THE PARTITION OF AMERICA
We have hitherto been dealing with the discoveries made by Spanish
and Portuguese along the coast of the New World, but early in the
sixteenth century they began to put foot on _terra firma_ and explore
the interior. As early as 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa ascended the
highest peak in the range running from the Isthmus of Panama, and
saw for the first time by European eyes the great ocean afterwards
to be named by Magellan the Pacific. He there heard that the country
to the south extended without end, and was inhabited by great nations,
with an abundance of gold. Among his companions who heard of this
golden country, or El Dorado, was one Francisco Pizarro, who was
destined to test the report. But a similar report had reached the ears
of Diego Velasquez, governor of Cuba, as to a great nation possessed
of much gold to the north of Darien. He accordingly despatched
his lieutenant Hernando Cortes in 1519 to investigate, with ten
ships, six hundred and fifty men, and some eighteen horses. When
he landed at the port named by him Vera Cruz, the appearance of
his men, and more especially of his horses, astonished and alarmed
the natives of Mexico, then a large and semi-civilised state under
the rule of Montezuma, the last representative of the Aztecs, who
in the twelfth century had succeeded the Toltecs, a people that had
settled on the Mexican tableland as early probably as the seventh
century, introducing the use of metals and roads and many of the
elements of civilisation. Montezuma is reported to have been able
to range no less than two hundred thousand men under his banners,
but he showed his opinion of the Spaniards by sending them costly
presents, gold and silver and costly stuffs. This only aroused
the cupidity of Cortes, who determined to make a bold stroke for
the conquest of such a rich prize. He burnt his ships and advanced
into the interior of the country, conquering on his way the tribe
of the Tlascalans, who had been at war with the Mexicans, but,
when conquered, were ready to assist him against them. With their
aid he succeeded in seizing the Mexican king, who was forced to
yield a huge tribute. After many struggles Cortes found himself
master of the capital, and of all the resources of the Mexican
Empire (1521). These he hastened to place at the feet of the Emperor
Charles V., who appointed him Governor and Captain-General of Mexico.
It is characteristic throughout the history of the New World, that
none of the soldiers of fortune who found it such an easy prey ever
thought of setting up an empire for himself. This is a testimony
to the influence national feeling had upon the minds even of the
most lawless, and the result was that Europe and European ideas
were brought over into America, or rather the New World became
tributary to Europe.
As soon as Cortes had established himself he fitted out expeditions
to explore the country, and himself reached Honduras after a remarkable
journey for over 1000 miles, in which he was only guided by a map on
cotton cloth, on which the Cacique of Tabasco had painted all the
towns, rivers, and mountains of the country as far as Nicaragua. He
also despatched a small fleet under Alvarro de Saavedra to support
a Spanish expedition which had been sent to the Moluccas under
Sebastian del Cano, and which arrived at Tidor in 1527, to the
astonishment of Spanish and Portuguese alike when they heard he
had started from New Castile. In 1536, Cortes, who had been in
the meantime shorn of much of his power, conducted an expedition
by sea along the north-west coast of Mexico, and reached what he
considered to be a great island. He identified this with an imaginary
island in the Far East, near the terrestrial paradise to which
the name of California had been given in a contemporary romance.
Thus, owing to Cortes, almost the whole of Central America had
become known before his death in 1540. Similarly, at a much earlier
period, Ponce de Leon had thought he had discovered another great
island in Florida in 1512, whither he had gone in search of Bayuca,
a fabled island of the Indians, in which they stated was a fountain
of eternal youth. At the time of Cortes' first attempt on Mexico,
Pineda had coasted round Florida, and connected it with the rest
of the coast of Mexico, which he traversed as far as Vera Cruz.
