Chapter XIV: Introduction (7)

_Hylacomylus (Waldsee-Müller)_, _Cosmographiæ Introdvctio ... Insuper quatuor Americi Vespucij Nauigationes_, Deodate (St Dié, Lorraine), 1507, is the title of a work which appeared four times in the same place and year. It is the first collection of Vespucci's four voyages, and generally regarded as the first edition of the first and fourth, although as we have seen M. Varnhagen claims an Italian edition of the first in 1506. This account of the third voyage is different from that so widely circulated before as _Mundus Novus_. Three other editions of the work, or of the part relating to Vespucci, appeared in 1509 and 1510. In _Hylacomylus_ the following passage occurs: "But now that those parts have been more extensively examined, and another fourth part has been discovered by Americus (as will be seen in the sequel), I do not see why we should rightly refuse to name it America, namely, the land of Americus or America, after its discoverer, Americus, a man of sagacious mind, since both Europe and Asia took their names from women." Here we have the origin of the name 'America.' To the northern discoveries of Columbus, Cabot, and Cortereal, on the islands and coast of the supposed Asia, no general name was given because those regions were already named India, Cathay, Mangi, etc., while names were applied by Europeans only to particular places on the new coasts. When Columbus in 1498 explored the northern coast of South America he had no doubt it was a portion, though probably a detached portion, of Asia, and the terms Paria and the Pearl Coast sufficed to designate the region during the succeeding trading voyages. Concerning these voyages, only a letter of Columbus and a slight account of Pinzon's expedition had been printed, apparently without attracting much attention. The voyages of Columbus, Bastidas, and Pinzon along the coast of Central America were almost unknown. Meanwhile the fame of the great navigator had become much obscured. His enterprises on the supposed Asiatic coast had been unprofitable to Spain. The eyes of the world were now directed farther south. By the Portuguese the coasts of Brazil had been explored for a long distance, proving the great extent of this south-eastern portion of the supposed Asia, whose existence was not indicated on the old charts, and which certainly required a name. These Portuguese explorations and their results were known to the world almost exclusively by the letter of Vespucci so often printed. To the Latin translation of the letter, the name _Mundus Novus_ had been applied, meaning not necessarily a new continent, but simply the newly found regions. The name 'America' suggested itself naturally, possibly through the influence of some friend who was an admirer of Vespucci, to the German professor of a university in Lorraine, as appropriate for the new region, and he accordingly proposed it. Having proposed it, his pride and that of his friends—a clique who had great influence over the productions of the German press at that period—was involved in securing its adoption. No open opposition seems to have been made, even by the Portuguese who had applied the name 'Santa Cruz' to the same region; still it was long before the new name replaced the old ones. In later years, when America was found to be joined to the northern continent, and all that great land to be entirely distinct from Asia, the name had become too firmly fixed to be easily changed, and no effort that we know of was made to change it. Later still some authors, inadvertently perhaps, attributed the first discovery to Vespucci. This aroused the wrath of Las Casas and others, and a discussion ensued which has lasted to the present time. See list of partisans on both sides in _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, pp. 65-7. Muñoz and Navarrete insist that Vespucci was an impostor, but others, headed by Humboldt, have proved conclusively that the name 'America' was adopted as the result of the somewhat strange combination of circumstances described, without any intentional wrong to Columbus. This conclusion is founded chiefly on the following reasons, namely: The honor to Vespucci resulted chiefly from his third voyage in 1501, and not from his first voyage in 1497, which last mentioned is the only one possible to have claimed precedence over Columbus in the discovery of the continent. Furthermore, neither Columbus nor Vespucci ever suspected that a new continent had been found; and to precede Cabot in reaching Asia, Vespucci, even if relying on his first voyage, must have dated it somewhat earlier in 1497 than he did; while to precede Columbus he must have dated it before 1492, when, as they both believed, Columbus had touched Asia at Cuba. Then, again, there is no evidence whatever that Vespucci ever claimed the honor of discovery. He was on intimate terms with the admiral and his friends, and is highly spoken of by all, especially by Fernando Colon, who was extremely jealous in every particular which might affect his father's honor. Moreover, it is certain that Vespucci did not himself propose the name 'America;' it is not certain that he even used the term Mundus Novus or its equivalent in his letters; and it is quite possible that he never even knew of his name being applied to the New World, since the name did not come into general use until many years after his death, which occurred in 1512. The most serious charge which in my opinion can be brought against Vespucci is neglect—perhaps an intentional deception for the purpose of giving himself temporary prominence in the eyes of his correspondent—in failing to name the commanders under whom he sailed; and with exaggeration and carelessness in his details. But it is to be remembered that his writings were simply letters to friends describing in familiar terms the wonders of his voyages, with little care for dry dates and names, reserving particulars for a large work which he had prepared, but which has never come to light. "After all," says Irving, "this is a question more of curiosity than of real moment ... about which grave men will continue to write weary volumes, until the subject acquires a fictitious importance from the mountain of controversy heaped upon it." _Cancellieri_, _Notizie di Colombo_, pp. 41-8; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. and v., and Preface to _Ghillany_; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i. p. cxxvi.; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 380-8; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, p. 496; _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, pp. 65-6; _D'Avesac_, _Martin Hylacomylus_, Paris, 1867; _Muñoz_, _Hist. Nuevo Mundo_, p. x.; _Stevens' Notes_, pp. 24, 35, 52 et seq.; _Viages de Vespucio_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 183; _Carta del Excmo. Sr. Vizconde de Santarem_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. pp. 309-34. Ludd, _Speculi Orbis_, Strasburg, 1507, adopts Waldsee-Müller's suggestion so far as to speak of the 'American race,' or people, _gentis Americi_. Major, _Prince Henry_, pp. 380-8, explains the connection between this and other works of the time influenced by the St Dié clique. See also _Stevens' Notes_, p. 35.

