what her friend the monk might have to say about it. He started the very
night he received the queen’s letter, and talked with her about
converting to the Christian faith the people of the new lands Columbus
might discover. As a result of this talk the good monk wrote to Columbus
who, with his young son, was waiting at the monastery:
“Our Lord has heard his servants’ prayers. My heart swims in a sea
of comfort and my spirit leaps with joy. Start quickly, for the
queen awaits you, and I yet more than she. Commend me to the
prayers of my brethren and of the little Diego. The grace of God be
with you.”
The queen received Columbus this time with sympathy and kindness. She is
said to have pledged her jewels to raise money enough to fit out three
ships for his great voyage. Columbus was to command one of these and the
monk’s friends were to be captains of the other two. But after making
the little fleet ready, they could not induce sailors to man the vessels
for their ghastly voyage across the Sea of Outer Darkness. Sailors were
always superstitious. Even to-day they will not start out on Friday, and
many seafaring men will refuse to sail with a ship if the flag should
happen to be raised “union down,” or wrong side up, no matter how
quickly it may be set right. At last Columbus had to take convicts out
of prison and condemn them to hard labor as sailors for the terrible
trial trip. Some of these men were desperate criminals.
The unknown western sea was far wider than Columbus had thought. This
showed that the world must be much larger than he supposed. As they
sailed on and on, day after day and week after week, across the
untraveled sea, the superstitious convict-sailors were half-dead with
fear. They planned to murder the Admiral, as Columbus was now called,
and his two captains, in order to turn the ship about and go back before
they were engulfed in some great whirlpool of disaster. Columbus kept
himself well guarded, and coaxed and flattered the frightened creatures,
promising them all kinds of wealth and pleasures if they would only keep
on a day or two longer. He offered an extra prize to the man who first
caught sight of land.
On the night of the 11th of October, 1492, one of the sailors saw a
glimmering light to the west. On the morning of the 12th, the Admiral
was an early riser. There lay a tropical island, with “gardens of the
most beautiful trees I ever saw,” he said afterward. The sea was as deep
blue as that along the shores of his native Italy. He and his two
captains went ashore, with well-armed men in boats from all three ships.
The water was clear and the bottom was white with sand and shells, while
strange, bright fish darted about as they paddled along. On the island
were parrots and other birds of gay plumage flitting from tree to tree
as if startled by the coming of the first white men into their world.
Columbus did not need his armed soldiers. After looking a long while he
saw naked red men peering at them from behind the strange, tropical
plants. After he made signs of friendship, the natives were no longer
afraid.
Christopher Columbus was first to set foot on the new-found shore.
Falling on his knees, his eyes filled with tears of joy, he bowed his
face and kissed the sand of the new world. The happy company repeated
prayers and sang a hymn of praise. The naked natives looked on with
wonder to see the leader, who was dressed in rich red velvet, set up a
red, white, and gold banner--the combined flag of Ferdinand and
Isabella--and go through a long ceremony. They did not know that those
white strangers were claiming the country in the name of a king and
queen far across the sea. Columbus named this island--one of the group
now called Bahamas--San Salvador, or Holy Saviour. He still thought he
had reached the Far East.
Admiral Columbus returned to Spain to report upon his reaching eastern
India by sailing west. With him went ten of the red men he had found,
whom he called Indians. He made several voyages after that--only once
landing on the continent of South America. Some of his Spanish followers
were jealous of their Italian Admiral, and Columbus died in a prison in
Spain, after all he had done for that country, without even knowing that
it was America, not India, that he had discovered.
MAGELLAN, THE MAN OF THE STRAITS
Among the lads in many lands who were thrilled by the stories of
Columbus and his discoveries was twelve-year-old Ferdinand Magellan, a
Portuguese boy. Like thousands of youths all over Europe, he then made
up his mind to sail the seas and seek his fortune.
Portugal, though a small country, was the home of many men of great
energy and daring. A Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, had sailed
around the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern point of Africa, and
discovered that way to India and the Moluccas, or Spice Islands. On
these voyages the Portuguese had landed, traded, and taken possession of
important parts of Africa. Others had followed in the wake of Columbus,
discovering and claiming vast regions in South America.
