16.  Other Spanish Expeditions.—­Many other Spanish explorers visited the shores of the United States before 1550.  Some sailed along the Pacific coast; others sailed along the Atlantic coast.  The Spaniards also made several attempts to found settlements both on the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico and on Chesapeake Bay.  But all these early attempts ended in failure.  In 1550 there were no Spaniards on the continent within the present limits of the United States, except possibly a few traders and missionaries in the Southwest.

[Sidenote:  Verrazano’s voyages, 1524. Higginson, 44-45; Explorers, 60-69.]

[Sidenote:  Cartier in the St. Lawrence, 1534-36. Explorers 99-117.]

17.  Early French Voyages, 1524-36.—­The first French expedition to America was led by an Italian named Verrazano (Ver-rae-tsae’-no), but he sailed in the service of Francis I, King of France.  He made his voyage in 1524 and sailed along the coast from the Cape Fear River to Nova Scotia.  He entered New York harbor and spent two weeks in Newport harbor.  He reported that the country was “as pleasant as it is possible to conceive.”  The next French expedition was led by a Frenchman named Cartier (Kar’-tya’).  In 1534 he visited the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  In 1535 he sailed up the St. Lawrence River to Montreal.  But before he could get out of the river again the ice formed about his ships.  He and his crew had to pass the winter there.  They suffered terribly, and twenty-four of them perished of cold and sickness.  In the spring of 1536 the survivors returned to France.

[Sidenote:  Ribault explores the Carolina coasts, 1562.]

[Sidenote:  French colonists in Carolina. Explorers, 149-156.]

18.  The French in Carolina, 1562.—­The French next explored the shores of the Carolinas.  Ribault (Re’-bo’) was the name of their commander.  Sailing southward from Carolina, he discovered a beautiful river and called it the River of May.  But we know it by its Spanish name of St. Johns.  He left a few men on the Carolina coast and returned to France.  A year or more these men remained.  Then wearying of their life in the wilderness, they built a crazy boat with sails of shirts and sheets and steered for France.  Soon their water gave out and then their food.  Finally, almost dead, they were rescued by an English ship.

[Sidenote:  French colonists in Florida.]

19.  The French in Florida, 1564-65.—­While these Frenchmen were slowly drifting across the Atlantic, a great French expedition was sailing to Carolina.  Finding Ribault’s men gone, the new colony was planted on the banks of the River of May.  Soon the settlers ate up all the food they had brought with them.  Then they bought food from the Indians, giving them toys and old clothes in exchange.  Some of the colonists rebelled.  They seized a vessel and sailed away to plunder the Spaniards in the West Indies.  They told the Spaniards of the colony on the River of May, and the Spaniards resolved to destroy it.