[1508.] Pinzon and Solis, with Pedro Ledesma as pilot, were sent by Spain for the third time to search southward for the strait which they, as well as Columbus and Bastidas, had failed to find farther north and west. Sailing from San Lúcar June 29, 1508, they touched at the Cape Verde Islands, proceeded to Cape St Augustine, and followed the coast south-west to about 40° south latitude, returning to Spain in October, 1509. _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 47. Kohl, _Die beiden ältesten Karten von Am._, p. 110, joins this voyage to the preceding one of 1506.

Another of the uncertain French voyages to Newfoundland is reported to have taken place in 1508, under the command of Thomas Aubert, from Dieppe. _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 41; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 203-5.

In 1508 the governor of Española sent Sebastian de Ocampo to explore Cuba. He was the first to sail round the island, thus proving it such, as Juan de la Cosa probably imagined it to be eight years earlier. _Aa_, _Naaukeurige Versameling_, tom. vi. p. 1; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. i. lib. vii. cap. i.; _Stevens' Notes_, p. 35.

[Sidenote: BOOKS AND MAPS OF THE PERIOD.]

_Ptolemy_, _In hoc opere hæc continentvr, Geographiæ Cl. Ptolemæi_, Rome, 1508, is said to be the first edition of this work which contains allusions to the New World. Other editions of Ptolemy, prepared by different editors, with additional text and maps, and with some changes in original matter, appeared in 1511, 1512, 1513, 1519, 1520, 1522, 1525, 1532, and 1535. The edition first mentioned contains, in addition to the preceding one of 1507, fourteen leaves of text and an engraved map by Johann Ruysch—the first ever published which includes the New World. Copies have been printed by Lelewel in his _Géog. du moyen âge_, atlas; by Santarem, in his _Recherches_, Paris, 1842, atlas; and by Humboldt, Kohl, and Stevens. I have taken the annexed copy from the three last mentioned authorities, omitting some of the unimportant names.

This map follows closely that of Juan de la Cosa in 1500, but illustrates more clearly the geographical idea of the time. The discoveries of Cabot, whom Ruysch is supposed to have accompanied, as well as those of Cortereal in the north, of Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland, are laid down with tolerable accuracy; and the rest of the supposed Asiatic coast as in Behaim's globe is taken from Marco Polo. In the centre we have the lands discovered by Columbus, and the old fabulous island of Antilia restored. To 'Spagnola' (Española) is joined an inscription stating the compiler's belief that it was identical with Zipangu, or Japan. Western Cuba is cut off by a scroll, instead of by green paint as in the map of Juan de la Cosa, with an inscription to the effect that this was the limit of Spanish exploration. Ruysch, having as yet no knowledge of Ocampo's voyage performed during this same year, evidently entertained the same idea respecting Cuba that was held by Juan de la Cosa, but did not venture to proclaim it an island. In the south, the New World is shown under the name 'Terra Sanctæ Crucis sive Mvndvs Novvs.' An open sea separates the New World from Asia, showing that Ruysch did not know of the unsuccessful search for this passage by Columbus, Bastidas, and Pinzon. It is worthy of remark that the name America is not used by this countryman of Hylacomylus. Humboldt thinks that he had not seen the _Cosmographiæ Introdvctio_, but had read some other edition of Vespucci's third voyage. _Exam. Crit._, tom. ii. pp. 5, 9; tom. iv. p. 121, and Preface to _Ghillany_. See also _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 136-7; _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, pp. 107-8; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 156-8; _Stevens' Notes_, pp. 31-2.

[Sidenote: OCCUPATION OF TIERRA FIRME.]

[1509.] Stimulated by the admiral's gold discoveries at Veragua, which had been corroborated by subsequent voyages. King Ferdinand of Spain determined to establish colonies on that coast. The region known as Tierra Firme was to that end divided into two provinces, of which Alonso de Ojeda was appointed governor of one, and Diego de Nicuesa of the other. Ojeda sailed from Española November 10, 1509, and Nicuesa soon followed. Their adventures form an important part of early Central American history, and are fully related in the following chapters. During the succeeding years frequent voyages were made back and forth between the new colonies, Jamaica, Cuba, and Española, which are for the most part omitted here as not constituting new discoveries. _Peter Martyr_, dec. ii. cap. i.; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fols. 67-9; _Galvano's Discov._, p. 109-10; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii. pp. 421-8; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. i. cap. vii. lib. vii. et seq.

The _Globus Mundi_, Strasburg, 1509, an anonymous work, was the first to apply the name America to the southern continent. _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. p. 142; _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 387.

[1511.] Juan de Agramonte received a commission from the Spanish government, and made arrangements to sail to Newfoundland and the lands of the north-western ocean, but nothing further is known of the matter. _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 42; _Sobrecarta de la Reina Doña Juana_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 122. _P. Martyris_, _Anglimediolanensis opera_, Seville, 1511, is the first edition of Peter Martyr's first decade; containing in ten letters, or books, accounts of the first three voyages of Columbus, certain expeditions to the Pearl Coast, and closing with a brief mention of the admiral's fourth voyage. The learned author was personally acquainted with Columbus, and his relations are consequently of great value. This work contains a map, of which I give a copy from Stevens, the only fac-simile I have seen.

The map shows only Spanish discoveries, but it is by far the most accurate yet made. Cuba, now proved to be an island, is so laid down. No name is given to the Mundus Novus, which, by a knowledge of the Spanish voyages, is made to extend much farther north and west than in Ruysch's map; but above the known coasts a place is left open where the passage to India it was believed might yet be found. The representation of a country, corresponding with Florida, to the north of Cuba, under the name of 'Isla de Beimini,' may indicate that Florida had been reached either by Ocampo in 1508, by some private adventurer, as Diego Miruelo, who is said to have preceded Ponce de Leon, or, as is claimed by some, by Vespucci in his pretended voyage of 1497; but more probably this region was laid down from the older maps—see Behaim's map, p. 93—and the name was applied in accordance with the reports among the natives of a wonderful country or island, which they called _bimini_, situated in that direction. The map is not large enough to show exactly the relation which Peter Martyr supposed to exist between these regions and the rest of the world, but the text of the first decade leaves no doubt that he still believed them to be parts of Asia.

