PINSON. CORTEZ. VERAZZANI. 461 
masses and violent gales separated him from his companion 
ship, which returned alone to Portugal. 
As in our times the uncertain fate of Franklin has called forth 
a series of heroic deeds, so the doubtful destiny of the Portuguese 
explorer allowed his brother Miguel no rest, whom in the 
following spring we find hastening with three ships on the traces 
of the lost Gaspar. But Miguel also disappeared for ever among 
the ice-fields of the north. A third brother of this high-minded 
family yet remained, who earnestly implored the king that he 
also might be allowed to go forth and seek for his missing 
kindred. But Emanuel steadfastly refused permission, saying 
that these deplorable enterprises had already cost him two of 
his most valuable servants, and he could afford to lose no more. 
In the year 1501 Rodrigo de Bastidas sailed to the coast of 
Paria, and discovered the whole shore-line from Cape de Vela 
to the Gulf of Darien. In the year 1502 the aged Columbus, 
entering with youthful ardour upon his fourth and last voyage, 
set sail with four wretched vessels, the largest of which was 
only seventy tons burthen, and discovered the coast of the 
American continent from Cape Gracias 4 Dios to Porto-Bello. 
The east coast of Yucatan was explored in the year 1508 by 
Juan Diaz de Solis and Vincent Yanez Pinson, and the island 
of Cuba circumnavigated for the first time by Sebastian de 
Ocampo. 
In 1512 Juan Ponce de Leon is led by his evil star to Florida, 
where, instead of finding as he hoped the fountain of eternal 
youth, he is doomed to a miserable end ; and in 1517 the above- 
mentioned Solis sails along the coasts of the Brazils to the 
mouth of the Rio de la Plata, where he is killed in a conflict 
with the Indians. In 1518 Cordova makes his countrymen 
acquainted with the north and west coasts of Yucatan, and in 
the same year Grijalva discovers the Mexican coast from Tabasco 
to San Juan de Ulioa. In 1518 he is followed by the great 
Cortez, who lands at Vera Cruz, overthrows the empire of Mon- 
tezuma after a series of exploits unparalleled in history, and 
renders the whole coast of Mexico far to the north subject to 
the Spanish crown. 
The voyages of Verazzani (1523) who sailed along the coast 
of the United States, and of Jacques Cartier (1524) who inves- 
