fa'e University Library II ill I! 111 l| u 39002009367963 ¦ .i ; iiiiiiii l.nii:-: !\T.fN 1 ILLUSTRATE!) «*. ¦&k- BRYANT'S POPULAR HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES. £/„. r.., .*/.,, ... 7 /YZlUMynv £U£&k^ C&y-i • uasytsfZ^ A POPULAR HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, FROM THE FIRST DISCOVERY OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE BY THE NORTHMEN, TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY OF THE UNION OF THE STATES. PEECEDED BY A SKETCH OF THE PRE-HISTOEIC PERIOD AND THE AGE OF THE MOUND BUILDERS. BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT AND SYDNEY HOWARD GAY. VOLUME L FULLY ILLUSTRATED. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, SUCCESSORS TO SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO. 1878. Copyright, 1876, Br SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG, AND COMPANY. Cb£.QA3 [Right of translation reserved.] RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. PREFACE. There are several excellent histories of the United States of North America in print, and it will naturally be asked what occasion there is for another. The title of this work is in part an answer to the question. It is intended to be a popular history — a work for that large class who have not leisure for reading those narratives which aim at setting forth, with the greatest breadth and variety of circumstance, the finnals of our nation's life. At the same time it is the design of the present work to treat the subject more at large than is done in those compends, some of them able in their way, which are used as text-books in the schools. Unlike these latter, it is not a compilation from histories al ready written, but in its narrative of events and its repre sentation of the state of our country at different epochs, has derived its materials through independent research from orig inal sources. It is also within the plan of this work to rely in part for its attraction, on the designs with which it is illus trated — likenesses of men conspicuous in our annals, views of places and buildings memorable in our history, and repre sentations of usages and manners which have had their day and have passed away. But in saying this, we state but a small part of our plan. It is our purpose to present within a moderate compass a view of changes, political and social, occurring within our Republic, which have an interest for every nation in the civil ized world, and the history of which could not be fully written until now. In the two centuries and a half of our existence as an off-shoot of the great European stock, a mighty drama has been put upon the stage of our continent, which, after a viii PEE FACE. series of fierce contentions and subtle intrigues, closed in a bloody catastrophe with a result favorable to liberty and human rights and to the fair fame of the Republic. Within that time the institution of slavery, springing up from small and almost unnoticed beginnings, grew to be a gigantic power claiming and exercising dominion over the confederacy, and at last, when it failed in causing itself to be recognized as a national institution and saw the signs of a decline in its polit ical supremacy, declaring the Union of the States dissolved, encountering the free States in a sanguinary five years' war, and bringing upon itself overthrow and utter destruction. We stand therefore at a point in our annals where the whole duration of slavery in our country from the beginning to the end, lies before us as on a chart ; and certainly no his tory of our Republic can now be regarded as complete which should fail to carry the reader through the various stages of its existence, from its silent and stealthy origin to the stormy period in which the world saw its death-struggle, and recog nized in its fall the sentence of eternal justice. It is instruc tive to observe how in its earlier years slavery was admitted, by the most eminent men of those parts of the country where it had taken the deepest root, to be a great wrong ; and how afterward, when the power and influence of the slave-holding class were at their height, it was boldly de fended as a beneficent and just institution, the basis of the most perfect social state known to the world, — so powerfully and surely do personal interests pervert the moral judgments of mankind. The controversy assumed a deeper interest as the years went on. On the side of slavery stood forth men singularly fitted to be its champions ; able, plausible, trained to public life, men of large personal influence and a fierce determination of will nourished by the despotism exercised on their plantations over their bondmen. On the other side was a class equally able and no less determined, enthusiasts for liberty as courageous as their adversaries were imperious, restlessly aggressive, ready to become martyrs, and from time to time attesting their sincerity by yielding up their lives. So fierce was the quarrel, and so general was the inclination PREFACE. ix even in the free States to take part with the slave-owners, that the name of Abolitionist was used as a term of reproach and scorn ; and to point out a man as worthy of wearing it, was in some places the same thing as to recommend him to the attentions of the mob. Yet even while this was a name of opprobrium, the hostility to slavery was gathering strength under a new fprm. The friends of slavery demanded that the authority of the master over his bondman should be rec ognized in all the territory belonging to the Union not yet formed into States, — in short, that the jurisdiction of the "Republic, wherever established, should carry with it the law of slavery. A party was immediately formed to resist the application of this doctrine, and after a long and vehement contest elected its candidate President of the United States. Meantime the rapid settlement of our Pacific coast by a purely free population, in consequence of the opening of the gold mines, showed the friends of slavery that they were to be hereafter in a minority, the power of which would dimin ish with every successive year. They instantly took the res olution to revolt against the Union, declared it thenceforth dissolved, and rushed into a war, in which their defeat carried with it the fall of slavery. It fell, dragging down with it thousands of private fortunes, and leaving some of the fair est portions of the region whence it issued its decrees ravaged and desolate, and others, for a time, given over to a confusion little short of anarchy. Writers who record the fortunes of nations have most gen erally and wisely stopped at a modest distance from the time in which they wrote, for this reason among others, that the narrative could not be given with the necessary degree of impartiality, on account of controversies not yet ended, and prejudices which have not had time to subside. But in the case of American slavery the difficulty of speaking impar tially both of the events which form its history, and of the characters of its champions and adversaries, is far less now than it ever was before. Slavery has become a thing of the past ; the dispute as to its rights under our Constitution is closed forever. The class of active and vigilant politicians x PREFACE. who, a few years since, were ever on the watch for some opportunity of promoting its interests by legislation, is now as if it had never been ; slavery is no longer either de nounced or defended from the pulpits ; the division of polit ical journals into friends and enemies of slavery exists no longer, and when a candidate for office is presented for the suffrages of his fellow citizens, it is no longer asked, " What does he think of the slavery question ? " So far indeed, does this fierce contest seem already removed into the domain of the past, and separated from the questions and interests of the present moment, that when a person is pointed out as having been a distinguished Abolitionist he is looked at with somewhat of the same historical interest as if it had been said, " There goes one who fought so bravely at Lundy's Lane ; " or, " There is one who commanded a company of riflemen at the battle of New Orleans." The champions of slavery on one side — able men and skilled in the expedients of party warfare, and in m.any instances uncorrupt and pure in personal character, — and the champions of the slave on the other, fearless and ready for the martyrdom which they sometimes suffered, their faculties exalted by a sense of dan ger, — can now, as they and their acts pass in review before the historian, be judged with a degree of calmness belonging to a new era of our political existence. But the great conclusion is still to be drawn that the exist ence of slavery in our Republic was at utter variance with the free institutions which we made our boast ; and that it could not be preserved in the vast growth which it had at tained without altering in a great degree their nature, and communicating to them its own despotic character. Where half the population is in bondage to the other half there is a constant danger that the subject race will rise against their masters, who naturally look to repression and terror as their means of defence. The later history of slavery in our coun try is full of examples to show this — severe laws against sedition in the slave States, an enforced silence on the subject of human liberty, an expurgated popular literature, and vis itors to the slave States chased back by mobs across the fron- PREFACE. XI tier which they had imprudently crossed. It is remarkable that, not very long before the civil war, certain of the south ern journals began to maintain in elaborate leading articles that the time had arrived for considering whether the entire laboring class of whatever color, should not be made the serfs of the land-owners and others of the more opulent members of society. A history like this would have been incomplete and frag mentary had it failed to record the final fate as well as the rise and growth of an institution wielding so vast an influence both in society and politics, with champions so able and reso lute, organized with such skill, occupying so wide and fertile a domain and rooted there with such firmness as to be re garded by the friends of human liberty with a feeling scarcely short of despair. To have broken off the narrative before reaching the catastrophe, would have been like rising from the spectacle of a drama at the end of the fourth act. Few episodes in the world's history have been so complete in themselves as this of American slavery. Few have brought into activity such mighty agencies, or occupied so vast a theatre, or been closed, although amid fearful carnage, yet in a manner so satisfactory to the sense of natural justice. Here is the place to speak of another important conclusion to be drawn from the result of our late civil war. It has proved the strength of our political system. When the slave States first revolted it is wonderful with what unanimity the people of the Old World, even those who wished well to the Northern States, adopted the conclusion, that the Union could endure no longer, and that the bond once broken could never be reunited. Those powers which had regarded the United States as a somewhat uncomfortable neighbor, rapidly becom ing too strong to be reasonable in its dealings with the mon archies of Europe, fully believed that thereafter there would exist, on the North American continent, two rival common wealths of the same origin, yet so diverse from each other in their institutions, as to be involved in frequent disagreements, and thus to prove effectual checks upon each other, relieving the European powers from the danger of aggression in this xu PREFACE. quarter. It was sometimes said by Englishmen who thought that they were speaking in the interest of humanity : " All the interest we feel in your quarrel is this, that you should go to pieces as quickly and with as little bloodshed as possible." The steps taken by Great Britain and France were in accord with the expectation of which I have spoken ; Britain instantly declaring the slave States a belligerent power — a virtual acknowledgment of their independence — and France posting a dependent Prince in Mexico with the view of intervening in that quarter as soon as it might appear politic to do so. Till the close of our civil war the armed cohorts of France hung like a thunder-cloud over our southwestern border, but the hour never came when the signal might be given for the grim mass to move northward. The period of time at which the nation inhabiting the do main of our Republic came into being is so recent, that we may trace its growth with as much distinctness as if we were the contemporaries of its birth. The records of its early exis tence have been preserved as those of no other nation have been, which has risen to any importance in the annals of the world. To the guidance of these the historian may trust himself securely, with no danger of losing his way among the uncertain shadows of tradition. It is with a feeling of wonder that he sees colonies, planted in different parts of the North American continent so remote from each other, under such different circumstances, and so entirely without concert on the part of the adventurers who led them thither, united at last in a political fabric of such strength and solidity. The columns of the great edifice were separately laid in the wil derness amid savage tribes, by men who apparently had no thought of their future relation to each other ; but as they rose from the earth it seemed as if a guiding intelligence had planned them in such a manner that in due time they might be adjusted to each other in a single structure. Those who at the outbreak of our civil war administered the govern ments of Europe, had, it is certain, little confidence in the stability and duration of a political fabric so framed. It was loosely and fortuitously put together, they thought, of ele- PREFACE. xiii ments discordant in themselves, whose imperfect cohesion a shock like that of the southern revolt would destroy forever. It survived that shock, however, and, in part at least, for the very reason of its peculiar structure. It survived it be cause every man in the free States felt that he was a part of the government; because in our system of decentralized power a part of it was lodged in his person. He felt that he was challenged when the Federal Government was defied, and that he was robbed when the rebels took possession of the forts of the Federal Government and its munitions of war. The quarrel became his .personal concern, and the entire people of the North rose as one man to breast and beat back this bold attack upon a system of polity, which every man of them was moved to defend by the feeling which would move him to de fend his fireside. Perhaps out of this fortuitous planting of our continent in scattered and independent settlements, has arisen the strongest form of government, so far as respects cohesion and self-maintenance, that the world has seen. Certainly the experience of the last few years, beginning with the civil war, gives plausibility to this idea. All. the consequences of that war have not been equally for tunate with this. It may be admitted that, in some instances, the influence of a military life on the young men who thronged to our camps was salutary, in bringing out the bet ter qualities of their character and moulding it to a more manly pattern, by overcoming the love of ease and accustom ing the soldier to endure suffering and brave danger for the common cause. Yet it is certain that in other men it en couraged brutal instincts which had been held in check by the restraints of a peaceful order of things ; that it made them careless of inflicting pain, and indifferent to the taking of life. Accordingly, after the close of the war, crimes of violence became fearfully numerous, men more often carried about deadly weapons, quarrels more often led to homicide, rob beries accompanied by assassination were much more fre quent, and acts of housebreaking were perpetrated with greater audacity. It would seem invidious to say that these crimes were most frequent in the region which had been the xiv PREFACE. seat of the war ; but it is certain that there the peace was often deplorably disturbed by quarrels between the white race and the colored which led to bloodshed. Thus the state of society left by the war may be fairly put to the account of the great error committed in allowing slavery to have a place among our institutions. But while men were watching with alarm these offences against the public peace, it was discovered, with no little sur prise, that crimes of fraud had become as numerous, and were equally traceable to the war as their cause. So many oppor tunities had presented themselves of making easy bargains with the agents of the government, and so many chances of cheating the government offered themselves in the haste and confusion with which most transactions of this kind were ac complished, that hundreds of persons of whom little was known save that they had become suddenly rich, flaunted in all the splendor of exorbitant wealth, and exercised the in fluence which wealth commands. The encouragement which their success and the mystery with which it was accompanied gave to dishonest dealings, was felt throughout the commu nity, and the evil became fearfully contagious. The city of New York was a principal seat of these enormities. In that busy metropolis men are so earnestly occupied with their pri vate affairs, so absorbed in the competitions of business, that it is not easy to fix the attention of the greater proportion, even of the most intelligent, upon matters of public and gen eral interest as long as the chances of individual success are left open. But the boundless waste of those who had posses sion of the public funds, the sudden increase of the city debt, and the enormous taxation to which the citizens were sub jected, at length alarmed the entire community ; the tax-pay ers consulted together ; they called in the aid of the most sa gacious and resolute men, who with great pains tracked the offenders through all their doublings and laid their practices bare to the public eye. The infamy of those who were con cerned in these enormities followed their exposure. I have already spoken of the contagious nature of these ex amples of corruption. The determination to effect a reform PREFACE. XV and drag the offenders to justice, when once awakened spread with equal rapidity. It is remarkable how, immediately after the exposure of the enormous knaveries committed in New York, the daily journals were filled with accounts of lesser villainies in less considerable places. It seemed for a while as if peculation had been taken up by a large class as a profes sion, so numerous were the instances of detection. The pub lic vigilance was directed against every person in a pecuniary trust ; some who had never before been suspected, found themselves suddenly in the custody of the law, and others, fearing that their turn might soon come, prudently ran away. There never has been a time when it was so dangerous for a public man to make a slip in his accounts. Investigation be came the order of the day, and a considerable part of the con tents of every daily paper consisted of the proceedings of committees formed for examining into the accounts of men who held pecuniary trusts. At first sight it seemed as if the world had suddenly grown worse ; on a second reflection it was clear that it was growing better. A process of purgation was going on ; dishonest men were stripped of the power of doing further mischief and branded with disgrace, and men of whom better hopes were entertained put in their place. The narrative of these iniquities could not properly stop short of the punishment which overtook the offenders, and which, while it makes the lesson of their otherwise worthless lives instructive, vindicates to some extent the character of the na tion at large. In reviewing the history of the last hundred years there is one question which stands out in special prominence : the policy of encouraging domestic manufactures by high duties on goods imported from other countries. It was recommended in the early years of our Republic by Hamilton, whose au thority had great weight with a large class of his fellow cit izens ; and afterwards under the name of thl American Sys tem, was made the battle-cry of a great party under a no less popular leader, Henry Clay. But after a struggle of many years, during part of which the protective system seemed to have become thoroughly incorporated into our revenue laws, xvi PREFACE. a tendency to freedom of trade began to assert itself. The tariff of duties on imported commodities, became from time to time weeded of the provisions which favored particular manufactures, and although still wanting in simplicity of pro ceeding and far more expensive in its execution than it should have been, was in the main liberal and not unsatisfactory to all parties. The manufacturers had ceased from the struggle for special duties, and seemed content with those which were laid merely for the sake of revenue. The question of protection was no longer a matter of controversy. But the war revived the old quarrel, and left it a legacy to the years which are yet to come. When the southern mem bers at the beginning of the war withdrew from Congress, there were found, among those whom they left in their seats, a majority who had been educated in the Henry Clay school of politics, and were therefore attached to the protective system. In laying taxes to supply the necessities of the Treasury, they enacted a tariff of duties more rigidly restrictive and of more general application than the country had ever before known. This opened again the whole controversy. The struggle of forty years which had ended as we have already related, is revived under circumstances which strongly imply that we have the same ground to go over again. The manufacturers are not likely to give up without a struggle what they believe so essential to their prosperity, and the friends of free trade, proverbially tenacious of their purposes, are not likely to be satisfied while there is left in the texture of our revenue laws, a single thread of protection which their ingenuity can detect or their skill can draw out. The history of our Republic shows that a nation does not always profit by its own experience, even though it be of an impressive nature. Our government began the first century of its existence with a resort to paper money and closed it with repeating tfie expedient. In the first of these instances slips of paper with a peculiar stamp were made to pass as money by the authority of Congress, and were known by the name of Continental money, which soon became a term of op probrium. The history of this currency is a sad one : a his- PREFACE. xvii tory of creditors defrauded, families reduced from competence to poverty, and ragged and hunger-bitten soldiers who were paid their wages in bits of paper scarcely worth more than the coarse material on which their nominal value was stamped. The more of this Continental money was issued the lower it sank in value. The whole land was filled with discontent, and the leaders of the Revolution were in the utmost perplexity. The injustice inflicted and the distress occasioned by this policy are not merely recorded in our annals, there are many per sons yet living who have heard of them in their youth at the firesides of their fathers. Eighty years afterwards, in the midst of our late civil war, when the necessity of raising money for the daily expenses of maintaining and moving our large armies from place to place upon the vast theatre of our war, began to press somewhat se verely upon our government, the question was again raised whether the government notes should not be made a legal ten der in the payment of debts, and the Treasury relieved from the necessity of providing for their redemption in coin. The Sec retary of the Treasury applied to some of the most eminent bankers and men of business, English and American, for their opinions. Certain of the wisest of these vehemently dissuaded him from a resort to paper money. They pointed to the dis asters which experience had shown to have invariably attended the measure, and urged him to trust to the loyalty of the coun try, of which he had seen such gratifying proofs already given, for obtaining the necessary supplies of money for the war. This could be done by issuing debentures payable at a somewhat distant date, and for such moderate sums as persons of moder ate means could conveniently take. At all events they urged that the expedient of resorting to paper money should be post poned till every other was tried and the necessity for it became imminent and unavoidable. These wise counsels were not fol lowed. Others had given their opinion that a resort to paper money was unavoidable, and after some hesitation it was re solved to take the step immediately. The moment that the project was brought before Congress, it found eager cham pions, both on the floor of the two chambers and in the lobbies ; xvm PREFACE. for whenever a measure is proposed which involves a change of nominal values, there spring up in unexpected quarters hun dreds of patriotic persons to assist in hurrying it through Con gress. The government was relieved of the obligation of pay ing its notes ; but a solemn pledge was given that they should be paid at the earliest practicable moment. While the war lasted, we went on making issue after issue of these notes, with no provision for their payment. Meantime the prices of every commodity rose, and with them the expenses of the war, — and speculation flourished. For eight years after the war no approach had been made towards the fulfillment of the solemn pledge of which I have spoken, although in that time many millions of the national debt had been paid off in our depreciated currency. So vast was the mass of promises to pay, and so small the accumula tions of gold within the reach of the government, that not one of those who within that period administered the Treas ury Department ventured to propose any plan for returning to specie payments, but averting his eyes from the difficulty, allowed our finances to drift toward an uncertain future. Then came the panic of 1873, which swept so many large banking and commercial houses to their ruin. Immediately a loud call was heard for a new issue of paper money, from these who fancied that they saw in the measure a remedy for their own pecuniary embarrassments. The question was hotly debated in Congress ; a majority of both houses was found to be in its favor ; the pledge which bound the country to return to specie payments was scouted, as given in igno rance of the true interests of the country ; and a bill was passed, adding, as President Grant observed in his message, a hundred millions to our depreciated currency. Fortunately for the country he sent back the bill with his objections, and it failed to become a law ; else the mischiefs and disasters of the days of Continental money might have returned upon us, with a violence proportioned to the growth which our com mercial interests had in the meantime attained. It is not likely that this question will again be raised in our day, and the bitter experience which we have had of the PREFACE. xix mischiefs of paper money in these two instances, will remain as a warning to the coming times ; — though who shall say with any confidence that the warning will be duly heeded ? But there is another controversy bequeathed to us by the late civil war, which will probably lead to acrimonious and protracted disputes and perhaps be made to some extent the basis of party divisions. Of that I would now speak. Before the war the boundaries of the powers assigned to the National Government, and those which remained with the several States, were pretty sharply defined by usage, and at tempts were but rarely made to go beyond them. The leaders of opinion in the Southern States deemed it necessary to the security and permanence of slavery, that any encroachment of the National Government on the rights reserved to the States should be resisted to the utmost ; and it must be ad mitted that although many of them pushed the claim of State sovereignty to an absurd extent, they did good service in keeping the eyes of the people fixed upon that limit beyond which, under our Constitution, the National Government has neither function nor power. When the civil war broke out it was apparent that the majority of those who remained in Con gress had not been trained to be scrupulous on this point. One of their early measures, — the creation of a system of national banks, — would, twenty years before, have been re garded by a majority of the people of the United States as a direct violation of the Constitution. Other measures were adopted in the course of the war for which it was impossible to find any authority in the Constitution, and of which the sole justification was military necessity. As compared with the state of opinion which prevailed before the war, it is man ifest that a certain indifference to the distinction between the Federal power and that of the States has been creeping into our politics. Schemes for accumulating power in the govern ment at Washington, by making it the owner of our rail ways, for administering telegraphic communication by Federal agency, for cutting canals between river and river, and for an extensive system of national education with a central bureau at Washington, show this tendency. These and kin- xx PREFACE. dred projects will most certainly give ample occasion for pro tracted disputes on the floor of Congress and in the daily press. On one hand will be urged, and plausibly, the public convenience ; and on the other the danger lest our govern ment of nicely balanced powers should degenerate into a mere form and the proper functions of the States be absorbed into the central authority, — a fate like that predicted by some astronomers for our solar system, when the orbs that re- volve_ about the sun, describing narrower and narrower cir cles, shall fall into the central luminary to be incorporated with it forever. In looking over this vast array of important questions set tled, and of new ones just arising on the field of vision, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the historian of our Re public would perform his office but in part who should stop short of the cycle of a hundred years from the birth of our nation. In that period great interests have been disposed of and laid aside forever ; with the next hundred years, we have a new era with new responsibilities, which we are to meet with what wisdom we may. It is matter of rejoicing that among the latest events of this first century, and following close upon our great civil war, we are able to record a great triumph of the cause of peace and civilization in the set tlement of our collateral quarrel with Great Britain, a quar rel which in other times might easily have been nursed into a war. Let us hope that this example will be followed by all the nations of the earth in their future controversies. To what has been said of the plan of the present history in the first paragraph of this Introduction, I have yet some thing to add. The works of the Mound Builders which lie scattered by thousands over our territory, from the Gulf of Mexico to Oregon, and which within the last thirty years have been even more carefully examined than ever before, prove clearly, what was previously doubted by many, the ex istence of a semi-civilized race dwelling within our borders, who preceded the savage tribes found here by the discoverers from the Old World, and who disappeared at some unknown era, leaving behind them no tradition, nor any record save • PREFACE. xxi these remarkable monuments. With what we have learned of this race, since any history of this country has been pub lished, and what has been discovered by modern science of the pre-historic existence of man, pertaining to our continent as well as to those of the other hemisphere, the present history naturally begins, and it has been thought important to record, briefly, but clearly and comprehensively, the present state of 'our knowledge of the Mound Builders, as well as of the savage tribes by whom they were succeeded, as prelimi nary to the discovery and settlement of the country by an other race. The history of the early voyagers and colonists of our con tinent, both before and after Columbus, is made up of inci dents which have often been wrought into connected narra tives, but not in such a manner as to deprive other historians of the power of giving them, by a due selection of circum stances, something of a new interest. The adventures of those whose explorations preceded the permanent settlement of our territory during three generations of mankind, were of a nature to call into exercise qualities which command our ad miration, — courage, perseverance, patient endurance of hard ship, and ready resources in times of great emergency. The recital of these adventures brings us down to the period when our country began to be peopled from the Old World, by col onists establishing themselves at different points along our coast — companies of men and women seeking a home in the New World for different purposes, but all of them courageous and adventurous, unapt to quail before discouragement, and prepared to encounter disaster. It was, perhaps, owing in part to a conformity of character in these respects, that, as they grew in population, these settlements coalesced so read ily into one nation, and presented so united a front in resist ance to the tyrannical pretensions of the mother country. In giving the history of these colonies, in tracing their origin and growth, and delineating their character, it will be seen that here, like the future oak wrapped up in the acorn, lay the peculiar form of government which distinguishes our republic among the nations, and that from what may be called the ac- xxu PREFACE. cidental formation of these communities, small at first, distant from one another, and organized independently of each other, grew the composite structure of our national polity, which we regard as so important to our liberties. The events of this period of adolescence and immaturity in our political institu tions, lasting for a century and a half, must, of course, be given in a condensed form, but this has been done, it is hoped, with sufficient fullness to enable the reader to see how naturally from the beginnings of which we have spoken, arose the con federated republic now so great and powerful. The attention of the reader neither in this part of the work nor elsewhere, will be occupied with the growth of our population, and our political progress, to such an extent as to neglect the advancement made in the arts of peace and the refinements of life. The customs and usages of past gen erations, their modes of living and ways of thinking, their occupations and amusements, their condition in respect of public and private morals, will be found described in these pages, and a portraiture given, so far as its true outlines, its lights and shades, can now be discerned, of society in the past. The changes which these at different periods have un dergone, will be carefully noted. The history of the United States naturally divides itself into three periods, upon the third of which we lately, at the close of our civil war, entered as a people, with congruous in stitutions in every part of our vast territory. The first was the colonial period ; the second includes the years which elapsed from the Declaration of Independence to the struggle which closed with the extinction of slavery. The colonial period was a time of tutelage, of struggle and dependence, the childhood of the future nation. But our real growth, as a distinct member of the community of nations, belongs to the second period, and began when we were strong enough to assert and maintain our independence. To this second period a large space has been allotted in the present work. Not that the mere military annals of our Revolutionary War would seem to require a large proportion of this space, but the vari ous attendant circumstances, the previous controversies with PREFACE. xxiii the mother country, in which all the colonies were more or less interested, and which grew into a common cause ; the consultations which followed ; the defiance of the mother country, in which they all joined ; the service in an army which made all the colonists fellow-soldiers ; the common dan ger, the common privations, sufferings, and expedients, the common sorrow at reverses and rejoicing at victories, require to be fully set forth, that it may be seen by how natural a transition these widely-scattered communities became united in a federal republic, which has since rapidly risen to take its place among the foremost nations of the world, with a popu lation which has increased tenfold and a sisterhood of States enlarged from thirteen to thirty-seven. So crowded with events and controversies is this second part of our history, and the few years which have elapsed of the third ; so rapid has been the accumulation of wealth and the growth of trade ; so great have been the achievements of inventive art and the applied sciences ; with such celerity has our population spread itself over new regions, and so vehement have been the struggles maintained against abuses, moral and political, that it has not been easy to give due at tention to all of them, without exceeding the limits prescribed for this work. But we have aimed to preserve a due propor tion in the recital of events and the analysis of causes, — treating the most important with a certain fulness of recital, and passing rapidly over the rest, and in the meantime not permitting ourselves in any part of the work, to indulge a boastful vein, nor to overlook the faults and mistakes, the national sins and wrongs, of which we may have been guilty. We have endeavored to divest ourselves, while engaged in this task, of all local prejudices, and every influence which might affect the impartiality of the narrative. In writing the history of the only great nation on the globe, the beginnings of which are fully recorded in contempo rary writings, and for which we are not compelled, as in other cases, to grope in the darkness of tradition, the authors of this work have ascended to the proper sources, the ancient records themselves. The narrative has been drawn imme- xxiv PREFACE. diately from these writings, and by them has every statement and date of our early history been verified. For the later periods, the materials are of course voluminous and circum stantial, even to embarrassment. We are not without the hope that those who read what we have written, will see in the past with all its vicissitudes, and with all our own short comings, the promise of a prosperous and honorable future, of concord at home and peace and respect abroad, and that the same cheerful piety, which leads the good man to put his personal trust in a kind Providence, will prompt the good citizen to cherish an equal confidence in regard to the destiny reserved for our beloved country. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. New York, 1876. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE PRE-HISTORIC MAN. PAGE Man coeval with Extinct Animals. — The Cave-People. — Scandinavian Shell-heaps. — Lake-dwellings of Switzerland. — Habits of the Prim itive Man. — Two Stone Ages. — Resemblance between Stone Relics of two Hemispheres. — America the Oldest Continent. — A Zone of Pyra mids. — Traditions of a Lost Continent. — Shell-heaps in United States. — A Pre-historic Hunt in Missouri. — Human Remains in Gold-drift of California. — Superior Antiquity of Man in America . . 1 CHAPTER II. THE MOUND BUILDERS. Progress in Civilization of North American Indian. — Pre-historic Race in the Western Hemisphere. — Earthworks in the Mississippi Valley. — Big Elephant Mound. — Garden-Beds. — Military Works. — Temple and Altar Mounds. — Relics found in these Tumuli. — Ancient Copper- mining at Lake Superior. — Connection between this and later Civili zations. — Remains in Mexico and Central America. — Skulls found in the Mounds . .... . . 19 CHAPTER III. THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. Early Voyages. — Discovery of Iceland. — Greenland Colonized by Eric the Red. — Bjarni Herjulfson discovers America. — Sons of Eric the Red. — Leif's Voyage to Vinland the Good. — Expedition of Thorvald. — His Death. — Colony of Thorfinn Karlsefne. — Eight with Skrjel- lings. — Supposed Irish Settlements in America. — Colony of Freydis. — The Massacre. — Gloomy Winter at Vinland. — Round Tower at New port. — Dighton Rock. — The Icelandic Sagas • . 35 xxvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. Arabian Sailors on the Sea of Darkness. — Welsh Tradition of Amer ican Discovery. — Voyage of Madoc, Prince of Wales. — Evidence ad duced. — Supposed Traces of Welsh among Doegs, Mandans, and Mound Builders. — Narrative of the Brothers Zeni. — Shipwreck of Nicolo Zeno at Frisland. — His Account of Engroneland. — Adventures of a Frisland Fisherman. — The Western Voyage of Prince Zichmni. — Chi nese Discovery of Fusang. — State of Nautical and Geographical ' Knowledge before Columbus . . ... . . . . . . 64 CHAPTER V. INDIA — THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. The Kingdom of Cathay. — Efforts in Europe to find a Sea-way to India. — Prince Henry the Navigator. — Birth and Early Life of Christopher Columbus. — His Design of a Western Voyage to India. — Faith in his Divine Mission. — 'The Theories of Contemporary Geog raphers. — His Life in Spain. — The Council at Salamanca. — His First Voyage. — His belief that he has discovered India. — The Delusion of his Life. — His brief Honor and Final Disgrace . 92 CHAPTER VI. COLUMBUS, VESPUCCI, AND THE CABOTS. Third Voyage of Columbus. — His Discovery of the Main Land. — The Voyage of Amerigo Vespucci. — First Printed Account of the New World. — Publications of St. Die College. — The Printer-Monks, Waldseemuller and Ringmann. — Expedition of the Cabots from Eng land. — North America discovered. — Map of Sebastian Cabot. — John Cabot's Patents from Henry VII. — First English Colony sent to the New World. — Sebastian Cabot sails down the American Coast . . .118 CHAPTER VII. SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. Designs for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage to India. — The CORTEREAL VOYAGES. — VaSCO NUNEZ DE BaLBOA REACHES THE PACIFIC Ocean. — Search for the Fountain of Youth. — Florida discovered. — Gulf of Mexico sailed over. — Explorations on the Atlantic Sea- coast. — Estavan Gomez on the .Borders of the United States. — Ex pedition of Pamphilo de Narvaez to Florida. — Adventures of Cabeca de Vaca. — The Enterprise of Hernando de Soto. — The Discovery of the Mississippi River. — Death and Dramatic Burial of De Soto. — Return of the Troops of De Soto. — Tristan de Luna's Attempt to found a Colony . 139 CONTENTS. xxvii CHAPTER VIII. FRENCH DISCOVERIES AND ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION. Breton Fishermen on Newfoundland Banks. — Giovanni da Verrazano first enters New Tors. Harbor. — Jacques Cartier sent on an Amer ican Expedition. — Exploration of the St. Lawrence River. — Car- tier's Visit to the Indian Town of Hochelaga. — Voyage of Francis DE LA ROQUE, LORD OF ROBERVAL. — The HUGUENOTS SEEK AN ASYLUM in America. — The Colony of Admiral Coligny. — John Ribault goes to Florida. — Setting up the Arms of France. — Laudonniere commands a Second Enterprise. — Building of Fort Caroline. — Progress of the Colony ... . .174 CHAPTER IX. FRENCH AND SPANISH COLONISTS IN FLORIDA. Plots against the French Governor Laudonniere. — Open Mutiny in his Colony. — Fight with Indians. — Visit of an English Fleet to Port Royal. — Arrival of Ribault with a Fleet of Seven Ships. — Crusade of Pedro Menendez against Heretics. — His Attack on Fort Caroline. — Slaughter of Ribault and his Men by the Spaniards. — Founding of the First Permanent Settlement in the United States. — Indignation of the French at the Spanish Atrocities. — Dominique DE GOURGUES GOES TO FLORIDA. — He MAKES ALLIES OF THE SAVAGES. — Attack on the Spanish Fort. — The Bloody Retaliation. — A Spanish Mission on the Rappahannock . . . 200 CHAPTER X. ENGLISH VOYAGES AND ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT. First Impulse in England toward American Colonization. — Unsuccess ful Voyages. — Theories of a Northeast Passage. — Voyage of Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor. — Frobisher and Davis in the Northwest. — Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Plan for American Set tlements. — His Departure from England and Arrival at Newfound land. — Loss of Sir Humphrey on his Return. — Walter Raleigh sends two Ships to Explore in America. — His First Colony reaches the Coast of North Carolina. — Tobacco introduced into England. — New Plantation begun under Governor John White. — Mysterious Dis appearance of the Settlers. — Unsuccessful Search for the Lost Col ony". — Raleigh's Attempt at Colonization ended by Imprisonment . . 224 CHAPTER XL FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA. Gosnold's Expedition. — Patent Granted to London and Plymouth Com panies. — A Colony sets out for Virginia. — Discord on Shipboard. — The Building of Jamestown. — Newport's Exploration of the River. — xxtlii CONTENTS. Governorship of Edward Wingfield. — Discontent and Suffering among the Colonists. — The Indian Chief Powhatan. — Accounts of Smith's Capture by the Savages. — Discrepancies in Smith's Own Story. — Return of Newport from England. — Coronation of Powhatan. — Ser vices of Smith to the Colony. — The New Charter. — Expedition of Gates and Somers. — The Tempest and the Shipwreck. — Opportune Coming of Lord de la Warre. — Code of Laws for the Colony. — Administration of Gates and Dale. — Cultivation of Tobacco. — Mar riage of Pocahontas. — Sandys and Yeardley. — The Colony firmly established. — white and black slavery. — the flrst american legis LATURE . ... 272 CHAPTER XII. COLONIZATION UNDER THE NORTHERN COMPANY. The Sea-coast of Maine. — The Early Fishermen. — French Traders. — pontgrave and poutrincourt. — george weymouth's voyage. — colony of Chief Justice Popham. — Samuel Champlain in New York. — Settle ment on Mt. Desert. — Argall's Destruction of the French Colony. — John Smith in New England. — Expeditions of Ferdinando Gorges. — Second Charter of the Plymouth Company. — Nova Scotia given to Sir William Alexander. — Grant of the Plymouth Company to Gorges. — First Towns in New Hampshire and Maine. — The Breaking up of the Plymouth Company. — Character of Gorges ... 308 CHAPTER XIII. DUTCH EXPEDITIONS TO NORTH AMERICA. — SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. Commercial Enterprise and Prosperity of the Dutch. — Their Interest in a Short Route to India. — Early Northeast Voyages. — Henry Hud son employed by East India Company. — His First Voyage to Amer ica. — Entrance into New York Bay and Discovery of the Hudson River. — His Return to England. — Voyage to Hudson's Bay. — The Dutch Establish Trading-posts at Manhattan Island. — Dutch West India Company Chartered. — Emigration of Walloons. — Settlements on Sites of Albany and New York City . . . 339 CHAPTER XIV. , THE PURITANS. The Puritans under James I. — Social Condition of the English at THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. — TlIE SEPARATISTS OF North Nottinghamshire. —Brewster and the Episcopal Residence at Scrooby. — Persecution of the Puritans. — Their Attempts to Escape from England. — Long Exile in Holland. — Motives for a Proposed Removal to America. —Petition to King James. — Negotiations with the Dutch. —Embarkation of the Pilgrims at Delft-Haven. —Final Departure of the "May Flower" from England. — Arrival at Cape Cod. — Form of Government adopted. — Explorations along the Coast.— Site for a Colony selected. — Confusion of Facts and Dates as to the Landing at Plymouth. — The First Winter. — Sufferings and Deaths. 370 CONTENTS. XXIX CHAPTER XV. THE PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH. The Coming of Friendly Indians. — Samoset and Squanto. — Captain Dermer's Previous Visit to Plymouth. — Standish's Visit to Boston Harbor. — Reinforcements from England. — The First Christmas at Plymouth. — Hostile Message from the Narragan setts. - Arrival of Weston's Colonists. — Their Settlement at Wessagusset. — An Indian Conspiracy-. — Standish's Expedition and the Plot defeated. — The Grief of Pastor Robinson. — Arrival of Robert Gorges. — First Allot ment of Land in Plymouth. — John Peirce's Patent. — The Lyford and Oldham Conspiracy. — Their Banishment. — Breaking up of the Lon don Company. — The Pilgrims thrown on their own Resources. — The Fishing Station at Cape Ann. — Encounter between Captain Standish and Mr. Hewes. — The Dorchester Settlement at Cape Ann. — Conant's Charge of it, and his Removal to Naumkeag. — Settlements about Boston Harbor. — Morton of Merry Mount. — Standish's Arrest of Morton ... . . 400 CHAPTER XVI. PROGRESS OF DUTCH COLONIZATION. The Order of Patroons established in New Netherland. — Division and Monopoly of Lands. — The Company- overreached by the Patroons. — Massacre of the Colonists of Swaanendael. — Wouter van Twiller appointed Governor. — Weakness and Absurdities of his Administra tion. — Superseded by" William Kieft. — Popular Measures of the Council at Amsterdam. — Purchase of Lands from Patroons. — Increase of Immigration. — Promise of Prosperity to the Colony. — Portents of Coming Calamities. — A Council of Twelve appointed . . 429 CHAPTER XVII. WAR WITH THE INDIANS. THE SWEDES ON THE DELAWARE. Change of Policy toward the Indians. — Kieft's Cruel and Stupid Obstinacy. — Massacre of Indians by the Dutch at Pavonia. — Retali ations by the Natives. — Murder of the Hutchinson Family at Annie's Hoeck. — Disastrous Condition of the Colony". — Appeal of the People of New Amsterdam to the States General. — End of the War. — Kieft removed from office. territorial encroachments of rlval col ONIES. — The English at the East. — A Swedish Settlement on the Delaware. — Fort Christina. — The Swedish Governor, John Printz 450 CHAPTER XVIII. VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. Jealousy of James I. of the Virginia Company. — Earl of Southampton elected Treasurer. — Progress of the Colony. — Massacre of 1622.— Dissensions in the London Council. — Charter of the Company taken away. — Rapid Succession of Governors of the Colony. — Lord Bal- XXX CONTENTS. timore, and his Visit to Virginia. — Charter of Maryland. — Cecil Calvert's Colony. — Its Landing in Maryland. — The First Town. — St. Mary's Bluff. — Purchase from the Indians. — The First Catholic Chapel. — Friendly Relations with the Indians ... . . 476 CHAPTER XIX. MARYLAND UNDER LEONARD CALVERT. The Colony firmly Planted. — Hostility of the Virginians. — Dispute with Clayborne. — Engagement between Clayborne and Cornwallis. — Governor Harvey deposed and sent to England. — Meetings of the Maryland Assembly. — Trouble with the Indians. — Dissensions be tween Papists and Puritans. — Revolution in England. — A Parlia mentary Ship seized in Maryland. — Clayborne's Recovery of Kent Island. — His Rule in Maryland. — Restoration of Baltimore. — Death of Governor Calvert. — Mistress Margaret Brent . 499 CHAPTER XX. MASSACHUSETTS BAY. Fresh Emigration to Massachusetts. — A New Charter. — Arrival of Higginson and Skelton. — The First Church at Salem. — The Case of John and Samuel Browne. — They are ordered back to England by Endicott. — The Council's Rebuke. — Proposed Transfer of the Gov ernment of the Colony to New England. — Probable Motives of the Council in Procuring the Patent. — The Cambridge Conference. — wlnthrop chosen governor. departure for new england. hls Farewell Address to English Churchmen. — Oldham and Brereton's Patents. — Settlements in and about Boston. — Old Settlers about the Bay. — The Coming op Roger Williams . . . . . 517 CHAPTER XXI. NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. Laws, Ecclesiastical and Political. — John Eliot's Work among the Indians. — John Cotton arrives in Boston. — The Red Cross in the King's Banner. — Persecution and Banishment of Roger Williams. — The first Settlement of Rhode Island. — Settlers from Plymouth on the Connecticut River. — John Winthrop, Jr., first Governor of Con necticut. — Hooker's Emigration to Hartford. — Anne Hutchinson and her Doctrines. — Murder of John Oldham. — Beginning of the Pequod War . . , 538 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FULL-PAGE ENGRAVINGS. Portrait of William Cullen Bryant, Engraved on steel in pure line by Charles Burt, after a photograph by Sarony. Designer. E. Bayard STEEL PLATES. Title. Cabot Leaving Labrador . Portrait of Columbus . From Herrera's History of America. The Half-Moon at the High lands ... ... Thos. Moran . Portrait of Lord Baltimore . . . Engraver. R. Hinshelwood S. Hollyer . . R. Hinshelwood S. Hollyer . . Page. 1 . 99 358 485 WOOD ENGRAVINGS. Title. Designer. A Pre-Historic Mammoth Hunt . . E. Bayard . . Mounds near Marietta, Ohio . . J. D. Woodward Columbus before the Council at Salamanca E. A. Abbey . Search for the Fountain of Youth E. Bayard . . Ribault's Pillar on the River Mat W. L. Sheppard The Lost Colont W. L. Sheppard Site of Gosnold's Fort A. Bierstadt . From a picture in the possession of Miss Emma Hathaway, Lake Champlain T. Moran . . , The Sabbath on Clark's Island . G. H. Boughton . From a picture in the possession of Robert Hoe, New York. Landing of Swedes at Paradise Point T. Moran . . . To face Engraver. page. Hildibrand. . . 16 Meeder & Chubb J. Miller . . Ch. Barbant . J. Karst . . W. J. Linton . W. H. Morse . Boston. E. Bookhout . W. J. Linton . J. A. Bogert 24 108146 197 255 265 321392 466 XXX11 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Designer. Title. The Mulberry Tree at St. Mary's Point T. Moran Endicott cutting the Cross from the King's Banner E. A. Abbey Engraver. Page. Robert Varley . 496 J. G. Smithwyck 543 ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT. Title. Primeval America Long-haired Elephant Carving on Bone (Long-haired Ele phant) Carving on Bone (Group of Reindeer) Lake-dweller's Village (Restored by Keller) Savage of the Stone Age .... Stone Implements Flint Awl. — Swiss Stone Axe. — Spear Head. — Stone Celt. — Stone Scra per. — Bone Awl. — Stone Dagger. Earliest Pottery Drinking-cup The Age of Ice Bronze Implements Celt. — Bronze Hair-pin (Swiss). — Bronze Razor Knife-blade (Dennak). — Bronze Knife-blade (Danish). Sculptured Stone Lake-dweller's Loom Arrow-heads from Different Coun tries Ireland. — France. — North America. — Terra del Fuego. — Japan. A Zone of Pyramids Egypt. — Central America. — India. — North America. Dr. Koch's Arrow-head . ... Earthworks in Ohio Animal Mounds Big Elephant Mound Temple Mound in Mexico .... Altar Mounds Designer. Engraver. Page. Runge . . . . . Winham 1 2 Hosier . . . . McDonald . 33 . . Miller . . 4 Runge . . . . Karst . . . . 5 Hosier . . . . Walker . . . 6 RungeHosier McDonaldMiller McDonald McDonald Miller . . Karst Karst 9 10 11 12 McDonald . . 17 Karst . . . . 20 McDonald . . 22 . 22 Miller . . . . 26 McDonald . . 