Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

MODERN HISTORY.

HISTORY OF AMERICA.

CHAP. I.

Introduction. Importance of the Discovery of America. Mariner's Compass. The Portuguese the first Adventurers in pursuit of foreign Countries. Birth and Education of Columbus. Enters the Service of Portugal. His Marriage. Conceives Hopes of reaching the East-Indies by holding a westerly Course. His Theory on the Subject. His Application to different Courts. His plans acceded to by the King and Queen of Spain. His Voyage of Discovery. Difficulties. Difficulties. Success. Lands at Guanahani. Sails to Cuba after Gold. To Hispaniola. Leaves a Colony there, and returns to Spain. The Difficulties of his Voyage Home. Astonishment and Joy of Mankind on the Discovery of the New World. His Reception at Court. The Reason of the Name West-Indies. His second Voyage. Finds the Colony all destroyed. Builds a Town. His Followers mutiny. Builds the Fort St. Thomas. Sets sail. Discovers Jamaica. His Distresses. Returns to Hispaniola. War with the Indians. Tax im

posed on them. Desolation of the Indians. Columbus returns to Spain. His Reception. Third Voyage. Discovers the Island of Trinidad. Entangled in the River Oronoco. Discovers the Consinent. Voyage of the Portuguese to the EastVOL. XXIV.

B

1

Indies by the Cape of Good-Hope. The Reason of the Name America. Distresses of Columbus. Sails in Quest of the East-Indies by a new Passage. Arrives at Hispaniola. His Treatment there. His Prediction of a Storm. The Conse quences of neglecting it. His Distresses. Runs his Ship aground at Jamaica. Indians refuse him Assistance. Foretells an Eclipse of the Moon, and takes advantage of it. Returns to Spain. His Treatment and Death.

S individuals are protected in the enjoyment

Aor their wealth and commerce by the power

of the community, so the general body deduces equivalent advantages from the extensive trade and vast opulence of private persons. The gran

deur of the state, and the happiness and security of its subjects, are, with respect to commerce, inseparable. That policy must ever be narrow and short-sighted which would aggrandize the state by the oppression of its members. Every thing is purchased by labour, which alone is infinitely more valuable than the richest mines of gold and silver. The possession of the latter has in many instances rendered nations poor and contemptible; but in no instance have affluence and felicity failed to accompany industry guided by prudence. A superfluity of labour is a real treasure to society, which may at any time be employed like money in the public service. Hence arise the great advantages of foreign commerce, which, by augmenting the labour, in effect increases the grandeur of the state and the wealth of the subject. By its imports it furnishes the materials of industry; and by its exports it affords encouragement for exertion. Thus the mind acquires additional vigour ;

it enlarges its powers and faculties, and the spirit of improvement is, at length, seen in every art and science.

If commerce be considered as essential to industry, and labour necessary to the opulence and happiness of society, we cannot but regard the discovery of the vast continent of America, and the islands with which it is on all sides surrounded, as one of the most important consequences of the discovery of the mariner's compass, and the improvements in navigation. Without a knowledge of the West-Indies, the intercourse with the East-Indies would be of little advantage to Europe; it might even be pernicious, by draining it of its gold and silver : whereas we now purchase the commodities of the latter not only with European manufactures, but with the silver dug out of the mines of Potosi. To her possessions in Chili, Peru, Mexico, and the Antilles, Spain owes all her opulence. Great-Britain, by means of her colonies on the continent of America, raised herself to a great and envied height of grandeur and importance. Portugal almost owes her existence to her possessions in Brazil. In short, every nation in Europe, either immediately or circuitously, has derived considerable advantages from the discovery of the western world.

A. D.

1302.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century we date the discovery of the compass, which may, with great propriety, be said to have opened to man the dominion of the sea, and to have put him in full possession of the terrestrial globe, by enabling him to visit every part of it. The art of steering by this instrument was gradually acquired. Sailors, unaccustomed to quit sight of land, durst not launch out and commit themselves to unknown seas. The first appear

A. D. 1344.

ance of a bolder spirit may be dated from the voyages of the Spaniards to the Canary or Fortunate Islands. By what accident they were led to the discovery of those small isles, which lie 500 miles from the Spanish coast, and more than 150 miles from the coast of Africa, contemporary writers have not explained; and their subsequent voyages thither seem not to have been undertaken in consequence of any public or regular plan for extending navigation, or of attempting new discoveries.

At length, however, the period arrived when Providence decreed that men were to pass the limits within which they had so long been confined, and open to themselves a more ample field wherein to display their talents, their enterprise, and courage. The first efforts towards this were not made by any of the more powerful states of Europe, or by those who had applied to navigation with the greatest assiduity and success. The glo. ry of leading the way in this new career was reserved for Portugal, one of the smallest and least powerful of the European kingdoms.

Among the foreigners, whom the fame of the discoveries made by the Portuguese in Africa had allured into their service, was Christopher Colon or Columbus, a subject of the republic of Genoa, who discovered, at a very early period, a peculiar propensity for a seafaring life. His parents encouraged his wishes by the education which they gave him. At the age of fourteen he began his career on that element which conducted him to so much glory. With a near relation, who commanded a small squadron, Columbus continued several years, distinguished equally for talents and

« ZurückWeiter »