So young Magellan formed a partnership with another adventurer and
started out on voyages of discovery. For nearly ten years he journeyed
to and fro between his little homeland and various points in East
Africa, India, the Malay Peninsula, and the islands beyond. Frequently
he had to fight battles with savage native tribes. In one battle he
received a wound that made him lame for life.
[Illustration: FERDINAND MAGELLAN.]
When Magellan came home, he suggested to the king of Portugal that it
would be a great thing for Portugal if a passage across or around
America could be discovered, which would shorten the distance, time, and
expense of going from Europe to the Spice Islands. He hoped the king
would equip a fleet for such a voyage of discovery; but the king
refused, and he set out for Spain to get help for his great undertaking.
At this time he received a letter from a friend who had settled in the
Spice Islands, saying that he had “discovered another new world, larger
than that found by Vasco da Gama.” Magellan wrote to this friend that he
would soon be visiting those islands himself--“If not by way of
Portugal, then by way of Spain.”
After a long wait, the Spanish king consented to furnish five ships with
two hundred and thirty-four officers and sailors, and to stock them with
provisions to last through a two-year voyage. It was agreed also that
Magellan and his partner should receive one-twentieth of the profits of
their undertaking; and that they should be governors of the islands they
discovered.
At last, after two long years of waiting, Magellan’s fleet was ready to
sail. Crossing the Atlantic seemed an easy matter then--twenty-seven
years after the first voyage of Columbus. The first land they reached
was the mainland of South America. The natives along the northern coast
were friendly and ready to exchange enough fish for ten men for a
looking-glass, a bushel of sweet potatoes for a bell, and several fowls
(or even one of their own children) for a butcher-knife. Those people
lived in huts and went almost naked, except for aprons of parrots’
feathers. There were many birds of bright plumage and plenty of monkeys
in those regions. Some of the natives were cannibals, cooking and eating
the flesh of men they captured or killed in battle.
The little Spanish fleet coasted along toward the south. The wide mouth
of the La Plata deceived them so that they sailed in until they found
that it was only a river. As they drew nearer to the South Pole it grew
intensely cold. The men on the ships begged Magellan to turn round and
go home. Some of their number died of exposure and want, and the rest
were afraid they could not live through such a winter. Not only did
they suffer from the bitter cold, but their ships had been damaged by
storms on the way down the coast.
They stayed several weeks at a port in the country now called Patagonia
without seeing a person. But one day an Indian giant strode in upon
them. He was so tall that the white men’s heads barely came up to his
waist. His hair was dyed white, his face colored red, and he had painted
wide yellow circles around his little, black eyes. When they let him see
himself in a big steel mirror he was so astonished that he jumped
backward and knocked down four of the Spaniards standing around him.
When he understood that it was himself he saw in the looking-glass, he
was pleased and they made him a present of a small metal mirror. They
found the Patagonians to be savages of a very low and brutal type, who
ate raw meat, and even rats, like beasts of prey. If they felt sick they
stuck arrows down their throats, and gashed their foreheads with
shell-knives when their heads ached.
Many of Magellan’s men now turned against him, planning to murder him
and those who stood by him, and then to sail back to Spain. Though they
were the larger number the energetic ship master beat them at their own
game. He executed one ringleader, and sailed away leaving another rebel
on the shore, where he was, no doubt, soon killed and eaten by the
cannibals.
As July and August are the coldest months near the South Pole, the
weather began to moderate in October, which is a spring month. January
and February are the hot season in that climate. On the 21st of October,
1520, they “saw an opening like unto a bay,” and after sailing through
its winding ways they found to their great joy, that it led out at the
other end into a vast expanse of water. At last they had discovered the
only natural passage from sea to sea through the American continents.
Some of their ships had been lost and their provisions were eaten. Most
of the men begged to turn back, now that they could report that they had
found a great ocean beyond South America. “No one knows,” they said,
“how wide this open sea is, and we may all starve before we reach the
Moluccas.”
But Ferdinand Magellan would not turn back. He accused them of having
faint hearts, and said that even if they had to eat the leather on the
ships’ yards he would still go on and discover what he had promised the
King of Spain.
