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and manned by his adventurous townsmen. He sailed in the same direction with Pinzon, but discovered more of the southern continent than any other voyager of the day or for twelve years afterwards. He doubled Cape St. Augustine, and ascertained that the coast beyond ran to the southwest. He landed and performed the usual ceremony of taking possession in the name of the Spanish sovereigns, and in one place carved their names on a magnificent tree of such enormous magnitude that seventeen men with their hands joined could not embrace the trunk. What enhanced the merit of his discoveries was that he had never sailed with Columbus. He had with him however several skilled pilots, who had accompanied the Admiral in his voyage.*

Another expedition of two vessels sailed from Cadiz in October, 1500, under the command of Rodrigo Bastides of Seville. He explored the coast of Terra Firma, passing Cape de la Vela, the western limits of the previous discoveries on the mainland, continuing on to a port since called The Retreat, where afterwards was founded the seaport of Nombre de Dios. His vessels being nearly destroyed by the teredor, or worm, which abounds in

*Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii., cap. 2. Muñoz, part unpublished.

those seas, he had great difficulty in reaching Xaragua in Hispaniola, where he lost his two caravels, and proceeded with his crew by land to San Domingo. Here he was seized and imprisoned by Bobadilla, under pretext that he had treated for gold with the natives of Xaragua.*

Such was the swarm of Spanish expeditions immediately resulting from the enterprises of Columbus; but others were also undertaken by foreign nations. In the year 1497 Sebastian Cabot, son of a Venetian merchant, resident in Bristol, sailing in the service of Henry VII. of England, navigated to the northern seas of the New World. Adopting the idea of Columbus he sailed in quest of the shores of Cathay, and hoped to find a northwest passage to India. In this voyage he discovered Newfoundland, coasted Labrador to the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude, and then returning ran down southwest to the Floridas, when, his provisions beginning to fail, he returned to England. But vague and scanty accounts of this voyage exist, which was important as including the first discovery of the northern continent of the New World.

*Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii., cap. 2. Muñoz, part unpublished.

† Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages, vol. iii., p. 7.

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