A School History of the United States | Page 4

the islands of
the Caribbean Sea. On his third voyage, in 1498, he discovered the
island of Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela, and saw South America
at the mouth of the Orinoco River. During his fourth and last voyage,
1502-1504, he explored the shores of Honduras and the Isthmus of
Panama in search of a strait leading to the Indian Ocean. Of course he
did not find it, and, going back to Spain, he died poor and
broken-hearted on May 20, 1506.]
%5. The Atlantic Coast explored.%--And now that Columbus had
shown the way, others were quick to follow. In 1497 and 1498 came
John and Sebastian Cabot (cab'-ot), sailing under the flag of England,
and exploring our coast from Labrador to Cape Cod; and Pinzon and
Solis, with Vespucius[2] for pilot, sailing under the flag of Spain along
the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, around the peninsula of Florida, and
northward to Chesapeake Bay. Between 1500 and 1502 two Portuguese
navigators named Cortereal (cor-ta-ra-ahl') went over much the same
ground as the Cabots. For the time being, however, these voyages were
fruitless. It was not a new world, but China and Japan, the Indian
Ocean, and the spice islands, that Europe was seeking. When, therefore,
in 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon, passed around the end of
Africa, reached India, and came back to Portugal in 1499 with his ship
laden with the silks and spices of the East, all explorers turned
southward, and for eleven years after the visit of the Cortereals no
voyages were made to North America.
[Footnote 2: As this man was an Italian, his name was really Amerigo
Vespucci (ah-ma'-ree-go ves-poot'-chee), but it is usually given in its
Latinized form, Americus Vespucius (a-mer'-i-cus ves-pu'-she-us).]
%6. Why the Continent was called America.%--But some great
voyages meantime were made to South America. In 1500 a Portuguese
fleet of thirteen vessels, commanded by Cabral, started from Portugal
for the East. In place of following the usual route and hugging the west
coast of Africa, Cabral went off so far to the westward that one day in
April, 1500, he was amazed to see land. It proved to be what is now
Brazil, and after sailing along a little way he sent one of his vessels

home to Portugal with the news.
[Illustration: %DISCOVERY% ON THE EAST COAST OF
%AMERICA%]
He did this because six years before, in June, 1494, Spain and Portugal
made a treaty and agreed that a meridian should be drawn 370 leagues
west of the Cape Verde Islands and be known as "The Line of
Demarcation" All heathen lands discovered, no matter by whom, to the
east of this line, were to belong to Portugal; all to the west of it were to
be the property of Spain. Now, as the strange coast seemed to be east of
the line of demarcation, and therefore the property of Portugal, Cabral
sent word to the King that he might explore it.
Accordingly, in May, 1501, the King sent out three ships in charge of
Americus Vespucius. Vespucius sighted the coast somewhere about
Cape St. Roque, and, finding that it was east of the line of demarcation,
explored it southward as far as the mouth of the river La Plata. As he
was then west of the line, and off a coast which belonged to Spain, he
turned and sailed southeastward till he struck the island of South
Georgia, where the Antarctic cold and the fields of floating ice stopped
him and sent him back to Lisbon.
The results of this great voyage were many. In the first place, it secured
Brazil for Portugal. In the second place, it changed the geographical
ideas of the time. The great length of coast line explored proved that
the land was not a mere island, but that Vespucius had found a new
continent in the southern hemisphere,--off the coast of Asia, as was
then supposed. This for a time was called the "Fourth Part" of the
world,--the other three parts being Europe, Asia, and Africa. But in
1507 a German professor published a little book on geography, in
which he suggested that the new part of the world discovered by
Americus, the part which we call Brazil, should be called America.
As Columbus was not supposed to have discovered a new world, but
merely a new route to Asia, this suggestion seemed very proper, and
soon the word "America" began to appear on maps as the name of
Brazil. After a while it was applied to all South America, and finally to

North America also.
%7. The Pacific discovered; the Mexican Gulf Coast explored.%--A
few years after the publication of the little book which gave the New
World the name of America, a Spaniard named Balboa landed on the