The career of Cabot is sufficiently familiar to us; that of the son Sebastian was still more fortunate and glorious. His maps and narratives have not come down to us, but there appears little doubt that in his expedition for the discovery of the north-west passage, when in the service of Ferdinand of Spain, he actually passed through the straits and entered the bay which afterwards received its name from Hudson. On returning to England he was honourably received, and a pension was conferred upon him. During his extreme old age, and at the hour of his death, his thoughts wandered to his beloved ocean, so much was he attached to his profession.

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The French were not long in claiming a share in the new discoveries, and in 1504 the fisheries of Newfoundland were frequented by the mariners of Brittany and Normandy,

John

Verrazzani was the person appointed by Francis I. to explore the new regions. A terrible storm overtook the Little Dolphin, which was the name of his vessel, and fifty days elapsed before they beheld the continent. The unsuspecting natives welcomed the strangers to their shores, abounding with delightful fields and forests, but their hospitality was basely repaid by various attempts to kidnap them. Verrazzani acquired considerable knowledge of the country before he returned to France. Arriving first in the latitude of Wilmington, he passed the coast of North Carolina, after which he was greatly attracted by the harbour of New York, and thence, passing by Newport and leaving Rhode Island, he pursued his voyage until he reached the fiftieth degree of latitude. There are many conjectures respecting his death, but the common tradition is that he perished at sea. We have not space to dwell upon the voyage of Cartier, who, successful in his expedition, raised a tall cross near the small inlet of Gaspe, bearing upon it the arms of France, with an appropriate inscription. A new commission was in consequence issued, and many of the young nobility of France volunteered their services. With a solemn pageant and the full absolution and blessing of the bishop did they depart, full of hopes for the colonization of the new territory, which, in 1535, was first known by the appellation of New France. Arriving in the gulf of St. Lawrence, which then first received its name, and sailing to the north of Anticosti, they entered the harbour in the isle which is now called Orleans, and were received by the Indians of the Algonquin descent. Enduring great hardships in the winter, Cartier claimed possession of the territory, and on returning to Europe gave no very encouraging accounts of the country. Imagination, however, still rested on the advantages which might be derived from such a land, and five years afterwards Francis de la Roque, Lord of Roberval, obtained a commission, together with

Cartier, who was appointed captain general and chief pilot. He was to take with him artisans and mechanics; but of those who were able to support themselves by their industry in their own country, none could be found who would accompany him, and he had recourse to the refuse of the prisons, and these formed the first population of the colony.

The expedition was unfortunate. "Roberval was ambitious of power; and Cartier desired the exclusive honour of discovery." They embarked at different periods, and the latter, after passing the winter without making any further advances in his discoveries, returned to Europe, when the former had just arrived with a large reinforcement. Roberval however soon abandoned his viceroyalty and his troublesome subjects, and returned to his own estates in Picardy. No further favorable results took place, nor could any enterprise succeed, as our author remarks, from "a government which could devise the massacre of St. Bartholomew." In 1578 the importance of the fishing stations was considerably augmented, as there were one hundred and fifty French vessels at Newfoundland, and before 1609 one French mariner "had made more than forty voyages to the American coast." It was reserved however to Champlain to become "the father of the French settlements in Canada a man remarkable for possessing a clear and penetrating understanding, with a spirit of cautious inquiry; untiring perseverance, with great mobility; indefatigable activity, with fearless courage." He was appointed by the company of the merchants of Rouen to command the expedition, and the narrative which he wrote on his return to France is full of interest. An exclusive patent was granted to the Calvinist De Monts, and we refer our readers to Mr. Bancroft's interesting account of the gradual footing De Monts obtained in the country, until the merchants of St. Malo, Rouen, and La Rochelle, obtained another patent from their king, and Champlain in 1615 once more embarked for the new world accompanied by the monks of St. Francis. He did not desist from his efforts until he successfully established the supremacy of the French over the country which he colonized and which received his bones. Still following the author in his history of the early discoveries, we find much inte rest in the chapter which he has given to the Spanish adventurers; this people, full of romance and superstition, gave ready credence to the many legends with which the famed land was invested, and their avarice made them desirous to explore a country which in their imagination teemed with gold and precious stones. Tired with the repose which they enjoyed after the conquest of Granada, they looked forward to new acquisitions which promised inexhaustible wealth. Passing over Juan Ponce de Leon, Fernandez,

soner.

and one or two others, we come to Ferdinand de Soto. Florida, which for some time had occupied the golden dreams of the ambitious courtiers of the Spanish monarch, inspired the mind of Soto with the desire of vanquishing the natives and of exploring its wealth. He had already distinguished himself by many chivalrous deeds as the favourite companion of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, when the unfortunate Atahualpa was taken priCharles the Fifth readily entered into his project, and in 1538 a gallant fleet, with six hundred young men, who formed his companions, many of them "in the glittering array of burnished armour and very gallant with silk upon silk," gaily proceeded to Cuba, where they were welcomed with joyous acclamations. They arrived in the Bay of Spirito Santo; and Soto, following the policy of Cortez, dismissed the ships, for fear of any of the faint-hearted returning. They carried back in them however Porcallo, an old man, who despairing of success, and frightened at the first aspect of the land, prudently preferred the wealth which he already possessed. The Spaniards, ever prone to cruelty, had provided themselves with the various instruments of torture and oppression which they had hitherto used in former invasions, and bloodhounds accompanied them for the purpose of running down the unhappy natives. The reader must peruse for himself the interesting account of the sad disasters which attended them. The yellow ore ever haunted their imagination, and they still pressed forwards through weary forests and marshes. "I will not turn back," said Soto, "till I have seen the poverty of the country with my own eyes;" and the adventurers pressed onwards towards the north east, passing the Alatamaha and the beautiful vallies of Georgia. The Indian guide continually involved them in difficulties, and would have been torn in pieces by the dogs, but that he was required as an interpreter. The Indians, everywhere rendered hostile by the manners of the strangers, were unsparing in their opposition. Wearied with continually lodging in the fields, they sought to occupy the Indian town of Mavilla or Mobile. "Å battle ensued; the terrors of their cavalry gave the victory to the Spaniards. I know not if a more bloody Indian fight ever occurred on the soil of the United States; the town was set on fire; and two thousand five hundred Indians are said to have been slain, suffocated, or burned. They had fought with desperate courage; and but for the flames, which consumed their light and dense settlements, they would have effectually repulsed the invaders. Of the Christians eighteen died;' one hundred and fifty were wounded with arrows; twelve horses were slain and seventy hurt. The flames had not spared the baggage of the Spaniards; it was in the town and was entirely consumed." We cannot but