The _Ptolemy_ of 1511 has a map which I have not seen, but which from certain descriptions resembles that of Ruysch, except that it represents Terra Corterealis as an island separated from the supposed Asiatic coast; the name Sanctæ Crucis for South America being still retained. As long as the new lands were believed to be a part of Asia, the maps bore some resemblance to the actual countries intended to be represented, but from the first dawning of an idea of separate lands we shall see the greatest confusion in the efforts of map-makers to depict the New World. _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, no. 68; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, 133; _Kohl_, _Die beiden ältesten Karten von Am._, p. 33. A copy of this map was published in _Lelewel's Atlas_.

[1512.] The West India Islands, in which the Spaniards are at length firmly established, become now the point of new departures. Conquerors and discoverers henceforth for the most part sail from Española or Cuba rather than from Spain. Juan Ponce de Leon, a wealthy citizen who had been governor of Puerto Rico, fitted out three vessels at his own expense, and sailed in search of a fountain, which according to the traditions of the natives had the property of restoring youth, and which was situated in the land called Bimini far to the north. This infatuation had been current in the Islands for several years, and, as we have seen, the name was applied to such a land on Peter Martyr's map of 1511. Sailing from Puerto Rico March 3, 1512, Ponce de Leon followed the northern coast of Española, and thence north-west through the Bahamas, reaching San Salvador on the 14th of March. Thirteen days thereafter he saw the coast of Florida, so named by him from the day of discovery, which was Pascua Florida, or Easter-day. The native name of the land was Cautio. On the 2d of April the Spaniards landed in 30° 8', and took possession for the king of Spain; then following the coast southward they doubled Cape Corrientes (Cañaveral) May 8, and advanced to an undetermined point on the southern or eastern coast, which Kohl thinks may have been Charlotte Bay. All this while they believed the country to be an island. On the 14th of June Ponce de Leon departed from Florida, and on his return touched at the Tortugas, at the Lucayos, at Bahama, and at San Salvador, arriving at Puerto Rico the 21st of September. He left behind one vessel under Juan Perez de Ortubia, who arrived a few days later with the news of having found Bimini, but no fountain of youth. _Reise des Ponce de Leon, und Entdeckung von Florida_, in _Sammlung aller Reisebesch._, tom. xiii. p. 188; _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. pp. 50-3: _Real cédula dando facultad á Francisco de Garay_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 148; _Uitvoerlyke Scheepstogt door den Dapperen Jean Ponze de Leon gedaan naar Florida_, in _Gottfried_, tom, iii.; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fols. 50-2; _Galvano's Discov._, p. 123. Kohl places the voyage in 1513, relying on Peschel, who, he says, has proved the year 1512 to be an impossible date.

In 1512 the Regidor Valdivia was sent by the colonists from the gulf of Darien, then called Urabá, to Española for supplies. Being wrecked in a violent tempest, he escaped in boats to the coast of Yucatan, where he and his companions were made captives by the natives. Some were sacrificed to the gods, and then eaten; only two, Gonzalo Guerrero and Gerónimo de Aguilar, survived their many hardships, the latter being rescued by Cortés in 1519. _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i. pp. 368-72; _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, fol. 21-2; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii. lib. iv. cap. vii.; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yucathan_, pp. 24-9.

The very rare map in _Stobnicza's Ptolemy_, Cracoviæ, 1512, I have not seen. It is said to show the New World as a continuous coast from 50° north latitude to 40° south. Neither in the text nor in the map is found the name America.

[Sidenote: DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.]

[1513.] In September, 1513, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa set out from the settlement of Antigua on the gulf of Urabá, and crossing the narrow isthmus which joins the two Americas, discovered a vast ocean to the southward on the other side of the supposed Asia. The Isthmus here runs east and west, and on either side, to the north and to the south are great oceans, which for a long time were called the North Sea and the South Sea. After exploring the neighboring coasts he returned to Antigua in January, 1514, after an absence of four months. _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 123-5; _Peter Martyr_, dec. iii. cap. i.; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii. pp. 9-17; _Andagoya's Narrative_, p. 7; _Carta del Adelantado Vasco Nuñez de Balboa_, in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc. Inéd._, tom. ii. p. 526.

The _Ptolemy_ of 1513 has a map which is said to have been made by Hylacomylus as early as 1508, but concerning which there seems to be much uncertainty. I give a copy from the fac-simile of Stevens and Varnhagen.

The name Cuba does not appear, and in its place is Isabela. Many of the names given by other maps to points on the coast of Cuba are transferred to the main-land opposite. The compiler evidently was undecided whether Cuba was a part of the Asiatic main or not, and therefore represented it in both ways. The coast line must be regarded as imaginary or taken from the old charts, unless, as M. Varnhagen thinks, Vespucci actually sailed along the Florida coast in 1497. This map if made in 1508 may be regarded as the first to join the southern continent, or Mundus Novus, to the main-land of Asia. This southern land is called 'Terra Incognita,' with an inscription stating expressly that it was discovered by Columbus, notwithstanding the fact that its supposed author proposed the name America in honor of Vespucci only the year before. In fact the map is in many respects incoherent, and is mentioned by most writers but vaguely. _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, no. 74; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. pp. 109 et seq., and Preface to _Ghillany_; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 130-2; _Kohl_, _Die beiden ältesten Karten von Am._, p. 33; _Varnhagen_, _Nouvelles Recherches_, Vienna, 1869, p. 56; _Stevens' Notes_, pl. ii. no. i. pp. 13, 14, 51; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 385-6; _Santarem_, in _Bulletin de la Soc. Géog._, May, 1847, pp. 318-23.

The name America is thought by Major to occur first on a manuscript map by Leonardo da Vinci, in the queen's collection at Windsor, to which he ascribes the date of 1513 or 1514.

