DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS. 1514. men; and, by his tyranny and exactions after his arrival, all the Puerto Rico, the chief town on the island of this name, P. Rico. GASPER MORALES, sent by Pedrarias Davila, marched across 1515. the land to the South Sea, and discovered the Pearl islands, Pearl islin the bay of St. Michael, in 5° north latitude.3 ands. John Arias began to people Panama on the South Sea, and Panama. discovered 250 leagues on the coast to 80, 30 minutes, north latitude.1 JUAN DIAZ DE SOLIS, at that time reputed the ablest navigator 1516. in the world, was appointed by the king of Spain to command Voyage of passage to the Molucca or Spice De Solis. two ships, fitted out to discover Islands by the west, and to open a communication with them. Having sailed the preceding October, he entered the Rio de Plata in January. In attempting a descent in the country about Jan. 1. this river, De Solis and several of his crew were slain by the Enters the natives, who, in sight of the ships, cut their bodies in pieces, ta; is slain roasted and devoured them. Discouraged by the loss of their by the nacommander, and terrified by this shocking spectacle, the surviving Spaniards sailed to Cape St. Augustin, where they loaded The enterwith Brazil wood, and set sail for Europe, without aiming at any prise abanfarther discovery.5 1 Herrera, d. 1. lib. 10. c. 7. Harris' Voy. i. 271. Robertson, b. 3. P. Martyr, 320. B. de las Casas (23-26.) says, that this "merciless governor" ran through above 50 leagues of the finest country in the world, and carried desolation with him wherever he went; that before his arrival there were many villages, towns, and cities, which excelled those of all the neighbouring countries; that this country abounded in gold, more than any that had yet been discovered; that the Spaniards in a little time carried away above three millions out of this kingdom: and that here above 800,000 people were slaughtered. 2 Univ. Hist. xli. 520. Encyc. Meth. Geog. Art. JUAN DE PUERTO RICO. 4 Prince, ib. from Galvanus. See A. D. 1518. 5 Herrera, d. 2. lib. 1. c. 7. Robertson, b. 3. Charlevoix, Paraguay, i. 22. This is generally considered as the discovery of the Plata, though it was observed by the same navigator, in passing by its mouth, in 1508. It was now VOL. I. 5 Rio de Pla tives. doned. 1516. Sebastian Cabot's second voyage to America. B. de las Sir Sebastian Cabot and Sir Thomas Pert with two ships, fitted out by some merchants of Bristol,1 visited the coast of Brazil, and touched at the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Although this voyage seems not to have been beneficial to the adventurers; yet it extended the sphere of English navigation, and added to the stock of nautical knowledge.2 Bartholomew de las Casas had undertaken to protect the American Indians. He was a native of Seville, and with other clergymen had accompanied Columbus in his second voyage to Hispaniola, in order to settle in that island. His design was, to obtain ascendency over the Indians without force, by the preaching of the Dominican and Franciscan friars; and he possessed all the courage and talents, zeal and activity, requisite for supporting so desperate a cause. In prosecution of his benevolent purpose, he went, this year, from St. Domingo to Spain, with a fixed resolution not to abandon the protection of a people, whom he regarded as cruelly oppressed. Upon his arrival at Seville, he was informed of the death of the Catholic king. The negociations of Las Casas were deferred until the arrival of the new king, Charles of Austria, who was daily expected from the Low Countries. Cardinal Ximenes, who, as regent, assumed the reins of government in Castile, resolved to send three persons to America, as superintendants of all the colonies there, with authority, after due examination, to make a final decision on the called The river of Solis, and afterwards, de La Plata-" entraron luego en un agua, que por ser tan espaciosa, y no salada, llamaron mar dulce que pareciò despues ser el rio, que oy llaman de la Plata: y entonces dixeron de Solis." Herrera. A Portuguese writer, whose account is published by Hakluyt and Purchas, allows, that "the first Spaniard who entered this river and inhabited the same, was called Solis." See "A Discourse of the West Indies and South Sea, written by Lopez Vaz a Portugal," in Hakluyt, iii. 786—788, and Purchas, iv. 869, & v. 1437.—The place where Solis attempted to make a descent was probably some part of Paraguay; the discovery of which is ascribed to Solis in Encyclop. Methodique, Geog. Art. PARAGUAY, though its full discovery is justly to be ascribed to S. Cabot in 1526. 