hemisphere became so active, that the principal cities of Spain were, in a manner, depopulated', as emigrants thronged one after another to take their chance upon the deep. It was a world of romance that was thrown open; for, whatever might be the luck of the adventurer, his reports on his return were tinged with a coloring of romance that stimulated still higher the sensitive fancies of his countrymen, and nourished the chimerical sentiments of an age of chivalry'. They listened with attentive ears to tales of amazons which seemed to realize the classic legends" of antiquity, to stories of Patagonian giants, to flaming pictures of an El Dorado', where the sands sparkled with gems, and golden pebbles as large as birds' eggs were dragged in nets out of the rivers. 7. It would seem to have been especially ordered by Providence that the discovery of the two great divisions of the American hemisphere should fall to the two races best fitted to conquer and colonize them. Thus the northern section was consigned to the Anglo-Saxon race, whose orderly, industrious habits found an ample field for development under its colder skies and on its more rugged soil; while the southern portion, with its tropical' products and treasures of mineral wealth, held out the most attractive bait to invite the enterprise of the Spaniard. 8. Under the pressure of that spirit of nautical enterprise which filled the maritime communities of Europe in the sixteenth century, the whole extent of the mighty continent, from Labrador to Terra del Fuego, was explored in less than thirty years after its discovery; and in 1521, the Portuguese Maghellan, sailing under the Spanish flag, solved the problem of the strait, and found a westerly way to the long-sought Spice-islands of India,―greatly to the astonishment of the Portuguese, who, sailing from the opposite direction, there met their rivals, face to face, at the antipodes'. But while the whole eastern coast of the American continent had been explored, and the central portion of it colonized, even after the brilliant achievement of the Mexican conquest, the veil was not yet raised that hung over the golden shores of the Pacific.—History of the Conquest of Peru. Character of Columbus.—Irving. 1. THE conduct of Columbus was characterized by the grandeur of his views, and the magnanimity of his spirit. Instead of scouring the newly-found countries, like a grasping adventurer eager only for immediate gain, as was too generally the case with contemporary" discoverers, he sought to ascertain their soil and productions, their rivers and harbors: he was desirous of colonizing and cultivating them; of conciliating and civilizing the natives; of building cities; introducing the useful arts; subjecting everything to the control of law, order, and religion; and thus of founding regular and prosperous empires. 2. In this glorious plan, he was constantly defeated by the dissolute rabble which it was his misfortune to command; with whom all law was tyranny, and all order restraint. They interrupted all useful works by their seditions"; provoked the peaceful Indians to hostility; and after they had thus drawn down misery and warfare upon their own heads, and overwhelmed Columbus with the ruins of the edifice he was building, they charged him with being the cause of the confusion. Well would it have been for Spain, had those who followed in the track of Columbus possessed his sound policy and liberal views. The New World, in such cases, would have been settled by pacific colonists, and civilized by enlightened legislators; instead of being overrun by desperate adventurers, and desolated by avaricious conquerors. 3. Columbus was a man of quick sensibility, liable to great excitement, to sudden and strong impressions, and powerful impulses. He was naturally irritable and impetuous, and keenly sensible to injury and injustice; yet the quickness of his temper was counteracted by the benevolence and generosity of his heart. The magnanimity of his nature shone forth through all the troubles of his stormy career. Though continually outraged in his diguity, and braved in the exercise of his command; though foiled in his plans, and endangered in his person by the seditions of turbulent and worthless men, and that too at times when suffering under anxiety of mind and anguish of body sufficient to exasperate the most patient, yet he restrained his valiant and indignant spirit, by the strong power of his mind, and brought himself to forbear and reason, and even to supplicate: nor should we fail to notice how free he was from all feeling of revenge, how ready to forgive and forget, on the least sign of repentance and atonement". He has been extolled for his skill in controlling others; but far greater praise is due to him for his firmness in governing himself. 4. His natural benignity' made him accessible to all kinds of pleasurable sensations from external objects. In his letters and journals, instead of detailing circumstances with the technical precision of a mere navigator, he notices the beauties of nature with the enthusiasm of a poet or a painter. As he coasts the shores of the New World, the reader participates in the enjoyment with which he describes, in his imperfect but picturesque Spanish, the varied objects around him; the blandness" of the temperature, the purity of the atmosphere, the fragrance of the air, "full of dew and sweetness," the verdure of the forests, the magnificence of the trees, the grandeur of the mountains, and the limpidity and freshness of the running streams. 