FOOTNOTES
[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 £10 and a pension of £20 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 £1424 7_s._ 10-1/4_d._…. In the treasury is one tally for John Cabot, £20."
[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 Nuñez 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 Niña. 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.