One dark night the commander of the largest ship deserted the others and
went back to Spain with the greater part of their provisions. The other
ships were thirty-eight days winding their way through the straits to
which the great leader’s name was afterward given, the Straits of
Magellan. They saw so many fires in the land away to the south of them
that they named it Terra del Fuego--Land of Fire.
Brave Magellan’s threat had to be carried out. All their provisions had
either been eaten or were wholly unfit to eat. So all they had to live
on for a long time was the leather on the ships’ yards. They hung it
over the sides of the ship to soak several days in the salt water as
they sailed along. Then they cooked it over a coal fire. The wide sea
they were now crossing was so free from storms that Magellan named it
the Pacific Ocean.
After three months of hunger and thirst, risking their lives in their
devotion to leader and country, they discovered a group of islands now
named the Marianne or Ladrone Islands. Here they enjoyed the luscious
fruits and reveled in plenty of fresh water to drink. From the Ladrones
they sailed on and discovered the Philippines, where the natives were
friendly and brought them coconuts, oranges, bananas, fowls, and palm
wine, which they gladly exchanged for metal looking-glasses, red caps,
beads, and trinkets.
Besides his wish to sail round the globe and take possession of new
islands for Spain, Magellan’s great desire was to make the savage people
Christians. He had the happiness of seeing thousands of dusky islanders
kneeling before the crosses he had set up. But in his zeal to show those
heathen the power of the Christian’s God, he led the warriors of one
island in a fight against some unconverted savages and lost his life.
In three years, lacking twelve days from the time they started out, the
ship _Victoria_ returned to the Spanish port from which it had sailed,
after making the first voyage around the world. This vessel was loaded
with spices from the Moluccas, as Magellan had planned. A faithful
lieutenant represented their departed leader at the court of King
Charles of Spain, who rewarded the few survivors with high honors and
liberal pensions.
CORTES, THE CONQUEROR
Among the millions of people who wondered at the strange stories of the
new lands discovered by Columbus was Hernando, a seven-year-old son of a
Spanish noble family named Cortes. His young mind was filled with
longing for adventure. As soon as he was old enough Hernando left home
to seek his fortune on the island of Santo Domingo in the new world. The
governor of this island was pleased with the manner, pluck, and energy
of Cortes, and offered to sell him a large estate on easy terms. But the
young Spaniard answered haughtily, “I did not come here to plough like a
field laborer; I came to get gold.”
It was not long before young Cortes saw a chance for adventure. He went
with a Spanish governor to settle the island of Cuba. He soon became a
favorite with this governor also. An adventurer returned from the part
of the mainland now called Central America and Mexico with tales of the
great wealth of the people called Aztecs, and of the gold mines there.
[Illustration: HERNANDO CORTES
_From a painting by Peale, in Independence Hall, Phila._]
The governor of Cuba decided to send ships and men to conquer that
country, and offered the command to Cortes, who worked like a hero to
get ready for the campaign. He equipped eleven vessels with six hundred
men. A hundred or more of these were sailors and workmen; and the rest,
soldiers, some of whom were armed with muskets and some with crossbows.
There were fourteen small cannon and sixteen horses in the outfit.
As Cortes was about to sail, the governor of Cuba changed his mind and
sent an order to Havana giving the command of the expedition to another
officer. But shrewd young Cortes got wind of this in time, and sailed
away before the governor’s messengers arrived.
The soldiers and other men of the expedition agreed to stand by the
brave leader and capture the new country for King Charles of Spain in
their own name instead of the Cuban governor’s. This was exactly what
that governor feared Cortes would try to do.
When the Spaniards landed on the continent the natives were afraid. They
had never seen a horse, and they thought the men on horseback were
monster human beings with four legs, half man and half horse. Yet they
came bravely out of their hiding places to do battle with such frightful
invaders. Then the Spaniards fired a cannon volley and shot off their
muskets so that several of the Indians fell dead. “They are gods!”
shouted the natives in deadly fear. “They have the lightning and thunder
in their hands!” It did not take long for Cortes to make terms with
these natives, some of whom became allies and interpreters for the
Spaniards.
