and, on the 11th of October, the joyful sight was descried, first by Columbus himself. God was immediately praised, and the sailors were now as ardent in their expressions of repentance and admiration, as they had been, before, insolent and ungovernable.

34. St. Salvador, one of the Bahamas, was the island first discovered. Columbus afterwards touched at Cuba, and Hispaniola, (St. Domingo,) now Hayti. On the latter he left some of his men, to form a colony. His theory led him to call the regions he had discovered, by the name of West Indies; since he had reached India, or a portion of the globe which he supposed to be near it, by a western passage.

Columbus returned to Spain in the following May, and soon set out, with a much larger expedition, on a second voyage. In this he was so happy as to add many other islands to those already found. In a third voyage, he discovered Trini dad, and the continent at the mouth of the Oronoke, 1498. The fame of his discoveries, drew adventurers from all parts of Europe; and, among others, Americus Vesputius, a Florentine, a man of science and genius, who, a few years afterwards, following the footsteps of Columbus, acquired the undeserved honour of giving his name to the new world.

In 1497, one year before the main land of South America had been discovered by Columbus, John Cabot, a Venetian by birth, but at that time an inhabitant of England, proceeded on a voyage of discovery, under a commission from the British king, and found the continent of North America. Touching at various parts of the coast, he took possession of the country, in behalf of the crown of England.

The Spaniards, after an interval of a few years, made settlements in the new world, and, impelled by a thirst of gold, committed horrible butcheries in several of the islands, and especially in Mexico and Peru, under Cortez, Pizarro, and Almagro. These brave adventurers, though base men, established the authority of Spain over countries which they depopulated by their avarice and cruelty. In the year 1500, the coast of Brazil was accidentally discovered by Alvarez de Cabral, the Portuguese admiral, in consequence of having been driven too far to the west, on a voyage round the Cape of Good Hope. Hence, the settlement and possession of that part of America, by the people of Portugal.

§ Columbus, as we have seen, entertained the idea that the region he had discovered, was India, or a part of the continent of

Asia. This notion was generally received, until 1513, when the Pacific Ocean being descried from the mountains of the isthmus of Darien, the illusion began to be dispelled.

Fernando Cortez, was a successful, but execrable adventurer. It was on the occasion of being sent, in 1519, by the governor of Cuba, upon an expedition to the main, that he first heard of the existence of the rich and flourishing empire of Mexico. Stimulated by the love of power and gain, he resolved to make the conquest of that country. He had at his command only 617 men, and a very few fire-arms, (thirteen muskets and ten small field pieces,) these having not yet come into general use. His other instruments of death, were cross-bows, swords, and spears. But it was the former description of weapons, few as they were, that gained for this handful of Spaniards, a conquest over a numerous people. They looked upon fire-arms as the weapons of the gods.

Landing at Vera Cruz, Cortez advanced, though with a brave opposition from the natives, into the heart of the country. On the ap proach of the Spaniards to the capital, the terror of their name had paved the way for an easy conquest. The Mexican sovereign, Montezuma, received the invaders with great hospitality and kindness. Indeed, he regarded them with the reverence due to superior beings. An occasion, however, was not long wanting, on the part of Cortez, for putting his bold and hazardous project into execution.

Some difficulty between his soldiers and the natives, became the pretext for his seizure of Montezuma. Marching to the palace, with fifty men, he put the emperor in irons, and carried him off prisoner to his camp. This flagrant abuse of their hospitality, aroused the Mexicans, who fleeing to arms, expelled the Spaniards from the capital. Montezuma having, during the affray, offered to mediate between the Mexicans and their enemies, was indignantly put to death by one of his own subjects. Gautimozin, son of Montezuma immediately succeeded him, and armed the whole empire against the perfidious Spaniards.

