Such were the conjectures formed on the coast of Paria about the form of the earth and the situation of the terrestrial paradise; about the mines of Ophir in Hispaniola, and of the Aurea Chersonesus in Veragua; and such was the heroic scheme of a crusade for the recovery of the holy sepulchre. It mingled with his religion, and filled his mind with solemn and visionary meditations on mystic passages of the scriptures, and the shadowy portents of the prophecies. It exalted his office in his eyes, and made him conceive himself an agent sent forth upon a sublime and awful mission, subject to impulses and supernatural intimations from the deity; such as the voice which he imagined spoke to him in comfort, amidst the troubles of Hispaniola, and in the silence of the night on the disastrous coast of Veragua.

A Man in Advance of His Time. He was decidedly a visionary, but a visionary of an uncommon and successful kind. The manner in which his ardent, imaginative and mercurial nature were controlled by a powerful judgment, and directed by an acute sagacity, is the most extraordinary feature in his character. Thus governed, his imagination, instead of exhausting itself in idle flights, lent aid to his judgment, and enabled him to form conclusions, at which common minds. could never have arrived, nay, which they could not perceive when pointed out.

To his intellectual vision it was given to read in the signs of the times, and to trace in the conjectures and reveries of past ages, the indications of an unknown world; as soothsayers were said to read predictions in the stars, and to foretell events from the visions of the night. "His soul," observes a Spanish

lived. For him was reserved the great enterprise of traversing a sea which had given rise to so many fables, and of deciphering the mystery of his time."

With all the visionary fervor of his imagi nation, its fondest dreams fell short of the reality. He died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his discovery. Until his last breath, he entertained the idea that he had merely opened a new way to the old resorts. of opulent commerce, and had discovered some of the wild regions of the east. He supposed Hispaniola to be the ancient Ophir, which had been visited by the ships of Solomon, and that Cuba and Terra Firma were but remote parts of Asia. but remote parts of Asia. What visions of glory would have broken upon his mind, could he have known that he had indeed discovered a new continent, equal to the whole of the old world in magnitude, and separated by two vast oceans from all the earth hitherto known by civilized man! And how would his magnanimous spirit have been consoled amidst the afflictions of age and the cares of penury, the neglect of a fickle public, and the injustice of an ungrateful king, could he have anticipated the splendid empires which were to spread over the beautiful world he had discovered, and the nations, and tongues, and languages which were to fill its lands with his renown, and to revere and bless his name to the latest posterity!

It may be questioned whether any old Norse Sea-King, who braved the storms and billows of the North Atlantic, ever exhibited. a purpose more resolute, a courage more daring, or a self-sacrifice more complete than characterized Columbus. Our illustration of the royal Norseman shows him to have been a man born to command and achieve; the hero of 1492 was no less illustrious.

I

N the meantime the success of the first voyage of Columbus had stimulated other nations to similar exertions. The English court had experienced a feeling of keen regret that the petition of Columbus had been refused, and when John Cabot, a native of Venice, then residing at Bristol, applied for leave to undertake a voyage of exploration his request was readily granted.

On the fifth of March, 1496, a patent or commission was granted to him and his three sons by Henry VII., authorizing either of them, their heirs or their agents, to undertake with a fleet of five ships, at their own expense, a voyage of discovery in the eastern, western or northern seas. Though they were to make the attempt at their own cost, they were to take possession of the countries they should discover for the king of England. They were to have the exclusive privilege of trading to these countries, but were bound to return to the port of Bristol, and to pay to the king one-fifth of the profits of their trade.

Early in 1497 Cabot sailed from Bristol, accompanied by his son, Sebastian. The object of his voyage was not only the dis covery of new lands, but the finding of a

northwest passage to Asia. He sailed due west, and on the twenty-fourth of June, 1497, reached the coast of Labrador. He thus discovered the mainland of the North American continent, fully fourteen months before Columbus reached the coast of South America, and nearly a year before Amerigo Vespucci made his discovery. He explored the coast to the southward for over a thousand miles, made frequent landings, and took possession of the country in the name of the English king. Returning home, he was received with many marks of honor by Henry VII., and was called the Great Admiral" by the people.

The

Towards the close of the year 1497, the Cabots undertook a new voyage, and the king, pleased with the success of the first venture, became a partner in the enterprise, and assumed a portion of the expense. object of this voyage was to trade with the natives, and to ascertain if the country was suited to colonization. The expedition sailed from Bristol in May, 1498, and was commanded by Sebastian Cabot, who reached the Labrador coast about four hundred miles north of the point discovered by his father.

He found the country cold and barren, though it was but the beginning of the summer, and sailed southward. "The coast to