at length succeeded in building a fort, which he named after St. Sebastian; the protection of that saint being supposed capable of guaranteeing the settlers from the effects of poisoned arrows. But famine and disease soon began to be felt in the infant colony: the sufferings of his people became so severe that Hojeda was obliged to depart for Hispaniola to endeavour to procure provisions. On his arrival there, he learned that succours had been already despatched to St. Sebastian: his hopes suddenly revived at this intelligence; and in spite of all his hardships and reverses, his buoyant spirits once more revelled in brilliant dreams of future wealth, power, and dominion. But he now bore the stigma of misfortune:the mistrustful coldness which he experienced on every side preyed upon his feelings; and he died soon after of a broken heart, and so poor, that all his property was found insufficient to defray the expenses of his funeral. Hojeda is said to have written a history of his life, ‚—a life of unceasing action and romantic adventure; but these interesting memoirs, along with those of Yanez Pinzon, and other early travellers, have been condemned, by the cautious and illiberal jealousy of the Spanish government, to moulder forgotten in the national archives.

The fate of Nicuessa was no less wretched than that of his unhappy rival in ambition. He left Hispaniola with four large ships and one caravel; but had hardly lost sight of land, when a violent tempest dispersed his fleet. Shipwrecked on a strange shore, he found his way with incredible toils to Veragua, which had been appointed the general rendezvous of his squadron: here his followers were cut off rapidly by want, disease, and the hostility of the Indians; whichever way he turned, by land or sea, fresh calamities awaited him. At Darien, where he hoped to find refuge among his countrymen, Balboa at first refused to admit him. He was, however, permitted to land, and soon after driven again to sea in a small vessel, with only seventeen followers; but was never heard of afterwards. While embarking to return to Hispaniola, he was reproached by Balboa with having

a re

sacrificed so much human life to his ambition; proach not undeserved, perhaps, but which came with a bad grace from one who led the vanguard of Spanish adventurers.

The most important result of these expeditions was the establishment of a small colony in Darien, which was placed under the command of Nunez de Balboa. This enterprising officer made numerous incursions on the territories of the neighbouring caciques, in the course of which he received intelligence from the Indians of a great sea a few days' journey to the south. This he justly concluded to be the ocean which Columbus had so long sought in vain. Inflamed with the idea of effecting a discovery which that great man had been unable to accomplish, and eager to reap the first harvest of victory in countries said to abound with gold, he boldly determined to march across the isthmus, and witness with his own eyes the truth of what he heard. But in the execution of his design he had to contend with every difficulty which could be opposed to him by the hand of nature or the hostility of the natives: he had to lead his troops, worn out with fatigue and the diseases of a noxious climate, through deep marshes rendered nearly impassable by perpetual rains, over mountains covered with trackless forests, and through defiles from which the Indians, in secure ambuscade, showered down poisoned arrows. But no sufferings could damp the courage of the Spaniards in that enterprising age; Balboa surmounted every impediment. As he approached the object of his research, he ran before his companions to the summit of a mountain, from which he surveyed, with transports of delight, the boundless ocean which rolled beneath; then hurrying to the shore, he plunged into the waves, and claimed the sovereignty of the Southern Ocean for the crown of Castile. event took place in September 1513. The inhabitants of the coast on which he had arrived gave him to understand that the land towards the south was without end; that it was possessed by powerful nations who had

This

abundance of gold, and who employed beasts of burden. These allusions to the civilisation and riches of Peru, Balboa supposed to apply to those Indies which it was the grand object of European ambition to approach ; and the rude sketches of the Peruvian lama, drawn by the Indians on the sand, as they resembled the figure of the camel, served to confirm him in his error. Delighted with the importance of his discovery, he immediately despatched messengers to Spain, to give an account of his proceedings, and to solicit an appointment corresponding to his services. But the Spanish court was more liberal in exciting enterprise than in rewarding merit, and preferred new adventurers to old servants. The government of Darien was bestowed on Pedrarias Davila, who, regarding Balboa with the hatred which conscious weakness always bears towards superior worth, meditated unceasingly the destruction of his rival. He at length found an occasion to satisfy his vengeance; and the heroic Balboa was publicly executed in Darien, in 1517, affording another instance of the unhappy fate which attended the first conquerors of America.