27 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Hosier Title. Pottery from Mounds Stone and Copper Relics from Mounds Hosier . . . Axe. — Bracelets. — Stone Arrow Points. — Stone Axe. — Bronze Knife. Copper Implements recently' dis covered in Wisconsin . . . . From photographs of specimens in collection of Wisconsin His torical Society. Selected from photographs taken under the direction of Lyman C. Draper and J. D. Butler. Adzes. — Arrow-heads. — Chisel. — Knife. — Awl. — Spear-head. Pottery and supposed Idols recently found with human remains in burial mounds in southeast Mis souri From photographs taken under the direction of A. J. Conant of St. Louis. Mining Tools .... Carved Pipes . Sculptured Heads .... Mound Builders. — Central America. Cloth from Mounds .... Discovery of Greenland . . Flokko sending out Ravens . . . Norse Ships entering Boston Harbor Burial-place of Thorvald .... Norse Ruins in Greenland . Scouts returning to the Ship Esquimaux Skin-boat Leif's Booths Newport Tower . . . Chesterton Mill .... ... . . Dighton Rock ... . . Steubenville Rock . . The Sea of Darkness . . . . . A. R. Waud Welsh Bard David, Prince of Wales From Powell's History of Cambria. Madoc leaving Wales A. R. Waud Welshman Hosier Mandan Boats From Catlin's North American Indians. Welsh Coracle A. R. Waud Mandan Indian Hosier . . Shipwreck of Nicolo Zeno . . . . A. R. Waud XXXlll Engraver. Page. Karst . . 28 Eastmead . . 29 Bobbett Roberts . . A. R. Waud . Hosier . A. R. Waud . Hosier . A. R. Waud . Hosier 30 31 McDonald . 30 Eastmead . 32 Juengling . 32 McDonald . 33 Miller . . 35 Anthony . 37 Linton . . 43 Anthony . 45 Nugent . . 46 Anthony . 48 Speer . 51 Anthony . 55 Miller- . 59 Roberts . . 60 Eastmead . 61 Roberts . . 61 Anthony . 64 Bookhout 67 Eastmead . 68 Linton . . 69 Miller . . 71 Karst . 73 Miller . . 74 . i . 75 Anthony 77 XXXIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Title. Greenland Geyser Hosier . . . . Aztec City A. R. Waud . . Chinese Junk Hosier . . . . The "Far Cathay" T. Moran . . . Astrolabe Hosier . . . . Prince Henry the Navigator From General Collection of Voyages and Discoveries by Span ish and Portuguese, London, 1789. Ship of Fifteenth Century .... Hosier . . . . The Christ-Bearer From a Map of Juan de la Cosa. Columbus on Shipboard A. R. Waud . . Isabella, Queen of Castile . . The Fleet of Columbus Hosier . . Reception by Sovereigns A. R. Waud . . . Columbus entering the Orinoco Columbus in Chains . G. G. White . . Amerigo Vespucci From a portrait in Herrera's Historia General de las Indias. Vespucci at the Continent From De Bry's Duae Navigationes Americi Vespucci, 1619. Printing of Vespucci's Book . . . G. G. White . . John Cabot in London ... . . Sheppard Sebastian Cabot .... . From the N. Y. Historical Society's copy of the original by Holbein. Fac-simile of Signature of Amerigo Vespucci . . . From Verhagen. Cortereal at Labrador T. Moran . . . . Vasco Nunez on Shipboard . . . E. A. Abbey . . The South Sea A. R. Waud . . First Embarkation on the South Sea . ... . Juan Ponce de Leon From a portrait in Herrera's Historia General de las Indias. Straits of Magellan A. R. Waud . . Clavos and Esclavos Sheppard . . . Return to the Beach . . . . Upset in the Surf . . . . De Soto From a portrait engraved for the Bradford Club, of New York. The Muster at San Lucar . . . . E. A. Abbey .- . Sacrifice of Juan Ortiz Sheppard . . . The Indian Queen . . . Engraver. Page. Juenglin( r . . 79 Miller . . 82 " . . 86 Linton . . 92 Karst . . 96 Nichols . . 97 Eastmead . .100 Aiken s . . 102 Bobbett . . 105 Nichols . . 109 Miller . 110 Anthony . . 115 . . 119 Varley . . 120 Nichols . . 122 123 Anthony . . 125 Karst . 135 Nichols . . 138 McDonald . 138 Bogert . . . 140 Bobbett . . 143 Varley . . 144 Bogert . . 145 Miller . . 147 Hitchcock . 150 Varlev . . 152 Bogert . . 154 Andrew . . 155 Nichols . . 157 Varley . . 158 Miller . . 159 Bobbett . . 162 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxxv Title. Palisaded Town From De Bry's Brevis Narratio, 1591. Fleet of the Cacique A. R. Waud Burial of De Soto .... . . Departure of the Spaniards . Fishing Fleet at Newfoundland. T. Moran Portrait of Giovanni da Verrazano .... Indians making a Canoe Hosier From De Bry's Admiranda Narratio, 1590. Verrazano in Newport Harbor . . A. R. Waud Jacques Cartier Designer. Engraver. Hosier Miller From the portrait in Histoire de la Colonie Francaise en Canada. Bayard E. A. Abbey A. R. Waud W. Waud . T. Moran . A. R. Waud Setting up the Arms of France . Donnacona's Strategy . . Cartier at Hochelaga . . . . Cartier's Departure from St. Malo French Costumes (16th Century) . . Entering the St. John River . . Building the Pinnace . . . . Fort Caroline ... Hosier . . From De Bry's Brevis Narratio, 1591. Arrest of the Pirates E. Bayard . Fight with Indians . . Pedro Menendez . . . . . . From Shea's Charlevoix's Neiv France. Rescue of Laudonniere . . . . E. Bayard . Massacre of Ribault Laying out of St. Augustine . . . Sheppard Death of the Sentinel E. Bayard . The French Fifer ... . A. R. Waud Willoughby's Ships in Arctic Seas A. R. Waud Frobisher's Departure Portrait of Sir Humphrey Gilbert View on Coast near Torquay . . . A. R. Waud Dartmouth Harbor Sir Humphrey Gilbert reading his Commission ... ... . . Fredericks . Wreck of the "Delight" . . . . A. R. Waud Sir Walter Raleigh From a portrait in Prince's Worthies of Devon. Landing on the Island . . . -. • ¦ T. Moran . Lord and Lady of Secotan .... Hosier . . From De Bry's Admiranda Narratio, 1590. Queen Elizabeth, Queen of England . . • From an original by Zucchero in Lodge's Portraits. . Bogert Miller Nichols Varley Bogert Nichols . Hildibrand . Laplante . Varley . . Bogert . . Langridge . Bogert . . Fay . . . Roberts . . Laplante . Nichols . . Laplante. . Anthony . Barbant . Anthony . Bogert • King . Nichols . Bogert Bobbett . Anthony Nichols AnthonyWinhamWalker . Page.. 163165 108170 174 176177179180 182 184186188189 191 195 198 201 203205 208211 213217223228230 232 23323423 7 238240 242244245 XXXVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Title. Designer. Signature of Ralph Lane . . . . . An Indian Village Hosier . . . From De Bry's Admiranda Narratio, 1590. Tobacco Plant ... . . Bartholomew Gilbert's Death . . Sheppard . . . Signature of Queen Elizabeth ... .... Signature of Sir Walter Raleigh Entrance to Chesapeake Bay . . T. Moran . . . Provincetown ... . . . . A. R. Waud . . James I From a portrait in Goodman's History of Court of James I. Portrait of John Smith From Smith's Map in his General History of Virginia. Fac-simile. Newport's Embarkation ... . Sheppard . . . Deposition of Wingfield . . . . E. A. Abbey . . John Smith taken Prisoner .... ... From Smith's General History. Fac-simile. Pocahontas Saving Life of Smith . .... From Smith's General History. Fac-simile. Powhatan and his Wives ... . . . From Smith's General History. Fac-simile. Coronation of Powhatan . . . Sol Eytinge . Taking King of Pamunkey Prisoner . From Smith's General History. Shipwreck of the '¦ Sea Adventure " A. R. Waud Signature of George Percy Signature of Lord Delaware ... ... Arrival of De la Warre .... Sheppard . The Idle Colonists Fredericks . Pocahontas Hosier. Presentation of Pocahontas at Court . . Sol Eytinge . Signature of James I. . . Indians at a Portage . ... Sheppard Samuel de Champlain Hosier . . From portrait in CEuvres de Champlain, Quebec, 1870. Signature of Champlain . The Mouth of the Kennebec . . W. Waud . Indians in London .... . Cary . . . Meeting of Naiianada and Skit- waruoes Setting Dogs on the Indians . Great Head Bah Hahbor Engraver. Page. McDonald . . 246 Aikens . . . 248 - . 250 Linton . . . 260 . 261 Meeder . . 262 McCracken . . 263 Nichols . . . 268 . 269 Sheppard T. Moran Varley . . . 271 Bobbett . . . 277 Richardson . . 280 J. P. Davis Richardson King . . Smithwyck Bobbett . Eastmead J. P. Davis W. J. Linton Aikens W. J. Linton Varley . Bogert . Bookhout Hitchcock 282284 288290293 295 296 297 299303304307308312313315317 318320 323 324 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXXVH Title. Somes's Sound . . . . Argall's Attack on the French . Cod-fishing Richard Vines at Crawford Notch Signature of Ferdinando Gorges . View at the Mouth of the Pis- cataqua Medal [Time of Charles V.] . . Dutch Shipping [16th Century] . . . Barentz at Nova Zembla .... Hudson's Attack on the Indian Village .... The Approach to the Narrows . . Robyn's Rift . . . . Verdrietig Hoeck .... . . Limit of Hudson's Voyage . Nahant . . . . . . Block Island ... Upper Waters of the Delaware Trading Scouts . First Settlement at Albany . Earliest Picture of New Amster dam From a map of the period. First Seal of Plymouth Colony View of Scrooby Village . . . Fire-place in 16th Century . . Site of Scrooby Manor .... Signature of William Brewster Attempted Flight of Puritans . Church at Austerfield, Bradford' Birthplace . . Leyden ... . . Delft-Haven . . . . . Plymouth Harbor, England Harbor of Provincetown . . . The Landing on Cape Cod . . . Signature of Miles Standish Relics from the " Mayflower " John Alden's Bible. — William Clark's Mug and Wallet, etc. Landing of John Alden and Mary Chilton . . . . Stone Canopy over Plymouth Rock Sheppard . Perkins A. R. Waud Engraver.Anthony Gray . Andrew Anthony T. Moran . Hosier A. R. Waud Sol Eytinge . E. Perkins A. R. Waud . . J. D. Woodward , T. Moran . . . A. R. Waud . . W. H. Gibson A. R. Waud . . Hosier Warren Varley . Aikens Varley Bookhout . Andrew King . Anthony . Morse . Annin . Bookhout . Hoey . Harley Richardson French McDonald Maurice . Gray . French FredericksHosier . Woodward HosierT. Moran . A. R. Waud Bobbett . Karst . Juengling . - Karst . Varley . . Harley Langridge Hosier Abbey . Hosier . Juengling . VarleyBookhout Page. 325 . 326 328 . 330 . 332 . 334 . 340 . 342344 . 349 . 350 . 352 . 353 . 354 . 359 . 360362 . 363 . 366 . 368 . 370 . 372 . 373 . 374 . 375 . 377 . 380 384 . 386 . 387 . 388 . 390 . 391 . 395 . 396 . 397 xxxvin LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Gibson . Hosier . A. R. Waud McCracken McDonald J. P. Davis Title. Designer. Engraver. First Burial Place near the Land ing . . .... Governor Carver's Chair . . Visit of Samoset to the Colony . Signatures to Plymouth Patent Christmas Revellers ... . . Fredericks . . Bobbett Burial Hill Hosier .... Miller . Sword of Miles Standish . . Signature of William Bradford Site of First Church and Gov ernor Bradford's House . . . A. R. Waud . . French Signature of Edward Wjnslow Expulsion of Oldham . . Abbey .... Langridge Barricade at Cape Ann .... ... French Standish's Pot and Platter . Hosier .... Maurice . Spinning Wheel . . . . Karst . . Festivities at Merry Mount . . Fredericks . . Bobbett . Plymouth Rock Hosier .... Richardson Amsterdam .... . ... W. Waud . . Langridge Seal of New Netherland . . ... . .... Dutch Costumes .... . W. Waud . . Langridge Trading for Furs . . A. R. Waud . . Bogert . . Indian taking down the Arms of Holland • ¦ Portrait of De Vries ... Bross . From a photograph of an old print in 1st edition of De Vries' s Voyages. Van Twiller's Defiance .... Fredericks . . Bobbett . De Vries on the East River . . . A. R. Waud . . Bookhout . Dutch Windmill . . Governor's House and Church . . Hosier . . . McDonald The Obstinate Trumpeter .... Fredericks . Bobbett . Landing of Dutch Colony on Staten Island A. R. Waud . Selling Arms to the Indians . . De Vries in the Ice . . . . A. R. Waud . Dinner at Van Dam's . . . . M. A. Hallock Indian Fugitives from Pavonia . . Fredericks Massacre of Anne Hutchinson . . Sheppard . . The Binnenhof Hosier . . . March against the Indians in Con necticut Winslow Homer . W. J. Linton Hall of the States General . Hosier . . Smoking the Pipe of Peace . . Sheppard . Costumes of Swedes W. Waud . . J. P. Davis . Langridge . Morse . . . Anthony . . Bobbett . . Richardson . Hitchcock Avery . Bogert . . Langridge Page. . 398 . 399 . 400 . 403 . 404 . 406 . 408 . 410 . 411 . 413 . 415 . 418 . 419 . 422 . 425 . 428 . 429 . 430 . 431 . 434 . 436 . 437 . 438 439 . 442 . 442 . 443 . 447 . 450 . 453 . 454 . 456 . 457 . 459 . 461 . 463 . 464 . 467 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxxix Title. Early Swedish Church . Printz and the Sailor . . . . Taking Warning to Jamestown . . Deserted Settlement ... Scenery in the Chesapeake . Henrietta Maria .... From Lodge's portraits. Cecil Calvert [From an old print] Cowes in the Isle of Wight . . . Landing of the Colony . . . . Governor Calvert and the Indian Chief . . St. George's Island The Bluff at St. Mary's . . . . Return from a Hunt . . . . . Maryland Shilling . . . Clayborne's Trading-post on Kent Island . . . . Fight between Clayborne and Corn- wallis ... . .... Excitement at Jamestown Clayborne's Petition Indian Attack on an Outlying Plan tation .... Chancellor's Point from St. Ini- goe's . Church near the Site of the First Jesuit Chapel .... ... Fac-simile of MS. Records . . . Shawmut ... .... Portrait of Endicott Signature of Endicott Planter's House .... . . Colonial Relics Endicott's Sundial, etc. Arms of Massachusetts Bay Com pany Portrait of John Winthrop, Senior Signature of Winthrop Colonial Furniture Colonial Relics Old House, Boston, England . . . Map of Boston Harbor . . . Signature of Roger Williams . . Designer. Hosier . Sheppard . WarrenGilson . T. Moran . WoodwardFredericks Sheppard ¦ . T. Moran . Woodward A. R. Waud . Fredericks Sheppard . T. Moran . Engraver. Cocheu Bogert . J. P. Davis . Harley . . W. J. Linton . Bross Bogert . Bobbett J. P. Davis Anthony . Meeder Woodward Richardson Bookhout . Bobbett . Harley . . Varley . . W. J. Linton . Meeder Nichols . . Hosier . Hosier . Lathrop . Hosier . RobertsFrench Nichols Marsh . . Miller . . Page. . 469 . 472 . 480 . 483 . 486 . 487 . 489 . 490 . 492493 . 495 . 496 . 397 . 499 . 500 . 502 . 503 . 507 . 509512 . 513 . 515 . 517 . 520 . 521 . 522 . 523 524527527 530 531 533534534 xl LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Title. Designer. First Church, Salem Hosier . Signature of John Cotton St. Botolph's Church, Boston, Eng land ... ... ... Hosier . Roger Williams's House, Salem . . Roger Williams Building House . Site of Fort Good Hope . . . A. R. Waud Portrait of John Winthrop, Junior . . Signature of Lord Say and Seal . Tearing down the Dutch Arms . . Sheppard . Hooker's Emigration to Connecti cut Henry Vane ... . . Trial of Anne Hutchinson . . Abbey . Recapture of Oldham's Vessel . . A. R. Waud Engraver. Page. . Juengling . 535 . 540 . . . Karst . . 541 . . Bobbett . . . 545 . Anthony . 546 id . . Annin . . 548 . Bross . . 550 . . 550 . Bogert . . . . 551 . 552 553 . . . Marsh . . . 555 id . . Langridge . . 557 LIST OF MAPS. Title. Page. Map of Cape Cod and Nawset Isle 41 The Zeni Map 84 Globe of Martin Behaim, 1492 ... ... . . . . 103 Sebastian Cabot's Map, 1544 132 Map of Virginia .... . . . . . 243 From Harlot's Relation. Map of Cape Cod . . ... 264 Map of Plymouth Harbor . . . 394 Map of New England .519 Fac-simile. From Smith's General History. SEBASTIAN GABOT LEAVING LABRADOR Primeval America. CHAPTER I. THE PRE-HISTORIC MAN. Man coeval with Extinct Animals. — The Cave-people. — Scandinavian Shell- heaps. — Lake-dwellings of Switzerland. — Habits of the Primitive Man. — Two Stone Ages. — Resemblance between Stone Relics op Two Hemispheres. — America the Oldest Continent. — A Zone op Pyramids. — Traditions op a Lost Continent. — Shell-heaps in United States. — A Pre-historic Hunt in Missouri. — Human Remains in Gold-drift of California. — Superior An tiquity of Man in America. The period and the conditions of the early existence of man have, within the last half century, been the subject of fresh and interesting investigation. The recognition of human relics in certain geological relations has established the fact that there once prevailed, in Europe a barbarism essentially like that belonging to the lower type of savages of our own time. This primeval state of man in man in eu- .ill r°pe* that portion of the world existed too long ago to be included within the historic period ; and, so far as careful observation has been made, similar evidence of the antiquity of the race is found in the vol. i. i THE PRE-HISTORIC MAN. [Chap. I. imperishable signs of human habitation and the rude arts of savage life in all other parts of the globe. Northern Europe at one period was buried in an Arctic winter for many centuries. On the summits 'of lofty mountain ranges, great glaciers of ice and snow were piled, which advanced by slow degrees, and covered land and sea. When at length this long and dreary period drew toward its close, the glaciers receded, and the earth be came habitable, then, although a period of intense cold was long con tinued, there appeared many great and strange animals, now known only by their fossil remains. Among them, wandering in herds over the region which afterwards was shaped into the pres ent continent of Eu rope, feeding upon the vegetation of a virgin world, were the elephant, with long hair and mane, a rhinoceros clad in fur, a gigantic elk ten feet in height, with antlers measur ing eleven feet from tip to tip, the cave-bear, the cave-lion, and other ferocious beasts after their kind, hiding themselves and their prey in dens and caverns. In caves and gravel drifts in France, in Belgium, and in England, man has left the indubitable witnesses of his life, in association with the bones of these extinct animals, of which whole races perished while he survived through periods of successive sub mersions and upheavals of land, of floods from slowly receding gla ciers, of alterations in climate due, perhaps, to the changing relative positions of the earth to the sun, perhaps to the relative areas of land and sea in different portions of the globe at different periods. These people who first appeared, or the first, at least, who are known to have appeared, in Europe, were mere naked sav ages with an instinct to kill and to eat, to creep under a rock as a shelter from the cold and the rain ; who in the course of time learned that fire would burn and cook, that there was warmth in the skin of a beast, that a sharpened stone would kill and would scrape much better than a blunt one. From generation to generation they lived and died in the caves where they have left the evidences of their Long-haired Elephant. The cave' men. REMAINS IN SHELL-HEAPS. existence ; and it is a curious and interesting mark of their progress that some of these troglodytes in the south of France made tolerable carvings in bone and drawings of various animals upon horns and tusks of ivory. Pictures of the long haired elephant and of groups of reindeer show the possession of that artist -sense Which Seems as pe- Carving on Bone. (Long-haired Elephant.) culiar to and inher ent in man as the power to laugh and the faculty of articulate speech ; and they prove also that these artists were familiar with the animals they sketched, of which one is known to the modern world only by its fossil remains, and another, though still extant, is able to live only in latitudes of extreme cold. On the coast of Denmark there are immense shell-heaps called Kj okken-Moddings — kitchen middings or kitch- RemaiMin en-refuse -heaps— 8heU-heaPs- differing little, if at all, from similar heaps on other coasts, all over the world, except that they have been dug into, turned up, sifted, stud ied, inch by inch, atom by atom, with that sagacity, pa tience, and minuteness which distinguish modern science. In these are found, mingled with stone im plements, bones of various beasts and birds and shells of different fish, the bones of a certain species of grouse, — a bird known to have fed upon the buds of the pine tree. But the pine tree does not grow, and has not grown within the historic period, in Denmark. It is found, however, in the peat-bogs, thirty feet beneath the present surface of the soil. Above these buried pines are the trunks of the oak and white birch that followed the pine forests, flourished for centuries, and then in their turn died out. On the upper surface of the bogs grows the beech, the common forest tree of Denmark now, as it has been so far back as either history or tradition goes. Thus forest after forest of dif ferent species, to which the climate and the soil were adapted, has come and gone since the people of the Kjokken-Moddings fed upon this bird, the capercailzie, which lived upon the buds of those buried pines. Carving on Bone. (Group of Reindeer.) THE PRE-HISTORIC MAN. [Chap. I. Nor are these men of the caves and of the Kj okken-Moddings the only representatives of the ancient race or races who left their relics in their actual habitations. In the years 1853-54, two successive dry seasons reduced the waters of the lakes of Switzerland to a lower point than was ever known before. It was discovered, first by accident and afterward by careful search, that dwellings built upon piles had once k I ^#?feill§S Lake-dweller's Village. (Restored by Keller.) stood in these lakes near their shores. Continued systematic and pa tient examination of the sites of these habitations proves that some of them belonged to an ancient people, and that, as their relics show, they lived in them, from century to century, from the earliest appear ance of man down, probably, to the historic period. < With these last discoveries the case seems complete. In the dark caves of various regions, for whose possession these early men doubt less contended with the cave-lion, the cave-bear, and the cave-hyena ; by the sea-shore in the Kj okken-Moddings of Denmark; in the huts of the Lake region where they put water between themselves and all danger from wild beasts or other enemies, their history is read in the simple implements of the infancy and childhood of the race. When the human creature learned that he could avail himself of his hands in a way and with an intelligent purpose to which of the prim- no other animal had attained, and 01 which mere paws and claws seemed incapable, his first use, probably, of that dis covery was to hurl a stick or a stone at an enemy or a wild beast in IMPLEMENTS OF THE STONE AGE. 5 defence or attack. Observation and experience would soon lead him to some contrivance better than a mere missile, and to combine the stick and the stone into an artificial weapon. So, also, from bruising or crushing with a pebble, the transition is equally natural to a rude Savage of the Stone Age. hammer or hatchet, — the stone prepared, in some way, to receive a handle, or sharpened at one end to an edge, so that a blow could be struck to break or cut with careful limitations. In the first period of this early age, therefore, when man is supposed to have begun to learn that he had the faculty of invention which might make him superior to all other animals, are found the first rude weapons and implements, arrow-heads and spear-heads, knives, hatchets, hammers, and tools sharpened to edges of different shapes and for various purposes, all made of stone or bone, but all only roughly chipped, unground, and unpolished. It must have taken generations, it may have taken centuries, before even this much of culture was secured by the man, whose wants were few, whose intellect was as feeble as the intellect of a modern child, but whose mere brute force of muscular strength and whose power of endurance were probably so great as alone to suffice, for the most part, to satisfy all his wants. Certainly, as the relics he has left be hind him show, a long time elapsed before he much improved his con dition. Slowly and gradually he added to the number of his tools, and improved upon their shape and capability. Among the most common 6 THE PRE-HISTORIC MAN. [Chap. I. of these improved implements is what the antiquary calls a celt — celtis, a chisel — and which may have been used either as a chisel, a hatchet, or an adze ; he contrived a scraper, with which he cleaned Stone Implements. Fig. 1, flint awl. 2, Swiss stone axe. 3, spear-head. 4, stone celt. 5, stone scraper. 6, bone awl. 7, stone dagger. the adhering flesh from the skins of the beasts he killed ; he invented bodkins and needles of bone, to pass through them the sinews that served for thread when he made clothing of these skins; and he fash ioned harpoons for fishing. To his offensive weapons he added dag gers ; his axe he improved in size and shape; and he cut jagged teeth in long flakes of flint for saws. Such of these implements as were for use once or twice only in war or in the chase, or for rough and infrequent purposes, he left still rudely chipped. But with the exercise of the inventive power came the sense of beauty, the con sciousness of increased effectiveness in the perfection of a tool, and perhaps the de velopment of a new satisfaction in the per manent possession of personal property of his own creation. Then he was no longer content with the rough pebble that he picked up on the beach, but sought for better material ; he studied the grain and the cleavage of different flints and obsidians ; bestowed time Earliest Pottery. THE PRIMITIVE MAN. 7 and much labor upon the perfecting of his implements ; contrived new and more convenient handles ; gave grace and outline to their shapes ;. ground their edges to keen sharpness, and polished them with studious care. So in the lapse of centuries he attained at length to the age of Polished Stone. With it come the first evidences of the manufac ture of a rude pottery, learned, perhaps, by some observant savage from the acci- Dnnkmg-cup. dental baking of -clay, who conceived therefrom a better drinking- cup, or vessel to hold his food, than a clam-shell or the hollow of his hand.1 From all the varied relics of the man of the early, and so far as is yet known the earliest epoch, the ethnologist has deduced HiB mode o£ that he was of small brains, retreating forehead, projecting h£e- jaws, low in intellect, but of great strength of bone and muscle, which enabled him to encounter and overcome the formidable, dangers of his time. He lived near the sea-shore or on the banks of lakes and rivers, from which he drew, in part, his subsistence. A hunter and fisherman, compelled to a constant struggle for bare subsistence, he did not at first cultivate the earth, and it is doubted if even he bestowed much labor upon gathering the fruits and vegetables which nature unassisted might have afforded him. His food was flesh ; the incisors of the jaws that have been found are, like those of the Esqui maux of the present day, worn smooth, and it is surmised that, like that people, he preferred to eat raw — perhaps because he was slow in learning how to cook — the flesh of the animals he killed. His front teeth did not overlap as ours do, but met one another like those of the Greenlanders, and he could therefore the more easily tear and gnaw the flesh from the bones.2 Sometimes on the bones of children, as well as of adults, the marks of such human teeth have been observed, and it is supposed that failing other food, he fed, not only upon his enemies whom he killed in battle, but upon those whom he could only be led to eat by the extremity of hunger or the mere fondness for human flesh. But he was not always a cannibal, or at least the testimony to this propensity is not always present among the other evidences of his way of life. The skins of the beasts he killed in the chase or trapped, perhaps served for tents, and no doubt for clothing ; their flesh and the marrow of their bones, for which he seems to have had a special fondness, were his food. These skins he dressed with his unpolished stone scraper, shaped them with his stone knife, sewed them with 1 See Tylor, Lubbock, Lyell, Vogt, Dawkins, Gustaldi, Busk, Keller, Figuier, et al. 2 Pre-historic Times. By Sir John Lubbock. 8 THE PRE-HISTORIC MAN. [Chap. I. threads of sinews in needles of bone. A flatness or compression of the shin-bone, differing from the shape of the tibia of civilized man, is sometimes found, which permitted, it is suggested, of a disposition of the muscles peculiarly adapted to men living by hunting in a rough and mountainous country.1 He found a shelter at first in natural caves, and in huts of the simplest construction, partly because the con vulsions of nature, however gradual they may have been, were still too frequent and too tremendous to admit of any pretermission of the struggle with the elements by which alone he could maintain exist ence ; or to leave any leisure for the development of the architectural faculty. To the beginning of that remote and long continued epoch has been given the name of the Stone Age, because then men and Ground had only learned to fashion from the pebbles they picked up at their feet, a rude weapon for warfare or a ruder imple ment for domestic use. And this era of the childhood of the race is divided into two periods, the Unground Stone Age (Palaeolithic), and the Ground Stone (Neolithic) Age. But the dividing line between The Age of Ice. 1 See Broca upon the Ossemeus des Assies; Busk on Human Remains, etc., in the Caves of Gibraltar. Report of the International Congress of Pre-historic Archaeology 1868 ; Dawkius' Cave Hunting, London, 1874. THE LAKE-DWELLERS. 9 Fig. 1, celt. 2. Bronze implements. bronze hair-pin (Swiss). 3, bronze razor these two periods is so vague and uncertain that it is thought by some impossible to define it in any other way than by the recurrence of a second glacial era when all Europe was wrapped in an Arctic winter, and buried in Arctic ice, probably for hundreds of years.1 At any rate a long period passed away before these rude men learned to grind and polish the stones which at first they only chipped, and it is doubted if their stone axes were pierced to receive a handle till working in metals in later times had taught them a method for the process. For the Stone Age overlapped the Bronze, and even when they had come to know how to smelt copper and had learned that nine parts of that metal to one of tin would make a combina tion hard enough for a useful tool, or sword, or spear, they long held to their old imple ments Of Stone, no doubt, be- &>itf°-l>Iaae(Dennak). 4, bronze knife-blade (Danish.) cause of the cost of material and slow growth of skill. But when man began to smelt ores he began to make history ; and there is a visible . connection between the Bronze Age and our own, in traditions, oral and written, in in scriptions upon sculptured stones, in picture- writing in temples and on ancient monu- I ments. The Lake- dwellers, however, though some I of them were in the condition of the earliest Stone Age, were generally of that more re cent period when the continent had settled I into its present form ; their population was numerous enough to gather into communi ties sufficient for the felling of trees with their stone axes ; these trees, sharpened with | the aid of fire, they drove into the muddy bottoms of the lakes as piles for the support of the platforms of their houses. With their relics, in beds three feet in thickness, the accumulation of centuries, are found the first evi dences of agriculture and horticulture. Among the charred remains 1 The Great Ice Age; and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man. By James Geikie. 1874. Sculptured Stone. 10 THE PRE-HISTORIC MAN. [Chap. I. Lake-dweller's Loom. Geologicchanges in Europe. of their villages, which seem to have often been destroyed by fire, are wheat, barley, and linseed, ap- Lake-dweii- pies and pears cut in halves as if ers' for winter use, the seeds of straw berries, raspberries, elderberries, blackber ries, loaves of bread, fragments of woven cloth.1 But the earlier men of the caves, and probably of the Kj okken-Moddings, had reached to no such point of culture. Nor was it till he had attained to the Age of Polished Stone that man domesticated ani mals. With the implements of that time are found also the bones of the dog, the hog, the horse, the ox, the sheep, the goat, ani mals made useful for labor as well as for food.2 The earliest of these peoples inhabited Europe at that remote period, when, as geologists believe, the lands now called Italy and Spain were joined to Africa, and in the place of the Mediterranean Sea were only a few land locked basins ; when the British Islands, as far north as the Shetlands, were a part of the continent ; when the present bottom of the North Sea was a low, wide plain covered, probably, by magnifi cent forests, through which the Rhine, with the Elbe and the Thames as its tributaries, wound its way to discharge its waters at length into the ocean north of Scandinavia ; and when the western boundary of Europe was far out in the Atlantic beyond the present coasts of Ire land and France, extending in an unbroken line from the Arctic Ocean to Africa. Was this primeval savage, as his story is thus read in the relics he has left behind him in imperishable stone, a man of a dark or a white skin ? In what tongue did he speak ? Was he the ancestor of any of the cultivated European races of to-day? To these questions there is no satisfactory, perhaps no possible, answer. We only know that his condition was evidently not unlike that of the dark-skinned barbarians of our own time, and that there is no record in history of a Traccfl of thepre-his- white race at so low a point of culture. There is, apparently, among mod- no trace of his lineage in any living European race, unless it be in the small, black-eyed, dark-haired, swarthy people of the Basque provinces of France, of Ireland west of the Shannon, and of the mountains of Wales, who, it is supposed, may have 1 Keller's Lake Dwellings. Desor's Lacustrine Constructions. 2 Cave Hunting, Researches on the Evidences of Caves, etc. By W. Boyd Dawkins. SIMILARITY IN SAVAGE RELICS. 11 descended from Neolithic ancestors.1 Otherwise he either perished in the course of nature, like many species of plants and animals of former eras, or was exterminated by a stronger and wiser people, migrating from the East, who came with weapons of bronze in their hands, bringing with them that germ from which has grown the civili zation of Europe and America. It is a curious and interesting inquiry what bearing this new-found evidence of the antiquity of man has upon the question of the origin of the first inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere and of the time of their first appearance. There is a remarkable resemblance in the relics of all pre-historic races, as there is a similarity in the rude works of art of barbarous people in all parts of the world, and in all ages. So great is this resemblance, that, it is said, a skilful observer of stone implements could not, from an unticketed heap, tell within thousands Arrow-heads from different Countries. Fig. 1, Ireland. 2, France. 3, X. America. 4, Terra del Fuego. 5, Japan of years or thousands of miles when and where they were made.2 It is only by their positions and the relations in which they are found, that it is possible to assign to them any value as to their age, or as to the condition of the people to whom they once belonged. But as they are, in certain positions and relations, accepted as proving the antiquity of man, it is difficult to believe that in one half the world, where they may be as plentiful as in the other half, they are without any such significance. However puzzling it may be to distinguish between the stone-hatchet or arrow-head of the modern Indian and that dropped by some earlier savage before the Indian possessed the land, it is possible that such a distinction may yet be clearly estab lished. " First-born among the continents," says Agassiz, " though so much later in culture and civilization than some of more recent birth, America, so far as her physical history is concerned, of American has been falsely denominated the New World. Hers was the first dry land lifted out of the waters, hers the first shore washed 1 See W. Boyd Dawkins, in Cave Hunting, and in Fortnightly Review, September, 1 874, who, on this point, follows Dr. Thurnam and Professor Huxley. a Tylor's Early History, etc., p. 206. 12 THE PRE-HISTORIC MAN. [Chap. I. by the ocean that enveloped all the earth beside ; and while Europe was represented only by islands rising here and there above the sea, America already stretched an unbroken line of land from Nova Scotia to the Far West." x If then an antiquity of the human race, till recently supposed to be incredible, be accepted as true, a door is thrown wide open for speculation the farther we go back in time. The hypothesis of a Mongolian migration is no longer indispensable to account for the earliest appearance of man on that half the globe which the most A Zone of Pyramids. Fig. 1, Egypt. 2, Central America. 3, India. 4, North America. eminent geologist of this country held to be the older half. Com munication between the two hemispheres, it is conjectured, may have been, long ages ago, quite as possible in other ways as in our era across the sea of Kamtschatka. To account for the resemblance in the works of art, the temples, the pyramids, the hieroglyphics of Central America and Mexico, to those of Asia, it has been suggested that the Eastern and Western Continents once approached each other where the ocean now rolls between, and that a zone or circle of the earth was at that period occupied by a pyramid-building people. And to strengthen the supposition, it is alleged that there are many points of resemblance between the Guanches, the aboriginal but now extinct people of the Canary Isles, and the ancient Egyptians on this parallel zone.2 In the form of the skull the Guanches are said to have been allied to the 1 Geological Sketches, by L. Agassiss, p. 1 . 2 The Races of Men. By Robert Knox. London, 1862. TRADITIONS OF A LOST CONTINENT. 13 Caribs of the Antilles, and both to the tribes of the whole eastern coast of America from its extreme northern limit to Paraguay and Uruguay in the south.1 Humboldt suggests 2 that the summits of the Madeira and of the Canary Islands may have once been the western extremity of the chain of the Atlas mountains. Others go farther and assume that these islands and those of the West Indies are the summits of mountain chains that once crowned an Atlantic continent which was afterward submerged and disintegrated by some great cataclysm. The similarity of the flora on the islands of the coast of Africa and Western Europe, and those of Central Europe and Eastern America can only be accounted for, according to some geologists, by the supposition of such a continent before the human period.3 The bolder theorists are disposed to accept the fact without the limitation, as the time of the destruction of such a continent, if it ever existed, and the first appear ance of man are alike uncertain. In curious coincidence with these mingled facts and conjectures the story is recalled which Plato says was related to Solon by an Egyptian priest of the island called Atlantis, "larger an Atlantic than Asia [Minor] and Libya combined," lying beyond the Pillars of Hercules, inhabited by a powerful and warlike people, and which was destroyed by earthquakes and floods nine thousand years before his time. In later times the " Island of Antilia," the " Island of the Seven Cities," the "Island of the Holy Bishop Brandon," placed midway in the " Sea of Darkness," as the Atlantic was then called, found its place in the earliest maps of the world, sometimes under one name, sometimes another, when the geography of one half the globe was merely guessed at. These speculations, traditions, and supposed fables are not history ; but it is not impossible that in them may yet be found some aid in putting together the unwritten story of the early human race on this continent. It is not indeed yet established upon unquestioned evi dence that man is as old here as anywhere else ; but that such evi dence is forthcoming is hardly a subject of doubt now even among those slowest to believe. The natives of North America, when first visited by Europeans a few centuries ago, belonged as distinctly to the Stone Age as the ear liest inhabitants of Europe did at an epoch too remote to be accu rately measured in years. It is not easy, therefore, to distinguish in this country between the possible relics of a primeval race and those of the modern Indians, where, whatever the difference of time be- 1 Professor Retzius of Stockholm. Smithsonian Report, 1859. 2 Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America. By Alexander von Humboldt. 8 See Lecture by Edward Suess, in Vienna, translated for Smithsonian Report, 1872. Opinions of Professors Unger and Heer, quoted by Lyell, Antiquity of Man, p. 492. •14 THE PRE-HISTORIC MAN. [Chap. L tween them, there was none of culture. Thus Lyell repeatedly refers, in different works,1 to the shell-heaps along the American coast from Massachusetts to Georgia as identical with the Kj okken-Moddings, the kitchen refuse-heaps, of Denmark. As witnesses to the existence of a people in an early stage of barbarism, these refuse heaps of onST shells on the coasts of different countries are undoubtedly u' S' identical, but it may be questioned whether those upon our own are the work of the modern Indian, or of a race that long pre ceded them, and coeval, perhaps, with those primitive savages who fed in Denmark upon shell-fish which can no longer live in the waters of the Baltic, and upon the birds whose food was the buds of trees buried now in the bogs beneath successive forests. Such heaps are found from Nova Scotia to Florida, upon all the Sea Islands of the Southern States, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and upon the banks of fresh-water streams. Their number and their size suggest the former presence of a large population and its long continuance. One upon Stalling's Island, in the Savannah River, two hundred miles above its mouth, is three hundred feet in length by one hun dred and twenty in width, and with an average elevation of more than fifteen feet.2 Did the scattered tribes of Indian hunters accum ulate these huge relics of their summer fishing? Perhaps when longer studied, and with a definite purpose, they may shed new light here, as the shell-heaps of Denmark, the caves of Germany, France, and England, the remains of human habitation beneath the lakes of Switzerland, have done in Europe, upon the antiquity of the early inhabitants.3 But where the fact to be observed depends upon geological evi dence, the question is simply one of verification of that evidence. This involves, ordinarily, scientific knowledge and accurate observa tion. Such observation and knowledge will, in the long run, be brought to bear upon the subject and to dispel all doubts, if that is possible, either one way or the other. Meanwhile the progress of the accumulation of such evidence, whether more or less conclusive, is nei ther valueless nor without interest. 1 Visit to the United States. Antiquity of Man. 2 Antiquities of the Southern Indians. C. C. Jones, Jr. 8 The late Professor Jeffries Wyman, of Cambridge, who had examined the structure and contents of these refuse-heaps with the careful habit and rigid method of scientific research, asserts, in a private letter, that no glass beads or tools of metal have hitherto been found in them, though such articles were largely distributed among the Indians by the earliest European visitors ; that some of the older mounds are wanting in any traces of pottery ; that no pipes or fragments of pipes have been found in them by him and other accurate explorers, though smoking was the universal custom of the Indians when first known ; that trees have been observed upon them, which showed by their annular growth an age antedating from one to three centuries the landing of Columbus ; and that there is no record, with a single exception, in the narratives of the early voyagers of these- heaps marking the dwelling-places of the Indians. FOSSILS FOUND IN AMERICA. 15 Thus, near Natchez, Mississippi, there was found about thirty years ago, a fragment of a human bone, the pelvis, in association with the bones of the mastodon, the megalonyx, and other extinct animals. Were the man and the beasts to whom these bones belonged living at the same time ? That time was about a hundred thousand years ago,1 when the mastodon and megalonyx, whose remains must have been buried beneath the present valley and delta of the Fossil rs- Mississippi, were certainly alive. The fissilre at the hot- mains in torn of which the bones were found was made during the earthquakes of 1811-12, which extended through a portion of the Mis sissippi Valley, heaving the earth up into long hillocks,' and tearing it open into deep ravines. Sir Charles Lyell, on his visit to this coun try in 1846, carefully examined the locality and these fossils, with a stronger bias, he has since said, against the probability " of the con temporaneous entombment of man and the mastodon than any geolo gist would now be justified in entertaining."2 He suggested that the human bone may bave fallen from the surface of the soil, while those of the fossil beasts came from strata underneath. Other scientific men afterward adopted this suggestion, though he has since candidly ac knowledged that " had the pelvic bone belonged to any recent mam- mifer other than man, such a theory would never have been resorted to."3 So in New Orleans, in 1852, a human skeleton was dug from an excavation, made for the foundation of gas-works, at a depth of six teen feet, and beneath four successive buried forests of cypress. Dr. Dowler, into whose possession this skeleton came, believed, from its position, that it had lain there not less than fifty thousand years, but whether this be correct or not, depends upon intricate calculations as to the yearly deposits of the river, about which there is great differ ence of opinion among geologists. There is on Petit Anse Island, in Louisiana, a bed of almost pure rock salt, found in every part of it at a depth of from fifteen to twenty feet. On this spot have been disin terred the fossil bones of the mastodon and the elephant, and under neath them lay fragments of matting and bits of broken pottery in great profusion. The people to whom this refuse once belonged had resorted to the island for salt, before, it is assumed, the superimposed mud of fifteen or twenty feet in depth, and in which the mastodons and elephants were buried, was deposited ; on the other hand, it is doubted whether the whole mass of soil and all it contained may not have been washed down from the surrounding hills, mingling together indiscriminately the remains of various ages. 1 Sir Charles Lyell, Second Visit to the United States, vol. ii. p. 151. 2 Lyell's Antiquity of Man, p. 236. 8 Ibid., p. 239. 16 THE PRE-HISTORIC MAN. [Chap. I. Evidence still more interesting and conclusive that man and the ex tinct animals were contemporaneous is alleged to have been found in Missouri nearly forty years ago. A Dr. Koch, of St. Louis, an enthu siastic, though not a scientific, collector and exhibitor of fossil remains, affirmed that in 1839 he dug up, in the bottom lands of the Bour- beuse River, in Missouri, from a depth of eight or nine feet, the bones of a mastodon, in such juxtaposition with human relics as mastodol "n to show that man and this beast, whose race is no longer Missouri. -n exjstence5 met Up0n that spot in deadly hostility. He asserted that, when the exhumation was made, the great bones of the legs of the animal stood erect as if the creature had become im movably mired in the deep and tenacious clay. Around it had been kindled a fire by human hands, and in the ashes that lay about the skeleton to the deptb of from two to six inches were scattered bits of charred wood and half-burnt bones, stone arrow-heads, stone axes, and rough stones, — these last brought evidently from the beach of the river at some distance, where in a stratum of the bank, and there only in the neighborhood, are similar stones still found. All these missiles unquestionably had been hurled at the creature, whose gigan tic strength, stimulated by pain and rage and fear, the torments of the flames, the shouts of the pursuers, the sharp wounds from their stone weapons, was not enough to extricate him from the slough into which his great weight had sunk him. There are in this case two considerations to be borne in mind. If man and the mastodon did not live at the same time, a discovery of their remains in the alleged relations is necessarily impossible. But there is no inherent improbability in the story if they were contem poraneous ; so huge a beast might easily become mired in a swamp, and then be surrounded and put to death by the savages by such means as were at their command.1 The only remarkable thing about the incident would be that subsequent deposits of earth should have so completely covered these fossil remains, without disturbing them, that they could be exhumed in their original condition so long afterward.2 1 Savages are alike in all ages and countries. " The people," — in the Lake region of Eastern Africa, — says the great traveller, Livingstone, "employ these continuous or set-in rains for hunting the elephant, which gets bogged and sinks in from fifteen to eighteen inches in soft mud ; then even he, the strong one, feels it difficult to escape." — The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa, p. 143. 2 See Article XXXV., Silliman's Journal, May, 1875, by James D. Dana; which is de voted to a discussion of this case. Professor Dana considers Koch's statement " very doubtful , " but his doubt is evidently as to Koch's truthfulness and character, and not as to any inherent improbability in such a discovery, as he says, " it is to be hoped that the geologists of the Missouri Geological Survey now in progress will succeed in settling the question positively." And on the essential point which alone gives the story any impor tance, he adds : " The contemporaneity claimed will probably be shown to be true for North America by future discoveries, if not already established ; for Man existed in Eu rope long before the extinction of the American mastodon." KM THE CALAVERAS SKULL. 17 At this exhumation, Dr. Koch .always affirmed that twenty persons of the vicinity were present ; others have vouched for his integrity and general truthfulness ; x and though he had little knowledge of scientific facts and methods, and made grave mistakes in the classifica tion of fossil bones, his experience and success in recovering them was greater than that of any other explorers.2 If such a scene, then, the evidences of which he claims to have uncovered, ever occurred — a scene in itself by no means improbable if man and the mastodon lived at the same time in the same region of country — a picture is presented of a hunt by pre-historic men on this continent vivid enough to appeal to the dullest imagination, and more remarkable than any similar incident yet found anywhere else. A year later than this asserted discovery on the Bourbeuse River, the same diligent collector claimed to have made another which must be considered on the same grounds. In the bottomlands of the Pomme de Terre River, in Benton County, Missouri, he dug up, he asserts, an almost en tire skeleton of another mastodon, beneath which were two stone arrow-heads in such a position that they must have been there when the animal fell. They lay in a bed of vegetable mould, covered by twenty feet of Dr. Kocn's Arrow- alternate strata of sand, clay, and gravel, hitherto undisturbed, and on the surface of the ground grew a forest of old trees. Later discoveries of other fossils are not less significant, in the con troversies to which they have given rise, of growing interest ¦ p i • T \ci-n p Fossil hu- ln the importance of the sumect. In 1857, the fragment manskniim California. of a human skull was taken, it is asserted, from the gold drift of California, one hundred and eighty feet below the surface of Table Mountain, in association with the fossil bones of extinct ani mals. More recently, in 1867 or 1868, another human cranium was found in a mining shaft in Calaveras County, which Professor Whit ney, of the State Geological Survey, believes to have been an authentic " find." To all the alleged circumstances in regard to it he gave a careful examination, and his testimony is accepted as conclu sive by many eminent scientific men.3 The shaft in which the bone was buried is one hundred and fifty feet deep, and was sunk through five beds of lava and volcanic tufa, and four beds of gold-bearing 1 Pre-historic Races of the United States, by J. W. Foster, p. 62. Charles Rau, in, Smith sonian Report for 1872. 2 The Mastodon giganteus mounted in the British Museum was found in Missouri by Dr. Koch, and a representation of it, copied from Owen, is given in Dana's Manual of Geology, 1875, p. 566. 8 Among others, by the late Professor Jeffries Wyman. VOL. I. 2 18 THE PRE-HISTORIC MAN. [Chap. I. quartz. In this superincumbent mass no crack or crevice was appar ent through which the bone could have fallen to so great a depth, and the inference therefore is that it was deposited in the place where it lay when that was on the surface of the earth's crust, and that over it in subsequent ages were piled up the successive beds of gravel and volcanic cinders. If this be true of these skulls, then the men whom they represent lived before the human race appeared in Europe, so far as is yet ascertained; and before the stupendous peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California were lifted from the sea. Though the number of alleged facts bearing upon the antiquity of the human family on this continent are still few and need unques tioned confirmation, the inclination of scientific belief is that the evi dence exists and will yet be found.1 When this shall be done beyond cavil a new foundation will be laid on which to base the inquiry as to the earliest people of the Western World. However strong may be the probability of the Asiatic origin of the North American Indians, behind them appears another race which must have been displaced by that Mongolian migration. If here as elsewhere there were races more ancient than has hitherto been supposed, we can no longer look upon the Western Hemisphere as solitary and unpeopled, unknown . and useless to man till he, grown old in the East, was numerous enough and far enough advanced in intelligence and wants to wander abroad upon the face of the earth in search of a new home. 1 See ante, p. 16. Note from Silliman's Journal. CHAPTER II. THE MOTJND BUILDERS. Progress in Civilization of North American Indian. — Pre-historic Race in the Western Hemisphere. — Earthworks in the Mississippi Valley. Big Elephant Mound. — Garden-beds. — Military Works. — Temple and Altar Mounds. — Relics found in these Tumuli. —» Ancient Copper-mining at Lake Superior. — Connection between this and later Civilizations. — Remains in Mexico and Central America. — Skulls found in the Mounds. The North American Indians are, as a race, in no higher plane of culture now than they were three hundred years ago. If they have any inherent capability for progress — if they American could, had they remained isolated and unmolested, have ever raised themselves above the conditions of the second age of stone implements, that progress was arrested when they came into subjec tion to another and a higher race. It has been easy enough to inten sify the weaknesses which distinguished them as savages, by adding to these the most sensual and degrading vices acquired from the whites ; and in that process of degradation has been lost whatever of stern and manly virtue is supposed to be the compensation in the simple child of nature for the minor morals of civilized life. It seems irrational to assume that such a people, whose contact for two centuries and a half with the culture of another race "has been unproductive of any good, can have once fallen from a semi-civilization possessed by their ancestors, but of which they have neither distinct inheritance nor even dim tradition. There is no influence visible or conceivable to account for a change so remarkable. They had evi dently never lost their physical vigor ; no enemy had ever before come to dispossess them of the soil which they claimed as their own, or to trample out by conquest and servitude the feeble sparks of nascent development ; and no higher civilization had invaded and overwhelmed the feeble efforts of the childhood of a race. It is to set aside all the facts of history, as well as all rational conjecture, to suppose that a race now apparently so hopelessly incapable of improvement had, without cause, at some former period, fallen from the condition of a partially cultivated people, to that of savage hunters in a country 20 THE MOUND BUILDERS. [Chap. II. Race in America an terior to Indians. which had become a wilderness through their own voluntary degrada tion. But behind these Indians, who were in possession of the country when it was discovered by Europeans, is dimly seen the shadowy form of another people who have left many remark able evidences of their habits and customs and of a singular degree of civilization, but who many centuries ago disappeared, either exterminated by pestilence or by some powerful and pitiless enemy, or driven from the country to seek new homes south and west of the Gulf of Mexico. The evidences of the presence of this ancient people are found almost everywhere upon the North American Continent, except, perhaps, upon the Atlantic coast. They consist of mounds sometimes of imposing size, and other earthworks, so numerous that in Ohio Earthworks in Ohio. alone there are, or were till quite recently, estimated to be not less than ten thousand of the Mounds, and fifteen hundred enclosures of earth and stone all evidently the work of the same people. In other parts of the country they were found in such numbers that no attempt has ever been made to count them all. There are no data by which the exact age of these singular relics of a once numerous and industrious people, living a long-sustained, agricultural life, can be fixed. But it is evident from certain estab lished facts that this must date from a very remote period. The chief seat of their power and population seems to have been in the Missis- GREAT AGE OF MOUNDS. 