Christians were enabled to besiege Granada, the Moorish capital; but the capitulation of that city in January, 1492, put an end to the Saracen dominion in the Spanish peninsula, after it had existed there during a period of eight hundred years. In the year 1512 Ferdinand invaded and conquered Navarre; and thus the whole of Spain as united under the same government.

KI. POR-
TUGAL.

16. Toward the close of the eleventh century, the frontier province of Portugal,' which had been conquered by the Christians from the Moors, was formed into an earldom tributary to Leon and Castile; but in the twelfth cen tuy it was erected into an independent kingdom, and in the early part of the thirteenth it had reached its present limits. The history of fortugal is devoid of general interest, until the period of those voyages and discoveries of which the Portuguese were the early pro moters and which have shed immortal lustre on the Portuguese name

III. DISCOVERIES.—1. A brief account of the discoveries of the fifteenth century will close the present chapter. From the subversion of the Roman empire, until the revival of letters which succeeded the Dark Ages, no advance was made in the art of navigation; and even the little geographical knowledge that had been acquired

1. Portugal, anciently called Lusitania, (Note p. 166,) was taken possession of by the Romans about two hundred years before the Christian era; previously to which the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Greeks, traded to its shores, and probably planted colonies there. In the fifth century it was inundated by the Germanic tribes, and in 712 was conquered by the Saracens Soon after, the Spaniards of Castile and Leon, aided by the native inhabitants, wrested northern Portugal, between the Minho and the Douro, from the Moors, and placed counts or governors over this region. About the close of the eleventh century Henry, a Burgundian prince came into Spain to seek his fortune by his sword, in the wars against the Moors. Alphonse VI. king of Castile and Leon, gave to the chivalric stranger the hand of his daughter in marriage, and also the earldom of the Christian provinces of Portugal. In 1139 the Portuguese arl, Alphonso I., having gained a brilliant victory over the Moors, his soldiers proclaimed hit King on the field of battle; and Portugal became an independent kingdom. Its power now rapidly increased: it maintained its independence against the claims of Castile and Leon; and Alphonso extended his dominions to the borders of Algarve, in the south. In 1249 Alphor:88 MI. conquered Algarve, and thus, in the final overthrow of the Moorish power in Portugal, extended the kingdom to its present limits.

The language of Portugal is merely a dialect of the Spanish; but the two people regard each other with a deep-rooted national antipathy. The character attributed to the Portuguese 's not very flattering. "Strip a Spaniard of all his virtues, and you make a good Portuguese of him," says the Spanish proverb. "I have heard it more truly said," says Dr. Southey "add hypocrisy to a Spaniard's vices, and you have the Portuguese character. The two nations differ, perhaps purposely, in many of their habits. Almost every man in Spain smokes; the Portuguese never smoke, but most of them take snuff. None of the Spaniards will use a wheelbarrow: none of the Portuguese will carry a burden: the one says, it is only fit for beasts to draw carriages; the other, that it is fit only for beasts to carry burdens.'" (Map No. XJIL

was nearly lost during that gloomy period. Upon the returning dawn of civilization, however, commerce again revived; and the Italian States, of which Venice, Pisa,' and Genoa, took the lead, soon became distinguished for their enterprising commercial spirit. The discovery of the magnetic needle gave a new impulse to navigation, as it enabled the mariner to direct his bark with increased boldness and confidence farther from the coast, out of sight of whose landmarks he before seldom dared venture; while the invention of the art of printing disseminated more widely the knowledge of now discoveries in geography and navigation. In the fourteenth century the Canary islands, believed to be the Fortunate islands of the ancients, were accidentally rediscovered by the crew of a French ship driven thither by a storm. But the career of modern discovery was prosecuted with the greatest ardor by the Portuguese. Under the patronage of prince Henry, son of king John the First, Cape Bojador, before considered an impassable limit on the African coast, was doubled; the Cape de Verd' and Azore1 islands were discovered; and the greatest part of the African coast, from Cape Blanco to Cape de Verd, was explored. (1419-1430.)

2. The grand idea which actuated prince Henry, was, by circumnavigating Africa, to open an easier and less expensive route to the Indies, and thus to deprive the Italians of the commerce of those fertile regions, and turn it at once upon his own country. Although prince Henry died before he had accomplished the great object of his ambition, the fame of the discoveries patronized by him had rendered his name illustrious and the learned, the curious, and the

1. Pisa, the capital of one of the most celebrated republics of Italy, and now the capital of the province of its own name in the grand duchy of Tuscany, is on the river Arno, about eight miles from its entrance into the Mediterranean, and thirteen niles north-east from Leghorn. In the tenth century Pisa took the lead among the commercial republics of Italy, and in the eleventh century its fleet of galleys maintained a superiority in the Mediterranean. In thirteenth century a struggle with Genoa commenced, which, after many vicissitudes, ended in the total ruin of the Pisans. Pisa subsequently became the prey of various petty tyrants, and was finally united to Florence in 1406.

