LEIF ERICSON 1 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 15 AMERIGO VESPUCCI 43 JUAN PONCE DE LEON 61 VASCO NUÑEZ DE BALBOA 85 HERNANDO CORTÉS 107 FERDINAND MAGELLAN 185 GIOVANNI VERRAZANO 203 FRANCISCO PIZARRO 217 HERNANDO DE SOTO 249 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN 271 HENRY HUDSON 303 PIERRE ESPRIT RADISSON 337 FATHER MARQUETTE 361 ROBERT DE LA SALLE 383 ROBERT EDWIN PEARY 409 EPILOGUE 427 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Amerigo Vespucci (_See page 45_) _Frontispiece_ Leif Ericson 8 The Landing of Columbus 28 Amerigo Vespucci off the coast of Venezuela 48 Juan Ponce de Leon at the Fountain of Youth 80 Balboa taking possession of the Pacific Ocean in the name of the King of Spain 97 Capture by Cortés of the City of Mexico 178 The Death of Magellan 200 Giovanni Verrazano 208 Execution of the Inca of Peru 245 De Soto in the Florida Wilderness 256 Champlain in the Indian Battle 285 Henry Hudson in New York Harbor 317 Marquette and Joliet discovering the Mississippi River 369 La Salle at the mouth of the Mississippi River 397 Robert Edwin Peary 413 LEIF ERICSON: THE FIRST EUROPEAN TO EXPLORE, AND SETTLE IN, AMERICA. “_From Greenland’s icy mountains; from Iceland’s rocky shore,_ _We sailed the ship which forged ahead and ruddy oarsmen bore;_ _We found the wild grape growing; we scoured the river’s bed,_ _And chased the moose whose horns were broad, whose blood was rich and red._ _Our axes felled the wild-wood, our spears the Skraelings slew,_ _We sank their round skin-barges as the cutting North Winds blew,_ _Over the wild waves rolling, back to the fiords of home,_ _We safely came to anchor,—but we’ll never cease to roam._” Saga of the Vikings, 1000 A. D. FAMOUS DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS OF AMERICA. LEIF ERICSON: THE FIRST EUROPEAN TO EXPLORE, AND SETTLE IN, AMERICA. ON the shore of a great fiord, or estuary of the sea, in the far northern country of Greenland, stood a little boy. He was sturdy-limbed, blue-eyed, flaxen-haired, and he was looking out across the water at a great high-prowed Viking ship which lay bobbing upon the waves.