After founding a city at the coast, which he named Villa Rica de la Vera
Cruz (Rich City of the True Cross), now called Vera Cruz, Cortes
prepared to conquer the empire of the Aztecs with six hundred Spaniards
and several thousand Mexican Indians. Montezuma, emperor of the Aztecs,
heard of his coming, and tried to make him leave the country by sending
rich presents from his capital in the mountains. But that did not stop
Cortes.
In order to insure victory, the Spanish general committed a brave though
desperate act. Choosing one ship from his fleet he manned it and sent a
trusted officer back--to Spain, not Cuba--with some of Montezuma’s rich
presents. With these Cortes sent other proofs of the wealth of the
country which he was about to conquer and add to the empire of King
Charles of Spain. Then, after taking from the other ten ships everything
the Spaniards could use in the new country, Cortes ordered those vessels
burned and sunk. Thus, having burned their bridges behind them, they
had no way of escape but to go forward and fight for their fortunes,
their country, and their very lives.
On the march of two hundred miles to Montezuma’s capital, the Spaniards
beat the Tlascalans in battle and made friends with those Indians
against the Aztec tyrant, as the Indians called Emperor Montezuma.
The Indians of the hot countries of America were not so savage as those
who lived in the northern parts of the continent. But they had a
terrible religious rite which they had learned from the Aztecs. They
offered human lives to appease the sun god. Though the Aztecs were a
peaceable people otherwise, they often went to war to take prisoners for
these horrible sacrifices.
Cortes broke into a temple at one place on the way and murdered the
priests who were killing and offering human beings to the sun god. He
set up a cross and invited the people to become Christians or be killed.
In that way he gained many converts from among the frightened Indians.
But with Hernando Cortes this kind of conversion was but a step toward
gaining gold and power for himself and for the king of Spain. After many
terrible battles, in which he massacred the helpless natives by
thousands, he and his few hundred white men, with thousands of Indian
allies, reached the capital of Montezuma. Built of stone on an island in
the midst of a beautiful lake, this civilized city was connected with
the mainland by six long stone bridges or causeways. The splendid
capital, with its palaces and temples of hewn stone, had much of the
beauty of Venice. The city measured twelve miles around. It was then
hundreds of years old, and proved that the ancient Aztecs knew how to
build great stone houses and bridges.
[Illustration: THE CAPTURE OF THE CITY OF MEXICO BY CORTES
_From the painting by Alonzo Chappel_]
Montezuma came out to meet Cortes, borne on a golden throne on the
shoulders of Aztec nobles and officials. He wore priceless feathers and
his garments were embroidered with many-colored gems. Even his shoes
were gold. His courtiers carried carpets to lay down before him, so that
his sacred feet should not touch the ground. How the eyes of those
greedy Spaniards glittered when they beheld such signs of the great
wealth of Montezuma and his people!
The white men were received with great honor. They were served in golden
goblets with a strange, rich drink which the Aztecs named chocolatl.
This delicious drink is now called chocolate or cocoa. Montezuma told
the Spaniards that their coming had been foretold by the priests for
hundreds of years, ever since the visit of a pure white man, a son of
the Sun who had come down from the skies. This sun-god had told the
Aztecs that he would come again with other sun-gods and reign over the
empire forever.
Cortes pretended to be the long-expected “fair god” of the Aztecs, and
persuaded Montezuma to visit him in the palace assigned to the Spanish
leader and his officers during their stay in the city. The people, who
had no reason to believe in the Spanish soldiers, crowded around the
sedan chair of their king, crying out against him because he was placing
himself in the wicked hands of the strangers. Montezuma told them not to
fear, for their guests were honorable men and he was sure that all would
be well with him. But he soon found that he was not a guest but a
prisoner, betrayed by a pretense of friendship. The Mexicans came again
and attacked the palace which Cortes and his men had now turned into a
fortress. During the months when the Spaniards held Montezuma as a
prisoner a fierce war was waged with the Mexicans.