21 sippi Valley. The signs of their occupation are many along the banks of its rivers, but they are rarely found upon the last formed terraces of those streams, — those which have been longest Mississippi in formation, and which were the beds of the rivers when most of the earthworks were built. It is very seldom that the human bones found in them, except those of later and evidently intrusive burial, are in a condition to admit of their removal, as they crumble into dust on exposure to the air ; while bones in British tumuli, known to belong to the Roman period and to ages older than the Christian era, are frequently taken entire from situations, as regards soil and moisture, much less conducive to their preservation, than those of the mounds.1 They are often, also, covered by the primeval forests, which are known to have grown undisturbed since the country was first occupied by the whites, and the annular growth of these trees has been ascertained to be sometimes from five to eight centuries. But this, so far from fixing the date of the occupation of these works, does not even indicate the time when they were abandoned ; for a considerable period must have elapsed before the ground was occupied by trees of any kind, and before the forest, in its gradual and slow encroachment, obtained complete possession of the ground ; and then forest after forest may have grown, and fallen, and mingled with the soil through the progress of many centuries, before the seed of the latest growth was sown, five hundred or a thousand years ago. The late President Harrison, who was considered an authority on ques tions of arboriculture, and who has been quoted by almost every writer on this subject, maintained, in an address before the Ohio Historical Society, that a long period elapsed before the growth which came in upon abandoned cleared land became assimilated in kind to the trees of the surrounding forest. For that reason alone he believed the works of the Mound Builders to be of " immense age." Even the purpose for which they were erected is often doubtful ; and one class of them baffles all rational conjecture. In the State of Wisconsin, occupying the region between Lake .Michigan and the Mississippi River, are many earthworks of a peculiar character, which find few parallels in other parts of the country, while in the same region is remarked the absence of the circumvallations and immense mounds so numerous elsewhere. The significance of these works in the northwest seems to be in their configuration alone, though what that significance could have been is altogether inexplicable. Generally, these figures are in groups, though sometimes they stand alone ; they represent animals, usually in relief, though frequently the 1 Squier and Davis : Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. Pre-historic Man, etc., Dr. Daniel Wilson, p. 228. 22 THE MOUND BUILDERS. [Chap. IL reverse Animal Mounds. and the figures are varied enough and distinct enough, to show that they were meant to be the effigies of perhaps every quad ruped then known in the country, of birds with outstretched wings, of fishes with fins extended, of rep tiles, of man ; and of inanimate things, the war-club, the bow and arrow, the pipe, the cross, the crescent, the circle, and other mathe matical forms. They rise above the surface two, four, sometimes six feet in height; the shapes of animal figures vary from ninety to one hundred and twenty the mounds. feej. jn iength. But there are rectangular embankments, only a few feet in height and width, that stretch out to a length of several hundred feet. Among all these representations of animals there is no one more remarkable than that recently described, called the Big Elephant Mound, found in Wisconsin a few miles below the mouth of the Wisconsin River. Its name indicates its form ; its length is one hun dred and thirty-five feet, and its other proportions are in accord ance with that measurement.1 It does not seem probable that the people who piled up these mysterious earthworks could represent a mastodon or elephant if it were not a living creature with which they were familiar. In other parts of the country walls of stone and earth were raised objeqtsof f°r defence; mounds of great or small dimensions were the builders. heape(i up t0 cover the dead, or erected to their memory, or set up as monuments where some mysterious rites of incremation, or sacrifice, or worship had been celebrated ; or they marked the former site of temples or of habitation. The precise object of the builders, or how they attained it, can often be only guessed at ; but that there was a purpose connected, in some way, with the civil or 1 Smithsonian Report, 1872. Big Elephant Mound. EARTH-WORKS IN MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 23 religious life, or the hostile or the social relations of a very numerous people, is evident. But of these works in Wisconsin there is no such explanation. It does not seem possible that they could have been the foundations either of dwellings or of temples for worship ; they certainly could not have been for defence ; they were rarely places of sepulture, and no probable conjecture has as yet been advanced that assigns to them any conceivable human intent. Yet they exist in great numbers, scattered over a broad extent of country. They must have cost a vast deal of labor, and they indicate the presence, when they were made, of a large population. In a portion of Wisconsin, as well as in some other places, are found earthworks of another kind, but quite as remarkable, which, from their supposed use, have been called " garden-beds." These are ridges, or beds, about six inches in height and four feet in width, methodically arranged in parallel rows, sometimes rectangular in shape, sometimes of various but regular and symmetrical curves, and occupying fields of from ten to a hundred acres. It has been suggested that these were beds for the cultivation of maize by a people subsequent to those who made the animal mounds, and who had no knowledge either of their origin or purpose. But they may have been the results of the labor of the same people and parts of some general design ; or, if they were really " garden-beds," the fact that they were carried across the effigies would show that no sacred character attached to those works. Elsewhere works of a similar character, though in some respects still a subject of conjecture, are better understood. Long walls of earth and rough stone, often carried in connecting lines for many miles, mark, if not sites of towns or cities, at least the presence of a dense population. The selection of these sites was plainly guided by convenience of access to navigable streams and the possession of lands best suited for cultivation ; and it has been observed that the places where the remains of this ancient people are most abundant, are those which the pioneers of modern civilization selected as the natural cen tres of settlement and trade. They understood the advantages of sit uations like those of Cincinnati and St. Louis, and they crowded the pleasant valleys of the Scioto, the Miami, the Wabash, the Kentucky, the Cumberland, and others through which run the tributar>" to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, where the bottom-lands are broadest, the soil most fertile, and means of "communication by water-carriage the most available. The ruins of the works which mark this occupation are generally in groups ; the walls, however, are not continuous like those Fortifica. of a walled town, even where most extensive, but mark tlon8' different enclosures devoted to various purposes. Thus at the mouth 24 THE MOUND BUILDERS. [Chap. II. of the Scioto there are embankments which measure in the aggregate about twenty miles, though the area actually enclosed in its avenues, squares, and circles, is only about two hundred acres. But the points most capable of defence, where defence was evidently intended, were selected with military skill. The summits of hills were made inacces sible to attack by lines of circumvallation ; peninsulas, surrounded on three sides by a deep stream or precipitous bluffs, and only to be approached on one side, were there made difficult, if not impossible of access ; and in these citadels, doubtless, the outlying populations, in case of danger, warned by the smoke or flame rising from mounds placed on the loftiest hills, in sight of each other for many miles, found safe refuge. Nor were these walls made in haste, or for a tem porary purpose. In height, they vary from five to five and twenty feet ; at their base they are often twenty feet and more in width ; and frequently outside the wall is a moat measuring twenty-five or fifty, or eighty feet in width, according to the importance of the position or the difficulty of defending it. Military works like these, built not far apart, and with so much care and labor, enclosing areas from five to about a hundred and fifty acres, in a country no doubt thickly settled, indicate that this was a people skilful in military affairs, subject, probably, to frequent attack from a powerful and much dreaded enemy, but quite capable of making a long and sturdy defence. So far, seems plain enough. Defensive earthworks are not uncom mon with other savage or semi-civilized peoples, though their complete ness is a measure, in some degree, of the density of the population, the supply of labor, and of skill in its use. But with these Mound Builders the skill of the soldier and the engineer was used for the pro tection of a people who had apparently developed a degree of civil, and perhaps religious culture, altogether above anything that the red man has ever been known to possess, or that belongs to any merely barbar ous race. Their works of circumvallation, other than those meant merely for defence, were singular in design and, in some respects, re markable in construction. They are usually upon the table-lands, and often in groups extending for several miles, but connected with each other directly, or showing a relation by propinquity, — the groups made up of squares, circles, and other mathematical figures, ranging from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet in diameter to a mile in circuit. Near these enclosures, or within them, are mounds, some large, some small, some pyramids, others parallelograms, generally truncated, some times terraced, or their summits approached by inclined planes. Ave nues of imposing width, between embankments several feet in height, often connect these enclosed areas, extending, in one instance, in obvi- DIMENSIONS OF MOUNDS. 25 ous connection from both banks of the Ohio River for a total length of sixteen miles. Other graded roads lead from terrace to terrace, apparently to secure access to the streams ; while cai correct- others still, so far as can now be discerned, lead from nothing to nowhere, the significance of the avenue being apparently in its existence, and not in its direction. The squares in these works are perfect squares ; the circles, perfect circles ; and as some of these are a mile in circuit, there must have been brought to their construction much engineering skill and knowledge, and the use of instruments. They bear, moreover, such relations to each other as to show unmis takably some fixed and general design ; and similarity of proportions in places sixty or seventy miles apart seem to indicate the application of some common geometrical rule to their construction. Thus in Ohio is often found a combined work of a square with two circles, and they usually agree in this, that each of the sides of the squares measures exactly 1,080 feet, and the adjacent circles 1,700 and 800 feet respect ively. This identity of measurement in similar works in different parts of the country can hardly have been accidental. Within these walls, instead of outside of them, are occasionally moats or ditches, and this is accepted as conclusive proof that such works were not defensive. They may have surrounded the. houses and estates of chiefs and other men of power and consideration ; they may have been public parks and places of public games ; or they may have been, as is gen erally concluded by explorers, the metes and bounds within which was enclosed the ground held sacred to the superstitions and the religious rites of a people who found room elsewhere for the duties, the avoca tions, and the exigencies of their every-day life. These witnesses to the occupation of the land by a numerous and busy population long ago, can only be considered as the ruins which mark the site of that ancient habitation. The solid earth has with stood the inroads of time ; whatever was perishable and once bore the impress of such degree of culture as the people may have acquired, has perished. In the mounds, however, we gain some farther insight into their character, though they are themselves as remarkable, and almost as inexplicable, as the extensive system of circumvallations, embankments, and excavations of which they make a part. These mounds are of all dimensions, from that of Cahokia, Illinois, one of a group of sixty which covered six acres of ground, and that of Seltzer- town, Mississippi, of about equal extent, and others of like imposing dimensions, to those of the region extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Valley of the Arkansas, and westward into Texas, which are described as " from one foot to five feet in height, with a diameter from thirty feet to one hundred and forty feet, and as numbered by 26 THE MOUND BUILDERS.. [Chap. II Mounds for variouspurposes. millions,"1 and innumerable smaller mounds found in Missouri. Ii these were the foundations of human dwelling-places, the countrj must have been one vast town ; and if it is difficult to believe this, it is no less difficult to conceive of their being raised in such immense numbers and in such close proximity, for any other purpose. Of the character of other mounds, many of which have been care fully explored, there is less doubt. They are divided by Squier and Davis, and their classification is usually followed by other observers, into Altar or Sacrificial Mounds, Mounds of Sepulture, Temple Mounds, and Mounds of Observation, though there are many, such as the "Animal Mounds " of Wisconsin and a few of a similar character found in Ohio, and those of the Arkansas Valley, that defy all conjecture as to their use. The Temple Mounds are so called either because there are similar ^_^ elevations in Mexico on i\ which temples were : v 5 « erected, or because, hav ing level summits which may be reached by ter races, by inclined planes, or by spiral pathways, they may be supposed to have been convenient sites for such edifices, or to have been used for religious purposes with out buildings. There was certainly ample room for either mode of worship on such a mound as that at Cahokia, whose truncated top measured two hundred by four hun dred and fifty feet, and on many others in the Southern States of equal dimensions ; and that they were the sites of buildings, of some sort, seems probable also from the fact that there are many plat forms of earth, acres in extent, though only a few feet high, — similar in every respect to the larger elevations, except in height, — which could hardly have been used for any other purpose. But as these mounds have none of the peculiarities of those con taining the singular structures called Altars, and as they evidently were not places of sepulture, their use must have been different from either. As they are usually found, however, with the Altar Mounds within the enclosures, it has been conjectured that all the extensive 1 Statement of Professor Forshey in Foster's Pre-historic Races of the United States. Temple Mound in Mexico TEMPLE AND ALTAR MOUNDS. 27 works of circumvallation, except those evidently erected for defence, with the many and various elevations enclosed within them, whatever their character or shape, had some intimate relation to the religious faith and ceremonies of those who constructed them. If the grounds of such a supposition may be considered rational and sufficient, — and in the absence of any other theory it seems the most obvious, — it is only the more remarkable that at a period so remote that much, if not the whole of Europe was still in the darkness of primeval barbarism, so large a part of North America should be inhabited by a numerous population so advanced in a civilization developed by themselves, that they could expend upon a single phase of life so much evident reflec tion and accurate knowledge, and devote to it an amount of manual labor so immense and so continuous. These so-called Temple Mounds, whether temples really crowned their summits, or whether religious ceremonies were performed upon them under no other roof than the over-arching sky, are in themselves sufficiently remarkable, if only for their great size. The cubic con tents of that of Cahokia are estimated as equal to one fourth of the great pyramid of Ghizeh, and of that at Grave Creek, Virginia, as nearly equal to the third pyramid of Mycerinus.1 . But the Altar Mounds are still more interesting. They are always symmetrical, but not always uniform in shape, and in height they do not generally exceed eight feet. Unlike all other mounds, whether used for burial or as places of worship, they are laid up in different strata of earths, not in horizontal lines, but in conformity with the curve of the surface of the mound. Of these strata, from one to four, though usually two or three only, are invariably of fine white sand, and be neath the whole, upon a level with the surrounding plain, is found a hard-baked hearth or basin, which explorers call an altar. In shape these altars differ ; but that form, whatever it may be, is always sym metrical and carefully constructed. They bear always the marks of the fires that had been kindled upon them, and the cremation may have been of dead or living subjects or of burnt-offerings of animals or material things. But whether such fires were for sacrifices or were only a method of disposing of the dead, the places where they were made were important enough and sacred enough to require that they 1 Foster's Pre-historic Races, p. 346. 28 THE MOUND BUILDERS. [Chap. II. Pottery from Mounds. should be, not the careless heaping up of earth, but the construction of a rude work of art. The character is invariable ; wherever a mound is found thus made with successive strata of carefully imposed earth and sand, conforming to its outward shape, an altar is beneath ; and wherever the altar or hearth is found, if covered at all, the alternate beds of earth and sand are carefully laid over it ; all others are un- stratified. Beneath these mounds are found chiefly the specimens of pottery, of implements of war and the chase, and of do mestic life, which al ways indicate, in some degree, the condition and progress of the people who used them ; but this curious fact is dwelt upon by Squier, that, though the num ber of such articles in any one deposit may be large, the variety is limited ; a collection of Keiics found pipes may be found upon one altar, a heap of pottery, or m them. 0jj arrowheads, or of pearls, or of copper tools, upon others ; but a single kind predominates in each, with little mingling of other implements. The most plausible explanation of these structures is, that they were places of sacrifice, with a religious meaning, for the altars were, in some cases, evidently used repeatedly before they were finally covered with so much care. They may have been places of human sacrifice ; but probably were not for the burning of those who died from natural causes, as the disposition of their bodies is other wise accounted for. Thousands of other mounds are raised over the remains of one or two persons in each, while the common multitude received only that ordinary burial which the immense accumulation of human bones in some places indicates. It is unfortunate for the archaeologist that the depositories of arti cles of personal use among these people were exposed to an intense heat. Only stone or clay could resist it, for it melted copper and lead and destroyed almost entirely whatever was perishable. But for this something more might be learned than we are ever likely to know of their habits and customs, and of the advance they had made in arts of which there are found some indications. But there is cer tainly enough to show that they had developed a civilization of a vig orous and original growth, though as yet in its earlier stages, and enough to justify a belief that there must have been much else in their RELICS OF STONE AND COPPER. 29 culture to answer to those evidences of combined labor and abstract thought exhibited in their public works of defence, and their apparent devotion to some ceremonial system. " The art of pottery " among them, says Squier, who is peculiarly qualified to give an opinion upon the subject, had " attained to a considerable degree of perfection. Va rious, though not abundant specimens of their skill have been recov ered, which, in elegance of model, delicacy, and finish, as also in fine ness of material, come fully up to the best Peruvian specimens, to which they bear, in many respects, a close resemblance. They far exceed anything of which the existing Indian tribes are known to have been capable." If their arrow-heads and hammers, and other articles of bone, of Stone and Copper Relics from Mounds. Fig. 1, axe. 2, bracelets. 3, stone arrow-points. 4, stone axe. 5, bronze knife. polished porphyry, granite, jasper, quartz, obsidian — this they could only have got from Mexico — and other minerals, show that they were still in the Stone Age, their implements of copper prove that they were gradually approaching to the age of metals. The late Professor Foster believed that many of their implements clearly show the marks of being cast ; x but if that point needs to be confirmed by farther in vestigation, it is at least plain that they had advanced beyond the age when tools and weapons of stone are made only by chipping, to that of pounding a malleable metal into shape with a hammer. They could hardly have failed to observe the effect which the fire of their altars had upon this material which was superseding stone, and a people so intelligent would not have delayed long in availing them selves of that knowledge, had their progress not been arrested by some sudden and violent interruption. The copper was already in common use, and extensive and syste matic mining was established on the southern shores of Lake Superior. 1 Pre-historic Races of the United States, p. 259. 30 THE MOUND BUILDERS. [Chap. II. The miners of our time find excavations and trenches in that region from eighteen to thirty feet deep, where these primitive Kn|up°- workmen had preceded them, and half-finished work and their scattered tools of stone, and wood, and copper, buried beneath the accumulations of many centuries of vegetable and forest growth, attest at once to their active and intelligent labor and to its apparently abrupt abandonment. So numerous are their stone ham mers — some of such weight that they must have been wielded, by the help of handles of withe, by two men — that they have been removed by the cart-load, and in one spot they were so plentiful as to be sufficient for the walls of a well.1 In a deserted trench in the Minnesota mine was found, eighteen feet beneath the surface of the ground, a mass of copper of about six tons, raised upon a frame of wood five feet in height, preparatory to removal. From these ancient l mines, of whose workings the Indians had no tradition, was supplied the metal used by the Mound Builders, a thousand miles distant in the Valley of the Mississippi. From that agricul tural region, probably, the miners came with their supplies for their summer's support ; and the method of conveyance which took them and their provisions to the mines sufficed, no doubt, for carrying back the ore to market across the lakes and the long land journey. They must Mining Tools, have had boats of more capacity than canoes for such cargoes, and better fitted for the navigation of waters not much less perilous than the open sea ; but how they pro vided, without animals, for the carriage of such heavy burdens over hundreds of miles of land travel it is not so easy to understand, un less they depended upon a servile population whose presence seems otherwise indicated by the immense amount of manual labor which all their works required. Of this copper-mining the Indians had even no tradition, and among them, at the time of European discov ery, copper was only used, and that rarely, for purposes of rude orna ment. This dead and buried culture of the ancient people of North Amer- cuiture of lca> *° whose memory they themselves erected such curious bu?id?n0gmd monuments, is specially noteworthy in that it differs from all people. other extinct civilizations. Allied, on the one hand, to the rude conditions of the Stone Age, in which the understanding of man does not aim at much beyond some appliance that shall aid his naked hands in procuring a supply of daily food, it is yet far in advance of 1 Wilson's Pre-historic Man, p. 161. COPPER IMPLEMENTS RECENTLY DISCOVERED IN WISCONSIN. [From the Collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society.] No. 1. — An Adze, with "wings" for fit ting. No. 2. — An Arrow-head, with "wings" for fitting to arrow. No. 3. —An Arrow-head, with "wings" for fitting to arrow. No. 4. — A Knife, with socket for handle. No. 5. — A Chisel, apparently cast, the rough ness showing sand-mould and white spots of melted silver. No. 6. — An Awl. No. 7. — A Spear-head, 11 inches in length, with socket for handle. No. 8. — An Adze. POTTERY AND SUPPOSED IDOLS RECENTLY POUND WITH HUMAN REMAINS IN BURIAL MOUNDS IN SOUTHEAST MISSOURI. OBJECT OF THE MOUND BUILDERS. 31 that rough childhood of the race ; and while it touches the Age of Metal, it is almost as far behind, and suggests the semi-civilization of other pre-historic races who left in India, in Egypt, and the centre of the "Western Continent, magnificent architectural ruins and relics of the sculptor's art, which, though barbaric, were nevertheless full of power peculiar to those parallel regions of the globe. It is hardly conceivable that these imposing earthworks were meant for mere out-door occupation. A people capable of erecting fortifica tions which could not be much improved upon by modern military science, as to position, and, considering the material used, the method of construction ; and who could combine for religious observances en closures in groups of elaborate design, extending for more than twenty miles, would probably crown such works with structures in harmony with their importance and the skill and toil bestowed upon their erec tion. Such wooden edifices, for wood they must have been, would long ago have crumbled into dust ; but it is not a fanciful suggestion that probably something more imposing than a rude hut once stood upon tumuli evidently meant for occupation, and sometimes approaching the Pyramids of Egypt in size and grandeur. These circumvallations of mathematical figures, bearing to each other certain well-defined rela tions, and made, though many miles apart, in accordance with some exact law of measurement, no doubt surrounded something better than an Indian's wigwam. That which is left is the assurance of that which has perished ; it is the scarred and broken torso bearing witness to. the perfect work of art as it came from the hands of the sculptor. Nor is this the only conclusion which is forced upon us. These peo ple must have been very numerous, as otherwise they could not have done what we see they did. They were an industrious, agricultural people; not, like the sparsely scattered Indians, nomadic tribes of hunters ; for the multitude employed upon the vast system of earth works, and who were non-producers, must have been supported by the products of the labor of another multitude who tilled the soil. Their moral and intellectual natures were so far developed that they devoted much time and thought to occupations and subjects which could have nothing to do with their material welfare — a mental con dition far in advance of the savage state. And the degree of civiliza tion which they had reached, trifling in some respects, in others full of promise, was peculiarly their own, of which no trace can be dis cerned in subsequent times, unless it be among other and later races south and west of the Gulf of Mexico. Doing and being so much, the wonder is that they should not have attained to still higher things. But the wonder ceases if we look for the farther development of their civilization in Mexico and Central 32 THE MOUND BUILDERS. [Chap. L. America. If they did not die out, destroyed by pestilence or famine ; if they were not exterminated by the Indians, but were, at last, driven away by a savage foe against whose furious onslaughts they could contend no longer even behind their earthen ram parts, their refuge was probably, if not necessarily, farther south or southwest. In New Mexico they may have made their last defence in the massive stone for tresses, which the bitter experi ence of the past had taught them to substitute for the earth works they had been compelled to abandon. Thence extending southward they may, in succes sive ages, have found leisure, in the perpetual summer of the tropics where nature yielded a subsistence almost unsolicited, for the creation of that archi tecture whose ruins are as re markable as those of any of the pre-historic races of other continents. The sculpture in the stone of those beautiful temples may be only the outgrowth of that germ of scuip- apt shown in the carvings on the pipes which the Mound Builders left on their buried altars. In these pipes a striking fidelity to nature is shown in the delineation of animals. It is reason able to suppose that they were equally faithful in por traying their own features in their representations of the human head and face; and the similarity between these and the sculptures upon the ancient temples of Central America and Mexico is seen at a glance. There also it may be that they discovered how to fuse and combine the metals, making a harder and better bronze than the Europeans had ever seen ; learned to exe cute work in gold and silver which the most skilled European did not Carved Pipes. Their ture. Sculptured Heads. * Fig. 1, Mound Builders. 2, Central America. SKULLS EXHUMED FROM MOUNDS. 33 pretend to excel; to manufacture woven stuffs of fine texture, the rude beginnings whereof are found in the fragments of coarse cloth ; in objects of use and ornament wrought in metals, left among the other relics in the earlier northern homes of their race. In the art of that southern people there was nothing imitative; the works of the .,___, Mound Builders stand as distinctly orig- " V Tr inal and independent of any foreign in. Cl0th from Mounds' fluence. Any similarity in either that can be traced to anything else is in the apparent growth of the first rude culture of the northern race into the higher civilization of that of the south. It certainly is not a violent supposition, that the people who disappeared at one period from one part of the continent, leaving behind them certain unmistakable marks of progress, had reappeared again at another time, in another place where the same marks were found in larger development. There can hardly be a doubt that there is yet something to be learned of the character of this singular people. Some recent ex plorers believe that they find new traces of their mode of worship and of their religious faith, and others that new facts are coming to light from a study of their skulls. Hitherto but little has been learned from this last source, so great is the difficulty of recovering any com plete crania from deposits where the decay of all perishable things is so thorough. Till quite recently the number of authentic skulls, that is, of those free from all suspicion of being of later and ¦ • • i i Skulls ex- mtrusive burial in the mounds, was less than half a dozen, numedfrom mounds. Their shape and capacity show no uncommon type. But those lately recovered from different places in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa indicate, like the Neanderthal! skull found in a cave in Prussia, and the Dorreby skull of the Stone Age of Denmark, a very low order of intellect.1 General H. G. Thomas, U. S. A., has exhumed from some mounds in Dakota Territory a number of skulls of the lowest type, " unlike," he says, " that of any human being to-day alive on this continent," but " like those of the great Gibbon monkey."2 It is easier to believe that the mounds are the burial- places of more than one extinct race than that their builders were not far from idiots. Future explorations may shed more light upon this inquiry. Man is older on other continents than was till quite recently supposed. If 1 See Foster's Pre-historic Races of the United States, chap, vii., for collation of the evi dence on these crania. 3 Sixth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, by F. B. Hayden, p. 656. VOL. I. 3 34 THE MOUND BUILDERS. [Chap. H. older elsewhere he may, by parity of reasoning,' be older here. We are permitted to go behind the Indians in looking for the earliest in habitants of North America, wherever they may have come from or whenever they may have lived. In such an inquiry, relieved of some of the limitations which have hitherto obstructed it, we may find in the relics of an early and rude culture much to dispel the obscurity and mystery which till within four centuries have shrouded the New World in darkness. Discovery of Greenland. CHAPTER III. THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. Early Voyages. — Discovery op Iceland. — Greenland Colonized by Eric the Red. — Bjarni Herjulfson discovers America. — Sons op Eric the Red. — Leif's Voyage to Vinland the Good. — Expedition op Thorvald. — His Death. — Colony op Thorpinn Karlsefne. — Fight with Skr^ellings. — Supposed Irish Settlements in America. — Colony op Freydis. — The Massacre. — Gloomy Winter at Vinland. — Round Tower at Newport. — Dighton Rock. — The Icelandic Sagas. Were these great Western continents, stretching almost from pole to pole, unknown till 1492 to the nations who had made the world's history ? The pride of human knowledge has for nearly four centuries resented such an imputation. If facts were wanting, ingenious sup positious of more or less probability were made to take the place of facts. Even before Flavio Gioia introduced the use of the magnetic needle into maritime Europe some unlucky vessel mav have i • it Pre-Colum- been driven across the Atlantic and stranded upon strange bianNaviga- shores ; or some Phoenician navigator who understood " night- sailing " may have boldly turned his ship's head to the West, after passing the Pillars of Hercules, in search of new fields of adventure and of traffic ; or some of the fearless navigators who steered into the Sea of Darkness in search of Antilia, or the Island of the Seven Bishops, may have landed for a night upon coasts which some super natural power was supposed to guard from the intrusion of man. Or 36 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. [Chap. III. it may be that the lost Tribes of Israel wandered through Asia to the Northwest coast and were the progenitors of the North American Indians and the ancient Mexicans ; that the Malays crossed the Poly nesian Archipelago and invaded the Western Hemisphere on the South ; that a vast army of Mongols came with their elephants, whose bones are left as a witness of their invasion from Brazil to Rhode Island ; that the Apostle St. Thomas preached Christianity in Peru ; or that St. Patrick sent Irish missionaries to the Isles of America. All these theories have had their advocates. But there was one ancient people whose warriors were the dread The North- °f au Europe, from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, and men- whose long experience as pirates made them fearless and successful sailors, who, there seems no good reason for doubting, did cross the Atlantic from coast to coast, almost five hundred years be fore Columbus stept upon and knelt down to kiss the sands of the beach of San Salvador. The Northmen had a genius for discovering new countries by accident, and having approached and settled within a few hundred miles of the coast of the Western Continent, it would have been strange rather than otherwise if such bold rovers had not found their way thither. They made, indeed, no permanent settle ment, and if it may be held as an argument against the probability of their having made the discovery at all that it is hard to find a conti nent, it may, with quite as much force, be urged that it is still harder to lose one, when found. But here again the Northmen are not with out a parallel in their own experience, for it is certain that they dis covered and held Greenland for more than four hundred years, and lost it again for more than two centuries. It was by accident the Northmen discovered Iceland ; Naddod, an They discov- illustrious sea-rover, having been driven, about the year 860, er Iceland. up0n its coasts by a storm. He called it Snceland — Snow- land. Four years later, one Gardar Svafarson was also carried thither by tempest, and finding it by circumnavigation an island, gave it the name of Gardar-h61m — Gardar's Isle. His account of it was so pleas ant that soon after Floki, or Flokko, another famous viking, went out to plant a colony.1 Not trusting to the chances which had befallen and befriended his predecessors, he took with him three ravens, which he was careful before starting to have consecrated to the gods, and to 1 There is some little discrepancy as to those first discoverers. The editor of Mallets Northern Antiquities, Bohn's edition, puts Naddod first and Gardar second; De Costa — Pre-Columbian Discovery in America — gives the precedence to Gardar; while Crantz — History of Greenland — who cites as his authority " the learned Icelander, Arngrim Jonas," says Naddok (Naddod) was first driven on the coast by a storm, and that he was followed "by a certain pyrate whose name was Flokko," and omits any mention whatever of Gar dar. DISCOVERY OF ICELAND. 37 these he trusted to guide him to the land he sought. The first he let loose returned toward the islands of Faroe, which Flokko con cluded, therefore, must still be the nearest land ; the second, sent out some days later, returned to the vessel, which was accepted as a proof that there was no land within a raven's flight ; but the third, when let loose, circling into the air, turned its course at length steadily west ward, and him Flokko followed, till he reached the island. For one winter he and his colony lived there ; but his cattle all perished with cold. In the spring, when he would have sown seed, thick ice still Flokko sending out Ravens. covered the coasts and rivers ; so when the summer came he sailed back to Norway, declaring that the land, which he called Island, — Iceland — was unfit for the habitation of either man or beast. Ten years later, however, another colony was taken out from Norway by the Earl Ingolf, who sought in Iceland a refuge from the tyranny of King Harold Haarfager, who no doubt was a despot, but whose offence in this case seems to have been some intolerant notions he held about a manslaughter that Ingolf had committed. The attempt at coloniza tion was this time successful, and a state was founded which for sev eral centuries was the most remarkable community of that age for the simplicity and freedom of its political institutions, for the license, not to say the licentiousness, of its social life, and for the intelligence and cultivation of its people. Greenland was discovered by another, almost inevitable accident, for, from mid-channel between it and Iceland, both are at the same time visible.1 Gunnbiorn, or Gunbioern, one of the early settlers of 1 Crantz's Greenland, book iv. p. 245. 38 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. [Chap. III. Iceland, was driven westward by a storm, when he saw land which was held in remembrance for the next century as Gunnbiorn's Rocks. Eric the Red, a man disposed to acts of violence which he was too weak to sustain when resented, was compelled to find safety in exile. Gunnbiorn's Rocks seemed to him a good place to go to, and thither he went. In three years he was back in Iceland, full of glowing descriptions of this country, which he called Greenland, " because, quoth settles he, people will be attracted hither if the land has a good name." He returned to Greenland with large additions to his colony. It was the sons of this Eric the Red who were the first Europeans, so far as is positively known, to set foot upon this conti nent. But this came about by still another accident. Among those who followed Eric to Greenland! was Herjulf, who had a son, " a fo'r'Green-8 promising young man," of the name of Bjarni, or Biarne. They were both in the habit of making trading voyages to Norway in the summer, and passing the winter together at home in Iceland. On returning from Norway in the year 985, Bjarni, who was a dutiful son as well as a promising youth, found that his father had followed Eric. He instantly proposed, without unloading his ship, to go after him, though, as he said to his crew, " Our voyage will be thought foolish, as none of us have been on the Greenland sea be fore." But this did not daunt them ; they set sail, and in three days lost sight of land. Then thick fogs beset them, and " for many days" they were driven by a north wind they knew not whither. When the weather cleared, they made all sail for another day and night, and then welcomed the sight of land again. It was, they said, a country covered with woods, without mountains, and with small hills inland. This they were sure could not be Greenland ; so they turned seaward once more, and — for these Northmen knew how to sail on a wind — "left the land on their larboard side, and let the stern turn from the land." After sailing two days and two nights they again approached the coast, which, they saw as they neared it, was low and wooded. Bjarni refused to go on shore, at which his crew grumbled ; for this, he said, can no more be Green land than the land we saw before, " because in Greenland are said to be very high ice-hills." Then for three nights and days they went on their way as before, with a southwest wind, when for the third time they made land ahead, and it was "high and mountainous, with snowy mountains." Once more said Bjarni, " In my opinion this land is not what we want ; " and again he refused to leave his ship, but sailed along the coast and found it was an island. Standing out to sea again, still with the BJARNI' S VOYAGE. 39 southwest wind, after three days and nights they once more sighted land. " This," said Bjarni, " is most like what has been told me of Greenland ; and here we shall take to the land." He had made what sailors would call a good landfall, for the cape before him was called Herjulfness, where his father, Herjulf, had built him a house. Here Bjarni went on shore and made it his home for the rest of his days.1 Bjarni was blamed both in Norway and at home, that he made no exploration of the country that he had thus discovered. But Voyage of the voyage was the subject, no doubt, of many a tale, and ^sr£j fa8~ of much discussion in the long winter evenings of Greenland, Greenlaild- among a race of bold and hardy sailors, themselves hardly yet settled in a region which, till within a few years, was only known by the name of one who had looked at it from the deck of his ship. Bjarni seems to have preferred an annual visit to Norway, and the pleasures of the court of Earl Eric, to any more voyages in unknown seas ; but in the house of Eric the Red in Greenland, whose sons were growing up, the story was, no doubt, often told of that dreary drift in the fog for many days before the northerly wind; of the low wooded shores and the pleasant green hills stretching inland, that greeted the long ing eyes and brought hope again to the desponding hearts of the lost mariners ; of the runs of two and three days each from coast to coast, and that wonderful landfall at last, when they dropped their anchor right under the cape where the father, whom the son was in search of, had built his house. Thorvald, the grandfather of these boys, was among the early Norwegian pioneers in Iceland; Eric, his son, had led the first colony to Greenland ; so the sons of Eric longed to throw their seat-posts2 overboard in their turn on some unknown coast. It was long debated, doubtless, in family councils, and finally deter mined that this new adventure should be undertaken. In the year 1000, Leif, the eldest son, went to Herjulfness and bought his ship of Bjarni, manned her with a crew of thirty-five men, Bjarni among them, perhaps as pilot. When he was ready to sail, Leif prayed his father to go with them as the most fitting commander for such an expedition, and the old viking, objecting that he was too old, consented. On the way to the ship, however, his horse stumbled and threw him, and look ing upon the mishap as a warning, he said, " It is not ordained that I should discover any more countries than that which we now inhabit, 1 This, and the following narratives of the voyages to Vinland, we condense from the Antiquitates Americanoz, by Professor C. C. Rafn, and published by the Antiquarian Society of Copenhagen, 1837 ; collated with the translations in Beamish's Discovery of America by the Northmen, and De Costa's Pre-Columbian Discovery. 2 The seat-posts were the columns of a chieftain's seat, which, when he went to sea, he took with him and threw overboard when he approached a coast ; where they landed, di rected by the gods, he followed, it was assumed, in safety. 40 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. [Chap. III. and we should make no further attempt in company." He returned to his home at Brattahlid, and the expedition sailed with Leif as its leader. Leif reversed the order of Bj ami's voyage^ and sought first for the voyage 01 land which the other saw last — Newfoundland. When they Lucky^son reached it they went ashore and found it a country without rude nge, and the chronicles which do not afford these marks of human credulity may be griev ously suspected as being deficient in authenticity." Beamish ( Discovery of the Northmen) cites this remark as peculiarly applicable to the narratives relating to Vinland. COLONY OF THORFINN KARLSEFNE. 47 daughter of Eric the Red, who had a conspicuous part to play in the subsequent attempts at colonization. Thus in one winter, at a Green land .fireside, was organized a voluntary expedition, to consist of three ships and one hundred and forty men and women,1 about equalling in size that for which, four centuries later, Columbus waited seven years, with prayers and in poverty, upon the Spanish sovereigns. The adventurers sailed in the spring of 1007. Gudrid and Freydis embarked with their husbands ; and there were on board many other women, married and unmarried ; which was not, as it turned out, fortunate, for among their subsequent troubles, and when they divided into parties, " the women," says one of the narratives, " were the cause of it, for those who were unmarried would injure those who were married, and hence arose great disturbance." But the object evi dently was to make a permanent settlement, and that, of course, was out of the question without women. They took with them also cattle of all kinds. The enterprise was plainly full of promise at its beginning ; but it met with various misfortunes, and, at the end of three years, was abandoned. It does not seem certain at what precise spot the colony was planted. The first landfall of the fleet after leaving Markland — for they touched there as well as at Helluland — was Kjalarness, which they recognized by the keel set up there by the unfortunate Thorvald three years before. They ran past Cape Cod, and because " it was long to sail by," they called it Furdustrands, or Wonder- strands. Somewhere along this coast they put in at a cove, and Karl sefne sent out as scouts two Scotch slaves, who were very swift of foot, and who had been given, years before, to Leif the Lucky by the King of Norway, as one of the inducements to persuade him to become a Christian. The historians are careful to describe the apparel of these Scots, — a man and a woman, — which must have been good for running, as it consisted of only one garment, and was a happy combi nation of a hat and a breech-cloth, covering the head, buttoning be tween the legs, but open everywhere else, and without sleeves. These scouts were gone three days, and came back with encouraging reports of the pleasantness and fruitfulness of the country, one carrying a bunch of grapes, the other an ear of corn. Nantucket, or Martha's Vineyard, which the fleet next reached, and where eider-ducks 2 were 1 The Northmen counted by the long and the short hundred. If the number of Karl- sefne's expedition were reckoned by the long hundred, they counted one hundred and sixty persons. 2 Though the eider-duck is no longer known on those shores, the Northmen are not likely to have made any mistake as to the birds they saw in such numbers. That particular duck was as familiar to them, no doubt, as to the modern Greenlanders and Icelanders, to whom the down has long been held as so precious an article of traffic that the bird is under uni- 48 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. [Chap. III. so plentiful that it was difficult to walk without treading on their eggs, they called Stream Island, and the bay beyond — Buzzard's Bay — Stream Frith, because of the rapid currents around their shores. On the shores of this bay they spent the first winter. And with this winter their troubles began. They had improvidently neglected to lay in a sufficient stock of provisions, and when, K°nco?ts the next summer, the fishing was poor there came absolute ony' scarcity. Now in Thorvard's ship was one Thorhall, who had been the huntsman in summer, and in winter the steward of Eric the Red. He was, it is said, " a large man, and strong, black, and like a giant, silent, and foul-mouthed in his speech, and always egged Scots Returning to the Ship. on (eggjadi) Eric to the worst ; he was a bad Christian." Perhaps it was only hunger that first drove him to desert ; but he pretended, after three days' absence in the wilderness, and the others believed him, that while they were praying to God for food without an answer, his invocations to Thor had caused a whale to be cast upon the beach during this season of scarcity, of which they all eat, and were all made sick. But he was insubordinate as well as morose and impious, for when soon after it was proposed to seek a new and better habitation, and Karlsefne thought it best that they should go southward, Thor hall refused, and would go northward. It was made plain presently versal protection. See Letters on Iceland, during the Banks' Expedition in 1772. London, 1780, p. 144, et seq. Crantz's Greenland, book ii. chap. 1. Description of Greenland, by Hans Egede, chap. v. COLONY OF THORFINN KARLSEFNE. 49 that he meant to abandon the expedition and return to Greenland, and he persuaded nine others of the company to follow him. As the manner was with these old vikings, in times of unusual excitement, he took to verse, and jeered at and satirized Vinland the Good. As he carried water to his ship, of which they seem to have allowed him to take possession, he sang, — " People told me when I came Hither, all would be so fine ; The good Vinland, known to fame, Rich in fruits and choicest wine ; Now the water-pail they send ; To the fountain I must bend ; Nor from out this land divine Have I quaffed one drop of wine." And once more, as he hoisted his sails to desert his comrades in dis tress, he sang another song, mocking at their disaster and reminding them how, by the help of the " red-bearded " Thor, he had poisoned them with boiled whale, thus : — " Let our trusty band Haste to Fatherland ; Let our vessel brave Plough the angry wave, "While those few who love Vinland here may rove, Or, with idle toil, Fetid whales may boil, Here on Furdustrand Far from Fatherland." 