Arthur James Weise.

Troy, N. Y., March 27, 1884.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE.
CHAPTER I.
Antiquity of the red race. An antediluvian people. Vestiges of an ancient civilization in America. Records of Egypt. Manuscripts of Solon, the great Greek legislator. Origin of the aborigines of the western hemisphere. Founders of an empire. The tradition preserved by the Egyptians. Early navigation of the Atlantic Ocean. Isolation of the people of the western continent. The Northmen. Iceland found. Greenland explored. Saga of Eric the Red. Voyage of Bjarni, Herjulf’s son. Explorations of Leif, the son of Eric the Red. Tradition concerning Thorfinn Karlsefne. Discovery of Vinland. Its geographical situation. The stone tower at Newport. Dighton rock. Voyages of the Welsh adventurer Madoc. Discoveries of the Zeni brothers. Story of a Frisland fisherman. Estotiland. Drogio[1-50]
CHAPTER II.
Arrival of three strangely clad travellers in Venice. Their surprising disclosures. The book of Marco Polo. Marvellous wealth of Cathay. Gold-covered palaces. Magnificent cities. Extensive traffic. The empire of the Grand Khan. The travels of Sir John Mandeville. Commerce of Europe restricted. Use of the mariner’s compass. An age of superstition. Points of the compass-card. Geographical enthusiasm of Prince Henry of Portugal. Explorations along the coast of Africa. The astrolabe made useful to navigators. The Cape of Good Hope reached[51-69]
CHAPTER III.
Christopher Columbus’s conception of finding a short and direct way to India. His reasonable conclusions. Statements of ancient geographers. The known parts of the world. Circumference of the earth. Inferences respecting pieces of wood and dead bodies cast upon the islands lying off the west coast of Africa. Island of the Seven Cities. Letter of Paolo Toscanelli. Distance to Cathay. Columbus’s overtures to the king of Portugal. Bartolomé Columbus visits England. Christopher Columbus seeks aid in Spain. The opinion of the learned men respecting his project. The friendly offices of Friar Juan Perez. Luis de Santángel’s proposals to Queen Isabella. Columbus commissioned to undertake a voyage to Cathay[70-93]
CHAPTER IV.
The object of Columbus’s voyage. His journal. His intention to make a map of the lands of the ocean. The vessels of the fleet. They sail from the port of Palos. The fears of the sailors. Variations of the needle. The Sea of Sargasso. Incidents of the voyage. Discovery of land. Island of San Salvador. Columbus’s description of the people and the islands. He believes that he had reached the continent of Asia, and that he was near the dominions of the Grand Khan of Cathay. He sends embassadors to the sovereign of the Orient. His letter to Rafael Sanchez. The high latitude to which he sailed. A fort erected at La Navidad, on the island of Española. The profits of the voyage. Columbus sets sail for Spain. Anchors in the Tagus. Visits the king of Portugal. Returns to Spain. Enthusiasm of the people. His reception at Barcelona[94-144]
CHAPTER V.
Territorial privileges of Portugal and Spain. A line of demarkation designated by Pope Alexander VI. The East and the West Indies. Columbus’s second voyage. The Caribbees. The Villa de la Navidad burned. The town of Isabela built. Further explorations of the coast of Cuba. Depositions taken that Columbus had reached the dominions of the Grand Khan. The cemies of the people of Española. The homeward voyage. Ignorance of pilots respecting latitude and longitude. Columbus’s compasses. Amerigo Vespucci’s first voyage to the New World. Lands on the coast of South America. Describes the natives. The country of Lariab. Columbus’s third voyage. He surveys the continent. Explores the coast of La Tierra de Gracia. Amerigo Vespucci’s second voyage. Sails along the north coast of South America. Traffics for pearls with the natives. Returns to Cadiz. Columbus’s last voyage. The edifices of Veragua. The evidences of civilization. Writes that he reached the province of Mango, contiguous to Cathay. Dies at Valladolid. His nautical chart. Juan de la Cosa’s great ox-hide map[145-185]
CHAPTER VI.
England sends ships to search for a navigable way to the Indies. The first voyage of Giovanni Caboto. Pasqualigo’s account of it. Discovery of the territory of the Grand Khan. The flag of England and that of St. Mark planted on the coast of the new country. Prima Tierra Vista. The island of St. John. Caboto’s second voyage. The dispatches of Pedro de Ayala to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. The voyages of Sebastiano Caboto. His explorations along the coast of Labrador. La Tierra de los Bacallaos. Sebastiano Caboto’s maps and manuscripts[186-204]
CHAPTER VII.
The Portuguese reach the Indies. Land of the Holy Cross discovered by Pedro Alvarez Cabral. Gaspar Cortereal’s voyages. Letter of Pietro Pasqualigo. Terra Verde. Amerigo Vespucci’s third and fourth voyages along the east coast of South America. Johann Ruysch’s map. Martin Waldseemüller’s suggestion. The name of America. A fountain of vivific water. Juan Ponce de Leon explores the coast of Florida. Vasco Nuñez de Balboa beholds the Pacific Ocean. The coast of Yucatan explored by Francisco Hernando de Cordoba. The discoveries of Juan de Grijalva. The country of New Spain. The expedition of Hernando Cortes. The magnificent presents sent him by Montezuma. The populated provinces of Mexico. Great cities. Large temples. Decorated idols. Cortes enters the city of Mexico. Its palaces, markets, and arsenals. The horrible sacrifices of the Mexicans. The siege of the city[205-274]
CHAPTER VIII.
The discoveries of Alonso Alvarez de Pineda. The project of Francisco de Garay. An unfortunate undertaking. The discovery of the Mississippi River. The jurisdictions of Juan Ponce de Leon and Francisco de Garay. Another exploration of a part of the coast of North America. Chicora. Duharhe. Tall people. Habits of the natives. Tierra de Ayllon. The voyage of Fernam de Magalhaens. Discovery of the Strait of the Eleven Thousand Virgins. The Pacific Ocean. The Moluccas or Spice Islands reached. Voyage of Juan Sebastian del Cano. The earth circumnavigated. The congress of Badajos[275-296]
CHAPTER IX.
France emulates Portugal, Spain, and England. Discoveries of the Bretons and the Normans. Exploration of the St. Lawrence River. Giovanni da Verrazzano put in command of a fleet to sail to Cathay by Francis I. The king of Portugal attempts to prevent the sailing of the vessels. Storm in the North Sea. Departure of the Dauphine. Verrazzano reaches the coast of North America. Designates his first landing-place Diepa. Fruitless search for a harbor. Friendly savages. Description of the country. Palmetto trees. Sails northward. Explorations of the peninsula of Virginia. The Dauphine’s anchorage at Sandy Hook. Verrazzano explores the bays of New York. The Grande River. Block Island. The Dauphine in Narragansett Bay. Description of the natives. Exploration of the coast of Maine. Five hundred and two leagues of land inspected. Francesca. Verrazzano’s geographical explanation of his voyage. Arrival of the Dauphine at Dieppe[297-334]
CHAPTER X.
(Addenda.)
Circulation of the news of Verrazzano’s remarkable discoveries. Fernando Carli’s letter to his father. The adverse opinion of the people concerning Verrazzano’s undertaking. The navigator regarded as another Amerigo Vespucci, another Magellan. Three ships equipped to sail to the Indies under the command of Verrazzano. His third voyage to the New Land. The indomitable Florentine falls a victim to savage cruelty. His body roasted and eaten. Ramusio’s worthy tribute. The navigator’s great parchment map. The Maiollo map. Hieronymus da Verrazzano’s chart[335-343]
CHAPTER XI.
(Addenda.)
The French again search for a direct water-route to India. Voyages of Jacques Cartier. The names given to the natives of the New Land. The peasants of New France. The Hudson explored in the sixteenth century. The French name for the Palisades. The country of the Grand Scarp. Manants Island. A small fort built by the French on the site of New York City. The château on Castle Island, near the site of Albany. The structure damaged by a freshet. The Mohawk Indians show the ruins to the Dutch explorers of the river in the seventeenth century. The Hollanders call it Fort Nassau. The opinion of the Dutch inhabitants of Albany respecting the people who built it[344-363]
Index[365-380]

