Of the French and English explorers of later years--Cartier, Champlain, Marquette, Hudson, Drake--who came to Cape Breton, the St. Lawrence, Hudson, and Mississippi valleys, the California coast--the motives were different. These came to fish for cod, to explore the country, to plant the banners of the Sun King and Queen Bess over new territories, to convert the Indians, to find a northwest passage--that problem of the navigators which baffled them all until 1854--362 years after the landing of Columbus--when an English ship, under Sir Robert McClure, sailed from Bering Sea to Davis Strait, and thus proved that America, North and South, was an island. Spaniards, however, had dreamed of a northwest passage before any of these. When Magellan passed through the strait that bears his name, and his ship completed the first circumnavigation of the globe, men began first to see that America was no part of Asia. In further proof they sought to find a passage into the Pacific from the north, as a complement to Magellan's passage from the south. Such an attempt was first made by the Spaniards under Vasquez d'Ayllon, four years after the voyage of Magellan; that is, in 1524. Ayllon was hoping to find this passage when he put in at Hampton Roads, just as Hudson hoped to find it, eighty-five years afterward, when he entered the harbor of New York--Hudson, who in a later voyage, sought it once more in Hudson Bay, and perished miserably there, set adrift in an open boat and abandoned by his own mutinous sailors. F.W.H. CONTENTS VOL. I--VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY AND EARLY EXPLORATIONS PREFACE INTRODUCTION. By the Editor DISCOVERIES BEFORE COLUMBUS I. Men from Asia and from Norway. By Justin Winsor II. How the Norwegians Came to Vinland III. The First European Child IV. Other Pre-Columbian Voyages. By Henry Wheaton THE DISCOVERY BY COLUMBUS: I. As Described by Washington Irving II. As Described by Columbus Himself THE BULL OF POPE ALEXANDER VI PARTITIONING AMERICA THE DISCOVERY OF THE MAINLAND BY THE CABOTS: I. The Account Given by John A. Doyle II. Peter Martyr's Account THE VOYAGES OF VESPUCIUS. Vespucius' Own Account A BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS. As Described by Vespucius THE FIRST ACCOUNT OF AMERICA PRINTED IN ENGLISH THE DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA BY PONCE DE LEON. Parkman's Account THE DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC BY BALBOA. By Manuel Jose Quintana THE VOYAGE OF MAGELLAN TO THE PACIFIC. By John Fiske THE DISCOVERY OF NEW YORK HARBOR BY VERAZZANO. Verazzano's Own Account CARTIER'S EXPLORATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE: I. The Account Given by John A. Doyle II. Cartier's Own Account SEARCHES FOR THE "SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA." By Reuben Gold Thwaites CABEZA DE VACA'S JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH-WEST. De Vaca's Own Account THE EXPEDITION OF CORONADO TO THE SOUTH-WEST. Coronado's Own Account THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI BY DE SOTO. Parkman's Account THE DEATH OF DE SOTO. By One of De Soto's Companions