It was not until after the first decade of the sixteenth century that the Spaniards, who were to play so large a part in the history of America, began to interest themselves in the penetration of the continent itself, as distinct from the islands in the Caribbean Sea. The voyage of Juan Ponce de Leon, who was obsessed with one of the romantic stories of the period, telling of an island to the north which held the secret of eternal youth, resulted in the acquisition of Florida in 1512--the first Spanish possession in North America. In the next year, 1513, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, a Spanish adventurer who had conquered an American kingdom with his sword, almost accidentally made the great discovery of the Pacific Ocean from the elevation of “a peak in Darien.” After Nuñez had triumphantly taken possession of the whole sea in the name of Spain, and had returned with his news, others hastened to follow him, the most successful being Gil Gonçalez de Avila, who arrived at Nicaragua in 1523. The discovery of the Gulf of Mexico and of Yucatan was delayed even longer than that of the Pacific shore: it was not until 1517 that Hernandez de Cordova touched at the peninsula. But in the next year it and the gulf were explored with some thoroughness by Juan de Grisalva, who brought back to the governor of Cuba the first news of a civilized race living in Mexico, building great cities and rich in gold, to awaken the cupidity of the Spanish adventurers. One great question, however, remained unsolved: the western route to Asia was still to seek. To the voyagers of the early sixteenth century it must have seemed as though the oceans of the world were divided in two by a mighty land barrier, stretching from pole to pole. Apart from the unexpected glimpse of the seas on the other side obtained at the isthmus, nothing was known of the length or width of the new continent, until the problem was solved by Fernao de Magalhães (Magellan) in one of the most remarkable voyages recorded. He set sail from Spain in 1519, and after arriving at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, which was already known, he began a careful search of the unknown coast to the south, always looking for the opening which might lead him to the west. In November of the same year Magellan rounded the southern extremity of the mainland, and sailed joyfully through the straits which bear his name, between the continent and the Fuegian archipelago. He and his men believed that now their journey lay behind them; a few days more with a favouring wind, and they expected to see again lands known to men, some point of the islands of eastern Asia. The wind favoured them indeed, and the name “Pacific,” given by Magellan[5] to the ocean, records his gratitude; but the land was far to seek, and it was not until ninety-nine days had passed, and his crew were come to the last stages of starvation, that he reached the Mariannes, and from thence came in ten days to the Philippines. Not only had he sailed half round