1 But disaster attended these deserters. After doubling Cape Cod a gale from the west struck their vessel, and merchants from Ireland afterward reported that she was driven before the wind to the coast of that country, where Thorhall and his companions were seized by the natives and reduced to slavery. After -the departure of the malcontents, the two other ships, com manded by Karlsefne and Biarni (Biarne) Grimolfson, set Karlsefne sail from the settlement at Buzzard's Bay upon an exploring: explores t ¦ .iii , » ,. , coast of expedition southward along the coast. According to two of Rhone isi- the three narratives, and these the best and most circum stantial, they sailed " a long time " before they came " to a river that ran out from the land through a lake to the sea." The other account is, that they went directly on their arrival to Leif's booths, and Leif, it will be remembered, went also up a river that flowed through a lake. The supposition is that Karlsefne and his companions anchored 1 Beamish's Translations. VOL. I. 4 50 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. [Chap. III. in Mount Hope Bay, where, it is supposed, Leif had passed the winter, partly because of this river and lake, the sandy shoals and the ebb of the tide, which answer to the character of that bay ; and partly be cause they called the place where they landed Hop, and a hill near Bristol, Rhode Island, the seat of the Indian chief, King Philip, was known to the first English settlers as Mount Hope.1 The Indians, it is assumed, had preserved the name, and thus the settlement of the Northmen is fixed, — a fanciful and rather violent supposition, which will hardly bear close examination. As they " sailed long to the south," and as their course from Buzzard's Bay to Mount Hope Bay would be first southwest, and then northward, it seems quite as likely that they finally reached some other point on the coast ; where, is and always must be a matter of conjecture. But wherever it was, they set themselves down on the upper side Eirst winter °^ the ^a^e or k»y* some putting up houses directly on the in viniand. snore an(j others going farther inland. For one winter, at least, it proved a pleasant abiding place. The streams were full of fish; on the meadows they found fields of "self-sown wheat," — that is, of maize or Indian corn, sown probably by the natives ; on the uplands, the trees were festooned with grape-vines, so precious in their eyes; and the woods were full of game. All the winter long there was no snow upon the ground, and the cattle sustained themselves upon the still green and juicy grasses of the fields.2 There seemed to 1 " How, when, or by whom this noted point received the name of Mount Hope, does not appear. Dr. Stiles notes, in his edition of Church's History, that ' its name is Mont- haup, a mountain in Bristol.' The editor of Yamoden says, ' The Indians called it Mont- aup or Mont-haup ; ' and Alden, Epitaphs, iv. 77, that, ' according to authentic tradition, however, Man Top was the genuine Aboriginal name of this celebrated eminence.' But these are most likely all corruptions of Mount Hope." Drake's edition of Hubbard's In dian Wars, Roxbury, 1865, vol. i. p. 46 ; note by the editor. 2 As the mildness of the winter and absence of snow are dwelt upon in the narratives of the different voyages, it is probable that the climate of North America was, nine centuries ago, more moderate than now, as it is positively known that of Greenland and Iceland was. And this would be entirely in accordance with the astronomical theory of that grad ual change whereby, through the precession of the equinoxes, the order of the seasons is completely reversed in every period of 10,500 years. If we are now in that cycle which is slowly bringing longer winters and more intense cold to the northern hemisphere, — as some astronomers suppose, — one tenth of that period would make quite change enough to account for these statements of the Northmen. Even six hundred years later, Edward Winslow, who was exceedingly careful and conscientious in all his statements, wrote in 1624 (Narrative of the Plantations: Purchas, vol. iv.), "Then for the temperature of the air, in almost three years' experience I can scarce distinguish New England from Old England in respect of heat and cold, frost, snow, rain, wind, etc. ; .... if it (the heat) do exceed England, it is so little as must require better judgments to discern it. And for the winter, I rather think (if there be difference) it is both sharper and longer in New England than Old ; and yet the want of those comforts in the one, which I have enjoyed in the other, may deceive my judgment also I cannot conceive of any (climate) to agree better with the constitutions of the English, not being oppressed with the extremity of heat, nor COLONY OF THORFINN KARLSEFNE. 51 be none in tins pleasant land to molest them or make them afraid, for when, soon after their arrival, a great number of the natives came upon them suddenly, they came with signs of peace. They landed from their canoes, and loitered about the settlement, gazing in wonder upon the strangers and all that belonged to them, but they had appar ently no hostile intent, and neither meddled nor were they meddled with. When they left, they disappeared beyond the cape, and nothing more was seen of them till the following spring. They are described as " black and ill-favored (or fierce), and with coarse hair on the head ; they had large eyes and broad cheeks." But in the spring (1009) they came back again in much augmented numbers, " so many," it is related, " as if the sea was sowen Trade with with coal." But still they came in amity, and a brisk trade the natiTes- at once sprung up between them and the colonists. Red cloth was exchanged, as long as it lasted, for skins, sables, and other furs ; when that was all gone the women made milk porridge, which satisfied the savages quite as well and brought quite as much as the bits of red cloth, though, as the Saga says, they only carried away in their bellies the results of a barter of which the Northmen gained the more sub stantial benefit. But this pleasing state of things was interrupted by an unfortunate incident. A bull belonging to Karlsefne rushed out of the woods with a hideous bellow, and so frightened the Skrasllings that they fled to their boats and paddled away with all the strength that a new terror could give them. It was a ludicrous interruption to the profitable traffic of por ridge for peltries ; but the na tives evidently looked upon it as a hostile demonstration, having the same dread of this huge, unknown beast, that the Indians of Hispaniola had some centuries later of the Esquimaux skin-boat horses of the Spaniards. For weeks, perhaps for months, for the accounts differ, nothing more was seen of the Skrasllings ; but when they returned again, they came " like a rushing torrent," with .the poles of their boats now turned away from the sun, whereas in their previous visit they had been turned toward it. The Northmen looked upon this as a sign of hos tility, and accepted the challenge, holding up to them the red shield- of war instead of the white shield of peace. nipped by biting cold." No truthful and accurate observer could write thus now of the bitter climate of Massachusetts, with its extremes of temperature in summer and winter. 52 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. [Chap. III. Then began a furious battle. The Northmen had the advantage of Battle with weapons, for they fought with swords. But they were over- skTOiiings. p0wered by numbers, and soon fled. Something like a panic, moreover, seized upon them, even more senseless than the fright which overcame the Skrsellings the spring before at the bellowings of the bull. It is said that a huge ball at the end of a pole was flourished over them, and thrown to the ground with a horrid noise. The noise and the novelty of this method of warfare, with the accompaniment of shouts and yells, seem to have been the only frightful thing about it, for it did the Northmen no harm, though they fled before it like affrighted children. But there was one among them who was not frightened ; this was Freydis, the natural daughter of Eric the Red, and wife of Thorvard. Rushing out among the combatants, she shrieked, "Why do ye run, stout men as ye are, before these mis erable wretches, whom I thought ye would knock down like cattle ? And if I had weapons, methinks I could fight better than any of ye." But they gave no heed to the dauntless woman, still seeking safety in flight to the shelter of the woods. Freydis, who was heavy with child, followed closely behind, pursued by the Skradlings. Com ing presently to the dead body of a countryman, — . dead with a stone arrow in his brain, — she seized his sword and was ready to defend herself. She did more than this, for she completely turned the tide of bat- Bravery of tie, and that in a way which has no parallel in any other Freydis. record of Amazonian exploits. She turned and faced the advancing savages ; but instead of attacking them, she tore open her dress, and exposing her naked breasts, beat them with the sword with the aspect and the cries of a fury. The Skrsellings, terrified at this strange action, turned and ran with all speed to the canoes, and seiz ing the paddles, flew, like a flock of startled wild duck just skimming the surface of the water in their swift flight, down the bay. Perhaps they thought the woman some powerful priestess whose incantations and imprecations would bring upon them swift destruction ; or it may be that her frantic gestures and cries, her courageous defiance, and the exposure of her bare booom to their attacks, daunted them be cause it was something they could not understand ; but this picture of the fierce Norse warriors flying before a sheep's paunch tied to the end of a pole, and owing their safety to the fury of a woman beside herself with rage, is in ludicrous contrast with the tradition of their reckless and invincible courage. The colony This was virtually the end of Karlsef ne's attempt at colo- abandoned. r,;zati0n5 though it was not absolutely abandoned till the' following spring, of 1010. He and his companions were not again mo- COLONY OF THORFINN KARLSEFNE. 53 lested by the Skraallings, but they thought it not worth while to remain in a country, however otherwise desirable, where they were liable to such attacks. This decision was probably confirmed by meet ing, on one of their excursions, with a Uniped, who, after killing one of their number, fled out to sea. Such marvels were believed in even in a much later and more enlightened age.1 Other natives were sometimes met and generally killed, no doubt without much com punction. Two boys they took as prisoners were carried back to Greenland, taught Norse, and baptized. From them it was learned that there were two kings over the Skrsellings, one named Avalidania, the other, Valldidia ; their people had no houses, but lived in dens and caves. In another part of the country, however, there was, they said, another people, who " wore white clothes, and shouted loud, and carried poles with flags." And this was supposed to be the White Man's Land, a mythical colony of Irish somewhere south of Vinland.2 1 Charlevoix (History of New France, vol. i. pp. 124, 128, Shea's edition) repeats the stories told five centuries later, of voyagers who saw or heard of Unipeds, — men with only one leg and foot, and with two hands on the same arm, — of pygmies, of giants, of men who never eat, of headless men, and of other monsters, of which, he says, " it is easy to believe that there is some exaggeration, but it is easier to deny extraordinary facts than to explain them." 2 The Northmen called the country somewhere south of Vinland the White Man's Land, or Great Ireland, and believed that it was occupied by the Irish. Professor Rafn supposes it to have extended from Chesapeake Bay to East Florida. One of their narratives relates that in the year 928, one Ari Marson, an Icelander, was driven there by an easterly storm, and was not permitted to go away again. The story came from a Limerick merchant and from the Earl of the Orkneys, and it is therefore presumed that occasional intercourse was kept up between the people of this Hvitramanna-land and Europe. A romantic story is also told of one Bjarni Asbrandson, a famous viking, who was always fighting, or singing songs, or making love. The marital bond sat loosely upon the women of Iceland, and it was nothing unusual that Bjami should overstep the limits of morality and propriety in his attentions to another man's wife, and that her husband and his friends should therefore attempt to kill him. The husband of this woman Thurid, Bjarni seems to have held in great contempt ; but for her brother, Snorri, the high-priest, he entertained a very different feeling. After an encounter with him, in which they both showed a good deal of magna nimity, Snorri trying to kill Bjarni and failing, but frankly acknowledging his intention, and Bjarni having it in his power to kill Snorri but choosing not to do so, it was agreed between them that Bjarni should go abroad and not see Thurid for a year. He went, and the vessel he sailed in was never heard of afterward. Thirty years later an Icelandic ship was driven westward by a storm upon an unknown coast, where all her people were made prisoners. They were surrounded by a great crowd, and "it rather seemed to them that they spoke Irish." The prisoners were bound and taken inland, where they met, sur rounded by a large number of persons, a white-haired and martial-looking chieftain, with a banner borne before him, whom all treated with the greatest deference. He spoke to the strangers in the Northern tongue, and when he learned that they came from Iceland and the district of Bogafiord, he asked for all the principal men of those parts by name, and was especially minute in inquiries about Snorri the priest, Thurid his sister, and her son Kjartan. The prisoners were soon released by his orders, with injunctions to depart with all speed from that country and never to return again, or to permit others to come thither. As they were about to leave, he took from his finger a gold ring, and putting that, and also 51 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. [Chap. III. Karlsefne and his ship reached Greenland in safety. On board of „. „ x. her was the first child, so far as is known, born of European .First Euro- t . _ . , Pean child Darentae,e on this continent. Ihis was snorri, the son of born on this r o t „ T continent. Karlsefne and Gudrid, born in Vinland, A. D. 1007. He was their only child, and in him was fulfilled another of the prophecies of Gudrid's former husband, as he lay dead in his bed, for in Snorri began a long line of distinguished descendants.1 There remains to be briefly told the story of Freydis, with whom ends all positive history of these attempted settlements on the coast of the North American continent. Other voyages, it is supposed, were made at different times for the next two centuries, as allusions to such adventures, though there are no distinct narrations, are, according to Professor Rafn, scattered through Icelandic literature. It is even con jectured that the colony at Vinland may have been kept alive, not withstanding the gloomy memory of the deeds of Freydis, which would, it might be supposed, have made the spot dreaded as one haunted by the victims of the savage fury of a cruel and unrelenting woman. If any efforts, however, were made to found future colonies, they must needs have been feeble and desultory, or they would have left some permanent signs behind them. That Freydis was a fearless woman we have seen already in her encounter with the savages. It was with her, at least, 11b dread of them that induced her to return with her countrymen to Greenland. Greenland, with its savage rocks, its ice-bound waters, its mountains of perpetual snow, its gloomy fiords, its barren soil, its long winters where the sun just crept above the horizon, was to her a poor ex change for the fair, bright land where the winters were sunshiny and mild ; where the pleasant waters of its sequestered bays washed, all the seasons through, the smooth beaches of clean, white sand ; where the great oaks, and elms, and pines, and maples cast their grateful shadows a good sword, into the hands of the Icelandic captain, he said, " If the fates permit you to come to your own country, then shall you take this sword to the yeoman, Kjartan of Froda, but the ring to Thurid his mother." When asked from whom it should be said these gifts came, he answered, " Say, he sends them who loved the lady of Froda better than her brother, the priest of Helgafell ; but if any man therefore thinks that he knows who has owned these gifts, then say these my words, that I forbid any one to come to me, for it is the most dangerous expedition, unless it happens as fortunately with others at the landing- place as with you ; but here is the land great, and bad as to harbours, and in all part may strangers expect hostility, when it does not turn out as has been with you." So say ing, he turned awny witli his banner waving over him. Gudlief, the Icelandic captain, on his return, faithfully delivered the ring to Thurid, the lady of Froda, and the sword to Kjartan her son, who was now supposed to be the son of Bjarni also. For it was plain that the stately, white-hnired chieftain of Hvitramanna-land was Bjarni Asbrandson, who, thirty years before, had disappeared from Iceland. 1 Thorvnldsen, the eminent Danish sculptor, and Finn Magnusson, the distinguished Danish scholar, are among the later descendants of Snorri. COLONY OF FREYDIS. 55 over the rich verdure of the meadows, and in the deep woods the long vines, climbing to the tops of the lofty trees, festooned them with clusters of rich fruit. The restless woman had hardly reached home before she set her ac tive brain at work to plan a return to that land of promise, Colony o( to reap a fresh harvest in the trade for furs with the natives, ¥ieyiis- in shiploads of timber, in boat-loads of dried grapes. Such persua sions, however, were futile with her own people, either because they knew as much about Vinland as she did and cared less, or because they knew her ; but they succeeded with two strangers. There came that summer (1010) to Greenland from Norway two brothers, Helgi and Finnbogi, Icelanders, in a ship of their own, laden with merchandise. Leif's Booths Freydis was at home at Garde when she heard of their arrival, but she sought them out at once, and laid a proposition before them. An expedition was agreed upon on joint and equal account. The brothers were to have thirty fighting men on board their ship, and Freydis the same number, among whom she permitted her husband, Thor vard, to count one. Of Leif, her brother, she asked the gift of the houses or booths in Vinland, built by him ten years before, — a gift he declined to make, though he was quite willing to lend them to this expedition as he had to others. It was a question fraught with future trouble, for Freydis meant that these shelters should belong exclu sively to her and not to the enterprise. They set sail in the spring of 1011. On board of Freydis's ship went five more fighting men than the stipulated number, stowed 56 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. [Chap. III. away out of sight. Helgi and Finnbogi were the first to reach Vin land, and before the other ship arrived they had landed goods and Leil,B stored them in Leif's booths, assuming that joint occupation Booths. was a par^ 0f ^ne agreement. But when Freydis came and found the buildings thus partially occupied, she resented it as an unauthorized intrusion, and high words followed between her and the brothers. " Leif lent the houses to me, not to you," the woman asserted. " We thought it was to both," said the brothers. They had discovered by this time that she had cheated them as to the number of fighting men which each party was to take, and they added that she was more than a match for them with her sharp prac tices. So they left the booths to which Freydis claimed that she had the exclusive right, built a house for themselves, and into it moved their company and their goods. The brothers were clearly of a sociable and cheerful disposition, desiring nothing so much as harmony and peace. It was they who yielded always, and Freydis who encroached. Winter amusement is no less a duty than a pleasure with those who live in high latitudes, when without it men would sink into apathy and despair in the long dark night of months, as all Arctic voyagers know. The good Ice landic custom of " passing life joyfully " in the winter time Helgi and Finnbogi maintained in Vinland, more, of course, to keep their people occupied than because of any exigency of climate. They contrived games and sports within doors and without, inviting the Freydis peo ple to these diversions, doing all they could to keep up a pleasant in- Discorain tercourse between the two houses. But discord crept in; the colony. ey-i rep0rts were circulated ; jealousies and enmities were aroused on the right hand and on the left ; perhaps more even than in Karlsefne's time, two years before, women were implicated in these troubles ; one at least was at the bottom of them all, and she was unsparing of the rest. The games first languished, then dropped; visits, friendly greetings, intercourse of any kind between the two com panies became less and less frequent, and finally ceased altogether. The evil influence was at last triumphant. The colony of perhaps seventy-five people divided into two hostile camps, hating each other, ready to fly at each other's throats. Such was the miserable state of feeling nearly all winter, growing worse the longer it lasted ; none the less bitter and implacable that it was without any visible and suffi cient cause. When the alienation was complete, and the mutual exasperation at its height, Finnbogi was surprised, one day, to see, in the dim twilight of the early morning, Freydis standing, silent and alone, in the door- COLONY OF FREYDIS. 57 way of his house. He was shocked, perhaps, as well as surprised, at a visit at such an unseemly hour ; but raising himself in his bed, he said*, — " What wilt thou here, Freydis ? " She answered, " I wish that thou wouldst get up, and go out with me, for I would speak with thee." Finnbogi rose and followed her to the trunk of a tree, not far from the house, but out of hearing of any one within, where they sat down. " How art thou satisfied here ? " asked Freydis. The answer which Finnbogi gave was unfortunate — even fatal; for the question was a leading one, and Freydis hoped to hear him say that he was not satisfied at all, and longed to be gone. But he said, — " Well think I of the land's fruitfulness, but ill do I think of the discord that has sprung up betwixt us, for it appears to me that no cause has been given." She artfully agreed to this, for her purpose evidently was to show that so great was that discord, either one party or the other must go away. Finnbogi's assertion gave little hope that his would be that party. For she said, — " Thou sayest as it is, and so think I ; but my business here with thee is, that I wish to change ships with thy brother, for ye have a larger ship than I, and it is my wish to go from hence." " That must I agree to, if such is thy wish," was the reply. Then the conference broke up. This acquiescence in her departure and readiness to expedite it, on the part of Finnbogi, and his avowed satisfaction with the country, which had no drawback except this discord which would be removed by that departure, were not what she meant to get by that early visit. She must find some other way, however desperate, of gaining her end. Returning to her house and bed, this misplaced woman, so clearly fitted to be a queen, determined to move her husband to a desperate deed. She had gone barefooted through the dew to Finnbogi's house. The Saga is careful to relate that when she got up " she dressed herself, but took no shoes or stockings, and the weather was such that much dew had fallen ; " but it was also such that " she took her husband's cloak." So now on her return, exasperated at the failure of her errand, she got into bed cold and wet, and the sleeping Thorvard, awakened in this unpleasant way, demanded resentfully why she was in this condition. She retorted angrily, — " I was gone to the brothers, to make a bargain with them about their ship, for I wished to buy the large ship ; but they took it so ill, that they beat me and used me shamefully ; but thou ! miserable 58 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. [Chap. III. man ! wilt surely neither avenge my disgrace or thine own, and it is easy to see that I am no longer in Greenland, and I will separate from thee if thou avengest not this." Such approaches and reproaches could not be withstood by the pla- Murder of cable and obedient Thorvard. With all speed he called his DIogfi'andnn' men to arms> and went at once t0 tne house of tne brothers. their people. jt was yet early, for Freydis had lost no time, and Helgi and Finnbogi, and all their people, were still asleep. By a sudden and stealthy attack Thorvard and his men overwhelmed and bound them ; one by one they were led from the building, and one by one they were dispatched as they came out. Not a man was left. But among them were five women, and on these no man would lay his hands. " Give me an axe ! " shrieked Freydis. The axe was given her ; she fell upon the five women, and no man stayed her hand ; and " she did not stop till they were all dead." This cruel and cowardly work finished, they returned to their own dwelling ; and Freydis, says the faithful chronicle, " did not appear otherwise than as if she had done well." But, nevertheless, it was a deed to be concealed, and she was not the woman to forget that neces sity even at such a moment. Turning, therefore, to her people, she gave them this assurance of her future conduct : — ¦ " If it be permitted us," she said, " to come again to Greenland, I will take the life of that man who tells of this business ! Now should we say this — that they remained behind when we went away." She was now in sole command and in sole possession, for Thorvard, the husband, can hardly be supposed to possess any will or authority of his own in such a vigorous presence. None ventured to disobey the imperious and desperate woman. Under her stern rule the rest of the winter was spent in cutting timber and gathering together such other commodities as the country afforded ; and so successful were they in this work, that when the spring came and they were ready for depart ure, the larger ship of the two brothers, which Freydis had so coveted and had obtained at such bloody cost, was loaded with all that she could carry. It was, it is to be hoped, a gloomy winter, though thus crowded with (iioom work. The silent and empty house of Helgi and Finnbogi, lowed the" where, for many weeks, "life had passed joyfully" with games, massacre. an(j Sp0r(;Si an(j ^k^ and song, after the manner of their coun try, was always before them; in the murmurs of the lonely sea, in the sighs and sobs of the winds in the deep solitude of the melancholy Avoods, they heard the voices of those late comrades; the graves of almost as many dead as they could count of their living company SUPPOSED RELICS OF THE NORTHMEN. 59 reminded them continually of that cowardly and cruel slaughter of defenceless men ; and visions would come to sleepless eyes, in the long winter nights, of the relentless woman in her naked, bloody feet, with her bare arms red with blood, as she cut doAvn the helpless creatures whom none else would kill, and they were not men enough to save. But their consciences were stronger than the threats or the blan dishments of Freydis ; for though she lavished many gifts upon them on their return to Greenland, though she had assured them she " would take the life of that man avIio told of this business," whispers, never theless, Avere soon abroad of frightful deeds done in Vinland, and cir culating swiftly from mouth to mouth. These soon reached the ears of Leif, who, seizing two of his sister's followers, put them to the torture and extorted a confession of all the atrocities which, under the leadership of Freydis, had been done in the colony. Then said Leif, " I like not to do that to Freydis, my sister, which she has deserved, but this will I predict, that their posterity Avill never thrive." It certainly Avas not a severe punishment for the murder of thirty-two men and five women, that no one from that time forth thought other- Avise than ill of Freydis and her accomplices. But she disappears from history with this mark of execration, and Avith her ends also essentially the history of the Northmen in Vinland the Good. Enthusiastic antiquaries have sought to find in the region supposed to be Vinland some visible relics of its several colonies. If there were any it would be much more remarkable than Northmen ., sought in that there are none, after the lapse of nine hundred years. NewEng- . land. Leif's booths, though they Avere probably solid structures of hewn timber, Avould hardly abide the onslaughts of the elements for so many centuries ; and there is no intimation in any of the narratives that the Northmen erected more last ing monuments, to become, in " Unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time,'- the witnesses of their former presence. There is at Newport, R. I., a round stone tower, which Professor Rafn and others believed Avas built by the Northmen ; but Palfrey, in his " His- Newport Tower. tory of New England," shows quite conclusively that this is only an old stone mill, erected by Governor Arnold late in the seventeeth century, avIio in his will referred to it as " my stone-built wind-mill." " Without doubt," says Dr. Palfrey, Avith peculiar force, " it is extraordinary that no record exists of the 60 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. [Chap. Ill erection of so singular an edifice by early English inhabitants oi Rhode Island. But it Avould be much more strange that the first Eno-lish settlers should not have mentioned the fact, if, on their arri- vaCthey had found a vestige of a former civilization, so different from everything else within their view." Beside, the harbor of Newport was undoubtedly visited by more than one voyager before ft°NeWporf any permanent settlement was made, and it is incredible, ii Ar°noeiasGoT' the tower was in existence, that it should never have been windmill. aiiu(je(j to by anybody in log-book or journal, till Governoi Arnold speaks of it as his windmill. Dr. Palfrey says, moreover, that the Arnold family is supposed to have come from Warwick shire, England. Governor Arnold had a farm which he called " Lem- mington Farm;" and in Warwick shire there is a Leamington, three miles from which, at Chesterton, is a round stone mill, the counterpart of that at Newport. The tradition in regard to this mill is that it was from a design by Inigo Jones. 11 so, it was probably built Avhen Arnold was a boy, or not long before, and would be, as the work of an emi nent architect, the admiration of the country round about. What more natural than that Governor Arnold when advanced in life, should re produce, as nearly as he could, ar edifice supposed to be a master piece of architecture of its kind, and endeared to him by all the memories ind associations of his early home ? l The Danish antiquaries adduce also the Dighton Rock, as it is called as an evidence of the visits of the Northmen to New Eng land. This rock is on the bank of the Taunton River, in the town of Berkeley, Mass., opposite Dighton. Upon it are carved rude hieroglyphics, which have been an object of curious interest for nearlj two centuries. Various copies, differing much from each other, have been taken at different times during all that period, and some of then have been sent to Europe for the consideration of learned societies The characters have been assumed to be Phoenician, Scythian, Roman and even Hebrew, until the Danish antiquaries pronounced them t< 1 See Palfrey's History of New England, p. 56, et seq. Chesterton Mill. DightonRock. SUPPOSED RELICS OF THE NORTHMEN. 61 be Runic. They profess to find the name of Thorfinn in the middle of the inscription, in certain rude characters, some of which are clearly Roman letters ; other marks above are interpreted as signifying the Roman numerals, CXXXL, the number of Thorfinn Karlsefne's com pany after the desertion of Thorhall and his companions ; beloAv is the figure of an animal of some sort, — perhaps, if we may make a sug gestion, the bull that frightened the Skrsellings, — and a ship, which one must be an antiquary to find ; on the right are Gudrid and her son Snorri, born in Vinland ; on the left Karlsefne himself, Avith a com panion. These and other fanciful interpretations are held to be a com plete record of the expedition of Karlsefne and its- leading incidents. Dighton Rock. On the other hand, the rude pictures have been declared by more than one Indian chief to be the record only of a successful Indian hunt 5 and General Washington, when taken to the rock, said the figures resembled those he had often seen upon the buffalo robes of the Western Indians. The let ters and numerals were probably added by another and later art ist. Such picture-writings upon rocks, to commemorate successful hunts or successful fights, were not uncommon among the In dians, and they have been found in various parts of the country. Virginia shore of the Ohio River, near Steubenville, Ohio,1 bearing i Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. By Squier and Davis. Steubenville Rock. There is an instance of it on the 62 THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. [Chap. III. a marked resemblance to that of the Dighton Rock. In 1850, Mr. J. G. Bruff found, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a defile fifteen or twenty miles in length, where the face of the precipices was covered with picture-writing, some of it on the under surface of rocks, where it could have been done only by the aid of platforms. These sculp tured hieroglyphics are so numerous that it is estimated to have painted them with a brush Avould have required the labor of many Avorkmen for several months.1 But the claim for the discovery of America by the Northmen re quires no support from such questionable evidence, and is sagas. Their rather injured than otherwise by a resort to it. Its real strength lies in the narratives themselves, which, if Avhat is claimed for them be true, decide the question beyond controversy. The Icelanders, like all the Scandinavians, were excessively fond of listening to the poems of their Skalds and the stories of their Saga- men. In Iceland and Greenland, especially, condemned by the rigor of the climate to live an in-door life for the larger part of the year, it Avas necessary, not merely " to make life pass joyfully," but to render it tolerable, to have some other resource than merely eating and drinking. They resorted to " recitals of history " and of songs or poems, often of inordinate length ; sometimes mythological, some times imaginative, more generally tales of the deeds of dead and living heroes ; often, no doubt, exaggerated and adorned, Avhen the deeds related were of heroes listening to the praises of their own achieve ments ; but nevertheless these were faithful relations, in the main, of actual occurrences. This habit of the people, degenerating on the one hand into a mere love of gossip, feeding an insatiable appetite for details of the affairs of their neighbors, on the other hand pre served every event of interest or importance to be handed doAvn by word of mouth from generation to generation. When Avith Chris tianity the Roman alphabet Avas introduced, these Sagas Avere reduced to writing by diligent and studious men ; inestimable treasures laid up for the use of future historians. Such records in regard to the settlement of the Northmen on the American coast were known to have been made, and the fact Avas frequently referred to by early writers. Thus Adam of Bremen, who wrote an ecclesiastical history about the middle of the eleventh cen tury, has a passage relating to the subject which, if it be not a sub sequent interpolation, of which there is no evidence, is an incontestible proof of the discovery of Vinland. He made a visit to Denmark, and Avas informed, he says, by the king, " that a region called Vinland had been found by many in that ocean, because there vines grew spon- 1 Smithsonian Report, 1873, p. 409. EVIDENCE OF THE ICELANDIC SAGAS. 63 taneously, making the best wine ; for that fruits grow there which were not planted, we know, not by mere rumor, but by the positive report of the Danes." But, though several historians of different coun tries, who have written within the last tAvo hundred years, have rec ognized that this discovery was actually made, the details of so inter esting a fact were not fully known until the different narratives were gathered together by the Northern Antiquarian Society of Denmark, and published in a single volume.1 The fullest and most important of these relations exist in manu script, in a collection known as the "Codex Flatoiensis," written be tween the years 1387 and 1395. These, iioav preserved in the Royal Library at Copenhagen, were found in a monastery on the Island of Flato — on the west coast of Iceland, — where they had lain forgotten and unnoticed for centuries. There is no serious question now of the authenticity of these Sagas, as whatever doubt may, at one time, have been entertained has been effectually put to rest. Like other chron icles, relating to the early history of Greenland and Iceland, of Swe den and Norway, they were long preserved by oral tradition, from cen tury to century, and at length committed to writing, long after the time to which they referred. The main facts related in them are un questionably true ; the incongruities, discrepancies, and even absur dities which can be pointed out, are such as would inevitably occur in verbal repetitions, for nearly three centuries, of the circumstantial details of distant voyages and adventures ; and such errors, moreover, are incontestible evidence that the narratives were not constructed for a purpose long after the date of a pretended event, but are veritable relations of actual occurrences told by those who took part in them, and unconsciously changed by those who repeated them, from time to time, on points which seemed to them of little interest or im portance. Not less conclusive is the simplicity, sometimes even child ishness, of the narratives, — the preservation of unimportant partic ulars, remarkable only for their singularity, so characteristic of all uncultivated people, who, like children, delight in marvels and are captured by novelty. 1 Antiquitates Americana!, sive Scriptorrs Septentrionalf-s Rerum Columhianarum in America. Sanding af de i Nordens Old-skrifier, etc., etc. Edidit Societas Begia Antiquariorum Sep- tentrionalium. Copenhagen : Hafniae, 1837. The Sea of Darkness. CHAPTER IV. PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. Arabian Sailors ox the Sea of Darkness. — Welsh Tradition' of American Discovery. — Voyage of Madoc, Prince of Wales. — Ea-idence adduced. — Supposed Traces of Welsh among Doegs, Mandans, and Mound Builders. — Narrative of the Brothers Zeni. — Shipwreck of Nicolo Zeno at Frisland. — His Account of Engroneland. — Adventures of a Frisland Fisherman. — The Western Voyage op Prince Zichmni. — Chinese Discovery- of Fusang. — State of Nautical and Geographical Knowledge before Columbus. In the town of Bristol, England, there is a suburb called Cathay, so preserving the memory of that prosperous time when Bristol, next to London, Avas the richest and most important city of the kingdom, — of that proud period Avhen her merchants carried on a thriving trade with the Indies, before Columbus sailed to find a Western pas sage to the far East. So in Lisbon, as late as the beginning of the thirteenth century, there was a street called Almagrurin, — Avhich means in English "Those that go astray," — so named in commem oration of a bold adventure of some Arab sailors, who had ventured ARABIAN SAILORS ON THE SEA OF DARKNESS. 65 further toward the Sea of Darkness than any others were known to have sailed before.1 The Arab geographers relate the incident, the memory of which the street preserves, and some historians have found in it a sugges tion of possible American discovery, as early as the twelfth century, and far south of the colony at Vinland. Lisbon was then still in pos session of the Arabs, who, above all other people of that period, were students of geometry and astronomy, applied those sciences to geog raphy and navigation, and Avere the boldest sailors of the age. Eight of these hardy and well-instructed men, bound together by ties of relationship, determined to explore that mighty and of eight Arab mysterious ocean which stretched from the coast of Portugal to the setting sun, on whose western horizon no sail ever crept up against the sky, or disappeared from sight beneath its waters. Building themselves a vessel, they put on board provisions for sev eral months, showing thereby a determination that their explorations should not be cut short for want of time. Taking an east Avind they steered fearlessly westward, and after eleven days their ship ploughed into a sea thick with grass, concealing, as they thought, many reefs of sunken rocks, and giving forth a fetid smell. They imagined that the light of the sun was failing them as they approached the confines of that dreary sea, whose mysterious waters, they did not doubt, in accordance Avith the belief of the time, were concealed in perpetual night, haunted by demons, and filled with strange creatures of mon strous shapes. Alarmed at these portents, they turned their vessel's head southward, and in twelve days more reached an island Avhich they named El Ghanam, meaning " small cattle," because they found upon it numerous flocks of sheep. Here they landed, but saAV no people. Some of the sheep they killed, but the flesh was so bitter as to be unfit for food, and they found nothing else worth taking except figs and fresh water. Then they sailed away again southward ; at the end of twelve days, on approaching an island the people came out to meet them Course and in boats and made them all prisoners'. When taken on shore incidents of , , . „ , . their royage. they were carried before the king of the country, who, on hearing through an interpreter, who spoke Arabic, the object of their voyage, laughed at them heartily for their folly. His father, he told them, had once sent slaves into that Western Ocean, who, after cruis ing about for a month, lost sight of the sun, and thus were compelled to return without the voyage profiting them anything. From this interview the Arabs were dismissed to prison ; but as soon as the wind 1 Notices et Extraits de la Bibliotheque du Roi, cited in The History of The New World by Don Juan Baptista Munoz, p. 119. 66 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. L^hap. IV. veered to the west they were put, blindfolded and pinioned, into a boat, carried out to sea, and abandoned to the mercy of the winds and waves. They drifted, within three days, upon the mainland of Africa, where they were kindly treated by the natives — Berbers — and whence they returned to Lisbon. Thereafter they were known among their countrymen as "the strayed ones." 1 From the direction in which these Arabs had sailed, and from the length of their voyage, the most reasonable supposition is that they first reached the Madeira group, where the flesh of the wild goat is bitter, as the animals browse on a plant called la coquerel,2 and that the next land they saw Avas the Cape Verde Islands. But the natives of that country they described as of a red color, with straight black hair, and for this reason, and because some of the ac counts have given the voyage as being thirty or five and thirty days, instead of twelve, before land was reached, it has been supposed that these wanderers had touched the shores of America or some of the islands upon its coast. If, hovpever, the narrative of Edrisi, the Arabian geographer, be accepted as authentic, according to the trans lation which we have followed, the course pursued by these Arabs from Lisbon could hardly have taken them to the westward of the Azores. One claim, therefore, to the discovery of the western world, whether by accident or design, before the voyages of the navigators of the fifteenth century, may be held to be disposed of. The tradition that America was discovered about the year 1170 by a Welsh prince named Madoe, or Madoc, is still more cir- Discovery . , ° of America cumstantiai, and attempts to support it by later evidence by Madoc. , . 1 . x L ^ have been made from time to time for the last two hundred years. Even so cautious and judicial a critic as Humboldt says in allusion to it : "I do not share the scorn with which national tradi tions are too often treated, and am of the opinion that with more research the discovery of facts, entirely unknoAvn, would throw much light on many historical problems." Certainly we are not to forget the distinction between a tradition and an invention ; it is impossible to establish the one, and, as a lie can never be made the truth, it is not worth repeating ; but the other is an honest relation, accepted as such by those who first repeated it, and which may yet be sustained by evidence. This tradition re lating to Madoc had, no doubt, some actual basis of truth, however much it may have been misapprehended ; the evidence adduced from time to time in support of it has been believed by many, and is curious 1 Edrisi, the Arabian geographer's account of The Voyage of the Arabs, in Major's Life of Prime Henry the Navigator, p. 147 et seq. Humboldt's k.mmen Critique, p. 137, T. 2. 2 Berthelot's Natural History of the Canaries, quoted from M. d'Avezac by Major. THE WELSH TRADITION. 67 and entertaining ; the tradition itself in its original baldness has found a place in historical narrative for three hundred years ; for each and all of these reasons it demands brief consideration. The story was first related in Caradoc's " History of Wales," pub lished by Dr. David Powell in 1584. Caradoc's history, however, came down only to 1157, and Humphrey Llwyd (Lloyd), who trans lated it, added the later story of Madoc. Lloyd received it from Guttun Owen, a bard who, about the year 1480, fo"thT" copied the registers of current events which, as late as the year 1270, were kept in the Abbeys of Conway, North Wales, and StratFlur, South Wales, and com pared together every three years by the bards be longing to the two houses. An other bard, Cynfrig ab Gronow, referred to the tradition of western discovery by Madoc about the same time with Owen ; and another allusion to it is claimed in the following lines — literally translated — written three years earlier by Sir Meredyth ab Rhy : — " On a happy Hour, I, on the water, Of Mannaers mild, the Huntsman will be, Madog bold of pleasing Countenance, Of the true Lineage of Owen Gwyned. I coveted not Land, my Ambition was, Not great Wealth, but the Seas."1 This'may certainly be accepted as conclusive evidence, at least, that the mild-mannered and good-looking prince was fond of the sea ; but it is difficult to find anything else in it that can be supposed to refer to the discovery of America. The only real authorities may properly 1 Williams's Enquiry. 68 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. [Chap. IV. David Prince of Wales be considered as reduced to two — the bards Guttun Owen and Cyn- frig ab Gronow.1 The story is briefly this: When Owen Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, was gathered to his fathers, a strife arose among his sons as to who should reign in his stead. The eldest legitimate son, Edward, was put aside, or put himself aside, as unfit to govern, " because of the maime upon his face," — ho was known as " Edward with the broken-nose," — and the government was seized by Howel avIio was illegitimate, " a base son begotten of an Irish Avoman." But the next brother, David, refused allegiance to this Howel, and civil war followed. At length the usurper was killed in battle, and the right ful heritage established, David holding the reins of government as regent till the son of Edward, the eldest brother, was of age. In this contention Madoc took no part, but endeavored to escape from it ; which, in asmuch as it was a struggle for the lineal succession of his family, was not much to his credit. Leaving his * Compare Lyttleton's History of Henry II., vol. vi. An Enquiry Concerning the First Dis covery of America, by John Williams, LL. D. London, 1791. Jones's Musical Reticles of Welsh Bards, vol. i. From Dr. Powell's His'ory, JHakluyt copied the story at length, — referring also to Guttun Owen, — asserting, however, in his first edition, of 1539, that, the land which Madoc reached was, in his opinion, Mexico ; in his second edition, of 1600, that it was some part of the West Indies. In this, as in most other accounts of early voyagers, later writers have followed Hakluyt. But here, Dr. Belknap interposes a word of caution. "The design," he says, " of his (Hakluyt) bringing forward the voyage of Madoc appears, from what he says of Columbus, to have been the asserting of a discovery prior to his, and consequently the right of the Crown of England to the sovereignty of America ; a point at that time warmly contested between the two nations. The remarks which the same author makes on several other voyages, evidently tend to the establishment of that claim." [Amer ican Biography, etc., by Jeremy Belknap, p. 65. J While of Powell, from whom Hakluyt copies, Robertson says : " The memory of a transaction so remote must have been very im perfectly preserved, and would require to be confirmed by some author of greater credit, and nearer to the aera of Madoc's voyage than Powell." [Robertson's Histori/ of America, vol. ii., note 1 7.] Thus the story at the outset has to contend with a reflection upon the credibility of the author who first promulgated it, and upon the motive of him on whose authority it has generally been repeated. But, on the other hand, it is the registers of the Welsh abbeys of Conway and Strat Flur, copied by Guttun Owen, and the statement of Cyn- frig ab Gronow, upon which Powell, or rather Humphrey Llwyd, the translator of Caradoc's History, relied as authority for the tradition. The writings of these bards are supposed to be lost ; but if they really related the story, the trustworthiness of Powell, and the motives of Hakluyt, are of no importance whatever, as it was told by the earlier writers twelve years before Columbus made his first voyage. If Madoc's discovery — supposing there were any — was made upon knowledge, that knowledge could only have come from Iceland or Greenland. MADOC'S VOYAGE AND HIS COLONY. 69 brothers (about 1170) to fight it out among them, he got together a fleet and put to sea in search of adventures. He sailed „, . . Historical westward, leaving Ireland to the north, which, it may be jcc°unt of • 11 i i ¦ iii Madoc's remarked, is nearly the only thing he could do in sailing ™w«. from Wales, unless he laid his course northward through the Irish Sea. But at length he came to an unknown country, where the natives differed from any people he had ever seen before, and all things were strange and new. Seeing that this land Avas pleasant and fertile, he put on shore and left behind most of those in his ships and returned to Wales. Coming among his friends again, after so eventful a voyage, he told them of the fair and extensive region he had found ; there, he assured them, all could live in peace and plenty, instead of cutting each other's Madoc leaving Wales. throats for the possession of a rugged district of rocks and mountains. The advantages he offered were so obvious, or his eloquence The WelBh so persuasive, that enough determined to go with him to fill colony. ten ships. There is no account of their ever having returned to Wales ; but on the contrary, it is said, " they followed the manners of the land they came to, and used the language they found there," — a statement which, if true, shows, not only that they did not return, but that some intercourse Avas preserved with their native land. Their numbers, nevertheless, must have been sufficient to have formed a considerable colony, and if, as the narrative asserts, the new country " was void of inhabitants " — meaning, probably, that it was only sparsely peopled — it is difficult to believe that they could have become so entirely assimilated to the savages as to lose their own cus toms and their own tongue. 70 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. [Chap. IV. Moreover, if such were the fact it destroys all other evidence, which was supposed to be subsequently found, of the existence of such a colony. That supposed evidence is, that a tribe of Indians of light complexion and speaking the old British language, was found Avithin the present limits of the United States in the seventeenth century, and that traces of such a people Avere still evident at a quite recent period. The earliest testimony on this point is a letter1 to Dr. Thomas Lloyd, of Pennsylvania, and by him transmitted to his brother, Mr. C. H. S. Lloyd, in Wales. The letter purported to have been Avritten by the Rev. Morgan Jones, and was dated New York, March to us exist- 10th, 1685-6, more than half a century before its publication in the Magazine. The Rev. Mr. Jones declares that in the year 1660 — twenty-five years before the date of the letter — he Avas sent as chaplain of an expedition from Virginia to Port Royal, South Carolina, Avhere he remained eight months. Suffering much from Avant of food, he and five others at the end of that time started to return to Virginia by land. On the way they Avere taken prisoners by an Indian tribe, the Tuscaroras, and condemned to die. On hear ing this sentence, Mr. Jones " being very much dejected," exclaimed " in the British (i. e. Welsh) tongue," " Have I escaped so many dangers, and must I now be knocked on the Head like a Dog." Im mediately he was seized around the Avaist by a War Captain, belong ing to the Doegs, and assured in the same language that he should not die. He was immediately taken to the " Emperor of the Tusca roras," and, with his five companions, ransomed. The providential Doeg took them to his own village, where, they were kindly Avelcomed and hospitably entertained. For four months Mr. Jones remained among these Indians, often conversing with them, and preaching to them three times a week in the British language. The conclusion is that these Indians were descendants of the Welsh colonists under Madoc. The Mr. Lloyd to whom this letter Avas sent, subsequently adduced some oral and hearsay testimony, to the same effect; as, for ex ample, that a sailor declared he had met with some Indians on the coast, somewhere between Virginia and Florida, avIio informed him in good Welsh, that their people came from Gwynedd, North Wales. But such testimony is so vague that it may be set aside without hesi tation, leaving the letter of Mr. Jones the sole evidence of this Welsh survival on this continent, within the first century of its settlement by the English. In the next century, however, there came forth fresh witnesses. First. A missionary from New York, a Mr. Charles Beatty, travel- 1 First published in The (London) Gentleman's Maya-ine, vol. x., 1740. SUPPOSED TRACES OF THE WELSH. 