2. The Canaries are a group of fourteen islands belonging to Spain. The peak of Teneriffe, a half extinct volcano, on one of the more distant islands, is about two hundred and fifty miles from the north-west coast of Africa, and eight hundred miles south-west from the straits of Gibraltar.

3. The Cape de Verd islands, belonging to Portugal, are off the west coast of Africa, about three hundred and twenty miles west from Cape de Verd.

4. The Azores (az-ōres') are about eight hundred miles west froni Portugal. The name is said to be derived from the vast number of hawks, (called by the Portuguese açor,) by which they were frequented. At the time of their discovery they were uninhabited, and covered with forest and underwood.

adventurous, repaired to Lisbon' to increase their knowledge by the discoveries of the Portuguese, and to join in their enterprises. Among them Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, arrived there about the year 1470 He had already made himself familiar with the navigation of the Mediterranean, and had visited Iceland; and he now accompanied the Portuguese in their expeditions to the coast of Guinea3 and the African islands. But while others were seeking a passage to India by the slow and tedious process of sailing around the southern extremity of Africa, the bold and daring mind of Columbus conceived the project of reaching the desired land by a western route, directly across the Atlantic. The spherical figure of the earth was then known, and Columbus doubted not that our globe might be circumnavigated.

3. Of the gradual maturing and development of the theory of Co. lumbus,―of the poverty and toil which he endured, and the ridicule humiliation, and disappointments which he encountered, as he wan dered from court to court, soliciting the patronage which ignorance, bigotry, prejudice, and pedantic pride, so long denied him,—and of his final triumph, in the discovery of a new continent, equal to the old world in magnitude, and separated by vast oceans from all the earth before known to civilized man,-our limits forbid us to enter into details, and it would likewise be superfluous, as these events have already been familiarized to American readers by the chaste and glowing narrative of their countryman Irving. In the year 1492, the genius of Columbus, more than realizing the dreams of Plato s famous Atlantis, revealed to the civilized world another hemisphere,

1. Lisbon, the capital and principal seaport of Portugal, is situated on the right bank, and near the mouth, of the Tagus. The Moors captured the city in the year 716, and, with some clight exceptions, it remained in their power till, in 1145, Alphonso I. made it the capital of his kingdom. (Map No. XIII.)

2. Iceland is a large island in the Northern Ocean, on the confines of the polar circle. It was discovered by a Norwegian pirate in the year 861, and was soon after settled by Norwe gians. In the year 928 the inhabitants formed themselves into a republic, which existed nearly our hundred years; after which Iceland again became subject to Norway. On the annexation of that kingdom to Denmark, Iceland was transferred with it.

3. Guinea is a name applied by European geographers to designate that portion of the African coast extending from about eleven degrees north of the equator, to seventeen degrees Bouth.

4. Atlantis was a celebrated island supposed to have existed at a very early period in the Atlantic Ocean, and to have been, eventually, sunk beneath its waves. Plato is the first who give an account of it, and he obtained his information from the priests of Egypt. The statement which he furnishes is substantially as follows:

"In the Atlantic Ocean, over against the pillars of Hercules, lay a very large and fertile Island, whose surface was variegated by mountains and valleys, its coasts indented with inany navigable rivers, and its fields well cultivated. In its vicinity were ther islands from which

and first opened a communication between Europe and America that will never cease while the waters of the ocean continue to roll between them. Five years after the discovery of America, Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese admiral, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and had the glory of carrying his national flag as far as India. These were the closing maritime enterprises of the fifteenth century: they opened to the Old World new scenes of human existence: new na tions, new races, and new continents, rapidly crowded upon the vision; and imagination tired in contemplating the future wonders that the genius of discovery was about to develop.

there was a passage to a large continent lying beyond. The island of Atlantis was thickly settled and very powerful: its kings extended their sway over Africa as far as Egypt, and over Europe until they were checked by the Athenians, who, opposing themselves to the invaders, became the conquerors. But at length that At'antic island, by a flood and earthquake, was suddenly destroyed, and for a long time afterwards the sea thereabouts was full of rocks and shoals."

