Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/196

Rh Ojeda. Balboa. 182 to the Brazilian coast; and in 1501 he wrote an acco11nt of his fo11r voyages, which was widely circulated, and became the means of procuring for its author the high honour of giving his name to the whole continent. Mr Major has discussed the hitherto obscure question of the way in which the name “America” originated, in a paper distinguished for great learning and very able criticism. He has shown that the word “ America ” first appeared on the illuppe .l[onde drawn by Leonardo da Vinci, and he explains the chain of circumstances which led to its adoption. The ﬁrst map known to exist with America delineated upon it is that drawn by Juan de la Cosa, the pilot of Columbus in his second voyage, which is dated 1500. Juan de la Cosa was with Ojeda and Vespucci, and afterwards with Ojeda in his last ill-fated expedition. In May 1507, just a year after the death of Columbus, one Martin W-aldsecmiiller (Hyl-a- conmlus) wrote a work called Cosnzo_r/ruplzitc Im‘ro<I2Ic(e'o, to which was appended a Latin edition of the four voyages of Vespucci. In this book, which was printed at St Die in Lorraine, he proposed that the name of America should be given to the New World. In 1508 the ﬁrst engraved map containing the NewVorld appeared, in an edition of Ptolemy printed at Rome, but it does not bear the name of America. But in 1509 the name “ America,” proposed byHylaco1nu- lus in 1507, appears, as if it was already accepted as a well- known denomination, in an anonymous work entitled Globus Jlumli, published at Strasburg. This was three years be- fore the death of Vespucci. The Jfzqpe Jlomle of Leonardo da Vinci, to which Major assigns the date of 1514, has the name of America across the South American continent. In 1508 Ojeda obtained the government of the coast of South America from Cabo de la Vela to the Gulf of Darien ; and at the same time Diego Nicuesa. was appointed governor of Veragua from the Gulf of Darien to Cape Gracias a Dios. The two adventurers arrived at llispaniola together; but Ojeda set o11t first for his government, landed at Carthagena in 1510, and sustained a bloody defeat from the natives, in which his lieutenant, Juan de la Cosa, was killed. Ojeda then embarked, and eventually selected a site on the east side of the Gulf of Darien for his seat of government. Here he was again defeated by the natives, and, returning to Hispaniola for aid, he died there in extreme poverty. Nicuesa was still more unfortunate, and died at sea. The Spaniards in the Gulf of Darien were left by Ojeda under the command of Francisco Pizarro, the future conqueror of Peru. After suffering from famine and disease, Pizarro embarked the survivors in small vessels, but outside the harbour they met a ship which proved to be that of the bachiller Martin Fernandez Enciso, Ojeda’s partner, coming with provisions and reinforcements. They all returned to their settlement called San Sebastian, but found that the Indians had destroyed the fort, anrl Enciso determined to abandon it. One of the crew of Enciso’s ship, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the future discoverer of the Paciﬁc Ocean, induced his connnander to_ form a settlement on the other side of the Gulf of Darien. The soldiers became discon- tented and deposed Enciso, when Vasco Nunez, a clever and courageous adventurer, took command of the Darien settle- ment in .Iarch 1511. Enciso was a man of learning, and an accomplished cosmographer. His work Smna cle Geo- graﬁa, which was printed in 1519, is the ﬁrst Spanish book which gives an account of America. Vasco Nunez, the new commander, entered upon a career of conquest in the neigh- bourhood of Darien, which ended in the discovery of the Paciﬁc Ocean on the 25th of September 1513. In 1514 Pedrarias de Avila, an old man of rank and some reputation, but with no ability, and of a malicious disposition, was appointed to supersede Vasco Nunez as governor of Darien, and the bachiller Enciso came o11t in his ﬂeet. Pedrarias, on a false pretext, beheaded Vasco Nunez in 1517, which GEO G l{- A l’ H Y [rnoonass or mscovaav. was one of the greatest calamities that could have happened to South America at that time; for the discoverer of the South Sea was on the point of sailing with a little ﬂeet into his unknown ocean, and a humane and judicious man would hive been the conqueror of Peru, instead of the cruel and ignorant Pizarro. In the year 1519 Panama was founded by Pedr-arias ; and the conquest of Peru by Pizarro followed a few years afterwards. llernan Cortes overran and con- quered Mexico from 1518 to 1521, and the discovery and conquest of Guatemala by Alvar-.1do, of l"lorida by Hernando de Soto, and of Nueva Granada by Quesada, followed in rapid succession. The first detailed account of the west coast of South America was written by that keenly obser- vant old soldier, Pedro de Cieza de Leon, who was travel- ling in South America from 1533 to 1550, and published his story at Seville in 1553. But the great anxiety of the Spanish Government at that time was to ﬁnd a westward route to the Moluccas. For this purpose Juan Diaz de Solis was despatched in October 1515, and in January 1516 he discovered the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. He was, however, killed by the natives, and his ships returned. laid before Charles V., at Yalladolid, a scheme for reaching the Spice Islands by sailing westward. He had already served with his own countrymen, the Portuguese, on the coast of India and at the taking of Malacca, and he was an accomplished and resolute seaman. With a ﬂeet of five ships, and the rank of ca )tain—general, Magellan sailed from San Lucar on the 21st o September 1519. After touching on the coast of Brazil, at the Rio de la Plata, and at the ports on the east coast of Patagonia, Magellan entered the straits which bear his name in October 1520. In conse- quence of many fires being seen on the southern shores of the strait, he named that country Tierra del Fuego. The ﬂeet, now consisting of the “'l‘rinidad,” “Vittoria,” and “Concepcion,” emerged from the strait and entered the Paciﬁc Ocean on the 27th of November 1520. They then steered 110rth—vest, crossed the line on the 13th of February 1521, and 011 the 6th of March reached the Ladrone Islands. Thence Magellan proceeded to the Philippines. He was killed in an attack on the island of Matan, which he made in order to bring it 11nder subjection to his ally the king of Zebu, on the 26th of April 1521. Thus fell this great navigator, who was second only to Columbus in the his- tory of nautical exploration. IIis brother-in—law, Duarte Barbosa, was selected to succeed Magellan in command of the ﬂeet, with Joao Serrao as his colleague. They were both killed in ba.ttles with the natives, and eventually a. Biscayan named Sebastian del Cane, sailing home by way of the;Cape of Good Hope, reached San Lucar in command of the “ Vittoria” on the 6th of September 1522, with eighteen survivors. Del Cano was received with great distinction by the emperor, who granted him a globe for his crest, and the motto “ Primus circumdedisti me.” While the Spaniards were circumnavigating the world and completing their knowledge of the coasts of Central and South America, the Portuguese were actively engaged on similar work as regards Africa and the East Indies. In Abyssinia the mission of Covilham led to further Expbm In April 1520 the Portuguese viceroy of the tion_ cf Indies took a ﬂeet into the Red Sea, and landed an embassy Arm“- intercourse. consisting of Dom Rodriguez de Lima and Father l:‘rancisco Alvarez, a priest whose detailed narrative is the earliest and not the least interesting account we possess of Abyssinia. It was not until 1526 that the embassy was dismissed ; and not many years afterwards the negﬂs entreated the help of the Portuguese against Mahomctan invaders, and the viceroy sent an expeditionary force, commanded by his brother Cristoforo da Gama, with 450 musketeers. Da. Gama. was taken prisoner and killed, but his Portuguese In the following year Magellan glagella,