140 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



iards discovered the West India Islands, Mexico, Peru and Florida. 

 France discovered the country lying along the basin of the St. Lawrence 

 and the valley of the Mississippi. Holland, through an English navi- 

 gator, discovered the Hudson River and the future site of New York. 

 England, through another alien, discovered the New England coast and 

 that of Virginia; it discovered, or rediscovered, vast Australia, New 

 Zealand, Tasmania and other South Sea islands; in quite recent years it 

 discovered the sources of the Nile. All these countries have been or 

 are about to be colonized by the peoples that discovered them. 



Discovery is chiefly the work of private enterprise. It was Phoeni- 

 cian and Greek traders who explored the northern and western coasts 

 of Africa, of Spain, of Gaul, and of Britain. Scandinavian mariners, 

 Norman and English fishermen, discovered North America. Spanish 

 adventurers found the Canaries. The host of travelers have explored 

 on their private account. Yet there are animals, like Mr. Thompson's 

 Lobo, the wolf, and Spot, the crow, able generals and leaders of large 

 bands, who seem to direct exploratory movements. So after a while 

 governments lend their aid when they have ends of their 'own or 

 their aid is needed. The two most memorable exploring expeditions of 

 modern times, and the most momentous in their results, were either in 

 great part or wholly equipped by their respective governments. 

 Two of the vessels of Columbus were impressed ships, and the equip- 

 ment proceeded from the Castilian treasury, the third being fitted out 

 by merchant mariners of Palos. The expedition of Captain Cook, 

 which practically added a new continent to the globe, was altogether a 

 state enterprise, and its celebrated commander was not, like Columbus, 

 its designer and organizer, but only its director. The Portuguese 

 discoveries of the Azores and the Cape were also state-aided. From 

 this time forward Spanish and Portuguese adventurers received a royal 

 license to discover, and the South American continent, with Mexico 

 and Peru as its brightest jewels, was discovered by just such adven- 

 turers. Where a government refuses itself to discover, it may, like the 

 States-General of Holland, assure to the enterprising a terminable 

 monopoly of trade with newly discovered lands, and to this assurance 

 the exploration of New York and its neighborhood and the discovery 

 of Connecticut were due. Merchant companies have naturally a keen 

 eye to the main chance, but those English and Dutch merchants can 

 not be accused of timidity who chartered Cabot, Gilbert, Hudson and 

 other daring mariners to seek a northwest passage to the East. Kings, 

 in their private capacity, newspaper proprietors and rich individuals, 

 from generous motives, sometimes equip and support explorers like 

 Stanley and Winwood Eeade. 



Geographical, like scientific, discovery is often accidental. Phoe- 

 nician and Greek traders, Spanish adventurers, Norman and English 