71 ling in 1776, to the Southwest, four or five hundred miles, though he did not himself see any of these Welsh Indians, met Avith several others who had seen and talked with them. A Mr. Benjamin Sutton assured him that he had visited an Indian town on the west side of the Mississippi, whose people were not so tawny as other natives, and whose language was the Welsh. They had a book which they cherished with great care, though none among them could read it, which Mr. Sutton assumed to be a Welsh Bible, — manuscript, it must have been, as the art of printing was not invented when Madoc is supposed to have left Wales, in 1170. One Levi Hicks, who had been among Indians from his youth, also told Mr. Beatty that he had visited such a town west of the Mississippi, Avhere the language spoken, he was informed, was Welsh ; and Joseph, Mr. Beatty's interpreter, had seen natives whom he supposed to be of the same tribe, and who, he was sure, spoke Welsh, because he had some little knowledge of that tongue. Mr. Beatty, in repeating these statements, relates, in corrobo ration of them, the story of the Rev. Mr. Jones, adding to it, however, that that clergyman had also found a Welsh Bible in possession of the Doegs, which they could not read, but held him in all the more esteem Welshman. because he could, — a circumstance which Mr. Jones does not mention in his letter, but Avould hardly have omitted had it been true. Second. In 1785 was published a narration by a Capt. Isaac Stew art, to the effect that, having been taken prisoner by the Indians, with a Welshman named David, about the year 1767, they were carried seven hundred miles up the Red River, when they came to " a nation of Indians remarkably white, and whose hair was of a red color, — at least, mostly so." The Welshman found these people were of his own race. Their story Avas that their forefathers came from a foreign country and landed on a coast east of the Mississippi, which, from the description, must have been Florida. When afterward the Spaniards took possession of Mexico they fled west of the Mississippi, and up the Red River ; and, as an evidence of the truth of this account, they showed to Captain Stewart some rolls of parchment, covered Avith writing in blue ink, which they kept wrapped up in skins with great care. Unfortunately neither Captain Stewart nor his Welsh com panion could read these precious documents. 72 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. [Chap. IV, Third. Mr. Williams, the author of " An Enquiry Concerning the First Discovery of America by the Europeans," from whose book we condense these narratives, asserts on an authority for which he vouches as respectable and truthful, that a Welshman, living on the banks of the Ohio, declares, in a letter dated October 1, 1778, that he had been several times among Indians who spoke the old British, and that he knew of another person in Virginia who had visited a tribe of Welsh Indians living on the Missouri River, four hundred miles above its junction with the Mississippi. Such, it has been assumed, is the conclusive evidence that the de scendants of Madoc and his companions, who migrated from Wales in 1170, were seen about five hundred years later — in 1660 — some where between Jamestown, Virginia, and Port Royal, South Caro lina, having carefully preserved their nationality and language. That ibout one hundred years afterward — in 1767 — the same tribe, or athers of the same lineage, were living on the Red River, seven hun dred miles from its mouth, still speaking the Welsh tongue ; that ten years afterward a similar people, with the same language, were seen oy two witnesses somewhere in the same region ; that ten years later still, another person knew of a similar tribe on the Missouri ; and that Indians had been met with by other persons at various times and in various places, who spoke Welsh. The discrepancies in the accounts, — save the one remarkable fact that some of the witnesses observe ;hat these Indians were Avhite, while others do not mention a pe- :uliarity so striking that it could hardly fail, if it existed, to excite heir wonder, — are not greater than are consistent Avith truth under he ordinary rules of evidence. But the one point on which they all igree — the speaking of ancient British — is the most formidable irgument, and by the probability of its truth all these narratives can >e most conclusively tested. The thorough exploration of all the territory of the United States vithin the last half century has left little to be learned of any of the ndian tribes, and there are none among them known to speak a ongue which would be recognized as Welsh. Yet if there was such , tribe a hundred, or even two hundred years ago, who had for six lundred years preserved their language when surrounded by a savage, lien race, it is hardly possible that a century later, such a people ould have become so utterly extinct, or so absorbed by savages whose nfluence they had so long resisted, as to leave no certain trace of their rigin. But all that is pretended by the later inquirers is, that a tribe of ndians, the Mandans, showed, if not traces of an intermixture with be blood of the whites, at least a marked difference between themselves SUPPOSED TRACES OF THE WELSH. 73 and other native tribes. Among them were in use certain words in which is a resemblance, or a fancied resemblance, to the old British language. In the manufacture of their pottery, and in the making of blue beads, they are said to have shown a superiority over the ordinary savage. Mr. Catlin believed them to be a cross theory and8 between the Indians and the Welsh, and is inclined to ac- argument- cept a theory, favored also by some other writers, that the Mandans are the descendants of the Mound Builders, and that the builders of those numerous earth-works were the people originating in Madoc's Colony.1 The boat they used, Catlin says, was more like the coracle of the Welsh than the canoe of other Indians ; and he asserts that in complexion, in the color of their hair and eyes, they seemed rather Mandan Boats. to be allied to the white than the red race. Even the late Albert Gallatin, deservedly a high authority on any point relating to the North American Indians, acknowledges that a chief of this tribe whom 1 Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, in their expedition across the continent, passed the winter of 1 804-5, among the Mandans and other Indians on the Upper Missouri ; but there is nothing in their journal to indicate that they observed those striking differences in complexion, in character, and customs, between the Mandans and other tribes, which Catlin describes at great length. The method of making the beads which Mr. Catlin considers so sig nificant a fact, Lewis and Clarke say was known to the Ricarees as well as to the Man dans. As the material used was pounded glass, the process must have come into use since the introduction of glass by modern Europeans, and not have been handed down from the Welsh. To pound up glass, however, and make it into a new form, is an indication of ex traordinary intelligence in a North American Indian. The Mandan tradition of their origin is, that the nation once lived under ground, near a lake. A grape-vine extending its root through the earth reached their village and let in the light of day. Some of the more daring climbed up this root, and, to their astonishment and delight, came out upon a country charming to look upon, rich in fruits of various kinds, and covered with great herds of buffaloes. The grapes which they carried back, and their report of the delights of that upper region, set the whole nation wild to ascend and take possession of a land so bountiful and so beautiful. Immediately, men, women, and children rushed to the root of the vine, and about half the people had climbed up in safety, when the weight of a woman of unusual corpulence broke the tough root from the stem, and the light of the sun was shut out forever from those who were left behind. Nevertheless, the Mandans believed that when they died the good among them would return across the lake to this subterranean vil lage, and rejoin their kindred ; but that the wicked would never reach that ancient home, for the heavy burdens of their sins would sink them beneath the waters of the lake. The tradition is essentially Indian in character. 74 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. [Chap. IV. he saw in Washington, was of a lighter shade of complexion than other red men, and that he was the only full-blooded Indian he had ever seen with blue eyes. But he nevertheless rejects the suppo sition that they are descendants from the Welsh, and speaking their tongue, " a fable " he considers set at rest by a knowledge of the Indian dialects. Certainly it is not pretended that any Indian tribe living within the memory of man has used the old British tongue, as was asserted to be the fact by the witnesses of a century and two centuries ago. The slight resemblances in certain Mandan words to Welsh, which Mr. Cat lin found, but which had no weight Avith Mr. Gallatin, are not enough to have en abled the Rev. Mr. Jones to converse fa miliarly with the Doegs, or preach to them three times a week for four months in their own tongue Welsh Coracle. n _ . ° and his. The supposition that the Mound Builders and the Welsh were iden tical, is equally untenable. Some of the works of the former identify are known, by the trees growing upon them, to have been the Mound erected before the date of Madoc's leaving Wales ; and a colony of a few hundred persons could not have so increased and multiplied to the number of the millions who must have been engaged in the erection of the Mound Builders' works, and have ut terly perished and disappeared again within a period of four hundred years.1 The Welsh tradition of Madoc's adventure may nevertheless be true, notwithstanding a failure to sustain it by evidence of its subsequent existence within the present limits of the United States. Such a colony may have been founded, and have perished as other colonies have done since ; or a mere remnant of it may have survived to be absorbed by some tribe of Indians, on which it stamped in lan guage and in look some feeble impression of its own origin. But the story must rest upon Avhatever intrinsic probability of truth it pos- 1 The Mandan tribe contained about two thousand persons. As a tribe it was completely extinguished by the small-pox, in 1838, the few whom the pestilence spared being made captives of by the Ricarees, who took possession of their village. This the Sioux soon after attacked, and, in the thick of the fight the unhappy Mandans rushed out beyond the pickets and called upon the Sioux to kill them, for " they were Ricaree dogs, their friends were all dead, and they did not wish to live." They fell upon the besiegers at the same time with such impetuosity, that they were to a man destroyed. — Cat! in' s North American Indians, vol. ii , Appendix A. SUPPOSED TRACES OF THE WELSH. 75 Mandan Indian. sesses, rather than upon any evidence that a people whose color in clined to white, and whose tongue was Old British, can be traced on this continent from the middle of the seventeenth century to our own time. Should the original sources of the narra tive, the registers of the Welsh bards, be ever recovered, or should other manu scripts be found touching this subject, in the diligent search of later years for fresh knowledge on these old voyages of dis covery, there may be some further light let in upon this of the Welsh prince. If his course was westward, leaving Ireland to the north, it may be that he and his people settled, not in Florida, but in one of the Azores or of the West India Islands.1 It is a superficial objection to the truth of any narrative, that no mention is made of the event it relates by any contemporaneous writer. It is, nevertheless, true that an event which when it happened was not worth a newspaper paragraph, or, if there were no newspapers, Avanted the vitality to get itself repeated, may, a century or two afterward, from its consequences or its relations, be of intense interest, and of the highest importance. That the ancient annalist, — who did not believe that the author of History should ever condescend to anything that was not an affair of state, — should have no ear for the adventures of a petty Welsh prince, of some gallant private gentleman, or of some rough master- mariner, can hardly excite surprise, hoAvever much it may be regretted that treaties and protocols, and the enactment of laws were not for gotten for a moment, and the details of incidents so interesting in quired into and recorded. There is to be considered always, not only the old historians' lofty notion of the dignity of history, but that the circumstances of time and place may not have been favorable to the 1 It is a curious fact that this story of the Welsh should have recently appeared in a new form still further west. Among the Zuni of New Mexico, there are said to be white Indians with fair complexions, blue eyes, and light hair. Among the New Mexicans is a tradition that long ago some Welsh miners wandered into that country with their wives and chil dren, and that the Zuni killed the men and married the women. The Zuni deny the truth of the tradition ; but there is, nevertheless, a remarkable resemblance between some of the words of the Zuni language and the English. Thus, "Eat-a," is to eat; " Eat-on-o-way," is eaten enough ; and the Zunians, to express admiration, exclaim, " Look ye ! " or " Look ye here ! " The surveyors of a route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific coast, in whose Report (vol. iii., part 1, p. 63), we find this statement, "did not see those white Indians at the time of their visit, as the small-pox was raging among the Zuni, nor did they give much heed to the tradition of the New Mexicans." Relative values of historicalfacts. 76 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. [Chap. IV. rapid transmission of intelligence, and that the intelligence itself may not have been supposed to be worthy of transmission. And especially where a question of American discovery is concerned, another im portant fact must have its due weight, — that it was not till long after the death of Columbus that any historian thought it Avorth while to inquire into the truth of any report of a pre-Columbian voyage, or even that there Avere any such reports to inquire into. If, then, we are in earnest search after the truth, we shall first seek to know if, in regard to any alleged voyage, there is any contemporaneous record or clear tradition of it ; and failing these, if the report be above all sus picion of having been invented, exaggerated, or perverted, that it might aid in robbing one of the greatest and most unfortunate of men of the immortal fame Avhich he hoped might at length rest upon his name, — a hope which was almost the sole compensation and consola tion for a life of many sorrows. The story of the brothers Zeni, resting upon no tradition, and upon no contemporary testimony, is open to all these considerations. The The zeni Zeni Avere a noble and distinguished family of Venice ; in family. jler wars with her neighbors, these brothers, and others of their kindred, had won renown, and were thought worthy of a place in history for their deeds of valor and their services to the state. But no contemporaneous historian had seen fit to relate other achievements of theirs, which, apart from the special importance afterward attached to them, were full of romantic interest ; no Skald, or Saga-man of the North, had even mentioned that island of their Northern seas, where these achievements were said to have been performed. One hundred and seventy-eight years later, in the middle of the sixteenth century, when nations were approaching that great power and opulence which their discoveries and possessions in the New World had given them ; when national jealousies as well as national interests were aroused for the honor of having originated, or of sharing in the most marvel lous accomplishment of human genius the world had ever seen, then it was that a claim was put forth, unheard of before, that these Venetian brothers, by more than a century, preceded Columbus, and that his laurels must be shared Avith them. In 1558, Francisco Ma.rcolini, of Venice, published a volume of letters, arranged and edited by Nicolo Zeno, purporting to be those of his ancestors, Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, Avritten between the years 1380 and 1404. The letters and a map had remained in the family Publication arcmves5 apparently unnoticed and unknown, till coming tetter" Zeni *nto ^'le Possess'on °f this Nicolo the younger in his child hood, as playthings, he had torn them into fragments. When he came at an age to understand their value, he put together NARRATIVE OF THE BROTHERS ZENI. 77 such of these torn and scattered fragments as he could recover, and gave them to the world. The little volume was afterward included in Ramusio's " History of Early Voyages," —but not till after Ram- usio's death, — and Avas subsequently translated and transferred by Hakluyt to his own Avorks. From that day to this it has been, and is still, a controverted question Avhether the story is true or false. By Their story. Shipwreck of Nicolo Zeno. some writers it is denounced as a fraud, easily compiled from infor mation not difficult to be got from various sources in the middle of the sixteenth century ; by others it is accepted on internal evidence, and especially on the testimony of the restored map, as worthy of belief.1 In the year 1380, according to the Nicolo Zeno of 1558, his ances tor of the same name, who Avas wealthy, brave, eager to see the world, and who found at home no occupation suited to his active and daring disposition, fitted out a ship at his OAvn charges, and sailed away northward for England and Flanders in search of adventures. Nor did he seek long, for a storm overtook him, drove his ship out of her course, casting her, at length, on an unknown and inhospitable coast. He and his crew escaped with their lives the perils of the shipwreck only to run a new risk, — as they were throAvn help less and exhausted on the shore, — in an attack from the natives. But from this they were saved by the appearance, at the critical moment, of the king of the neighboring island of Porland at the head of an army, who rescued the strangers from the hands of the people. Ad dressing them in Latin, and learning that they were Venetians, he not 1 The latest essay on the subject, and in favor of the Zeni Narrative, is by R. H. Major, published by the Hakluyt Society of London. His argument, however, is, for the moso part, an elaboration of that of Reinholdt Forster in his Northern Voyages. 78 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. [Chap. IV. only gave them a hearty welcome, but begged them to remain in his service. To this they consented, and served him so well by their courage and their skill in seamanship that Nicolo Zeno was made a knight and the captain of the king's navy. Then Nicolo sent to Venice for his brother Antonio, who soon joined him to share in his prosperity, leaving behind, at home, the third brother, Carlo, to whom all the subsequent letters were Avritten. The name of the king whom the two Venetians followed, and who had saved their lives, was Zichmni, and the country was called the island of Frisland. This island he had, not long before Nicolo's shipwreck, wrested, or was about to wrest by conquest from the king of Norway. It is a notable fact that this island of Frisland, which was said to be larger than Iceland, and which carried on a brisk trade in fish and other merchandise with " Britain, England, Scotland, Flanders, Norway, and Denmark," and between which and Venice there seems to have been not infrequent communication, should never have been mentioned anywhere but about the time of these letters of the brothers Zeni, and that it certainly has had no existence for some hundreds of years.1 And not only Frisland ; there were various other islands in those northern seas held by this Zichmni, " a prince," says Antonio Zeno, in one of his letters, " as worthy of immortal memory as any that ever lived for his great variance and singular humanitie." By those who accept the account as true, some suppose that Frisland must have been one of the Faroe Islands, and that among the Hebrides, the Shetland, and the Orkney Islands may be found the rest of the dominion subdued by the proAvess of this great prince ; but others suppose that Frisland and the rest Avere long ago swallowed up by the sea in some mighty cata clysm, which is the reason Avhy they have been so difficult to find.2 With Zichmni the Zeni remained, — Nicolo four years, till he died, and Antonio ten years longer. So long as Nicolo lived he did the king good service in aiding in the subjection of a number of the islands of an Icelandic archipelago. But he also sailed as far westward as Engroneland, which is supposed to mean Greenland. He gives a mi nute and interesting account of a monastery of friars of the order of the Preachers, and of a church dedicated to St. Thomas, in Engi-one- Avhich he found in that distant country. These friars lived in that severe climate with a remarkable degree of comfort, and even of luxury. Their monastery was built near a hill from Avhich gushed forth a perennial fountain of hot Avater ; this they 1 The name was sometimes applied to Iceland ; but the Zeni letters speak of it as an isl and distinct from Iceland. 2 See Frobisher's Voyages, Hakluyt, vol. ii. ; Forster's Northern Voyages ; Belknap's History, vol. ii. ; Captain C. C. Zahrtman in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. v. ; and particularly the Voyage of the Venetian Brothers, Nicolo and Antonio Zeno to the Northern Seas in the \4th Century, translated and edited by R. H. Major, Hakluyt Society publications, 1873. NARRATIVE OF THE BROTHERS ZENI. 79 Greenland Geyser. turned to many useful purposes by conveying it in pipes into the church and monastery, warming their cells, cooking their food, heating their covered winter gardens, cultivating the fruits and flowers of more temperate zones, putting it to all uses for which heat is requisite as a substitute for fire. Thus they so modified the rigor of that hyperborean region Avith little or no labor or trouble to themselves, that those jolly monks made their homes as cheerful as if they Avere be neath the sunny sky of Italy. Even for the buildings of the monastery this volcanic mountain furnished them with ample material ; for on the stones which were cast out of its crater they had only to throw water when " burning hot " to reduce them to excellent lime, which on being used so hardened as to last forever.1 i A German writer, Dethmar Blefkins, a minister sent to Iceland from Hamburg in 1 563, tells much the same story, which he learned from a monk who entered this monastery of St. Thomas in 1546. Blefkins, whose tract is in Purchas, vol. iii., says: "This Monke told us marvellous strange things, that there was in the Monastery of St. Thomas (where he lived) a Fountaine, which sent forth burning and flaming water, that this water was con veyed through Pipes of stone, to the several Cels of the Monks, and that it made them warme as stoves do with us, and all kinds of meats might be boyled in this Fountaine, and fiery water, and no otherwise than if it had bin on a fire indeed, he advertised moreover, that the walls of the Monastery were made with Pumice stones, out of a certain mountain not farre from the Monastery : like to Hecla in Iceland, for if you powre this water upon the Pumice stone, there will follow a slymie matter, which instead of lyme they use for mortar." Crantz, in his History of Greenland (p. 265 et seq.), in treating of " lost " Greenland, refers to this statement of the monk as related by Blefkin, but says " it is confessed that the story is told a little incoherently, and its truth is much doubted." " But yet," he adds, " I find a sort of voucher for it in Cozsar Longinus's Extracts of all Journies and Voyages." There, it is said that an English sailor, Jacob (or James) Hall, in the service of Denmark, made sev eral voyages to Iceland and Greenland and wrote a description of the wild Greenlanders, the most particular, ample, and conformable to truth of all that had written : this man affirms that he also had spoken with the aforesaid monk in Iceland in the presence of the Governor, and had inquired of him about the state of Greenland. He told him, likewise, several things about St. Thomas's cloyster, particularly " that there was a fountain of hot water conveyed by pipes into all their apartments, so that not only their sitting-rooms, but also their sleeping-chambers were warmed by it, and that in this same water meat might be boiled as soon as in a pot over the fire. The walls of the cloyster were all made of pumace- stone, and if they poured this hot water upon the stones, they would become clammy and viscid, and so they used them instead of lime." The Danish Chronicle of Greenland [con tinues Crantz] also makes mention of this cloyster, and speaks besides of a garden through which a rivulet of this hot fountain flowed, and made the soil so fruitful that it produced the most beautiful flowers and fruits. Thus this monk of the German author, Blef ken, and the English sailor, Hall, told in 1546 80 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. [Chap. IV. But discoveries more interesting still were yet to be made. Nicolo died soon after his return from Engroneland, and Antonio proposed to return to Venice, but was not permitted to do so by Zichmni, who retained him for further service. There had arrived at Frisland an ancient fisherman, avIio had been absent many years in of rather"-8 strange lands, and the tale he told was one which might well arouse so bold a navigator and adventurous a Viking, as Zichmni. Six and twenty years before, he said, four fisher-boats from Frisland were driven by a mighty tempest a thousand miles to the westward, when one of them was wrecked upon an island called Esto- tiland — supposed to be NeAvfoundland — and taken prisoners by the inhabitants. They were led to " a faire and populous city " and brought before the king, who, learning who and what they were, through an interpreter — also a shipwrecked sailor — who spoke Latin, determined they should be retained in his service. Five years they lived there and found it to be a rich country, " with all the com modities of the world," with mines of all manner of metals, and especially abounding in gold. In the middle of it was a high moun7 tain from which sprung four great rivers that Avent forth and Avatered all the land. The inhabitants they found to be a " witty people," having " all the arts and faculties " of civilized nations, speaking a language of their own, Avith letters and characters peculiar to themselves. Yet they had intercourse with other countries, for in the king's library there were Latin books which, however, none could read, and they imported merchandise of various kinds from Engroneland. Southward of this kingdom Avas another great and populous country, very rich in gold, where there Avere many cities and castles, and where the people raised corn and brewed ale. They were also a maritime people, though they did not understand the use of the compass ; but seeing this wonderful instrument in the hands of the fishermen, and discerning its great utility at sea, they held these strangers in such esteem that they fitted out twelve barks and sent them southward, under their direction, to that other land called Drogeo. precisely the same story, in almost identical language, of the Monastery and Church of St. Thomas, in Greenland, and the ingenious hot-water works, supplied from a geyser, which was told by Nicolo Zeno nearly two hundred years before. The monk could not have bor rowed from the Venetian book, for that was not published till twelve years after he is said to have entered the Monastery of St. Thomas, in Greenland, where he saw this remarkable oasis in the arctic wilderness, hut which nobody but he and Nicolo Zeno had ever thought worthy of description. If, therefore, Blefkeu and Cossar Longinus may be relied upon, and there really was such a monk, telling such a story, about the time of the publication of the Zeni letters, it shows, at least, that other sources of information in regard to Greenland, were open to Nicolo Zeno the younger, than the mutilated fragments of his ancestor's letters. NARRATIVE OF THE BROTHERS ZENI. 81 It was an unhappy expedition ; for though the fishermen escaped death at sea in their storm-tossed vessels, they met on land a fate more cruel. Helpless and exhausted, they were made prisoners as they were thrown upon the shore, and most of them were immedi ately eaten by the savage people " which feed upon man's flesh as the sweetest meat in their judgment, as is." But the man who had got back to Frisland, and some of his companions, Avere saved ; for however excellent they might be for eating, they were held as better still for slaA-es. He taught these people the art of taking fish with nets, and so grew presently into great favor ; so great, indeed, that powerful chiefs quarrelled for the possession of his person, and Avent to war about him, so that he was the royal fisher in turn to no less than twenty-five of these copper-colored lords. For thirteen years he lived among them and thus saw many parts of the country. It was, he said, a very great country, as it Avere a new Avorld ; " but the Dr°ge°' people were very rude, very fierce and cruel, and voide of all good ness;" so savage that they all went naked ; so wanting in intelligence that they had not even the Avit to cover themselves with the skins of the beasts they killed Avith their wooden spears and arrows, though they suffered from the cold. Yet they had laws peculiar to each tribe, and one custom that was universal, — that they should kill all they could in constant wars, and eat all they killed. It is not an attractive picture, but is thought by those who maintain the Zeni letters to be authentic, to answer accurately to the character of the Indians after ward found within the present limits of the United States. But farther to the southwest the fisherman found a people of more " civility," as he found a more temperate climate, where they had cities and temples for their idols. To these idols they sacrificed men whom they afterward ate. They understood the use of gold and silver, whereas the more northern people knew nothing of metals. This, it is assumed, is a description of Mexico and her semi-civiliza tion, thus giving to the fisherman a wide field of observation, who must have travelled, granting the truth of the narrative, down the Atlantic coast, along the whole of the northern, and part of the west ern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The discovery, if discovery it Avas, was more extensive than that of Columbus himself, and of other navi gators, in the next two centuries ; and the marvel is, that there should be no record or tradition of an event so interesting as this finding " as it were of a new world," except in these forgotten letters to Carlo Zeno, of Venice, and that such letters should have been unknown for nearly two hundred years. For the fisherman, after his twenty-six years absence and travel in these strange lands and among these barbarous people, returned to 82 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. [Chap. IV. Frisland, where his tale was generally believed and even confirmed by other mariners who also knew something of that far country. So intense Avas the interest excited that the prince Zichmni resolved at once to fit out an expedition, and so many came forward to join it, that Antonio believed that it would be Expedition of Prince Zichmni. Aztec City. at no cost to the state. Zichmni commanded in person, setting forth with many barks and men. Two days before sailing, the fisherman, who was to have piloted the fleet, unfortunately died, and his place had to be supplied by other sailors who had returned with him from Estotiland. Soon after leaving the last island which owed Zichmni allegiance, he encountered a gale which lasted for eight days and wrecked most of his vessels. Nevertheless, pushing boldly westward, he reached, at length, an island where he found a safe and com modious harbor, but where " an infinite number of people came rush ing furiously to the water-side " and forbade a landing. Zichmni made signs of peace, when ten men came off to him, speaking ten dis tinct languages, none of which could he understand except that of one from Iceland. From him the prince learned that the island was called Icaria, and the people Icari, after the first king of the place, who was the son of Daedalus, a king of Scotland. This Dasdalus had formerly conquered the island, and left his son there to reign in his stead, while he, setting forth in search of new conquests, was overwhelmed by a tempest, and the sea, in memory of him who was drowned in NARRATIVE OF THE BROTHERS ZENI. 83 it, was thenceforth called the Icarian Sea. The laws and the land Avhich he had given them they valued far more than life, and they would not tolerate the presence of strangers. One man only from the fleet would they permit to come among them, and he must speak Italian that they might add that to the ten other tongues of their ten interpreters. The prince, making a pretence of departing in compliance Avith the commands of the natives, circumnavigated Icaria, but a multitude of armed men watched the vessels from the hill-tops, kept pace along the beaches Avith its progress, and menaced it continually ; and Avhen a second attempt was made to go on shore, the Frislanders were re pulsed, many killed, and more wounded. Against this fierce obsti nacy Zichmni Avas convinced at last that it was useless to contend. Once more he set sail, still steering to the west. He steered to the Avest for five days with a fair breeze ; then the weather changed, and the Avind came out from the southwest. With this " wind in the powpe " he sailed four days more — land/di- sailed, that is, before the Avind for four days to the northeast, when once more land loomed up above the sea-line. On Avhat part of the American coast this land may have been, it is not considered prudent even to conjecture ; for, given a starting-point, Frisland, Avhich never existed ; a voyage thence westward of not less than ten days to another fabulous island, Icaria ; thence still Avestward for five days more ; thence for four days in a northeast direction, and the imagination need submit to no trammels of latitude and longitude. But wherever it was, it was so pleasant a country, its days of June were so delicious, its soil was so fruitful, its rivers so fair, its fish and its fowl in such abundance, that here Zichmni resolved to remain, to build a city, to found a state. The harbor where he anchored he called Trin, and the point which stretched out into the sea and em braced it, he called Capo di Trin. In the centre of the island was an active volcano, visible from the coast, and out of the base of it ran a certain matter like pitch, that flowed into the sea. The country was densely populated by a people small of stature, timid, half wild, and living in caves of the earth. Zichmni sent his ships back to Frisland, under the command of Antonio Zeno, retaining only his boats and a portion of his people ; but whether he himself ever returned thence, or what was the subsequent fate of him and his colony, except that he built his town and explored much of the neighboring region, there is no account. The last letter of Zeno declares that he has Aviitten many interesting things in a book, which he should bring home with him, respecting the adventures of his brother and himself, of the prince Zichmni, the many islands he reigned over, and the new lands he dis- 84 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. [Chap. IV. covered ; but this the younger Zeno had destroyed in his youth, and here, therefore, the narrative ends. The warmest defenders of this irreconcilable story do not venture to deny that much of it is fable, and of that which they accept as The Zeni Map. true, some of its essential facts of geography and navigation stand in need of the most ingenious explanation. It is difficult to believe that any actual navigator should have described so many islands Ohjections ' . . J to this that had no existence in the places where he put them, both narrative. . . . * L in the narrative and on a map ; and quite as hard to believe that they have all been since sunk in the sea, if they ever had an existence. If it is assumed that the requisite number, and the con quest and discovery of those referred to, may be found by looking for them among the Faroe Islands, the Orkneys, or the Hebrides, it is hard to reconcile such a supposition' to the known facts of history — that Norway, at the end of the 14th century was governed not by a king, but by a queen, Margaret ; that the Orkneys and Shetland isles were never wrested from that crown, but belonged to it till late in the 15th century ; that Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, held pos session of the islands of that name as a loyal subject of Norway at the very time that Zichmni is said to have conquered Frisland ; that the Hebrides have been in continual possession of Scotland since the latter part of the 13th century. While it is exceedingly difficult to CHINESE DISCOVERY. 85 adjust the main statements of the narrative to any reasonable theory consistent with their truth, the meagre information it gives in regard to the Western Continent Avas possibly accessible from various sources when the letters were published. The most rational conclusion, there fore, seems to be that if the story were not a clumsy attempt to patch up an account of a voyage, some record of which had been preserved in mutilated and unintelligible fragments of old letters, then it was a bold, but still clumsy, fabrication, whereby it was hoped that the glory of the great discovery might be snatched from Spain and Columbus. In nothing, in either case, is that clumsiness so apparent as in the adaptation of the Grecian names and fables of Daedalus and Icarus to persons and places in the frozen North. There is a still older claim to the discovery of the western hemis phere than can be made either for Northmen, Arabs, Welsh, or Vene tians. In the Chinese Year-Books, in which are recorded „,.. , Chinese from year to year for many centuries, every event of interest olaim t0 . J . r . J American that occurred in the empire, is the relation of a Buddhist Discovery. priest named Hoei-Shin, avIio, in the last year of the fifth century, visited a country fifteen thousand li east of Tahan. Precisely the distance measured by twenty thousand li in the year 499, and whether by Tahan was meant Kamtschatka, Alaska, or Siberia, are questions about which there is a good deal of doubt, while on a clear under standing of them depends any application of the narrative to Amer ican discovery. The country which the priest reached, however, he called Fusang, from its most remarkable product, a tree possessed of many valuable qualities. Its sprouts were like those of the bamboo, and BeBoription Avere used for food ; it bore an excellent fruit, red in color, in of Fusans. shape like a pear, and which would keep the whole year round ; its bark was fibrous, and from it the natives made a kind of linen for their clothing, and the paper on which they wrote ; for they were so cultured a people that they used written characters. Another fruit they had was apples ; from a kind of reed they made mats. As beasts of burden they used horses, oxen, and stags ; these were har nessed to wagons. The hinds were kept also for their milk, from which cheese was made ; and the oxen had horns so large that they would hold ten bushels, and were useful as receptacles of household goods. Iron they had not ; but copper, gold, and silver were plentiful, though but little valued. Fusang Avas governed by a king, Avho when he appeared in public was heralded by the music of horns and trumpets ; he clothed himself apparently in accordance with some astronomical theory, as the color of his garments was changed every two years for a cycle of ten years, 86 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. [Chap. IV. Avhen the same order was begun again. The title of this king was Ichi, and he was surrounded by a nobility divided into three ranks. The people were peaceful and had no weapons of war. Offences against the laAV were punished by imprisonment ; when this was for life, the offenders were allowed to marry, but their children were sold as slaves. A thousand li east of Fusang, the monk said, the people were white, Avere covered with hair, and were all women. When they wished to become mothers they had only to bathe in a certain river. Their chil dren they nourished, not from the breast but from a tuft of hair upon the shoulder. Other wonderful things he related, but these the learned translator, the late Professor Neumann of the University of Munich, thought too absurd to re peat. The old Chinese poets found a potent stimu lant to their imaginations in these stories of Hoei-Shin, and made of Fusang a delightful region of many marvels where the mulberry trees were thousands of feet in height, and the silk-AVorms more than six feet in length. In a land blessed with such capabilities for making silk, a Chinaman could con ceive of nothing wanting. Not the least remarkable of the observations of Hoei-Shin is that the people of this distant land were all Buddhists. For he was not the first discoverer ; twenty-nine years before his visit, he said, five beggar-monks from China had reached Fusang and introduced the religion of Buddha, with his holy books and images, instructed the people in the principles of monastic life, and thus wrought a great change in those few years in their belief and their manner of living. This alleged discovery has been the subject of a good deal of con troversy. There is nothing incredible in the supposition that the Chinese may have sailed across the Pacific long before Europeans ventured over the Atlantic Ocean ; for they were early navigators ; knew in the second century of our era the use of the mariner's compass ; and their junks, Avhich have changed little in form since they were first known to Europeans, have been found Avrecked upon the west coast of America, at different periods, from the time of the first Span ish voyages in the Pacific. Chinese Junk. CHINESE DISCOVERY. 87 While there is no intrinsic improbability, then, of such a discovery, those who see in Hoei-Shin's narrative a record of it, maintain that Fusang was either California or Mexico ; that the Fusang-tree was the great American aloe, or " Maguey," as the Indians call it ; that the oxen with enormous horns Avere bison ; that the stags were rein deer, which may have once been used farther south than now ; that the horses were of a race that afterward became extinct, and whose fossil remains have been found by geologists in the western territories of the United States ; that the ancient Mexicans were accustomed to milk the bison-cows and hinds, and to manufacture cheese ; that though Peru was not Mexico, from one the people may have gone to the other ; and Ichi may have meant Inca, the title of the sovereign of Peru, Avhich may have been brought from Mexico ; that orders of nobility were known both in Mexico and Peru ; that the Mexicans had some knowledge of astronomy, and the cycle of ten years, the obser vance of which determined the Ichi in the color of his garments, may have been a subdivision of the Mexican astronomical period of fifty-two years ; and finally, that Tahan was Alaska, and according to the most reasonable computation of the length of a li of the fifth century, the coast of Mexico is about twenty thousand li from Alaska. On the other hand, it is observed that the monk speaks of no long voyage to the country he calls Fusang ; that in using the vague term 20,000 li, he meant to indicate a great distance rather than any definite measurement in miles ; and that he may have referred to no region farther off than Kamtschatka, the island of Saghalien or than Japan ; that by Tahan he may have meant Siberia ; that as his narrative is acknowledged to be largely made up of fables, so that which is true is composed of facts and rumors in regard to various countries ; as, for example, a tree similar in its characteristics to those ascribed to the Fusang is found in one of the Aleutian islands ; the reindeer are com mon to Asia as Avell as America, and other peoples beside the Mexi cans are known to have been ignorant of the use of iron and to have used copper instead. If the story of Hoei-Shin was not meant to deceive — and some Oriental scholars do not hesitate to call him "a lying priest," — it is too indefinite, until supported by further evidence, to be accepted as an authentic narrative of a veritable discovery of the Western conti nent. Its meagre statement of the character and manners of the peo ple of Fusang and of the productions of the country can hardly be made to apply to the ancient Mexicans by seeking for similarities from the Arctic regions to Peru.1 1 See Humboldt's Examen Critique, tome 2, p. 62, et seq., and Fusang, or The Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the Fifth Century, by Charles G. Leland. 88 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. [Chap. IV. We have devoted these earlier chapters to periods which, in previous histories of the United States and of America, have either had no place at all, or have been dismissed in a page or a paragraph. SeieVrl Should it ever be possible to penetrate the mystery and periX on darkness which shrouded one half the world almost as com- our interest. pletely ag if it had been another planet, from the time of its creation to a thousand years after Jesus Christ, such an addition to human knowledge Avould be of inestimable value and intense inte rest. Modern science has only begun to read this story of races and of civilizations that long since disappeared, leaving no other record than those relics which till recently have been either overlooked or misunderstood. What point in time, or what degree of knowledge, may be thus reached by future discoveries and deductions from them in a field as yet but little explored, it would be rash to hazard even a guess. But it is well to know what ground there is for presuming that it is possi ble to learn anything of that pre-historic period. And still more in actual history, even though its records be obscure and imperfect, or only traditions reduced to writing ; even though the period of which we can gain only such imperfect information be, in some respects, legendary and romantic, we may, nevertheless, profitably and prop erly go further back than the ordinary starting-point by five hundred years. Hitherto the legitimate commencement of American history has been held to be toward the end of the fifteenth century, and all beyond fabulous or inscrutable. But there were bold men and skilful sailors before Columbus. Ever since men sailed upon the sea, or possessed a literature, there have been glimpses, sometimes transient or illusory, at other times distinct, of a mysterious world in the Western Ocean, the subject of curious conjecture, of vague prophecy, and oftener, perhaps, than is supposed, of attempted discovery. Though there Avas no permanent occupation and no positive recogni tion of this as a new quarter of the globe till the Columbian era, the real or supposed approaches to its possession for the five hundred pre vious years appeal as much to human sympathy, and are as pertinent to human progress, as the mythical periods of the historical nations of the Old World. From discoveries made without design and in ignorance of their real character, we are led, in the gradual progress of events and the vague s^ow advance of knowledge, to that later time when the cariynnavi- ocea11 was traversed with a distinct and intelligent purpose gators. an(j witn unhesitating faith. The Northmen, the Welsh, the Venetians — assuming their narratives to be wholly or partially NAUTICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. 89 true — Avhile they were certain that they had sailed into unknown seas, and were cast upon new lands and among strange peoples beyond the accredited limits of the inhabited world, also believed, no doubt, that they had only reached the farther shores or the out-lying islands of the continent whence they came. The notions as to the shape and the extent of the earth Avere, at that period, so vague, even among the learned, and the art of navigation was so little developed, that there was not much speculation as to the possibility of penetrating beyond the known limits of the continents and out of the accustomed tracks of ships. All that mariner's dared to do was to creep along the coast from headland to headland, Avith a fair Avind, to go to places fre quently visited. The boldest who first ventured out of sight of land, had only the sun by day and the stars by night to steer by ; Avhen these were ob scured for more than a day or two they lost all reckoning and were at the mercy of the winds and currents. They of nautical were without the mariner's compass of later times, for the andknowi- magnetic needle Avas not in general use till early in the four teenth century, either because a knowledge of its properties Avas con fined to a few, or because there was a timid hesitation to spread the knowledge of an instrument Avhich, it was supposed, Avould certainly be looked upon among the ignorant as belonging to the Black Art, and one with which no sensible seaman, Avho thought of his salvation, would trust himself at sea. It was impossible to ascertain the position of a ship out of sight of land, for it was the middle of the fifteenth century before there was any nautical instrument by which the alti tude of the sun and stars could be taken with any approach to accu racy. Even sailing on a wind is supposed to have been unknown till the Northmen found it possible, with the Avind on the quarter, to still keep the ship on her course if they ventured to haul their tacks aboard. Before that time the sailor Avas no wiser than the nautilus, which can only sail with a breeze from astern. What little knowledge there was of distant parts of the earth Avas gained by a few travellers over land in search of information ; by priests devoted to the propa gation of the Christian faith among the heathen ; by travelling mer chants of different countries, Avho, meeting each other at certain great marts for the exchange of merchandise, exchanged information also as to the regions whence they came, or others which they had visited in the pursuit of their calling. Of the three continents, Europe, Asia, Africa, into Avhich the Avorld was then supposed to be divided, the boundaries were unknown, and the extreme parts, if not uninhabited, — at the north, because of the intensity of the cold ; in the torrid zone, because of the intensity of 90 PRE-COLUMBIAN VOYAGES WESTWARD. ' [Chap. IV. the heat, — Avere believed to be either absolutely impenetrable by those born in more temperate climates, or to be entered only at the risk of life. It was death from cold to go too far northward ; to ven ture too far southward might be Avorse than death, for if heat did not at once consume the flesh and bones of the unhappy traveller, it- Avould singe his hair to a crispy wool, and tan his skin to the black ness of a coal. But when, at length, vessels Avere driven by the fury of tempests, or drifted by irresistible currents westward upon unknown coasts, though the bewildered crews may have believed that they had only reached the farther confines of the continent of Europe, extending northward to the pole, thence southward and westward to some un approachable boundary, such voyages were, nevertheless, the natural consequence of that boldness which, little by little, ventured farther out to sea, and led at length to such grand results. They were the pioneers of subsequent discovery, and the traditions, speculations, and prophecy scattered through ancient literature, of islands and conti nents in and beyond the Sea of Darkness, arose in part at least from vague reports of ships having sometimes sailed into those mysterious waters and touched upon distant shores. Then in the fifteenth century came the revival of learning in Europe. Enthusiasm Avas kindled in the study of science ; especially Avas this true in regard to cosmography. All that the scholars of the earlier Effect of a§es na(l taught was diligently learned ; and the new the- reyivai of ories Avhich the student formed in his closet, the adventurous scientific ' learning. voyager sought to test by actual experiment. To the polit ical jealousy of states was added a nobler rivalry in efforts to enlarge the boundaries of geographical knowledge and to augment the com merce of the world. Sailing upon the sea grew into an art ; it be came possible to ascertain with some precision the position of a ship out of sight of land ; to tell almost with absolute certainty the direc tion in which she should be steered, though blackest clouds and dark est night obscured the sky. It is not easy now to conceive how immense an impulse this Avas to the activity and intelligence of that age ; but it opened the whole world to those who could avail them selves of these means of knowledge, and was the dawn of a new era in civilization. New wants were created ; luxury increased, as the products of different and distant countries became known ; a demand arose which gave a new importance and power to commerce and to expeditions to find out new and shorter routes to those distant lands.1 And there was no discovery which offered so magnificent a return, 1 See Robertson's History of America, book ii. EFFECT OF REVIVAL OF LEARNING. 91 none which was sought for with so much intrepidity and eagerness, as a shorter way to that marvellous India, with its fabulous riches and strange peoples, which such travellers as Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville had visited and written of, but Avhich, as yet, could only be reached by adventurous merchants through long and perilous jour neys overland. The pursuit of this chimera, rendered possible by the fresh acquisitions of knowledge, and the Avants of the age, was the crowning ''event which revealed a New World, whose existence had been held to be one of the curious fables of ancient philosophers. The " Far Cathay.' CHAPTER V. INDIA — THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. The Kingdom of Cathay. — Efforts in Europe to find a Ska-way to India.— Prince Henry the Navigator. — Birth and Early Life of Christopher Columbus.— His Design of a Western Voyage to India.— Faith in his Divine Mission. — The Theories of Contemporary Geographers. — His Life in Spain. — The Council at Salamanca. — His First Voyage.— His belief that he has discovered india. — til e delusion of his llfe. — hls brief Honor and Final Disgrace. In the far East had reigned for centuries a line of mighty monarchs of the race of Kublai Khan. Among many provinces OAving them THE CITY OF QUINSAI. 