Children's Stories in American History Part 2

"Are you taking me to death, Vallejo?" asked Columbus, sadly, when the officer came to lead him from his cell.

The officers of the ships wanted to take off his chains, but Columbus replied, "I will wear them as a memento of the grat.i.tude of princes."

When he arrived in Spain, the people were very indignant at the treatment which he had received; and the king, in order to quiet them, said that he had not ordered Columbus to be put in chains. But the real reason why he had allowed him to be thus insulted was that he was disappointed at finding that the New World, after all, was not rich in gold and silver, and after nine months of waiting Columbus only saw a new governor appointed over Hispaniola, and no notice taken of his injuries. One more voyage and then Columbus' work would be over. In 1502 he received command to sail in search of a pa.s.sage leading westward from the Gulf of Mexico, which was then supposed to be a sea. He believed he should find a strait somewhere near where the isthmus of Panama now is, and that by pa.s.sing through this strait he would reach the continent of Asia. On his way out he stopped at his colony at Hispaniola, where he hoped to refit, but was refused permission; he sailed along the south side of the Gulf of Mexico, but did not find the strait for which he was looking, and after much suffering from famine and other hardships, he returned home. Here he lay sick for some months; his old friend Queen Isabella was dead, and King Ferdinand refused to give him any reward for his long and faithful service. He was seventy years old, poor, and in ill health. To quote his own words, he had "no place to go to except an inn, and often with nothing to pay for his food." And so the discoverer of the New World, suffering, neglected, deserted by those he had spent his life in serving, died while repeating the Latin words, "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit." They are the last words of a great man; a man who lived a n.o.ble life, and who met death as bravely and fearlessly as he met the unknown terrors which lay in his way when he sailed for the first time across the great "sea of darkness." Seven years after his death the people, for very shame's sake, placed a marble tomb over his remains, with the inscription:

"A Castilla y a Leon, Nuevo mondo dio Colon."

("To Castile and Leon, a new world gave Colon.")

Afterward his remains were taken to St. Domingo and placed in a cathedral in that city. And nearly two hundred years later they were removed with great pomp to the cathedral at Havana, where they rest within sound of the waves of the sea, in that beautiful city, where the air is indeed "like the spring in Andalusia," balmy and soft, perfumed with flowers, and made musical with the songs of birds.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CABOTS.

About the time of the discovery of America, there was living-in England an old man, who loved the sea better than anything else in the world. He was not an Englishman, but a Venetian, and many years before he had left his home in beautiful Venice to seek a home in England. The name of this old man was John Cabot, and he was considered one of the greatest sailors living. He had guided his ships among the islands of the Mediterranean, and had sailed up the Atlantic coast to the British Isles, and then, not satisfied, he had gone on into the frozen regions of the North, and had sat by Iceland firesides listening to the tales of the Nors.e.m.e.n and their wonderful voyages across the sea to a New World.

And while he listened he thought what a fine thing it would be if he too should sail away some day to visit this strange country; so after returning to England, he asked permission of the king to fit out some ships and go on a voyage of discovery. He had heard of the voyage of Columbus, and he thought that by sailing far to the north he might find new lands as rich and beautiful as those which Columbus had discovered.

So about the year 1494, or 1497, he sailed from England, taking with him his son Sebastian.

Very different was their voyage from that of Columbus; keeping ever to the north, the waters of the Atlantic showed them no genial skies, or islands adorned with waving forests and beautiful flowers, but instead, they found fog and mist, cold, chilling winds, and great, glittering icebergs. The first land seen by them was Cape Breton, which they called Prima Vista, meaning _first seen_. They found the country cold and dismal, covered with ice and snow. As this new land was no farther north than England, they were surprised to see instead of green meadows, shady trees, and flowing rivers, only fields of snow, and while they knew the birds were singing in England, they saw here great white bears, which prowled around seeking their prey.

Cabot did not remain long in America, he soon sailed again for England, which he reached three months from the time he had left. His voyage is important, as he was the first European, after the Northmen, to touch the _mainland_ of North America.

On his return he was received with great honor by the king. He went about dressed in silk and velvet, and everywhere great crowds would follow him and point him out as the Great Admiral.

