48 DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. [1513. 



The Spaniards were, in the mean time, assiduously engaged in 

 planting colonies in the countries newly found by them beyond the 

 Atlantic, to which they gave the collective name of West Indies,* 

 and in exploring the coasts in the vicinity of the islands first dis- 

 covered, which were soon ascertained to be the borders of a vast 

 continent. How far south this continent extended, and whether it 

 was united, in the north, with Asia, or with the territories seen in that 

 direction by the English and the Portuguese, remained to be deter- 

 mined ; and, with those objects, the Spaniards persevered in their 

 examinations, in which they were, moreover, encouraged by the 

 constant assurances of the natives of the coasts and islands, 

 respecting the existence of a great sea, and rich and powerful 

 nations, towards the setting sun. 



In 1513, this great sea was discovered, near the spot where 

 Panama now stands, by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the governor of 

 the Spanish colony of Darien. It was naturally supposed to be 

 the Southern Ocean, which bathed the shores of India ; and, as its 

 proximity to the Atlantic was at the same time ascertained, encour- 

 agement was afforded for the hope that the two great waters would 

 be found connected in a position the most favorable for navigation 

 between Europe and Asia. The examinations of the Spaniards 

 were, in consequence, directed particularly to the coasts of the 

 Isthmus of Darien, and were conducted with great zeal and perse- 

 verance, until the entire separation of the two oceans by land, in 

 that quarter, had been proved. These researches were, however, 

 also continued both north and south of the isthmus, until, at length, 

 in 1520, Fernando Magalhaens, or Magellan, a Portuguese, in the 

 naval service of Spain, discovered and sailed through the strait now 

 bearing his name, into the sea found by Balboa, over which he 

 pursued his voyage westward to India. 



The great geographical question, as to the circumnavigation of 

 the globe, was thus solved, though not in a manner entirely satisfac- 

 tory to the Spaniards. The Strait of Magellan was intricate, and 



* The name America was first applied to the New World in a work entitled " Cosmo- 

 graphies Instructio, fy-c, mswper quatuor Americi Vespucii JVavigationes ," written by 

 Martin Waldseemuller, under the assumed name of Hylacornylus , and printed at Saint 

 Die, in Lorraine, in 1507. This has been clearly proved by Humboldt, in his admi- 

 rable " Examen Critique de VHistoire de la Geographie du JVouveau Continent," in 

 which many other interesting questions relating to the discovery of the New World 

 are also discussed and satisfactorily determined. The Spaniards carefully avoided 

 the use of the name America in their histories and official documents, in not one of 

 which, anterior to the middle of the last century, can the word be found. 