CHAP. IV.

SPANISH DISCOVERIES, AND FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE EARTH.

DIEGO COLUMBUS TAKES THE CHIEF COMMAND IN THE COLONIES.INCREASED ENERGY. — PONCE DE LEON SEEKS THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. — DISCOVERS FLORIDA. OBSERVES THE EASTWARD CURRENTS. EXPEDITIONS OF GARAY.-CORDOBA VISITS YUCATAN. GRIJALVA DISCOVERS NEW SPAIN. AILLON REACHES THE COAST OF CAROLINA. ATTEMPTS TO MAKE A SETTLEMENT. HIS MELANCHOLY FAILURE. FERNANDO MAGELLAN. -RESPECTIVE RIGHTS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. MAGELLAN ENGAGES TO CONDUCT A FLEET WESTWARD TO THE MOLUCCAS. -WINTERS ON THE COAST OF PATAGONIA. -MUTINY IN THE FLEET. HIS STERN CONDUCT. -THE NATIVES DESCRIBED. THE GUANACO. MAGELLAN ENTERS THE PACIFIC OCEAN.ARRIVES AT THE PHILIPPINE ISLES. CONVERTS THE KING OF ZEBU, AND ENGAGES IN WARFARE FOR HIS SAKE. IS SLAIN BY THE ISLANDERS. TREACHEROUS CONDUCT OF THE

KING OF ZEBU. THE TWO REMAINING SHIPS REACH THE MOLUCCAS. FATE OF THE TRINIDAD. THE VITTORIA COM

PLETES THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE EARTH. LOSS OF A DAY IN HER RECKONING.

DURING these transactions on the southern continent, the spirit of discovery was actively at work in other quarters. Diego Columbus, the son of the celebrated admiral, had arrived, in 1509, at Hispaniola, invested with all those powers and prerogatives which had been so unjustly withheld from his father. He was followed to the New World by a large train of noble and wealthy persons, whose presence gave new animation and vigour to the colonies. Settlements were made in Cuba and other islands, and expeditions to examine the neighbouring seas proceeded advantageously from different points at once. In 1512, Juan Ponce de Leon, governor of Porto Rico, fitted out three ships to go in search of Bayuca, an island, in which was a fountain, as the Indians related, possessing the virtue of restoring all who bathed in it to youth. Tales such as this were readily believed

by romantic adventurers. Those who had braved the perils of the ocean to seek their fortunes in a new world fancied that they trod on enchanted ground; and where nature appeared in so new a garb, the invariable laws by which she directs her operations were easily lost sight of. Ponce de Leon failed to discover the miraculous fountain; but, after sailing a considerable distance to the north-west, he fell in with land, to which, from the circumstance of its being discovered on Easter-day, he gave the name of Florida.* He remarked the strong easterly currents running near the newly discovered country; and by this voyage the Spanish navigators were taught the advantage of steering by the straits of Bahama on their return to Europe.

The fierce resistance of the savages prevented Ponce de Leon from making any settlement on the coast of Florida; and little notice was taken of his discovery till 1519, when Francisco Garay, the governor of Jamaica, sent four ships to make farther researches in the north. Pineda, who commanded the expedition, commencing his survey at Florida, which had hitherto been supposed to be an island, succeeded in following the coast westward as far as Vera Cruz in New Spain. In describing the Indian nations which he had seen in the course of his voyage, he indulged largely in the privilege of fiction allowed to travellers: some, he says, were giants, others pigmies, and some were of ordinary stature.†

The voyage of Pineda completed the survey of the Mexican Gulf; for discoveries had already been made towards the west, which awakened the curiosity and prompted the exertions of Garay. In the year 1517, Francisco Hernando de Cordoba sailed from Cuba towards the west; examined a considerable portion of the northern coast of Yucatan; and returned to the Havanna with accounts collected from the Indians of a civilised and wealthy nation situated to the west of the coast which he had explored. In the following year, Juan de *Easter day is called by the Spaniards Pasqua florida. + Navarrete, p. 65.