A Brief History of the United States. John Bach McMaster
Guam, which now belongs to our country, is one of the Ladrones.
[10] The Spaniards took possession of the Philippines a few years later, and in 1571 founded Manila. The group was named after Philip II of Spain. In 1555 a Spanish navigator discovered the Hawaiian Islands; but though they were put down on the early Spanish charts, the Spaniards did not take possession of them. Indeed, these islands were practically forgotten, and two centuries passed before they were rediscovered by the English explorer, Captain Cook, in 1778.
[11] Magellan was a very religious man, and after making an alliance with the king of the island of Cebu, he set about converting the natives to Christianity. The king, greatly impressed by the wonders the white man did, consented. A bonfire was lighted, the idols were thrown in, a cross was set up, and the natives were baptized. This done, the king called on Magellan to help him attack the chief of a neighboring island; but in the attack Magellan was killed and his men put to flight. This defeat so angered the king that he invited thirty Spaniards to a feast, massacred them, cut down the cross, and again turned pagan.
[12] Read the account in Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. II, pp. 190–211.
[13] Juan Ponce de Leon had sailed with Columbus on his second voyage, and had settled in Haiti. Hearing that there was gold in Porto Rico, he explored it for Spain, in 1509 was made its governor, and in 1511 founded the city of San Juan (sahn hoo-ahn'). After he was removed from the governorship, he obtained leave to search for the island of Bimini.
[14] He now obtained authority to colonize the supposed island; but several years passed before he was ready to make the attempt. He then set off with arms, tools, horses, and two hundred men, landed on the west coast of Florida, lost many men in a fight with the Indians, and received a wound of which he died soon after in Cuba.
[15] The story of this remarkable march across the continent is told in The Spanish Pioneers, by C. F. Lummis.
[16] There was a tradition in Europe that when the Arabs conquered Spain in the eighth century, a certain bishop with a goodly following fled to some islands far out in the Sea of Darkness and founded seven cities. When the Spaniards came in contact with the Indians of Mexico, they were told of seven caves from which the ancestors of the natives had issued, and jumped to the conclusion that the seven caves were the seven cities; and when Cabeza de Vaca came with his story of the wonderful cities of the north, it was believed that they were the towns built by the bishop.
[17] At an Indian village in Mexico, Marcos heard of a country to the northward where there were seven cities with houses of two, three, and four stories, and that of the chief with five. On the doorsills and lintels of the best houses, he was told, were turquoise stones.
[18] Read The Spanish Pioneers, by C. F. Lummis, pp. 77–88, 101–143. The year that Coronado returned to Mexico (1542) an expedition under Cabrillo (kah-breel'yo) coasted from Mexico along what is now California. Cabrillo died in San Diego harbor.
[19] Hernando de Soto was born about 1500 in Spain, and when of age went to Panama and thence to Peru with Pizarro. In the conquest of Peru he so distinguished himself that on returning to Spain he was made governor of Cuba.
[20] Landing on this spot, Cartier set forth to visit the great Indian village of Hochelaga. He found it surrounded with a palisade of tree trunks set in three rows. Entering the narrow gate, he beheld some fifty long houses of sapling frames covered with bark, each containing many fires, one for a family. From these houses came swarms of women and children, who crowded about the visitors, touched their beards, and patted their faces. Soon the warriors came and squatted row after row around the French, for whom mats were brought and laid on the ground. This done, the chief, a paralyzed old savage, was carried in, and Cartier was besought by signs to heal him, and when Cartier had touched him, all the sick, lame, and blind in the village were brought out for treatment. Read Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New World, pp. 187–193.
[21] As Cartier was on his way home he stopped at the harbor of St. Johns in Newfoundland, a harbor then frequented by fishermen from the Old World. There he was met by three ships and 200 colonists under Roberval, who ordered him to return. But one night Cartier slipped away in the darkness. Roberval went on to the site of Quebec and there planted his colony. What became of it is not known; but that it did not last long is certain, and many years passed before France repeated the attempt to gain a foothold on the great river of Canada.
CHAPTER III
FRANCE AND ENGLAND ATTEMPT TO SETTLE AMERICA
THE FRENCH IN SOUTH CAROLINA.—After the failure in Canada twenty years passed away before the French again attempted to colonize. Then (1562) Admiral Coligny (co-leen'ye), the leader of the Huguenots, or Protestants of France, sought to plant a colony in America for his persecuted countrymen, and sent forth an expedition under Ribaut (ree-bo'). These Frenchmen reached the coast of Florida, and turning northward came to a haven which they called Port Royal. Here they built a fort in what is now South Carolina. Leaving thirty men to hold it, Ribaut sailed for France. Famine, homesickness, ignorance of life in a wilderness, soon brought the colony to ruin. Unable to endure their hardships longer, the colonists built a crazy boat, [1] put to sea, and when off the French coast were rescued by an English vessel.
[Illustration: THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.]
THE FRENCH IN FLORIDA.—Two years later (1564) Coligny tried again, and sent forth a colony under Laudonničre (lo-do-ne-air'). It reached the coast of Florida, and a few miles up the St. Johns River built a fort called Caroline in honor of the French King Charles. The next year there came more colonists under Ribaut. [2]
[Illustration: FORT CAROLINE. From an old print.]
THE SPANIARDS FOUND ST. AUGUSTINE.—Now it so happened that just at this time a Spaniard named Menendez (ma-nen'deth) had obtained leave to conquer and settle Florida. Before he could set off, news came to Spain that the French were on the St. Johns River, and Menendez was sent with troops to drive them out. He landed in Florida in 1565 and built a fort which was the beginning of St. Augustine, the first permanent settlement on the mainland part of the United States. Ribaut at once sailed to attack it. But while he was at sea Menendez marched overland, took Fort Caroline, and put to death every man there, save a few who made good their escape. [3]
SPAIN HOLDS AMERICA.—More than seventy years had now parsed since Columbus made his great voyage of discovery. Yet, save some Portuguese settlements in Brazil, the only European colonies in America were Spanish. From St. Augustine, around the Gulf of Mexico, down South America to the Strait of Magellan and up the west coast to California, save the foothold of Portugal, island and mainland belonged to Spain. And all the rest of North America she claimed.
ENGLISH ATTACKS ON SPAIN IN THE NEW WORLD.—So far in the sixteenth century England had taken little or no part in the work of discovery, exploration, and settlement. Her fishermen came to the Banks of Newfoundland; but not till 1562, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, did the contact of England with the New World really begin. Then it was that Sir John Hawkins, one of England's great "sea kings," went to Africa, loaded his ships with negroes, sold them to planters in Haiti, and came home with hides and pearls. Such trade for one not a Spaniard was against the law of Spain. But Hawkins cared not, arid came again and again. When foul weather drove him into a Mexican port, the Spaniards sank most of his ships, but Hawkins escaped with two vessels, in one of which was Francis Drake. [4]
Smarting under defeat, Drake resolved to be avenged. Fitting out a little squadron at his own cost, without leave of the queen, Drake (1572) sailed to the Caribbean Sea, plundered Spanish towns along the coast, captured Spanish ships, and went home loaded with gold, silver, and merchandise. [5]
DRAKE SAILS AROUND THE GLOBE.—During this raid on the Spanish coast Drake marched across the Isthmus of Panama and looked down upon Balboa's great South Sea. As he looked, he resolved to sail on it, and in 1577 left England with five ships on