America, discoverers of.
About the year 860 Noddodr, an illustrious se(arover, driven by a storm.
discovered
Iceland, and named it Snowland.
Not many years afterwards Earl Ingolf, of
Norway, sought
Iceland as a refute from tyranny.
and planted a colony there.
Greenland was discovered by accident.
One of the early settlers in
Iceland was driven westward on the sea by a storm, and discovered
Greenland.
To that retreat
Eric the
Red was compelled to fly from
Iceland, and, finding it more fertile than the latter.
named it
Greenland, made it his place of abode, and attracted other Northmen thither.
Among
Eric's followers was a Norwegian, whose son Bjarni, or Biarne, a promising young man, trading between
Norway and
Iceland, and finding his father gone with
Eric, proposed to his crew to go to his parent in
Greenland.
They were driven westward, and, it is believed, they saw the
American continent in the year 986.
The sons of
Eric heard the stories of Bjarni, and one of them, Lief, sailed in search of the newly discovered land, and found it.
While there continues to be much doubt concerning the authenticity of claims put forth in behalf of extremely early, discoverers, there are unquestioned historical records of
America for the space of over 500 years. It was undoubtedly discovered by Northern navigators early in the eleventh century, and the colony of the son of a Welsh prince.
Madoc (q. v.) probably landed on the
North American continent about the year 1170.
There is no evidence that the Northmen saw more than the coasts of
Labrador and
New England--possibly
Newfoundland; and the landing-place of
Madoc is wholly conjectural.
On Oct. 11, 1492,
Christopher Columbus discovered one of the
Bahama Islands, east of
Florida.
but not the continent.
In the summer of 1498
Sebastian Cabot (commissioned by King Henry VII.
of
England), who sailed from
Bristol in May with two caravels, discovered the
North American continent at
Labrador.
He was seeking a northwest passage to “
Cathay.”
and, being barred from the
Polar Sea by pack-ice, sailed southward, discovered
Labrador, and possibly went along the coast as far as the Carolinas.
He discovered and named
Newfoundland. and found the treasures of codfishes in the waters near it. On Aug. 1 the same summer
Columbus discovered the continent of
South America, near the mouth of the
Orinoco River.
Americus Vespucius, a Florentine, and an agent of the
de Medici family of
Florence, was in
Spain when the great discovery of
Columbus was made.
In May, 1499.
Vespucius sailed from
Spain with
Alonzo de Ojeda as an advanturer and self-constituted geographer for the new-found world.
They followed the southern track of
Columbus in his third voyage, and off the coast of
Surinam, South America, they saw the mountains of the continent.
That was a year after
Columbus first saw the continent of
America.
On his return, in 1500.
Vespucius gave an account of the voyage in a letter to Lorenzo de‘
Medici (for text of letter, see
Americus Vespucius). He made other voyages, and in a letter to Rene.
Duke of
Lorraine, written in 1504, he gave an account of his four voyages, in which he erroneously dated the time of his departure on his first voyage May 29, 1497, or a year or more
Before Columbus and
Cabot severally discovered the
Continent of North and
South America.
In 1505 a narrative of his voyages to
America was published at
Strasburg, entitled
Americus Vesputius de Orbe Antarcticozzz per Regum Portugalliaa Pridem Zzzjurenta.
From that publication, bearing the untrue date of his first voyage.
Vespucius acquired the reputation of being the first discoverer of
America.
Alluding to that false date and the statements under it, the learned and conscientious
Charlevoix wrote that “
Ojeda, when judicially interrogated, gave the lie direct to the statement.”
And
Herrera, an early Spanish historian, accuses
Vespucius of purposely falsifying the date of two of his voyages, and of confounding one with the other.
“in order that he might arrogate to himself the glory of having discovered the continent.”
Finally, when
Columbus was dead, and no voice of accusation or denial could escape his lips, the narratives of
Vespucius were published at St. Diey, in
Lorraine, then, as now, a German frontier province.
At that time
Vespucius was in correspondence with a learned German school-master named
Waldseemuller (
Wood-lake-miller), who was a correspondent
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of the Academy of Cosmography at
Strasburg, founded by the
Duke of
Lorraine.
Waldseemuller suggested to the members of that institution, under whose auspices the narrative of
Vespucius had been published, the name of “America” for the
Western Continent, in compliment to tie reputed discoverer.
This proposition was published, with approval, in a work entitled
Cosmographica Rudimenta, in 1507.
It is believed that this action was taken at the request or suggestion of
Vespucius; at any rate, he is responsible for the fraud, for it was published seven years before the death of the Florentine, and he never repudiated it. “Considering the intimacy of the two parties,” says the learned
Viscount Santerem, “there is no doubt that the geographer was guided by the navigator in what he did.”
The name of America, was given in honor of
Americus Vespucius, for whom a fraudulent claim to be the first discoverer of the
Western Hemisphere was made, and it was done at the suggestion of a German school-master.
Both
Columbus and
Cabot were deprived of the rightful honor.
See
America, discovery of.
In 1499,
Vincent Yañez
Pinzon sailed from
Palos with his brother and four caravels, and, reaching the coast of
South America, discovered the great river Amazon in the spring of 1500.
Before
Pinzon's return,
Pedro Alvarez Cabral, sent by Emanuel,
King of
Portugal, while on an exploring expedition discovered
Brazil, and took possession of it in the name of the crown of
Portugal.
It was within the territory donated by the
Pope to the
Spanish monarchs.
(See
Alexander VI.) A friendly arrangement was made.
and it was ultimately agreed that the
King of
Portugal should hold all the country he had discovered from the river
Amazon to the river
Platte.