The exploits of Cortes were all important in their effects. He had
proved with what ease a handful of men might overcome an empire and
gain unparalleled riches. Francisco Pizarro was encouraged by the
success of Cortes to attempt the discovery of the El Dorado he had
heard of when on Balboa's expedition. With a companion named Diego
de Almegro he made several coasting expeditions down the northwest
coast of South America, during which they heard of the empire of
the Incas on the plateau of Peru. They also obtained sufficient
gold and silver to raise their hopes of the riches of the country,
and returned to Spain to report to the Emperor. Pizarro obtained
permission from Charles V. to attempt the conquest of Peru, of which
he was named Governor and Captain-General, on condition of paying a
tribute of one-fifth of the treasure he might obtain. He started
in February 1531 with a small force of 180 men, of whom thirty-six
were horsemen. Adopting the policy of Cortes, he pushed directly
for the capital Cuzco, where they managed to seize Atahualpa, the
Inca of the time. He attempted to ransom himself by agreeing to
fill the room in which he was confined, twenty-two feet long by
sixteen wide, with bars of gold as high as the hand could reach.
He carried out this prodigious promise, and Pizarro's companions
found themselves in possession of booty equal to three millions
sterling.
Atahualpa was, however, not released, but condemned to death on
a frivolous pretext, while Pizarro dismissed his followers, fully
confident that the wealth they carried off would attract as many
men as he could desire to El Dorado. He settled himself at Lima,
near the coast, in 1534. Meanwhile Almegro had been despatched
south, and made himself master of Chili. Another expedition in
1539 was conducted by Pizarro's brother Gonzales across the Andes,
and reached the sources of the Amazon, which one of his companions,
Francisco de Orellana, traversed as far as the mouth. This he reached
in August 1541, after a voyage of one thousand leagues. The river
was named after Orellana, but, from reports he made of the existence
of a tribe of female warriors, was afterwards known as the river
of the Amazons. The author spread reports of another El Dorado to
the north, in which the roofs of the temples were covered with
gold. This report afterwards led to the disastrous expedition of
Sir Walter Raleigh to Guiana. By his voyage Orellana connected the
Spanish and Portuguese "spheres of influence" in the New World of
Amerigo. By the year 1540 the main outlines of Central and South
America and something of the interior had been made known by the
Spanish adventurers within half a century of Columbus' first voyage.
Owing to the papal bull Portugal possessed Brazil, but all the
rest of the huge stretch of country was claimed for Spain. The
Portuguese wisely treated Brazil as an outlet for their overflowing
population, which settled there in large numbers and established
plantations. The Spaniards, on the other hand, only regarded their
huge possessions as exclusive markets to be merely visited by them.
Rich mines of gold, silver, and mercury were discovered in Mexico
and Peru, especially in the far-famed mines of Potosi, and these
were exploited entirely in the interests of Spain, which acted as a
sieve by which the precious metals were poured into Europe, raising
prices throughout the Old World. In return European merchandise was
sent in the return voyages of the Spanish galleons to New Spain,
which could only buy Flemish cloth, for example, through Spanish
intermediaries, who raised its price to three times the original
cost. This short-sighted policy on the part of Spain naturally
encouraged smuggling, and attracted the ships of all nations towards
that pursuit.
We have already seen the first attempts of the French and English
in the exploration of the north-east coast of North America; but
during the sixteenth century very little was done to settle on
such inhospitable shores, which did not offer anything like the
rich prizes that Tropical America afforded. Neither the exploration
of Cartier in 1534, or that of the Cabots much earlier, was followed
by any attempt to possess the land. Breton fishermen visited the
fisheries off Newfoundland, and various explorers attempted to find
openings which would give them a north-west passage, but otherwise
the more northerly part of the continent was left unoccupied till
the beginning of the seventeenth century. The first town founded was
that of St. Augustine, in Florida, in 1565, but this was destroyed
three years later by a French expedition. Sir Walter Raleigh attempted
to found a colony in 1584 near where Virginia now stands, but it
failed after three years, and it was not till the reign of James
I. that an organised attempt was made by England to establish
plantations, as they were then called, on the North American coast.
