Fe (1627). The original walls of the church of San Miguel, which was built in Santa Fe (1636), are still standing, and they form a part of a church which is used today. The oldest convent in the United States is the historical institution of the Ursulines in New Orleans, established in 1727.

52. Missionary Contribution to History. As historians, the early Spanish missionaries have made a great contribution to the world's knowledge. They bequeathed to posterity huge historical volumes which have become the greatest and most indispensable aids to a study of the real history of America. Of the many writers belonging to the monastic orders who made valuable contributions to history, some of the most prominent are the Franciscans Motolinia, Sahagun, Mendieta, and Torquemada, and the Jesuits Venegas and Clavijero.

53. The Pioneer Missionaries. The missionaries were the pioneers not only of the cross and religion but also of civilization. At the very time when the Reformation was tearing whole nations from the bosom of the Church, this Church, through her missionaries, reared her glorious banner of the cross in the very heart of new nations and new peoples. Amid untold hardships, with persevering zeal the pioneer missionaries preached the Gospel to the Indians, until eventually half of the natives of the continent became converted to Christianity. These pious men lost no time in the good work of civilizing the Indians. They studied the language of the natives, won their confidence, and rooted out cannibalism. They gathered the dwellers of the wilderness into settled habitations, and taught them to read and write and to sow and reap. Thus, in the course of about a century and a half from the date of discovery, a free, happy, and innocent population of more than a million Indians was instructed and civilized by zealous missionaries.

The conversion of the Indians was accomplished chiefly by the religious orders, the first of which were the Benedictines and the Franciscans who arrived in the last decade of the

fifteenth century. These were followed by the Dominicans (1510) and the Jesuits (1549). All these orders had their examples of heroic virtue and glorious martyrdom. The Franciscans, however, were preeminently the Apostles of Spanish America.

54. Some Pioneer Martyrs. Father Juan Padilla, one of the companions of Friar Marcos, was the first martyr on the soil of Kansas (1544). Fathers Louis Cancer and Tolosa, two Dominicans, suffered martyrdom immediately after setting foot on the soil of Florida (1549). The Jesuits (1566) entered Florida, where Father Martinez was slain, while Father Segura and five companions won their crown in what is now the state of Virginia. The Franciscans (1577) attempted anew the conversion of the natives of Florida and labored among them for many years. In 1597 Father Corpa was slain at the altar by the Indians. Subsequently all the missionary stations in Florida were destroyed.

CHAPTER V

THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA

55. First English Voyage to the New World. England was finally stirred to activity by the efforts of her rivals, Spain and Portugal, and by the belief that Columbus had found a new route to India. John Cabot, a native of Genoa and a former citizen of Venice, was a resident of Bristol, England, at the time when Columbus discovered America. Commissioned by Henry VII of England, in May, 1497, one year before Columbus discovered the mainland of South America, Cabot sailed west from England and discovered the continent of North America, on June 24th of the same year, probably at Labrador or Cape Breton Island. He, like Columbus, thought that the newly found land was a part of Cathay.

56. Second English Voyage. John Cabot made a second voyage, probably accompanied by his son, Sebastian, sailing southward as far as the region now called North Carolina. England later claimed the whole of the Atlantic seaboard on the ground of Cabot's discoveries, but for more than sixty years after they were made she showed no further interest in them. Cabot had twice failed to find India with its wealth, but he planted the cross on the shores of the New World, as a Catholic priest accompanied the expeditions.

57. English Slave Trade. Like many other people of his time, Sir John Hawkins could see nothing wrong in slavery. He regarded negroes as property similar to domestic animals, and he actually felt proud of his share in opening up this shameless traffic in America. In 1562 he began kidnapping negroes from the west coast of Africa. He sold them in the West Indies, and from there carried valuable cargoes to England.

58. Second Circumnavigation of the Globe. Sir Francis Drake (1570-1573) made three plundering voyages to the West Indies, where he raided Spanish towns and despoiled Spanish vessels. From Panama he saw the Pacific Ocean and determined to sail on its waters. He set out from England in 1577 with a fleet of five vessels and sailed through the strait discovered by Magellan fifty years before. With only one ship, the Golden Hind, he followed the Pacific coast as far north as Oregon, plundering Spanish vessels and capturing stores of

THE SHIP IN WHICH DRAKE SAILED AROUND THE WORLD

gold and silver. He named the coast of California and Oregon New Albion. He next crossed the Pacific and passed the Philippine Islands, discovered by Magellan, and, making his way across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, finally reached England in 1580.

59. In Search of a Northwest Passage. Frobisher made an unsuccessful attempt to go north of America to Asia. During his three voyages he explored a part of the Pacific Ocean and discovered a few bays and inlets on the coast of North America (1576-1579) among which was Frobisher Bay.