way of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes; later, they pushed down the Mississippi valley, penetrating as far south as Texas. The English preëmpted the Atlantic Coast, from Nova Scotia to Florida. Even the Dutch, on the strength of a later discovery, laid claim to the stretch of the Atlantic seaboard from Narragansett Bay to the Delaware River. Thus, in the course of two centuries, the Line of Demarcation was ignored altogether.

THE SPANISH

12. Impelling Motives.-The Spaniard was quick to follow up the advantage gained by the discoveries and voyages of Columbus. Having pushed the hated Moor across the border to the land from whence he came, he was ready for new fields of conquest. Other nations were to be conquered, and heathen peoples converted. The four voyages of Columbus had served to surround the New World problem with a glamour. The "riches of the Indies" was still the cry. "The splendors of the newly-found world were, indeed, difficult to be resisted. The wildest romances were greedily received and the Old World, with its familiar and painful realities, seemed mean and hateful beside the fabled glories of the New. It was rumored that gold and precious jewels abounded everywhere. Wealth beyond the wildest dreams of