t 
6l The DISCOVERY and CO N^E ST Boole I. 
Affairs in Ammea. It is very remarkable, that thefe 
Governors, who did fuch wonderful Things ; and in- 
Ifead of enriching themfelves promoted the Welfare of 
the Crown, and provided for the Revenues of the Peo- 
ple, were not Courtiers but Lawyers, not Men of great 
Nobility, not yet mere Adventurers, not the Creatures 
of any Miniftry, or fupported by any Minifter, but 
owing their Preferment entirely to their Reputation, 
which made them known to the Emperor, their Mafter, 
and fecured his Choice. 
We ftiall here end our Account of the Difeovery and 
Conqueft of Reru^ which has been fo fully treated j that 
the Reader cannot but have a very clear Idea, as well of 
the Maxims, upon which the ^'panijh Court proceeded, 
as of the Charafters of thefe great Men, by whom thefe 
Difeoveries and Conquefts were atchieved, and of the 
Troubles that were afterwards occafioned by their excef- 
live Ambition. But, as the Purfuit of this Method, 
with Refpedl to the other Provinces of the Spanijh Em- 
pire, in the new World, would fwell this Work to too 
great an Extent *, we fhall content ourfelves with giving 
as concife an Account as is poITible of the Times when, 
and the Perfons by whom, the rellot the moft conlider- 
able Difeoveries and Conquefts were made, without enter- 
ing into any fartherParticulars, that we may have the more 
Room to fpeak of what other Nations have performed 
in thofe Parts, and thereby render this Part of our Work 
as compleat as polTible. 
25. While Hernan Cortes was employed in reducing, 
under his Obedience, all the Provinces of the Mexican 
Empire, and while Francis Pizarro was occupied in 
Peru, there were other great Captains and experienced 
Seamen employed in the Difeovery of feveral other Parts 
of America : As for Inftance, Sehajiian Cahot, a V znetian 
born, and who had been long in the Service of the Crown 
of England, entered about the Year 1526 into that of 
Spain \ and the fame Year failed up the great River of 
Plate, and difeovered Part of the Country oi Paraguay. 
The Year ioWowm^Francis de Montejo andfubdued 
the Country of Jucatan ; and about the fame Time, John 
Bermudez firft faw one of thofe Elands, which have 
fince borne his Name, and make at prefent a Part of our 
Pofleflions in xht Weft-Indies. From the Year 1528 to 
1535 various Difeoveries were made by the Captains 
of Francis Pizarro, both on the Eaft and Weft Coafts of 
South America ; and within this Space it was, that Peter 
Heredia caufed the Foundation to be laid of the City of 
Carthagena, to which he gave that Name from the Re- 
femblance it bore in its Situation to the City of Cartha- 
gena in Old Spain. 
In 1535, Peter de Mendoza founded the Town of 
Buenos Ayres, on the River Plata, which City was twice 
abandoned, and twice rebuilt. At this time the famous 
Hernan Cortes made, in Perfon, an Expedition by Sea, 
to difeover the Northern Coafts of the Kingdom of 
Mexico, and was himfelf the firft that took a View of 
California, which then, and long after, was efteemed to be 
an Eland. In 1537, the Province of New Granada was 
entirely difeovered : And in 1539? as if the Difeoveries 
Northwards were to keep exa6l Pace with thofe of the 
South, the great Kingdom of Cibola was firft made 
known to the Spaniards by a Francifean Friar ; which 
Difeovery at firft was very little regarded, but has been 
fmee found to be of as great Confequence, or rather of 
greater, than any of the Difeoveries on the Northern 
Continent m America. In 1540, one Peter de Baldivia 
made his Expedition into Chili, and reduced a great 
Part of that rich Country. 
The very next Year, John Cabrillo a Native of Por- 
tugal, in the Service of Spain, difeovered the moft 
Northern Parts of California, and gave to a great Cape 
or Headland, in the Latitude of 44 Degrees, the Name 
of Cape Mendocina, in Antonio de Men- 
doca, at that time Viceroy of New Spain. Tn 1543, 
Lewis de Alverado difeovered the great River of Mijff- 
fippi, which he clearly deferibed, though he did not 
give it any Name. In the Year 1545, the Mines of Po- 
tofi were firft opened •, and in 1554, xAt Spaniards dif- 
CGvered thofe of St. Barbe and St. John. In the Year 
1574,' Juan Fernandez difeovered, m the South-Sea, 
the two Hands that have been fince known by his Name^ 
though in the old Spanijh Maps there are four laid down, 
the other two being called the Hands of St. Felix and 
St. Ambr'ofe, lying fomewhat more to the North than 
thofe to which we generally give the Name of Juan 
Fernandez. In 1 582, xht Spaniards completed the Difeovery 
of that great Country to which they have fince given the. 
