Don Ferdinand Columbus, a
rare and valuable monument of filial piety, and that of Antonio de
Herrera. We have only to regret, that the transcendent genius, who
possessed the unexampled sagacity to devise, and the singular good
fortune, perseverance, capacity, and conduct, to succeed in Discovering
the Western Hemisphere, had not sufficient health and leisure to have
favoured the world with his own commentaries of this greatest
enterprise that was ever achieved by man. - Ed.
* * * * *
Abridged Series of the Epochs of American Discovery[2].
A.D. 982. East Greenland discovered by the Norwegians or Icelanders, who
planted a small colony. This was long afterwards shut in by the
accumulation of arctic ice, and entirely lost.
1003. Winland, either Newfoundland or Labradore, was discovered by the
Icelanders, but soon abandoned and forgotten.
1492, August 3d. COLUMBUS commenced his first voyage. 12th October
discovered Guanahani, one of the Bahama group, which he named St
Salvador, now named Cat Island. In this voyage, besides several others
of the Bahama islands, he discovered Cuba and Hispaniola, leaving a
colony in the latter, which was cut off by the natives. He returned to
Spain from this voyage on the 4th March 1493.
1494, September 25th. Second voyage of COLUMBUS began; in which he
discovered the Carribbee islands, and founded a permanent colony in
Hispaniola or Haiti. He returned from this voyage in 1496.
1497. Giovanni Gabotta, a Venetian, employed by Henry VII. of England,
discovered Newfoundland, and traced the eastern coast of North America
as far south as Virginia.
1498. Third voyage of COLUMBUS, in which he discovered Trinidad and the
coast of Paria in South America; now called the Spanish Main by the
English. He was sent home in irons from Hispaniola in 1500.
1499. Ojeda was sent from Spain to interfere with the great privileges
granted to COLUMBUS; but did very little more than retrace some of his
previous discoveries. In this voyage, as already mentioned, Ojeda was
accompanied by Americus Vespucius, who usurped the right of giving the
New World his own name America, which still continues universal.
1500. Cabral, a Portuguese admiral, while on a voyage to India,
accidentally discovered Brazil.
In this year likewise, Corte de Real, a Portuguese navigator,
discovered Labradore, while in search of a north-west passage to India.
1502. Fourth, voyage of COLUMBUS, in which he discovered the
continental coast, from Honduras to near the Isthmus of Darien.
1513. Vasco Nunez de Balboa, descried the Pacific Ocean, or great
South Sea, and waded into the waves, taking formal possession for the
crown of Spain; and even embarked on that ocean in a canoe, as a more
formal act of conquest.
In the same year, Florida was first discovered by Ponce de Leon, a
Spanish officer.
1515.