In 1498 Sebastian Cabot sailed with another expedition from England and reached the coast of Labrador. He tried to find a northwest pa.s.sage to Asia, but the climate was so cold that he gave up the idea and sailed down the coast as far as Virginia, claiming the whole country for the King of England. He made still another voyage and explored Hudson's Bay, but the accounts which he gave of the country were not very pleasing, and no Englishman was willing to leave his own pleasant home to seek another in the New World, and for many, many years after this the English paid little heed to the great continent which Cabot had discovered.

Sebastian Cabot lived to be an old man, and was always greatly honored by the English. He was called the Great Seaman, and as long as he lived he loved the ocean over whose waters he had sailed to honor and fortune.

CHAPTER VII.

AMERICUS VESPUCIUS.

As soon as it became known in Europe that there really was land across the Atlantic, all the nations wished to send ships and men to gather the gold which they supposed to be there. The Spaniards, of course, thought that they had the best right to the new country, but the English and French sent out expeditions, and soon there arose a great quarrel as to whom the New World should belong. One of the most interesting voyages made at that time was that of Americus Vespucius. Like Columbus, he was an Italian, having been born in the beautiful city of Florence, but at the time of the discovery of the western world he was living in Spain.

Vespucius sailed across the sea, and in the summer of 1499 (the year after Columbus discovered the Orinoco), he landed on the coast of Venezuela. Here he saw a queer little village which looked as if some children had been trying to build a "make-believe" Venice. The village was built on piles driven into the water, and the houses, which were of such a shape that they looked like big bells, could only be entered by means of drawbridges. Each house had its own bridge, and when the owner wished he could draw the bridge up and no one could get in, and there he was just as safe as a turtle when it shrinks into its sh.e.l.l.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VESPUCIUS LANDING TO CHASTISE THE CANNIBALS]

Vespucius and his men had never seen anything like it before and looked at the funny little place in astonishment. But as soon as the natives saw the Spaniards, they drew up all their bridges and disappeared; in a few minutes, however, Vespucius saw twenty-two canoes filled with these savages coming toward his boats; as soon as they got near enough they began shooting arrows at the Spaniards, and then Vespucius, seeing that they did not mean to be friendly, ordered the guns to be fired. The Indians were terribly frightened by the noise and smoke of the guns; they had never seen such things before, and very soon they rowed back to the sh.o.r.e, and Vespucius sailed on farther south. When he landed next he found a more friendly tribe of Indians; they were at first afraid of the Spaniards, and ran away when they saw them coming. Vespucius and his men went into the wigwams and found that the Indians had fires burning, upon which young alligators were roasting. By and by the Indians, seeing that the Spaniards meant no harm, came back and treated their guests so kindly that Vespucius stayed there nearly two weeks, visiting, in the meantime, some of their villages which were built back from the sea. The natives grew very fond of him, and hundreds of them followed him back to his ship, but when he ordered the cannon fired they all jumped back into the water and swam away. But Vespucius did not mean to harm them, so he called them back, and then the Indians and Spaniards exchanged presents and Vespucius sailed away. He still kept to the coast of Venezuela, and sailing northwest entered the bay of Cremana. Here he found the natives friendly and remained with them more than a month, and they begged him to help them kill their enemies, who lived on an island in the sea, and who were a very great and powerful tribe, and came every year and took away many of their number whom they killed and ate. Vespucius promised to help them, and taking seven of them with him as guides, he started off for the island.

As soon as the cannibals saw him coming they gathered on the sh.o.r.e ready for fight. They were covered with war-paint and feathers, and armed with arrows, lances and clubs. At first it seemed that the Spaniards would be beaten, as the Indians pressed around them so closely they could not use their swords, but finally the cannibals were driven back. Vespucius then tried to make friends with them, but they would not do so, and after a two days' fight he conquered them, burned their town, and sailed away with two hundred and fifty of them whom he sold for slaves on reaching Spain. This seems a very cruel act now, but in those times it was thought to be quite right to sell captives taken in war, and so Vespucius only did what he thought was perfectly fair.

When Vespucius got back to Spain, he wrote a letter to a friend of his in Florence, giving an account of his voyage and the lands he had visited. This letter was published a year or two afterward, and as it was the first printed account of a visit to the _mainland_ of the New World, it was read with much wonder and interest by the people who wanted to learn all they could of the strange lands beyond the ocean.