While Cortes and his army were in such desperate straits, word came that
the governor of Cuba had sent ships and nearly a thousand men to bring
the general and his followers back, to be punished as deserters. Cortes
and a picked band crept out of the capital one dark night, marched
hundreds of miles to the coast, and surprised and defeated the army the
governor had sent. Then he returned, with all those armed men and many
more cannon and horses, to relieve the small garrison he had left to
hold the many thousands of Aztecs at bay, and capture the city of
Mexico.
The Aztecs were frightened when they saw the thousand soldiers Cortes
now brought up against them, for it looked as if the new troops had come
down from the skies to the help of the Spaniards. When the battle was
fiercest, the broken-spirited emperor went out to plead with the natives
to stop their fighting. This made them so angry that they hurled stones
at him and he died of a broken heart. The hatred of his own people was
even harder to bear than Spanish cruelty.
After more fierce fighting, Cortes completed the conquest of Mexico.
Years afterward he returned to his old home in Spain, where he was, for
a time, treated as a great conqueror. But he suffered in later years
from remorse for his treachery and cruelty. When he grew old he was
imprisoned through the influence of Spanish enemies.
One day an old, broken man with shaggy gray locks pushed through the
crowd around King Charles of Spain, now known as Emperor Charles the
Fifth and the most powerful monarch in the world. When the emperor asked
the old man who he was, he replied with indignant pride,
“I am Cortes, the man who has given you more provinces than your
ancestors left you cities.”
DE SOTO, A GOLD HUNTER IN SOUTHERN SWAMPS
Hernando de Soto was the Spanish grandee, or noble, appointed governor
of Cuba and “the Floridas” about twenty-five years after Florida was
discovered. It was Ponce de Leon who landed near the southern point of
North America, on Easter Day, 1513, and named that lovely country
Florida--Land of Flowers. De Leon had heard a beautiful story that far
inland in the heart of the wilderness there was a magic spring that
would make young forever all who drank of its sparkling waters. Though
he searched long and eagerly, Ponce de Leon discovered no Fountain of
Eternal Youth, but he did find endless swamps full of snakes and
alligators.
De Soto, the new governor of Florida, made up his mind that Ponce de
Leon was a very foolish old man. He ought to have known that there are
no such things nowadays as springs of eternal youth. He, Hernando de
Soto, was going to show his practical good sense by finding solid,
yellow gold--for what good is youth without money to enjoy it with? De
Soto was already a very rich man, for he had served under Pizarro, the
cruel conqueror of Peru, and he had gone home to Spain one of the
wealthiest of its grandees, in those days of wonderful discoveries and
marvelous fortunes. Still Hernando de Soto was not satisfied. He wanted
to be like Pizarro or Cortes--to conquer a great country and capture
from its dusky people gold mines and vast wealth.
Therefore on a bright July day he left Cuba in charge of a high official
and sailed away. He and his knights in armor stood on the decks of their
nine ships, large and small, and waved farewells to the fair ladies who
stood on the castle tower at Havana weeping bitterly, fearing that they
would never see their brave lords and knights again.
Governor de Soto and his fleet came to anchor in the harbor now known as
Tampa Bay. During the night they were aroused by horrible yells and
showers of arrows from the shore. In the morning the Spaniards made a
landing, though the natives fought hard to keep them back. Before night
they met a man who could be of great use to them. He was a member of a
party that, after De Leon’s discovery, had gone to Florida to find gold,
but had been driven back. This young man, Juan Ortiz, had been captured
and kept by the Indians as a slave. A member of De Soto’s scouting party
tells how they met this poor fellow:
“Towards sunset it pleased God that the soldiers descried at a
distance some twenty Indians painted with a kind of red ointment
that they put on when they go to war. They wore many feathers and
had their bows and arrows. And when the Christians ran at them, the
Indians fled to a hill, and one of them came forth into the path,
lifting up his voice and saying in Spanish,
“‘Sirs, for the love of God, slay not me! For I am a Christian like
yourselves. I was born in Seville, and my name is Juan Ortiz.’”
The Spanish governor received Ortiz as if he were his own long-lost son.
He made himself very useful because he knew both the Spanish and the
Indian language, and thus could help the Spaniards to talk to the
natives.