Columbus and the New world heroes of discovery and conquest

Front matter

6lass t^-/X

Book

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

Introduction

By the Director-General World's Columbian Exposition.

O man may draw so great a lesson from the life of Columbus as the American. The obscurity of his birth, the poverty of his youth, the struggles of his manhood, and the incomparable benefit to humanity of his one achievement, are in absolute sympathy with the American idea. In this country no station is so humble that therefrom the ambition may not reach the very pinnacle of citizenship. The history of our country furnishes innumerable instances where the most eminent scholars, soldiers, statesmen and financiers have reached their places of intellectual, political or commercial power by overcoming the same obstacles and subduing the same difiiculties as menaced and confronted this Genoese boy. Our form of government is inspired and the hope of citizenship is based upon ideal men of which Columbus was a type. And it is most fitting that the American people, in full harmony with the spirit of the New World, should evolve the World's Columbian Exposition, as a grand tribute to the man whom Providence elected as the instrument of the greatest gift to Christendom that history records. Columbus died a martyr to ingratitude, while his follower Vespucius was renowned above all men in the name distinguishing this continent. But the American people, true to their high sense of patriotic duty, true to their principles as a race, and true to the theory of their form of government, have rolled back the centuries to venerate the humble scholar who died alone at Valladolid. The great festival which is to commemorate the achievement of the Italian sailor boy, the son of a common workman, demonstrates how deep into our hearts has the spirit of democracy and universal rights found its everlasting place.

I have been requested by the publishers to review the proof-sheets of this

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INTRODUCTION.

volume. It has not been a task; it has been a recreation. It is appropriate that at a period when the people of the United States, in the zenith of their enlightenment, and in the unparalleled wealth and power of their nation, seek to venerate Columbus, the literature of the age should embrace a contribution so valuable as an auxiliary, and so essential as an inspiration. As reawakening our wonder at the great system of our development; as re-affirming our belief in a Great Giver of all good; as arousing our emulation of those, the benefits of whose deeds we enjoy, and as a means of bringing the philosophy of the past, and the evolution of time, in quickened sympathy with the marvelous conditions of the present, the contents of this volume will doubtless find their grateful way into the hearts and minds of many men in this and future generations.

Chicago, Ills.

DISCOVERERS OP THE NEW WORLD.

Preface

TN the pages which follow, it has been the aim of the writer to give a his- X ^^^"^ ^^ ^^^ discovery and earliest exploration of the New World, by 1 means of a chain of biographies of the principal discoverers, reaching from pre-Columbian times to the latter part of the eighteenth century. Not only does this chain extend through this period of time, but it encompasses the American continent, from the coast of Greenland to Cape Horn, and thence to Behring Strait, and even reaches to Australia and the archipelagoes of the South Pacific. All belong to the era of New World discovery. In these biographies, as found in the original form, there is much that is of little interest to the general reader; and much of scientific importance, that is difficult to understand by those who have not a close acquaintance with the mysteries of seamanship and astronomical observation. All these points have been passed over in silence, or so condensed and rendered into familiar language that it is thought no difiiculty will be experienced, even by boys and girls who might otherwise be repelled by the appearance of diflSculty.

The original authorities have been consulted wherever practicable; the collection of travels published by the Hakluyt Society being included in that term. A constant effort has been made to retain as much individual interest as possible; though this could not always be done, when the expedition whose history was recorded comprised a great number of men, and the leader recorded merely the progress of his ships.

But the materials of the present volume have been gathered from so many different sources, that reference to the authorities would encumber the book without adding to its value; for in many cases, the materials for a single chapter have been collected from many and various sources, and woven laboriously into a single whole.

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PREFACE.

In conclusion, the author has to thank many readers for their appreciation of previously published volumes, and ask that the present work may share their favor.

St. Louis, Mo. D. M. Kelsey.