Two Chartered Companies, the one to the north named the Plymouth
Company, and the one to the south named the London Company (both
founded in 1606), nominally divided between them all the coast
from Nova Scotia to Florida. These large tracts of country were
during the seventeenth century slowly parcelled out into smaller
states, mainly Puritan in the north (New England), High Church
and Catholic in the south (Virginia and Maryland). But between the
two, and on the banks of the Hudson and the Delaware, two other
European nations had also formed plantations--the Dutch along the
Hudson from 1609 forming the New Netherlands, and the Swedes from
1636 along the Delaware forming New Sweden. The latter, however,
lasted only a few years, and was absorbed by the Dutch in 1655.
The capital of New Netherlands was established on Manhattan Island,
to the south of the palisade still known as Wall Street, and the
city was named New Amsterdam. The Hudson is such an important artery
of commerce between the Atlantic and the great lakes, that this
wedge between the two sets of English colonies would have been a
bar to any future progress. This was recognised by Charles II.,
who in 1664 despatched an expedition to demand its surrender, even
though England and Holland were at that time at peace. New Amsterdam
was taken, and named New York, after the king's brother, the Duke
of York, afterwards James II. New Sweden, which at the same time
fell into the English hands, was sold as a proprietary plantation
to a Jersey man, Sir George Carteret, and to a Quaker, William
Penn. By this somewhat high-handed procedure the whole coast-line
down to Florida was in English hands.
Both the London and Plymouth Companies had started to form plantations
in 1607, and in that very year the French made their first effective
settlements in America, at Port Royal and at Nova Scotia, then
called Arcadie; while, the following year, Samuel de Champlain
made settlements at Quebec, and founded French Canada. He explored
the lake country, and established settlements down the banks of the
St. Lawrence, along which French activity for a long time confined
itself. Between the French and the English settlements roved the
warlike Five Nations of the Iroquois Indians, and Champlain, whose
settlements were in the country of the Algonquins, was obliged
to take their part and make the Iroquois the enemies of France,
which had important effects upon the final struggle between England
and France in the eighteenth century. The French continued their
exploration of the interior of the continent. In 1673 Marquette
discovered the Mississippi (Missi Sepe, "the great water"), and
descended it as far as the mouth of the Arkansas, but the work of
exploring the Mississippi valley was undertaken by Robert de la
Salle. He had already discovered the Ohio and Illinois rivers, and
in three expeditions, between 1680 and 1682, succeeded in working his
way right down to the mouth of the Mississippi, giving to the huge
tract of country which he had thus traversed the name of Louisiana,
after Louis XIV.
France thenceforth claimed the whole _hinterland_, as we should
now call it, of North America, the English being confined to the
comparatively narrow strip of country east of the Alleghanies. New
Orleans was founded at the mouth of the Mississippi in 1716, and
named after the Prince Regent; and French activity ranged between
Quebec and New Orleans, leaving many traces even to the present
day, in French names like Mobile, Detroit, and the like, through
the intervening country. The situation at the commencement of the
eighteenth century was remarkably similar to that of the Gold Coast
in Africa at the end of the nineteenth. The French persistently
attempted to encroach upon the English sphere of influence, and it
was in attempting to define the two spheres that George Washington
learned his first lesson in diplomacy and strategy. The French and
English American colonies were almost perpetually at war with one
another, the objective being the spot where Pittsburg now stands,
which was regarded as the gate of the west, overlooking as it did
the valley of the Ohio. Here Duquesne founded the fort named after
himself, and it was not till 1758 that this was finally wrested
from French hands; while, in the following year, Wolfe, by his
capture of Quebec, overthrew the whole French power in North America.
Throughout the long fight the English had been much assisted by
the guerilla warfare of the Iroquois against the French.
By the Treaty of Paris in 1763 the whole of French America was
ceded to England, which also obtained possession of Florida from
Spain, in exchange for the Philippines, captured during the war.