[1514.] Pedrarias Dávila, having been appointed governor of Castilla del Oro, by which name the region about the isthmus of Darien was now called, sailed from San Lúcar with an armada of fifteen vessels and over 2000 men, April 12, 1514. The special object of this expedition was to discover and settle the shores of the South Sea, whose existence had been reported in Spain, but whose discovery by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa was not known before the departure of Pedrarias. _Herrera_, dec. i. lib. x. cap. xiii.; _Peter Martyr_, dec. ii. cap. vii.; dec. iii. cap. v.; _Galvano's Discov._, p. 125; _Quintana_, _Vidas de Españoles Célebres_, 'Balboa,' p. 28; _Robertson's Hist. Am._, vol. i. p. 207. See chapter x. of this volume.

[1515.] Juan Diaz de Solis sailed from Lepe October 8, 1515, with three vessels, and surveyed the eastern coast of South America from Cape San Roque to Rio Janeiro, where he was killed by the natives. _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 48-50. Three vessels were fitted out at Seville, well manned and armed for a cruise against the Caribs, under command of Juan Ponce de Leon, but the Spaniards were defeated in their first encounter with the savages at Guadalupe, and the expedition was practically abandoned.

[Sidenote: GRADUAL ENLARGEMENT OF THE TWO AMERICAS.]

The adventures of Badajoz, Mercado, Morales, and others in 1515-16 and the following years, by which the geography of the Isthmus was more fully determined, are given elsewhere.

_Schöner_, _Luculentissima quædã terræ totius descriptio_, Nuremberg, 1515, and another edition of the same work under the title _Orbis Typvs_, same place and date, have a chapter on America 'discovered by Vespucci in 1497.' In _Reisch_, _Margaritha Philosophica_, Strasburg, 1515, an encyclopedia frequently republished, is a map which is almost an exact copy of that in the _Ptolemy_ of 1513, except in its names. The main-land to the north-west of Cuba is called Zoana Mela, but the names of certain localities along the coast are omitted. Both Cuba and Española are called Isabela, and the southern continent is laid down as 'Paria seu Prisilia.' _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, nos. 80-2; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 130-1; _Kohl_, _Die beiden ältesten Karten von Am._, p. 33; _Stevens' Notes_, p. 52; fac-simile, pl. iv. no. 2.

[1516.] After Ponce de Leon's voyage in 1512 or 1513, and probably before that time, trips were made by private adventurers northward from Española and Cuba to the Islands and to Florida. Among these is that of Diego de Miruelo in 1516, who probably visited the western or gulf coast of Florida, and brought back specimens of gold. No details are known of the expedition. _Garcilaso de la Vega_, _La Florida del Inca_, Madrid, 1723, p. 5.

_Lettera di Amerigo Vespucci_, Florence, 1516, the second collection of the four voyages; _Peter Martyr_, _Ioannes ruffus, De Orbe Decades_, Alcala, 1516, the first edition of three decades; and _Giustiniani_, _Psalterium_, Genoa, 1516, which appends a life of Columbus to the nineteenth Psalm, are among the new books of the year.

[1517.] Eden, in his dedication of an English translation of _Munster's Cosmography_, in 1553, speaks of certain ships "furnished and set forth" in 1517 under Sebastian Cabot and Sir Thomas Pert; but so faint was the heart of the baronet that the voyage "toke none effect." On this authority some authors have ascribed a voyage to Cabot in 1517, to regions concerning which they do not agree. An expedition whose destination and results are unknown, can have had little effect on geographical knowledge; and Kohl, after a full discussion of the subject, seems to have proved against Biddle, its chief supporter, that there is not sufficient evidence of such a voyage. _Navigatione di Sebastiano Cabota_, in _Ramusio_, tom. ii. fol. 212; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 54-5; _Roux de Rochelle_, in _Bulletin, Soc. Géog._, Apr. 1832, p. 209; _Peter Martyr_, dec. iii. cap. vi.

Francisco Hernandez de Córdoba, with three vessels and 110 men, sailed from La Habana February 8, 1517, sent by the governor of Cuba to make explorations toward the west. Touching at Cape Catoche, in Yucatan, he coasted the peninsula in fifteen days to Campeche, and six days later reached Potonchan, or Champoton, where a battle was fought with the natives, and the Spaniards defeated. Accounts indicate that the explorers were not unanimous in supposing Yucatan to be an island, as it was afterward represented on some maps. Failing to procure a supply of water in the slough of Lagartos, Córdoba sailed across the Gulf to Florida, and thence returned to Cuba, where he died in ten days from his wounds. I find nothing to show what part of Florida he touched. _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i. pp. 349-51; _Peter Martyr_, dec. iv. cap. i.; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i. pp. 497-8; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 130-1; _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 8-9; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii. lib. ii. cap. xvii.; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yucathan_, pp. 3-8; _Prescott's Mex._, vol. i. pp. 222-24; _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. pp. 53-5; _West-Indische Spieghel_, p. 188; _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, tom. i. pp. 338-41.

[1518.] The following year Juan de Grijalva was sent from Cuba to carry on the explorations begun by Córdoba. Grijalva sailed from Santiago de Cuba April 8, 1518, with four vessels, reached the island of Santa Cruz (Cozumel) on the 3d of May, took possession on the 6th of May, and shortly after entered Ascension Bay. From this point he coasted Yucatan 270 leagues, by his estimate, to Puerto Deseado, entered and named the Rio de Grijalva (Tabasco), and took possession of the country in the vicinity of Vera Cruz about the 19th of June. Advancing up the coast to Cabo Rojo, he turned about and entered Rio Tonalá, engaged in a parting fight at Champoton, followed the coast for several weeks, and then turned for Cuba, arriving at Matanzas about the 1st of November. During his absence, Cristóbal de Olid had coasted a large part of Yucatan in search of Grijalva's fleet. _Peter Martyr_, dec. iv. cap. iii.-iv.; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i. pp. 351-8, _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i. pp. 502-37; _Gomara_, _Conq. Mex._, fol. 8-11, 56-8; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. i. ix.; _Robertson's Hist. Am._, vol. i. pp. 240-4; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iv. pp. 40-50; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yucathan_, pp. 8-16; _Diaz_, _Itinéraire_, in _Ternaux-Compans_, _Voy._, série i. tom. x. pp. 1-47; _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. pp. 53-64; _Alaman_, _Disertaciones_, tom. i. pp. 45-8; _Reise des Johann Grijalva und allererste Entdeckung Neuspaniens_, in _Sammlung_, tom. xiii. p. 258; _Itinerario de Juan de Grijalva_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, tom. i. p. 281.

