you?

Whence come you? Is your home on the land, or in the sea, or did you come from heaven?" Alarchon replied,

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We are Christians, but to

you we are sent from the sun," to which he pointed at the same time.

"This is very strange," remarked the Indian who spoke upon the occasion. "We have seen the sun aloft in the sky, and that he never stands still, but never before did he send such as you are among us."

Alarchon then told him, "Though you now see the sun high in the heavens, at his rising and setting he touches the earth," which you know he appears to do." When he rises he comes from the land we inhabit, and there he orders men what they shall do. He commanded me to come to this river, and bring a message to those who dwell on its borders." "And what is the message he gave you?" asked the Indian.

"He bade me tell you," answered Alarchon, "that white men are your friends, that they will give you what you want, and that you must not make war upon your neighbours."

"Tell me," said the Indian, "why the sun has never before sent you to forbid wars, for in our wars many of our people have been slain."

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I am young," replied Alarchon. "When I was a boy I could not bring this message-you would not have listened to me.'

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"But if you came from the sun,” inquired the Indian, "why did he not teach you our language, and why do you not understand what we say?" To this the interpreter replied, "That great light has much to do. He could not spare time to

EXTENT OF SPANISH DISCOVERIES.

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teach these white men your language, but I can explain their speech to you. All that this messenger of the sun says is true."

The Indians upon this assurance seemed to be convinced; and one of them, addressing himself to Alarchon, said, "Come you hither to be our lord? Is it your will that we should serve you?”

Alarchon, not very sincerely, answered, “I am come to be your brother, and to do you good."

"Are you a child of the sun, or a kinsman of his ?" asked another of this credulous people.

Alarchon answered that he was the child of the sun, but that his companions were of another race. This was said to exalt himself above them.

Impressed with the friendship he had proffered them, these people acknowledged Alarchon for their master, and they assisted the Spaniards to ascend the Colorado about two hundred and fifty miles. No plan of conquest or settlement was then pursued, and the expedition returned to Mexico, 1542.

The Spanish viceroy did not upon this abandon the project of discovery, but sent out ships for that object; those vessels only explored the north-western shore of America to the mouth of the Columbia River in 1602. This seems to have concluded Spanish discoveries in America. N 2

CHAPTER XV.

THE Spaniards had possession of the southern part of North America. The French discovered the gulf and river of St. Lawrence. They also explored what is now called Nova Scotia, and the present British province of New-Brunswick; and at considerable intervals of time France sent out settlers to the New World; and the greater part of the population of Canada, though now subject to Britain, is composed of descendants from primitive French settlers.

It will be interesting to inquire what part the English took in appropriating to their nation this great portion of the habitable globe. One hundred and six years after the discovery of America by Cabot, Queen Elizabeth died (1603). At that time not a single British colony existed in America, though an attempt had been made that shall be related hereafter.

Queen Elizabeth permitted her subjects to undertake voyages of discovery, though she did not afford them money to prosecute their plans. In her reign Martin Frobisher, a distinguished navigator, undertook the discovery of a north-western passage. He proceeded to Cape Farewell, and crossed to the opposite coast of Labrador, 1576.

Frobisher made some observations upon the natives, called the country Meta Incognita, and then

returned to England. There he related what he had seen; and among specimens from the New World he exhibited a fragment of stone, which some ignorant person fancied to contain gold.

This ore, falsely supposed to be golden, was carried to goldsmiths, and they pronounced it to be genuine. This was reported, and the people of England believed they had acquired a territory as valuable as Spanish America. There was no difficulty now in fitting out an expedition. The false notion that gold is the most important of human possessions induced many to engage in colonizing Meta Incognita.

May, 1577, Frobisher, with a squadron of three ships, set sail to get ore, and to discover the northwest passage. He took the course north of Scotland, and stopped at the Orkney Islands to procure fresh water. The people of those islands were scarcely more civilized than those of Meta Incognita. Frobisher allowed the gentlemen and soldiers who accompanied him to go on shore for refreshment, but the natives fled at sight of them.

These people had probably suffered from pirates. Notwithstanding their cries, the English pursued them in their flight, and assuring them that they would not hurt them, induced them to return to their habitations. These were wretched indeedcabins with no vent for the smoke, having a fire on the ground, which served for the floor. The cattle stood on one side of this dwelling, and the family huddled in the other. Oat-cakes and ewe-milk were their only food.

The English, having supplied themselves with

water, proceeded on their voyage in a westerly course. They were much cheered with perpetual light, though we account day and night an agreeable change, or, as Milton says, "grateful vicissitude." This enabled them always to read and amuse themselves as they liked. They noticed abundance of that drift-wood tossed by the waves, which is so acceptable to the Greenlanders.

Frobisher encountered so many of those tremendous icebergs which have before been noticed, as both alarmed his companions and retarded their pro. gress; but at length he reached the Labrador coast. There the natives and the English fell to blows, and Frobisher, having taken on board his vessels two hundred tons of the precious ore, returned once more to Britain.

The queen and the people were more than ever delighted, and Meta Incognita appeared to them another Peru, or El Dorado, and it was thought desirable to establish a colony there. The severity of the climate was a formidable objection, but the thirst for gold was stronger than the fear of suffering; and numbers were found willing to encounter the horrors of the northern winter.

One hundred persons-gentlemen and labourers -including soldiers and sailors, refiners of metal and workers in wood, accompanied Frobisher's third voyage. The squadron thus fitted out was the largest that had adventured into the northern deep. It consisted of fifteen vessels, and sailed May, 1578. The captains waited on the queen to take leave, and Frobisher received from her a chain of gold, and had the honour of kissing her