Читать книгу A Brief History of the United States - John Bach McMaster - Страница 14

[1] This discovery made a great stir in Bristol, the port from which Cabot sailed. A letter written at the time states, "Honors are heaped upon Cabot. He is called Grand Admiral, he is dressed in silk, and the English run after him like madmen." The king gave him Ł10 and a pension of Ł20 a year. A pound sterling in those days was in purchasing power quite the equal of fifty dollars in our time.

[2] These voyages of Cabot were not followed up at the time. But in the days of Queen Elizabeth, more than eighty years later, they were made the basis of the English claim to a part of North America.

[3] Bristoll—Arthurus Kemys et Ricardus ap. Meryke collectores custumarum et subsidiorum regis ibidem a festo Sancti Michaelis Archangeli anno XIIII mo Regis nunc usque idem festum Sancti Michaelis tunc proximo sequens reddunt computum de MCCCCXXIIII li. VII S. x d. quadr. De quibus. … Item in thesauro in una tallia pro Johanne Cabot, xx li. Translation: "Bristol—Arthur Kemys and Richard ap Meryke, collectors of the king's customs and subsidies there, from Michaelmas in the fourteenth year of this king's reign [Henry VII] till the same feast next following render their account of Ł1424 7_s._ 10–¼_d._. … In the treasury is one tally for John Cabot, Ł20."

[4] On one of these voyages the Spaniards saw an Indian village built over the water on piles, with bridges joining the houses. This so reminded them of Venice that they called it Venezuela (little Venice), a name afterward applied to a vast extent of country.

[5] "But now these parts [Europe, Asia, and Africa] have been more widely explored, and another fourth part has been discovered by Americus Vespucius (as will appear in the following pages); so I do not see why any one should rightly object to calling it Amerige or America, i.e. land of Americus, after its discoverer Americus, a man of sagacious mind—since both Europe and Asia are named after women. Its situation and the ways of its people may be clearly understood from the four voyages of Americus which follow."

[6] Vasco Nuńez de Balboa had come from Spain to Haiti and settled down as a planter, but when (1510) an expedition was about to sail for South America to plant a colony near Panama, Balboa longed to join it. He was in debt; so lest his creditors should prevent his going, he had himself nailed up in a barrel and put on board one of the ships with the provisions.

[7] In the course of expeditions along the eastern coast of Mexico, the Spaniards heard of a mighty king, Montezuma, who ruled many cities in the interior and had great stores of gold. In 1519 Cor'tes landed with 450 men and a few horses, sank his ships, and began inland one of the most wonderful marches in all history. The account of the great things which he did, of the marvelous cities he conquered, of the strange and horrible sights he saw, reads like fiction. Six days after reaching the city of Mexico, he seized Montezuma and made himself the real ruler of the country; but later the Mexicans rose against him and he had to conquer them by hard fighting. Read the story of the conquest as briefly told in Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. II, pp. 245–293.

The Spaniards also heard rumors of a golden kingdom to the southward where the Incas ruled. After preliminary voyages of exploration Francisco Pizarro sailed from Panama in 1531 with 200 men and 50 horses to conquer Peru. Landing on the coast he marched inland to the camp of the Inca, a young man who had just seized the throne. The sight of the white strangers clad in shining armor, wielding thunder and lightning (firearms), and riding unearthly beasts (horses were unknown to the Indians), caused wonder and dread in Peru as it had in Mexico. The Inca was made prisoner and hundreds of his followers were killed. He offered to fill his prison room with gold as high as he could reach if Pizarro would set him free; the offer was accepted and in 1533 some $15,000,000 in gold was divided among the conquerors. The Inca, however, was put to death, and the Spaniards took possession of the whole country.

[8] None of Magellan's vessels were as large as the Santa Maria, and three were smaller than the Nińa. The sailors demanded that Magellan return to Spain. When he refused, the captains and crews of three ships mutinied, and were put down with difficulty.

[9] Guam, which now belongs to our country, is one of the Ladrones.

