A Brief History of the United States. Joel Dorman Steele
EXTENT OF THE SPANISH POSSESSIONS.
Spain, at the close of the sixteenth century, held possession not only of the West Indies, but of Yucatan, Mexico, and Florida.
[Footnote: A writer of that time locates Quebec in Florida, and a map of Henry II. gives that name to all North America.]
The Spanish explorers had traversed a large portion of the present Southern States, and of the Pacific coast. All this vast territory they claimed by the rights of discovery and possession.
[Footnote: The conquests of the new world enriched Spain, which became the wealthiest and most powerful country in Europe. This made other nations all the more anxious to find the western passage to India. The routes by the Cape of Good Hope and by the Straits of Magellan were long and dangerous. To find the shorter northwestern route now became the great wish of all maritime nations, and has been anxiously sought down to the present time.]
FRENCH EXPLORATIONS.
The French were eager to share in the profits which Spain was acquiring in the new world. Within seven years after the discovery of the continent, the fisheries of Newfoundland were frequented by their mariners.
[Footnote: Cape Breton was named by the fishermen in remembrance of their home in Brittany, France.]
VER-RA-ZA-NI (zah-ne), a Florentine, was the first navigator sent by the French king to find the new way to the Indies. Sailing westward from Madeira (1524), he reached land near the present harbor of Wilmington.
[Footnote: A letter of Verrazani's giving an account of this voyage, and, until of late, thought to be reliable, is now considered by many to be a forgery perpetrated by some Italian anxious to secure for his country the glory of the discovery.]
He supposed this had never been seen by Europeans, although we know that Cabot had discovered it nearly thirty years before. He coasted along the shores of Carolina and New Jersey, entered the harbors of New York and Newport, and returned with the most glowing description of the new lands he had found. He named the country New France. This term was afterwards confined to Canada.
CARTIER (kar-te-a) ascended the River St. Lawrence (1535) to the Indian village of Hochelaga (ho-she-lah-ga) the present site of Montreal. The town was pleasantly situated at the foot of a lofty hill which Cartier climbed. Stirred by the magnificent prospect, he named it Mont Real (Mong Ra-al), Regal Mountain.
[Footnote: Cartier had discovered and named the Gulf and River St. Lawrence the previous year. In 1541–2, he and Lord Roberval attempted to plant a colony near Quebec. It was composed chiefly of convicts and proved a failure.]
JOHN RIBAUT (re-bo) led the first expedition (1562) under the auspices of Coligny.
[Footnote: Jean Ribaut, as his name is given in Coligny's Ms. and in his own journal published in 1563, was an excellent seaman.]
[Footnote: Coligny (ko-lon-ye) was an admiral of France, and a leader of the Huguenots (Hu-ge-nots), as the Protestants were then called. He had conceived a plan for founding an empire in America. This would furnish an asylum for his Huguenot friends, and at the same time advance the glory of the French. Thus religion and patriotism combined to induce him to send out colonists to the new world.]
The company landed at Port Royal, S.C. So captivated were they, that when volunteers were called for to hold the country for France, so many came forward "with such a good will and joly corage," wrote Ribaut, "as we had much to do to stay their importunitie." They erected a fort, which they named Carolina in honor of Charles IX., king of France. The fleet departed, and this little band of thirty were left alone on the continent. From the North Pole to Mexico, they were the only civilized men. Food became scarce. They tired of the eternal solitude of the wilderness, and finally built a rude ship, and put to sea. Here a storm shattered their vessel. Famine overtook them, and, in their extremity, they killed and ate one of their number. A vessel at last hove in sight, and took them on board only to carry them captives to England. Thus perished the colony, but the name still survives.
[Footnote: The most feeble were landed in France. It is said that Queen Elizabeth while conversing with those sent to England, first thought of colonizing the new world]
LAUDONNIERE (Lo-don-yare), two years after, built a fort, also called Carolina, on the St. John's River.
[Footnote: The history of this colony records an amusing story concerning the long life of the natives. A party visited a chief in the midst of the wilderness who gravely assured them that he was the father of five generations, and had lived 250 years. Opposite him, in the same hut, sat his father, a mere skeleton, whose "age was so great that the good man had lost his sight, and could speak one onely word but with exceeding great paine." The credulous Frenchmen gazed with awe on this wonderful pair, and congratulated themselves on having come to such a land—where certainly there would be no need of Ponce de Leon's fabled fountain.]
Soon the colonists were reduced to the verge of starvation.
[Footnote: Their sufferings were horrible. Weak and emaciated, they fed themselves with roots, sorrel, pounded fish-bones, and even roasted snakes. "Oftentimes," says Laudonniere, "our poor soldiers were constrained to give away the very shirts from their backs to get one fish. If at any time they shewed unto the savages the excessive price which they tooke, these villaines would answer them roughly: 'If thou make so great account of thy merchandise, eat it, and we will eat our fish;' then fell they out a laughing, and mocked us with open throat."]
They were on the point of leaving, when they were reinforced by Ribaut. The French now seemed fairly fixed on the coast of Florida. The Spaniards, however, claimed the country. Melendez, about this time, had made a settlement in St. Augustine. Leading an expedition northward through the wilderness, in the midst of a fearful tempest, he attacked Fort Carolina and massacred almost the entire population.
CHAMPLAIN (sham-plane), at the beginning of the seventeenth century, crossed the Atlantic in two pigmy barks—one of twelve, the other of fifteen tons—and ascended the St. Lawrence on an exploring tour. At Hochelaga all was changed. The Indian town had vanished, and not a trace remained of the savage population which Cartier saw there seventy years before.
[Footnote: This fact illustrates the frequent and rapid changes which took place among the aboriginal tribes.]
Champlain was captivated by the charms of the new world, and longed to plant a French empire and the Catholic faith amid its savage wilds.
DE MONTS (mong) received a grant of all the territory between the fortieth and forty-sixth parallels of latitude.
[Footnote: Between the sites of Philadelphia and Montreal.]
This tract was termed Acadia, a name afterward confined to New Brunswick and the adjacent islands, and now to Nova Scotia. With Champlain, he founded Port Royal, N. S., in 1605. This was the first permanent French settlement in America. It was three years before a cabin was built in Canada, and two before the James River was discovered.
CHAMPLAIN RETURNED in 1608, and established a trading post at Quebec. This was the first permanent French settlement in Canada. The next summer, in his eager desire to explore the country, he joined a war party of the Hurons against the Iroquois, or Five Nations of Central New York.
[Footnote: The interference of Champlain with the Indians secured the inveterate hostility of the Iroquois tribes. Not long after, they seized the missionaries who came among them, tortured and put them to death. This cut off any farther explorations toward the south. The French, therefore, turned their attention toward the west.]
On this journey he discovered that beautiful lake which bears his name. Amid discouragements