I may here remark that such manuscript maps, made generally by pilots for government use, as have been preserved are, as might be expected, far superior to those published in geographical works of the period. I give a copy of a Portuguese chart preserved in the Royal Academy at Munich.

From the fact that Yucatan is represented as a peninsula, though not named, while the discoveries of Grijalva and Cortés are not shown, the date of 1518 may be ascribed to the map. Stevens believes it to have been made some time about 1514; Kohl about 1520; Kunstmann some time after 1511. Unexplored coasts are left out instead of being laid down from old Asiatic maps; as for example the United States coast from Newfoundland (Bacalnaos) to Florida (Bimini), and the Gulf coast from Florida to Yucatan. In the central region the names 'Terram Antipodum' and 'Antilhas de Castela' are used without any means of deciding to exactly what parts they are to be applied. The South Sea discovered by Balboa in 1513 is here shown for the first time with the inscription 'Mar visto pelos Castelhanus.' To South America the name 'Brasill' is given. The presence of two Mahometan flags in locations corresponding to Honduras and Venezuela, shows that the compiler still had no doubt that he was mapping parts of Asia. _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 129 et seq.; _Munich Atlas_, no. iv., from which I take my copy; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 179-82, pl. x.; _Stevens' Notes_, pp. 17, 53, pl. v. Pomponius Mela's _Libri de situ orbis_, Vienna, 1518, contains a commentary by Vadianus, written however in 1512, in which the name America is used in speaking of the New World. Other editions appeared in 1522 and 1530.

[1519.] _Stobnicza's Ptolemy_ of 1519 alludes to the New World discovered by Vespucci and named after him.

_Enciso_, _Suma de geografia_, Seville, 1519, is the first Spanish work known which treats of the new regions. The author was a companion of Ojeda in his unfortunate attempt to found a colony on Tierra Firme. Another edition appeared in 1530.

[Sidenote: CONQUEST OF MEXICO.]

On February 18, 1519, Hernan Cortés set sail from Cuba to undertake the conquest of the countries discovered by Córdoba and Grijalva. After spending some time on the island of Cozumel, where he rescued Gerónimo de Aguilar from his long captivity (see p. 129), he followed the coast to Rio de Grijalva, where he defeated the natives in battle, and took possession of the land in the name of the Catholic sovereigns. From this place he continued his voyage sailing near the shore to Vera Cruz, where he landed his forces and began the conquest of Montezuma's empire, the history of which forms part of a subsequent volume of this series.

Francisco de Garay, governor of Jamaica, prompted by the reports of Ponce de Leon, Córdoba, and Grijalva, despatched four vessels in 1519, under Alonso Alvarez Pineda, who sailed northward to a point on the Pánuco coast (where, according to Gomara, an expedition had been sent during the preceding year, under Camargo). Prevented by winds and shoals from coasting northward as he desired, he sailed along in sight of the low gulf shores until he reached Vera Cruz, where he found the fleet of Cortés. Troubles between the commanders arose from this meeting which will be narrated hereafter.

Garay continued for some time his attempts to found a settlement in the region of Pánuco, but without success. _Peter Martyr_, dec. v. cap. i.; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 55-6; _West-Indische Spieghel_, p. 202; _Gomara_, _Hist. Conq._, fol. 222-7; _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. pp. 64-7; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 73.

Soon after landing at Vera Cruz Cortés despatched for Spain a vessel under the pilot Antonio de Alaminos, with messengers who were to clear up before the king certain irregularities which the determined conqueror had felt obliged to commit, and furthermore to establish his authority upon a more defined basis. Alaminos sailed July 16, 1519, following a new route north of Cuba, through the Bahama Channel, and down the Gulf Stream, of which current he was probably the first to take advantage. Touching at Cuba and discovering Terceira he reached Spain in October. _Diaz del Castillo_, _Hist. Verdadera de la Conqvista_, Madrid, 1632, fol. 37-9; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii. lib. v. cap. xiv.; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 243-5.

The history of the Darien colonies is elsewhere recounted in this volume, and the introduction here of the numerous land and water expeditions on and along the Isthmus would be confusing and unprofitable. Suffice it to say that in 1519 the city of Panamá was founded, and a second expedition sent under Gaspar de Espinosa up the South Sea coast. The northern limit reached was the gulf of San Lúcar (Nicoya), latitude 10° north, in Nicaragua, and the expedition returned to Panamá by land from Burica. _Andagoya's Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Dávila_, London, 1865, pp. 23-4; _Kohl_, _Die beiden ältesten Karten von Am._, p. 162; _Oviedo_, _Hist Gen._, tom. iii. p. 61 et seq.

