MXSOX. CORTEZ. VEEAZZANI. 4(31 



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 Graspar. 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 Eodrigo de Bastidas sailed to the coast of 

 Paria, and discovered the whole shore-line from Cape de Vela 

 to the Grulf 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 a Dios to Porto-Bello. 

 The east coast of Yucatan was explored in the year 1508 by 

 Juan Diaz de Solis and Vincent Yafiez 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 Eio 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 Grrijalva discovers the Mexican coast from Tabasco 

 to San Juan de Ulloa. 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- 



