14. Sum Europe was ready for new fields of activity; and by 1500 each But between Europe and India, all unknown and undeveloped, lay the two Americas, occupied by savage tribes, who were skilled in the warfare of the woods, and ready to contest with all their might any attempt to set foot upon their territory. Yet the central belt of this broad land that stretched from the 25th parallel to the 49th, and through fifty degrees of longitude, had the soil and climate which have later made possible the cotton of Texas, the wheat of Minnesota, the corn of Indiana, the Maine potato, and the olive groves of California. TOPICS topics mary (1) What made Spain a great nation? (2) When and how did Suggestive the Renaissance reach England? (3) When and where was gunpowder first used in European warfare? (4) What are some of the earliest printed travels? (5) How did the mariners' compass come into use? (6) What are the best waterways (with portages) from the Atlantic to the Pacific? (7) Name the principal peaks of the Appalachians. (8) What are the easiest passes across the Appalachians? across the Rocky Mountains? (9) The principal "carries" from the Great Lakes to the tributaries of the Mississippi. (10) Indian remains in your neighborhood. topics (11) Life in a present-day pueblo. (12) Adventures of Marco Search Polo. (13) Who wrote the Travels of Sir John Mandeville? (14) Career of Prince Henry the Navigator. (15) First European visitors to Niagara Falls. (16) First European explorations in the Appalachian Mountains. (17) How to make a birch-bark canoe. (18) Introduction of tobacco into Europe. (19) The Serpent Mound. (20) Ancient stone buildings and monuments in Mexico and Central America. (21) Peruvian roads and buildings. (22) Modern cities on the sites of Indian villages. Geography Secondary authorities Sources Illustrative works Pictures REFERENCES See maps, pp. 10, 11, 15, 18, 19, 24; Brigham, Geographic Influences; Epoch Maps, no. 1; Cheyney, European Background; Farrand, Basis of American History. Thwaites, Colonies, §§ 2-5; Fisher, Colonial Era, 1-11; Fiske, Discovery of America, I. 1-147, II. 294-364; Doyle, English in America, I. 5-17; Winsor, America, IV. i-xxx; Farrand, Basis of American History; Shaler, Nature and Man in America, 166-283,- United States, I. 1-272, 417-517; Cheyney, European Background; Higginson, Larger History, 1-26; Hinsdale, How to Study and Teach History, 174-203; Morgan, American Aborigines. Hart, Source Book, § 9,- Source Readers, I. §§ 8, 19-33, 3744, III. §§ 57-69; O'd South Leaflets, nos. 30, 32. See Channing and Hart, Guide, §§ 21-21b, 77-80; New England History Teachers' Association, Syllabus, 167, 168, 293,- Historical Sources, § 65. Longfellow, Hiawatha; Whittier, Bridal of Pennacock; C. G. Leland, Algonquin Legends of New England; C. F. Lummis, Strange Corners of our Country. McKenney and Hall, History and Biography of the Indian Tribes; Catlin, North American Indians; Winsor, America, I. CHAPTER II. THE CENTURY OF DISCOVERY (1492-1605) 15. Fore runnings of discovery THE existence of a Western Continent was till about 1500 undreamed of in Europe, although there was in far-off Iceland a "saga," or document based on memorized tradition, showing how, in the year 1000, Leif Erikson-"Leif the Lucky" -reached the mainland of North America; and how in (1000-1492) 1007 one Karlsefni landed there in a fine country (which has never been identified) abounding in flat stones and grapes, and fierce natives. No evidence has ever been found to show that Leif's discovery was known to Italian or Spanish navigators. Their incentive to western voyages was the hope of finding a direct western route to India, especially after Bartholomew Diaz of Portugal reached the Cape of Good Hope (1487) and saw a broad sea beyond, promising a practicable indirect route. To Christopher Columbus, born (about 1446) in the Italian city of Genoa, is due the credit of applying the science of his time to the problem of reaching India. Before he was thirty years old he formed a plan of sailing westward to Asia, which he calculated to be twenty-five hundred miles distant from Europe. Directly, or through his brother Bartholomew, he appealed to the kings of Portugal, Spain, England, and France to fit him out; and all declined the splendid opportunity. Finally, he turned again to Spain and appealed to the missionary zeal of Queen Isabella in behalf of the distant heathen, and held out to her counselors the rich results of conquest and power. In behalf of her kingdom of Castile, Isabella at last agreed to fit out an expedition. Furnished with the queen's money and armed with her authority, Columbus got together three little vessels, the Santa 16. Colum- Maria, Niña, and Pinta, carrying 90 men in all. He bus the dis- sailed from Palos, August 3, 1492, and from the Canary (1492-1506) Islands five weeks later; thenceforward his sole reliance was his own unconquerable will. As the crews grew muti coverer nous the admiral cajoled and threatened, and even understated the ship's daily run. On Friday, October 12, 1492 (old style), thirty-three days after losing sight of land, and distant 3230 nautical miles from Palos, the caravels came upon an island, to which, says Columbus, "I gave the name of San Salvadore, in commemoration of his Divine Majesty who has wonderfully granted all this. The Indians call it Guanahan." This land Am. Hist. no. 1 fall was probably Watling Island of the Bahama group. A few days later Columbus reached the coast of Cuba, and then Hispaniola, or Haiti. He was deeply disappointed not to find towns and civilized communities, for to the day of his death Columbus supposed that he had hit on the coast of Asia. Thus was America discovered, as an unforeseen incident in the voyage of one of the most extraordinary men in history. In September, 1493, Columbus set out a second time with 17 vessels and 1500 men, founded Isabella in Haiti, the first city of Europeans in America, set up a government there, and discovered Porto Rico, Jamaica, and some of the Lesser Antilles. On a third voyage (1498), he reached South America, and discovered the mouth of the Orinoco. His colony in Hispaniola, including the permanent city of Santo Domingo, fell into confusion, and Columbus was sent home in chains, and for a time was in disgrace. He made, however, a fourth voy age (1502), in search of a water passage to India, which carried him to the coast of Honduras, and to the Isthmus of Panama. Four years later he died in Spain, and his bones, after wanderings in the West Indies, now rest in the Cathedral of Seville. covery Meantime the Portuguese were trying to reach the gold and spice islands by sailing eastward, and they claimed a monopoly of the discoveries that they might make. In May, 1493, 17. Porthe Pope issued a bull in which he assumed the authority tuguese disto divide the non-Christian world between Portugal and (1493-1500) Spain, by a north and south line through the Atlantic. A year later, in the treaty of Tordesillas, made directly between Spain and Portugal, it was agreed that the line of demarcation should run " from pole to pole, 370 leagues west from the Cape Verde Islands." The rivalry foreseen by the treaty was realized in 1497 when the Portuguese Vasco da Gama passed the Cape of Good Hope, and shortly reached India; soon Portuguese trading ports were established in Asia. Then Cabral, one of the Portuguese voyagers to India, hit on Harrisse's Diplomatic |