and of Pizarro, who overcame Peru. But, as these things do not strictly belong to the history of the United States, this is not the place to describe them; and I shall only speak of one more of the early voyages, that of Verrazzano, or Verrazzani, an Italian in French employ.

coast.

This voyage is important, because Verrazzano has left us the earliest full description of the North American He sailed from France, by way of Madeira, in 1524, leaving that island with a single vessel, and spending fifty days before seeing land. At last he reached the shore of North Carolina, and followed it southward for a time; then sailed northward, carefully examining the coast. He put into what is now the harbor of New York, and afterwards into what is now the harbor of Newport, R.I. There he staid a fortnight, trading with the Indians; and he mentions that he found vines and grapes there, just as the Northmen described them in Vinland, long before. Then he sailed along the New-England coast to Nova Scotia, still trading with the Indians on the way. His narrative, as translated in an old collection of voyages, describes the savages as "coming to the seashore upon certain craggy rocks; and we standing in our boats, they let down with a rope what it pleased them to give us, crying continually that we should not approache to the land, demanding immediately the exchange, taking nothing but knives, fish-hookes, and tooles to cut withal; neither did they make any account of our courtesie."

Think how strange it would be, if we were to sail along the Atlantic coast, and not meet so much as a

fishing-vessel ! It would be strange never to see a lighthouse, a buoy, or a wharf; and to enter New-York harbor, and see only a few wooded hills and uninhabited islands, but no sign of human life, except, perhaps, a half-naked Indian standing on the shore. Yet this is what Verrazzano did. He carried home full accounts of what he saw. He thought that the savages were “like the people in the uttermost parts of China," and that "these new countries were not altogether destitute of the drugs and spicery, pearls and gold," for which everybody was so eager. King Francis I. was quite delighted. He said that he "did not think God had created those new countries for the Castilians alone:" but it is not certain whether he sent out a second expedition; or whether Verrazzano made any more voyages, or what became of him.

CHAPTER VII.

HOW AMERICA WAS EXPLORED AND SETTLED.

HESE were some of the first voyages to America,

TH

made by Columbus, the Cabots, Ponce de Leon, and Verrazzano. But, after the continent was fairly discovered, the next question was, Who should explore it, and claim it, and settle it?

It has always seemed to me that the first explorers of North America were very much like a family of boys who have discovered a large pond in the woods, somewhere within reach of their dwelling-house. The boys wish to be always on the water, and are constantly exploring. They have different objects: some go merely for the fun of it; others, to catch fish; others, to look for black-birds' nests among the reeds; others, to find a shorter route to the village or to the schoolhouse. What wonderful stories they tell their little sisters about the things they have seen by the side of the lake! By degrees they know the whole shore very well, and can find their way anywhere. Yet if they were to sit down at night to draw the outline of that shore from memory,

with all the ins and outs, all the bays and the islands, no two would draw it alike; and the different maps would look very strangely side by side.

Now, this is precisely the way it was with those who

first came to the shores of the North-American Continent. Everybody wished to see the new country. Everybody who came saw something wonderful; and each described even more wonders than he had seen. The returning sailors told of giants and Amazons, of countries where the sands sparkled with gems, and of rivers in which were found golden pebbles as large as hens' eggs. So there was immediately the greatest eagerness to undertake voyages to these new lands. Some large towns in Spain lost half their inhabitants, so many people went on these expeditions. The Spaniards generally went for gold; the Portuguese, for slaves; and the French and English, for the sake of fishing. Many people still believed that this new country was India, of which they had known something before. But the more learned people-the geographers, and those who made the maps – —now thought that these new lands were not a part of India, but were a series of islands, called "Cuba," "Florida," "America," and so on; and they expected to find among these islands a passage that would lead to China and Japan. It may be seen by this map, made thirty-eight years after the first voyage of Columbus, just how these wise men supposed these islands to lie; and it will be seen that India and China (Cathay) and Japan (Cipango) are placed just behind them, as if easily to be reached.

When there was so much curiosity about exploring the New World, we should suppose that they would have soon learned its outline thoroughly. But they were just like the boys by the lake. There was not a harbor along the Atlantic shore, from Labrador to Terra del Fuego, that had not been entered before this