1 Robertson, b. 9; but from one account in Hakluyt (iii. 499.) it is probable they "were set foorth by the king;" and in another (ibid. 498.) it is affirmed, that the king furnished and sent them out. "Fa 2 Hakluyt, Voy. i. 515, 516; iii. 498, 499; where there are accounts of this voyage. Prince, Chron. A. D. 1516. Robertson, b. 9. Josselyn, New Eng. Rarities, 103, and Voyages, 231. Biblioth. Americana, 52. Hist. of Bristol, i. 317. Purchas, b. 9. c. 20. Some historians take no notice of this voyage, or confound it with a voyage made in the service of Spain in 1526. P. Martyr [De Orb. Nov. 233.] mentions Sebastian Cabot, as being with him in Spain in 1515, and expecting to go on a voyage of discovery the following year. miliarem habeo domi Cabottum ipsum, et contubernalem interdum; expectatque indies ut navigia sibi parentur. Martio mense anni futuri M. D. XVI. puto ad explorandum discessurum." But he does not determine, either from what port Cabot was to sail, or by whom he was to be employed. It is probable, that he refers to preparations, expected to be made for him in England, whence the accounts in Hakluyt prove him to have sailed. "The faint heart" of Sir Thomas Pert is affirmed to have been "the cause that the voyage took none effect." DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS. case in question. He, accordingly, selected three persons, to whom he joined Zuazo, a private lawyer of distinguished probity, with unlimited power to regulate all judicial proceedings in the colonies; and appointed Las Casas to accompany them, with the title of Protector of the Indians. They soon after sailed for St. Domingo; and the first act of their authority was, to set at liberty all the Indians who had been granted to the Spanish courtiers, or to any person not residing in America. A general alarm was excited among the colonists; and, after mature consideration, the superintendants became convinced, that the state of the colony rendered the plan of Las Casas impracticable; and found it necessary to tolerate the repartimientos, and to suffer the Indians to remain in subjection to their Spanish masters.1 The plantain, an excellent substitute for bread, was carried to Hispaniola from the Canary Islands by Thomas de Berlanga, a friar.2 1516. Patent for A FLEMISH favourite of Charles V, having obtained of this 1517. king a patent containing an exclusive right of importing 4000 negroes annually to the islands of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, importing and Puerto Rico, sold it for 25,000 ducats to some Genoese slaves. merchants, who first brought into a regular form the commerce for slaves between Africa and America.3 Yucatan. Francis Hernandez Cordova sailed from Havana on the 8th of Voyage of February, with three caravels and 110 men, on a voyage of Cordova. discovery. The first land that he saw was Cape Catoche, the eastern point of that large peninsula, on the confines of the Mexican coast, to which the Spaniards gave the name of Yucatan.4 Discovers As he advanced toward the shore, he was visited by five canoes, full of Indians, decently clad in cotton garments; a spectacle astonishing to the Spaniards, who had found every other part of America possessed by naked savages.5 He landed in various places; but being assailed by the natives, armed with arrows, he left the coast. Continuing his course toward the west, he arrived 1 Herrera, d. 2. lib. 2. c. 3. Robertson, b. 3. Herrera places these events 2 Edwards, West Indies, i. 187. 3 Herrera, d. 2. lib. 2. c. 20. Robertson, b. 3. Edwards, W. Indies, b. 4. c. 2. 4 De Solis had previously seen this coast. See A, D. 1508. 5 The women of this place were remarkably modest. "Fœminæ a cingulo ad talum induuntur, velaminibusque diversis caput et pectora tegunt, et pudice 1517. at Campeachy.1 At the mouth of a river, some leagues to the northward of that place, having landed his troops, to protect his sailors while filling their water casks, the natives rushed on them Driven off with such fury, that 47 Spaniards were killed on the spot, and one man only escaped unhurt. Cordova, though wounded in twelve places, directed a retreat with great presence of mind, and his men, with much difficulty regaining the ships, hastened back to Cuba, where, ten days after their arrival, Cordova died of his wounds.2 by the natives. Newfound land fish ery. 1518. The cod fishery on the banks of Newfoundland had already attracted the attention of several European nations; for fifty Spanish, French, and Portuguese ships were employed in it this year.3 Juan DON DIEGO VELAZQUEZ, governor of Cuba, encouraged by Voyage of the account that he received from those who went on the expeGrijalva. dition with Cordova, now fitted out a second armament. de Grijalva, to whom he gave the principal command of the enterprise, sailed on the 5th of April from St. Jago de Cuba, with four ships and 200 Spanish soldiers, to Yucatan; discovered the southern coast of the bay of Mexico to the province of Panuco toward Florida; and first called the country New Spain.4 the country In this voyage he discovered the island of Cozumel; also an island, which he called the Island of Sacrifices; and another, Discovers the Mexican coast; and calls New Spain. 