History of the United States, Volume 1

by Elisha Benjamin Andrews

Ponce de Leon.
The same year, 1513, Ponce de Leon, an old Spanish soldier in the wars
with the Moors, a companion of Columbus in his second voyage, and till
now governor of Porto Rico, began exploration to the northward. Leaving
Porto Rico with three ships, he landed on the coast of an unknown
country, where he thought to find not only infinite gold but also the
much-talked-about fountain of perpetual youth. His landing occurred on
Easter Sunday, or Pascua Florida, March 27, 1513, and so he named the
country Florida. The place was a few miles north of the present town of
St. Augustine. Exploring the coast around the southern extremity of the
peninsula, he sailed among a group of islands, which he designated the
Tortugas. Returning to Porto Rico, he was appointed governor of the new
country. He made a second voyage, was attacked by the natives and
mortally wounded, and returned to Cuba to die.
[1518-1520]
Juan de Grijalva explored the south coast of the Gulf of Mexico, from
Yucatan toward the Panuco. Interest attaches to this enterprise mainly
because the treasure which Grijalva collected aroused the envy and greed
of the future conqueror of Mexico, Hernando Cortez.
In 1518, Velasquez, governor of Cuba, sends Cortez westward, with eleven
ships and over six hundred men, for the purpose of exploration. He
landed at Tabasco, thence proceeded to the Island of San Juan de Ulua,
nearly opposite Vera Cruz, where he received messengers and gifts from
the Emperor Montezuma. Ordered to leave the country, he destroyed his
ships and marched directly upon the capital. He seized Montezuma and
held him as a hostage for the peaceable conduct of his subjects. The
Mexicans took up arms, only to be defeated again and again by the
Spaniards. Montezuma became a vassal of the Spanish crown, and
covenanted to pay annual tribute. Attempting to reconcile his people to
this agreement he was himself assailed and wounded, and, refusing all
nourishment, soon after died. With re-enforcements, Cortez completed
the conquest of the country, and Mexico became a province of Spain.

Montezuma mortally wounded by his own subjects.

Hernando Cortes. From an old print.
Vasquez de Ayllon, one of the auditors of the Island of Santo Domingo,
sent two ships from that island to the Bahamas for Indians to be sold as
slaves. Driven from their course by the wind, they at length reached the
shore of South Carolina, at the mouth of the Wateree River, which they
named the Jordan, calling the country Chicora. Though kindly treated by
the natives, the ruthless adventurers carried away some seventy of
these. One ship was lost, and most of the captives on the others died
during the voyage. Vasquez was, by the Emperor Charles V., King of
Spain, made governor of this new province, and again set sail to take
possession. But the natives, in revenge for the cruel treatment which
they had previously received, made a furious attack upon the invaders.
The few survivors of the slaughter returned to Santo Domingo, and the
expedition was abandoned. These voyages were in 1520 and 1526.
In connection with the subject of Spanish voyages, a passing notice
should be given to one, who, though not of Spanish birth, yet did much
to further the progress of discovery on the part of his adopted country.
Magellan was a Portuguese navigator who had been a child when Columbus
came back in triumph from the West Indies. Refused consideration from
King Emmanuel, of Portugal, for a wound received under his flag during
the war against Morocco, he renounced his native land and offered his
services to the sagacious Charles V., of Spain, who gladly accepted
them, With a magnificent fleet, Magellan, in 1519, set sail from
Seville, cherishing Columbus's bold purpose, which no one had yet
realized, of reaching the East Indies by a westward voyage, After
touching at the Canaries, he explored the coast of South America, passed
through the strait now called by his name, discovered the Ladrone
Islands, and christened the circumjacent ocean the Pacific.

The illustrious navigator now sailed for the Philippine Islands, so
named from Philip, son of Charles V., who succeeded that monarch as
Philip II. By the Tordesillas division above described, the islands were
properly in the Portuguese hemisphere, but on the earliest maps, made by
Spaniards, they were placed twenty-five degrees too far east, and this
circumstance, whether accidental or designed, has preserved them to
Spain even to the present time. At the Philippine Islands Magellan was
killed in an affray with the natives. One of his ships, the Victoria,
after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, arrived in Spain, having
been the first to circumnavigate the globe. The voyage had taken three
years and twenty-eight days.
[1528-1540]
The disastrous failure of the expedition of Vasquez de Ayllon to Florida
did not discourage attempts on the part of others in the same direction.
Velaspuez, governor of Cuba, jealous of the success of Cortez in Mexico,
had sent Pamphilo de Narvaez to arrest him. In this attempt Narvaez had
been defeated and taken prisoner. Undeterred by this failure he had
solicited and received of Charles V. the position of governor over
Florida, a territory at that time embracing the whole southern part of
what is now the United States, and reaching from Cape Sable to the
Panuco, or River of Palms, in Mexico. With three hundred men he, in
1528, landed near Appalachee Bay, and marched inland with the hope of
opening a country rich and populous. Bitterly was he disappointed.
Swamps and forests, wretched wigwams with their squalid inmates
everywhere met his view, but no gold was to be found. Discouraged, he
and his followers returned to the coast, where almost superhuman toil
and skill enabled them to build five boats, in which they hoped to work
westward to the Spanish settlements. Embarking, they stole cautiously
along the coast for some distance, but were at last driven by a storm
upon an island, perhaps Galveston, perhaps Santa Rosa, where Narvaez and
most of his men perished. Four of his followers survived to cross Texas
to the Gulf of California and reach the town of San Miguel on the west
coast of Mexico. Here they found their countrymen, searching as usual
for pearls, gold, and slaves, and by their help they made a speedy
return to Spain, heroes of as remarkable an adventure as history
records. These unfortunates were the first Europeans to visit New
Mexico. Their narrative led to the exploration of that country by
Coronado and others, and to the discoveries of Cortez in Lower
California.

Death of Magellan.