in northern Mexico, in 1536. De Vaca afterwards published in Spain a narrative of the Narvaez expedition and his own subsequent adventures. This narrative has been translated into several languages and is even at this day considered of great historical value. 19. Coronado and the "Seven Fabled Cities of Cibola"; the Quivera—1540-1542.-The thrilling tales told by Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions of the fabulously wealthy tribes in the north, led to the expedition of Francisco Vasquez Coronado, who, in 1540, led out from Mexico an army of discovery in search of these fabled Indian empires of the north. Entering New Mexico, he found the cities of Cibola to be but mean Indian villages of the Zuni tribe, devoid of wealth or the least suggestion of opulence. He still sought the kingdom of Quivera, and, penetrating as far northward as the plains of Kansas, found the capital of these tribes of Quivera likewise but a poor Indian village. He retraced his steps with but a remnant of his followers, but the historian of the expedition has handed down a valuable and interesting narrative of the journey. Within a half century after the discovery of Columbus, the Spaniard, as one representative of the Latin race, had thus penetrated the very heart of the North American continent, and looked upon the vast stretch of plain and prairie which was later to be subdued by his Anglo-Saxon brother. In that half-forgotten era, Had been paved with yellow gold In the kingdom of Quivera Came the restless Coronado To the open Kansas plain, With his knights from sunny Spain; Thrilled with boldness and bravado. League by league, in aimless marching, Had for centuries been parching. But their expectations, eager, Found, instead of fruitful lands, Shallow streams and shifting sands, Roamed o'er deserts dry and meager. Back to scenes more trite, yet tragic, Marched the knights with armor'd steeds; Not for them to sow the seeds Never land so hunger-stricken Could a Latin race re-mold; They could conquer heat or cold- Thus Quivera was forsaken; And the world forgot the place Through the lapse of time and space. -Ware. 20. De Soto and the Mississippi River-1539-1542.-Hernando de Soto had been engaged in many active exploring and colonizing expeditions since 1514. He had ably assisted the Pizzaros in the conquest of Peru (1531-34), where he amassed great wealth. This gave him high standing at the Spanish court and, on his return to Spain, in 1536, he was, in the following year, appointed governor of Cuba and Florida, with orders to settle and explore the latter country. He organized an expedition at Havana in 1539, soon landed at Tampa Bay, on the coast of Florida, sent part of his ships back to Havana, and began the repetition of the De Ayllon and Narvaez disasters. In the hope of finding richer countries, he continued; and for three years he was urged forward in search of gold. It is thought that he traversed what are now the States of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi.. He suffered great hardships and was forced to fight many fierce battles with the Indians. He discovered the Mississippi River in 1541, and explored the region west of the Mississippi nearly as far north as the Missouri. Turning southward in 1542, he reached the junction of the Red River and the Mississippi, where he sickened and died. His body was buried in the great river which he had discovered. The leader dead, the remnant of this gay company which had embarked with such high hopes at Havana three years before, built rafts, floated down the great river out into the Gulf, and finally reached the Spanish settlements in Mexico. 21. Cabrillo and California-1542-1543.-While De Soto was exploring the region of the southern states and Coronado was searching for the Quivera in the interior of the continent, Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo was exploring the Pacific coast, and its adjacent islands. On the California coast, he discovered and named many islands, capes, gulfs, and bays. He died while wintering in San Diego harbor in 1543. Before his vessels returned home, they sailed north as far as the coast of Oregon. Cabrillo left a manuscript narrative of his adventures and explorations, which is preserved in the historical archives of Spain. 22. Menendez Founds St. Augustine, 1565; Espejo, Santa Fe, 1582.-A half century had passed since the dawn of the New World and the Spaniard had not yet planted a single colony north of the region of Mexico. Every attempt had ended in dismal failure or disaster, until Pedro Menendez, successor to De Soto as governor of Cuba and Florida, founded the city of St. Augustine on the eastern coast of the peninsula. A decade and a half later (1582) Antonio de Espejo founded Santa Fe in New Mexico. the two oldest cities in the United States. These are THE PORTUGUESE 23. Americus Vespucius and the Naming of America— 1497-1504.-Americus Vespucius, a scholarly and capable Italian navigator, claims to have made four voyages to the New World, two in the Spanish and two in the Portuguese service. He has left narratives of these voyages. In the voyage of 1497 he claims to have discovered the mainland a year before Columbus first gazed upon the continent at the mouth of the Orinoco River. In the voyages of 1501 and 1503, while in the Portuguese service, he visited the Brazilian coast and in his narrative of the first of these Portuguese voyages maintained that the map of the world then known should be reconstructed and made to include a "fourth continent" which he called Mundus Novus,-Europe, Asia, and Africa constituting the other three continents. The theory of a new continent thus early became associated with the name of this learned geographer. Columbus combated the theory to the time of his death. Indeed, the fiction that the new lands were a part of the East Indies or the continent of Asia was not finally dispelled till Cortez measured his strength with the Aztec and revealed the truth about Mexico. It is not strange, therefore, that a German teacher of geography in the College of St. Dié should have used the following words in a little treatise on geography published in 1507: "And the fourth part of the world, having been discovered by Americus, it may be called Amerige; that is, the land of Americus or America." At first applied to Brazil, the suggestion was eventually adopted and was soon applied to the whole of the New World. 24. Cabral Discovers Brazil-1500.-However, a year before Vespucius had reached the coast of Brazil, Pedro Alvarez Cabral had taken possession of it in the name of the king of Portugal. He had sailed from Lisbon in command of a large fleet with instructions to carry on the discoveries begun in India by Vasco da Gama. A tempest drove the fleet far out of its course and Cabral was astonished, on an April morning in 1500, at the sailor's cry of "Land! Land!" Learning that this land lay on Portugal's side of the Line of Demarcation, he planted a colony and dispatched a ship to his king to advise him of the discovery; then proceeded on his route past the Cape of Good Hope to India. 25. Cortereal Visits and Names Labrador-1500.-Gaspar Cortereal, under permission of his king, fitted out an expedition at his own expense and set sail on a voyage of discovery in search of a northwest passage to Asia. While he failed in his object, he seems to have skirted the coast of North America and touched upon the shores of Greenland. He imposed upon many places purely Portuguese names, Labrador among the number. The history of a people is sometimes revealed through a study of their geographical names. Labrador means the "land of laborers or slaves,' and suggests to the student of history that the Portuguese became in their time the greatest and most heartless slave traders in the world. THE FRENCH 26. The French Fishermen.-Seven years after the discovery of the continent, the fisheries of Newfoundland were known to the hardy sailors of Breton, on the western shores of France. Each succeeding year found their fishing boats, in increasing numbers, laying in supplies for the markets of France from the cod-banks off Newfoundland. Their marvelous stories of the new coasts in the west soon became current in France. To the circumstance of the voyages of these simple folk, engaged in private enterprise, is doubtless due the later location and rise upon the western |