93 allegiance Avas that of Mangi, bordering on the sea. In this province alone, Marco Polo said, there Avere twelve thousand cities, all Avithin a few days' travel of each other. Quinsai, whose circuit Avas a hundred miles, was only one of a hundred and forty cities of MangiQC0 standing in such contiguity that they seemed but one. A lnlndla- permanent garrison of thirty thousand soldiers guarded Quinsai alone ; a police force of some hundreds of thousands of men Avas always on duty to preserve its domestic peace and order. Spanning its many streets Avere twelve thousand noble bridges, some of them so lofty that ships could sail beneath without interruption to the passage of the multitudes that Avere continually crossing them, to and fro. Its prin cipal street, forty paces in width, bridged in many places by these works of beautiful architecture, extended from one side of the city to the other in a straight line. At intervals of every four miles on this magnificent avenue of thirty-three miles were market-places, each two miles in compass ; behind them ran a canal, on the banks of which were great stone warehouses always filled with precious merchandise. In these spacious marts from forty to fifty thousand people met three days in the week to trade, thronging through the streets that radiated in every direction. These thoroughfares were all of great width and length, and paved with stone, as indeed were all the highways, in city and country, of the province of Mangi. The sewerage of Quinsai was more perfect than that of any modern city, for the waters of a river, that bounded it on one side, Cit of were led through the streets and washed completely away Quinsai- all filth and waste matter to a lake on the other side, whence they were carried out to sea. Besides this system of thorough drainage, for the preservation of the public health, there were free baths of hot and cold water, with attendants, male and female, for daily bathing was the habit of this luxurious people from earliest childhood ; and for the sick and feeble the hospitals were " exceeding many," where all were taken care pf who were not able to work. A trained fire-depart ment was in constant readiness to protect the city from conflagrations, and at a fixed hour of the night the putting out of domestic lights and fires was enforced by severe penalties, as a safeguard against accident. All the inhabitants were required to be within their houses at a certain time, and from every guard-house and on every bridge each hour of the day and night was struck on great resounding basons or gongs. The marble palace of the king, with its arcades and corridors, its ter races and courts, its lakes and groves and gardens, filled a circuit of ten miles ; its wide expanse of roof, profusely wrought in gold, rested upon hundreds of pillars of pure gold cunningly adorned in arabesque 94 INDIA — THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. of azure, to heighten the native richness of the yellow metal. Here on holydays, sacred to their gods, were feasts of ten and twelve days' con tinuance, with guests ten thousand at a time. The annual revenue of the king from salt alone, from Quinsai and its associated cities, comprising only one ninth of Mangi, was six mil lion, four hundred thousand ducats ; from other products, sixteen mil lion eight hundred thousand more. The population of this one of the one hundred and forty contiguous cities was one million and six hun dred thousand families ; they consumed daily nine thousand four hun dred and sixty pounds of pepper, and " hence," says Polo, " may be guessed the quantity of victuals, flesh, wine, and spices were there spent." So wealthy and prosperous and luxurious were these people, that a part of every day was given up to pleasure in boats and barges fitted up for banquets on the lake ; in driving about the long and beautiful streets in chariots lined with cushions and cloths of silk ; in feasting in palaces gorgeously furnished and kept for public use ; in loitering in public gardens, or resting in inviting bowers scattered through them at convenient distances. And this city, " for the ex cellency thereof," said Marco Polo, " hath the name of the city of Heaven ; for in the world there is not the like, or a place in which are found so many pleasures, that a man would think he were in Paradise." Of all the provinces of the East, Mangi was the richest, as it was also the most accessible from the sea. But all the kingdoms, both of Mangi and Cathay, teemed with people, abounded in precious com modities of nature and of art, and their cities, villages, fortresses, and palaces were tens upon tens of thousands. Armenia the Greater was, like Mangi and Cathay, tributary to the great Khan. There also were many opulent communities ; out of its soil sprang wholesome hot wa ters for the curing of all diseases ; on the top of one of its mountains Noah's Ark still rested. At the city of Cambalu, on the. northeast of Cathay, where the Khan resided for three winter months, his palace was of marble with a roof of gold, so blazoned in many colors that nothing but gold and imagery met the eye. It stood in the centre of the city, which was a succession of courts from one to six miles in width, each surrounded with a wall, the outer wall of all extending eight miles on each side of a square. In one of these courts stood al ways a guard of ten thousand soldiers ; in the imperial stables near by were five thousand elephants. From Cambalu radiated roads to the most distant bound- Magnificonco . . , „ of the Great aries of the empire ; at every twenty-five or thirty miles on these highways were post-houses, wherein were many cham bers fit to lodge a king, and relays of horses were kept always in readi- THE GREAT KHAN. 95 ness for the use of the royal messengers. Of these post-houses there Avere about ten thousand in the Avhole empire, and the number of horses kept in them exceeded two hundred thousand. Between these houses, at intervals of three or four miles, Avere other stations where runners swift of foot always stood ready to carry letters on the king's business, having at their girdles little bells, the ringing whereof gave notice of their coming, and as they met, the letters were handed from one to another and thus hurried forward without a moment's delay. The bridges on these roads, over the many rivers and canals Avhich watered this wonderful country, were noble works of art, built some times of polished serpentine, sometimes of beautiful marbles, stately with many columns, ornamented with great stone lions and other sculptures, curiously and beautifully wrought. In another city, Ciandu, the Khan made his residence for three of the summer months, and there also was " a marvellous palace of marble and other stones," in an enclosure of sixteen miles. So large was the banquet-hall of this royal residence, that the Khan's table in the centre was eighty yards high. Here the royal stud was a herd of white horses and mares to the number of ten thousand, which were in a manner sacred ; for none dared to go before or to hinder these animals wherever they went, and none were allowed to drink of the milk of the mares except they were of the imperial blood. The Khan's army was almost like the sands of the sea for numbers, and so magnificent Avas the state of its many generals that they sat in chairs of solid silver. The royal fleet was fifteen thousand sail, and each vessel carried fifteen horses and twenty men, or two hun dred and twenty-five thousand horses and three hundred thousand men for the fleet. But the merchant marine far exceeded this, for in a single port Polo saw five thousand ships engaged in trade, and there were many cities that numbered still more. In one province a mountain of turquoises pierced the clouds ; in a valley of another nestled a lake where pearls were so plentiful that had there been freedom to gather them, pearls would have been so common as to be of little worth. There were many mines of silver, many rivers whose beds were spangled with gold. The beasts and birds were various and wonderful : serpents with two little feet near their heads, with claws like lions, with eyes bigger than a loaf ; hens that had no feathers, but were covered with hair ; birds of gorgeous plumage ; oxen as large as elephants, with manes as fine as silk ; game of all kinds, which the Khan hunted with hawks and with leopards seated on the backs of horses, whence they sprang at the prey. Spices grew everywhere ; and of fruit there were nuts as large as a child's head, filled with a delicious milk, pears that weighed ten 96 INDIA — THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. pounds, peaches two pounds each ; canes fifteen paces long and four palms thick, somewhat, no doubt, like those washed up on the beach of the island of Porto Santo and seen by Columbus, grew everywhere in abundance. The people of this favored land clothed themselves in cloth of gold, in silks, in lawns and cambrics of the finest fabric, in furs of ermine and of sable, which they called " the Queen of Furs." Fifteen hundred miles from the coast of Mangi was the island of Cipango, — Japan, — where gold was so plentiful that the palace of the king was covered with golden plates, as the churches of Europe were roofed Avith lead ; the windoAvs were gilded ; the floors even were paved with gold. There also were many precious pearls. In the surrounding sea there were four hundred and forty other islands, most of them peopled, whereon grew not a tree that yielded not a good smell, while many bore spices, and where also gold abounded. All the people of these numerous and opulent kingdoms were infi dels and idolaters, and whoever should make of them and their rich pos sessions a prey would be doing a service to God and the true Church. Of the right to do so there was no question, for it was held to be as much the duty of the Christian as the privilege of the conqueror, to spoil the unbelievers. Even if they were not spoiled, a power and prosperity hitherto unknown would surely come to the nation that should open easy communication with a people whose riches seemed inexhaustible, whose commerce exceeded that of all the world beside, whose arts were far beyond anything known in Europe, whose luxury was of a refine ment and magnificence hardly to be con ceived of by the ordinary European mind. The great problem of the age was to reach this " far Cathay " by sea. Navi gation grew to a science, drawing all other sciences to its aid. Dominion over the sea increased with the com mon use of the magnetic needle in the new mariners' compass ; with the im proved methods of draAving sea-charts ; Avith the additions made to the astrolabe — which the quadrant afterwards superseded — by Martin Behaim and Endeavors to ^oc^"g0 ancl Joseph the Jew, the king's physicians, the three reachjndia ablest astronomers and geographers of Portugal. But how ever much this increase of knowledge advanced the commerce and civilization of Europe, to push out beyond its confines and find the Astrolabe. PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR. 97 way to that " East " of marvels and mysteries was the impelling mo tive of the most enlightened and most energetic minds of the fifteenth century. It was only in royal treasure-chests, however, that the means could often be found for the expenditure involved in long expeditions ; still more the civil conditions, and moral and intellectual subservience of the age, suppressed all individual effort that wanted a regal sanction. But fortunately in the fifteenth century there came forward a princely adventurer, Henry of Portugal, surnamed H of The Navigator, who not only was willing to listen to and to ^ScThio aid all those who proposed voyages of discovery, but was n^'b^o1'. himself diligent above all other men of his time in forwarding such enterprises. By his energy, generosity, and success, an impulse was given to cosmographical studies, and ex peditions under his auspices or by his ex ample were pushed to parts where hitherto it was supposed impossible to penetrate.1 Rejecting the absurdities Avhich some of the wisest of men then accepted as true, — that human life could hardly be sustained in the intense heat of the torrid zone, and that it was impossible the antipodal regions could be inhabited, because it Avas absurd to suppose that there could be a people that went about their ordinary business • , i ,-i . i , -i t ... Prince Henry the Navigator. with their heads downward, — rejecting all such conjectures as unphilosophical, he devoted his princely rev enues and all the energies of a richly endowed character, to enlarging the boundaries of geographical knowledge. The love of science was, perhaps, the primal motive which ruled Prince Henry ; but to this was added a desire to enhance the glory of Portugal, and to extend the blessings of the Christian religion for the salvation of souls. A desire to do good — "talent de Men faire " — was his chosen motto, and such, undoubtedly, was the aim of his life. The particular good, however, that he never lost sight of, was — India. He gathered men learned in the sciences about him in his secluded home on the promontory of Sagres, where the unmeas ured, restless sea was always before his eyes, and the melancholy mur mur or the mighty roar of those mysterious waters never left his ears. Of his princely court he made a sort of geographical college ; he pro posed that his seamen should fearlessly cross the line and breathe the heated air which none, it was said, could breathe and live ; he would 1 See Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed The Navigator ; and its Results. By Richard Henry Major. London, 1 868. vol. I. 7 98 INDIA— THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. pass Cape Nam or Non — so called because, according to the proverb, " Whoever passes Cape Not will return or not ; " he would bring the benighted heathen of Africa, from its Mediterranean coast to its far thest southern limit, to a knowledge of Christ and the true Church ; but the end of all was to double that southern extremity and open a new route to India. India — always India. It was well to win souls to God ; it was well to dispel the clouds of human ignorance, whether Christian or heathen ; it was well to augment the glory of states and dynasties, and add to the sum of human happiness, by the discovery of strange countries. But commerce with the gorgeous East, so teeming with all precious things, would enrich kingdoms and make states and princes powerful. Courts and palaces, lords and ladies, the increasing wealth, refinement, and luxury of the age, demanded its rich stuffs, its precious stones, its aromatic spices, all its costly merchandise. Now they could be had only in some small degree by tedious, dan gerous, and expensive travel, partly overland through wide deserts, through hostile countries, a devious and a doubtful way. Great, then, would be, not the glory only, but the profit also, of that man or that people who should shorten that way in distance, remove its difficulties and its perils, and pour the precious commodities of Asia in unstinted abundance into the lap of Europe. The devotion of a long life and of his great revenues by Henry did not solve this problem while he lived ; but the success and importance of the many expeditions undertaken by his orders, and the mari time policy he established, so extended the knowledge of the globe, so added to the power and wealth of Portugal, and led generally to results so. brilliant, that thenceforward for nearly two hundred years, the spirit of adventure and the zeal for discovery animated every maritime state of Europe, and opened a new world to the races and the civilization of the old. Not, indeed, that the modern discoverers of the Western Hemisphere were in search of another continent ; they were as far from being guided by any such definite purpose as their predecessors of earlier centuries were innocent of all knowledge that they had made such a discovery when accident threw them upon strange shores. Columbus, like the navigators of Prince Henry, meant to find a new route to the East, only in a fresh direction ; and he died in the belief, after four voyages to the New World, that the countries he had discovered were literally the Western Indies — the coasts of Asia reached by sailing west. The difference betAveen him and those who by chance crossed the Atlantic before him was that he, impelled by a fervid religious faith and by conclusions drawn from scientific .S1 S A $ > a\ y CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. FROM S/SHK&'R* EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 99 study, had boldly sought to explore the unknown on which they had only been ignorantly driven. The father of Columbus had followed the humble calling of a carder of wool. But among his kindred were some who led „,_ , , ° Christopher a seafaring life, and with them from the age of fourteen a coiumbus. ship was the home of the son. One or two of these relatives Avere the servants of any state that would give them a roving commission to fight against its enemies ; and if a commission Avere wanting, they sought and found a foe in any ship carrying a cargo worth the taking. They did not differ much from what in later times was called a pirate ; but in their own age they had the reputation which a priv ateer has had in ours. It was with such sea rovers that the great cap tain learned the practice of navigation ; learned how to carry himself in fight when, sword in hand, he sprang over the bulwarks of a hostile vessel ; learned how to control the rough and laAvless men with whom he sailed, now by the enforcement of an iron discipline, now by those arts of persuasion of which, with his winning speech and commanding presence, he Avas master. In one of these sea fights, off the coast of Portugal, which lasted from morning till night, the vessels, lashed together by iron grapplings, became enveloped in flames, and the only escape from the fire was to jump into the sea. Columbus Avent over board with the rest, and, being an expert swimmer, swam, with the aid of an oar, eight leagues to land. He found himself not far from Lisbon, where there were many of his countrymen, — Genoese, — who received him kindly. The incident is related on the authority of his son Fernando, and if there is an anachronism, as there seems to be, as to the date of the particular naval battle referred to and the time of the residence of Columbus in Lisbon, the mistake, probably, is in confounding one engagement with another. In Lisbon, at any rate, he was living before he was thirty years of age, having abandoned his roving life, and supporting himself and his father's family at home in Genoa by drawing maps and sea-charts. Here in Lisbon he became acquainted with, and soon married, the Dona Felipa Moniz Perestrello, a daughter of a late governor of Porto Santo, one of the Madeira Islands, and a renowned navigator under Prince Henry. The charts and journals of Perestrello thus came into possession of Columbus ; and going afterward to Resiaence of Porto Santo, with his wife, he was brought into familiar °t0l™bus intercourse with Pedro Correo, a navigator of some distinc- Madeiras. tion, who had married another daughter of the late governor. This family connection was both an incentive and a help to his cosmograph- ical studies, and it was at this period of his life that he became per suaded of the feasibility of a western passage to India. In the 100 INDIA — THE ELDORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. Madeiras he found people who believed they had seen ample evidence of the truth of the strange stories of the islands of St. Brandan and of The Seven Cities, which were supposed to be somewhere in the Western Ocean. He was told of pieces of curiously-carved wood, one of them found by Correo, his brother-in-law ; joints of gigantic cane, such as Ptolemy said greAV in India ; branches of pine ; covered canoes ; the bodies of two strange men, differing in complexion from either Europeans or Africans ; and all these had been picked up at sea, or were found upon the beach, and had evidently drifted from the west. There is also a story which seems to have been current in the life-time of Columbus, accepted by some historians, rejected by others as an attempt to detract from his fair fame, but passed over in silence by those who might, from their own knowledge, have either contra dicted or confirmed it. It is that about the year 1484 a vessel com manded by one Alonzo San chez was driven across the ocean by storm, and that he and his crew landed and spent some time on the island of Hispaniola. On their return they again encountered tem pestuous weather, and only five out of sixteen survived the hardships they were com pelled to suffer. Sanchez found a refuge in the house of Columbus, who learned from him the particulars of his western voyage and the land he had discovered, receiving from him also, when he died, his charts and journal. If the story be true, the information Columbus thus gained could have only helped to con firm his theory, which certainly was not founded on a single fact or a single supposition. He found from ancient authors that a belief in such western lands, sometimes under one name, sometimes under another, and a belief in the possibility of the navigation of the western seas, had long existed. From his geographical and astronomical studies, in works ancient and modern, he had come to the conclusion that the earth was in shape a sphere, but that it was much smaller than it had been generally supposed to be. Two thirds of it at least, he was sure, was occupied by Europe and Asia, and the eastern coast of Asia must, in that case, come within the other third of the whole circumference and stretch toward the western coast of Europe. Other Ship of Fifteenth Century. His theory of the size of the globe. THEORIES OF COLUMBUS. 101 men more learned than he had held this opinion, but he was the first Avho proposed to put it to a practical test. If he were right as to the size of the globe, — the one weak point of his argument, and the one which his opponents seem to have strangely overlooked, or, at least, did not answer, resorting rather to any dogmatic absurdity in reply to him, — if he Avere right in that, his reasoning was unanswerable. A shorter and a better way to India than that sought by Prince Henry's navigators, round the extremity of Africa, would be to sail directly west. The Sea of Darkness and the monsters that guarded it were fables fit only to frighten children. Modern voyagers had exposed the fal lacy of the supposed fatal heat of the tropics. In one of his roving voyages Columbus himself had sailed, as he says in a letter to his son Fernando, a hundred leagues beyond the island of Thule, to another island, — Iceland, — Avhere " the English, especially those from Bris tol, go with their merchandise." This voyage was made in 1467, long before his attention Avas turned to the question Avhich so ab sorbed him ten years later. Some have conjectured that he then gained a knoAvledge of the discoveries of the Northmen and the colo nization of Vinland more than four and a half centuries earlier. But this is very unlikely. It is possible that the ship in Avhich he sailed, and which, no doubt, Avas on a privateering cruise, made a short stay in Iceland ; but the young sailor of one-and-twenty, if ashore at all, would find something else to do than to ransack dusty monastic archives for forgotten manuscripts in ancient Norse, or to seek for old traditions among learned monks Avho would relate them in Latin. He recalled the fact, however, that he had sailed so far beyond the uttermost western boundary of Northern Europe, as one among the many other reasons he had for maintaining that navigation to the west was pos sible. The Indies, the kingdoms of the Great Khan, the dominions of that mysterious potentate, Prester John, the island of Cipango, or Japan, perhaps many another island along the Asiatic coast, could easily, he was sure, be reached by the mariner bold enough to defy all fancied terrors, and to sail for thirty or forty days and about a thousand leagues into those unknown seas. This was the work to which Columbus consecrated his life, and it was for this, he believed, that God had singled him out and set him apart from his fellow-men. He Avas a most diligent student of the Bible. Its prophecies, he Avas persuaded, were to be fulfilled Avhen rapid and easy communication Avas established between the uttermost parts of the earth, and all the human family were brought within the saving influence of the Holy Catholic Church. He looked upon him self as the destined " Christ-bearer" to far-distant and benighted 102 INDIA— THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. lands.1 " God made me," he said, The Christ-bearer, from Map of Juan de la Cosa. the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth of which He spoke in the Apocalypse by St. John, after having spoken of it by the mouth of Isaiah ; and He showed me the spot where to find it."2 The power and the riches which, he was persuaded, he could win for himself and the sovereign whom he should serve, he would win to the glory of God in the bringing of souls to Christ in the East and in the West, and his share of the treas ure gained he would devote to equipping armies to be led to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the Infidel. He was as genuine a fanatic as Peter the Hermit, or a modern " Adventist." " In the execu tion of my western enterprise to India," he said, "human reason, mathematics, and charts availed me nothing. The design ofcoium™ was simply accomplished as the prophet Isaiah had pre dicted. Before the end of the world, all the prophecies must be fulfilled, the gospel be preached all over the earth, and the holy city restored to the Church. Our Lord wished to do a miracle by my voyage to India. It was necessary to hasten his purpose, be cause, according to my calculations, there only remain one hundred and fifty years to the end of the world." 3 But this faith in his divine mission was, nevertheless, a corollary to 1 His son Ferdinand says that as most of his father's affairs were guarded by a special providence, so there was " a mystery " about his name and surname. He was a true Co lumbus or Columba (a dove), inasmuch as he conveyed the knowledge of Christ to the people of the New World even as the Holy Ghost was revealed in the figure of a dove at St. John's baptism. And as St. Christopher was so called — Christopher, or Christ- Bearer — because he had carried the Saviour, according to the legend, across the deep waters at his own imminent peril, so this Christopher " went over safe himself, and his company, that those Indian nations might become citizens and inhabitants of the Church triumphant in heaven." The representation of Columbus as the Christ-bearer on the old maps is copied from the pictures of the gigantic and popular saint, — St. Christopher, — which were common in the churches early in the sixteenth century. 2 Letter of the Admiral to the (quondam) nurse of the Prince John, in the Select Letters of Christopher Columbus, translated by R. II. Major, for the Hakluyt Society, p. 148. * Letter of Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella, in the Profecias. See Humboldt's Examen Critique, Tome I., p. 15. THEORIES OF OTHER GEOGRAPHERS. 103 the logic of the sphere. It Avas because the world Avas round, because one third of it yet remained to sail across, and because it was possible to sail across it, that God had given him that mission. On the ever lasting truths of science must rest the possibility of human achieve ment. God would not appoint to him the task of bringing the ends of the earth together if it could not be done. The theory of the spherical form of the earth was not new, for that Avas taught five hundred years before the Christian era. But the ancient geographers supposed that the ocean of the western hemisphere was of such expanse as to be practically if not absolutely impassable. It was on this all-important 1492. Globe of Martin Behaim. point, the size of the globe, that the learned men of modern times assumed that they had received neAv light. The globe was much smaller than the ancients supposed ; the ocean west of Europe covered only one third of it, and then came Asia. Columbus was not a man of wide learning, but he had diligently informed himself of all that had been advanced on these points by both ancient and modern Avriters, and he knew that the geographers of the highest reputation of his OAvn time maintained the theory, on which he relied, not only of the shape but of the size of the earth. From these he sought argument and encouragement. He can hardly 104 INDIA— THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. have failed to knoAV Martin Behaim, in the service of the King of Portugal Avhile Columbus Avas in vain attendance upon that court, Behaim and iin(^ w^° s^owe(i upon his famous globe, completed in 1492, Toseaneiii. t;Uat he had no doubt of the proximity of Asia to the western coast of Europe. From Paul Toseaneiii, of Florence, we know that he received encouraging assurances of sympathy. That learned physician and cosmographer confirmed his opinion as to the certainty and ease of a Avestern passage to India, and of the fame that awaited him who should thus bring within easy reach those empires and kingdoms described by Marco Polo, whose account of their opulence and gran deur had so inflamed the imagination and fed the fanaticism of Colum bus. Toseaneiii sent him a chart whereon he had laid down the coast of Asia in accordance with the descriptions of the Venetian traveller, and in the intervening ocean between that continent and Europe he placed the islands of Antilla and Cipango, at convenient distances, as stopping-places for water and fresh provisions on the Avestern voyage to the city of Quinsai, in the province of Cathay. It Avas this sublime faith, and a knowledge of these supposed newly- raithof discovered facts of science, which sustained Columbus for fnhismis8- eighteen years as a suppliant, struggling with poverty and sion. obscurity in his own person, Avith stupidity, obstinacy, in credulity in others, begging from court to court for a royal sanction to his enterprise, and a few ships to undertake it. And when the eighteen years were passed and their labor seemed all for naught, he simply turned, sadly and wearily indeed, but with undiminished zeal and unmoved convictions, to seek in a new quarter the aid he must have, and which he Avas sure would come at last. Should he find himself once on board his fleet, and with its prows turned Avestward, nothing but the hand of death could have stayed his progress. To turn back would have been with him to fly in the face of Heaven, to disregard the plain counsels of God. The story, always doubted by the most trustworthy historians, that a day or two before he sighted Guanahani he promised his mutinous and despairing followers to return if land was not seen within three days, is best confuted by its own absurdity. It was a moral impossibility for him to turn back. His faith was of the kind that removes mountains, for he Avas chosen of God to bear the glad tidings of salvation to millions of his fellow- men before the heavens should be rolled together as a scroll, that near time when the first heaven and the first earth should have passed away, and Avhen there should be no more sea. The geographical theory which alone saved the proposition of a western passage to Cathay, or China, from being preposterous, and on which he based his faith in his divine mission and all his hopes of PERSEVERANCE OF COLUMBUS. 105 worldly greatness, he never abandoned. Even after his last voyage, when he had four times crossed and recrossed the Atlantic, he said: " The world is but small ; out of seven divisions of it the dry part occupies six, and the seventh is entirely covered Avith water." In all his voyages he was constantly finding some fancied resemblance in the names of persons and places among the Indians to cities or provinces or princes of the East mentioned by Marco Polo. The impression which the Avonderful stories of that traveller had made upon a mind Columbus on Shipboard. always ruled by a poetic temperament and a vivid imagination, and the confidence he had in the importance and magnificence of the discovery he proposed to make, were deepened by still another conviction. The wealth of David and Solomon in gold and silver, of which he read in Scripture, he believed came from those parts of the world he expected to reach. Had he only hoped to find a new con tinent, inhabited by some nations of savages, though he might still have represented to the sovereigns of Portugal, of England, and of Spain the importance and the glory of such a discovery, he would have had little of that enthusiasm and perseverance with which his belief in the certainty of arriving, in little more than a month, on the 106 INDIA — THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. confines of the glorious East inspired him and enabled him to inspire others. The value and the character of a new continent could have been only conjectural; but of the fabulous wealth, the noble cities, the splendor of the palaces, the magnitude of the commerce, the millions of souls waiting for the coming of a knowledge of Christ in that con tinent to Avhich he meant to open a new way, he was sure he knew. He asked for aid to enable him to take possession, not of some specu lative advantage, some shadowy good, but of power and riches and dominion that had been seen of the eyes of men. With a patience that nothing could Avear out, and a perseverance that was absolutely unconquerable, Columbus waited and labored for eighteen years, appealing to minds that wanted light and to ears that wanted hearing. His ideas of the possibilities of navigation Avere before his time. It was one thing to creep along the coast of Africa, where the hold upon the land need never be lost ; another, to steer out boldly into that wilderness of waiters over which mystery and darkness brooded. Only the learned could understand that the world was a globe, and that it might be as safe to sail upon one part of its surface as another ; only the enlightened could see that to penetrate the unknown might be to find that which was worth knowing. His knowledge was disbelieved in ; his religious zeal and aspirations de rided. He first asked aid of Genoa.; -or rather he first offered without suc cess the empire he proposed to acquire to that, his native, city. Then he assured John II. of Portugal that he would add India to to" Gen°oPa°aSi his crown by an easy voyage of less than two months, instead Portugal. oj; ^e dubious route around the distant and stormy cape of Africa. John II., who inherited much of the enthusiasm of his great uncle Prince Henry the Navigator, for maritime adventure, and who had sent one or two expeditions in search of that mysterious potentate, Prester John, who reigned, it was supposed, now in Central Africa, now in farthest India, listened Avith so ¦ much interest and attention to the proposition and the arguments of Columbus that he referred the question of the possibility of such a voyage to the most eminent men of learning in church and state in the kingdom. The decision Avas against the project as visionary and impracticable. This was so unsatisfactory to the king that, it seems probable, had Columbus yielded something of his demand of honor and profit to himself in case of success, the application to John, in spite of the advice of his council, might have been successful. But at length, when Columbus had been kept for years in suspense and doubt, the Bishop of Ceuta, either to get rid of him, in any event, or to satisfy the king, suggested that a caravel be secretly dispatched ATTENDANCE ON THE SOVEREIGNS OF SPAIN. 107 on such a voyage as Columbus had proposed. The advice was treach erous and base, but the king Avas weak enough to accept it. A caravel was sent out, under a false pretext, provided with the charts and other documents Avhich Columbus had laid before the council to sustain his proposition. But those in command of her had little in clination for a venture which they could only look upon as mad, and certain, if persevered in, to end in their own destruction. They only went, therefore, as far as the Cape de Verde Islands, and reported, on their return, that the proposed Avestward voyage was absurd and im possible. When Columbus learned of the trickery and trifling of which he was made the subject, he shook the dust of Portugal from off his feet to go and offer, as he believed, to some other prince Avho should be wise enough to accept them, the richest kingdoms of all the earth. He left Lisbon in 1483 or 1484, and first Avent, it is supposed, to Genoa, to urge in person upon the senate of his native city the pro posal he had previously made in writing. But whether made in per son or by letter only, the offer Avas rejected, and he is next heard of in Spain, seven or eight years before he sailed on his first Hi8attend. voyage. During those years he was often in attendance f1",."" the upon Ferdinand and Isabella, then busily engaged in war for of Spain- the recovery of Grenada, sometimes serving in the campaigns against the Moors, but always watchful for an opportunity to urge his suit upon the sovereigns, or to commend it to any great man of the court whom he could get to listen to him. He was thought, at length, so far Avorthy of respect that means were provided for his maintenance when his proposition was actually under consideration, but he sup ported himself, some part of the time at least, by making maps and charts, as he had done in Portugal. He gained some friends among the powerful and influential, but none were more useful and devoted than those of humbler rank whom he found Avithout seeking. Stopping, foot-sore and weary, on his journey to the court of Spain, at the gate of the convent of Santa Maria de Rabida, near Palos, to ask for bread and water for his little son, his appearance and conversation so interested the prior, Juan Perez de Marchina, that he persuaded the travellers to remain for a longer rest than Columbus had intended. Rabida became thence forth the permanent home of his son, and an occasional one for him self, for several years. There lived at the neighboring port of Palos a family of seafaring men, the Pinzons, and a physician, Garcia Fernandez, learned in geog raphy and mathematics. The prior, Juan Perez, was himself inter ested in all maritime subjects, and Columbus found in these men a 108 INDIA — THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. little circle of friends so Avell informed as to feel at once an enthusiastic interest in the magnitude and importance of his project. With them he discussed his plans, his geographical theories, his astronomical problems, his pious aims. From them he received encouragement and sympathy in the darkest hours of doubt and despondency. They took up the enterprise with as much zeal as if it had been their own ; Juan Perez, who had once been confessor to the queen, used all his personal influence with her to forward the interests of Columbus, and to secure him friends at court ; and when at last his negotiations with the king and queen were successful, it was among these good friends that he found the means to contribute his eighth part of the expenses of the expedition, and two of his three vessels were commanded by the Pinzons. His eight years of probation were weary years of poverty, humil iation, and hope deferred. He was not only derided as an enthusiast, almost as a madman, but was in danger of being denounced as a heretic for devising theories in direct contradiction to the received doctrines of the fathers as to the shape and habitation of the globe. He was looked upon with cold suspicion as a foreigner, and sneered at as vainglorious for assuming to be wiser than many of the learned Decision of °^ ^ns own time, and all those of the past. The Council of 0fesaia?ncil Salamanca, summoned by royal order to meet at the convent manea. 0f g^ Stephen, and listen to his plea, decided against him. The most reverent and powerful prelates, fired with holy zeal, and dogged in their hostility to new-fangled and presumptuous notions, ridiculed with great success a project involving such an absurdity as the existence of the antipodes, where men Avalked with their heels above their heads, where the trees grew downward, where the snow and rain fell upward from a nether heaven. To maintain that the earth was inhabited beyond the tropics savored of blasphemy. The Bible taught that all men are descended from Adam and Eve, whose primal home was on .the banks of the Shat-el-Arab, north of the Persian Gulf ; and as the torrid zone was impassable, to assume that there were human beings beyond that line was to assume that there were races of men who did not descend from Adam and Eve. Moreover, it was denied by these bigots that the earth was a globe, for the Scriptures and the fathers taught that it was a level, extended plain, whose extremity could only be reached, if it could be reached at all, by a voyage of several years. But if the world was a globe, then, they triumphantly asserted, such a voyage as this ignorant enthusiast proposed would be absolutely impossible ; for either one way or the other, in going or returning, the sailing would be all up-hill. There were, indeed, men in that grave assembly too enlightened not to detect COLUMBUS BEFORE THE COUNCIL AT SALAMANCA. QUEEN ISABELLA'S DECISION. 109 the fallacies and absurdities involved in such statements, and to wonder at the ignorance that could believe in them ; others there were ready Avith facts of navigation and geography, few as they Avere in that age, to show that, whether Columbus were right or wrong, such objections to his theories Avere more baseless than his wildest dreams. And there were some, perhaps, who thought, if they did not say so, that the laws of the universe could not be limited to texts of Scrip ture, or assertions sanctified by noth ing but priestly authority. It Avas a gain, nevertheless, to get the subject before so august a body as this Coun cil of Salamanca, and the eloquence which Columbus brought to its dis cussion, the special scientific facts of which he showed himself the master, the skill Avith which he parried at tack, and the sagacity with which he avoided the pitfalls and ambushes with which the wily monks beset his path, made him new friends and strengthened his old ones. Doubtful of success in Spain, he at one time sent his brother Bar tholomew to England to open negotiations, if possible, with Henry VII. ; at another time he entered into correspondence with Louis XL of France. From Ferdinand and his counsellors he could get . . , . n , , . _ Application only evasive answers, and wearied out at length with pro- to England . . , . . , r> i i -i and Trance. crastmation, and negotiations that came to nothing, he bade farewell to his friends and started for France and England. But among those who sincerely believed in him and his project was Luis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues of Aragon, who, on hearing that Columbus had actually started to leave the coun try, hastened to the queen and begged her to recall him. His entrea ties and representations, seconded by those of Alonzo de Quintanilla, the Minister of Finance, Avho happened to be present, prevailed with Isabella. They convinced her that the loss and the shame to Spain would be great and irreparable if such an opportunity to add to her dominion and wealth, by the discovery of a short passage to India, should fall into the hands of any other power. A messenger was immediately dispatched to bring Columbus back, the queen Queen lEa. declaring that the enterprise should now be her own, and ojfjj,,601 es that she would pawn the royal jewels to defray its expenses. enterPnse- This generous sacrifice on her part, however, was rendered unneces- Isabella, Queen of Castile. 110 INDIA — THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. sary by Santangel, who took it upon himself to advance the requisite sum. On the arrival of Columbus, negotiation was resumed, and an agreement was at length drawn up between Ferdinand and Isabella and himself by Avhich he Avas made admiral and viceroy of all the seas and lands he should discover ; a tenth part of all the revenues to be derived from them Avas to be his ; and he was to provide an eighth part of the expenses. Armed with such authority, he repaired to Palos to make arrangements for the voyage. The agreement was signed in April or May, 1492, and on the third of the following August he sailed from Palos in command turefrom of an expedition consisting of three vessels and one hundred and twenty men. The largest ship, the Santa Maria, on which flew the admiral's pennant, was probably not more than one hundred tons' burden ; the other two, the Pinta and the Nina, commanded respective ly by his friends Martin Alonzo Pinzon and Vincente Yanez Pinzon, of Palos, were still smaller vessels, called caravels, with no decks amid ships, but built high out of the water at the stem and stern. But not only were his ves sels small; they were hardly seaworthy, and one of them, the Pinta, unshipped her rudder before they reached the Canaries. It is conjec tured, indeed, that this A^as not accidental, but was con trived by the owners of the vessel before she left port, they not liking the adventure on which they were compelled to send her. The ad miral, however, had great difficulty in getting any vessels at all, so intense was the feeling in Palos against the enterprise. The royal mandate ; the promise of immunity from civil or criminal process against any person, who Avould enlist in it ; the example of the Pin- zons, the most respectable and experienced mariners of the port ; and the priestly influence of Juan Perez, the prior of Rabida, Avere means and influences all needed and all used to procure crews. When the expedition sailed, it was followed by prayers and tears and lamenta tions for men most of Avhom Avere constrained by authority or ne- The Fleet of Columbus. THE FIRST EXPEDITION. Ill cessity to enter upon an adventure which seemed desperate to the last degree. The sum advanced from the treasury of Aragon by Santangel was one million one hundred and forty thousand maravedis, " being the sum he lent," says the account-book, " for pay- Kxpedi- ing the caravels which their highnesses ordered to go as the armada to the Indies, and for paying Christopher Columbus, who goes in the said armada." x If to this be added the one eighth share of the expenses which it Avas stipulated Columbus himself should provide, the whole cost of the expedition was one million two hundred and eighty-two thousand and five hundred maravedis, a sum hardly equal in its purchasing power to fifty thousand dollars of the money of our time. It is evident, therefore, that the expense of the expedition must always have been a secondary consideration Avith the sovereigns from Avhom Columbus had sought assistance. The real difficulty was not money, but the serious doubts as to the soundness of his theory of the possibility of a western voyage to India. It was those doubts, intensified into absolute terror, that filled Palos Avith wailing and consternation when he succeeded, at last, in making good his de parture. Seven months later he entered the same port with the halo of the most brilliant success about him, and prepared to proceed to court surrounded with the barbaric pomp of painted savages decked out with ornaments of gold, and crowned Avith coronets of brilliant feath ers, attendants carrying in their hands birds of the gayest plumage, the stuffed skins of strange beasts, and specimens of trees and plants supposed to bear the most precious spices. No wonder that then the revulsion of feeling Avas tremendous, and he was hailed as the greatest and most fortunate of men. It was a short-lived triumph, however, never to be repeated on his return from either of his three subsequent voyages, for his was a success that had not succeeded. The glory of the discovery he actually made has to a remarkable degree obscured the fact that in the long discussion before o o ^ The mistake kings and councils of the discovery he proposed to make, it of the great o j x i navigator. was Columbus who Avas in the wrong, and his opponents who were in the right, on the main question — a short western route to India. The ignorance, the obstinacy, the stupidity, with which he so long contended, Avere indeed obstacles in the way of an event so im portant to all civilized races as the possession of half the globe ; but that event was no more proposed or foreseen by Columbus than it was opposed by those who withstood him the most persistently. or ridiculed him the most unmercifully. The very splendor of his 1 Helps' Life of Columbus, p. 80. 112 INDIA — THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. promises may have made men incredulous of their fulfilment who Avould, perhaps, have listened to an argument in favor merely of the possibility of sailing westward and of reaching unknown countries, within a moderate distance, which might be worth exploring and worth possessing. But Columbus had no such argument to offer. Neither in his mind nor in theirs was there any thought of a great continent lying between two great oceans, extending almost from pole to pole, and separating the western coast of Europe from the eastern coast of Asia by an area of land and sea that covered half the globe. It was that distant Asia itself that he declared he could reach in less than forty days ; and that they rightly said was im possible. But at last, as he believed, and as they were forced to confess, by an event which all misapprehended, he was justified. The enthu siasm, the strength of faith, the tenacity of purpose, which through so many years had never faltered, had at length triumphed — tri umphed even in the final struggle with the superstition and despera tion of men who would have gladly sacrificed him to their fears. They had crossed the ocean hitherto believed to be guarded by strange and horrid monsters and shrouded in frightful darkness ; but the New as they approached the land of the Western Hemisphere a new terror seized them. They fancied themselves lured by the powers of magic to certain destruction, gliding over smooth waters, favored by gentle breezes, beguiled by birds of gay plumage whose song was of the woods; by fishes of flashing hues whose natural haunts were the dark and still crevices of rocky shores ; by fantastic clouds that took the semblance of distant mountains or of low beaches, making a dim line upon the edge of sky and sea, but fading into nothingness as they were approached ; by the exquisite perfume of tropical vegetation, enwrapping all the senses, while around them were to be seen only the desolate waters, above them only the cruel sky. But the presence of the man of faith was stronger than the dread of the supernatural. He never faltered for a single instant ; not one passing mist of doubt ever clouded his mind. He knew that God had led him to the threshold of the dominions of Kublai Khan ; and when at daybreak on the 12th of October the morning light revealed the beautiful earth, never so hailed since the top of Ararat pierced the waters of a drowned world, — at that su preme moment he in his sublime faith saw the realization of the visions of a life-time. Before him rose all the splendor and opulence of the thousands of cities and palaces, the fleets of unnumbered ships laden with richest merchandise, the mountains of precious stones, the lakes of pearls, the rivers of gold, of the kingdoms of Mangi and MISTAKE OF THE GREAT NAVIGATOR. 113 Cathay ; these for his temporal sovereigns, the King and Queen of Spain : and before him gathered millions of his fellow-creatures, to whose perishing souls he, the " Christ-bearer," came as the messenger of the glad tidings of salvation, to lead them to the feet of his spiritual lord, the Holy Father at Rome. And from that moment to the day of his death hardly a doubt seems ever to have cast a shadoAV over his belief. When he asked of the natives of Guanahani — the island he first saw, and The new con- appropriately named Salvador, or the Saviour — for Cipango, pS'toTe or Japan, they, supposing him to mean those mountains of ABia- Haiti called Cibao, pointed southward ; and no suspicion crossed the mind of Columbus that there could be any misunderstanding either on his part or on theirs. From the ears and noses of these savages were suspended rude ornaments of gold ; on these he fancied he could distinguish engraved characters, and that they were the coin of India. As he continued his voyage among other islands, the answer to the constant inquiry for gold Avas always the same ; the Indians pointed to the south, and the fervid imagination of the Admiral led him to interpret their gestures as meaning that southward were kingdoms populous, powerful, rich in all precious things — the marvellous country of Marco Polo's narrative. When he reached the coast of Cuba, the Indians, pointing to the interior, contrived to impart the information that at a distance of four days' journey only was Cubanacan, where gold abounded ; he recognized in that Avord — Cubanacan — a corrup tion of the name of that magnificent monarch of whom he Avas in search, Kublai Khan ; and supposing he had reached the island of Cipango, he dispatched two messengers overland, to deliver to him the letter of which he Avas the bearer as Embassador from Ferdinand and Isabella. So of all his voyages. Wherever he went, whatever he saw or heard, it only served to deepen this delusion. When he sailed Avest from Jamaica, he thought he had accomplished so much of The delusion the compass of the earth that he must needs be near the Aurea Chersonesus of ancient India. Hispaniola he was sure was Ophir, and in deep pits in the mountains he saw evidences of the ancient mines whence Solomon derived his gold. The extremity of Cuba he assumed to be the extremity of Asia, by doubling which he could sail along the known coasts of India, and reach at length the Red Sea, where, if he pleased, he could leave his own ships, cross the continent to the Mediterranean, and return to Spain, having circum navigated the world. But there was method in this madness, for yielding on that occasion to the representations of his companions, that the condition of his ships would not admit of so extended a voyage, he VOL. I. 8 114 INDIA — THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. required an affidavit from all persons on board his fleet that they be lieved the coast of Cuba, along which they had sailed, was the coast of Asia. His own belief needed no confirmation, but he Avas gratified to hear that a neighboring province was called Mangon, and that its people had tails ; for he remembered that Sir John Mandeville had described a tribe of men of that kind in the East, and he was quite certain, therefore, that he was within a few days' travel of the king dom of Mangi. He changed his mind in regard to places as he visited different regions, but he never ceased to affirm his conviction that he was on the very eve of the fulfilment of all his hopes. Ten years of observa tion and reflection upon the character of his discoveries moved him not in the least to any correction of this singular credulity. Even on his fourth and last voyage he wrote to the king and queen that on the coast of Veragua he had reached Mangi, " contiguous to Cathay ; " nineteen days of land travel, he is confident, would take him to the river Ganges ; the mines of Aurea, whence, according to Josephus, he reminds them, came the vast wealth of David and of Solomon, spoken of in Chronicles and the Book of Kings, were, he was now sure, iden tical with the mines of Veragua ; "in the name of God " he pledged himself in the same letter to conduct any one, who Avould undertake the mission, to the Emperor of Cathay, to instruct him in the faith of Christ, as the Abbe Joaquim said would be done by some one who came from Spain.1' And finally from his death-bed he wrote to the new sovereigns, Philip and Juana, that he would yet do them letter of services the like of which had never been seen; and in his Columlms, , , «nn • n -r last solemn aviII and testament he said, " In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, Avho inspired me with the idea, and afterwards made it perfectly clear to me that I could navigate and go to the Indies from Spain, by traversing the ocean westwardly. . . . And it pleased the Lord Almighty, that in the year one thousand four hun dred and ninety-tAvo I should discover the continent of the Indies and many islands, among them Hispaniola, which the Indians call Ayte, and the Monicongos, Cipango." When the successful discoverer returned to Spain from his first voy age, his reception was a triumph such as never waited upon any con- ms trium- 1ueror- The people from city and town, from village and tPohspainUra county-side, croAvded streets and highways as he travelled from Palos to Barcelona, to do homage to the man who had given India to Spain. At Barcelona the king and queen received him sitting on their thrones under a canopy in the open air, and hesitated 1 Letter on the Fourth Voyage, in Select Letters of Columbus, edited bv R. H. Major. Hakluyt Soc. Pub. TRIUMPHAL RETURN TO SPAIN. 