12 Gardiner G. Hubbard — Discoverers of jimcrica. 



all its equipment, was about $20,000.00, less than one-half the 

 cost of the steamer pl^dng between AVashington and Mount Ver- 

 non. The sale of the spices left a large profit to Charles V and 

 the merchants who had furnished the funds for the adventure. 

 The king of Spain gave to the heirs of Ferdinand Magellan 

 for their coat of arms a terrestrial globe belted with the legend 

 ^^Primas circumdedidi me " — " Thou first encompassed me." 



In 1513 Vasco Nunez Balboa, a Spaniard who had married an 

 Indian princess, heard, from the natives, of the Pacific ocean and 

 of the land of the Incas, where gold, silver and precious stones 

 abounded. On September 25, from the top of the mountains 

 tains»he looked down on the Pacific ocean, the first European 

 to behold it. He collected a few vessels on the Atlantic coast 

 for a voyage of discovery to Peru, and, taking them to pieces, he 

 carried them across the isthmus and launched them on the 

 Pacific. Two thousand Indians, we are told, perished in this 

 work. When nearly ready to sail he was recalled by the governor 

 of Darien and beheaded. 



After the death of Balboa, Francisco Pizarro, one of his follow- 

 ers, returned to Spain with an account of the land of the Incas, 

 and in 1529 was made governor and captain-general of this 

 country, then called the province of New Castile, with leave to 

 fit out at his own expense an expedition to conquer that terri- 

 tory. ITe left Panama with three ships, ISO men and 27 horses, 

 but it was not until two years later that the}^ landed in Peru 

 and began that contest which resulted in the overthrow of the 

 Incas and in loading witli riches the meanest of Pizarro's fol- 

 lowers. The civilization of the Incas, the highest type in 

 America, was crushed. 



The Spaniards soon after this conquest sailed still further 

 sout^iward, along the coast of Peru and Chili, even to the straits 

 of Magellan. 



Rumors of an eldorado beyond the Andes came to Pizarro. 

 One of his followers, Orellano, was sent to cross the Andes and 

 descend to the headwaters of the Amazon, but he could not find 

 the promised land. His party, famished and decimated by the 

 fatigue of the journey and unable to return to the Pacific, built 

 a boat and floated down the Amazon river 4,000 miles, to its 

 mouth , 