5. New delight springs up for him in every scene. He extols each new discovery as more beautiful than the last, and each as the most beautiful in the world; until, with his simple earnestness, he tells the sovereigns, that, having spoken so highly of the preceding islands, he fears that they will not credit him, when he declares that the one he is actually describing surpasses them all in excellence. 6. In the same ardent and unstudied way, he expresses his emotions on various occasions, readily affected by impulses of joy or grief, of pleasure or indignation. When surrounded and overwhelmed by the ingratitude and violence of worthless men, he often, in the retirement of his cabin, gave way to bursts of sorrow, and relieved his overladen heart by sighs and groans. When he returned in chains to Spain, and came into the presence of Isabella, instead of continuing the lofty pride with which he had hitherto sustained his injuries, he was touched with grief and tenderness at her sympathy, and burst forth into sobs and tears. 7. He was devoutly pious; religion mingled with the whole course of his thoughts and actions, and shone forth in his most private and unstudied writings. Whenever he made any great discovery, he celebrated it by solemn thanks to God. The voice of prayer and melody of praise rose from his ships when they first beheld the New World, and his first action on landing was to prostrate himself upon the earth and return thanksgivings. Every evening, the Salve Regina and other vesper hymns were chanted by his crew, and masses were performed in the beautiful groves bordering the wild shores of this heathen land. . . . . 8. He was decidedly a visionary," but a visionary of an uncommon and successful kind. The manner in which his ardent imagination and mercurial' nature were controlled by a powerful judgment, and directed by an acute sagacity, is the most extraordinary feature of his character. Thus governed, his imagination, instead of exhausting itself in idle flights, lent aid to his judgment, and enabled him to form conclusions at which common minds could never have arrived, nay, which they could not perceive when pointed out. 9. To his intellectual vision it was given to read the signs of the times, and to trace, in the conjectures and reveries of past ages, the indications of an unknown world; as soothsayers were said to read predictions in the stars, and to foretell events from the visions of the night. "His soul," observes a Spanish writer, "was superior to the age in which he lived. For him was reserved the great enterprise of traversing that sea which had given rise to so many fables, and of deciphering the mystery of his time." 10. With all the fervor of his imagination, its fondest dreams fell short of the reality. He died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his discovery. Until his last breath, he entertained the idea that he had merely opened a new way to the old mart of opulent commerce, and had discovered some of the wild regions of the east. He supposed Hispaniola to be the ancient Ophir which had been visited by the ships of Solomon, and that Cuba and Terra Firma were but remote parts of Asia. 11. What visions of glory would have broken upon his mind could he have known that he had indeed discovered a new continent, equal to the whole of the old world in magnitude, and separated by two vast oceans from all the earth hitherto known by civilized man! And how would his magnanimous spirit have been consoled, amidst the afflictions of age and the cares of penury", the neglect of a fickle public, and the injustice of an ungrateful king, could he have anticipated the splendid empires which were to spread over the beautiful world he had discovered; and the nations, and tongues, and languages which were to fill its lands with his renown, and revere and bless his name to the latest posterity!—Life and Voyages of Columbus. Amerigo Vespucci.--In 1499, the year after Columbus discovered the continent, Amerigo Vespucci (ah-mā-rē'gō ves-poot'ch), an Italian navigator, visited the eastern coast of South America, and, in 1501, made a second voyage to the same regions. He prepared accounts of these two voyages, which were published in Europe, in which he claimed to be the first European that had landed on the western continent. In consequence of the claim set up by him, as well as from the fact that his were the first published accounts of the newly discovered country, it was called America. The Cabots.-In 1497, about one year before Columbus discovered the continent, and two years previous to Amerigo's visit, John Cabot and his son Sebastian, while sailing under a commission from Henry VII. of England, discovered the coast of Labrador, and thus were the first to discover the continent of America. In a second voyage, made by Sebastian Cabot in 1498, the coast, from Labrador to Chesapeake Bay-some say to Florida—was explored: landings were made in several places, and natives were seen, clad in the skins of beasts, and making use of copper. These achievements of the Cabots, the discovery and explorations, proved of momentous importance, especially to England, as, by reason of them, that country based her claim to all the region from Labrador to Florida. The Discovery of Florida.—Bancroft. 1. JUAN PONCE DE LEON (pōn'-thā dā lā-ōn') was the discoverer of Florida. His youth had been passed in military service in Spain; and during the war in Granada (gran-ah'dah) he had shared in the wild exploits of predatory' valor. No sooner had |