We have seen several unsuccessful attempts by both Spaniards and Portuguese to find a passage to India by the southern parts of Brazil, Santa Cruz, or America. In 1519 a native of Oporto, Fernando de Magalhaens, called by Spaniards Magallanes, and by English authors Magellan, after having made several voyages for Portugal to India _via_ Good Hope, quit the Portuguese service dissatisfied, entered the service of Spain, and undertook the oft-repeated attempt of reaching the east by sailing west. His particular destination was the Moluccas, which the Spaniards claimed as lying within the hemisphere granted to them by the treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. It appears that Magellan had seen some map, of unknown origin, on which was represented a strait instead of an open sea at the southern point of America—probably the conjecture of some geographer, for, says Humboldt, "dans le moyen âge les conjectures étaient inscrits religieusement sur les cartes." See _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 306, 326, 354; tom. ii. pp. 17-26. Sailing from San Lúcar September 20, 1519, with five ships and 265 men, he reached Rio de Janeiro on the coast of Brazil on the 13th of December, and from that point coasted southward. An attempt to pass through the continent by the Rio de la Plata failed, and on March 31, 1520, the fleet reached Port St Julian in about 49° south, where it remained five months until the 24th of August. On the 21st of October Magellan arrived at Cabo de las Vírgenes and the entrance to what seemed, and indeed proved, to be the long-desired strait. Having lost one vessel on the eastern coast, and being deserted by another which turned back and sailed for Spain after having entered the strait, with the remaining three he passed on, naming the land on the south Tierra del Fuego, from the fires seen burning there. Emerging from the strait, which he called Vitoria after one of his ships, on the 27th of November he entered and named the Pacific Ocean. Then steering north-west for warmer climes he crossed the line February 13, 1521, arrived at the Ladrones on the 6th of March, and at the Philippines on the 16th of March. This bold navigator, "second only to Columbus in the history of nautical exploration," was killed on the 27th of April, in a battle with the natives of one of these islands; the remainder of the force, consisting of 115 men under Caraballo, proceeded on their way, touching at Borneo and other islands, and anchoring on the 8th of November at the Moluccas, their destination. From this point one of the vessels, the _Vitoria_, in command of Sebastian del Cano, sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, and reached San Lúcar September 6, 1522, with only eighteen survivors of the 265 who had sailed with Magellan. Thus was accomplished the first circumnavigation of the globe.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE NAMING OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.]

As to the circumstances attending the naming of the Pacific Ocean, a few words may not be out of place. Magellan was accompanied by one Antonio Pigafetta, of Vicenza, afterward Caviliere di Rhodi, who wrote in bad Italian a narrative of the voyage, which was rewritten and translated into French, _Primer voyage autour du Monde, par le Chevallier Pigafetta, sur l'Escadre de Magellan pendant les années 1519, 20, 21, et 22_, by Charles Amoretti. "Le mercredi, 28 novembre," says Pigafetta, liv. ii. p. 50, "nous débouquâmes du détroit pour entrer dans la grande mer, à laquelle nous donnâmes ensuite le nom de mer Pacifique; dans laquelle nous naviguâmes pendant le cours de trois mois et vingt jours, sans goûter d'aucune nourriture fraiche." And again, p. 52, "Pendant cet espace de trois mois et vingt jours nous parcourûmes à peu près quatre mille lieues dans cette mer que nous appelâmes Pacifique, parce que durant tout le temps de notre traversée nous n'essuyâmes pas le moindre tempête;" or, as Ramusio, _Viaggio atorno il mondo fatto et descritto per M. Antonio Pigafetta_, in _Viaggi_, tom. iii. fol. 393, puts it, "Et in questi tre mesi, & venti giorni fecero quattro mila leghe in vn golfo per questo mar Pacifico, il qual ben si puó chiamar pacifico, perche in tutto questo tempo senza veder mai terra alcuna, non hebbero né fortuna di vento, né di altra tempesta." Peter Martyr, dec. v. cap. vii., speaks of it only as "the huge Ocean" first found by Vasco Nuñez, and then called the South Sea. Galvano, _Discov._, p. 142, alludes to it as a "mightie sea called Pacificum." Oviedo, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii. p. 22, merely remarks: "Es aquel estrecho en algunas partes mas ó menos de media legua, y çircundado de montañas altissimas cargadas de nieve, y corre en otra mar que le puso nombre el capitan Fernando de Magallanes, el _Mar Pacífico_; y es muy profundo, y en algunas partes de veynte é çinco hasta en treynta braças." Gomara, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 120, says, "No cabia de gozo por auer hallado aq̃l passo para el otro mar del Sur, por do pẽsava llegar presto alas yslas del Maluco," without any mention of the word Pacific. The _Sammlung aller Reisebeschreibungen_, tom. xi. p. 346, gives it essentially the same as Pigafetta: "In einer Zeit von drey Monaten und zwanzig Tagen, legete er viertausend Meilen in einer See zurück, welche er das friedfertige oder stille Meer nannte; weil er keinen Sturm auf demselben ausstund, und kein anderes Land sah, als diese beyden Inseln." Kohl, _Die beiden ältesten Karten von Am._, p. 161, is unable to find the name on the old maps: "Der Name 'Oceano Pacifico,' der auch schon auf den Reisen des Magellan und Loaysa in Schwung kam, steht nirgends auf unseren Karten." Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ix. cap. xv., describes the exit from the strait in the language following: "a veynte y siete de Nouiẽbre, salio al espacioso mar del Sur, dando infinitas gracias a Dios." Navarrete, _Viages al Maluco; Primero el de Hernando de Magallanes_, in tom. iv. pp. 49-50, of his collection says: "Salió pues Magallanes del _estrecho que nombraron de Todos los Santos_ el dia 27 de Noviembre de 1520 con las tres naos Trinidad, Victoria, y Concepcion, y se halló en una mar oscura y gruesa que era indicio de gran golfo; pero despues le nombraron _Mar Pacífico_, porque en todo el tiempo que navegaron por él, no tuvieron tempestad alguna." Happening thus, that in this first circumnavigation of the globe, as the strangers entered at its southern end the South Sea of Vasco Nuñez, the waters greeted them kindly, in return they gave them a peaceful title; other voyagers entering this same sea at other times gave to it a far different character. For further reference see _Voyage de Fernando de Magelhaens_, in _Berenger_, _Col. Voy._, tom. i. pp. 1-26; _Aa_, _Naaukeurige Versameling_, tom. ix. pt. ii. p. 7; _Purchas_, _His Pilgrimes_, vol. i. pt. ii. pp. 33-46.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MAPS AND BOOKS.]

