From Stereograph, copyright 1893 by Underwood & Underwood

"SANTA MARIA," THE FLAGSHIP OF COLUMBUS

was conquered by the Spaniards under Fernando Cortez, of which we shall give a fuller account in another section.

Magel-
lan's

Great

The name Pacific Ocean was given to the South Sea by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator, who, in the service of the King of Spain, sailed through the straits, in the southern part of South Amer- Voyage. ica, which bear his name, in 1520, and who, several years afterward, was killed on the Philippine Islands by the natives, and whose followers returned to Spain by way of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, thus completing the first circumnavigation of the globe.

In 1520 Vasquez de Ayllon, a Spanish adventurer, visited the coast of the present South Carolina, then called Chicora, and enticed a number of unsuspecting natives on board his two vessels and sailed with them for Hayti, but one of his vessels foundered and all on board perished, while many on board the other ship absolutely refused food and died of starvation.

Vasquez de Ayllon.

Gomez.

Stephen Gomez, a Spaniard, who had accompanied Magellan on his Stephen search for a North-west passage to India, sailed on a voyage in 1525 for the purpose of discovering such a passage, and touched at various points on the Atlantic coast of the present United States from Delaware to New England. As he failed in the great object of his expedition, he kidnapped many Indians on board his vessels for the purpose of selling them into slavery.

de

In 1528 Pamphilo de Narvaez, a Spanish adventurer, attempted the Pamphilo conquest of Florida, but failed, and lost his life in a conflict with the natives.

In 1524 Francis I., King of France, employed John Verrazzani, a Florentine, to make discoveries in the New World. Verrazzani explored the Atlantic coast of North America, from the mouth of the Cape Fear River to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and named the region New France. In 1534 the French king sent Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, on an expedition to New France. Cartier discovered the mouth of the great river which he named St. Lawrence. In 1535 Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence, exploring the country to Montreal. In 1539 Ferdinand De Soto, then the Spanish governor of Cuba, landed in Florida, and, proceeding westward, discovered the great river Mississippi, and explored the continent as far west as the Rocky Mountains. De Soto died on the banks of the Mississippi river in 1541; and the remnant of his followers, having suffered terribly, found their way to a Spanish settlement in Mexico. In 1539 the great Amazon river, in South America, was first explored by Orellana, a Spaniard.

The Spaniards were the first to make discoveries on the Pacific shores and in the interior of North America. In 1541 Alarçon sailed north along the Pacific coast almost to the site of San Francisco. In 1542

Narvaez.

Verrazani's and Car

tier's Explorations

and Discoveries.

De Soto's Discovery of the Mississippi.

Spanish Explorations

of the

Pacific
Shores.

P

De Cabrillo explored the same coast almost to the mouth of the Columbia river. The same year Coronado sailed up the Gulf of California and discovered the Gila river.

The Abo

America.

SECTION IV. THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA.

THE aborigines, or inhabitants of the American continent when disrigines of covered and settled by Europeans, were a race of copper-colored savages whom Columbus named Indians, because he did not know that he had discovered a new continent, but thought that he had only found the eastern coast of India. The Indian is often spoken of as the Red Man, in contradistinction from the European, or White Man.

Their

teristics.

These people were divided into many nations or tribes, and spoke Charac- different languages and dialects. But they were very much alike in color, size, general physical appearance, moral character, religion and government. They were tall, straight and well formed. They had black eyes, and long, coarse and straight hair. There was very little sickness among them.

Huts, Dress, Foods, Tools,

Etc.

Their Warfare.

These people lived in huts made of poles, covered with mats, skins of beasts or bark of trees. These rude huts were called wigwams. In summer these savages were almost naked. In winter they were dressed in the skins of beasts. Their food was the flesh of wild animals which they found in the woods, with fish and a few vegetables. They were very fond of venison, or flesh of the deer. They also raised maize, or Indian corn, for their food. They had very few tools, or implements, and these were made of stones, bones and shells.

The men were engaged in war, hunting and fishing. War was their principal occupation. Before going on the war-path they would indulge in the war-dance. About forty of them would generally go out as a war party. Sometimes only half-a-dozen went out on the warpath to gain glory. When they went on these warlike expeditions their faces were colored with red war-paint, and their heads were decked with feathers. Their yell at such times was called their war-whoop. In war they used bows and arrows, tomahawks (or hatchets) of iron or stone and scalping-knives of bone. They tortured their prisoners or murdered them. The scalps of their enemies were their trophies of war. They would scalp an enemy by seizing him by the hair and cutting or tearing a large part of the skin from the top of the head by use of the scalping-knife. Peace was made by the sachems, or rulers of the tribes, in council. Each of these sachems would smoke the same calumet, or pipe of peace, to show that they meant to keep their word. The calumet was made of pipe-clay, and was often adorned with feathThe Indians used tobacco in smoking.

ers.