Cortez, by a fortunate concurrence of events, having induced a nation of the Indians to revolt, and having obtained a reinforcement of Spaniards, commenced the siege of the city, and soon took it, together with Gautimozin, and became master of the empire, in 1521. The emperor was treated by the Spaniards in a manner shocking to humanity. Refusing to discover the place where his treasures were hid, the miserable man was stretched naked, for some time, on burning coals. Soon after, on the discovery of a conspiracy against the Spaniards, he was executed on a gibbet, with all the princes of his blood. This was the last blow to the power of the Mexicans. The nefarious Cortez, and his few associates, enjoy the honour or the infamy, in the way now narrated, of having brought this simple aná unsuspecting people, under the yoke of Spain.

While Cortez was employed in the reduction of Mexico, the Span iards were informed of a still more rich and extensive empire, in the south. This was Peru, at that time governed by the inca, or king, Ata balipa. Francis Pizarro, in 1525, had sailed to and visited the coun

try. He afterwards undertook the conquest of it, in connection with Diego Almagro, and Ferdinand Lucques, two unprincipled adventurers like himself; and for this purpose, sailed in 1531, from Panama, with three small vessels and 300 men.

With this inconsiderable force, he invaded the country, and marching to the residence of the inca, he seized his person by stratagem, having employed friendship and religion as the cover of his villany. In this defenceless condition, the king was obliged to submit to the slaughter of his attendants, and to the exaction of an enormous quantity of gold and silver, as the price of his ransom. When, however, the treasure was committed into the hands of the Spaniard, with perfidious cruelty, he still retained the wretched monarch a prisoner, and finally, by a mock trial, condemned and executed him, as a usurper and idolator.

The vast booty which fell into the possession of the victors, became soon an occasion of dispute among themselves. War only could settle it; in the course of which, both Pizarro and Almagro perished. This contention lasted seventeen years, and Peru became the theatre of the most licentious rapine and cruelty.

In the year 1548, the celebrated Las Casas, was sent from Spain, as viceroy. Under his administration, the country obtained repose, as a province of Spain; and, notwithstanding the temporary success of their new inca, Huanca Capac, who rose against the Spaniards, the whole Peruvian people were effectually broken down and subdued.

The inhabitants of the American continent and its islands, were a race of men quite new to the Europeans. They were of a copper colour, and had no beard. In some parts of the continent, as Mexico and Peru, they had made considerable progress towards civilization. They were not wanting, in a degree, as to polish, and even luxury. Architecture, sculpture, mining, and working the precious metals, were understood. Their persons were clothed, their lands cultivated, and their state governed by fixed laws and regulations. In Peru there were some magnificent palaces and temples. In other parts of the new world, man was a naked savage, the member of a wandering tribe, whose sole occupation was hunting or war. The savages of the continent were characterized alike by their cruelty to their enemies, their contempt of death, and their generosity towards their friends. The islanders were a milder race, of gentle manners, and less robust constitutions.

The inhumanity with which the Spaniards treated these simple and unoffending people, is shocking to every reader of sensibility. To convert them to the holy and benevolent religion of the Saviour, the most violent means were employed, by men who were strangers to the spirit of that religion. The rack, the scourge, and the faggot, were the principal engines used for their conversion. They were hunted down like wild beasts, or burnt alive in their thickets and fastnesses. Some of the islands were nearly depopulated.

The conversion of the Indians, however, was less an object, than the desire of obtaining the precious metals which they possessed. So

powerful was the passion for gold, that the first adventurers endured every fatigue, and encountered every danger, in search of it; and, by compelling the natives to dig in the mines, prematurely destroyed the lives of vast multitudes of this hapless race. It being the practice of the Europeans to take possession of the regions in America which they visited, by the pretended right of discovery, they seem to have made no account of the aboriginals, depriving them of liberty, or life, whenever occasion or passion demanded.

