History of the United States. John Clark Ridpath
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country of the Chickasaws. They crossed the Yazoo, and found an Indian village, which promised them shelter for the winter. Here, in February, 1541, they were attacked by the Indians, who set the town on fire, but Spanish weapons and discipline again saved De Soto and his men.
Discovery of the Mississippi.
13. The Spaniards next set out to journey farther westward, and the guides brought them to the Mississippi. The point where the Father of Waters was first seen by White men was a little north of the thirty-fourth parallel of latitude; the day of the discovery can not certainly be known. The Indians came down the river in a fleet of canoes, and offered to carry the Spaniards over; but a crossing was not effected until the latter part of May.
14. De Soto's men now found themselves in the land of the Dakotas. The natives at one place were going to worship the Spaniards, but De Soto would not permit such idolatry. They continued their march to the St. Francis River; thence westward for about two hundred miles; thence southward to the tributaries of the Washita River. On the banks of this stream they passed the winter of 1541-42.
Death of De Soto.
15. De Soto now turned toward the sea, and came upon the Mississippi in the neighborhood of Natchez. His spirit was completely broken. A fever seized upon his emaciated frame, and death shortly ensued. The priests chanted a requiem, and in the middle of the night his companions put his body into a rustic coffin and sunk it in the Mississippi.
16. Before his death, De Soto had named Moscoso as his successor. Under his leadership, the half-starved adventurers next crossed the country to the upper waters of the Red River, and then ranged the hunting-grounds of the Pawnees and the Comanches. In December of 1542 they came again to the Mississippi, where they built seven boats, and on the 2d of July, 1543, set sail for the sea. The distance was almost five hundred miles, and seventeen days were required to make the descent. On reaching the Gulf of Mexico, they steered to the southwest, and finally reached the settlement at the mouth of the River of Palms.
17. The next attempt to colonize Florida was in the year 1565. The enterprise was intrusted to Pedro Menendez, a Spanish soldier. He was commissioned by Philip II. to plant in some favorable district of Florida a colony of not less than five hundred persons, and was to receive two hundred and twenty-five square miles of land adjacent to the settlement. Twenty-five hundred persons joined the expedition.
Pedro Menendez.
18. The real object of Menendez was to destroy a colony of French Protestants, called Huguenots, who had made a settlement near the mouth of the St. John's River. This was within the limits of the territory claimed by Spain. The Catholic party of the French court had communicated with the Spanish court as to the whereabouts and intentions of the Huguenots, so that Menendez knew where to find and how to destroy them.
Founding of St. Augustine.
19. It was St. Augustine's day when the Spaniards came in sight of the shore, and the harbor and river which enters it were named in honor of the saint. On the 8th day of September, Philip II. was proclaimed monarch of North America; a solemn mass was said by the priests; and the foundations of the oldest town in the United States were laid. This was seventeen years before the founding of Santa Fé, and forty-two years before the settlement at Jamestown.
20. Menendez soon turned his attention to the Huguenots. He collected his forces at St. Augustine, stole through the woods, and falling on the defenseless colony, utterly destroyed it. Men, women, and children were alike given up to butchery. Two hundred were massacred. A few escaped into the forest, Laudonniere, the Huguenot leader, among the number, and were picked up by two French ships.
21. The crews of the vessels were the next object of vengeance. Menendez discovered them, and deceiving them with treacherous promises, induced them to surrender. As they approached the Spanish fort a signal was given, and seven hundred defenceless victims were slain. Only a few mechanics and Catholic servants were left alive.
22. The Spaniards had now explored the coast from the Isthmus of Darien to Port Royal in South Carolina. They were acquainted with the country west of the Mississippi as far north as New Mexico and Missouri, and east of that river they had traversed the Gulf States as far as the mountain ranges of Tennessee and North Carolina. With the establishment of their first permanent colony on the coast of Florida, the period of Spanish voyage and discovery may be said to end.
Portuguese Explorations.
23. A brief account of the only important voyages of the Portuguese to America will here be given. In 1495, John II., king of Portugal, was succeeded by his cousin Manuel, who, in order to secure some of the benefits which yet remained to discoverers, fitted out two vessels, and in the summer of 1501 sent Gaspar Cortereal to make a voyage to America.
24. The Portuguese ships reached Maine in July, and explored the coast for nearly seven hundred miles. Little attention was paid by Cortereal to the great forests of pine which stood along the shore, promising ship-yards and cities. He satisfied his rapacity by kidnapping fifty Indians, whom, on his return to Portugal, he sold as slaves. A new voyage was then undertaken, with the purpose of capturing another cargo of natives; but a year went by, and no tidings arrived from the fleet. The brother of the Portuguese captain sailed in hope of finding the missing vessels. He also was lost, but in what manner is not known. The fate of the Cortereals and their slave-ships has remained a mystery of the sea.
CHAPTER V.
The French in America.
Early French Explorations.
FRANCE was not slow to profit by the discoveries of Columbus. As early as 1504 the fishermen of Normandy and Brittany reached the banks of Newfoundland. A map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence was drawn by a Frenchman in the year 1506. Two years later some Indians were taken to France; and in 1518 the attention of Francis I. was turned to the New World. In 1523 John Verrazano, of Florence, was commissioned to conduct an expedition for the discovery of a northwest passage to the East Indies.
2. In January, 1524, Verrazano left the shores of Europe, with a single ship, called the Dolphin. After fifty days he discovered the mainland in the latitude of Wilmington. He sailed southward and northward along the coast and began a traffic with the natives. The Indians were found to be a timid race, unsuspicious and confiding. A half-drowned sailor, washed ashore by the surf, was treated with kindness, and permitted to return to the ship.
3. The voyage was continued toward the north. The coast of New Jersey was explored, and the hills marked as containing minerals. The harbor of New York was entered, and at Newport Verrazano anchored for fifteen days. Here the French sailors repaid the confidence of the natives by kidnapping a child and attempting to steal an Indian girl.
4. From Newport, Verrazano continued his explorations northward. The long line of the New England coast was traced with care. The Indians of the north would buy no toys, but were eager to purchase knives and weapons of iron. In the latter part of May, Verrazano reached Newfoundland. In July he returned to France and published an account of his great discoveries. The name of New France was given to the country.
Cartier on the St. Lawrence.
5. In 1534, James Cartier, a seaman of St. Malo, made a voyage to America. His two ships, after twenty days of sailing, anchored on the 10th day of May off the coast of Newfoundland. Cartier circumnavigated the island, crossed the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and ascended the estuary until the narrowing banks made him aware that he was in the mouth of a river. Cartier, thinking it impracticable to pass the winter in the New World, set sail for France, and in thirty days reached