vast region under the dominion of France. Among these was Francis de la Roque, lord of Roberval, a nobleman of Picardy. He was appointed, by King Francis, Viceroy of the territories on or near the gulf and river of St. Lawrence, to which the high-sounding name of Norimbega was given, and was empowered to colonize it. The assistance of Cartier was necessary to such an undertaking, and he had the additional advantage of possessing the entire confidence of his royal master the king.

Roberval was forced to employ him, and Cartier was given authority by the king to search the prisons and take from them such persons as he needed for the expedition. Roberval and Cartier, however, failed to agree, and their dissensions. defeated the object of the undertaking. Cartier sailed from St. Malo in May, 1541, and ascended the St. Lawrence to a point near the present city of Quebec, where he built a fort. The winter was passed in idleness and discord, and in the spring of 1542 Cartier abandoned the attempt, and sailed away for France with his ships just as Roberval arrived with a large reinforcement, prepared to render aid.

Nearly thirty years passed away, during which the French made no effort to secure to themselves the region of the St. Lawrence. Their fishermen, however, continued. to frequent the American waters. By the close of the sixteenth century one hundred and fifty vessels were engaged in the fisheries of Newfoundland, and voyages for the purpose of trading with the Indians had become common. In 1598 the Marquis de la Roche,

Roberval was unable to accomplish more than Cartier. His new subjects had been largely drawn from the prisons, and they gave him considerable trouble, if we may judge from the efforts resorted to to keep them quiet. One of them was hanged for theft during the winter, several were put in irons, and a number of men and women were whipped. After remaining in Canada for a year, Roberval became disheartened, and re-embarked his subjects and returned to France. Thus ended the attempt to colonize Canada.

SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN.

a nobleman of Brittany, attempted to plant a colony on the Isle of Sable. The colonists consisted of criminals from the prisons of France, and the effort proved a failure, as might have been expected from the outset.

In 1600, Chauvin obtained a patent from the crown, conferring upon him a monopoly of the fur trade, and Pontgravé, a merchant of St. Malo, became his partner in the enter prise. Two successful voyages were made

In 1609, Champlain, with but two Europeans, joined a party of Hurons from Mon

ment was named St. Sauveur, and became another centre of missionary enterprise among the savages of Maine.

In the meantime the French merchants had succeeded in obtaining a revocation of the impolitic monopoly of Des Monts. A company of merchants of St. Malo and Dieppe was formed, and an expedition was sent out to Canada under Champlain, who "aimed not at the profits of trade, but at the glory of founding a state." On the third of July, 1608, the city of Quebec was begun by the erection of one or two ottages,

4

expedition against the Five Nations. He ascended the Sorel, explored the lake which is now called by his name, and exam➜ ined a considerable part of northern New York. The religious disputes of France spread to the colony, and Champlain was obliged to use all his energy and authority to overcome the evils which these inflicted upon the infant settlement. He succeeded in overcoming them, and by his energy and perseverance the fortunes of Quebec were placed beyond the reach of failure. Champlain died in 1635, and was buried in "New France," of which he is called "the father.'

W

HILE the French were seeking to obtain a footing in the north, the Spaniards were busy in the south. In the irst years of the sixteenth century the more important of the West India Islands were subdued and colonized, and from these, expeditions were from time to time sent out to explore the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. The southern part of the peninsula of Yucatan was explored, and a colony was established on the Isthmus of Darien. One of the governors of this colony was Vasco Nunez de Balboa. In 1513, while searching the Isthmus for gold, he discovered the Pacific Ocean, and took possession of it in the name of the king of Spain.

In 1520, a Portuguese navigator named Magellan, employed by the king of Spain, passed through the straits north of Cape Horn, which bear his name, and entered the Western ocean, which he named the Pacific, because it was so calm and free from storms. He died on the voyage, but his ship reached the coast of Asia, and returned thence to Spain by the Cape of Good Hope, thus

making the first voyage around the world, and establishing its spherical form beyond dispute.

In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon, who had been a companion of Columbus on his second voyage, and had been governor of Porto Rico, fitted out three ships at his own expense to make a voyage of discovery. He had heard the reports which were then com monly believed by his countrymen, that somewhere in the new world was a fountain flowing in the midst of a country sparkling with gold and gems, whose waters would give perpetual youth to the man who should drink of and bathe in them.

Ponce de Leon was an old man, and he longed to taste again the pleasures and the dreams of youth. He gave a willing ear to the stories of this wonderful fountain, and in March, 1513, set sail from Porto Rico in search of it. He sailed among the Bahamas, but failed to find it, and on Easter Sunday, which the Spaniards call Pascua Florida, land was discovered. It was supposed to be an island, but was in reality the long southern peninsula of the United States. Ponce

de Leon gave it the name of Florida-which it has since borne-partly in honor of the ay, and partly because of the beauty of its flowers and foliage. The weather was very bad, and it was some days before he could go ashore. He landed near the site of St. Augustine, and took possession of the counry for Spain on the eighth of April, 1513. He remained many weeks on the coast, exploring it, and sailing southward, doubled Cape Florida, and cruised among the Tortugas. He failed to find the fountain of youth and returned in despair to Porto Rico. The king of Spain rewarded his discovery by appointing him governor of Florida, on condition that he should colonize the country.

A few years later he attempted to plant a colony in Florida, but was attacked by the Indians, who were. very hostile, and driven to his ships with the loss of a number of his men. Ponce de Leon himself received a painful wound, and

returned to Cuba to die. He had staked his life upon the search for perpetual youth; he found only a grave.

Between the years 1518 and 1521, the expeditions of Hernando Cortez against Mexico, and of Francesco Pizarro against Peru, were despatched from Cuba. They resulted in the conquest of those countries and their colonization by Spain. These expeditions, however, form no part of this narrative, and we cannot dwell upon them.

The native population of the West Indies died out rapidly under the cruel rule of the Spaniards, and it soon became necessary to look elsewhere for a supply of laborers for the plantations and the mines. In 1520, Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, at the head of a company of seven Spaniards, fitted out a fleet of two slave-ships from St. Domingo or Hispaniola, for the deliberate purpose of seizing the natives of the mainland and selling them as slaves. The vessels went first to the

THE COAST OF FLORIDA.

| Bahamas, from which they sailed to the North American coast, reaching it at or near St. Helena sound, in the present State of South Carolina. The Indians had not yet learned to fear the whites, and were utterly unsuspicious of the fate which awaited them. They were timid at first, but this feeling was soon overcome by the distribution of presents among them. Their confidence being won, they received the Spaniards with kindness, and at their request visited the ships.