1527] Coronado's Expedition lands on the coast of Florida, 1527. .35 24. Wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca, 1527-36.- Panfilo Narvaez de Narvaez, an active Spanish adventurer, resolved to conquer the region lying to the north of the Gulf of Mexico. He easily obtained the necessary permission from the Spanish government, and in 1528 led a large and finely equipped expedition to the southern coast of the present United States. For years nothing more was heard of him or his men. At length (1536) one of the officers of the expedition, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, appeared at San Miguel, a little Spanish village on the western coast of Mexico; with him were three companions, one of them a negro. He had a most curious and interesting story to narrate: for years he and his companions had wandered from one Indian ica, II, 243; Higginson's settlement to another, regarded in one place as "great Explorers, medicine men," in another as attractive curiosities. He had heard rumors of immense herds of wild cows — buffalo or bison of North America; he had also heard of wonderful cities in the interior, whose doorways were studded with precious stones. It was further reported to him that gold and silver were abundant in these "seven cities of Cibola." - the He dis Attracted by these tales of treasure, Mendoza, the viceroy of Mexico, determined to ascertain the truth. patched on this errand (1539) a certain Friar Marcos de Nizza, who had already made his way on foot from Panama to Mexico. Friar Marcos passed the desert between Mexico and the pueblo region and saw one of the pueblos or villages from a distance; he then fled for his life and reported his doings to Mendoza. On first reading the account of his journey, one is tempted to doubt his truthfulness; a more careful perusal will convince the student that the worthy friar reported what he saw with accuracy, and carefully separated the accounts of what he actually saw from the stories which he had gathered from the natives along the route. His countrymen, however, exercised no such care; soon Mexico resounded with most marvellous tales of the size and splendor of these cities in the interior. Journey of Cabeza de Vaca, 152836. Winsor's Amer 73-96; Old Friar Marcos sees one of the "cities," 1539. Winsor's America, II, 475 480. Coronado pueblos. Winsor's History Leaf lets, No. 13; Hart's Contemporaries, I, No. 24. Disappointed hopes. 25. Coronado's Expedition, 1540-42.—A great army was conquers the fitted out to conquer this wonderful land: the commander was Francisco Vasquez Coronado, who set forth abundantly America, II, supplied with everything needful for the success of the enter480-498; prise. The army, with its baggage train, was too large to American move rapidly, and Coronado, clad in gilded armor, went on in advance with a large force of mounted men. He reached and conquered pueblo after pueblo, but found no gold. These great Indian villages, which are so full of instruction and interest for the modern student, were equally full of disappointment for the Spanish conquerors. The cities of which so much had been said were merely Indian pueblos of sunburned clay; nor were they as large as had been reported, for Friar Marcos had been deceived by the peculiar effect of the atmosphere in those rainless regions, which makes distant objects appear far larger than they really are. The jeweled doorways proved to be the hatchways leading from the flat roofs of the pueblos into the rooms beneath; they were ornamented with the rough gem stones of the Rockies picked up in the neighborhood. Gold was not to be found, but report said that Indians living to the northward possessed it. Northward, therefore, went Coronado and a portion of his gallant band: they came across herds of wild cows so vast that they could not ride through them; they also crossed immense treeless plains devoid of all landmarks to guide the traveler. The best-mounted men, who pushed on ahead of the others, probably reached the central part of the present state of Kansas. Everywhere the same hopeless tale, there was no gold. The great expedition returned to Mexico, to the disappointment and dismay of every one, and Coronado, brokenhearted, disappears from history. While on the return journey to Mexico, an Indian woman ran away from Coronado's expedition; nine days later she fell into the hands of another band of Spaniards, men belonging to De Soto's army, which had marched overland from the Atlantic slope. Coronado rides northward to Kansas. 1540] The French in the St. Lawrence 37 De Soto coast of sor's Amer- 140. 