On the announcement of the discoveries of
Cabot in the
Northwest, King Emanuel of
Portugal sent
Gaspard Cortereal, a skilful navigator, with two caravels on a voyage of discovery towards the same region.
He saw
Labrador, and possibly
Newfoundland.
and went up the coast almost to
Hudson Bay: and it is believed that he discovered the
Gulf of St. Lawrence.
In 1504
Columbus, in a fourth voyage to
America.
sailed with four caravels through the
Gulf of Mexico, in search of a passage to
India, and discovered
Central America.
In 1506
John Denys, of Honfleur, explored the
Gulf of St. Lawrence. Two years later
Thomas Aubert, a pilot of
Dieppe, visited, it is believed, the island of Cape Breton, and gave it its name.
He carried some of the natives with him to
France.
In 1518 the
Baron de Leri, preparatory to the settlement of a colony on
Sable Island, left some cattle there, whose progeny, four-score years afterwards.
gave food to unfortunate persons left on the island by the
Marquis de la Rochee.
Six years later, Juan
Ponce de Leon, an old Spanish nobleman, sailed from
Porto Rico, in the
West Indies, of which he was governor, in search of an island containing a fabled fountain of youth.
He did not find the spring, but discovered a beautiful land covered with exquisite flowers, and named it
Florida.
In 1520
Lucas Vasquez de Allyou, a wealthy Spaniard, who owned mines in
Santo Domingo, voyaged northwesterly from that island, and discovered the coast of
South Carolina.
Meanwhile the Spaniards had been pushing discoveries westward from
Hispaniola, or
Santo Domingo.
Ojeda also discovered
Central America.
In 1513
Vasco Nuñez
de Balboa discovered the
Pacific Ocean from a mountain summit on the Isthmus of
Darien.
Francisco
Fernandez de Cordova discovered
Mexico in 1517.
Pamphila de Narvaez and
Ferdinand de Soto traversed the country bordering on the
Gulf of Mexico, the former in 1528, and the latter in 1539-41.
In the latter year
De Soto discovered and crossed the
Mississippi, and penetrated the country beyond.
This was the last attempt of the Spaniards to make discoveries in
North America before the
English appeared upon the same field.
It is claimed for Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, that he sailed from
France with four ships, in 1524, on a voyage of discovery, and that he traversed the shores of
America from
Florida to
Nova Scotia.
He is supposed to have entered
Delaware Bay and the harbors of New York.
Newport, and
Boston, and named the country he had discovered New France.
Jacques Cartier discovered the gulf and river St. Lawrence in 1534, and, revisiting them the next year, gave, them that name, because the day when he
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entered their waters was dedicated to St. Lawrence.
In 1576
Sir Martin Frobisher went to
Greenland and
Labrador, and coasting northward discovered the bay that bears his name.
Huguenot adventurers from
South Carolina, floating on the ocean helplessly, were picked up, taken to
England, and by the stories which they told of the beautiful land they had left, caused Queen Elizabeth to encourage voyages of discover in that direction.
Sir Walter Raleigh, favored by the
Queen, sent two ships, commanded by
Philip Amidas and
Arthur Barlow, to the middle regions of the
North American coast.
They discovered
Roanoke Island and the main near, and in honor of the unmarried
Queen the whole country was named
Virginia.
In 1602
Bartholomew Gosnold, sailing from
England directly across the
Atlantic, discovered the continent on May 14, near
Nahant, Mass., and sailing southward also discovered a long, sandy point, which he named
Cape Cod, because of the great number of that fish found there.
He also discovered
Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and the
Elizabeth Islands.
In 1604
Martin Pring discovered the coast of
Maine.
Again the
French had turned their attention to
North America.
M. de Chastes, governor of
Dieppe, having received a charter from the
King, of
France to form a settlement in New France, he employed
Samuel Champlain, an eminent navigator, to explore that region.
He sailed from Honfleur in March, 1603, went up the
St. Lawrence in May to
Quebec, and, returning to
France, found
De Chastes dead, and the concession granted to him transferred by the
King to
Pierre du Gast, Sieur de Monts, a wealthy
Huguenot, who accompanied
Champlain on another voyage to the
St. Lawrence the next year.
In 1608 he went up the
St. Lawrence again ; and the following summer, while engaged in war with some Hurons and Algonquins against the
Iroquois, he discovered the lake that bears his name in northern New York.
At the same time,
Henry Hudson, a navigator in the employ of the
Dutch East India Company, entered the harbor of
New York ( September, 1609) and asceniled the river that bears his name as far as
Albany.
The region of the
Great Lakes and the upper valley of the Mississippi were discovered and explored by French traders and Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century.
So early as 1640 the former penetrated the western wilds from
Quebec.
Father Allouez set up a cross and the arms of
France westward of the lakes in 1665.
Father Marquette, another Jesuit missionary, pushed farther in 1673, and discovered the upper waters of the
Mississippi.
Father Hennepin, who accompanied
La Salle, explored the
Mississippi in a canoe from the mouth of the
Illinois River, northward, in 1680, and discovered and named the
Falls of St. Anthony.
A little later
Robert Cavelier de la Salle, an enterprising young trader, penetrated to the
Mississippi, and afterwards visited the coast of
Texas from the sea and planted the germ of a colony in
Louisiana.
See
Americus Vespucius;
Cabeza De Vaca;
Cabot, Sebastian;
Columbus, Christopher;
Verrazzano, Giovanni da;
Vasquez De Allyon. 
