Naming the Continent.

Injustice to Columbus.

His last voyage.

was long supposed to have deceived the world in giving this date to his discovery; but it is now pretty well established that he spoke the truth. Ten years after, a European geographer gave the continent the name of "Americi Terra," or the land discovered by Americus ; and thus it has borne his name ever since. It would have seemed more just that it should have borne the name of Columbus; and Americus Vespucius, who was his friend, had probably no intention of taking this honor from him; but this was the way it happened. Meanwhile Sebastian Cabot had reached the North American Continent before Columbus; so that the great navigator was not the first to set foot on the mainland, North or South.

On this third voyage of Columbus, he touched at his colony of Hispaniola, where he found them all quarrelling; and he was presently arrested by a Spanish commissioner, Bobadilla, who had been sent out by the enemies of Columbus. He was carried on board ship in chains; and when the officers of the ship wished to take them off, he refused, saying, "I will wear them as a memento of the gratitude of princes." Reaching Spain, he was released, but could get no redress from the king. The truth was, that King Ferdinand was quite dissatisfied with the new countries, because they did not yield wealth enough. However, Columbus fitted out one more expedition, with four ships, and went on a final voyage, reaching the coast of North America at last, although he thought all his life that it was Asia he had visited. This last voyage was a sad one for him, as his own colony at Hispaniola refused to let him land; and he was now old and weary, and as poor as ever.

His one firm

Columbus.

friend, Queen Isabella, had died; and he died himself Death of in 1506, aged about seventy years. Some years after, King Ferdinand ordered a marble tomb to be placed upon his grave, with the inscription, "To Castile and Leon, Columbus gave a New World." But, more than two centuries after that, the remains of the great voyager were transferred to the great cathedral at Havana, that they might rest in the soil of that New World which he had discovered.

John Cab

ot's patent.

First

Voyage.

THE

CHAPTER VI.

THE SUCCESSORS OF COLUMBUS.

to America was next important voyage planned by John Cabot, a merchant born at Venice, but living in Bristol, England. There had long been some commerce between Bristol and Iceland; and it is very likely that John Cabot, like Columbus, had heard from Icelanders the tradition of the old Norse voyages. After a time he got from King Henry VII. of England a "patent," or permission, allowing himself and his three sons to cruise about the world, at their own expense, with five ships; and to take possession, in the name of England, of countries hitherto unknown to Europeans. It was agreed that, whenever he had done so, nobody but the family of Cabot was to be allowed to trade with any such countries unless the Cabots gave permission. They were allowed to sail in any direction, east, west, or north; but what they really desired was to get to India by a northwest passage. At any rate, wherever they might go, onefifth of the profits of their trade must be given to the King of England.

Sebas

So John Cabot and his sons set sail in 1497. tian is the best known of these sons, and became more famous than even his fat er.

We do not know exactly

Labrador.

what their ships were; but they probably looked like this picture, which is taken from a map made by Sebastian Cabot. We do not know much of their voyage; He reaches only that they reached Labrador, and found it, as we may well suppose, cold and dismal. They said, when they got home, that the country was very barren, and that they had seen a great many white bears. They

had not much more to say; for they had not remained long, having reached home again in three months. Their maps and journals are all lost; but we know that they were the first Europeans, after the Northmen, to visit the mainland of North America.

Cabot's

return.

A letter from a Venetian merchant, who was then in John London, says that great honors were paid to John Cabot on his return to Engiand. He was called "The Great Admiral," went about richly dressed in silk, and

Sebastian
Cabot.

Ponce de
Leon.

was followed by crowds of admirers. The merchant's letter adds, "These Englishmen run about after him like mad people; so that he can enlist as many of them as he pleases, and a number of our own rogues besides."

A year after, in 1498, Sebastian Cabot sailed again with two ships and three hundred men; some of these being Italian "rogues," very likely. Such expeditions were very popular among reckless and daring men in those days. The explorers again went to Labrador,

SEBASTIAN CABOT.

and then sailed three thousand miles along the coast, as far as Maryland. They were gone six months, and then had to go back for provisions. This second voyage convinced Sebastian Cabot that the land they had discovered was not Asia, after all, but a new continent. He made still another voyage after this, and explored Hud

son's Bay. Sebastian Cabot lived to be a very old man,
and had a pension from the king, and the title "The
Great Seaman." He loved the sea so much, that, even
while he was dying, his wandering thoughts were upon
the ocean. It was said of him, "He gave England a
and no one knows his burial-place."
The next expedition of which I have to tell is that of
Ponce de Leon to the coast of Florida. There was a
story told in Spain, and believed by many people, that
there was somewhere in the regions discovered by

continent