No one knows just how it happened that the new country was called America. Some of Vespucius' friends thought that the New World ought to be called after him, but it was well known that the honor of the great discovery belonged to Columbus alone. At any rate it came about that after reading Vespucius' book, people began talking about the land of Americus Vespucius, and finally it came to be called the land of Americus, or America. But although the great country itself is not named after Columbus, yet mountains, rivers, and towns bear his name, and in poetry and songs, the United States, the greatest American country, is often called Columbia; while in South America, one of the princ.i.p.al divisions is called the United States of Colombia. All of which shows that the people of the New World are very ready to honor its great discoverer.

CHAPTER VIII.

PONCE DE LEON.

Once upon a time there was an old man who had found life so fair a thing that he wished to live forever, and to be forever young. He was born in Spain, and his childhood and youth and early manhood were so happy that when he grew old he was sad and wanted to bring the lost years back. Of course he could not do that; new summers may come and new winters, but the years themselves never come back any more than do the same clouds, or the same sunset, or the same rainbow. But de Leon, for that was the old man's name, did not believe this. When a child he had read many stones and romances in which wonderful things were done. He had all a Spaniard's love for adventure, and he believed there were things on the earth and in the earth which possessed strange power over the life of man. As he grew older he was taught to ride and fence, and many other things which it was considered necessary for a Spanish gentleman to know, but all the time he was dreaming over these marvellous things he had heard. When he became a man he entered the army, and was always a brave soldier, and eager for adventure of every sort. He sailed with Columbus on his second voyage, and afterward was made governor of the island of Porto Rico.

Here in his island home he was not happy, although he had power, and wealth, and fame, for he sighed for the years that were gone, and dreaded the time to come when life would be no longer pleasant, for he was growing old and must die.

And then he heard such a wonderful story, that while he listened, it seemed as if the years of his childhood came back and smiled upon him.

Among the natives of Porto Rico it was believed that somewhere among the Bahama Islands there was a fountain of eternal youth; and that whoever should bathe in this fountain, and drink of its waters, would find his lost youth again and be forever young. The Spaniards believed this story as well as the Indians, and when de Leon heard it he determined to go in search of the wonderful fountain. As he was very rich, this was not a hard thing to do; he bought three ships and fitted them out with men, and started off. He sailed for some time among the Bahamas, looking for the magic fountain, and one day, Easter Sunday, March 27, 1512, he came in sight of an unknown sh.o.r.e. He thought he had discovered another island more beautiful than any of the rest. Never before had he seen anything so delightful as this new land; the ground was covered with the most gorgeous flowers, and above, great trees spread out their green boughs and waved them in the soft air, and sweet-voiced birds sang among the fragrant blossoms. It seemed as if he had sailed into a world where there was nothing but beauty, the native home of bird and blossom, the land of eternal summer. De Leon named the new country Florida, partly because he discovered it on Easter Sunday, which is called by the Spaniards Pascua Florida (flowery Easter), and partly because it was indeed a Land of Flowers. After a few days he landed a little north of the place where the city of St. Augustine now stands, and took possession of the country in the name of the King of Spain. He then began again his search for the wonderful fountain, feeling sure that here where the flowers forever bloomed, and the birds ceased not to sing, he should drink the waters of immortal youth. But though he wandered through the forest, sailed up the silent, shady rivers, and searched eagerly along the coasts, never, save in his dreams, did he hear the music of the fountain, or see its waters shining in the sunlight.

He returned to Porto Rico, and the king made him governor of the new country and sent him back there to found a colony. But when he landed he found that the Indians were all ready for war; there was a dreadful battle, many of the Spaniards were killed, and the rest had to go back to the ships for safety. De Leon himself was mortally wounded by a poisoned arrow, and was taken to Cuba, where he died; and although many people still believed that the wonderful fountain would some day be found, it never was, for the flowers that close at night will open again in the morning, and the little stream that starts from the mountain and goes down to the sea, will have its waters carried back by the clouds to the mountains again, but the years that we leave behind us come not again, they have gone away forever with the daisies and b.u.t.tercups and violets that shone in the meadow last year.

CHAPTER IX.

VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA, THE DISCOVERER OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

Among the many adventurers who found their way to the New World after its discovery was one named Balboa. He was a very bold, brave man, always ready for adventure and eager for gold and fame, as were all the Spaniards of that time. But Nunez de Balboa, besides being bold and brave, was also very cruel when he had the chance, and sometimes dishonest. Whenever he could he robbed the Indians of their gold, and often cruelly murdered them; and if he thought he could steal from his fellow-soldiers and friends, he was ready to do that, too. So, altogether, he was a man not very much liked among the people with whom he lived in Hispaniola, and because of this, and also because he owed a great deal of money that he did not wish to pay, he thought it would be a fine thing to run away and let his friends get back the money they had lent him as best they might.

There were always ships touching and leaving Hispaniola, and Balboa thought nothing would be easier than to go on one of these ships some fine day and sail away to some new place where he would have better chances for borrowing and stealing than where he was so well known. But he found it much harder to get away from Hispaniola than he had thought.

Either he had no money to pay for his pa.s.sage, or the captain would not take such a troublesome character on his ship, or the people whom he owed would not let him go without their money, or all three of these reasons together, for at any rate at the last moment he slipped on board a vessel that was just going to sail, and hid himself in a big empty cask, and had to lie there hardly daring to breathe lest he should be heard and put on sh.o.r.e again. But every one was busy trying to get the ship under way, and no one thought of looking into empty casks to see if there were men hiding there, and it was not until they were far, far from land that Balboa ventured to put his trembling head out of the cask and look fearfully around. All the sailors and pa.s.sengers crowded around, very much surprised to see a man's head sticking out of what they had supposed to be an empty cask, and the captain was very angry indeed at the cheat that had been practised upon him, and vowed he would stop the ship at the first desert island he came to and put Balboa ash.o.r.e and leave him there to starve to death.

And then the bold runaway quite lost his brave heart and fell upon his knees and begged with tears that the captain would not treat him so cruelly, quite forgetting that he himself had often done things just as cruel, and the captain, moved by the wretched man's tears and prayers, or perhaps because there was no desert island in sight, or even a pa.s.sing ship that might be hailed to take the runaway back, said that he might finish the voyage with them. Balboa thanked the captain and promised good behavior, but in his heart he was very angry because of the threat to put him on a desert island, and determined to be revenged on the captain if possible.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BALBOA IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN SEA.]

Before very long his chance came. A terrible storm came up and the vessel was dashed to pieces upon a strange coast. Encisco, the captain, felt very glad now that he had kept Balboa on the ship, for, although the country was unknown to the captain and his crew, it was not unknown to Balboa. He had been there before, and said that he knew of an Indian village not far away, where they could find food and shelter. Encisco was very glad to hear this, and they all started off under the leadership of Balboa to find the river Darien, on which the Indian village stood.

They had been wrecked on the coast of Darien, and although neither Encisco nor any of his men had ever been there before, yet other Spaniards had, and had treated the natives cruelly and unjustly, as was their usual way of dealing with them. So when Encisco and his followers tried to march through this strange country they found it very hard work, as the natives attacked them at all times, day and night, killing some, wounding others, and keeping them all from getting food. But Balboa was a skilful leader and knew how to deal with Indians, and after a time they reached the village, though weary and foot-sore and almost starved.

Balboa's boldness made him very much admired by some of the shipwrecked sailors, and soon a large party of them, attracted by his stories of bravery and adventure, declared that they would much rather have him for a captain than Encisco. This was just what Balboa wanted, and as his party grew larger and larger, and Encisco's friends fewer and fewer, Balboa at last declared that Encisco should no longer govern the little colony, as he himself was much more fit to be governor. Most of the party agreed to this, and so Balboa became governor, and a very cruel, b.l.o.o.d.y tyrant he proved. All the Indians around feared and hated him, and even his own men could not love him, and only respected his courage.

One day the son of an Indian chief came to Balboa and told him that some days' journey away there lay a great sea, and on the other side of it a country so rich that the people ate and drank out of gold and silver dishes. The Spaniards in those days were ready to believe anything that the Indians said, and if Balboa had heard that the new sea was full of golden islands, and that the clouds rained diamonds and rubies into its depths, and that its waves threw pearls and corals on its beach, he would almost have believed it all; and when he heard this wonderful news he immediately gathered his men together and started off to find the new sea.

Again they had to fight tribe after tribe of Indians, who constantly tried to make them turn back, but the Spaniards pushed on, and after a hard journey, which took them quite across the Isthmus of Darien, came one day to a high mountain, from whose top the guide said the great sea could be seen.