Gold But the boldest of the early Spanish adventurers went to the Spanish New World not to found colonies but to search for gold. Find- Hunters ing no gold along the coast, the soldiers of fortune left their ships and struck out into the wilderness. It was while searching for gold that Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean (1513); that Ponce de Leon came upon Florida (1513); that de Soto found himself upon the banks of the Mississippi River (1541); that Coronado was led to traverse the wilds of what is now New Mexico and Kansas. These adventurers found little gold, but they greatly enriched geographical knowledge and widely extended the Spanish power in the New World. Extent Claims By virtue of the explorations made by Ponce de Leon, de Soto, and Coronado, Spain laid claim to a large part of North America, but she did not at once follow up her claims with of actual settlement. She found that riches lay at the South rather Spanish than at the North; so she neglected North America and gave her attention to the southern parts of the New World. Here the Spanish gold-hunters were successful beyond the dreams of avarice. In 1519 Cortez conquered Mexico, and about ten years later Pizarro overran Peru. These men became masters of untold wealth, and their conquests made Spain not only the richest nation in the world but also the mistress of Mexico, Central America, the greater part of South America, and the greater part of North America. Indeed, by the middle of the sixteenth century Spain was the virtual possessor of every foot of the western world from Patagonia to Labrador, excepting only Brazil, which belonged to Portugal. The of New But Spain could not hope to hold the New World without a struggle; other nations were bound to come forward and dis- Fisheries pute her claims. France was the first to give trouble. While found Spaniards were exploiting the southern part of America for its land gold, Frenchmen were exploiting the northern part for its fish. When Cabot returned from his voyage he reported that the waters of the newly found region teemed with fish, and the report went out that in the "new-found-land" there was a great abundance of cod and that the salmon there were as large The Fishermen from France Verrazano Cartier as seals. This was good news for Europe, for inasmuch as all Christendom was Catholic and the fast-days in a year numbered nearly one hundred and fifty the demand for fish was very great. The first fishermen to follow in the wake of Cabot went out, not from England, but from the ports of Dieppe and St.-Malo in France. As early as 1504 fishermen from these towns went to Newfoundland, and they found the fishing so good that they returned again and again. By 1522 there had been built along the coast of Newfoundland as many as forty or fifty huts for the accommodation of fishermen. These rude fishermen's huts were perhaps the first structures erected by white men on the continent of North America. THE CLASH BETWEEN SPAIN AND FRANCE When the fishermen of Dieppe and St.-Malo had once shown Frenchmen the way to the New World, it was not long before France began to think of doing something more in America than merely catching fish. In 1524 Francis I, king of France and an arch-enemy of Spain, sent out Giovanni Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, "to discover new lands by the ocean" and to claim them in the name of France-an expedition made in utter disregard of the claims of Spain. Indeed, France flatly denied the validity of these claims and asked Charles V of Spain by what right he and the king of Portugal had claimed to own the earth. Had Father Adam made them his sole heirs, and would he produce a copy of the will? Verrazano first reached that part of the American coast now known as the Carolinas. Sailing south for some distance, he then turned his ships and skirted the coast as far as Newfoundland, entering New York Bay on his way. Ten years after the voyage of Verrazano, Jacques Cartier, a sailor and fisherman of St.-Malo, was sent out by France to find a passage to China by a northwest route. Cartier passed around Newfoundland to the north, sailed southward through the Strait of Belle-Isle, explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and returned to France. The next year he sailed again to the St. Lawrence region and made his way up the St. Lawrence River as far as where Montreal now stands. In 1540 he attempted to establish a French colony on the banks of the St. Lawrence, but disease soon swept away most of the colonists, and the colony was broken up. In 1562 Jean Ribault, a mariner of Dieppe, sailed to the Florida coast and established a colony of thirty men at a place which he called Port Royal, near the present city of Beaufort. The colony was planted on soil which had been explored and claimed by Spain, but Ribault took possession of the place in the name of the king of France just as if Spain had no right to it whatever. After building a fort, Ribault sailed back to France with the plan of bringing more men out to the colony. But the