fhipwrecked on the coaft of Jamaica. Being driven to great diftrefs in confequence of the natives withholding 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 fkill 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 ficklenefs in withdrawing their affiftance from men whom they had lately fo highly refpected, 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 punifh 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 denunciation with indifference, and others with aftonifhment. 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 requested him to intercede with the Great Spirit to avert the impending deftruction. Columbus promifed 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

he reached at length the harbour of St. Lucar. There he heard of the death of his patronefs queen Isabella, in 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 respect for religion, as he had manifefted in every occurence of his life.

While Columbus had been thus engaged, the fpirit of naval adventure did not languifh in Portugal, the kingdom where it firft acquired vigour. Emmanuel the king, who inherited the enterpriting character of his predeceffor, perfifted in the grand fcheme of opening a paffage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, and equipped a fquadron for that important voyage. He gave the

command of it to Vafco de Gama, a man of noble birth, courage, and prudence, equal to the undertaking. He failed from Lifbon, and had the glory, after encountering violent ftorms and contrary winds from failing at an improper feafon of the year, to double the Cape of Good Hope. He touched at feveral ports, and came to anchor before the city of Melinda, where he found feveral veffels from India. Gama then purfued his voyage with

Nn 4

with almost abfolute certainty of fuccefs, and under the conduct of a Mahometan pilot, arrived at Calecut, upon the coaft of Malabar, May 22, 1498. He here beheld the wealth, population, induftry, and arts of a highly civilized country. But as he poffeffed neither force to attempt a fettlement, nor commodities with which he could carry on commerce, he haftened back to Portugal, with an account of his fuccefs in performing a voyage the longest as well as the moft diflicult that had ever been made fince the invention of navigation. He had been abfent from Lifbon, whither he returned, two years two months and five days. He brought fpecimens of the wealth and produce of the country. The Portuguese afterwards made every advantage of this difcovery; they foon conquered alt the coaft of Malabar, took the city of Goa by ftorm, and made it the capital of their Indian fettlements; and from one of the leaft confiderable, became one of the richeft powers in Europe, gained extenfive dominions in Afia and Africa, and raised a great naval power.

Thus was a new world difcovered in the weft not inferior in extent to all the other parts of the terraqueous globe. In the eaft, unknown feas and countries were found out; and a communication fo long defired was opened between Europe and the opulent regions of India. Vaft objects now prefented themfelves, and a field was opened for the difplay of every fpecies of enterprife.

Private

Private adventurers allured by the defcriptions which Columbus had given of the new regions which he had vifited, offered the court of Spain to fit out fquadrons, and go in queft of new countries. One of the firft adventurers of this kind was Alonfo de Ojeda, an active officer who had accompanied Columbus in his fecond voyage. Without confulting Columbus, but taking advantage of his charts and his journal, he fet fail; he adhered fervilely to the direction Columbus had taken, purfued his courfe to the weft, proceeded as far as Cape de Vela, and ranged along a confiderable part of the coaft where Columbus had touched. Having thus afcertained that this country was part of the continent, Ojeda returned by way of Hifpaniola to Spain. In this voyage Ojeda was accompanied by a Florentine gentleman, Amerigo Vefpucci by name. He had a chief thare in directing the operations during the voyage, as he was an experienced failor. On his return, he had the addrefs and confidence to frame a narrative in fuch a manner as to make it appear, that he had firft difcovered the continent of the New World. As it was the firft defcription of any part of it that had been published, it circulated rapidly, and was read with eagerness and admiration. The country of which Amerigo was fuppofed to be the difcoverer, was called by his name. The error has been continued, and by the univerfal confent of nations, America is the name beftowed upon this new quarter.of the globe, to the great

injury of Columbus, thus robbed of the glory, to which his labours had fo juftly entitled him.

In the first year of the fixteenth century, the fuccessful voyoge of Gama to the Eaft Indies, encouraged the king of Portugal to fit out a fleet, with a view not only to carry on trade, but to attempt conquefts; and he gave the command of it to Pedro Alvarez Cabral. He avoided the coaft of Africa, where he was fure to meet with variable breezes or frequent calms to retard his voyage; boldly stood out to fea, and kept fo far to the weft, that to his furprife he found himself upon the fhore of an unknown country, in the tenth degree beyond the line. He fell in with a country belonging to that province in South America, now known by the name of Brafil. This adventure was the effect of accident, that of Columbus of defign, in a man acting upon a regular plan, and that plan executed with no lefs courage than perfeverance.

Thus have we given a concife account of the discovery of the New World. The fubject is highly interefting, because it difplays a feries of fkill, activity, and enterprife, exerted to furmount the dangers of the ocean, and directed to the difcovery of new and furprifing objects. But if we advance farther, and pursue the course of conqueft and colonization, fentiments of regret will mingle with our researches, when we find that the European adventurers, and particularly the Spaniards, were

led