still awaited the Spaniards: the Indians were constantly attacking them; and although always subdued and cut off in great numbers, yet their enmity against the conquerors remained firm and implacable. De Soto, however, continued his march through the province of Palisema, passed through a village called Tanied (Tunicas), and came among the tribe of Tula Indians, and wintered in the village of Uttanque. Here their interpreter died, and his death was a severe loss to the service, as throughout the expedition he had served as the main organ of communication between the Spaniards and the natives. In the spring of 1542, the views of De Soto were changed; his hopes of finding gold regions were disappointed; he had lost nearly half his troops by fighting and hardships of various kinds; the greater part of his horses too had perished, and all had been without shoes for more than a year for the want of iron. He now resolved to return to the Mississippi; select a suitable village on its banks for a fortified post, establish himself there and build two vessels, in which some of his most confidential followers might descend the river, carry tidings of his safety to his wife and friends in Cuba, procure reinforcements of men and horses, together with flocks, herds, seeds, and everything else necessary to colonize and secure the possession of the vast and fertile country he had overrun. As soon as the spring was sufficiently advanced, therefore, De Soto broke up his winter cantonment and set out in the direction of the Mississippi; after a time he came to the village of Guachoya, which contained three hundred houses, and was situated about a bowshot from the Mississippi in two contiguous hills with a small intervening plain that served as a public square, the whole way fortified with palissades. The inhabitants had fled across the river in their canoes, but abundance of provisions was found in the adjacent country. Here the melancholy which had long preyed upon the spirits of De Soto, the incessant anxiety of mind and fatigue of body, added perhaps to the influence of climate, brought on a slow fever, which continued until the seventh day, when he felt convinced that his last hour was at hand. He now made his will, and appointed his successor. When this was done, the dying chief called to him by two and two, and three and three, the most noble of his army, and after them he ordered that the soldiery should enter, twenty and twenty, thirty and thirty, and of all of them he took his last farewell. He charged them to convert the natives to the Catholic faith, and to augment the power of the crown of Spain. He thanked them for their affection and fidelity to him, and regretted that he could not show his gratitude by rewards such as they merited. He begged forgiveness of all whom he had offended, and finally entreated them, in the most affectionate manner, to be peaceful and loving to one another. Having confessed his sins with much humility, he died like a catholic Christian, imploring mercy of the most Holy Trinity. His body was placed in the trunk of an evergreen oak and sunk in the Mississippi.

VI. Francis I., a powerful monarch, ambitious of every kind of glory, was animated also with eager rivalry of Charles V., who derived much lustre from his possessions in the new world. He therefore ardently desired to follow successfully in the same career; and with this view he supplied to Giovanni Verazzano, a noble Florentine,. four vessels destined to America. This chief, after being driven back by a storm, was refitted, and engaged in some successful naval operations on the Spanish coast; and it was then determined, that in the Dolphin, with fifty men, provisioned for eight months, he should prosecute his original design of discovery. After a severe tempest, he came, in the middle of March, upon a coast which, with great probability, is supposed to be that of North Carolina; and having sailed fifty leagues southward in search of a port without success, he turned again toward the north with the same object. He was once more disappointed as to a harbor; but seeing a fine populous country, he landed