A manuscript map supposed to have been made by Maiollo in 1519, of which a fac-simile is given in the _Munich Atlas_, no. v., shows the islands and main-land from Yucatan south and east, closely resembling, except in names of localities, the map of 1518 (see page 133). The eastern part of Brazil is called 'Sante Crucis,' and on the Pearl Coast is an inscription to the effect that it was discovered by Columbus. _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 135-6; _Schmeller_, in _Abhandl. Akademie der Wissensch._, tom. iv. pt. i. p. 253.

[1520.] An anonymous pamphlet without date, _Copia der Newen Zeytung_, is a translation of a letter describing a voyage of two thousand miles along the Brazilian coast. Harrisse places it under date of 1520, and thinks it may furnish grounds for the belief that Magellan was not the first to reach the strait. Varnhagen, _Hist. Brazil_, Madrid, 1854, maintains that the voyage described was under Solis and Pinzon in 1508. Humboldt, _Exam. Crit._, tom. v. p. 249, applies the description to some later voyage made between 1525 and 1540.

To _Varthema_, _Itinerario Nello Egitto_, Venetia (supposed to be 1520), is joined an account of Grijalva's voyage to Yucatan in 1518 (see page 132), translated from the original diary of Juan Diaz, chaplain of the expedition. Other editions appeared in 1522-26-35. _Discorso sopra lo itinerario di Lodouico Barthema_, in _Ramusio_, tom. i. fol. 160. The Itinerary of Diaz is not given by Ramusio. _Provinciæ sive Regiones in India Occidentali_, Valladolid, 1520, is a Latin translation of an account, by an unknown author, of the conquest of Cuba by Diego Velazquez. _Pigghe_, _De æquinoctiorum sol_, etc., Paris, supposed to have been printed in 1520, has a passage on the lands discovered by Vespucci. _A New Interlude_, London, 1519 or 1520, has a verse in which the name America is used.

A globe made by John Schöner in 1520 is preserved in Nuremberg, and copies have been given by Ghillany, Lelewel, and Kohl, of which I give a reduction.

This is the first drawing to represent all the regions of the New World as distinct, although not distant, from the Asiatic coast, which is laid down mostly as in Behaim's globe, with some imaginary additions round the north pole. This separation was undoubtedly a mere conjecture of the compiler, for the voyage of Magellan, which might have suggested such an idea, was not yet known or even consummated, and the map shows no knowledge of the later voyages even to the eastern coast. All the northern discoveries are given as an island, 'Terra Corterealis.' The central and southern parts—except their separation from Asia—are accurately copied from the map of Ptolemy, 1513 (see page 130), although a strait leads through the Isthmus into the South Sea. 'Terra de Cuba' is the name applied to the northern part of what may be regarded as the nucleus which afterward grew into North America, while the southern part is called Paria. Several names of localities on the coast, as 'C. Dellicontis' and 'C. Bonaventura,' are retained from the map of 1513, although Kohl erroneously calls all the names new and original. To the southern continent various names are applied, as America, Brazil, Paria (repeated), Land of Cannibals and of Parrots. On the original is an antarctic region round the south pole, called 'Brasiliæ Regio,' and separated from America in lat. 42° south by a strait, although the discovery of such a strait could not at the time have been known. _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. ii. p. 28. Several globes of about this date preserved in Germany are said to agree with this of Schöner's in their general features. _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 153-63, pl. vii., and _Beiden ältesten Karten von Am._, p. 33; _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, p. 141.

In the _Solinus-Camers_, _Enarrationes_, Vienna, 1520, was published a woodcut map, the first to give the name America. The map was made by Petrus Apianus, and afterward used by him in his cosmography. According to various descriptions it agrees very nearly with Schöner's globe except in the extreme north, where Engronelant is represented very much as in the map of the Zeni in 1400 (see page 82). _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 134-5; _Kohl_, _Beiden ältesten Karten von Am._, p. 33; _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, pp. 184, 192.

Cortés with his second letter dated October 30, 1520, sent to Spain a map of the Gulf of Mexico, which was printed in 1524. The map is valuable only for its list of names along the whole extent of the gulf coast, and it is therefore unnecessary to reproduce it here. Yucatan seems to be represented as an island. _Stevens' Notes_, pp. 38, 53, pl. iv. no. vii.

In 1520 Lucas Vazquez de Aillon and other wealthy citizens of Española sent two vessels, probably under one Jordan, to the Lucayos Islands for slaves. Not succeeding according to their expectations in the islands, the Spaniards directed their course northward toward the country discovered by Ponce de Leon in 1513, and finally touched the coast in about 32° or 33°—Port Royal according to Navarrete; Stevens says Cape Fear—a region probably never before visited. They called the country Chicora, and the place of landing was named Cabo de Santa Elena and Rio Jordan. They made no explorations in any direction. One vessel and nearly all the slaves were lost on the return. _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 69-71; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 245-8; _Stevens' Notes_, p. 48.

Pánfilo de Narvaez sailed from Cuba in 1520 with a large force to dispossess Cortés, who had declared himself independent of his chief Velazquez; but after many reverses his forces went over to his opponent. _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 52-5; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i. p. 540; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. i. p. 474.

[Sidenote: SOUTH SEA DISCOVERIES.]

The conquest of Mexico once accomplished, Hernan Cortés very soon turned his attention to the South Sea coasts. Hearing from natives that the Pacific extended as far north as the land he had conquered, he sent small parties to explore and take possession, which they did at two points, Tehuantepec and Zacatula, before the end of 1521. Cortés was fully acquainted with the cosmographic theories of the time, and was enthusiastic in their application to the discovery of islands and main, rich in spices and precious metals. It was now established in a general way, as shown by the best maps, that the newly discovered lands were not the main Asiatic continent of Marco Polo, but a great south-eastern projection of that continent, probably separated from it by a strait. Cortés' idea was to sail down the coast as he termed it, northward at first, until he should either reach the rich Indian lands, or on the way find the strait which should afford a short cut from Spain to those lands. His efforts will be briefly noticed here in chronologic order, but fully presented in another part of my work. The best and almost only authority is _Cortés_, _Cartas_.

