H2 The Humming Bird. 



Cabot was the discoverer of this part of America about the 

 year 1497. 



What is certain is that the French landed there in 1504 

 and called it Nova- Britannia, and built many towns there, 

 the principal being Sainte- Marie, Cap-Mars and Brest. 



1504-1510. Explorations of the Darien and part of 

 Columbia, by Alfonso Fogeda, Diego Nicuesa, Ancisus and 

 Roderico Colmenares. Exploration of Cuba by Alfonso Fogeda. 

 He found there a king who was willing to be christened and 

 built a church which was consecrated to the Virgin Mary. 



1514. Expedition of Peter Arias to Veragua, Columbia. 

 Discovery of the South Sea by Vasco Nunez. 



1514-1519. Discovery of Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco 

 and Vera-Cruz, by Francisco Fernandez, Lobo Caizedo, 

 Ghristobal Morantes, Bernardo Igniguez and Juan Grifalva. 



In Yucatan, they found a City whose stone buildings, 

 with stately fronts, and high turrets, had a most magnifi- 

 cent appearance, which Fernandez called CAIRO. 



They were courteously received and conducted into the 

 City, the neatness of whose market places and exactness of 

 their streets, they beheld with admiration as also the costly 

 stuff garnments both of men and women ; but their won- 

 der increased when they beheld many artificial Crosses. 



On the Island of Cozumel, they found fair stone edifices 

 intermixed with temples, whose steeples appeared above 

 the houses. 



Grifalva being led up to one of these temples by a priest, 

 saw many spacious halls full of marble and stone images of 

 deformed men and beasts which they religiously worshipped. 



In Tabasco, they visited the chief City Pontenceiana con- 

 taining above fifteen hundred houses, all built of stone, 

 which besides their turrets and temples presented a most 

 pleasant appearance. 



On the Island of Sacrificios, near the actual Vera-Cruz, 

 amongst many strange images, there stood a great Lion of 

 marble seeming almost decollated with a great gash ; into 

 which wound they poured humane blood warm, which was 

 received into a stone trough, set for that purpose underneath, 

 then the figure of a man carved in alabaster bowing forward 

 as if looking into the trough upon the blood. Those which 

 were sacrificed were prisoners of war, whom bringing before 

 their Idols, they ripping the breast open, whip out the heart 

 with which, having smeared the lips of their Idols, they 

 throw it into the fire, after which they feasted upon the 

 ileshy parts, especially the cheeks. 