26. De Soto's Expedition, 1539-43. - Hernando de Soto had borne a part in the cruel conquest of Peru, which has forever blackened the memories of the Pizarro brothers. In 1539 he landed on the western coast of Florida. He had with him five hundred and seventy men, magnificently equipped for the conquest of another Peru or another Mexico. In the course of the next three years he and his followers wandered along the eastern slopes of the Alleghanies as far north as the Savannah River; thence southward and westward nearly to Mobile Bay; from that point, proceeding northward, they reached the Mississippi near the site of the He reaches present city of Memphis. There they crossed the great river, and some of them penetrated westward nearly as far as the line of Coronado's return journey. De Soto died, and the survivors of his expedition built boats on the banks of the Mississippi, voyaged down that stream, coasted the shores of Texas, and reached the Spanish settlements in Mexico. Like Coronado's men, they, too, had found no treasure. Nothing but disappointment attended these early Spanish explorations of the southern portion of the present United States. The 27. The French in the St. Lawrence, 1534-1541. Spaniards confined their early efforts mainly to the country south of Delaware Bay; the French, on the other hand, were more active in the northern regions. French fishermen had frequented the seas off Newfoundland, but the first voyage to the Gulf of St. Lawrence of which we have trustworthy information was made by Jacques Cartier in 1534. Sailing through the Straits of Belle-Isle, between Newfoundland and Labrador, he first explored the southern coast of that desolate land; he then steered southward and discovered Prince Edward Island, which he named Isle St. Jean; thence westward and northward to a harbor where the heat of the Canadian summer was so great that he named it Baie des Chaleurs. Passing on, he found the island of Anticosti, standing in the midst of a waterway which he hoped would prove to be the long-sought-for northwestern passage to India and Cathay. He then returned to France. the Mississippi, 1540. Cartier's first voyage, 1534. Winsor's America, IV, 47-50; Story of Canada, ch. iii; *Bourinot's Hart's Contemporaries, 1, No. 35; Higginson's Explorers, 99-104. Cartier's second voyage, 1535; Winsor's America, IV, 50-55: Higginson's Explorers, 104 117. Ribault's colony on Port Royal Sound, 1562. Pioneers, 33- The next year (1535) Cartier was again in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This time he sailed boldly between Anticosti and Labrador, passed the heights on which Quebec now stands, and proceeded westward and southward until his further progress toward China was barred by a rocky barrier, which was later called the Lachine Rapids. On the northern bank was a high steep hill which Cartier named Mount Royal. Around its base, the head of navigation from the sea, there has grown up the city of Montreal. Cartier wintered on shipboard in the St. Lawrence, which he now knew to be a river; in the following spring he returned to France. After an unsuccessful attempt to plant a colony in this region, the French sought the warmer re Cartier gions of the southeastern portion of the present United States. 28. The Huguenot Colonies, 1555-65. - Gaspard de Coligny, the leader of the French Protestants or Huguenots, determined to found a colony in the New World. In 1562 he sent Jean Ribault, a gallant Huguenot seaman, to explore the shores of what are now the states of Florida and South Carolina. On May Day of that year he entered the mouth plorers, 143 of the St. John's River in Florida, naming it the River of May. Thence he sailed northward along the shore, finding the natives everywhere friendly, the land and the climate all that could be desired, and he and his comrades persuaded themselves that all the signs pointed to an abundant supply 159. 1555] Destruction of the French Colony 39 of treasure. Some of his men volunteered to remain on the shores of Port Royal Sound, where they then were, to hold the country for the king of France until Ribault should return with recruits and supplies. They soon tired of the hardships of their life in the New World. Embarking on a crazy, half-made boat they drifted slowly across the Atlantic, only to be captured by an English ship when within sight of the coast of France. Two years passed away, and again a French fleet approached the Carolina coasts (1564). This expedition, which was designed to occupy the country, was commanded by René de Laudonnière. Finding Ribault's colonists gone, he steered southward from Port Royal Sound and founded his settlement on the southern bank of the River of May (the St. John's River). The colonists built a fort, which they named Fort Caroline in honor of the young king, Charles IX. Their further history was one series of misfortunes starvation, unfortunate conflicts with the natives, and mutiny followed each other in rapid succession. Some of the mutineers sailed away to plunder the Spanish towns in the West Indies, and they gave the Spaniards the first information of the existence of the French settlement in Florida. plan the de struction of the colony. Parkman's 29. Destruction of the French Colony, 1565.—The Span- The iards were greatly alarmed when they learned of this French Spaniards settlement on the St. John's River. The Florida peninsula formed one side of the channel through which the Spanish fleets frequently passed on their way to Spain, laden with Pioneers, the gold and silver of Mexico. Several vessels had been 96-130. lost on the coast of Florida or on the islands which fringe its shores; but all attempts to occupy this region had hitherto been unsuccessful. Pedro Menendez de Avilés, a Spaniard, had already begun to fit out an expedition to search for his son, whose ship had been lost in the vicinity of Florida, when news of the French colony reached Spain. He was now strongly reinforced and directed to destroy the French settlements. |