Such were the conjectures formed on the toast of Paria about the form of the earth and the situation of the terrestrial paradise; about the mines of Ophir in Hispaniola, and of the Aurea Chersonesus in Veragua; and such was the heroic scheme of a crusade for the recovery of the holy sepulchre. It mingled with his religion, and filled his mind with solemn and visionary meditations on mystic passages of the scriptures, and the shadowy portents of the prophecies. It exalted his office in his eyes, and made him conceive himself an agent sent forth upon a sublime and awful mission, subject to impulses and supernatural intimations from the deity; such as the voice which he imagined spoke to him in comfort, amidst the troubles of Hispaniola, and in the silence of the night on the disastrous coast of Veragua.

A Man in Advance of His Time. He was decidedly a visionary, but a visionary of an uncommon and successful kind. The manner in which his ardent, imaginative and mercurial nature were controlled by a powerful judgment, and directed by an acute sagacity, is the most extraordinary feature in his character. Thus governed, his imagination, instead of exhausting itself in idle flights, lent aid to his judgment, and enabled him to form conclusions, at which common minds could never have arrived, nay, which they could not perceive when pointed out.

To his intellectual vision it was given to read in the signs of the times, and to trace in the conjectures and reveries of past ages, the indications of an unknown world; as soothsayers were said to read predictions in the stars, and to foretell events from the visions

the night. "His soul," observes a Spanish

ived. For him was reserved the great enterprise of traversing a sea which had given rise to so many fables, and of deciphering the mystery of his time."

With all the visionary fervor of his imagi nation, its fondest dreams fell short of the reality. He died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his discovery. Until his last breath, he entertained the idea that he had merely opened a new way to the old resor of opulent commerce, and had discover. some of the wild regions of the east. He supposed Hispaniola to be the ancient Ophir, which had been visited by the ships of Solomon, and that Cuba and Terra Firma were but remote parts of Asia. What visions of glory would have broken upon his mind, could he have known that he had indeed discovered a new continent, equal to the whole of the old world in magnitude, and separated by two vast oceans from all the earth hitherto known by civilized man! And how would his magnanimous spirit have been consoled amidst the afflictions of age and the cares of penury, the neglect of a fickle public, and the injustice of an ungrateful king, could he have anticipated the splendid empires which were to spread over the beautiful world he had discovered, and the nations, and tongues, and languages which were to fill its lands with his renown, and to revere and bless his name to the latest posterity!

It may be questioned whether any old Norse Sea-King, who braved the storms and billows of the North Atlantic, ever exhibited a purpose more resolute, a courage more daring, or a self-sacrifice more complete than characterized Columbus. Our illustration oí the royal Norseman shows him to have been a man born to command and achieve; the hero of 1492 was no less illustrious.

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N the meantime the success of the first voyage of Columbus had stimulated other nations to similar exertions. The English court had experienced a feeling of keen regret that the petition of Columbus had been refused, and when John Cabot, a native of Venice, then residing at Bristol, applied for leave to undertake a voyage of exploration his request was readily granted.

On the fifth of March, 1496, a patent or commission was granted to him and his three sons by Henry VII., authorizing either of them, their heirs or their agents, to undertake with a fleet of five ships, at their own expense, a voyage of discovery in the castern, western or northern seas. Though they were to make the attempt at their own cost, they were to take possession of the countries they should discover for the king of England. They were to have the exclusive privilege of trading to these conntries, but were bound to return to the Port of Bristol, and to pay to the king one-fifth of the profits of

their trade.

Early in 1497 Cabot sailed from Bristol, accompanied by his son, Sebastian. The object of his voyage was not only the discovery of new lands, but the finding of a

northwest passage to Asia. He sailed due west, and on the twenty-fourth of June, 1497, reached the coast of Labrador. He thus discovered the mainland of the North American continent, fully fourteen months before Columbus reached the coast of South America, and nearly a year before Amerigo Vespucci made his discovery. He explored the coast to the southward for over a thousand miles, made frequent landings, and took possession of the country in the name of the English king. Returning home, he was received with many marks of honor by Henry VII., and was called the "Great Admiral" by the people.

Towards the close of the year 1497, the Cabots undertook a new voyage, and the king, pleased with the success of the first venture, became a partner in the enterprise, and assumed a portion of the expense. The object of this voyage was to trade with the natives, and to ascertain if the country was suited to colonization. The expedition sailed from Bristol in May, 1498, and was commanded by Sebastian Cabot, who reached the Labrador coast about four hundred miles. north of the point discovered by his father.

He found the country cold and barren, though it was but the beginning of the summer, and sailed southward. "The coast to

his homeward voyage he noticed the Gulf Stream.

This was the last voyage from England made by Sebastian Cabot. On the death of Henry VII., he took service with Ferdinand of Spain, and under him and his grandson, Charles V., he made many voyages, and was for nearly sixty years the foremost man in Europe in maritime enterprises.

A Renowned Explorer.

He explored the eastern coast of South America, and in his efforts to find the northwest passage sailed within twenty degrees of the North Pole, and explored the eastern coast of North America from Hudson's Straits to Albemarle Sound. He was in many things one of the most remarkable men of his day, and besides his own discoveries contributed generously by his advice and encouragement to those of others. "He gave England a continent, and no one knows his burial place."

The English made no effort to take advantage of the discoveries of the Cabots. They 'sent a few vessels every year to fish on the banks of Newfoundland, but pursued even this industry without vigor. The other nations were more energetic, and showed a keener appreciation of the value of the new lands. The French were especially active in this respect. Their vessels engaged in the fisheries far outnumbered those of the English, and many plans were proposed in France for the colonization of those regions. In 1523 Francis I. employed a Florentine named John Verrazzani, an experienced navigator, to undertake the discovery of a northwest passage to India. Verrazzani sailed on the seventeenth of January, 1524, and, after a stormy voyage of fifty days, reached the American coast in the latitude of Wilmington, North Carolina. Failing to find a good harbor, he sailed southward for 150 miles,

and then turned northward, examining the coast as he proceeded on his journey.

An Earthly Paradise.

Verrazzani was surprised and delighted by the appearance of the new country and its inhabitants. The latter welcomed with hos pitality the strangers whom they had not yet. learned to fear, and the Europeans, on their part, regarded with wonder the "russet"colored natives in their dress of skins ornamented with feathers. Judging from the accounts which they carried to Europe, the voyagers regarded the country as a sort of terrestrial paradise. "Their imagination could not conceive of more delightful fields and forests; the groves spreading perfumes far from the shore, gave promise of the spices of the East; and the color of the earth argued an abundance of gold." The harbors of New York and Newport were carefully explored, and in the latter the voyagers remained fifteen days.

They then proceeded along the New England coast to Nova Scotia, and still farther to the north. They found the natives here less friendly than those farther south. A Portuguese commander, Gaspar Cortereal, had visited their coast a few years before, and had carried away some of their number and sold them into slavery.

Returning to France, Verrazzani published an account of his voyage. This narrative forms the earliest original description now in existence of the American coast, and added very much to the knowledge of the Europeans concerning this country. France at a subsequent period based, upon Verrazzani's discoveries, her claim to the whole coast of America from Newfoundland to South Carolina. The French, however, were not destined to obtain a foothold in the new world.

The struggle in which Francis I. was engaged with the Emperor Charles V. pre