Colorado—The Bright Romance of American HistoryGrable, F. C.
History
Colorado—The Bright Romance of American History
Grable, F. C.
Colorado -- History
A vast area of the country of the Cliff Dwellers has been made into a
National Park and given the name of Mesa Verde. For three years the
restoration of the principal ruins has been carried on by eminent
scientists under direction of the General Government. Spruce Tree
House, one of the restored dwellings, is over two hundred feet long
and it is estimated that when inhabited, it sheltered about four
hundred people.
In the East the light is breaking. A ray here and a ray there, at
first, just the faintest touch of the awakening before the glorious
bursting of the dawn. A voyager crossed the trackless seas, following
Columbus; then another and another, all carrying the advance lights
that were finally to illuminate the darkness and unfold the mysteries
of a New World. It took one hundred years for nine voyagers on tours
of discovery, scattered through the entire century, to sow the seeds
of colonization along the Coast, which, when planted, failed to grow,
withered and died. Much of the time of these navigators was spent in
sailing up and down the eastern coast, seeking a channel through our
Continent in search of the unknown, lying beyond.
Came John Cabot, an Italian Mariner, bearing the English Flag,
authorized to take possession of any lands he found. Four of his ships
went to the bottom and the son continued the discoveries started by
his father. Came Cortereal from Portugal in 1501, who left signs of
his visit along our Coast at various points between the Bay of Fundy
and the coast of Labrador, and then his vessels and all on board
plunged to the bottom. The following year a brother came with a
searching party and they all found graves beneath the waves that for
four hundred years have been sweeping over them. Another brother about
to start to seek the others, was prevented by command of the King.
Came Ponce de Leon from Spain in 1512, having been with Columbus on
his second voyage in 1493. He bore a patent from the King to what was
supposed to be the marvellous Island of Bimini, which he renamed
Florida, from "Pascua Florida," meaning in Spanish "Easter Sunday."
Instead of finding a spring that the Indians claimed to possess great
curative properties and supposed to be a fountain of perpetual youth,
he found his death in an arrow wound from the Indians. Here he passed
over the site of St. Augustine, which later became the oldest
community in the United States, having been located in 1565.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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