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was the arrival of Francis de Bovadilla, with a commission to supersede Columbus in his government, and with power to arraign him as a criminal, and to judge of his former adminis

tration.

56. It seems that by this time the enemies of Columbus, despairing to complete his overthrow by groundless insinuations of misconduct, had taken the more effectual method of exciting the jealousy of their sovereigns.

57. From the promising samples of gold, and other valuable commodities brought from America, they took occasion to represent to the king and queen, that the prodigious wealth and extent of the countries he had discovered, would soon throw such power into the hands of the viceroy, that he would trample on the royal authority, and bid defiance to the Spanish

power.

58. These arguments were well calculated for the cold and suspicious temper of Ferdinand, and they must have had some effect upon the mind of Isabella. The consequence was, the appointment of Bovadilla, who had been the inveterate enemy of Columbus, to take the government from his hands. This first tyrant of the Spanish nation in America, began his administration by ordering Columbus to be put in chains on board a ship, and sending him prisoner to Spain.

59. By relaxing all discipline, he introduced disorder and licentiousness throughout the colony. He subjected the natives to a most miserable servitude, and apportioned them out in large numbers among his adherents. Under this severe treatment, perished, in a short time, many thousands of those innocent people.

60. Columbus was carried in his fetters to the Spanish court, where the king and queen either feigned or felt a sufficient regret at the conduct of Bovadilla towards this illustrious prisoner. He was not only released from his confinement, but treated with all imaginable respect.

61. But although the king endeavored to expiate the offense, by censuring and recalling Bovadilla, yet we may judge of his sincerity, from his appointing Nicholas de Ovando, another bitter enemy of Columbus, to succeed in the government, and from his ever after refusing to reinstate Columbus, or to fulfill any of the conditions on which the discoveries were undertaken.

62. After two years solicitation for this or some other employment, he at length obtained a squadron of four small vessels, to attempt new discoveries. He now set out with the ardor and enthusiasm of a young adventurer, in quest of what was always his favorite object, a passage into the South Sea, by which he might sail to India. He touched at Hispaniola, where

Ovando, the governor, refused him admittance on shore, even to take shelter during a hurricane, the prognostics of which, his experience had taught him to discern.

63. By putting into a small creek, he rode out the storm, and then bore away for the continent. Several months, in the most boisterous season of the year, he spent in exploring the coast round the gulf of Mexico, in hopes of finding the intended navigation to India. At length he was shipwrecked and driven ashore on the isle of Jamacia.

64. His cup of calamities seemed now completely full. He was cast upon an isle of savages, without provisions, without any vessel, and thirty leagues from any Spanish settlements. But the greatest providential misfortunes are capable of being embittered by the insults of our fellow-creatures.

65. A few of his hardy companions generously offered, in two Indian canoes, to attempt a voyage to Hispaniola, in hopes of obtaining a vessel for the relief of the unhappy crew. After suffering every extremity of danger and hardship, they arrived at the Spanish colony in ten days. Ovando, through personal malice and jealousy of Columbus, after having detained these messengers eight months, dispatched a vessel to Jamaica, in order to spy out the condition of Columbus and his crew, with positive instructions to the captain not to afford them any relief.

66. This order was punctually executed. The captain approached the shore, delivered a letter of empty compliments from Ovando to the admiral, received his answer, and returned. About four months afterwards, a vessel came to their relief; and Columbus, worn out with fatigues, and broken with misfortunes, returned for the last time to Spain.

67. Here a new distress awaited him, which he considered as one of the greatest he had suffered in his whole life. This was the death of queen Isabella, his last and greatest friend.

68. He did not suddenly abandon himself to despair. He called upon the gratitude and justice of the king, and, in terms of dignity, demanded the fulfillment of the former contract.

69. Notwithstanding his age and infirmities, he even solicited to be further employed in extending the career of discovery, without a prospect of any other reward, but the consciousness of doing good to mankind. But Ferdinand, cold, ungrateful, and timid, dared not to comply with a single proposal of this kind, lest he should increase his own obligations to a man whose services he thought it dangerous to reward.

70. He therefore delayed and avoided any decision on these subjects, in hopes that the declining health of Columbus would soon rid the court of the remonstrances of a man, whose extraordinary merit was, in their opinion, a sufficient occasion of destroying him.

71. In this they were not disappointed. Columbus languish. ed a short time, and died at Valladolid, in the fifty-ninth year of his age; gladly resigning a life which had been worn out in the most essential services that perhaps were ever rendered, by any human character, to an ungratefal world.*

CHAPTER XXXIX.

DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA. Oct. 12, The first land in North America discovered by CoO. S. lumbus, was Guanabana, one of the Bahama isles, Cuba and Hayti, called Hispaniola, were discovered by him in the same voyage. He left a part of his men in Hayti.

1492.

