Searching for a short cut through America.
The idea that America was but a projection of Asia possessed all the early explorers; and indeed it was a century and a half later (1728) before Bering sailed from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic and proved that America was insulated. There was another geographical error, which took even a longer time to explode,—the notion that a waterway somewhere extended through the American continent, uniting the Atlantic and the Pacific. John Smith and other English colonists thought that by ascending the James, the York, the Potomac, the Roanoke, or the Hudson, they could emerge with ease upon waters flowing to the ocean of the west. Champlain sent (1634) the fur-trader Nicolet up the Ottawa River and the Great Lakes into Wisconsin, which he thought to be Asia; and Jolliet and Marquette (1673) imagined they had found the highway thither when their birch-bark canoes glided into the upper Mississippi at Prairie du Chien.
One hundred and seven years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Balboa scaled the continental backbone at Darien (1513), and in the name of Spain claimed dominion over the waters of the Pacific. With undaunted zeal did Spanish explorers then beat up and down the western shore of the Gulf of Mexico, vainly seeking for a passage through by water. A great stimulus had now been given to the general desire to reach India by sea; for the Turks were overrunning Egypt (1512-1520) and despoiling the caravans from the East, so that the manufactures and trade of western Europe were sadly crippled. But thus far Portugal alone held the key to the sea-route to India.
9. Spanish Exploration of the Interior (1513-1542).
This same year (1513) was notable also for the first visit made by Spaniards to the mainland of North America. |Ponce de Leon in Florida.| Ponce de Leon, a valiant soldier worn out in long service, and who had been serving as governor of Porto Rico, went to the Florida mainland, where a popular legend said there was a fountain giving forth waters capable of recuperating life. The country was ablaze with brilliant flowers, but the elixir of life was not there, and he returned disappointed.
In 1519 Pineda, another Spaniard, explored the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico. |Vasquez in South Carolina.| The following year (1520) a slave-hunting expedition, under Vasquez, visited the coast of South Carolina, which the commander styled Chicora. The brilliant conquest of Mexico by Cortez (1519-1521) had made that hardy adventurer the hero of Christendom; and in the hope of rivalling his splendid achievement, Vasquez returned to Chicora in 1525, commissioned by Charles V. as governor of the country. But Chicora was not Mexico, and the Red Indians were of a different temper from the Aztecs. The expedition met with disaster. While Vasquez was fighting the embittered savages in South Carolina, Gomez, also in behalf of Spain, was ranging along the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to New Jersey, and instituting a successful trade with the natives.
Narvaez in the Florida wilds.
In April, 1528, Narvaez, with three hundred enthusiastic young nobles and gentlemen from Spain, landed at Tampa Bay and renewed his sovereign's claim to Florida and its supposed wealth of mines and precious stones. Led by the fables of the wily native guides, who were careful to tell what their Spanish tormentors wished most to hear, they floundered hither and thither through the great swamps and forests, continually wasted by fatigue, famine, disease, and frequent assaults of savages. At last, after many distressing adventures, but four men were left out of this brilliant company,—Cabeza de Vaca, treasurer of the expedition, and three companions. For eight years did these four bruised and ragged Spaniards wearily roam through the region now divided into Texas, Indian Territory, New Mexico, and Arizona,—through entangled forests, across broad rivers and desert stretches beset with wild beasts and wilder men, but ever spurred on by vague reports of a colony of their countrymen in the far southwest. At last (May, 1536), the miserable wanderers reached Culiacan, on the Gulf of California, whence they were borne in triumph to the city of Mexico as the guests of the province.
Spaniards reaching northward from Mexico.
Their coming revived the shadowy native tales of gold mines and wealthy cities to the north, which had for some years been exciting the cupidity of the conquerors of Mexico. In response to these rumors there had been frequent reachings out northward. In 1528 Cortez had despatched Maldonado up along the Pacific coast for three hundred miles. Two years later (1530) Guzman penetrated to the mouth of the Gulf of California and established the town of Culiacan. Cortez again had vessels on the Pacific in 1532, and by 1535 his lieutenants were claiming for him the Lower California peninsula. It is possible that Spanish vessels coasted northward beyond the Columbia; but no news of their discoveries reached the geographers in Europe.