A dispute arose among the ancient philosophers whether Plato's statement was based upon reality, or was a mere creation of fancy. Posidonius thought it worthy of belief: Pliny remains undecided. Among modern writers, Rudbeck labors to prove that Sweden was the Atlantis of the ancients: Bailly places it in the farthest regions of the north, believing that the Atlantides were the far-famed Hyperboreans; while others connect America, with its Mexican and Peruvian remains of a remote civilization, with the legend of the lost Atlantis. In connection with this view they point to the peculiar conformation of our continent along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, where everything indicates the sinking, at a remote period, of a large tract of land, the place of which is now occupied by the waters of the Gulf. And may not the mountain tops of this sunken land still appear to view as the islards of the West Indiza group; and may not the large continent lying beyond Atlantis and the adjacent islands baus boeu none other than America?

21

CHAPTER III.

EUROPEAN HISTORY DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

1. INTRODUCTORY.

ANALYSIS 1. The unity of ancient history. How broken, in the history of the Middle Agos. Still less unity in modern history. How, only, confusion can be avoided. —2. Approxi mation towards a knowledge of universal history. Future plan of the work. What must not be overlooked, and what aiore we can hope to accomplish.-3. State of Europe at the beginuing of the sixteenth century. Condition of Persia. Mogul empire in Hindostan. China. Egypt. The New World. Where, only, we look for historic unity.

II. THE AGE OF HENRY VIII., AND CHARLES V.

1. Rise of the STATES-SYSTEM OF EUROPE. Growing intricacy of the relations between States.-2. Causes of the first development of the States-system.-3. The Great power of Austria under Charles V.-4. Ferdinand, the brother of Charles. Philip II., son of Charles.-5. Beginning of THE RIVALRY BETWEEN FRANCIS I. AND CHARLES V. The favor of HENRY VIII. OF ENGLAND courted by both.-6. Favorable position of Henry at the time of his accession.-7. Efforts of Charles and Francis to win his favor. The result.-8. Efforts of Francis to recover Navarre. The Italian war that followed. Francis defeated, and made prisoner, in the battle of Pavia. [House of Bourbon.]-9. Imprisonment, and release, of Francis.-10. A general league against Charles V.-11. Operations of the duke of Bourbon in Italy. Pillage of Rome, and death of Bourbon.---12. Captivity of the pope. The French army in Italy. The peace of Cambray.-13. The domestic relations of Henry VIII.-14. The rise, power, and fall, of Wolsey. [Wolsey's soliloquy.]

15. THE REFORMATION. The maxim of religious freedom. Papal power and pretensions at this period. Persecution of reformers. [Wickliffe. Council of Constance. The Albigenses.] Effect of advancing civilization on papal power. Avarice of pope Leo. X. Indulgences. Martin Luther. [Wittemberg.]-16. Luther's first opposition to the Church of Rome. His gradual progress in rejecting the doctrines and rites of popery. His writings declared heretical. He burns the papal bull of condemnation.-17. Declaration of the Sorbonne. [Sorbonne.] The diet of Worms. Henry VIII. joins in opposing Luther.-18. Circumstances in Luther's favor. Decrees of the diet of Spires. Protest of the Reformers. [Spires.]-19. The diet of Augs Furg, 1530. [Augsburg.]—Melancthon. Result of the diet. League of the Protestants. Henry VIII. and Francis 1. favor the Protestant cause.-20. Invasion of Hungary by the Turks. Cru Sade of Charles V. against the Moors. [Algiers.] Renewal of the war by the French monarch. [Savoy.] Invasion of France by Charles.-21. Brief truce, and renewal of the war. [Nice.] The Parties to this war, and its results. [Cerisoles. Boulogne.]-22. War carried on by Charles against his Protestant German subjects. Revolt of Maurice of Saxony.-23. Surprise and mor tification of Charles, and final treaty of Augsburg. [Passau.]

24. Circumstances which led to the ABDICATION AND RETIREMENT OF CHARLES V. [St. Just. 25. The emperor in his retirement.-26. The Protestant States of Europe. Character of the Kefor. mation in England. Religious intolerance of Henry. Character of Henry's government.-27. Brief reign of Edward VI. Reign of Mary. Character of her reign. War with France. [St. Quentin.] Death of Mary, and accession of Elizabeth, 1588.

III. THE AGE OF ELIZABETH.

1. The claims of Elizabeth not recognized by the Catholic States. MARY OF SCOTLAND.—2. Progress of Protestant principles in England. Philip II. Effect of the rivalry between France and Spain.-3. Death of Henry II. of France. Francis IL. and Charles IX. Mary proceeds to