He next pro

in boats, and held some friendly intercourse with the natives. ceeded in an eastern direction along a low coast, where even a boat could not touch; but a sailor swam ashore, and though alarmed by some strange gestures, found the natives kind. A change of course to the northward marks the rounding of Cape Hatteras; and a run of fifty leagues brought him to a fertile region, covered with rich verdure and luxuriant forests. This was Virginia, near the mouth of the Chesapeake, though no mention is made of that great inlet. A sail of one hundred leagues in the same direction led to a spacious bay receiving a noble river, evidently the Hudson. They ascended it a short way in boats, and were delighted with its banks. The coast then tended eastward; and after following it fifty leagues, they reached an island of pleasing aspect, which, being of a triangular form, and about the size of Rhodes, clearly appears to be that named Martha's Vineyard. The weather prevented his landing; and, fifteen leagues farther, he found a very convenient port, where he had again much satisfaction in communicating with the people. Though the latitude of forty-one degrees forty minutes be about half a degree too low, it seems impossible not to recognise Boston. He then made a course of 150 leagues along a country of similar character; but somewhat more elevated, without landing at any point. Another stretch of fifty leagues, first west and then north, brought him to a bolder territory (Nova Scotia), covered with dense forests of fir, pine, and other trees of a northern climate. The inhabitants were fiercer, and carried on trade only under jealous precautions. In a subsequent run of the same extent, he discovered thirty small islands, with narrow channels running between them, being such as are known to stud the northern coast of that country and the adjacent one of Cape Breton. Lastly, by sailing 150 leagues farther, he reached in fifty degrees the land discovered by the Britons (Newfoundland or Labrador). His stock of victuals being spent, he here took in water, and returned to France.

Verazzano, on the eighth of July, 1584, wrote to the king from Dieppe a narrative of this voyage. Ramusio heard from different quarters that he had submitted to that monarch the plan of a colony; and the general belief is, that he was again employed by him. Mr. Biddle, indeed, urges the improbability that, amid the disasters caused by the battle of Pavia in February, 1525, Francis

could engage in any such undertaking. Down, however, to that fatal day, his career was triumphant; and there was ample time to have authorized another expedition, though there is a total absence of any positive notice on the subject. Ramusio, without mentioning either place or date, states that in his last voyage, having landed with some companions, he was killed by the savages in presence of his crew still on shipboard. In a modern narrative, which, from its full genealogical details, appears to have been furnished by his relatives, Coronelli, an eminent Venetian hydrographer, is quoted, expressing his belief that the catastrophe took place off Cape Breton, in 1525. In the portrait from which our sketch is taken, the inscription positively bears "Dead in 1525." It was engraved in 1767 after a picture by Zocchi, in the possession of the family, whose opinion is thus decidedly expressed. Yet Tiraboschi has drawn attention to a letter of Annibal Caro, apparently directed to him when living at Florence in 1537. There seems a mystery round his fate, which can not be unravelled.

Claims so extensive and so feebly supported as those of Spain to North America, were not likely to remain long undisputed. Other European nations were then rapidly advancing in maritime skill and enterprise, among whom for some time France took the lead. The defeat and captivity of the king, followed by an humiliating peace, naturally diverted his mind from distant enterprises, especially such as would have been considered hostile by his rival, Charles. The troubles which agitated the country after his death were also unfavorable to such undertakings; nevertheless, the spirit of adventure was cherished among the people, especially the Huguenots, an industrious class, who almost alone raised her commerce and manufactures to a flourishing condition. Admiral Coligni, one of the leaders in that eventful time, formed the scheme of a transatlantic settlement, which might at once extend the resources of his country, and afford an asylum to his Protestant brethren. While the civil war was yet only impending, he enjoyed intervals of favor at court, which enabled him to obtain permission, first to establish one in Brazil; and when that proved unfortunate, to plant another in Florida. He fitted out two vessels in 1562, and placed them under John Ribault of Dieppe, a seaman of experience. The object was to reach the mouth of the river called by Ayllon the Jordan, now Combahee, in South Carolina; but, steering in too low a latitude, the discoverers reached the St. John, near St. Augustine. On reaching Port Royal, they were so pleased with its noble. harbor, the magnificent trees, and beautiful shrubs, that they determined to choose it for the site of their colony. Having seen a fort erected, and the settlement in a promising state, Ribault left twenty-six men, and returned to France for reinforcements and supplies. This seems an imprudent step. The establishment, in its unsettled state, stood in peculiar need of being well governed; whereas it fell into the hands of Albert, a rash and tyrannical officer, who, finding it difficult to maintain authority, where all thought themselves nearly equal, enforced it in the most violent manner. He addressed them in opprobrious language; hanged one of them with his own hands, and threatened others with the same fate. At length they rose in mutiny, put him to death, and appointed a new commander, Nicholas Barre, who restored tranquillity.

