all; only two and twenty thousand negroes and some Spaniards reside there.

"Cuba and the other islands had endured the like misery; and in the firme land, ten kingdomes, greater than all Spaine, were dispeopled and desolate; and in that space there had not perished lesse than twelue millions by their tyranie.

"In the island Hispaniola the Spaniards had their first Indian habitations, where their cruelties draue the Indians to their shifts, and to their weak defence, which caused these enraged lions to spare neyther man, woman, or childe; they would lay wagers who coulde with most dexteritie strike off an Indians head or smite him asunder in the middle; they would plucke the infants by the heeles from their mothers' brests and dash out their braines against the stones, or with a scoffe hurle them into the riuer. They set vp gibbets, and in honor of Christ and his twelve apostles (as they said, and could the deuill say worse?) they would both hang and burne them. Others they took, and cutting their hands almost off, bid them carry those letters (their hands dropping blood and almost dropping off themselves) to their countrimen, which (for feare of the like) lay hidden in the mountaines.

"The nobles and commanders they broyled on gridirons. * * * * They had dogs, to hunt them out of their couerts, which deuoured the poore soules: and because sometimes the Indians, thus prouoked, would kill a Spaniard, if they found opportunitie, they made a law that a hundred of them for one Spaniard should be slaine.

"In the Kingdome Xaragua, in Hispaniola, the gouernour called before him three hundred Indian lords, which he partly burned in a house and put the rest to the sword, and hanged vp the Queene, as they did also to Hiquanama, the Queene of Iliguey. Of all which cruelties, our author, an eye-witness, affirmeth that the Indians gaue no cause by any crime, that had so deserued by any law.

"In New Spaine, from the yeer 1518 to 1530, in foure hundred and eighty miles about Mexico, they destroyed aboue

foure millions of people in their conquests by fire and sword, not reckoning those which died in seruitude and oppression. In the prouince of Naco and Honduras, from the yeere 1524 to 1535, two millions of men perished and scarce two thousand remayne. In Gautimala, from the yeere 1524 to 1540, they destroyed aboue foure or fiue millions vnder that Aluarado, who dying, by the fall of his horse, complained (when he was asked where his paine was most) of his soule-tormente; and his city Guatimala was with a threefold deluge of earth, of water, of stones, oppressed and ouerwhelmed.

"They did the like in the kingdome of Venezuela, destroying foure or fiue millions; and out of that firme land, carried to the islands for slaves, at times, in seuenteene yeeres, a million of people."

THE DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF CANADA.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY VOYAGES TO NORTH AMERICA-THE FISHERIES-JOHN VERRAZANO -VOYAGES OF JACQUES CARTIER-He ascends the st. LawreNCE —QUEBEC—THE CHIEF DONNACONA—VOYAGE TO HOCHELAGA

(MONTREAL)-WINTER IN CANADA-SUFFERING-RE

TURN-DISASTROUS VOYAGES OF ROBERVAL AND

CARTIER-DEATH OF CARTIER.

THE American Continent, as we have seen, was first discov ered in 1497, by the renowned Sebastian Cabot, who, with his father, was engaged in the enterprise, continued to our own day, of seeking a north-west passage. In the following year he made another voyage, in which he explored a considerable portion of the American coast, descending, it would seem, as low as Virginia, and perhaps still further to the south. In 1500, Gaspar de Cortereal, in the service of Portugal, sailed to the same coast, and discovered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In a second voyage, he perished at sea, and his brother, who went in search of him, met the same fate. Nothing concerning their fate was ascertained by an expedition dispatched in quest of them. In a very few years the Basque and Breton fishermen, the most hardy and enterprising of France, commenced their lucrative occupation on the Great Bank of Newfoundland—a more certain and enduring mine of wealth than all the mountains of Potosi. The name of Cape Breton still attests the former presence of these ancient mariners and the country of their origin.

It was not, however, until 1523 that the French government turned its attention to the career of discovery and colonization

which had so profitably engrossed its Spanish and Portuguese rivals. In that year, Francis I. fitted out a squadron of four vessels for western exploration, and gave the command to John Verrazano, a skilful Florentine navigator, who, like Columbus, Cabot, and Vespucius, had carried to a foreign court the services which, amid the fading glories of Italy, could neither be adequately employed or rewarded. Nothing has survived of the particulars of this first voyage; but in the following year he touched on the coast of North America, and sailed along it to Newfoundland, a distance of two thousand miles. The savages, whenever he approached the shore, beheld the strangers with wonder and admiration, but offered no annoyance. The fate of a third expedition, which he commanded, is unknown, but was probably disastrous.

In 1525, one Stephano Gomez sailed from Spain to the island of Newfoundland, and, it would seem, entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and traded on its shores. According to the Spanish accounts, his people, disappointed in their hopes of treasure, frequently repeated the words "Aca nada!" (Here is nothing,) and thus conferred on the whole province the name of Canada. This title, however, is more probably derived from the Iroquois word "Kannata," signifying a cluster of cabins.

The growing wealth and importance of the Spanish colonies aroused the emulation of their neighbors; and in 1534, Francis, by the persuasion of High Admiral Chabot, fitted out another expedition for discovery and settlement. On the 20th of April, Jacques Cartier, the selected commander, sailed from St. Malo with two very small vessels, in which were crowded an hundred and twenty men. In twenty days he made Newfoundland, and, passing through the Straits of Belle Isle, entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Coasting along its shores, he was charmed with the beauty of the scenery and the kindness and civility of the natives. He took formal possession of the country in the name of the French sovereign, and, cruising along the northern coast, entered the River St. Lawrence. But the weather became stormy, and, taking two of the Indians by

stratagem, he gave up further exploration, and set sail for France, where he arrived early in the autumn.

The court of France, encouraged by his report, resolved to found a settlement in the newly-explored region; and accordingly, in May of the following year, with three vessels, he again took his departure. These vessels, dispersed by tempests, did not rendezvous, at Newfoundland until the latter part of July. They then entered the gulf, on which their leader bestowed the name of St. Lawrence, in honor of the saint on whose day he had first discovered it. Keeping along the north shore of the island of Anticosti, they entered the Great River, and soon after passed the mouth of the majestic Saguenay. Early in autumn, the little fleet arrived at a beautiful island, covered with vines, which Cartier named the Isle of Bacchus, and which is now known as the Isle of Orleans. It is just below Quebec.

Here an Indian chief, named Donnacona, came, with many canoes, to welcome the strangers. He placed the admiral's arm around his neck, and exhibited the most confiding and kindly demeanor. The French resolved to take up their winter quarters at the mouth of the river St. Charles, a little below the high and rocky promontory of Quebec.* "When the white men first stood upon the summit of this bold headland, above their port of shelter, most of the country was fresh from the hand of the Creator; save the three small barks, lying at the mouth of the stream, and the Indian village, no sign of human habitation met their view. Far as the eye could reach, the dark forest spread; over hill and valley, mountain and plain; up to the craggy peaks, down to the blue water's edge; along the gentle slopes of the rich Isle of Bacchus, and even

*The derivation of this name has been often contested. Some say it is nearly the original Indian term Quebaio; others, that it is derived from Caudebec, on the Seine; while other authors maintain that it had its origin in the exclamation of Cartier's pilot, on first beholding the majestic Cape, "Quel' bee!" ("What a beak!" or promontory)—bec, in the Norman, corresponding to the old English Ness or Nose; as a general term for any remarkable headland.