Page:Columbus and other heroes of American discovery; (IA columbusotherher00bell).pdf/51

 some 80,000,000 square miles of land and sea! But five short years after the eventful 13th September, he was beheaded by order of the Spanish Governor of Darien, Peter Anias, who appears to have been jealous of his superior popularity, and to have feared his growing power.

DEATH OF MAGELLAN.

As was natural, the work of Balboa led to the fitting out of numerous expeditions, not only to the southern seas, but to the districts north of the Isthmus of Darien, which, according to native rumor, were rich in gold and precious stones. Leaving the story of the progress of discovery southwards for the present, we go on to the first successor of Nunez entitled to rank among the heroes of the North, the Spaniard, Juan Ponce de Leon, who, when Governor of Puerto Rico, was induced, by the traditions afloat among the natives of the West Indies of the existence of a Fountain of Youth in the North, to lead an expedition in that direction, which resulted in the discovery of Florida.

Whether, at the time of his adventure, De Leon was old, and anxious to regain his youth, or young, and eager to retain it, history does not say. We only know that he made it the object of his life to discover the marvelous region containing the magic fountain, and set sail for that purpose with three caravels on the 3d March, 1512, accompanied by a numerous band of gentlemen, eager to share with their leader the glories of immortality.

After a month's sail in a north-westerly direction, De Leon came in sight of a country, "covered with flowers and verdure," and, as it happened to be Easter Sunday, he named the new land Pasena de Flores, or Pasqua Florida,