afterward made other voyages to the same quarter, and in 1507 a geographer of Freiburg, Germany, who supposed him to have been the true discoverer of the continent, is said to have given it his name, Americi Terra, or Land of Americus; whence America.* For this appellation [assuming the truth of the tradition] Amerigo does not seem to have been in any wise responsible. He was a friend of Columbus. 1500. Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, crossed the ocean this year at the head of an expedition, and explored the more northern shores of North America, giving the name Labrador (laborer) to the country now thereby known. From a subsequent voyage to the same regions he never returned. 1500. rola and Macchiavelli at Savana Florence. Columbus 1502. Fourth Voyage of Columbus. set sail from Cadiz on his fourth and last voyage to the New World, having it for his special object to discover a short passage to the East Indies; and, returning in 1504, soon after died. 1512. Ponce de Leon, who had accompanied Colum bus on his second voyage, and been made Governor of the island of Porto Rico, sailed thence, March 3d, in search of land said to contain a fountain capable of restoring and perpetuating youth and beauty. Early in April he sighted the mainland; on the 8th disembarked near the site of the present city of St. Augustine; took possession of the country in the name of the King of Spain; and because of its luxuriant vegetation named it Florida. In 1513, De Leon was appointed Governor of Florida, and, some years *This theory as to the origin of the name America has been disputed by some recent writers, who hold that the word is native to the soil. later, in attempting to conquer his province from the Indians, was wounded, and died in Cuba. 1513. Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a Spanish adventurer who had fled to Hispaniola for refuge from his creditors, being a member of an expedition engaged in the 1517. Luther's exploration of the Isthmus of Darien, discovered from one of its mountains This was on the the Pacific Ocean. opposition to Papal indulgences opens the Reformation. 26th of September. He planted a cross on the spot, and took possession of the territory, as usual, in the name of Spain. 1519. Hernando Cortes, a native of Spain, but for several years a resident of Hispaniola, landed in Mexico in March, in command of an expedition for the conquest of that country. After a prolonged campaign, marked by many battles and varying fortunes, he finally captured the City of Mexico and completed the subjugation of the people. His character and policy were such, however, as to surround him with enemies, and though he was made Governor of Mexico, his administration was brief and far from prosperous or peaceful. In 1536 he explored parts of California, and of Vasa accepts the the gulf since called by the same name, title of King of and, returning to Spain, died in 1547 in comparative obscurity. 1445-1520. Leonardo da Vinci. 1483-1520. Raphael. 1519-1521. First voyage round the world, made by Magellan, a Portuguese navigator. 1523. Gustavus Sweden. 1524. Verrazzani, sent out by France, coasted from North Carolina northward as far as the present harbors of New York and Newport, returning with glowing accounts of the wonders and 1471-1528. Albert Durer. beauties of the New World. 1531-1533. Pizarro's Conquest of Peru. Fran 1532. John Calvin active in promoting the Reformation in France. cisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, was a Spanish adventurer, who toward the close of the fifteenth, or early in the sixteenth, century, came over to the New World in search of his fortunes, and joined Balboa in his expeditions in Central America. Afterwards, in company with Diego de Almagro, he explored the coast of New Granada. Learning of the riches of Peru, he returned to Spain to obtain authority and means for its subjugation, and in 1530 recrossed the Atlantic for that purpose at the head of a small force, accompanied by four of his brothers. In 1531 he advanced upon Peru by way of Panama, routed the opposing armies, entered the capital, Cuzco, and founded the city of Lima. The military government which he set up over the vanquished empire was a severe and cruel one, and he finally died by assassins led by young Almagro, whose father had been put to death in consequence of a quarrel with Pizarro. Pizarro was an avaricious, heartless, and ignorant man, but a bold and skilful soldier. III. PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT. 1534-1640. 1534. Cartier in Canada. In April, Jacques Cartier sailed at the head of the first of four French expeditions, the total result of which was the pretty thorough exploration of the waters about the mouth of 1535. Henry VIII. of England excommunicated by the Pope. 1540. Ignatius Loyola founds the order of the Jesuits. the St. Lawrence, and of that river itself, and the commencement of the col onization of Canada. 1541. De Soto and the Mississippi. Fernando De Soto was a Spanish adventurer, who, having made a previous expedition to Central America, and, later, accompanied Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, set sail from Spain in April, 1538, at the head of an expedition bent on the conquest of Florida. He reached what is now Tampa Bay in May, 1539, and began a march into the interior, which, after many hardships and adventures, brought him to the Mississippi in the summer of 1541. After a détour still further to the west, in attempting to descend the great 1555. Persecu- river he had discovered, he died by fetion of English Protestants. Ridley and Lat imer burned to death. ver. To conceal the fact of his death, his followers sunk his body at midnight in the middle of the stream. Slowly and with much suffering, the latter, greatly reduced in numbers, then made their escape from the wilderness, by way of Mexico. 1562-1564. 1558. Queen Elizabeth ascends the Eng lish throne. 1564. Death of Co Coligny and the Huguenots. ligny, the noble and heroic leader of the persecuted Protestants of France, who afterwards perished in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, sought to open an John Calvin and asylum in Florida for his suffering fölMichael Angelo; lowers, and actually succeeded through birth of Shakescolonies agents in planting peare and Galileo. Through the intolerance of the Spaniards, the effort proved finally a failure. In September, 1564, Melendez, who was especially charged with the duty of driving back the Huguenot exiles, founded the present city of St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States. there. Knox. 1567. Dominique De Gourgues, born in Gascony, France, headed an expedition this year 1567. Mary to avenge the cruelties inflicted by the Queen of Scots marries Earl Spaniards on his countrymen in Florida, Bothwell, and is and did so by surprising and massacring dethroned and two Spanish garrisons on the St. John's imprisoned. River. Melendez had placed over his 1505-1572. John victims some such inscription as, "Not as to Frenchmen, but as to heretics." Gourgues placed over his victims the legend "Not as to Spaniards, but as to traifors, robbers, and murderers." 1576-1578. Frobisher's Arctic Expeditions. During these years, Sir Martin Frobisher, Englishman, conducted three expeditions in search of a north-west passage, going by way of Labrador and Greenland, and discovering the entrances to Hudson's Bay. Frobisher's Strait bears his name. 1572. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, and other persecutions of French Protestants. 1583. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother to Sir Walter Raleigh, and an English soldier of good education, founded a colony in Newfoundland, under a charter from Queen Elizabeth. The colony was short-lived, however, and the vessel which was bearing him and his company home again was lost at sea with all on board. 1584. Cape Breton was discovered by the English. 1585. Sir Walter Raleigh and Virginia. Sir Walter Raleigh, an accomplished courtier of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, obtained from her in 1584 a grant of the region which now comprises the State of Virginia, and in the year following sent out an expedition to take possession of it. The expedition, commanded by Sir Richard Grenville, landed at Roanoke Island in midsummer; but its stay was of short duration. Several subsequent attempts were made |