little settlement did not prosper. Before Ribault could return, it had suffered heavily by lawlessness and famine, and the few survivors had been picked up by an English vessel and carried to Europe. Ribault nière In 1564 Laudonnière, a French officer who had been with LaudonRibault on his voyage, planted another colony on the Florida coast. This time the settlement was made at the mouth of the St. Johns River on a spot "so fair that melancholy itself could not but change to humor as it gazed." But Fort Carolina, as this colony was called, fared almost as badly as Port Royal, and the colonists were on the point of returning to France when Ribault arrived with seven ships laden with supplies, bringing several hundred new colonists. Catholics and Protestants About a week after Ribault's arrival, Pedro Menendez, in command of a large force of men and a well-equipped Spanish art fleet, appeared off the mouth of the St. Johns. Menendez came under the auspices of the king of Spain with the avowed purpose of destroying the French colony. In the mind of the Spanish commander and in the mind of the Spanish monarch also there were good reasons why the colony should be destroyed. In the first place the colonists were trespassing upon land which belonged to Spain. Then, too, the settlement at Fort Carolina was regarded by the Spaniards as being a nest of French pirates. For French cruisers about this time were in the habit of scouring the seas and capturing Spanish vessels. In 1555 Havana was plundered and burned by the French buccaneers, and many of its inhabitants were put to death. Moreover, the colonies at Fort Carolina were enemies of the Catholic religion. We saw (p. 3) that in the fifteenth century Europe was solidly Catholic. By the time of Ribault and Menendez all this was changed. In the early part of the sixteenth century Martin Luther had started a movement against the authority of the pope, and by the middle of the century the movement-known as the Reformation-had split the Catholic Church in twain and had divided western Europe into two hostile religious camps, Catholics and Protestants. Now, Ribault and his colonies belonged to the Protestant camp; they were Huguenots Huguenots, as the French Protestants were called. So Menendez could proceed against these trespassing Huguenots with good will, for he was devoted to the interests of his king and a most zealous champion of the Catholic faith. Therefore he pressed on with energy to the accomplishment of his purpose, and by the time he had finished his cruel task the colony had been wiped from the face of the earth. The Result of the Clash Thus France and Spain were the first nations to quarrel about · the possession of territory in the New World, and, in the clash which followed, Spain came out a victor. After the failure of Laudonnière's colony the French made no further attempts to gain a foothold in the southern part of the Atlantic seaboard, and Spain was left in undisputed possession of the coast from Florida to Labrador. Menendez built a fort (September, 1565) which he called St. Augustine, thus laying the foundation of the St. Augus- oldest town in the United States. In 1586 the fort was sacked by a captain who sailed under the flag of a nation that was gathering strength and power to contest with Spain and all other nations the mastery of the American coast. This rising nation was England. tine EXERCISES AND REFERENCES 1. Columbus's own account of his first voyage: Hart, I, 35-40. 4. Verrazano's voyage along the Atlantic coast: Hart, I, 102-107. 5. The Spanish discovery of the Mississippi: Ogg, The Opening of the Mississippi, 8-44. 6. The Reformation: Adams, G. B., 416-442. 7. Magellan's voyage: Channing, I, 51-54. 8. Prepare a summary of this chapter. (A summary might read as follows: At the end of the fifteenth century, the old trade-routes to the Orient having been blocked, there began a search for new routes, which led to the discovery of America by Columbus. The king of England in 1496 authorized John Cabot to go out to America and establish the English rule there. This was running counter to the treaty which established the Line of Demarcation. Cabot in 1497 landed on the coast between Labrador and Halifax and claimed the region for England. The newly discovered world was named America after Americus Vespucius. Spain established her power in the West Indies by the planting of colonies. Spanish gold-hunters and soldiers of fortune by their explorations and conquests brought the whole western world from Patagonia to Labrador, with the exception of Brazil, under the control of Spain. But the claims of Spain were challenged by France, for French fishermen built their huts on the coast of Newfoundland, and Verrazano and Cartier were sent out by France to lay claim to American territory. Jean Ribault in 1562 founded a French colony on the Florida coast but it did not prosper. Two years later a second French colony was planted in Florida. This was destroyed by Spain. Spain was now left in undisputed possession of the coast from Florida to Labrador.) |