Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/37

 deck; and so perilous were the voyages deemed, that the sailors were accustomed, before embarking, to perform solemn acts of devotion, as if to prepare for eternity. The anticipation of disasters was not visionary; Columbus was shipwrecked twice, and once remained for eight months on an island, without any communication with the civilized world; Hudson was turned adrift in a small-boat by a crew whom suffering had rendered mutinous; Willoughby perished in the cold ; Robertval, Parmenius, Gilbert—and how many others?—went down at sea; and such was the state of the art of navigation, that intrepidity and skill were unavailing against the elements without the favor of heaven."

 

1492—1600.

Columbus had succeeded in demonstrating the truth of his long and anxiously advocated views respecting the existence of land to be discovered by sailing to the west, he supposed that he had reached the far-famed Cathay, or the East Indies. This natural error was one which the great navigator did not live to correct, and it led to the name being applied to the inhabitants of the islands and main land of America, It is a name which time and custom have sanctioned as the designation of the natives of the soil when Columbus and his successors reached the New World, as also of their descendants; and however inappropriate, it is now too late to seek to change it. Before proceeding with the history of the gradual colonization of America, and the many and severe contests between the new-comers and those whom they found in possession of the country, it may be well to devote a brief space to some account of the aborigines of the Western Continent, more especially of North America Without entering into a discussion of the question, whence came the people who first settled America—a question more curious than profitable—it is quite certain that the Indian tribes scattered over the face of the country were the successors of a race or races 