Name of the Kingdom oi New Mexico. In 1589, Don 
Pedro Sermiento made that famous Settlement in the 
Streights of Magellan, of which we have given fo large 
an Account in our firft Volume. In the Years 1638 and 
1639, fome Miffionaries travelled through^ and 
deferibed moft of the Countries that lie upon the great 
River of the Amazons and confidering the Report they 
made of the Fertility and Riches of thofe Countries, it is 
furprifing that the Spaniards did not make this Difeovery 
turn to greater Acconnt ; but perhaps this may be aferi- 
bed to their Want of People, at leaft in Proportion to 
fuch a vaft Extent of Country. 
In 1675, fome Miffionaries difeovered, in the Heart of 
South America, the Country of xAtMoxas, of which to 
this Day we have no farther Account than what thofe 
Miffionaries have given us. This Country lies in the 
Torrid Zone, from 10 to 15 Degrees of South Latitude ; 
and it is believed that there are Mines of great Value 
therein, though hitherto it has been vifited only by the 
Priefts, who have erected the fame fort of Sovereignty 
there which they poflefs in Paraguay. 
26. In the Year 170X5 F. Eufebius Kino, a Jefuit, difeo- 
vered that the Country of California was not an Hand, as 
till that time it had been fuppofed, but was feparated 
from the Continent of new Mexico only by a River, 
over which he paffed without much Trouble. And thus 
we have given the Reader a fhort Account of the Spanijh 
Difeoveries, in the Order of Time in which they were 
made, from their firft Entry into the new World, down 
to our own Days ; and if it appears that fince their having 
eftablifhed fo great and powerful an Empire in this Part 
of the Globe, they have difeovered much lefs in Propor- 
tion than when they firft came thither, we muft not attri- 
bute it either to their having abfolutely furveyed all Parts 
of thofe two vaft Continents, of which they are reputed 
Mafters, or that they have loft that Thirft after Gold and 
Silver with which they were fo ftrongly pofTeffed in paft 
Times : For the Truth is, that both in North and in 
South America, there are vaft Tra6ls of Country of which 
they know very little ; but then the Provinces of which 
they are at prefent in Polfeffion afford them fuch certain 
Supplies of Gold and Silver, and at the fame Time they 
find that the Prefervation of thefe Countries requires fuch - 
a ftrength of People, that they are cautious of extend- 
ing their Settlements for fear of leffening their Security ; 
and therefore the great Maxim of their P olicy is to conceal 
the Notices they from time to time receive of new Mines, 
that they may not come to the Knowledge of Strangers, 
whofe Neighbourhood they dread, and not without Rea- 
fon •, fince if any hardy and induftrious Nation fhould 
ever fix themfelves effecftually in any Part of either of 
thefe Continents, the Spaniards would foon feel what they 
fo much fear, the Impoffibility of keeping the Countries 
they poffefs at prefent. But it may not be amifs^ before 
we conclude this Sedtion, and part with the Subjedb, to 
give the Reader a general Notion of the Advantages 
derived to Spain, from the Conquefts made by her Sub- 
jedls in the two America’s. 
The common Opinion is, that his Catholic Ma- 
jefty poffeffes larger Dominions than any Prince in the 
World, and without doubt it is very well founded ^ for, 
with regard to America, the whole Coaft from thirty- 
feven Degrees of North Latitude, to fifty-three Degrees of 
South, is on one Side entirely theirs ; and on the other there 
are only the P ortugueze Colonies in Brazil, with a few 
inconfiderable French and Dutch Settlements, but what 
belongs to them or to the Natives. In a Word, the«^^z- 
niards command in the South Seas the moft extended 
Coaft in the newW^orld, that is, from Caped"/. Sebajiian, 
the moft Northern Point of California, to the Streights 
of Magellan, at leaft two thoufand Leagues, or between 
fix and leven thoufand Miles : They likewife poffefs the 
largeft 
2 