115 when he approached to accept the customary mark of homage due from a subject to a sovereign. In Portugal, where before this arrival in Spain he was compelled by stress of weather to seek a haven, he Avas met Avith the most bitter exasperation that he should have suc- Reception by Sovereigns. ceeded in snatching from that kingdom the glory and power and riches her kings and princes had so long sought in the possession of that East which he by the boldness of his genius had found by a few days westward sailing. Some of the advisers of John II. even counselled his assassination, in the hope that the way to his discovery would perish with him. 116 INDIA— THE EL DORADO OF COLUMBUS. [Chap. V. But the rage of the Portuguese and the admiration of the Spaniards were alike blind. Had it been known that the tidings he brought were of an unknown world, peopled, apparently, by naked savages only ; that his theory as to the dimensions and divisions of the earth was proved to be a mistake ; that the only feasible road to India was that which the Portuguese had so long sought, round the Cape of Good Hope ; then he might indeed have aroused some languid curios ity for Avhat he had done, but, still more, bitter ridicule and disap pointment for his failure to fulfil the magnificent promise with Avhich for nearly twenty years he had wearied almost every court in Europe that could command a ship. The Bahama Islands and The Great Antilles, whatever their discovery might lead to in the time to come, were a poor recompense for Mangi and Cathay. But he returned the herald, as it was supposed, of a splendor and prosperity to Spain un paralleled in history ; of new power and dominion to the Holy See, and with offers of sudden riches to Avhomsoever Avould follow him to the empire of the " King of Kings." The half-crazy enthusiast had become a signal benefactor and hero ; the utmost exaltation of his imagination had held out no promise that was not about to be ful filled, and the nation fell at his feet. Though Columbus himself never knew, or never acknowledged, that he had made a mistake ; though never by a single word, so far as there is any record, did he anticipate the true cause of the undying fame that should wait upon his name, others saw when he returned from his second voyage only the dispelling of a gorgeous vision. The hidalgos who had thronged about him for that expedition, clamor ing to be led to the possession of the East, found, not an empire filled with magnificent cities, their ports crowded with ships by thou sands busy with the commerce of a third of the world ; not temples roofed with gold, resting on golden pillars, cunningly Avrought and colored ; not a people clothed in silks and costly furs, decked with precious stones, leading lives of a magnificent luxury and ease, in cit ies of palaces such as Europe never knew ; but only an unreclaimed wilderness peopled by naked savages, where he Avho would not Avork must starve, and where what gold they heard of was to be dug with weary toil out of the bowels of the earth. The " pauper pilot," as he Avas called in the days when he hung about the court a threadbare petitioner, had indeed discovered some islands in a distant ocean ; but his promises Avere idle tales, his hopes the delusions of a morbid imag ination, his India a figment ; and he himself now proved to be a rank impostor, a foreign adventurer who had thrust himself into the ranks of the proudest nobility in Europe, and abused a nation Avith mon strous lies. RESENTMENT OF THE SPANIARDS. 117 Such of these disappointed men as lived to return filled the kingdom with their clamors. Seating themselves in the very courts of the Al- hambra, holding up the grapes of which they eat, and displaying the rags which hardly covered them, they would declare that they were reduced to this poor condition by their misfortunes. They had lis tened to fables and been deceived by lies. When the king came forth they surrounded him, reproaching him and the admiral as the cause of their wretched state, and cried out, " Pay ! pay ! " And if the sons of Columbus, who were pages to the queen, passed that way, " They shouted to the very heavens, saying, ' Look at the sons of the Admiral of Mosquitoland, of that man who has discovered the lands of deceit and disappointment, a place of sepulchre and wretchedness to Spanish hidalgos.' " 1 This reaction in feeling and opinion made it possible to send him home in chains from his third expedition. The popular in- m8 failure difference to the injustice and cruelty which pursued him to and ^s™06' the end of his days, and the bitter hostility of his many enemies, are explicable only by the disappointment of those magnificent hopes ex cited by his first discovery, and which he still held out in spite of the stern facts which had opened the eyes of everybody else. Small defer ence was paid to the authority of one who was looked upon, at best, as a half-crazed enthusiast, and the haughty Spaniards resented it as an insult that any power should still rest in the hands, or any confidence be placed in the word, of one whom they thought rather deserving of punishment as an impostor than of reward as a benefactor. He had promised power, dominion, riches ; a short passage to Cathay ; the con quest of the East : a savage island or two in the Western seas was as yet the only fulfilment of that promise. What else it was to be he never knew. Not till he Avas dead did the world begin to understand that he had found a New World. l The History of the Life and Actions of Admiral Christopher Colon, etc. By his son, Don Ferdinand Colon. CHAPTER VI. COLUMBUS, VESPUCCI, AND THE CABOTS. Third Voyage op Columbus. — His Discovery of the Main Land. — The Voy age of Amerigo Vespucci. — First Printed Account op the New World. — Publications op St. Die College. — The Printer-Monks, Waldseemuli.er and Ringmann. — Expedition of the Cabots from England. — North Amer ica discovered. — Map of Sebastian Cabot. — John Cabot's Patents from Henry VII. — First English Colony sent to the New World. — Sebastian Cabot sails down the American Coast. On the 30th of May, 1498, Columbus sailed from the port of San Lucar, in Spain, on his third voyage. His special purpose this time was to search for a country which he believed lay south of those lands he had previously discovered. On the 31st of July following, when he was about to abandon his southerly course in despair and turn northward for the Carribee Islands, one of his sailors saw from the masthead a range of three mountains. Giving many thanks to God for his mercy, for the supply of water was failing, the provision of corn and wine and meat Avas well-nigh exhausted, and the crews of the three vessels were in sore distress from exposure to the heat of the tropics, the admiral made for the land, which proved to be an island. To this he gave the name it still bears of Trinidad, in honor of the Holy Trinity, and also, perhaps, because of the three mountains which were first seen., Running along the coast, he soon saw, as he supposed, another Columbus island, at the south, but which was the low land of the delta fhTmaTiand of the great River Orinoco. Entering the Gulf of Paria, he themo°riuoc°of. sailed along for days with Trinidad on the one hand and the 1498, coast of the continent on the other, delighted Avith the beauty and verdure of the country and with the blandness of the cli mate, and astonished at the freshness and volume of the water which, with an " awful roaring," met and struggled with the sea. The in nermost part of the gulf, to which he penetrated, he called the Gulf of Pearls, and into this poured the rivers whose waters, he believed, came from the earthly Paradise.1 1 Letters of Columbus, translated by R. H. Major, and published by the Hakluyt Society. Third Voyage. 1498.] THIRD VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 119 For, according to his theory of the globe, the two hemispheres were not round alike, but the Eastern Avas shaped like the breast The earthly of a woman, or the half of a round pear with a raised pro- Paradis,!- jection at its stalk ; and on this prominence, the spot highest and nearest the sky and under the equinoctial line, was the garden wherein God had planted Adam. He did not suppose it possible that mortal man could ever reach that blessed region ; but as he had sailed westward, after passing a meridian line a hundred miles west of the Azores, he had noted that the North Star rose gradually higher in the heavens, the needle shifted from northeast to northwest, the heat, hitherto so intolerable that he thought they " should have been Columbus entering the Orinoco. burnt," became more and more moderate, the air daily more refresh ing and delightful, and he Avas persuaded that he was approaching the highest part of the globe. As he sailed Avestward his ships " had risen smoothly toward the sky," till he had come, at length, to this pleasant land " as fresh and green and beautiful as the gardens of Va lencia in April," — to this mighty rush of sweet Avaters that filled the Gulf of Pearls and flowed far out to sea, coming as " on his soul " he believed from the Garden of Eden.1 1 Irving (Life of Columbus, book x., chap, iii.) says that Columbus still supposed Paria to be an island, even after he had left the gulf and sailed westward along the outer coa>t. But Columbus himself, in his letter to the King and Queen, makes a distinction between the main land and Trinidad, in speaking of the one as an island and the other as the land of Gracia. Nor is it probable that he supposed the earthly paradise to be on an island, or that such a volume of water — of which he doubted if "there is any river in the world so large and so deep " — could have its course from the "nipple " of the globe except over a continent. Charlevoix (History of New France, Shea's translation, vol. i., p. 21) says: 120 COLUMBUS, VESPUCCI, AND THE CABOTS. [Chap. VI. ' It was hard no doubt, to turn away from this celestial land, even to go back to Spain and relate in person to his sovereigns the mar vellous things he had discovered, and the approach he had made to the topmost pinnacle of the globe ; harder still to thrust away from him considerations so sublime and so congenial to his pro- atHtapSX foundly religious nature, to attend to the vulgar affairs of a turbulent colony, where, as he afterward wrote, " there were few men who were not vagabonds, and there were none who had either wife or children." x But in his absence rebellion and anarchy in Hispaniola had reached a point beyond his control, and Avhen he appealed to his sovereigns for Columbus in Chains a judge to decide between him and these turbulent Spaniards, who set all law, whether human or divine, at defiance, the court sent, not a judge, but an executioner. His enemies had at length so far pre vailed against him that Bobadilla, who came professedly to look into these troubles, dared to usurp the government of the colony, duct of to take up his residence in the house of Columbus, seizing all it contained, both of public and private property and public and private papers, and the moment the admiral came within his reach, to arrest and send him in chains on board ship for transporta tion to Spain as a felon. When Andreas Martin, the master of the caravel, moved to pity at the sight of so monstrous and cruel an in- " On the Uth he had seen another land which also he, at first, took to be an island and. styled Isla Santa, but he soon found it to be the continent." 1 " Letter of Columbus to Dona Juana de la Torres," in Select Letters, edited by R. H. Major. 1499.] VOYAGE OF ALONZO DE OJEDA. 121 dignity, offered to strike these fetters from the limbs of his distin guished prisoner, Columbus refused, with the words, says his son Ferdinand, " that since their Catholic Majesties, by their letter di rected him to perform whatsoever Bobadilla did in their name com mand him to do, in virtue of which authority and commission he had put him in irons, he Avould have none but their Highnesses them selves do their pleasure herein ; and he Avas resolved to keep those fetters as relics, and a memorial of the reAvard of his many services," 2 Some atonement was attempted for this outrage in the reception given him by Ferdinand and Isabella. He nevertheless hung up the chains on the Avail of .his chamber, only to be taken down when, six years later, they Avere laid with him in his coffin. Some months before his return to Spain he had sent home a report of the results of his voyage, the continent he had found, which he sup posed to be the extremity of the Indies, its wonderful climate, its great rivers, and its strange and attractive people. The excitement which such news must have aroused in every port of Spain was, no doubt, intense, and landsmen, as well as sailors, burned to be off to this land where the natives hung breastplates of gold upon their naked bodies and wound great strings of pearls about their heads and necks. "Now there is not a man," says Columbus, in one of his letters, — reminding his sovereigns that he waited seven years at the royal court and Avas only treated with ridicule, — " Noav there is not a man, down to the very tailors, who does not beg to be allowed to become a dis coverer." At Seville an intrepid and experienced navigator, Alonzo de Ojeda, who was with Columbus on his first voyage, and knew, Voyageof therefore, the way to the Indies of the West, proposed at £]°°az0 d°Iay once a private expedition. Some merchants of Seville sup- 20> 1499- plied the means, and his patron, the Bishop of Fonseca, superintendent of Indian affairs, and the most bitter and persistent enemy of Colum bus, gave him license for the voyage, and treacherously procured for him the charts which the great navigator had sent home, notwith standing the royal order that none should go without permission within fifty leagues of the lands he had last discovered.2 Ojeda sailed from Port St. Mary on the 20th of May, 1499, and with him went Amerigo Vespucci, a native of Florence, but then re- Amerigo siding in Seville as the agent of a commercial house. This Vespucci had assisted in the fitting out of other expeditions ; he knew 1 The Life of the Admiral, by his son, Don Ferdinand Colon. Pinkerton's Voyages, vol. xii., p. 121. 2 History of the New World. Girolamo Benzoni. Published by the Hakluyt Society, p. 37. Herrera, Decade I., book iv., chap. i. 122 COLUMBUS, VESPUCCI, AND THE CABOTS. [Chap. VI. Portrait of Vespucci. Columbus and had doubtless talked with him of the Sphere and the Antipodes, of the New Indies and the Far Cathay, of the natives sometimes tractable as chil dren, sometimes fierce as tigers ; of the abundant gold and precious stones; of the odorous spices ; of the gorgeous silks and oth er rich merchandises to be brought by this neAv route from that wonderful land. He was familiar with all the strange and stirring in cidents of voyages which for the previous six years had been filling the ears of men with tales more allur ing and more wonderful than were ever told by the boldest inventors of East ern fable, and he longed to have a share in the profit and the glory of these great enterprises. In Ojeda's fleet he had command, if we may believe his own statement, of two caravels ; the expedition, first touching the coast about two hundred leagues south of the Gulf of Paria, sailed thence leisurely along from point to point till it reached the Cape de la Veda, meeting, during the months of its progress, Avith various adventures, and the usual fortune which waited upon the first invaders, received sometimes by the simple and confiding natives as supernatural visitants, sometimes with desperate but generally futile resistance when their lust for slaves, for women, and for gold had come to be better understood. This was, probably, the first voyage of Vespucci and his first sight Vespucci's °f a continent which, partly by accident and partly through a thfconti- °f reckless disregard of truth, came afterward to bear his name. nent. 1499. jf jfc was njs fjrs£ voyage, he was entitled to no special credit, for he was a subordinate in a fleet commanded by another, who guided the expedition by the charts which Columbus had drawn of the course to Trinidad and the coast of Paria eleven months before. In 1501, Vespucci left Spain at the invitation of the King of Por tugal, and made another, his second, voyage to the West, ago of veB- sailing this time in the service of that king. He visited the coast of Brazil, of which, however, he was not the first dis coverer, for in the course of the previous year — 1500 — three dif- 1501.] SECOND VOYAGE OF VESPUCCI. 123 ferent expeditions under the guidance respectively of Vicente Yanez Pinzon, Diego de Lepe, and Rodrigo de Bastidas had sailed from Spain and made extensive explorations and important discoveries along that coast ; and a Portuguese fleet, under Pedro Alvarez de Cabral, on its Avay to India round the Cape of Good Hope, stretched so far to the west to avoid the calms of the coast of Africa as to come by that chance in sight of the opposite land, where, believing it to be a part of a continent, De Cabral landed and took possession in the name of Portugal. Vespucci at the Continent. [From Oe Bry.] The expedition of Vespucci, nevertheless, was a bold one, and made important additions to astronomical science in his observations of the heavenly bodies of the Southern firmament, especially of the "South ern Cross," and to the knowledge of geography in his exploration of the Southern continent and sea of the Western Hemisphere. After leaving Cape Verde, he was sixty-seven days at sea before he made land again at 5° south, off Cape St. Roque, on the 17th of Au gust. Thence he sailed down the coast, spending the whole winter in its exploration, till in the following April he was as far south as the 124 COLUMBUS, VESPUCCI, AND THE CABOTS. [Chap. VI. fifty-fourth parallel, farther than any navigator had been before. The nights were fifteen hours long ; the weather tempestuous and foggy and very cold. The last land he saw is supposed to be the island of Georgia, where, finding no harbors, and seeing no people along its rugged shores, the little fleet turned to escape from these savage seas, Avhere perpetual winter and almost perpetual darkness1 seemed to reign. They reached Lisbon again in 1502. Vespucci Avrote an account of this voyage in a letter to Lorenzo de Pier Francisco de Medici of Florence, which Avas published narrative of at Augsburg in 1504. No wonder that, as it was probably discovery of the mam the first printed narrative of any discovery of the main land of the new continent, it should excite unusual attention. Several editions appeared, in the course of the next four years, in Latin and Italian, and among them one at Strasbourg in 1505 under the editorship of one Mathias Ringmann, a native of Schlestadt, a town in the lower department of the Rhine, twenty-five miles from Strasbourg. So earnest an admirer of Vespucci was this young stu dent, that he appended to the narrative of the voyage a letter and some verses of his own in praise of the navigator, and he gave to the book the title of " Amerious Vesputius : Be Ora Antarctica per Re- gem Portugallice pridem inventa " (Americus Vespuccius : concern ing a southern region recently discovered under the King of Portu gal). Here was the suggestion of a new southern continent as distinct from the northern continent of Asia, to which the discoveries hitherto mainly north of the equator were supposed to belong.1 And this supposition of such a new quarter of the globe gave rise, two years afterward, to a name, all growing naturally enough out of the enthu siasm of this Ringmann for Vespucci, and communicated by him to others. In the city of St. Die, not far from Strasbourg, in the province of Lorraine, was a gymnasium or college established by Walter Lud, the secretary of the Duke of Lorraine. In this college was set up one of Coiie e those newly-invented and marvellous machines, a printing- press'of* press; and Ringmann was appointed not merely the col- st. Die. legiate professor of Latin, but to the important post of proof-reader. In 1507, Lud, the Duke's secretary, and the head, ap parently, of this little seminary of learning, published from the college printing-press a pamphlet of only four leaves relating to a narrative of four voyages to the New World by Amerigo Vespucci ; this, it is 1 The term " New World " was often used by the early writers, even by Columbus him self, in a vague way and not at all in the sense afterward attached to it of a new quarter of the globe ; nor was there till long after the deaths of Columbils and Vespucci any defi nite determination that these newly found lands were not a part of Asia. 1507.] THE PRINTING-PRESS OF ST. DIE. 125 said by the Avriter, Avas sent to the Duke, and he — Lud — had caused it to be translated from the French, in Avhich it was Avritten, into Latin ; and, as if in recognition of the influence Avhich Ringmann had exercised upon the subject among his fellows of St. Die\ Lud imme diately adds: "And the booksellers carry about a certain epigram of our Philesius (Ringmann) in a little book of Vespucci's translated from Italian into Latin by Giocondi of Verona, the architect from Venice." This refers to the Strasbourg edition of Vespucci's second voyage, edited by Ringmann two years before, and to Avhich he at tached his laudatory verses. This little book of Lud's, " Speculi Printing of Vespucci's Book. orbis Declaratio," etc., also contains some Latin verses, — versiculi de incognita terra, — the last lines of which are thus translated : — "But hold, enough ! Of the American race, New found, the home, the manners here you trace By our small book set forth in little space." 1 The narrative itself, of Vespucci's four voyages, thus referred to 1 The original is : — "SeU q» pluta: situ, aentfs moxistp rrjte 0mericf pania mole Iitiellus Janet." Harrisse's Bihliotheca Americana Vetustissima, p. 100, gives and translates the lines. The 126 COLUMBUS, VESPUCCI, AND THE CABOTS. [Chap. VI. by Lud, was published the same year, 1507, "in a book called " Cos- mographiae Introductio," of which it made about one half. mo%mvhi > i ¦»«¦ ¦ i of the Map. tam an(J Pilot-major of his Sacred Imperial Majesty the Emperor, Don Carlos, the fifth of his name, and king, our lord, made this figure extended in plane, in the year of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, MDXLIIII." (1544.) With reference to Newfoundland there is this descriptive legend in Latin and Italian : " This land was discovered by John Cabot, a Venetian, and Sebastian Cabot his son, Sebastian Cabot's Map, 1544. in the year of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, M.CCCC.XCIIII (1494), the twenty -fourth day of June (at 5 o'clock) in the morning; to which land has been given the name of The Land First Seen (ter rain primum visam) ; and to a great island, which is very near the said land, the name of St. John has been given, on account of its having been discovered the same day." „ If this legend be correct, it overthrows all previous theo- Dato of the & ' . r voyage ries, and puts aside all previous assertions. If the first vov- disputed. 1 l " age of the Cabots was made in 1494, the mistake as to the age of Sebastian has been general, for it is not at all likely that 1497.] DATE OF THE CABOT VOYAGE. 133 any share in the responsibility in an expedition so hazardous and uncertain would have been attributed to a lad of seventeen, and it conflicts with all we knoAV of his character to suppose that he would snatch at honors that were not rightfully his. The question thus opened anew has given rise to much learned and labored discussion both in favor of this neAV supposition and against it, but the most obvious explanation, it seems to us, in vieAV of Avhat was previously knoAvn, and from documents which have more recently come to light, is that the date of M.CCCC.XCIIII on the map is either a misprint or a blunder. There is no violent improbability in the supposition that the nu merals VII were changed by the printer or the copyist into IIII, and it was much more likely to happen than that the inscription itself, while announcing a fact hitherto unheard of, should be in its terms almost a literal transcript otherwise of a record hitherto universally accepted as true, Avhich agreed with all the contemporaneous author ities upon the subject, and which, if it was an error, would probably have been detected and exposed, as it was within half a century of the time when the alleged voyage was said to have been made. This record is the " extract taken out of the map of Sebastian Cabot, cut by Clement Adams," " hung up in the privy gallery at Whitehall," and the Latin text of which is thus translated by Hakluyt : InBcri tion " In the year of our Lord 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian, j£$h2i^?p and his son Sebastian, (with an English fleet set out from haU- Bristol) discovered that land which no man before that time had at tempted, on the 24th of June, about five of the clocke, early in the morning. This land he called Prima Vista, that is to say, First Seene ; because, as I suppose, it was that part whereof they had the first sight from sea. That island which lieth out before the land, he called the island of St. John, upon this occasion, as I thinke, because it was dis covered upon the day of John the Baptist." 1 The essential identity, in everything but the date of the year, of the inscriptions upon the two maps, the same day of the month, the same hour of the day, the same naming of the land first seen, and the same name given to the neigh boring island, all indicate that both referred to the same expedition, and that one was copied from the other. In the transfer, Avhat more easy and probable that the VII should be changed to IIII, or that IIII should be changed to VII ? That such a mistake — if this ob vious explanation of the difficulty be accepted — was not made by Clement Adams, whose map was hung up in Whitehall, and was well known in the sixteenth century to Sebastian Cabot's contemporaries, but that it was made by whoever printed or delineated the map of 1 Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii., p. 6. 134 COLUMBUS, VESPUCCI, AND THE CABOTS. [Chap. VI. 1544, unheard of till twenty years ago, there seems to be ample evi dence. This evidence comes from recent researches made on behalf of the British government for historical information among Italian and Span ish archives. It is found that the Venetian ambassador in England wrote home on the 24th of August, 1497, thus : — " Also some months ago his majesty, Henry VII., sent out a Vene- Bxtracts tian> wno 1S a very good mariner, and has good skill in dis- isrhMdPira"i- covering new islands, and he has returned safe, and has ianarohives. foun(j tw0 Very large and fertile new islands ; having like wise discovered the seven cities, four hundred leagues from England, on the western passage. The next spring his majesty means to send him with fifteen or twenty ships." 1 And in the archives of Venice is also a letter dated August 23, 1497, from one Lorenzo Pasqualigo, a Venetian living in London, to his brother, in which he writes : — " The Venetian, our countryman, who went with a ship from Bris tol in quest of new islands, is returned, and says that seven hundred leagues hence he discovered land, the territory of the Grand Cham ; he coasted for three hundred leagues and landed ; saw no human beings, but he has brought hither to the king certain snares which had been set to catch game, and a needle for making nets ; he also found some felled trees, wherefore he supposed there were inhabitants, and returned to his ship in alarm. " He was three months on the voyage, and on his return he saw two islands to starboard, but would not land, time being precious, as he was short of provisions The king has also given him money wherewith to amuse himself till then (the next spring), and he is now at Bristol with his wife, who is also a Venetian, and with his sons. His name is Zuan Cabot, and he is styled the Great Ad miral ; vast honor is paid him ; he dresses in silk, and these English run after him like mad people, so that he can enlist as many of them as he pleases, and a number of our own." 2 A similar letter, written about the same time from the Spanish am bassador in England, and dealing Avith the same incident — the return of this Genoese of Bristol from a vo}rage of discovery — is found in the Spanish archives at Seville. And unless other contemporary tes timony, equally direct, respectable, and impartial, shall be found to offset these statements, they may be accepted as settling two points : First, that the first voyage of the Cabots, on Avhich the western conti nent was discovered, was made in the summer of 1497 ; and second, that the leader of the enterprise was John (Zuan) Cabot. 1 Papers on English Affairs; extracted from the Venetian Calendar, by Rawdon Brown, p. 260. 2 Ibid., p. 262. 1497.] JOHN CABOT IN ENGLAND. 135 Of him this is the one fair glimpse that history gives us. When or where he was born, when or where he died and was buried, can only be guessed at with more or less of probability ; and of all the Jolm Cabot events of a life that certainly was not a short one this inci- inLond011- dent alone stands out distinct and clear, as he Avalks through White hall and the Strand, from palace to counting-house, clothed in the costliest garments of the day, telling courtier and merchant and mari ner how only a month's sail aAvay he had found the Eastern Continent of which Columbus had hitherto discovered only some outlying islands. And it is no marvel that these English should have " run after him like mad," should have watched for his coming, and have given him John Cabot in London. good hearty English cheers whenever he appeared, for his brave ex ploit was to the honor of the English name, as Avell as to his own. If other proof were wanting that this was the first voyage, a curious bit of evidence comes in to corroborate the story of the return of the successful navigator and the reception that was given him. In the account of the Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry is this Bewa.ra f0r entry : "10th August, 1497. To hym that found the New ^{X'th Isle, 10Z." 1 That this refers to Cabot seems improbable ; America' but it is quite likely that the king should have sent, or given with his own hand, such a reward to the sailor who from his faithful watch at the mast-head was the first to cry "Land ho!" on the coast of North America. 1 Nicolas, Excerpta Historica, quoted by Biddle and by Nicholls. 136 COLUMBUS, VESPUCCI, AND THE CABOTS. [Chap. VI. The voyage was made under a patent granted by the king on the 5th of March, 1496, authorizing John Cabot and his three sons, Lewis, Patents of Sebastian, and Sancius, to " sail to all parts, countries, and John cabot. seag 0r. tbe gast) 0£ tne West, an(j 0f the North, under our banners and ensigns, with five ships of what burthen or quantity soever they be, and so many mariners or men as they will have with them in the said ships, upon their own proper costs and charges, to seek out, discover, and find whatsoever isles, countries, regions, or provinces of the heathen and infidels, whatsoever they be, and in what part of the world soever they be, which before this time have been unknown to all Christians." The patent was in entire disregard of the bull of Pope Alexander VI., of May, 1493, by which the heathen world was divided from pole to pole_ between Spain and Portugal ; but the south was probably excluded from the sailing directions in defer ence to actual possession by either of those nations. The king was cautious; he did not mean to run any risk of involving himself in trouble Avith either of those powers ; he carefully stipulated that one fifth of all the profits of the adventure should be his, and all the cost he threAV upon the Cabots. Though a year passed away before the expedition set out, it is doubtful if it included more than the single ship of the admiral — The Matthew of Bristol. At all events that ship, The Matthew, Captain John Cabot, cleared out at the Bristol custom-house for the territories of the Grand Khan and a market m May, 1497, and returned again to port in about three months, having sailed meanwhile three hundred leagues along the coast of North America. In the Italian archives, from which we just now quoted, it is said Sebastian that another expedition was to follow up this great discovery wtthaSail3 ln tne spring. " The king," writes Pasqualigo, " has prom- coiony. jge(j f-j^ -n ^.ne Sprmg our countryman shall have ten ships, armed to his order, and at his request has conceded him all the pris oners, except such as are confined for high treason, to man his fleet." On the 3d of February, 1498, accordingly, a second patent, or rather license was issued by which John Kabotto was authorized to impress six English ships, "and them convey and lede to the Londe and Isles of late founde by the said John in oure name and by our commande- mente." The expedition consisted, however, of only two ships; on board of them went three hundred passengers, whether volunteers or convicts from the jails, and its evident purpose Avas colonization. It sailed from Bristol in the spring — probably in May — under the command — so all the old narratives concur in saying -i— of the young Sebastian. John disappears Avith this grant to him to settle the lands he had discovered ; is dead — at least to history. 1498.] SEBASTIAN CABOT EXPLORES THE COAST. 137 But the voyage Avas barren of any results of value, except that Sebastian noted that " in the seas thereabout Avere multitudes of big fishes that they call tunnies, Avhich the inhabitants call Baccalaos, that they sometimes stopped his ship." And he therefore " named this land Baccalaos." l Probably he left his three hundred emigrants someAvhere on this inhospitable coast to make such settlement as they could, Avhile. he explored still farther northward. He reached the latitude of 67^°, fighting his Avay through seas of ice, and looking anxiously for the gulf that should lead him to the Indies. " To his great displeasure" he found the coast, at length, trending eastward, probably on the peninsula of Cumberland ; his crews, perhaps reduced in numbers by the hardships of such navigation, perhaps in despair and alarm at penetrating farther into a region where in July the cold was increasing and " the dayes very long in maner without any night," grew insubordinate and mutinous, and clamored to return. Turning southward, he picked up his three hundred colonists, or Avhat Avas left of them, and sailed into pleasanter seas. " Ever intent to find that passage to India," and baffled in the search for it at the north, he hoped to discover it by run- rirst coas(. ning doAvn the coast. Into Avhat bays and estuaries he may °J^™^™ have penetrated ; Iioav anxiously he scanned the headlands ; tinent- how diligently sounded for depth of water, and marked the set of cur rents that he might miss no indication of an opening to the Avest ; or how long he Avas in making this first coast-survey of the Continent, there is no record.2 But doubtless he did his Avork faithfully and Avell, keeping along the shore of Maine and Massachusetts, missing no landmarks, doubling Cape Cod, perhaps rounding Nantucket and run ning into Buzzard's Bay and Long Island Sound, and approaching the harbor of New York ; for he sometimes landed, found " on most 1 Peter Martyr, De Orbe Novo. But Dr. Kohl doubts this. The cod-fishery, he says, had long existed on the northern coasts of Europe, and the fish were called by the Ger manic nations "Cabliauwe," or '' Kabbeljouwe," or still farther transposed, " Backljau." The Portuguese changed it to Bncalhao. The root of the word is the Germanic " bolch," meaning fish. The name, therefore, could not have had an Indian origin. Maine Hist. Coll., vol. i., Second Scries. Brevoort, on the other hand (Journal of the Am. Geoy. So ciety, p. 205), says it is simply " an old Mediterranean or Romance name, given to the pre served codfish, when it has been dried and kept open and extended by the help of a small stick. This was the stockfish of the North, and from the word Bnculum, it became the Bac- alao and Baccalieu of the South of Europe." 2 Brevoort and Stevens doubt if Cabot ever sailed south of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Peter Martyr — who says, " Cabot is my very friend whom I use familiarly and delight to have him sometimes keepe me company in mine own house" — asserts "that he was thereby brought so far into the South by reason of the land bending so much southwards, that it was there almost equal in latitude with the sea Fretum Hercuteum (Straits of Gib raltar) having the north pole elevate in the same degree." Gomara says that Cabot sailed so far north that "the days were very long, as it were without night;" and that he fol lowed the coast southward to the 38°, whence he returned home. 138 COLUMBUS, VESPUCCI, AND THE CABOTS. [Chap. VI. of the places, copper or brass among the aborigines," and captured some of the natives and brought them home to England. But when he had reached 38° north, that is, about Cape Hatteras, his provisions failing, he changed his course for Bristol. Whether Sebastian Cabot was satisfied that no passage to of Sebastian Cathay was to be found between 67 J-° and 38°, north lati tude, there is nowhere any positive assurance. He lived, how ever, to be eighty years of age ; in the course of that long life he held the honorable and influential position of Pilot-major both in Spain and England ; he led, in the service of Spain, an event ful expedition to the Rio de la Plata ; in the service of England he sent another to Russia, and established commercial in tercourse between the two nations ; but, unless he made a third voyage to North America in 1516, Avhich was certainly projected, though its accomplishment is questioned, he abandoned, after his re turn in 1498, all farther attempts at discovery or settlement on the coast of North America. The honor of the dis covery of the mainland of the continent was his; but seventy years passed away before the first permanent colony was planted north of the Gulf of Mexico. Sebastian Cabot. Fac-simile of Signature of Amerigo Vespucci. CHAPTER VII. SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. Designs tor the Discovery of a Northwest Passage to India. — The Cor- TEBEAL VOYAGES. — VaSCO NUNEZ DE B.\LB0A REACHES THE PACIFIC OCEAN. — Search for the Fountain of Youth. — Florida Discovered. — Gulf of Mex ico sailed over. — Explorations on the Atlantic Sea-coast. — Estavan Gomez on the Borders of the United States. — Expedition of Pamphilo de Nar- vaez to Florida. — Adventures of Cabeca de Vaca. — The Enterprise of Hernando de Soto. — The Discovery of the Mississippi River. — Death and Dramatic Burial of De Soto. — Ueturn of the Troops of De Soto. — Tris tan de Luna's Attempt to found a Colony. That the Cabots were the first modern discoverers of the Western Continent, or, indeed, that Columbus was the first European who, in the fifteenth century, visited the New World, is not undisputed. John Skolnus, or John of Kolno, a Pole, is said to have been on the coast of Labrador in 1477 ; it is claimed by some French writers that in 1488 one Cousin, a Frenchman of Dieppe, was driven across the Atlantic and made land on the other side at the mouth of a Avide river ; that with him Avas one of that family of Pinzons of Palos which gave, foiu years later, captains — one of them perhaps this very captain — to two of the three ships of Columbus. The evidence of such an expedition is so slight, that constructive arguments have only more or less weight as they are more or less ingenious. When, however, the path to the new Indies Avas fairly opened, in the last decade of the fifteenth century, fresh voyages fol lowed in rapid succession, and not navigators only, but sov- Spain ereigns vied with each other to share with Spain the glory European and the riches of the new discoveries. Henry VII. of Eng land, when he gave a patent to the Cabots, no doubt reflected that Columbus might have been an English, rather than a Spanish admiral. The king of Portugal did not attempt to conceal his chagrin that the dominion and power which had fallen, or inevitably would fall, into the hands of Spain, he had rejected. But though Spain could not be interfered with at the south, it was still possible to find the yet undis covered way to India by a northern passage ; there might still be unknown islands, or even continents, full of gold and heathen men, in northern seas. 140 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VIL In 1500, accordingly, two caravels were dispatched from Portugal Caspar cor- under the command of Gaspar Cortereal, in search of a pas- tereai seeks sage to India in northern latitudes. He made no settlement,. a northwest o passage. hut explored the coast, either on that or a second voyage made the next year, for six or seven hundred miles, as far north as. the fiftieth parallel, where his further progress was stopped by the ice. The country he called Terra de Labrador — the land of laborers — though that name was afterwards transferred to a region farther north.. Cortereal at Labrador. The people Avere like Gypsies in color, well made, intelligent, and' modest ; they lived in wooden houses, clothed themselves in skins and furs, used " swords made of a kind of stones, and pointed their arrows with the same material." The country abounded Avith timber, espe cially pine ; the seas were full of fish of various kinds ; and, with such natural advantages, added to its populousness, it Avas thought that its acquisition might prove valuable to Portugal. If Cortereal did not open a way to India, or find mines of gold to rival those of Hispaniola, at least he had discovered, as he hoped, a new Slave Coast, and he enticed or forced on board his caravels fifty-seven of the natives whom he meant to sell as slaves. These were pronounced as " admirably calculated for labor, and the best slaves ever seen." J 1 The Cortereal voyages are not free from the confusion which surrouuds so many of the early narratives. Several writers (see Barrow's Chronological History of Voyages ; Laril- ner's Cyclopaedia ; Edinburgh Cabinet Library) following Cordeiro's Historia Insularia, assert that Newfoundland was first discovered by John Vaz Costa Cortereal in 1463 or 1464 ; but. Biddle (Memoir of Cabot, book ii., chapter 11) shows that there is no good authority for any such voyage. A passage in the life of his father by Ferdinand Colon, however, seems to have been overlooked by all these writers. He says that Vincent Dear, a Portuguese, 1502.J THE CORTEREAL VOYAGES. 141 Cortereal made two voyages, but from the second he never came back. It is uncertain what his fate Avas. He mav have been „ L „ . ^ rate of the lost at sea ; or, as it lias been conjectured, he may have been Cortere*i«. killed by the natives in an attempt to kidnap another cargo of slaves, or in revenge for the capture of those stolen on the previous voyage. But this, of course, involves the presumption that the kidnapping was on his first expedition, and that the retribution fell upon him on his return to the coast. But the latest and most reasonable suggestion is that it was on his second voyage that he committed this outrage upon the Indians, and that he and his fifty captives perished together at sea. And this is the more probable conjecture since we know that Miguel Cortereal, a younger brother, sailed from Lisbon, on the 10th of May, 1502, with two vessels, in search of Gaspar, eight months lifter the report of the arrival of one of Gaspar 's caravels. The Indians may have punished him also for his brother's cruelty to their kindred, for he did not return. The next year the king sent out an expedition in quest of both, but that came back without tidings of returning from Guinea to Terceira, saw, or thought he saw, an island, and told this to one Luke de Gazzana, a wealthy Genoese merchant. Gazzana sent out a vessel, and " the pilot went out three or four times to seek the said island, sailing from one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty leagues, but all in vain, for he found no land. Yet for all this, neither he (Gazzana) nor his partner gave over the enterprise till death, always hoping to find it." Ferdinand Colon adds that a brother of Gazzana also told him that he knew the sons of " the captain who discovered Terceira," Gaspar and Michael Cortereal, " who went several times to discover that land ; and it is plain from the context that Ferdinand Colon aneans to refer to distinct expeditions to the West — those before his father's first voyage by Gazzana 's direction, when John Vaz Costa Cortereal was governor of Terceira; and these by the younger Cortereals in 1500. It was natural enouirh that these expeditions should be confounded with each other, and this confusion was not cleared up even when Hakluyt published the first edition of his voyages in 1582, who says : " An excellent learned man of Portugal, of singular gravety, authortie, and experience, tolde me very lately that one Gonus Cortereal, captayne of the yle of Terceira, about the ycare 1574, which is not above eight years past, sent a ship to discover the North West Passage." Here is an obvious mistake of about a century. In regard to the actual expedition of Gaspar Cortereal, the principal original source of information hitherto relied upon, is the letter of .Pietro Pasqualigo, Venetian Ambassador to Portugal, to his brother, October 19, 1501. This was first published in a volume of voy ages printed in Venice in 1507, under the title Paesi Novamente retrovati et Novo Mondo. But Dr. Kohl (Collections of Maine Hist. Society, 1869), relying upon some recent researches in the Portuguese archives by M. Kuntsmann (Die Entdeckung America's), assumes that Pasqualigo's letter refers to the second voyage of Cortereal, and that the caravel, on board which he was with fifty of the Indians, never arrived. The letter says : " On the 8th of the present month one of the two caravels which his most serene mnjesty dispatched last year on a voyage of discovery to the North, under the command of Gaspar Cortcrat, arrived here They have brought hither of the inhabitants, seven in all, men, women, and children, and iu the other caravel, which is looked for every hour, there are fifty more." If this was the first voyage, the other caravel subsequently arrived with the fifty Indians, as Cortereal certainly made a second expedition. The date alone of the letter (October, 1501) — if Cortereal sailed in 1500 — suggests that Pasqualigo confounded the two voyages, and that he refers to the second, from which Cortereal did not return. 142 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VII. either. Then the eldest brother, Vasqueanes Cortereal, the governor of Terceira, one of the Azores, begged permission to continue the search, but the king forbade it, and the Portuguese, discouraged by such a succession of disasters, abandoned all farther attempts at dis covery in the northern seas. These explorations in high northern latitudes the Spanish left for the most part to other nations. Not that they were less eager to find a passage to India, but they believed that they alone were seeking it in the right direction. The conviction was of slow growth that another continent, hitherto unknown, lay betAveen Europe and Asia, and that this must be passed before the coveted spice islands of the East could be reached by sailing westward. Even Columbus himself must have had some misgivings, for while he professed to believe that on his third and fourth voyages he had reached the continent of Asia, he was none the less persistent in seeking from Venezuela to Honduras for a strait that should lead him to a South Sea and to search of India. It is not easy to reconcile his avowed theoretical con- tor^™™, victions with his practical conduct ; but it is remarkable em passage, y^ conjecture or reasoning should have led him to seek for such a channel where, if it existed at all anyAvhere between Terra del Fuego and the Arctic Sea, it was most likely to be found. In his fourth and last voyage, crowded Avith misfortunes more romantic than the boldest imagination would have ventured to put forth as fiction, he groped his way along the coast of Central America in search of an eastern passage. The problem of an easy and rapid communication by sea Avith the far East, has to-day no other solution than a possible artificial channel Avhere the great navigator hoped to find one hollowed out by the waters of two meeting seas. To the genius of Columbus this homage was paid by all his con temporaries — whither he led there they followed. As Ojeda ditions from and Vespucci, after his discover}' of the Southern Continent, on his third voyage, went to Paria and explored the coast north and south of that gulf, so Solis and Pinzon, moved by his ex ample, sailed into the Caribbean Sea and along its shores Avhere Columbus, on his fourth voyage, had led the way. Within four or five years of his death, in 1506, the Avhole coast from Carthagena to Yucatan had been visited by many adventurers, dividing the country amongst them, fighting with each other as occasion offered, slaughter ing, mutilating, or enslaving the Indians, as best served their purpose in the gathering of gold. vascoNunez Among these freebooters was Vasco Nunez de Balboa, an de Baiboa. excellent specimen of that class of Spanish discoverers Avho overran the southern half of the New World, and of which Pizarro 1506.] VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA. 143 and Cortez — who were fitted for their future careers at the same time and in the same school and region Avith Vasco Nuf.ez — were still more brilliant instances. This Nuiiez was eminent in that bravery Avhich belonged to men who, clad in steel, armed Avith an arquebuse or cross-bow, and a sword, mounted, perhaps, on horseback, Avere ready to meet any number of naked savages Avith only bows and arroAvs ; he Avas vigorous and capa ble of great endurance, as well as bold ; and he Avas pitilessly cruel, unscrupulous, and dissolute, but at the same time zealous for the Church. Vasco Nunez on Shipboard. To escape from his creditors in Hispaniola he concealed himself in a cask, on board a vessel about to sail for the Caribbean Sea.1 When far from land he crept from his hiding-place and prevailed by prayers and tears upon Enciso, the commander of the expedition, not to put him ashore and leave him, as he threatened, to starve on a barren island. Afterward, Avhen the vessel was wrecked, Nuiiez, who had been on the 1 Herrera, Decade I., book viii., chap. 2. 144 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VII. coast before and remembered an Indian village on the river Darien, led the crew, harassed by the natives and reduced almost to starvation, to that place. By force of character and skilful management he soon became the head of a party, helped to depose Enciso, to whom he owed his life, got rid of others who had some title to the government of the province, and raised himself to supreme command. From the son of an Indian chief he learned, on one of his maraud ing expeditions into the interior, that six davs' iournev fur- Rumors of a ° r J J J Land of ther on Avas another sea, and beyond it a country so abound ing in gold that the people ate and drank out of dishes made of it. In September, 1513, he started from Darien to find that sea. He fought his Avay through tribes of hostile Indians, Avhom he sub dued by killing many, " hewing them in pieces as the Butchers doe fleshe in the shambles, from one an arme, from another a legge, from him a buttocke, from another a shoulder, and from some the necko from the bodie at one stroke ; " and some the dogs brought down and tore limb from limb " as if they were wild bores or Hartes." 1 At length the invaders The south sea. reached a high mountain from the top of which, said the Indian guides, the southern sea was in sight. Nunez ordered his men to halt while he climbed up alone. Far beneath him, on the other side, 1 Peter Martyr's Third Decade, trans, by Lok. Hakluyt, vol. \ ., edition of 1812. 151S.] DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC. 145 lay the blue ocean, sparkling and glorious in the sunlight, stretching as far as the eye could reach, North, South, West, to where , , , . T Discovery of sky and Avater seemed to meet. It Avas for this that all the thePllciflc great navigators of the Avorld had been seeking for nearly 151^- twenty years, and Avhen the sight of it broke upon Vasco Nunez he fell prone upon the ground. Raising himself presently upon his knees, he gave thanks to God that it had "pleased his diuine maiestie to reserue vnto that day the victorie and prayse of so great a thing vnto him." An ecstacy of delight, of triumph and devotion possessed him. With one hand lie beckoned his folloAvers to come to him ; Avith the other he pointed wildly seaward, " shewing them the great maine sea here tofore vnknoAvne to the inhabitants of Europe, Aphrike, and Asia.' First Embarkation on the South Sea. Again he fell upon his knees, and to his prayers, " desiring Almighty God and the blessed Virgin to fauor his beginnings, and to give him good successe to subdue those landes, to the glory of his holy name, and increase of his holy religion." His companions joined him and " praysed God Avith loude voyces for ioy," for he " exhorted them to lyft up their hearts and beholde the lande euen now vnder their feete, and the sea before their eyes Avhich shoulde bee vnto them a full and iust rewarde of their great laboures and trauayles now ouerpassed." He ordered heaps of stone to be piled up in token that he took pos session of the country for his sovereign, and the name of Ferdinand VOL. . 