9.  Balboa and Magellan, 1513, 1520.—­Balboa was a Spaniard who came to San Domingo to seek his fortune.  He became a pauper and fled away from those to whom he owed money.  After long wanderings he found himself on a high mountain in the center of the Isthmus of Panama.  To the southward sparkled the waters of a new sea.  He called it the South Sea.  Wading into it waist deep, he waved his sword in the air and took possession of it for his royal master, the King of Spain.  This was in 1513.  Seven years later, in 1520, Magellan, a Portuguese seaman in the service of the Spanish king, sailed through the Straits of Magellan and entered the same great ocean, which he called the Pacific.  Thence northward and westward he sailed day after day, week after week, and month after month, until he reached the Philippine Islands.  The natives killed Magellan.  But one of his vessels found her way back to Spain around the Cape of Good Hope.

CHAPTER 2

SPANISH AND FRENCH PIONEERS IN THE UNITED STATES

[Sidenote:  Indian traditions.]

10.  Stories of Golden Lands.—­Wherever the Spaniards went, the Indians always told them stories of golden lands somewhere else.  The Bahama Indians, for instance, told their cruel Spanish masters of a wonderful land toward the north.  Not only was there gold in that land; there was also a fountain whose waters restored youth and vigor to the drinker.  Among the fierce Spanish soldiers was Ponce de Leon (Pon’tha da la-on’).  He determined to see for himself if these stories were true.

[Sidenote:  De Leon visits Florida, 1513. Higginson, 42.]

[Sidenote:  De Leon’s death.]

11.  Discovery of Florida, 1513.—­In the same year that Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean, Ponce de Leon sailed northward and westward from the Bahamas.  On Easter Sunday, 1513, he anchored off the shores of a new land.  The Spanish name for Easter was La Pascua de los Flores.  So De Leon called the new land Florida.  For the Spaniards were a very religious people and usually named their lands and settlements from saints or religious events.  De Leon then sailed around the southern end of Florida and back to the West Indies.  In 1521 he again visited Florida, was wounded by an Indian arrow, and returned home to die.

[Sidenote:  Discovery of the Mississippi.]

[Sidenote:  Conquest of Mexico.]

12.  Spanish Voyages and Conquests.—­Spanish sailors and conquerors now appeared in quick succession on the northern and western shores of the Gulf of Mexico.  One of them discovered the mouth of the Mississippi.  Others of them stole Indians and carried them to the islands to work as slaves.  The most famous of them all was Cortez.  In 1519 he conquered Mexico after a thrilling campaign and found there great store of gold and silver.  This discovery led to more expeditions and to the exploration of the southern half of the United States.