[1521.] Juan Ponce de Leon, learning from other voyagers that the land of Florida discovered by him was not, as he had believed it to be, an island, fitted out an expedition in Puerto Rico and sailed to repeat in Florida the glorious achievements of Cortés in New Spain. He reached the west coast of the peninsula, but was killed by the natives soon after landing, and his men returned without having accomplished their object.

_Peter Martyr_, _De nvper svb D. Carolo repertis Insulis_, Basiliæ, 1521, is the first edition of a part of the fourth decade.

[1522.] Pomponius Mela, _De Orbis Sitv_, Basiliæ, 1522, reproduced Apianus' map of 1520 (see page 137), also _Kohl_, _Beiden ältesten Karten_, p. 33. The _Ptolemy_ of this year, edited by Frisius, contains two maps resembling in their general appearance the Ptolemy map of 1513, and showing but little advance in geographical knowledge. These maps are also in the edition of 1525. _Asher's Catalogue_, no. civ., Berlin, 1873. _Translationus hispanischer_, etc., n.p., n.d., has a slight notice of the City of Mexico. _Ein Schöne Newe Zeytung_, Augsburg (1522), notices the voyages of Columbus and the conquest of Mexico. _Of the newe lãdes and of ye people founde by the Messengers of the Kynge of portygale_, attributed to this year, is regarded as the first book in English to treat of America, which it calls Armenica. _Cortés_, _Carta de Relaciõ_, Seville, 1522, is the letter dated October 30, 1520, supposed to be the conqueror's second letter, the first having been lost. Eight other editions or translations appeared in various forms before 1532.

In 1522 Pascual de Andagoya followed the west coast of America southward from Panamá, to a point six or seven days' sail below the gulf of San Miguel in the province of Birú (Peru), a little beyond Point Pinos. Information obtained during this expedition concerning more southern lands, furnished the motive for the conquest of Peru undertaken a few years later by Francisco Pizarro. _Pascual de Andagoya_, _Narrative_, pp. 40-1.

Gil Gonzalez Dávila with a fleet of four vessels sailed from the islands in the Bay of Panamá, January 21, 1522, to explore the South Sea coast north-westward. Reaching the gulf of Nicoya, the limit of Espinosa's voyage, Gil Gonzalez proceeded by land and discovered Lake Nicaragua. The pilot Andres Niño continued westward, discovered and named the gulf of Fonseca, and reached, according to Herrera, dec. iii. lib. iv. cap. v.-vi., the province of Chorotega, having discovered 350 leagues of sea-coast from Nicoya, or 650 leagues from the gulf of San Miguel. Peter Martyr places Niño's ultimate limit at 300 leagues beyond the gulf of San Vicente; Ribero's map at 140 leagues west of the bay of Fonseca. Kohl, _Beiden ältesten Karten von Am._, pp. 163-9, thinks he probably reached the mountains south of Soconusco. See also _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 413, 417-18; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 148-9; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii. pp. 97-114; _Squier's Nicaragua_, New York, 1860, pp. 157-61. Not long afterward the cities of Granada and Leon were founded, and communication with Nicaragua from the south became of frequent occurrence.

In 1522 Pedro de Alvarado occupied Tututepec on the Pacific; while at Zacatula a _villa_ was founded, and a beginning made there on several vessels for exploration northward. _Cortés_, _Cartas_, Letter of May 15, 1522.

[1523.] Francisco de Garay fitted out a new fleet of eleven vessels, with 850 men, which sailed from Jamaica June 26, 1523. This force was intended for the conquest and settlement of Pánuco, but soon united with the army of Cortés without having accomplished anything of importance. _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 67-9; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. iii. lib. v. cap. v.-vi.; _Peter Martyr_, dec. vii. cap. v.; _Cortes_, _Carta tercera de Relaciõ_, Seville, 1523. This third letter was written May 15, 1522. Other editions appeared in 1524, and 1532. For the bibliography of Cortés' letters see _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, pp. 215-23. _Maximilian_, _De Molvccis Insulis_, Coloniæ, 1523, is a letter written by the emperor's secretary, describing Magellan's voyage round the world. Other editions are mentioned as having appeared in 1523, 1524, 1534, 1536, and 1537.

[1524.] _Apianus_, _Cosmographicus Liber_, Landshutæ, 1524, contains a short chapter on America, which the author describes as an island, because he says it is surrounded by water; furthermore, he affirms this land was named from Vespucci, its discoverer. The map of _Solinus-Camers_, 1520, is repeated in this and in several succeeding editions of the cosmography. _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 134-5. Francis, _De Orbis Sitv ac Descriptione_, Antwerp, 1524, also describes the New World.

In 1524 Cortés' fleet at Zacatula was not yet launched, the work having been delayed by fire. The conquest of Colima had however made known a good port, and brought new rumors of rich islands further north. The conqueror's plans were unchanged and his enthusiasm undiminished. His use of the term "la costa abajo," or down the coast, when he meant to sail northward, has sadly confused many writers as to his real intentions, and as to his ideas of the strait. _Cortés_, _Cartas_, Letter of Oct. 15, 1524.

In 1524 was made the first official French expedition to the New World. A fleet of four vessels was made ready under Giovanni Verrazano at Dieppe, but three of his ships were separated from him in some inexplicable manner before leaving European waters; and in the remaining one, the _Dauphine_, with fifty men, he sailed on the 17th of January, 1524, from an island near Madeira. After a voyage of forty-nine days, during which time he sailed 900 leagues, Verrazano struck the United States coast in about latitude 34°, perhaps at Cape Fear. Thence he sailed first southward fifty leagues, then turning about he followed the coast northward, frequently touching, to Newfoundland, whence he returned to Dieppe in July, 1524. Verrazano in his journal mentions only one date, and names but one locality; consequently there is much difference of opinion concerning his landings.