Ribault, meantime, in consequence of the breaking out of the great civil war, was unable to make good his expectations and promises. After long waiting for him, the colonists were seized with an extreme desire to return to their native country; and, having no ship, they resolved to build one, and constructed a brigantine fit for the passage; but they laid in a slender stock of provisions, which, during the delay of a tedious calm, was entirely consumed. The last extremities of famine were suffered; and one had been actually sacrificed to preserve the rest, when an English vessel appeared, and received them on board. This project was still cherished by Coligni; and in 1564, he fitted out

three vessels, abundantly supplied, and gave the command to René Laudonniere, an able officer who had accompanied Ribault. Taking a circuitous course by the Canaries and the West Indies, he made for Florida, which he chose to term New France; and at Ribault's first station on the river St. John (named May from the month of its discovery), the party resolved to stop and settle. The fort of La Carolina was erected, and expeditions sent up the river, where small quantities of gold and silver were seen; reports being also received as to the mountainous country in the interior, where these metals abounded. The hopes thus kindled were quite illusory, and diverted attention from the solid labors of agriculture. Alarming symptoms of insubordination appeared; many of the party, notwithstanding their religious profession, were of a reckless character, and had gone out with the most chimerical hopes of suddenly realizing a large fortune. Seeing no such prospect, they formed the criminal resolution of seeking it by piracy. They confined their commander, and extorted from him, by threats of immediate death, a commission to follow this unlawful vocation; while, by rifling his stores, they obtained materials for its prosecution. After various fortune, they were successful in capturing a vessel, richly laden, and having the governor of Jamaica on board. Hoping for a large ransom, they sailed to the island, and unguardedly allowed him to send messengers to his wife; through whom he conveyed a secret íntimation, in consequence of which an armed force surrounded the pirates, captured the larger of their vessels, while the other escaped by cutting her cables. Those on board the latter being reduced to extremity from want of food, were obliged to return to the settlement, where Laudonniere condemned four of the ringleaders to be executed.

That chief meantime continued to make incursions to the interior, and entered into various transactions with the natives in the vain hope of arriving at some region rich in gold and silver. Neglecting to establish themselves on the solid basis of agriculture, the settlers depended for food on the Indians, whose own stock was scanty. They were therefore obliged to undertake long journeys, without obtaining a full supply; and the natives, seeing them thus straitened, raised the price, disdainfully telling them to eat their goods, if they did not choose to give them for grain and fish. Amid these sufferings, and no prospect of realizing their fond dreams of wealth, they were seized, as was usual, with the ardent desire of returning home, and shrunk not from the laborious task of constructing vessels for that purpose. Amid their painful labor, they were cheered by a visit from Sir John Hawkins, who gave them a liberal supply of provisions. They did not, however, intermit their task, and on the twenty-eighth of August, 1565, were on the point of sailing, when several ships were descried approaching; which proved to be a new expedition, under Ribault, sent to supersede Laudonniere, of whose severity complaints had been made. He brought a reinforcement, with ample supplies, which induced the colonists to remain.

VII. The name of Sir Walter Raleigh is dear to Americans, for to him is due the honor of projecting and of keeping up, by his persevering efforts and expensive expeditions, the idea of permanent British settlements in America. His name is thus associated with the origin of the independent states of North America, and must be reverenced by all who, from liberal curiosity or pious affection, study the early history of their country.

Walter Raleigh was born at Hayes, on the coast of Devonshire: when young, he was sent to Oriel college, Oxford, where he exhibited a restless ambition, which prompted him to seek distinction rather in the stirring scenes of the world, than the cloistered solitude of a college; and this natural inclination to adventure was fostered by the study of books relating to the conquests of the Spaniards in the new world, a species of reading which was the delight of his early years, and undoubtedly gave a color to the whole tenor of his life.