admire in the following extract the unyielding perseverance of the Spanish governor :

the

"He retreated towards the north, his troops already reduced by sickness and warfare to five hundred men. A month passed away, before he reached winter quarters at Chicaça, a small town in the country of the Chickasaws, in the upper part of the state of Mississippi; probably on the western bank of the Yazoo. The weather was severe, and snow fell; but maize was yet standing in the open fields. The Spaniards were able to gather a supply of food; and the deserted town, with such rude cabins as they added, afforded them shelter through the winter. Yet no mines of Peru, were discovered; no ornaments of gold adorned the rude savages; their wealth was t harvest of corn, and wigwams were their only palaces; they were poor and independent, they were hardy and loved freedom. When Spring opened, Soto demanded of the chieftain of the Chickasaws two hundred men to carry the burdens of his company. The Indians hesitated; human nature is the same in every age and every climate. Like the inhabitants of Athens in the days of Themistocles, or those of Moscow of a recent day, the Chickasaws, unwilling to see strangers and enemies occupy their homes, in the dead of night, deceiving the sentinels, set fire to their own village, in which the Christians were encampt on a sudden, half the houses were in flaines; and the loudest notes of the war-whoop rang through the air. The Indians, could they have acted with calm bravery, might have gained an easy and entire victory; but they trembled at their own success, and feared the unequal battle against weapons of steel. Many of the horses had broken loose. These, terrified and without riders, roamed through the forest, of which the burning villages illuminated the shades, and seemed to the ignorant natives the gathering of hostile squadrons. Others of the horses perished in the stables; most of the swine were consumed; eleven of the Christians were burnt or lost their lives in the tumult. The clothes which had been saved from the fires of Mobile were destroyed, and the Spaniards, now as naked as the natives, suffered from cold. Weapons and equipments were consumed or spoiled. Had the Indians made a resolute onset on this night or the next, the Spaniards would have been unable to resist. But in a respite. of a week, forges were erected, swords newly tempered and good ashen lances were made equal to the best of Biscay. When the Indians attacked the camp they found" the Christians "prepared."-vol. i. p. 49.

Vainly endeavouring to overawe the Indians of Natchez by asserting a divine origin, he gradually sunk under the accumulation of fatigue and disappointment and was carried off by a malignant fever. However disastrous might be the result of the expedition, yet it should not be forgotten, that to Soto and his companions belong the honour of the discovery of the Mississippi, and they were the first to observe that the sea is not salt at its mouth, from the immense volume of fresh water, which this mighty river discharges. Our readers must bear in mind, that Florida at that period was widely extended in its geo

graphy; and that the Spaniards claimed under its name the whole sea coast as far as Newfoundland, and that it included also Canada. Religious zeal met with no better success, and Florida dyed with Spanish blood was abandoned. The efforts of France are next presented to our attention.

In 1564, Coligny obtained the consent of Charles IX. and three ships were provided for the service under Laudonniere as a leader. The voyage was favourable, and the followers of Calvin, with psalms of thanksgiving, erected a fort on the River May. Many of our readers will remember the sad termination of this attempt, on the part of France, to establish a colony through the agency of the Huguenots. It forms a striking picture of the bigotry which darkened the actions of the men of that age, whose deeds might, under other circumstances, have been chivalrous and noble. The colony already began to experience the comforts of a home, when the cry was raised in Spain, who never voluntarily relinquished her claims, that "the heretics must be extirpated." Fanaticism was at its height, and more than twenty-five hundred persons, consisting of priests and jesuits, soldiers, sailors, and other men, joined the expedition under Melendez, a man who was in every way calculated to carry out the views of the Spanish

"It was on the day which the customs of Rome have consecrated to the memory of one of the most eloquent sons of Africa, and one of the most venerated of the fathers of the church, that he came in sight of Florida; for four days he sailed along the coast, uncertain where the French were established; on the fifth day he landed, and gathered from the Indians accounts of the Huguenots. At the same time he discovered a fine haven and beautiful river, and remembering the saint on whose day he came upon the coast, he gave to the harbour and to the stream the name of St. Augustine. Sailing then to the north, he discovered a portion of the French fleet, and observed the nature of the road where they were anchored. The French demanded his name and objects. 'I am Melendez of Spain,' replied he, sent with strict orders from my king to gibbet and behead all the Protestants in these regions. The Frenchman who is a Catholic I will spare, every heretic shall die.'"vol. i. p. 68.

Melendez returned to the harbour of St. Augustine, aud after a solemn mass was performed, founded the city of St. Augustine, which is now the oldest town in the United States. The Spaniards ultimately made their way to the garrison of St. John's, and a horrible massacre ensued, in which for a time even the women and children were not exempt." A few escaped into the woods, and a portion surrendered themselves, vainly relying on a mercy which had no existence in the breasts of their hardened conquerors. The infamous exploits of Melendez are too gene