tism was given. The earliest manuscript map yet known to bear the name "America" is in a collection of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, now preserved in England, this being probably made in 1513-14. It was published in the London Archæologia, and a portion of it is here reproduced. The earliest engraved map bearing the name was made at Vienna in 1520. The globe of Johann Schoner, also made in 1520, and still preserved at Nuremberg, calls what is now Brazil," America sive [or] Brazilia," thus doubtfully recognizing the new name; and it gives what is now known to be the northern half of the continent as a separate island under the name of Cuba. It was many years before the whole was correctly figured and comprehended under one name. Every geographer of those days distributed the supposed islands or continents of the New World as if he had thrown them from a dice-box; and the

royal personages who received gold and slaves from these new regions generally cared very little to know the particulars about them. The young, the ardent, and the reckless sought them for adventure; but their vague and barbarous wonders seemed to princes and statesmen very secondary matters compared with their own intrigues and treaties and royal marriages and endless wars. Vespucci himself may not have

known when his name was first used for the baptism of his supposed discoveries. He was evidently one of those who have more greatness thrust upon them than they have ever claimed for themselves.

Another of the great Spanish explorers was one who left Hispaniola, it is said, to avoid his creditors, and then left the world his debtor in Darien. Vasco Nuñez de Balboa deserves to be remembered as one who at least tried to govern the

Indians with humanity; yet even he could not resist putting them to the torture, by his own confession (dando á unos tormento), in order to discover gold. But he will be better remembered as the first civilized discoverer of the ocean that covers one-half the surface of the globe. Going forty leagues from Darien to visit an Indian chief named Comogre, the Spaniards received a sumptuous present of gold, and as they were quarrelling about it, the eldest son of the chief grew indignant at what he thought their childishness. Dashing the scales, gold and all, to the ground, he told them that he could show them a country rich enough in gold to satisfy all their greediness; that it lay by a sea on which there were ships almost as large as theirs, and that he could guide them thither if they had the courage. "Our captains," says Peter Martyr, “marvelling at the oration of this naked young man, pondered in their minds, and earnestly considered these things."

At a later time Balboa not only considered, but acted, and with one hundred and ninety Spaniards, besides slaves and hounds, he fought his way through forests and over mountains southward. Coming near the mountain-top whence he might expect, as the Indians had assured him, to behold the sea, he bade his men sit upon the ground, that he alone might see it first. Then he looked upon it,

"Silent upon a peak in Darien."

Before him rolled "the Sea of the South," as it was then called (la Mar del Sur), it lying southward of the isthmus where he stood as any map will show-and its vast northern sweep not yet being known. This was on September 25, 1513. On his knees Balboa thanked God for the glory of that moment; then called his men, and after they also had given thanks, he addressed them, reminding them of what the naked prince had said, and pointing out that as the promise

of the southern sea had been fulfilled, so might also that of the kingdom of gold-as it was, indeed, fulfilled long after in the discovery of Peru by Pizarro, who was one of his companions. Then they sang the "Te Deum Laudamus," and a notary drew up a list of all those who were present, sixtyseven in all, that it might be known who had joined in the great achievement. Then he took formal possession of the sea and all that was in it in behalf of Spain; he cut down trees, made crosses, and carved upon the tree trunks the names of Spanish kings. Descending to the sea, some days later, with his men, he entered it, with his sword on, and standing. up to his thighs in the water, declared that he would defend it against all comers as a possession of the throne of Spain. Meanwhile some of his men found two Indian canoes, and for the first time floated on that unknown sea. To Balboa and his companions it was but a new avenue of conquest; and Peter Martyr compares him to Hannibal showing Italy to his soldiers (ingentes opes sociis pollicetur). But to us, who think of what that discovery was, it has a grandeur second only to the moment when Columbus saw the light upon the shore. Columbus discovered what he thought was India, but Balboa proved that half the width of the globe still separated him from India. Columbus discovered a new land, but Balboa a new sea. Seven years later (1520), Magellan also reached it by sailing southward and passing through the straits that bear his name, giving to the great ocean the name of Pacific, from the serene weather which met him on his voyage.

I must not omit to mention one who was the first European visitor of Florida, except as Vespucci and others had traced the outline of its shores. Yet Ponce de Leon made himself immortal, not, like Columbus, by what he dreamed and discovered, but by what he dreamed and never found. Even to have gone in search of the Fountain of Youth was an event that so arrested the human imagination as to have

thrown a sort of halo around a man who certainly never reached that goal. The story was first heard among the Indians of Cuba and Hispaniola, that on the island of Bimini, one of the Lucayos, there was a fountain in which aged men by bathing could renew

their youth. The old English translation of Peter Martyr describes this island as one "in the which there is a continual spring of running water of such marvellous virtue that, the water thereof being drunk, perhaps with some diet, maketh old men young." Others added that on a neighboring shore there was a river of the same magical powers-a river believed by many to be the Jordan. With these visions in his mind, Ponce

de Leon, sailing in command of three brigantines from Porto Rico, where he had been Governor, touched the mainland, in the year 1512, without knowing that he had arrived at it. First seeing it on Easter Sunday-a day which the Spaniards called Pascua Florida, or "Flowery Easter "- he gave this name to the newly discovered shore. He fancied it to be an island whose luxuriant beauty seemed to merit this glowing name-the Indian name having been Cantio. He explored its coast, landed near what is now called St. Augustine, then returned home, and on the way delegated one of his captains, Juan Perez, to seek the island of Bimini, and to search for the Fountain of Youth upon it. He reached the island, but achieved nothing more.