As a compensation all the country west of the Mississippi became
joined on to the Spanish possessions in Mexico. These of course
became, nominally French when Napoleon's brother Joseph was placed
on the Spanish throne, but Napoleon sold them to the United States
in 1803, so that no barrier existed to the westward spread of the
States. Long previously to this, a Chartered Company had been formed
in 1670, with Prince Rupert at its head, to trade with the Indians
for furs in Hudson's Bay, then and for some time afterwards called
Rupertsland. The Hudson Bay Company gradually extended its knowledge
of the northerly parts of America towards the Rocky Mountains,
but it was not till 1740 that Varenne de la Varanderye discovered
their extent. In 1769-71 a fur trader named Hearne traced the river
Coppermine to the sea, while it was not till 1793 that Mr. (after
Sir A.) Mackenzie discovered the river now named after him, and
crossed the continent of North America from Atlantic to Pacific.
One of the reasons for this late exploration of the north-west of
North America was a geographical myth started by a Spanish voyager
named Juan de Fuca as early as 1592. Coasting as far as Vancouver
Island, he entered the inlet to the south of it, and not being
able to see land to the north, brought back a report of a huge sea
spreading over all that part of the country, which most geographers
assumed to pass over into Hudson Bay or the neighbourhood. It was
this report as much as anything which encouraged hopes of finding
the north-west passage in a latitude low enough to be free from
ice.
As soon as the United States got possession of the land west of
the Mississippi they began to explore it, and between 1804 and
1807 Lewis and Clarke had explored the whole basin of the Missouri,
while Pike had investigated the country between the sources of the
Mississippi and the Red River. We have already seen that Behring
had carried over Russian investigation and dominion into Alaska,
and it was in order to avoid her encroachments down towards the
Californian coast that President Monroe put forth in 1823 the doctrine
that no further colonisation of the Americas would be permitted by
the United States. In this year Russia agreed to limit her claims
to the country north of 54.40°. The States subsequently acquired
California and other adjoining states during their war with Mexico
in 1848, just before gold was discovered in the Sacramento valley.
The land between California and Alaska was held in joint possession
between Great Britain and the States, and was known as the Oregon
Territory. Lewis and Clarke had explored the Columbia River, while
Vancouver had much earlier examined the island which now bears his
name, so that both countries appear to have some rights of discovery
to the district. At one time the inhabitants of the States were
inclined to claim all the country as far as the Russian boundary
54.40°, and a war-cry arose "54.40° or fight;" but in 1846 the
territory was divided by the 49th parallel, and at this date we may
say the partition of America was complete, and all that remained
to be known of it was the ice-bound northern coast, over which so
much heroic enterprise has been displayed.
The history of geographical discovery in America is thus in large
measure a history of conquest. Men got to know both coast-line and
interior while endeavouring either to trade or to settle where
nature was propitious, or the country afforded mineral or vegetable
wealth that could be easily transported. Of the coast early knowledge
was acquired for geography; but where the continent broadens out
either north or south, making the interior inaccessible for trade
purposes with the coasts, ignorance remained even down to the present
century. Even to the present day the country south of the valley
of the Amazon is perhaps as little known as any portion of the
earth's surface, while, as we have seen, it was not till the early
years of this century that any knowledge was acquired of the huge
tract of country between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains.
It was the natural expansion of the United States, rendered possible
by the cession of this tract to the States by Napoleon in 1803,
that brought it within the knowledge of all. That expansion was
chiefly due to the improved methods of communication which steam
has given to mankind only within this century. But for this the
region east of the Rocky Mountains would possibly be as little
known to Europeans, even at the present day, as the Soudan or
Somaliland. It is owing to this natural expansion of the States,
and in minor measure of Canada, that few great names of geographical
explorers are connected with our knowledge of the interior of North
America. Unknown settlers have been the pioneers of geography,
and not as elsewhere has the reverse been the case. In the two
other continents whose geographical history we have still to trace,
Australia and Africa, explorers have preceded settlers or conquerors,
and we can generally follow the course of geographical discovery
in their case without the necessity of discussing their political
history.
[_Authorities:_ Winsor, _From Cartier to Frontenac_; Gelcich, in
_Mittheilungen_ of Geographical Society of Vienna, 1892.]