All These Islands Are Between 16 And 20 Degrees Of Northern Latitude[6].

While the admiral was sailing in quest of discoveries, his brethren and those who were left in Hispaniola, were much incommoded by an insurrection among the savages; and Columbus went back to Spain, to give an account of his proceedings to the king and queen.

In January 1494, a congress of ambassadors from Spain and Portugal was held at Tordesillas, for the settlement of all disputes between the two countries respecting the new discoveries. The plenipotentiaries from Spain were Don Henry Henriques, Don John de Cardenas, and the Doctor Maldonado; those from Portugal, Ruy de Sosa, his son Don John, and the doctor Ayres de Almada. After some conference, these plenipotentiaries divided the world between the two crowns, by a meridian line drawn from north to south, 300 leagues to the west of the islands of Cape Verd, all to the east of this line being appropriated to Portugal, and all to the west to Spain; leaving, however, the liberty of navigation equally to both[7]. In 1495, John II. King of Portugal, died, and was succeeded by his cousin Emanuel.

In the year 1496, a Venetian named John Cabota, or Gabota, went to England; and having acquired a knowledge of the new discoveries, and perceiving by the globe that the islands of the Antilles were almost in the same latitude with his own country, and lay much nearer to England than Spain and Portugal, he acquainted Henry VII. with this circumstance, and offered his services to make discoveries for the crown of England. Henry was much pleased with the proposal, and furnished him with two ships and three hundred men, with which he set sail in the spring of that year, and sailed west till he came in sight of land, in lat. 45 deg.N. Whence he sailed northwards till he came into the latitude of 60 degrees, where the day is 18 hours long, and the night is very clear and bright. He there found the air very cold, with great islands of ice, and found no bottom with a line of 100 fathoms. From thence, finding the land turn eastwards, he coasted along it, discovering all the bay and river named Deseado[8], to see if it passed on to the other side of the land. Cabot afterwards sailed down the coast to the lat. of 38 deg.N. though some people allege that he reached Cape Florida, in 25 deg.N.

In the year 1497, Columbus was again sent out on discovery, with six ships furnished by the crown of Spain, and two others fitted out at his own expence. Sending his brother before, he sailed from Cadiz, taking his son Don Diego along with him. It was then reported, that he meant to take the island of Madeira, because he distrusted the Frenchmen, and therefore sent three ships thither; others say, that his object was for the Canaries. However this may be, he went with four ships to the Cape de Verd islands, whence he ran along a parallel, finding great rains and calms, and the first land he came to in the Antilles was an island in nine degrees of north latitude, called Trinidada,[9] which lies close to the main land. Here he entered the Gulf of Paria, and came out by the Bocca de Dragone, or Dragons-mouth. Holding his course westwards along the coast of Paria, he came to the islands called Los Testigos, or the Witnesses, beyond which is the island of Cubagua, where there is a great fishing for pearl-muscles, and where also there is a well of rock oil. Beyond that he came to the Frailes islands, named Roques, Aruba, and Curacoa, and other small islands, along the coast of the main land, and to the point of land named Cabo de Vela, having discovered 200 leagues of coast. He thence crossed over the Caribbean Sea, directly north for Hispaniola, passing by the island Beata.

In this same year[10] 1497, on the 20th day of June[11], King Emanuel sent a squadron of three ships for India, commanded by one Vasques de Gama, having under his command his brother Paulus de Gama and Nicolas Coello, as captains of the other two ships, the whole having a complement of 120 men. They were accompanied by a fourth ship laden with provisions. In fourteen days they reached the island of St Jago, one of the Cape Verds, whence they went along the coast beyond the Cape of Good Hope, erecting pillars of stone in proper places, as marks of discovery and possession, and came to Mosambique in lat. 15 deg. S. After staying only a short time there, de Gama went to Mombaza and Melinda, the king of which last place gave him pilots, who conducted him to India, in which passage he discovered Los Baxos do Padua, or the Flats of Padua. In the month of May 1498, de Gama came to anchor before the city of Calicut, _and Panama_[12], where they remained till the first day of September, when they sailed towards the north, discovering all the coast till they came to the island of Angediva, on the western side of India, in 15 deg. N. where they came to an anchor in the beginning of October. They remained here till February 1499, when they departed on their voyage homewards; coming first to Melinda, and so by Mosambique and along the coast to the Cape of Good Hope, and by the islands of Cape de Verd, and lastly to the city of Lisbon, in September of that year, having been absent on their voyage for twenty- six months.

On the 13th of November 1499, Vincent Yannez Pinzon, who had sailed with Columbus in his first voyage of discovery, and his nephew Aries Pinzon, departed from the port of Palos with four well appointed ships, fitted out at their own cost, having a license from the king of Spain to prosecute discoveries in the new world, but with express orders not to touch anywhere that had been visited by Columbus.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 21 of 219
Words from 20539 to 21566 of 224388