Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

A CHRONOLOGICAL

DETAIL OF ADVENTURES AND DISCOVERIES MADE BY

THE EUROPEAN NATIONS IN AMERICA BEFORE THE

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COUNCIL OF PLYMOUTH IN

1620.

Those marked with are more particularly enlarged upon in the Lives of the Adventurers.

A.D.

BIRON, a Norman, accidentally discovered a 1001. country which was afterward called Winland, I and is supposed to be a part of the Island of Newfoundland.-Crantz. Pontoppidan.

1170.

IF

1358.

IF

1492.

MADOC, prince of Wales, emigrated, and, it is thought, discovered a new country in the West. Hakluyt, iii., 1.

An island called Estotiland was discovered by a fisherman of Frisland, as related by ZENO.Ibid., 124.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, in the serI vice of Spain, discovered Guanahani, and other islands called Bahamas and Antilles.-Ferd. Columbus.

1493.

1497.

COLUMBUS made a second voyage, and discovered Dominica, and other islands called Caribbees.-Ibid.

JOHN CABOT, with his son SEBASTIAN, in the service of HENRY VII. of England, discovered the Island of Newfoundland and some parts of a western Continent, as far northward

* See the Life of Biron, p. 80.

as lat. 450, and as far southward as lat. 380.

Hakluyt, iii., 4-11.

1498. COLUMBUS made a third voyage, and dis

covered the Western Continent, in lat 10° N.Ferd. Col.

1499. OJEDA,* a private adventurer, and AMERIGO VESPUCCI,† followed the track of COLUM BUS, and discovered the Western Continent, of which Amerigo, after his return to Europe, wrote an account, and published it, from which the continent obtained the name of AMERICA. -Robertson.

1500.

CABRAL,‡ in the service of Portugal, bound

* [Alonzo de Ojeda, a man of singular bravery and prowess, who had early signalized himself in the Moorish wars. He had accompanied Columbus in his second voyage. The merchants of Seville, by the influence of the Bishop of Badajos, who also procured for him the journal and charts of Columbus, put four ships under his command. He made a second, but unsuccessful, voyage in 1501. He had shown himself to be a man of courage and skill, and was afterward (1509?) appointed by Ferdinand governor of that part of the continent which extends from Cape de Vela to the Gulf of Darien. This government, however, was soon broken up by the resolute resistance of the natives.-See Irving's Life of Columbus, vol. iii.-H.]

† [Vespucci was a gentleman of Florence, born March 9, 1451, a man of science, and an experienced navigator. He returned to Spain in June, 1500. His account of his voyage and discoveries was "drawn up not only with art, but with some elegance." The next year he made a voyage in the service of the King of Portugal, and touched on the coast of Brazil. Again, in 1503 he sailed for the East Indies, but returned in June, 1504, having gone no farther than Brazil. He afterward lived in Spain, in the capacity of chief pilot, where he died, Feb. 22, 1512.-Irving's Columbus ii., 246.-H.]

[Pedro Alvarez Cabral. After the return of De Gama from voyage to the East Indies, round the Cape of Good Hope, the

to India, discovered by accident the Continent of America, in lat. 100 south, which was called Brazil.-Robertson.

1502. COLUMBUS made his fourth and last voyage to the new continent in quest of a passage through it to India.- Ferd. Col.

F

1512. JOHN PONCE,* in the service of Spain, discovered the new continent in the latitude of 30° N., and called it Florida.-Herrera.

1513.

VASCO NUNEZ,† a Spaniard, travelled

King of Portugal fitted out a large fleet to prosecute these discov. eries, and gave the command of it to Cabral. To avoid the varia. ble winds and calms which he anticipated on the coast of Africa, he stood out to sea, and so far that he fell in with an unknown country, along which he sailed for several days. Concluding it to be a portion of the continent, he landed and took formal possession in the name of the king, and sent immediately a ship to Lisbon with an account of his unexpected discovery.-H.]

