CHAPTEE IV 



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THE 



Expeditions of Josej)li do Bas^onzales, a.d. 1526 ; of Pampliilo Narvaez and 

 Cabeza de Va^a, A.D. 1527 to 1538 ; of Friar Marco de Ni9a, A.D. 1539 ; of 

 Francisco Vasques de Coronado, Fernando Alar^on, Melchior Diaz, and 

 Garci Lopez de Cardenas, A.D. 1540, — The Eio Colorado discovered by 

 three explorers in the same year, one of whom describes the Great Caiion. 

 ■Expedition of Antonio de Espejo. 



It is the fashion nowadays to sneer at any undertaking 

 carried out for an idea. If some soHd advantage cannot be 

 demonstrated mathematically, wo are told that it is useless to 

 urge this practical generation to a needless expenditure of 

 energy, capital, or muscle'. We now know that the philo- 

 sopher's stone is a myth, but we are apt to forget that 

 chemistry owes its origin to the laboui-s expended in trying 

 to discover it. Xo civilised nation would di-eam in this 

 the nineteenth century of upholding at the point of the sword 

 any peculiar set of religious dogmas ; yet what force has 

 been more potent all over the world ; what influence has 

 determined the fate of greater nations, or swept bare and 

 repopulated vaster regions with alien races, than that of 

 religious fanaticism? But is it really true that we have 

 become so material, so un-idealistic, that we can no longer be 

 stimulated to great deeds by the force of moral influence 

 alone, — ^that no belief has sufficient hold upon us to make us 

 leave the farm or the workshop, and willingly buckle on the 

 sword to fight in its defence ? Emphatically, no ! The most 



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