iv I N T R O D U C T I O ,N. 



Pcmama^ but the demonftraticn of its being only a narrow neck oi 

 land, tonnefting the two great continents of northern and fouthern 

 -Auierica, having the vaft pacific ocean behind it, was refer ved for 

 another, which ^^as Bafco Ntmes de Balboa, who, after a har- 

 raffing march over the mountains near Porto Bello^ was the'£rfl: 

 European that ever faw the South Seas, and acquired at the fame 

 time an imperfed account of the empire of Peru. In the year 

 1 5 1 2 , ' yohn Ponce de Leon, a Spanijh gentleman of courage and 

 fortune, being upon his voyage to Porto Rico, was driven by 

 hard Vv^cather upon a part of the continent, which he took pof- 

 feffion of, calling it Florida, but why, is uncertain. Yucata7t 

 was difcovered in the year 15 17, by Hernandez de Cordova^ a 

 very gallant man, who landed with fome force upon it, but was- 

 obliged, by the bravery of the natives, to embark again for Cuba : 

 neverthelefs, Francis de Mo?tteyo found means afterwards to fettle in 

 the fame country, and to cultivate a friendfhip with the India^ts by 

 inter-marriages among his own and their people. No great progrefs 

 beyond the difcoveries of a few coafts and iflands,had been made hi- . 

 therto by the Spaniards in America, till the great Cortez began up- 

 on his enterprizes. Ferdinando Cortez was born at Medellin, a fmall 

 town of EJlremadura in Spain, in the year 1485 ; his father's name 

 vj^s Martin Cortez de Monroy, his mother's Catharine PizarroAl- 

 marin'o, both noble, but not in affluent circumftances ; when, with 

 fome difficulty they had reared their fon to the age of fourteen years, 

 finding him then ftrong and healthy, they fenthim to the univer- 