[10] The Spaniards took possession of the Philippines a few years later, and in 1571 founded Manila. The group was named after Philip II of Spain. In 1555 a Spanish navigator discovered the Hawaiian Islands; but though they were put down on the early Spanish charts, the Spaniards did not take possession of them. Indeed, these islands were practically forgotten, and two centuries passed before they were rediscovered by the English explorer, Captain Cook, in 1778.

[11] Magellan was a very religious man, and after making an alliance with the king of the island of Cebu, he set about converting the natives to Christianity. The king, greatly impressed by the wonders the white man did, consented. A bonfire was lighted, the idols were thrown in, a cross was set up, and the natives were baptized. This done, the king called on Magellan to help him attack the chief of a neighboring island; but in the attack Magellan was killed and his men put to flight. This defeat so angered the king that he invited thirty Spaniards to a feast, massacred them, cut down the cross, and again turned pagan.

[12] Read the account in Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. II, pp. 190–211.

[13] Juan Ponce de Leon had sailed with Columbus on his second voyage, and had settled in Haiti. Hearing that there was gold in Porto Rico, he explored it for Spain, in 1509 was made its governor, and in 1511 founded the city of San Juan (sahn hoo-ahn'). After he was removed from the governorship, he obtained leave to search for the island of Bimini.

[14] He now obtained authority to colonize the supposed island; but several years passed before he was ready to make the attempt. He then set off with arms, tools, horses, and two hundred men, landed on the west coast of Florida, lost many men in a fight with the Indians, and received a wound of which he died soon after in Cuba.

[15] The story of this remarkable march across the continent is told in The Spanish Pioneers, by C. F. Lummis.

[16] There was a tradition in Europe that when the Arabs conquered Spain in the eighth century, a certain bishop with a goodly following fled to some islands far out in the Sea of Darkness and founded seven cities. When the Spaniards came in contact with the Indians of Mexico, they were told of seven caves from which the ancestors of the natives had issued, and jumped to the conclusion that the seven caves were the seven cities; and when Cabeza de Vaca came with his story of the wonderful cities of the north, it was believed that they were the towns built by the bishop.

[17] At an Indian village in Mexico, Marcos heard of a country to the northward where there were seven cities with houses of two, three, and four stories, and that of the chief with five. On the doorsills and lintels of the best houses, he was told, were turquoise stones.

[18] Read The Spanish Pioneers, by C. F. Lummis, pp. 77–88, 101–143. The year that Coronado returned to Mexico (1542) an expedition under Cabrillo (kah-breel'yo) coasted from Mexico along what is now California. Cabrillo died in San Diego harbor.

[19] Hernando de Soto was born about 1500 in Spain, and when of age went to Panama and thence to Peru with Pizarro. In the conquest of Peru he so distinguished himself that on returning to Spain he was made governor of Cuba.

[20] Landing on this spot, Cartier set forth to visit the great Indian village of Hochelaga. He found it surrounded with a palisade of tree trunks set in three rows. Entering the narrow gate, he beheld some fifty long houses of sapling frames covered with bark, each containing many fires, one for a family. From these houses came swarms of women and children, who crowded about the visitors, touched their beards, and patted their faces. Soon the warriors came and squatted row after row around the French, for whom mats were brought and laid on the ground. This done, the chief, a paralyzed old savage, was carried in, and Cartier was besought by signs to heal him, and when Cartier had touched him, all the sick, lame, and blind in the village were brought out for treatment. Read Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New World, pp. 187–193.

[21] As Cartier was on his way home he stopped at the harbor of St. Johns in Newfoundland, a harbor then frequented by fishermen from the Old World. There he was met by three ships and 200 colonists under Roberval, who ordered him to return. But one night Cartier slipped away in the darkness. Roberval went on to the site of Quebec and there planted his colony. What became of it is not known; but that it did not last long is certain, and many years passed before France repeated the attempt to gain a foothold on the great river of Canada.