* [Juan Ponce de Leon, "an officer eminent for conduct no less than for courage." He had subdued the Island of Puerto Rico in 1509 and the following years. For the discovery of Florida he equipped three ships at his own expense, and found daring spirits enough who were eager to share the dangers and honours of his enterprise. The name Florida was given to the newly-found region because he reached it on Palm Sunday (Pascua Florida). He is said to have undertaken this voyage from a most romantic motive; to search for a fountain, which the Indians had reported of such marvellous virtue, that whoever bathed in it put off at once the infirmities of age, and was renewed in the vigour and beauty of youth; a tale which the simple native honestly told, and which the no less credulous Spaniards fully believed.-H.]

† [Vasco Nuñes de Balboa was of a noble family of Xeres, in Estremadura, and born in the year 1475. His first voyage to America was made in 1500, under Bastides. He resided some time at St. Domingo, where he became involved in debt; and to escape, secreted himself on board a ship bound for the continent. They reached Darien, where his energy gained him favour with VOL. I.-F

1519.

1520.

across the Isthmus of Darien, and from a mountain discovered on the other side of the continent an ocean, which, from the direction in which he saw it, took the name of the South Sea. -Robertson.

HERNANDO CORTEZ,* in the service of Spain, entered the city of Mexico, and, in the space of two years, reduced the whole country under the dominion of the King of Spain.-Ibid.

FERDINAND DE MAGELLANES,† a Portuguese in the service of Spain, passed through

the men, and he was put in command of the colony. From this point he made many expeditions, and first gained a sight of the South Sea. He was brought to trial by the jealousy of Pedrarias Davila, who had been appointed governor of that country, and beheaded by his orders in the year 1527.-H.]

* [Hernando Cortez was born at Medellin, in Spain, in the year 1485, and was educated at the University of Salamanca. He was of an adventurous disposition, and the prospect of riches and discovery in the New World was just suited to his ardent and restless mind. He sailed for America in 1504, and stayed many years in St. Domingo, where he was married. He started for Mexico Feb. 19, 1519. After the conquest of that country, he returned to Spain in 1523, and was appointed governor of a province in the land he had subdued. He returned again to Spain in 1540, and died there, Dec. 2, 1547. Cruel, perhaps, and unscrupulous, he was yet daring, sagacious, enthusiastic, heroic, and of a generous spirit.-H.]

[Ferdinand de Magalhaens, or Magellan, was a gentleman of honourable birth, and had served with much distinction as a soldier in the East Indies. He proposed to Emanuel, then king of Portugal, to conduct a fleet by a westerly course to the Spice Islands. His scheme being rejected, he made the same offer to the court of Spain; and, having been furnished with five ships, sailed from Seville Aug. 10, 1519. He was slain April 20, 1520, a man of great energy, judgment, and resolution.-Robertson.-H.]

1524.

the strait which bears his name, and sailed across the South Sea, to which he gave the name of Pacific. He discovered the Philippine Islands, and was there killed in a skirmish with the natives. The ship, under the command of SEBASTIAN DEL CANO, returned to Spain by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and thus performed the first circumnavigation of the globe.-Life of Magellanes.

JOHN DE VERAZZANI,* a Florentine in the service of FRANCIS I., king of France, discovered the new continent in lat. 34° N., sailed northward to lat. 41°, where he entered a harbour, which, by his description, must be that of NewYork. Thence he sailed E. and N.E. as far as Newfoundland, and called the whole country New France.-Hakluyt, iii., 295–300.

[Giovanni Verazzano was born of a distinguished family at Florence about the year 1475. He was early distinguished by a passion for adventure, travelled in Syria and Egypt, lived several years at Cairo, and navigated the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. He was selected by Francis I. to conduct the first expedition fitted out by France for the purpose of maritime discovery. He sailed from a rock near the Island of Madeira, Jan. 17, 1524, with a single ship, the Dolphin, fifty men, and provisions for eight months, and explored the coast of America from Florida to Newfoundland, from 34° to 50° north, a space of 700 leagues, entered the Hudson River and Narraganset Bay, and returned to Dieppe early in July of the same year. A translation of the report he made to Francis is given in Hakluyt, as cited in the text; and a sketch of the same, with an estimate of the character of Verazzano, may be consulted in the North American Review, vol. xlv., p. 293-311, by G. W. Greene, U. S. consul at Rome. He is said to have made a second voyage of discovery, and, on landing, to have been taken prisoner by the natives, and devoured in sight of his comrades. -H.]

« ПредишнаНапред »