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made of the fertility of thefe countries, but encourage Ferdinand and Ifabella to perfevere in profecuting his plans.

In his third voyage, in 1498, he pursued a course different from any he had before undertaken, as he was perfuaded that the region of India lay to the fouth-weft of the countries he had difcovered; he touched firft at the Canaries, and then at the Cape de Verd iflands. When he came under the line, the heat became fo exceffive, that many of his wine cafks burft, the liquor in them foured, and the provifions corrupted. The Spaniards, who had never ventured fo far to the fouth, were afraid that the fhips would take fire, and began to apprehend the reality of what the ancients had taught concerning the deftructive qualities of that torrid region of the globe. Thefe circumstances, added to the illnefs of their commander, brought on by extreme vigilance and anxiety, induced him to alter his courfe to the north-weft, in order to reach fome of the Caribbee iflands, where he might refit, and be fupplied with provifions.

On the firft of Auguft, the man ftationed in the round top, furprifed them with the joyful cry of land! They ftood towards it, and the admiral gave it the name of Trinidad, which it ftill retains. It lies on the coaft of Guiana, near the mouth of the river Oronooko. Columbus juftly concluded that this vaft body of water, fo great as to freshen the ocean many leagues with its flood, could not be fupplied

fupplied by any island, but must flow through a country of great extent; and of courfe that he was now arrived at that continent which had fo long been the object of his wifhes. Full of this idea, he steered to the weft, and discovered those provinces of South America now known by the names of Paria and Cumana. He landed in feveral places, and had fome friendly intercourse with the natives, who refembled thofe of Hifpaniola, and wore as ornaments fmall plates of gold, and pearls of confiderable value, which they willingly exchanged for European toys. They feemed to poffefs better understandings and greater courage than the inhabitants of the islands. The admiral was fo much delighted with the beauty and fertility of the country, that, with the warın enthufiafin of a difcoverer, he imagined it to be the Paradife defcribed in Scripture, which the Almighty chofe for the refidence of man while he retained the innocence, which rendered him worthy of fuch a habitation. He carried off fix of the natives, and returned to Hifpaniola. Thus had Columbus the glory of difcovering the exiftence of a new world, and was the first man who conducted the Spaniards to that vaft continent, which has been the chief feat of their empire, and the fource of their treasure in this quarter of the globe. Whilft Columbus was thus nobly employed, Ferdinand and Ifabella liftened to the complaints of his enemies, and Francis de Bovadilla, a knight of Calatrava, was appointed with full powers to inquire into his conduct in the ifland of Hifpaniola. This envious and unjuft governor treated him as a criminal, and actually fent

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him and his two brothers in chains to Spain. The king and queen, afhamed of their conduct and their fufpicions, ordered him to be fet at liberty as foon as he landed; expreffed their forrow for what had paffed, and promifed him their future protection.

In the year 1502, this moft enterprising navigator undertook a fourth voyage; when he arrived at St. Domingo, he had the mortification to be refused admiffion, by the Spanish governor, to enter the harbour; and he was thus excluded from a country of which he had fo recently discovered the existence. A ftorm foon after arose, in which a fleet destined for Spain, confifting of eighteen fhips, and commanded by Bovadilla, Roldan, and others, who had been active enemies to Columbus, perished with nearly all their fhips; together with them all the wealth acquired by their injuftice and cruelty was fwallowed up. Among the fhips that escaped, one had on board all the effects of Columbus, which had been recovered from the ruin of his fortune. This was a manifest instance of the interpofition of divine Providence to avenge the wrongs of an injured man, and to punish the oppreffors of an innocent people. Columbus difcovered Guanaia, an island not far diftant from the coaft of Honduras, and all the coaft of the continent from Cape Gracias a Dios to a harbour which, on account of its beauty, he called Porto Bello. After fearching in vain for a paffage to the Indian ocean, on his return he was fhipwrecked on the coaft of Jamaica. Being driven to great diftrefs in confequence of the natives with

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holding a fupply of provifions, he had recourfe to a happy artifice, which not only produced the defired relief, but heightened the favourable ideas the Indians had originally entertained of the Spaniards. By his skill in aftronomy, he knew that there would fhortly be a total eclipfe of the moon. He affembled all the principal perfons of the diftrict the day before it happened, reproached them for their caprice in withdrawing their affiftance from men whom they had lately fo highly respected, and told them that the Great Spirit was fo offended at their want of humanity to the Spaniards, his faithful fervants, that in order to punish them with extreme feverity, that very night, the moon fhould withhold her light, and appear of a bloody hue, as a fign of divine wrath, and an emblem of his vengeance ready to fall on them. Some of them heard this threat with indifference, and others with aftonishment. But when the moon began gradually to be darkened, all were ftruck with terror; they ran with confternation to their houfes, and returned inftantly loaded with provifions, which they laid at the feet of Columbus, and requefted him to intercede with the Great Spirit to avert the impending deftruction. Columbus promised to comply with their defire; and from that time the Spaniards were not only fupplied with provifions, but the natives avoided every thing which could give them offence. After experiencing many hardships from the mutiny of his crew, and the dangers of the fea, he reached at length the harbour of St. Lucar. There he heard of the death of his patronefs queen Ifabella, in whofe

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whofe juftice and humanity he expected to have found redrefs for all his grievances. As foon as his health would allow he went to court; but from Ferdinand he received only fair words and unmeaning promifes. Difgufted with the ingratitude of this monarch, whom he had ferved with fuch fidelity and fuccefs, and exhaufted with fatigue, he died at Valladolid, aged only 59, A.D. 1506. He clofed his life with a magnanimity which fuited his character, and with fuch fentiments of piety and refpect for religion, as he had manifefted in every occurrence of his life.

To Sebaftian Cabot, an Englishman born at Brif tol, in 1467, may be affigned the glory of difcovering the continent of North America. He was the fon of John Cabot a Venetian, who refided feveral years at Briftol; his father gave Sebaftian an excellent education to qualify him for the profeffion of a mariner, and before he was twenty years of age made him his companion in feveral voyages. They failed from Brifiol in the fpring of 1494, and purfuing their courfe with favourable winds, on the 24th of June faw Newfoundland, to which they gave the name of Prima Vifta, or firft feen. or firft feen. Cabot the father dying foon after, a new patent was granted to his fon Sebaftian, by Henry VII. to proceed again in queft of discoveries, and he failed from England on the 4th of May, 1497, before Columbus had commenced his third-the moft important of all his voyages. Cabot failed to a latitude as high as 67 deg. 30 min. north, from whence fhap

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