The Spanish acquisitions in America, before the late revolution among them, belonged to the crown, and not to the state: they were the absolute property of the sovereign, and regulated solely by his will. The pope, agreeably to principles which governed men in a dark and superstitious age, granted to the monarchs of Spain, the countries discovered by their subjects, in America. They were governed by viceroys, who exercised supreme civil and military authority over their provinces.

Distinguished Characters in Period VIII.

1. Columbus, an eminent navigator, and discoverer of America.

2. Raphael,

3. M. Angelo,

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masters of painting among the moderns. 4. Erasmus, a Dutchman, eminent in philology and general literature.

5. Copernicus, a Prussian astronomer, and discoverer of the true system of the universe.

6. Luther,

7. Calvin,

eminent theologians and reformers.

8. Camoens, a distinguished Portuguese poet. 9. Buchanan, a Scotch historian and poet. 10. Montaigne, a celebrated French essayist.

11. Tasso, prince of Italian poets.

12. Spenser, one of the greatest of the English poets.

§ Columbus (Christopher) was born 1442, at Genoa, son of a woolcomber. He was early inured to the labours of the sea, and acquired great experience in navigation. With the sciences immediately connected with his profession, he was acquainted, beyond most men of his age. Indeed, this great man was far in advance of the rest of the world, and anticipated the illumination of a distant futurity. For the splendid discovery which he was destined to make, his temperament and his previous course of life, eminently fitted him. There was an enthusiasm in his character, a lofty expectation, and a religious fervour of soul, which spurned ordinary difficulties, and raised him immensely above ordinary men. By his knowledge of maritime affairs, as well as by reasoning, he became

To

persuaded that a continent must exist in the western ocean. ascertain the truth of his theory, was an object which soon engrossed all his time and faculties. And, after much effort and many trials and disappointments, in regard to assistance, he was permitted to realize the grand idea he had so happily conceived.

He made application to several courts, before he could obtain the requisite means and patronage, and it was only after much delay, that he was finally enabled to prosecute his discoveries under the auspices of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. He sailed on the third of August, 1492, in three small ships, and returned to Spain in May the following year. In the mean time he had discovered a new world, and had taken possession of a portion of it, in the name of his sovereign. This event filled Spain, and all Europe, with amazement, and the greatest honours were accorded to him in the country, whose annals he has so signally adorned. He made three subsequent voyages to the new world, in the second of which he reached the continent; but powerful enemies had now risen up, jealous of his ascendency, who impugned his motives or decried his services, and so much influence had they with the Spanish court, that Columbus, in his third voyage was sent back to Spain in irons. Though he suffered much in the latter part of life, he finally triumphed over his enemies, and peacefully left the world, on the twentieth of May, 1506.

The memory of Columbus will be cherished while the world stands; though in consequence of one of those untoward events that sometimes occur, he has been deprived of the honour of giving his name to the hemisphere which his genius brought to light. Signal must have been the satisfaction of his mind, notwithstanding the disasters through which he passed, in view of the transcendent benefits which Providence had made him the instrument of conferring on mankind.

2. Raphael (Sanzio) was born at Urbino, 1483. By studying the best masters in painting, he soon rose to eminence, and merited the appellation of the divine Raphael. He also excelled as an architect, and was employed in the building of St. Peter's, at Rome. He came to an untimely grave, in consequence of his addiction to licentious pleasures, dying at the age of thirty-seven years. By the general consent of mankind, he is acknowledged to have been the prince of painters. He excelled in beauty and grace.

3. Angelo Buonaroti (Michael) was not only a great painter, but sculptor, and architect. He was even an elegant poet. In architecture he surpassed all the moderns, and he was the greatest designer that ever lived. He is said to have sucked sculpture with his very milk, inasmuch as he was nursed by a woman whose husband was eminent in that art. The early displays of his genius, raised so great a jealousy among his youthful rivals, that one of them struck him with such violence on the nose, that he carried the mark to his grave. The most celebrated of his paintings, is the Last Judgment. His architectural abilities are best displayed on the church of St.