COPIES OF RARE MAPS.

Transcriber’s Note: Maps are clickable for larger versions.

I.—Delineation of the hyperborean regions by Sigurd Stephanius in 1570[22]
II.—A part of the map of the New World contained in the edition of Ptolemy’s geography printed in Strasburg in 1513[124]
III.—A part of the Cabot-map of 1544, in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris[190]
IV.—Map of the New World contained in Peter Martyr’s “Legatio Babylonica,” printed in 1511[220]
V.—A tracing representing the limits of the discoveries of Juan Ponce de Leon and Francisco de Garay. 1521[278]
VI.—A part of the map of the fourth part of the world contained in the Cosmographie Universelle by André Thevet, printed in Paris in 1575[304]
VII.—Map of Terre de la Franciscane in the cosmography of Jean Alphonse and Raulin Secalart, 1545[354]
VIII.—Map of a part of North America made by Giacomo de Gastaldi in 1553[356]
IX.—A part of the map of the world made by Gerard Mercator in Duisburg in 1569[360]
X.—A part of the map of the world made by Juan de la Cosa in 1500[cover-pocket]
XI.—A part of the map of the world made by Johann Ruysch, contained in the edition of Ptolemy’s geography printed in Rome in 1508[cover-pocket]
XII.—A part of the map of the world made by Visconte de Maiollo in 1527[cover-pocket]