10 146 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VII. of Castile he carved upon many trees as he went down the Pacific slope. The men, marshalled in battle array, were ordered by this pious captain to assail the natives and " to esteeme them no better than dogges meate, as they shoulde be shortly." x From that fate, how ever, gold could always save them. Twelve men, among whom was Pizarro, the future conqueror of Peru,2 were sent in advance to find the safest and shortest path to the shore. At the spot where they approached it two canoes Avere stranded upon the beach. As the flood-tide floated them Alonso Martin stepped into one, and Blaze de Atienza followed in the other, and they called to their companions to witness that they were the first Spaniards — Martin first, and Atienza second — who embarked upon the South Sea. When, a few days later, Vasco Nunez arrived with his Avhole company, he marched into the water up to his thighs, with his sword and target, and solemnly pronounced that ocean and all that pertained to it as the possession of the soArereigns of Castile and Leon, which he Avould defend against all comers.3 Thenceforward the exploration and occupation of the western coast, both north and south, went forward with little interruption. But Fate of the man whose energy and perseverance led the way, Vasco Bezde Bai- Nunez de Balboa, fell a victim, five years later, to the jealousy boa- and fears of the Governor of Darien, Peter Anias, who ordered him, after the mockery of a trial, to be beheaded. Such atrocities were so common among the Spaniards that this one, though perpetrated against a man whose eminent services had been recog nized by an appointment as Adelantado over the sea he had discov ered, seems to have gone unpunished and almost unnoticed by the government at home. While the course of Spanish adventure Avas thus, in the earlier years of the sixteenth century, directed towards Central America, leading, in due season, to such events as the discovery of the Pacific, the conquests of Peru and Mexico, and the exploration of the western coast of the present United States, it Avas not forgotten that there might be other regions further north on the Atlantic coast Avorth pos sessing. Juan Ponce de Leon, Avho had enriched himself by the sub jugation of Porto Rico, resolved, Avhen deprived of the governorship of that island, to increase his fame and his riches by some new enter prise. He had heard that there Avere lands at the north, of Avhich marvellous tales Avere told, not only of great wealth of gold and prec ious stones, but that hidden aAvay somewhere in the deep recesses of 1 Peter Martyr. " Life of Pizairo, by Arthur Helps, p. 55. 8 Herrcra, Decade I., hook x., chap. 1. SEARCH FOR THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. 1512.] PONCE DE LEON DISCOVERS FLORIDA. 147 its forests bubbled up a fountain of which whosoever drank should receive the priceless gift of perpetual youth. The rumor of Legend of gold was enough to tempt Spanish cupidity ; but that was 5 'Xb'!'1111 as nothing to Ponce de Leon, already rich but already old, to the promise of being young again. To find this new marvel of the New World, Juan Ponce de Leon started from Porto Rico Avith three ships, in March, 1612.1 As was fitting in a quest for a fountain of immortality, the adventurers floated over that summer sea as men intent on pleasure, to whom time Avas long and burdened Avith no serious du ties ; they sailed from island to island, touching here and there as fancy led them, seeking the safest and pleasantest coves, where the shades were deepest in the noon day sun and the waters coolest, Avhere the fruits Avere sweetest, the Indians most friendly and their Avomen loveliest. After a month of such idle dalliance they crossed the Bahama Channel, and, on the 27th of March, Avhich happened to be Easter Sunday and which the Spaniards call Pascua de Flores,2 they saw and passed an island on the opposite coast. Two or three days later Ponce de Leon Discover landed on the main, near the point iioav called Fernandina.3 ^arch"^' Taking possession of it in the name of Spain he named it 1512- Florida, because the land was first seen on the Pascua de Flores, and because it was fair to look upon, covered with pleasant groves and carpeted with flowers. For more than thirty days they sailed along the coast on both sides of the Peninsula, and among the Bahama Islands, sometimes traffick ing, more often fighting with the Indians, who were bold and fierce, but seeking always for the wonderful fountain. Whether it was on the mainland, or, as some of the Indians said, on the Island of Bimini, of i Dr. J. G. Kohl (Maine Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. i., Second Series, p. 240) says March 3, 1513, and that Peschel, in his Geschidite des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, has proved that the year 1512, to which this voyage of De Leon is usually assigned, is incorrect. March 3, 1512, old style, would be 1513, new style, and Bancroft accordingly gives the date 15^|. Dr. Kohl leaves it doubtful whether he means 15^f, or 15^|. 2 Herrera, Hildreth, Irving, and some other writers, erroneously state that Pascua de Flores is Palm Sunday. La Pascua de las Flores is La Pascua de la Resurrection, or Easter Sunday. 3 Peter Martyr says (Decade V., chap. 1) "that parte of the lande which Johannes Pon tius first touched, from the north side of the Fernandina." Juan Ponce de teon. 148 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VII. the Bahama group,1 the restoring Avaters were never found ; though those who sought them drank of every spring and bathed in every stream their eager and hungry eyes could spy in the deep shadows of the woods. Leon claimed, nevertheless, great merit with the king for finding a land so fair and promising, and he was made its Adelantado, on condition that he would colonize it. In 1521, this first governor of territory within the limits of the present United States, returned to the province assigned to him, but, in a fight with Indians who opposed his landing, he received from an arroAV a wound from which no heal ing Avaters could wash the poison. He retired then to Cuba, thankful, perhaps, at last, that " eloquent, just, and mightie death " Juan Ponce could release him from the burden of old age, doubly weighted now by the calamity of poverty, for the remnant of his riches was spent in his last expedition.2 Other Spanish naviga tors followed this gay old cavalier, but the object of their search Avas gold, not youth. Don Diego Velasquez, one of the earlier adventurers in Hispaniola, who had conquered Cuba, and become its governor, ambitious, energetic, and intelligent, sent several expeditions into the Gulf of Mexico, wisely, for his purpose, directing them to its southern rather than to its northern coasts. It Avas the road to Mexico, which Cortez soon found ; but that Florida was visited by two of the other captains of Velasquez was almost by accident rather than by design. Hernandez de Cordova touched there on his return from a Voyjifres in the Gulf of cruise along the coast of Yucatan, in 1517, and John de Gri- Mexico. ° jalva did the same thing the next year. In 1516, Diego Miruelo is said to have made a voyage on his own account to Florida, and to have brought back some gold. In 1518, also, Francis Garay, the governor of Jamaica, landed on that shore, was attacked by the natives, and lost most of his men.3 But he returned the next year, 1 In Peter Martyr's Map of 1511, Florida is laid down as Isla de Beimeni. 2 " Whether the o'd fable of the Fountain of youth was derived by the Indians from the Spaniards, or was of indigenous growth, it is impossible to decide. It was undoubtedly firmly believed in among the other marvels of the New World. " The Dene, Aiglianus the Senator, and I jcentiatus Figuera, sent to Hispaniola to be President of the Senate, .... these three agree, " says Peter Martyr, "that they had heard of the fountaine rcstoringe strength, and that they partly belieued the reportes ; hut they snwe it not, nor proued it by experience, because the inhabitants of that Terra Florida haue sharpe nnyles, and are eager defenders of their rights." But the Dene related that an Indian, "grieuonsly oppressed with old nge, moued with the fame of that fountaine, and allured through the lone longer of lyfe, went from his natiue ilande ncere vnto the country of Florida to drinkc of the desired foun taine and hauingo well drnnke and washed himselfe for many daj'cs with the ap pointed remedies, by them who kept the hath, hoc is reported to haue brought home a manly strength, and to haue vscd all manly exercises, and that hee married againe, and begatt chil dren." Aiglianus is De Ayllon, who visited Florida after Do Leon. 8 Peter Martyr, Decade V., chap. 1. 1520.] KIDNAPPING INDIANS. 149 and was the first thorough explorer of the Gulf coast of the United States. He made its entire circuit, and dreAV a chart by which he showed that " it bendeth like a bow," and that a line stretched from the shore of Yucatan to the point at Avhich Ponce de Leon first touched, Avould " make the string of the bow." Florida, he found, Avas not an island, as De Leon had supposed, " but by huge, crooked Avindings and turninges to bee joyned to this maine continent of Tenustitan" (Yu catan). He came, also, " vpon a riuer, flowing into the Ocan Avith a broade mouth ; and from his ships discryed many villages couered with reedes ; " and this Avas the first discovery of the Mississippi, the Rio del Espirito Santo, the River of the Holy Ghost.1 But he thought the coast, Avhich he spent about eight months in exploring, " to be very litle hospitable, because he sawe tokens and signes of small store of golde, and that not pure." 2 - Fernandina Avas as yet the northernmost point touched by the Spaniards on the Atlantic coast. But northward from that , , . r-ii • i i Explorations place was a country knoAvn as Chicora, and somewhere uptheAt- Avithin it Avas supposed to be the sacred river of Jordan, Avhose Avaters possessed a healing power akin to, if not the same, as those of the Fountain of Youth.3 To this land of Chicora Lucas Vas- quez de Ayllon either sent or led an expedition of tAvo ships in 1520 from Hispaniola, and the river now knoAvn as the Combahee, in South Carolina,4 he named the Jordan. It does not appear that he Avent anyAvhere else than to the mouth of this river, though he Avas sent in search of a passage that would lead to India. But the real purpose was slaves. The people of the Jordan, unlike those farther south, gave the strangers a kindly Avelcome. They crowded aboard the ships, the like of which they had never seen before, as eager, as cu rious, and as confiding as children. The very ease of kid- , . . , . . • l , l Kidnapping napping these simple and unsuspicious savages might have Indians tor suggested it. The hoisting of the sails, the weighing of the anchors, gave them no alarm ; imperceptibly to them the vessels stole away, on an even keel, without apparent motion, and not till they were so far from the shore that to return Avas impossible, did the poor creatures understand the cruel treachery of which they Avere the vic tims. They were to be sold as slaves for the gold mines and planta tions of the Islands. But of the two vessels one foundered at sea, and all on board perished ; on the other, but few lived to reach Hispaniola, 1 Shea's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, p. viii. 2 Peter Martyr. 3 Compare, however, Herrera, Decade I., lib. ix., chap. 5 ; Narrative of Fontanedo in Ter- naux-Compans, and note by the editor, and J. G. Kohl, in Maine Hist. Soc//. Coll., p. 248 Dr. Kohl says that the river was named Jordan for the captain of one of Ayllon 's ships, 4 Bancroft, Hist. U. S., vol. 1. 150 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VII for this virtue has always belonged to the North American Indian — he prefers death to slavery, and has often pined away and speedily died, like other wild creatures, when deprived of freedom. Four or five years later, another expedition sailed from Hispaniola, Expedition which Ayllon certainly commanded in person, and from VMqa°" which he never returned. It consisted of several ships, car- dc Ayiion. rving five hundred soldiers and sailors, and a few women.1 , Taking the Jordan as the starting point, the coast was explored as far north as Maryland, and some expeditions were made inland.2 Many were killed by the Indians ; many more died from sickness, and among them Ayllon himself, till only one hundred and fifty, out of the original company of six hundred, were left to return to Hispaniola. But the most that any of these adventurers did was to penetrate the country a short distance, to traffic a little with natives when they hap- HernandoCortez in Mexico. Straits of Magellan. pened to be in the mood, and more often to retire before them Avhen they opposed the landing or the stay of the intruders. Mean while, on the other side of the Gulf, Cortez had penetrated into Mexico, and the spirit of adventure, the dreams of boundless wealth, the hopes of brilliant conquest, received a new and intense impulse by his success. " To the South, to the South," Avrote Peter Martyr, " For the great and exceeding riches of the ^Equinoc- tiall, they that seeke riches must not goe vnto the cold and frozen North." 1 The earlier authors differ as to whether there were three or six ships, and whether they sailed in 1524, 1525, or 1526. 2 On the Portuguese Map of Kibero, 1529, the Land of Ayllon — " Tierra de Ayllon," — covers the present States of Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland. 1525] VOVAGE OF ESTAVAN GOMEZ. 151 And the hoped-for passage to the East was not forgotten. Rich as Avas the booty in Mexico and Central America, it Avas as nothing to the splendid acquisition of India, if only the short way by sea could be discovered. Magellan had passed by the Straits to Avhich he gave his name into the Pacific Ocean, but nothing Avas gained thereby over the older route round the Cape of Good Hope. With that great navigator had sailed, as pilot of one of his ships, Stephen Gomez, a Portuguese by birth, but then serving in Spain. He had deserted Magellan soon after entering the Straits,1 but does not seem, therefore, to have been held in any less estimation in Spain, as he Avas, with Cabot, the pilot-major, Ferdinand Columbus, and other eminent cosmographers, one of the Council of Badajos, appointed in 1524 to settle the conflicting claims of Spain and Portugal to the New World. In February, 1525, Gomez sailed under a royal commission to find a passage to Cathay, Avhich he believed was somewhere be- EstaTan Go_ tween Florida and the Bacallaos, or NeAvfoundland. As he I^*?10™8 Avas absent about ten months, he had ample time to explore D- s- 1525- the whole Atlantic coast of the present United States. He sailed from North to South to about the latitude of New York, but at what point he first touched the continent, into what bays and rivers he may have entered, there is no positive record.2 He brought home a cargo of the natives to be sold as slaves, and an anecdote in relation to them, repeated from book to book for three hundred and fifty years, has chiefly preserved the memory of this expedition. So great was the anxiety to be assured that the passage to India had been discovered, that one inquirer, carried away by zeal and enthusiasm, when he learned that Gomez had returned Avith a cargo of slaves (esclavos), mistaking the word, hurried to the court with the glorious news that the ships were laden with cloves (clavosj, and must therefore have found their wavto the Spice Islands of the East. "But after i , ip.-i.eii -i -n Anecdote of ' the court vnderstoode, says the faithful chronicler, Peter Gomez' tit voyage. Martyr, " that the tale was transformed from cloues to slaues Qelavos to eselavosj, they brake foorth into a great laughter, to the shame and blushinge of the fauorers who shouted for joy." A more formidable and more disastrous attempt than any of these to take possession of the country was made in 1528 by Pam- philo de Narvaez. He sailed from Spain in 1527' under a nm™*. commission from the Emperor, Charles V-, with five ships i That the Gomez who explored the coast of the United States in 1525, and the Gomez who deserted Magellan, are identical, is generally accepted as without question. But Piga- fetta, in his relation of the Magellan voyage, calls the Gomez of that fleet, not Estevan but Emanuel. See Pigafetta, in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, vol. xi. 2 On the Ribero Map, the legend, " Tierra de Estevan Gomez," is written across that re gion now occupied by the Middle and Northern Atlantic States of the Union. 152 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VIL and about five hundred men ; but delays occurring in the West Indies* where he passed the folloAving Avinter, he made a second start in March,. 1528, with four ships and a, brigantine, carrying four hun dred men and eighty horses. Two days before Easter he landed in or near Tampa Bay,1 and prepared at once to ad vance into the country. In a reconnoissance along the coast -__- — they came upon a little Indian ciavos and Esciavos. village, Avhere they found some bodies in a sort of mummified condi tion, the sacred remains, no doubt, of the ancestors or the chiefs of the tribe. The officer in command chose to assume this preservation of the dead as a kind of idolatry, and ordered them to be burned, and the outrage was a sufficient Avarning to the natives of the treatment they might expect from such invaders. Alvar Nuiiez Cabeca de Vaca, a Spaniard of noble birth, Avas the treasurer of the expedition and its voluntary historian.2 He protested earnestly against the mad project of Narvaez to leave the coast, cer tain, he said, that Avere that done, he " Avould never more find the ships, nor the ships him." Nevertheless he determined to folloAV his captain rather than be left in command of the fleet, lest his courage 1 Bancroft ; compare Buckingham Smith in notes to Litters of De Soto. 2 The Relacion of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, is a minute narrative of this expedition and his own strange personal adventures. An admirable translation of it was made by the late Buckingham Smith. 1528.] DISASTROUS EXPEDITION OF NARVAEZ. 153 should be called in question. The marching force consisted of three hundred men, forty of whom were mounted. Each man car ried two pounds of biscuit and half a pound of bacon, and Narv»,°hito with this slender store of provision they plunged into an un- Horid°" known Avilderness, where their first act had already been one sure to provoke hostilities from its savage people. Their rations, Avith such fruit of the palmetto as they could pick up by the way, supported them for the first fifteen days, and then the fear of starvation Avas added to the other difficulties Avhich they began to understand. Toiling on through SAvamps and forests, wading the lagoons, crossing rivers by SAvimming and on temporary rafts, harassed continually by an enemy with Avhom suddenness and secrecy of attack were the first arts of Avar, their courage and their hopes Avere only sustained by some vague reports from prisoners of gold to be found in a distant district called Apalachen.1 They had started on the 1st of May ; on the 25th of June a mis erable village was reached of forty houses, in the middle of a dense swamp, from which the Indians had fled leaving behind only the women and children. This Avas Apalachen, and they gave thanks to God, believing that " here would be an end to their great hardships." The village they took without resistance, and in it found maize to satisfy their hunger ; the woods around abounded Avith game, had they had the skill to take it ; and gold, they believed, Avas plentiful. But hardly had they laid off the heavy armor from their galled and weary backs, Avhen the Indians attacked them and burnt the wigwams in which they had taken shelter, provocation being first given, as usual, by the Spaniards, who held a cacique as prisoner Avho had come to them as a friend. Their great need of rest and the time required to examine the country round about for gold, detained them twenty-five days in Apa lachen. But no gold Avas to be found, and but little maize ; in all that district this miserable village of forty houses was the largest ; the people were not numerous, were very savage, and very poor. Steal ing out from their lurking-places in the neighboring swamps, they so harassed the Spaniards that one could not venture from the camp so short a distance as to lead a horse to Avater, that an arrow would not Avhiz through the bushes from an unseen foe. Thus sore beset with hunger, disease, and danger, all their hopes of sudden Avealth de stroyed, they resolved at length to make their way to the sea. In a march of twelve or fifteen days they fought their Avay to the i At the head-waters of the Apalacha River are the Apalachian Mountains of Georgia, to which probably the Indians referred, while the Spaniards understood them to mean the village near its mouth. 154 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VII. coast. Well nigh worn out they lay down upon the sands in sore perplexity and distress, behind them a country they could not live in, before them a sea over which there was but one way to escape. Building the They must bulld vessels; but they "knew not how to con- vessels, struct, nor were there tools, nor iron, nor forge, nor tow, nor resin, nor rigging ; . . . . nor any man who had a knowledge of their manufacture ; and, above all, there was nothing to eat while Return to the Beach. building, for those who should labor." But invention is sometimes born of despair. A soldier undertook to make a pair of bellows with pipes of hollow wood and deerskins, and his example was emulated by others. The cross-bows, the stirrups, the spurs, and whatever else they had of iron, were beaten into nails, into axes, saAvs, and other needful tools. With these they contrived to build five boats, each more than thirty feet in length, the seams of which they caulked with the fibre of the palmetto, and pitched Avith pine rosin ; cordage was made of the tails and manes of the horses ; the sails from the shirts of the men. Every three days a horse was killed for food, Avhile the boats were building, the skin of the legs taken off whole to be used when tanned as water-bottles. Besides the horse-flesh they fed upon shell-fish and such maize as, through hard fighting, they could get from the Indians. At this place forty of the men died of disease and hunger, besides suffering of those who had been killed in their contests Avith the savages. the men. _aji j^f. one 0f ^he horses iia(j keen slaughtered and eaten, and for that reason they called the spot Bahia de Oaballos, or the Bay 1528.] CABECA DE VACA. 155 of the Horses.1 On the 2'2d of September, almost five months from the time of their departure from the spot, nearly three hundred miles distant, where they first landed, the wretched fugitives embarked upon their frail boats, loading them down almost to the gunwales, and pushed out into the Gulf of Mexico. They crept slowly along the coast for weeks, hoping to reach the Spanish colony of Panuco on the western shore of the gulf. Endur ing always the extremity of suffering from cold, and wet, and hunger, they were buffetted when on the sea by storms, and repulsed by the Indians when they attempted a landing. At length the boats parted company. First the governor refused to throw a rope to the men of Cabeca de Vaca, of whom only one or two were able to lift an oar, saying the time had come when each man must take care of himself. Then a storm parted the others, and De Vaca's boat was driven upon the beach of an island.2 To get off again the next day the men stripped to the skin, as it Avas necessary to Avade into the water to dig the boat out of the sand and once more set her afloat. But when this was done and they had jumped aboard, the surf again upset her before they had time to resume their clothing. Some were drowned ; those «=tmj Hj - ..., \ls^=- — fiEfi =.^1^ y ., - * - - ¦- -¦-- - ~"-:^^^^^^^B BjjgSlft /f^StQ^ - H*lj£^ ¦<""' BbHI^'^A-"" -^ - {% ii,; 11 "fife- *&&* | i":S^- i'""-^£f-«:~ ^^^ "^^^j^S" - "="" ?M&~r^^>^- ^-^"^z; -"5 -_~ ^-^""^-^jJS'V^MS" -: slH pBfe" - -irJ-S Upset in the Surf. who were not were left as absolutely naked and destitute as they came into the world, for not one thing in the boat was recovered. For tunately the Indians were humane and pitiful, making fires to warm i The Bahia de Caballos is probably the present harbor of St. Marks. 2 Cabeca de Vaca called this island Mathado - misfortune. Its locality is uncertain, but it may have been the island of Galveston. Buckingham Smith is entirely at a loss to identify it. Fairbanks (History of Florida) thinks it was the island of Santa Rosa. 156 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VII. the half frozen and famished bodies of the strangers, giving them food from their own scanty stores. In a few days these were joined by companions from another boat, who had also been wrecked not far distant. The company now numbered eighty. Exposure, starvation, and sickness, soon decided the fate of most of them, though some prolonged their lives awhile by feeding on those who were the first to die. Before the winter was over, only fifteen of the eighty Avere left alive. The governor and all his boat-load had been driven out to sea, and perished soon after he had refused assistance to his folloAV- ers in distress. A few of the adventurers in the other boats had saved themselves in other places, but one after another they all, except four, had died miserably, some killed by the Indians, who had made them their slaves, some dying of starvation, some from exposure and disease. The four survivors, by name Cabeca de Vaca, Dorantes, Cas- Vacaandhis tello, and Estevanico, the last a negro, wandered from tribe ompamons. ^ ^rj)je for sjx years, held sometimes in the crudest slavery, and sometimes carrying on a petty traffic with the natives, in combs, in bows, arrows, and fishing-nets of their own making. Their food was chiefly the fruit of the prickly pear, roots, and nuts ; what little venison they occasionally received from the Indians they ate raw, for only thus could their weakened stomachs digest it. They always went naked, and " twice a year," says Cabeca de Vaca, " Ave cast our skins like a serpent." In later years they gained influence and power among the Indians by acting as physicians, working, he declares, the most marvellous cures simply by reciting pater nosters and by making the sign of the cross, till they came to be held in great reverence and fear. Thus slowly and painfully they made their way, wandering to and fro through forests and swamps, over prairies and deserts, ex posed to the summer's heat and the Avinter's cold, across the present State of Texas, through the Mexican province of Sonora, to the sea coast of the other side of the continent on the Gulf of California. There they found and Avere succored by their countrymen, who had already invaded that country in search of emeralds, of gold, and of slaves, and speedily returned to Spain, heroes of an adventure as remarkable and as romantic as any recorded in the Spanish annals of North America. There arrived in Spain about the same time with Cabeca de Vaca Hernando one wno ^ac^ been engaged in quite a different sort of ser- aeSoto. vice_ -pj^g wag Hernando de Soto, who had followed Pizarro to Peru, and shared Avith him his dangers and his success. Leaving Spain like so many others " with nothing but blade and buckler," he had come back with Avealth to further his ambition for the acquisition 1538.] HERNANDO DE SOTO. 157 of some neAV country Avhere he should be the leader and not a subaltern merely. The disastrous result of every expedition to Florida thus far had not shaken the belief among the adventurous Spaniards in the value of the country, and that somewhere in the interior were riches such as had been gathered in marvellous abundance in other parts of the New World. De Soto appeared at court with a numerous band of followers in gorgeous apparel and other lavish display of the wealth he had acquired in Peru, and asked that authority to take pos session of Florida, with a commission as Adelantado, be „ a , . -^e Soto IS given him. The announcement of his intentions was re- p^feAde- . lantado of ceived with the utmost enthusiasm. Gentlemen of birth *'loricIa- and position flocked from all parts of Spain to his standard, eager to serve under so gallant and re nowned a leader, and in an adven ture Avhich he thought so hopeful as to be willing to risk in it his fortune, his fame, and his life. Some came even from Portugal, and they seemed better to understand the character of the enterprise. For when De Soto mustered his men at San Lucar the Spaniards appeared " in doublets and cassocks of silk, pinckt and em broidered," as if about to start on a holiday excursion, while " the Portuguese Avere in the equipage of soldiers in neat armor."1 But so strong was the desire to go with him that men parted with iheir estates to buy an interest and an outfit in this new expedition ; and the excitement was not a little increased by the story of Cabega de Vaca, who on his return had also asked to be made Adelantado of Florida. It was thought he could tell, if he would, wonderful tales of the richness, in many precious things, of the region where he had en dured so much, and out of Avhich he had come literally as naked as he came into the world. De Soto Avent prepared for conquest and colonization. His force was between six and seven hundred men — some say a thousand — 1 A Relation of the Invasion and Conquest of Florida by the Spaniards, under the Command of Fernando de Soto. Written in Portuguese by a Gentleman of the Town of the Elvas. This is the original and the fullest and most trustworthy narrative of the expedition of De Soto There have been several translations, the first by Hakluyt (vol. iii.), and the last by Buckingham Smith, published by the Bradford Club. We rely mainly on the Relation but comparing Garcilaso de Vega, Biedma, and Herrera. 158 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VH. with, perhaps, a few women ; among them were a number of priests Preparations Wltu a^ ^he paraphernalia of their office, and mechanics with for the Con quest of H '"'"'"'' vessels, ships, caravels, and The fleet consisted of nine and besides their human freight they carried between tAvo and three hundred horses, the instruments of their trades.1 pinnaces The Muster at San Lucar. The ad venturers land at a large herd of swine, and a number of bloodhounds, the most efficient ally of the Spaniards in the conquest of the New World. The em peror appointed De Soto governor of Cuba, that he might easily ob tain supplies for the neAV colony, and every possible facility thus be given to the enterprise. After a year's preparation in Spain and the West Indies the expedition sailed at last Tampa Bay. from Havana on the 18th of May, 1539, and on the 30th the troops were landed at Tampa Bay. From Tampa Bay the adventurers marched into the interior, pur suing substantially the same route as Narvaez about eleven years before. Within the first few days De Soto had the good fortune to meet with a Spaniard who had been captured from one of the ships of that earlier expedition by the Indians, and in his long captivity had become familiar with their language. The romantic story of John Smith and Pocahontas was in part anticipated in the experience of this man, Juan Ortiz. When first captured by a band whose chief was named Ucita,2 he was bound hand and 1 De Biedma's narrative. Herrera says, nine hundred beside the sailors, three hundred and thirty horses and three hundred hogs. 2 Portuguese Relation. Herrera calls him Harrihiagua, the name of his village. Story of Juan Ortiz. 1539.] ADVENTURES OF JUAN ORTIZ. 159 foot to stakes, stretched at length upon a scaffolding beneath Avhich a fire was kindled. The smoke had enwreathed the victim and the forked flames Avere leaping to seize the naked flesh, when the intended holocaust was suddenly interrupted by the prayers of a daughter of the chief. She besought her father to spare the life of the Christian ; one such, she urged, if he could do no good at least could do no harm ; and she made a cunning appeal to the vanity of the chief by suggesting how great a distinction it would be to hold a Avhite man as a captive. Her prayers Avere listened to ; Ortiz was lifted from the scaffold and unbound, to serve thenceforth as a slave. What the feeling Avas Avhich the sight of the pale stranger had aroused in the bosom of the dusky maiden, or what the relation which may have afterward existed be- tAveen them, we are not told; but whether it was on her part mere pity for a stranger, or a tenderer and deeper sentiment, it was not forgotten. Three years later Ucita was defeated in a petty war with Sacrifice of Juan Ortiz. another chieftain, and there was danger that Ortiz Avould be sacrificed to propitiate the devil whose anger, Ucita believed, had brought this misfortune upon him and his people. Then the princess came again to the rescue of the stranger and saved him from probable death. Warning him of his danger, and leading him secretly and alone in the night-time beyond the boundaries of her father's village, she put him in the way to find the camp of the victorious chieftain who had just triumphed over her father and would protect, she knew, the Christian slave. 160 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VII. Ortiz, when years afterwards he heard that his countrymen had arrived in Florida, was glad enough to welcome them, Avhile he did not forget that he had some cause of gratitude to his Indian friends. As a horseman rode at him, not distinguishing him from the savages, he cried out : " Do not kill me, cavalier ; I am a Christian ! Do not slay these people ; they have given me my life ! " Fortunately his appeal was heard in time, and to him the expedition was more in debted than to any other man, next to De Soto himself ; for through him alone was it possible to hold any intelligent communication with the Indians, whether for peace or war. His death, vvhich occurred not long before that of the governor, was a source of deep perplexity and " a great cross to his designs." When De Soto turned his face inward he sent his ships back to The march Cuba for provisions to return at an appointed time. The miand. army toiled painfully through the woods and SAvamps of Florida from spring till autumn. The provisions they brought with them were soon exhausted, and the country afforded them but little support. They heard, as Narvaez did before them, of Apalachen where gold abounded ; and when they reached the spot where, ap palled by the difficulties before him and the poverty of the country round about, he had turned to the sea for refuge, so also the courage of De Soto's men gave way and they entreated him to return. But the governor declared he would never go back till he had seen with his own eyes the dangers in store for them if any there were. The first winter was passed in the neighborhood of Apalachen Bay, and the point where Narvaez had built his boats and Avhence he started on his fatal voyage. Communication was held Avith Cuba ; arrangements Avere made for a future supply of provisions, and twenty Indian women were sent as slaves to Dona Isabella, De Soto's wife, as an earnest of good things to come. In the spring they pushed nortliAvard, and in April they were still only about three hundred miles from Tampa Bay. To the Spanish cru- . , . , i • , ,, in eity to the unhappy natives their march Avas as the march of a pesti lence. The news of their coming was the signal for war. The cacique of every tribe they met Avas compelled to pay tribute in maize ; to supply them with as many men as were needed for per sonal attendants and as carriers of burdens from the boundaries of one tribe to those of another ; and that the service might be faithfully done, these slaves were chained in couples, neck to neck. The Avomen they took both for servants and mistresses, folloAving therein the ex ample of the governor, Avho consoled himself for the absence of the Dona Isabella by the possession of not less than two of the comely Indian girls, the' daughters of caciques or others, as best suited his 1540.] DE SOTO IN FLORIDA. 161 inclination. What Avas not granted through fear or good-will was taken by the strong hand ; and in either case the result was the same — subjection and cruelty. A messenger Avhose message Avas not pleasing carried back for ansAver to his master the bloody stumps of his severed hands ; amusement Avas combined Avith punishment by setting up prisoners as targets to be shot at Avith arrows. Maize they now often found in abundance in the fields and gran aries of the Indians. They took it, or it was given to them Want of — it mattered little which. But they suffered, especially looa- the sick, for the need of salt and meat, though game, in the season, was plenty and the natives never wanted for it. The Avoods Avere alive with deer, Avith wild turkeys, and partridges ; ducks covered the ponds ; the rivers Avere full of fish ; but the Spaniards lacked the skill either to entrap or to kill any wild thing except an Indian. When in extremity, the adventurers fed upon the hogs which had been produced in great numbers from the drove brought from Cuba, and which had thriven on the plentiful mast of the forest ; nor did the hungry soldiers disdain to eat the native dogs whenever they could get them. But it was always war, and always a struggle for existence, while the gold they were searching for they only heard of and always in some province yet to be reached. Their hopes were fed, however, by the possession of great quantities of pearls — fed, though not satisfied. In April of the second spring there came to meet the governor an Indian queen, or cacica, who was brought to the bank of a river, carried in a litter by four of her principal subjects. A the Indian barge, over whose stern Avas a canopy supported by a lance, and beneath which Avas spread a carpet and cushions, aAvaited her. On meeting the governor she took from her own neck a heavy string of pearls and threw it over his, presenting him beside with mantles of feathers and thread made from the bark of trees. Offering these, with many protestations of welcome and good will, and observ ing the eagerness with which the Spaniards received the pearls, and how great a value they put upon them, she told them they could be found in large quantities in the graves of the villages. These Avere speedily rifled, and though three hundred and fifty pounds Aveight were gathered at one time, they proved of little value, as they had been bored by some heated implement, and had lost their lustre. Nev ertheless they Avere pearls, and the hopes and the cupidity of the Span iards were excited accordingly. In the province of this cacica many of the people would have been glad to remain and found a colony. But De Soto, who was an " in flexible man and dry of word," willing enough to listen to advice but VOL. I. 11 162 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. V1L r"--. seldom taking it, determined to push on ; and there were never want ing those among the Indians who were ready to answer his eager inquiries for gold with most satisfactory state ments, anxious to see him depart in further search. To the cacica, who gave him not only pearls and mantles, but much provision, he made a return not unusual with him for gen erosity and kindness. He retained her as a captive, and made slaves and beasts of burden of her subjects ; but she was wary enough to evade the vigi- lance of her guards Escape of and es- thecadca- cape into the woods, taking with her a box full of pearls Avhich were said to be of great value. Her peo- ple were the most civilized of any of the Flo- ridians that De Soto met with in his three years' march, for they wore shoes and clothing made from skins which they dressed and colored with great skill, aoid adorned themselves with mantles, made of feathers, or in a textile fabric of some woody fibre. The cacica's village was only two days' journey from the sea — the Atlantic coast — at the point Avhere Ayllon had landed nearly twenty years before. The Indians cherished a dagger and some beads, perhaps a rosary, Avhich they said came from some of Ayllon's men. From the province of the cacica the invaders marched northwest, and, in the course of the summer, reached the neighborhood of the Appalachian chain. Thev had seen among the Indians some little indications axes 0I copper Avhich Avere supposed to contain a mixture of of gold. g0j^ . at](j ^ne procesa 0f smelting ores, as practised among the people where they were mined, was described with great accuracy. Had the Spaniards pushed forAvard at the point they had now reached- they would have found what they were in search of, though not in The Indian Queen. 1540.] DE SOTO AT MAVILLA. 163 large quantities. But an exploring party pronounced the mountains impassable, and fortunately for the natives, whose fate, in case of dis covery would have been to gather gold as slaves, or resistance to death, the Spaniards lacked either the skill or the diligence to trace the evidences of the existence of metals. De Soto therefore turned south again with his little army of marauders, and wandered the rest of the summer in the vallevs of the streams emptying into Mobile Bay. In October they reached Mavilla, a village which has given its name to the river and city of Mobile. The country round about, as well as that through Avhich they had been Avandering for weeks, Avas populous, and they had done nothing to conciliate, every thing to exasperate the natives. Ma villa was a place of importance, con taining many houses, and sur rounded with pal isades ; it was soon evident that its possession was not to be yielded with out a struggle. The governor and a few attendants entered; the cacique, who was with him, took refuge in a house, and, deaf both to entreaties and threats, defied him. It was easy enough to provoke an outbreak. A Spaniard replied to some haughty words from a chief by laying his back open with a cutlass, and all the Indians sprung to their Battiewith boAvs and arroAvs. Every house Avas an ambuscade, and be- the natiyes- fore the Christians could fly to the fields five of them Avere slain. Among those who escaped was De Soto, who, forming his troops, at once invested the town, and led the assault, the soldiers carrying their arms in one hand and a torch in the other. The defence Avas brave, desperate, and useless. A contest betAveen naked savages and men, many of whom were mounted, and all were in armor, was rather a hunting-chase than a battle. Twenty-five hundred of the Indians were speedily put to the sword, or were driven to torture and death by suffocation in the smoke and flames of their own houses ; of the Spaniards, eighteen only were killed, and one hun dred and fifty received arrow wounds from which they quickly recov- Palisaded Town. [From De B-y. red ; the 164 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap." VII. ered.1 Their most serious loss was of the property destroyed by the fire, for at the first desperate onset, before the Spaniards had time to rally, the chains of the captives were stricken off and their burdens taken within the palisades. De Soto was now, as he learned from the Indians, Avithin six days of Pensacola (Ochuse), where some of his ships aAvaited news of him. But he concealed the fact from his own men, lest they should desert him, and held no communication with the ships, for he preferred that as yet there should be no tidings sent to Cuba of the expedition. His pearls, the only thing of value he had found, were all lost ; he had little else to report than continued misfortune, and that in his two years' Avanderings he had lost more than a hundred men. After a month's stay at Mavilla, he again moved farther into the interior till he reached the upper part of the State of Mississippi, where he went The Span- ln^° winter quarters on the banks of the Yazoo River. The winter0 int° country Avas populous, and the maize Avas plentiful; there quarters. waSj therefore, no lack of food. But the cold was severe, the snow covered the ground, and whether on the march or in camp hostilities with the Indians never ceased. There was constant aggres sion on one side ; constant retaliation on the other. In March a night attack was made upon the camp of the Spaniards which Avas more disastrous to them than the fight at Mavilla. All that was saved from the burning at that place was lost in this. Twelve Spaniards were killed , fifty horses and four hundred hogs perished in the flames ; while on the other side the loss Avas only one man and one woman. In the confusion and suddenness of the attack and the fire, the soldiers lost nearly all their clothing, as well as their arms, saddles, and other property, leaving them for some days so destitute and miserable, that, " had the Indians," says the narrative, " returned the second night, they might, with little effort, have overpowered us." 2 The losses, however, were in a feAv days repaired, so far as was possible, by the forging of new swords and the making of new spears and saddles. Skins had to be substituted for clothing, and mats of dried grass for blankets. In the course of the spring and summer the army crossed the State of Mississippi diagonally from the southeast to the northwest corner till they reached the great river — the Mississippi, Avhich the Span iards called the Rio Grande — at about the thirty-fifth degree of lat itude, or the boundary line between the States of Mississippi and Ten- 1 Portuguese Relation. Herrera says (Decade IV., book vii., chap. 4) that the Spanish loss was eighty-three men, and that of the Indians eleven thousand, four thousand of whom were burnt to death. '¦* Portuguese Relation. 1541.] DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 165 nessee. "This river in that place was half a league over, so that a man could not be distinguished from one side to the other ; it was very deep and very rapid, and being always full of tile Missis-0 trees and timber that was carried doAvn by the force of the sipp'' stream, the Avater was thick and very muddy. It abounded with fish, most of Avhich differed much from those that are taken in the rivers of Spain." Boats Avere necessary to cross, and it took a month to build them. A great cacique, Aquixo, was lord of the country on the other side of the Mississippi, and in a day or two he approached to meet visit of the the strangers. He came with an imposing array of two him- cacl(iUC!- dred canoes, filled with armed men, a part of Avhom stood up to pro tect the roAvers with feathered shields, but all Avith their bodies and faces painted, their heads adorned Avith plumes of many colors. The cacique and other chiefs were sheltered under aAvnings. " The canoes were most neatly made and very large, and, with their pavilions, feathers, shields, and standards, looked like a fleet of galleys." They brought presents of fish and fruit and bread, and came, they said, to Avelcome and do homage to the strangers. But the strangers chose to believe that they had a hostile purpose ; when they hesitated to land the Span- Fleet of the Cacique. 166 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VII. iards killed five or six of them for such a want of confidence, and others who attempted to make a landing they fell upon as coming with evil intent. When the boats were finished the army crossed without opposition. For a few days they kept along the west bank of the river, making their way with difficulty through the forest and wet bottom lands, and harassed by constant attacks from the Indians. But they reached, ere long, a higher and dryer country, where they remained for more than a month, and where they found artificial hills, on which the caciques Piety of the sometimes put their houses.1 On one of these De Soto set Spaniards. Up a cross wnen two blind men were brought to him to be cured, and instead of healing he gave a homily to the assembled heathen on the mystery of the atonement. The simple natives knelt in imitation of the Spaniards at the foot of the cross, and De Soto admonished them " to honor and adore it, and demand of the Lord who Avas in Heaven all that they might stand in need of." Not long after De Soto accepted as a present from a chief his two sisters, " both handsome and well-shaped," with a request that the governor would make them his wives. But women with that tribe were as cheap as morality was with the Spaniards ; they were purchased for a shirt a piece. It is not clear how far north and west the expedition marched dur ing this summer, as the narratives are obscure and sometimes con flicting. While the larger part of the force remained through a por tion of June and all of July in the neighborhood of the Mississippi, a reconnoitering party was sent into the interior, which when limit of the it returned almost in a starving condition, reported that the country was poor and barren. They learned that further north there were very few people, but many cattle — bisons. The robes of these animals they procured at different times from the Indians, " which were very convenient against the cold of that country because they made a good furr, the hair of them being as soft as sheep's avooI." But the progress of the main body seems to have been generally south Avestward, crossing the St. Francis and the White rivers, marching through a country fertile, well-watered, and thickly inhabited, as far as the present site of Little Rock, in Arkansas. They found and used the saline springs of that State, and finally went into winter quarters on the banks of a river Avhich may have been 1 " The caciques of this country make a custom of raising, near their dwellings, very high hill% on which they sometimes build their huK On one of these we planted the cross, and went with much devotion on our knees to kiss the foot of it." A Nan-ative of the Expedi tion of Hernando de Soto. By Luis Hernandez de Biedma. Historical Collections of Louis iana. By B. F. French, 1850, p. 105. These hills were no doubt the "mounds" of the earlier people, but which the Spaniards naturally supposed were raised by the Indians. 1542.] DEATH OF DE SOTO. 167 either the White or the Arkansas. Near by, the Indians had re ported, Avas a great lake which, it Avas supposed, might be an arm of the sea ; and De Soto hoped to reopen communication in the spring with Cuba, and procure reinforcements, of which he Avas in great need. He had lost in his three years' wanderings tAvo hundred and fifty men and one hundred and fifty horses ; and since his first winter at Ap- palachee Bay no tidings had been sent to the Dona Isabella whether he were alive or dead. That he was dead Avas to be her next news of him. With the spring the inarch was resumed, and its sole object noAV was to reach the sea. Communication with the Indians had become more difficult, for Ortiz had died in the course of the winter. The Indians, obser ving the weakness and perplexities of the Spaniards, were more defiant than any of their tribes had hitherto been. A haughty cacique sent word to De Soto that his boast of being the son of the Sun Avould be accepted when he was seen to dry up the great river ; that meanwhile it was not the custom of him who sent this message to visit inferiors ; if the stranger wished to see him he was always at home ; if he came in peace he would find a welcome ; if with hostile intentions the chief was equally ready for him. De Soto was in no condition to punish or resent this defiance. An expedition that was sent down the river to find the sea, returned and reported that in eight days journey they could make but little progress, for the country was full of swamps and dense forests, and that the river with many bends ran far up into the land. Worn doAvn with hardships, anxiety, disappointment, and despair, De Soto sank under this accumulation of misfortunes. Con- Beath of scious of approaching death, he called the principal officers De Sot0' of the expedition about him. He told them he was dying; he thanked them for the fidelity and affection they had always shown him, and regretted that he had not been able to reward them as he had always hoped to do, and according to their deserts ; he asked pardon of all who believed they had cause of offence against him, and as a last favor he begged they Avould in his presence choose a leader to take his place, that he might leave them without fear of dissensions to arise after he was gone. They asked him to appoint his own successor, and he named Luis Moscoso de Alvarado, Avhom they all swore to obey. The next day, the 21st of May, 1542, he died. It Avas thought Avise to conceal his death from the Indians, for he had assured them not only that he was the son of the Sun, t mi n i His burial but that Christians could not die. The new governor ordered in the Great him to be buried secretly in the gateway of the camp. But the suspicions of the natives, who had seen him sick, were aroused. 168 SPANISH DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS. [Chap. VII. He was no longer visible, but they saw a neAv-made grave, and gath ering about it looked down with curious eyes and in solemn, whis pered consultation upon the mysterious heap of earth. Then Moscoso ordered the body to be disinterred with great precaution in the dead of night, and, the mantles in which it was wrapped being made heavy with sand, it was dropped silently and in the darkness in the middle of the deep waters of the Mississippi. And when the cacique of Luis de Moscoso. Burial of De Soto. Guachoya came to Moscoso and said : " What has been done with my brother and lord, the Governor ? " The answer Avas, "He has ascended into the skies for a little while and will soon be back."1 Either De Soto misunderstood this Luis de Moscoso or history has belied him. It is said that he loved a life of ease and gayety in a Christian land, rather than one. of toil and hardship and self-denial in the discovery and subjection of strange countries. But whether he believed that longer persistence in an enterprise, now in its fourth year, whose sole fruits had been death and disaster, was foolhardiness, or whether he Avanted the energy and boldness to pursue it and achieve success, he decided at once to lead his com panions back to Cuba if he could find the way. When this Avas announced and council called to consult as to the best direction to pursue, there Avere many aa4io were glad that De Soto was quiet in his loaded mantles at the bottom of the great river. With him the enter prise could have ended only Avith his and their lives, and they rejoiced that he was taken and they left. i Herrera snys that the body was inclosed in the trunk of an oak hollowed out for the purpose, and sunk "in the middle of the river, where it was a quarter of a league over, and nineteen fathoms deep." 1542.] RETREAT OF DE SOTO'S MEN. 169 The determination Avas to seek their countrymen, as Cabeca de Vaca had done, on the Pacific coast. Through the summer and au tumn they straggled west and south, east and north, as they The g were led by some vague rumor or vaguer hope. Every- returnTo" t0 Avhere they inquired the way to the sea ; but they met with Cnba- no Indians Avho had ever seen it. EveryAvhere they asked if Chris tians had not visited that region ; and when the Indians ansAvered, No, they sometimes put them to the torture and extorted false confessions, which only misled the Spaniards with some new delusion. Enemies Avaylaid them Avith that stealthiness Avhich only Indians are capable of ; guides misled them with that cunning which the Indian counts as one of his chief virtues ; hunger, sickness, insubordination, con fusion well nigh bordering on despair, so beset them, that it seemed they could never escape unless God should be pleased to work mira cles on their behalf. Once more, in the early winter, they turned back to the great river for a last effort to save themselves. A few miles above the mouth of the Arkansas, Avhere the timber was the largest they had seen, they built, in the course of Buildingtlle the next six months, seven brigantines. The maize Avhich bri&mtm