1 The port, from which Cordova sailed, is called in the language of Cuba, Agaruco; in that of Spain, La Havana. B. Diaz, i. 3. Purchas, v. 1415.-Bernal Diaz de Castillo, who was with Cordova in this expedition, gives this account of the origin of Catoche: An Indian chief, who came with 12 canoes to the Spanish vessels, made signals to the captain, that he would bring them to land, saying "Con-Escotoch, Con-Escotoch," which signifies," Come to our town," whence the Spaniards named it Punta de Catoche.-Of Campeachy Herrera gives this account: The Indians called the place Quimpech, whence the name of Campeachy-" y los Castellanos le llamaron Campeche." 2 Purchas, i. 783. P. Martyr, 289, 290. Herrera, d. 2. lib. 2. c. 17, 18. B. Diaz, i. c. 1. Robertson, b. 3. Univ. Hist. xli. 468. 3 Anderson, Hist. Commerce, ii. 34. That respectable author says, this is the first account we have of that fishery. But he allows, that French vessels came on the coast of Newfoundland as early as 1504; and the French writers are probably correct in affirming, that they came that year to fish. See A. D. 1504.-If Hakluyt's conjecture is right, we are indebted to Sir Thomas Pert and Sebastian Cabot for the above information respecting the Newfoundland fishery. He supposes that Oviedo, a Spanish historian, alludes to their voyage [see A. D. 1516.], when he says, "That in the year 1517, an English rover under the colour of travelling to discover, came with a great ship unto the partes of Brasill on the coast of the Firme Land, and from thence he crossed over unto this island of Hispaniola" &c. This English ship, according to Anderson, had been at Newfoundland, and reported at Hispaniola the above statement of its fishery. See Hakluyt, i. 516, and iii. 499. 4 Herrera, d. 2. lib. iii. c. 9. Purchas, i. 783, 812, 813. B. Diaz, i. c. 9—14. De Solis, lib. 1. c. 7, 8. Robertson, b. 3. Prince, 1518. Encyclop. Methodique, Geog. Art. MEXIQUE. Alcedo, Art. ULUA. DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS. which he called St. Juan de Ulua; and heard of the rich and 1518. extensive empire of Montezuma.1 Francis Garay, governor of Jamaica, having obtained from Garay's the bishop of Burgos the government of the country about voyage. the river Panuco, sent an armament of three ships with 240 soldiers, under the command of Alvarez Pinedo, who sailed to Cape Florida, in 25° north latitude, and discovered 500 leagues westward on the northern coast of the bay of Mexico to the river Panuco, in 23° north latitude, at the bottom of the bay. This armament, however, was defeated by the Indians of Panuco, and one ship only escaped.3 A colony was planted at Panama, and the city of that name Panama. was founded by Pedrarias Davila.4 Baron de Lery formed the first project in France for obtaining a settlement in America.5 VELAZQUEZ, anxious to prosecute the advantages presented to 1519. his view by the expedition of Grijalva, having provided ten ships Cortes' exagainst at the port of St. Jago, appointed Ferdinand Cortes commander pedition of the armament. Cortes sailed from Cuba, with 11 ships and Mexico. 50 Spanish soldiers, and landed first at the island of Cozumel. He sails On the 13th of March he arrived with the whole armament at the river of Tabasco or Grijalva. Disembarking his troops about half a league from the town of Tabasco, he found the 1 De Solis, Hist. de la Conquista de Mexico, lib. i. c. 7. The Island of Sacrifices" Isla de Sacrificios"-was so called, "because, going in to view a house of lime and stone which overlooked the rest, they found several idols of a horrible figure, and a more horrible worship paid to them; for near the steps where they were placed, were the carcases of six or seven men recently sacrificed, cut to pieces, and their entrails laid open."-" miserable expectaculo, que dixò atemorizada."-" San Juan de Ulua was a little à nuestra Gente suspensa, island, of more sand than soil, which lay so low, that sometimes it was covered by the sea; but from these humble beginnings, it became the most frequented and celebrated port of New Spain, on that side which is bounded by the North Sea." 2 Harris' Voyages, i. 271. Prince, A. D. 1518. 3 B. Diaz, c. 133. "This ship," says Diaz, "joined us at Villa Rica." 4 Herrera, d. 2. lib. 3. c. 3, 4. Alcedo, Art. PANAMA. Ulloa, Voy. i. 117. It 5 Memoires de L'Amerique, i. 31, concernant L'ACADIE, from L'Escasbot. 6 Ferdinand Cortes was a native of Medellin in Estremadura. He possessed from Cuba. |