1493.

1498.

1495.

1499.

1499.

1500.

Columbus, in his second voyage, discovered several of the West India isles, to which he gave the names of Dominico, Maragalant, Guadaloupe, Montserrat, and Antigua.

The men which Columbus had left, having been killed, he, in this voyage, built a new town, which he called Isabella, after the name of the queen of Spain.

This town was abandoned, and that of St. Domingo, on the south side of the isle, was built. This was the first permanent settlement of Europeans, in North America.

Columbus, in his third voyage, discovered and named Trinidad; and in August he discovered the continent of South America.

John Cabot, under a commission from Henry VIII, king of England, discovered Newfoundland and St. Johns.

John Cabot, and his sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sanctius, received a commission to make discoveries in America; and Sebastian discovered the continent at Labrador, in June, about six weeks before Columbus discovered the southern continent.

Ojeda, a Spanish officer, accompanied by Amerigo Vespucci, a gentleman of Florence, discovered South America; and from his name, by some means, this continent obtained the name AMERICA.

Two Spaniards, by the name of Pinzon, discovered the great river Maranon, in South America, the largest river on the globe. This river was most absurdly na

med Amazon.

* He died May 20, 1506.

1524.

1535.

1540.

1606.

1584.

1606.

1608.

1602.

1608.

1613,

or

1614.

1614.

1620.

One Verrazano was sent by the French king, to make discoveries in America. He sailed along the northern coast, and gave it the name of New France. One Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The next year he entered the same river, and penetrated as far as Montreal.

Cartier, accompanied by Moberval, and about two hundred men and women, made a settlement on the bank of the river St. Croix. The territory was called by the French, Acadia; but by the English, Nova Scotia.

The first settlement of Canada was made by Du Mont. It was afterwards taken by some English adventurers, but restored by treaty, and continued in the possession of the French, until it was reduced under the English government by General Wolfe.

The first grant of land within the present United States, was made to Sir Walter Ralegh. This was called Virginia.

King James divided Virginia into North and South Virginia, and the latter was granted to the London Company. This grant was vacated, and another made, with different limits.

Sir Walter made unsuccessful attempts to settle Virginia, but the colonies were destroyed by the savages. The first permanent settlement was made on James river, and the town called Jamestown.

One Gosnold, an Englishman, attempted to make a settlement on Cattahunk, one of the Elizabeth isles: he took possession of an islet, in a pond; but the project was abandoned.

Capt. Popham, with one hundred adventurers, began a settlement on Mohegan, an isle, near the mouth of the Kennebec. But a severe winter, and the death of Popham, broke up the settlement.

The Dutch built a fort at Albany, and afterwards on the isle of Manhadoes, or Manhattan, now New York. The settlement was called New Amsterdam, and the country New Netherlands.

Capt. John Smith visited North America, sailed along the coast, from the Kennebec to Cape Cod; returned to England, made a chart of the coast, and gave the country the name of New England.

The first settlement in Massachusetts was made by a company of puritans, who fled from persecution in England, to Holland, and afterwards came to America.

1628.

1630.

1633.

1635. 1636.

1639.

1635.

They planted the colony of Plymouth, which was afterwards incorporated with Massachusetts.

Salem, in Massachusetts, was settled under a grant of the Plymouth company, in England; and in the following years were settled Charlestown and Boston.

The first building erected in Connecticut, was a trading-house, within the limits of Windsor. Soon after, a few planters settled in Wethersfield; and Hartford was settled by Mr. Hooker's congregation, which migrated from Cambridge, in Massachusetts.

New Haven was settled by a number of persons, under the conduct of their venerable minister, Mr. Davenport. Saybrook was settled by Mr. Fenwick, about the same time.

Providence was planted by Roger Williams, who left Massachusetts and Plymouth, in consequence of the 1639. unpopularity of his doctrines. A party from Boston, under John Clarke, settled Newport.

1632.

1664.

1670.

1681.

1732.

Maryland was settled by Cecelius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, and a company of Catholics from Ireland.

The first settlers of the land now called Delaware, were Swedes and Dutch. Some persons from New Haven attempted to establish themselves there, but they either died or were driven away, and the attempt failed.

New Jersey was settled under a grant of the Duke of York, dated as in the margin, but the particular time of the first settlement is not known.

South Carolina was settled by Capt. Sayle, with a company of people, first at Port Royal, and afterwards on the bank of Ashley river, where now is Charleston. Pennsylvania was settled by William Penn, under a grant from Charles the second. He was a quaker, and this circumstance brought many of his friends to join the colony. Their descendants form a respectable society.

North Carolina was planted by people from Virginia; But their first settlement is not ascertained.

Georgia was settled by a number of benevolent adventurers, under General Oglethorpe. The first settlement was on the bank of the Savannah, and the town bears the name of the river.

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