America: its geographical history 1492-1892; six lectures delivered to graduate students of the Johns Hopkins University;

Its Geographical History

WALTER B. SCAIFE

Studies in HisTORicALc^roLiTiCALSciENCE

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Johns Hopkins Univeesity Studies

IN

HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

HEEBERT B. ADAMS, Editok

History is past Politics and Politics present History— freeman

EXTRA VOLUME
XIII

AMERICA

ITS GEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

1492-1892

Six Lectures delivered to Graduate Students op
THE Johns Hopkins University

WITH A

SUPPLEMENT

ENTITLED

WAS THE RIO DEL ESPIRITU SANTO OF THE SPAN-
ISH GEOGRAPHERS THE MISSISSIPPI?

By WALTER B. SCAIFE, Ph. D. (Vienna)

'y AKOt'

BALTIMORE

The Johns Hopkins Press
1892

COPYBTGHT, 1892, BY THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS.

JOHN HUBPHT A CO, PRINTKE8,
BALTIMOBB.

CONTENTS.

PAOE.

I. — The Development of the AtIiAntic CJoast in the Con-
sciousness OF Etjkope 1

II. — Development of Pacific Coast Geography 22

III. — Geography of the Interior and Polar Regions 38

IV.— Historical Notes on Certain Geographical Names:

America 60

Brazil ; , 78

Canada 83

V. — Development of American National and State Boun-
daries 89

VI.— Geographical Work of the National Government 118

Supplement 139

LIST OF MAPS.

1. American portion of Juan de la Coza's map of the world, 1560 ; from

Jomard.

2. The Cantino map, from Harrisse.

3. The Ruysch map, 1508 ; from original in Astor Library.

4. Spanish official map of 1527 ; from original in Grand-Ducal Library,

Weimar.

5. Ribero's map, 1529 ; from original also in Weimar.

6. Portion of America, Cabot's map of 1544; from Jomard.

7. Portion of Mercator's map of the world, 1569 ; from Jomard.

8. America according to Ortelius, 1570; from original in Astor Library.

9. Hennepin's map; from English Edition, 1699.

10. Thomas Hood's map, 1592 ; from original MS. in Royal Library, Mu-
nich. Described in Codices Manuscript! Bibliothecae Regiae Mona-
censis, by Georgius M. Thomas. Munich, 1858, pp. 272-273.

to my friend and former in8tructob, professor
Herbert B. Adams, to whose kindness these lectures
owe their origin, this book 18 affectionately dedi-
CATED BY

The Author.

NOTE.

The author takes pleasure in acknowledging the debt of grati-
tude he owes to Professor T. C. Mendenhall, Director of the U. S.
Coast and Geodetic Survey ; to Mr. Henry Gannett, Chief Topog-
rapher of the U. S. Geological Survey ; and to Mr. Frederic
Bancroft, late Librarian of the Library of the Department of State,
for their kind assistance rendered in the prosecution of his work.
His thanks are also due to the librarians of the Grand-Ducal
Library at Weimar, of the Royal Library at Munich, of the
Astor Library, and of the American Geographical Society in
New York, for the privilege of having photographed valuable
maps in their keeping.

Philadelphia,

March, 1892.

AMERICA: ITS GEOGRAPHICAL
HISTORY.

I.

The Development of the Atlantic Coast in the
Consciousness of Europe.

It is proposed in this lecture to give an outline of the man-
ner in which a knowledge of the Atlantic coast-line of America
grew into the consciousness of the Europeans. For this pur-
pose it is not necessary to go back to the time of the Northmen,
though there is no reasonable room for doubt that they, centuries
before Columbus, discovered and occupied a portion of North
America. But their settlements died out, and the knowledge
of their discoveries failed to penetrate civilized Europe. Our
theme begins in the night from the 11th to the 12th of Octo-
ber, 1492. Picture to yourselves Columbus anxiously walking
the deck of his diminutive hundred-ton ship, at ten o'clock at
night, in the moonlight, and wondering if he would ever see
the shores of the golden India, of which he had dreamed and
talked for so many years. Suddenly a strange light appears
on the horizon. The heart of the watcher beats wildly. Surely
that betokens the presence of man ; and not far off, there must
be laud. How slowly the minutes pass as his anxious eyes peer
into the gray moonlight, searching for a glimpse of land. But
four long hours go by before the low-lying coast can be dis-
cerned. The ship then casts anchor, and its occupants await

1

2 America: Its Geographical History,

the day. They were off a little island which the natives called
Giianahani. Here American geography begins ; and from
this little island it expanded, in the course of a couple of
centuries, to include two vast continents.

This island of Guanahani plays a great part in the history of
American discovery, as the first point touched by the foot of
the fifteenth century explorer ; and accordingly it will be worth
our while to consider for a few moments the various theories
that have been advanced to establish the claim of one island
or another to the proud title of the first discovery on this
western shore.

The difficulties in the way of solving the problem are great.
The description of Columbus that has come down to our time
is meagre, and the then state of scientific knowledge was such
that we cannot now rely absolutely on the data of his log of
the voyage. Here he took no observation as to his latitude ;
and even if he had done so it might have resulted in showing
him as far from arriving at his true position as it did a little
later when he tried to get his latitude near the north-western
point of the present Hayti, and found it to be in latitude 17,
when in fact it is almost 20 degrees north of the equator. In
his journal we find in reference to Guanahani the following :
" This island is very [better, quite] large and very level and
has V' ery green trees, and abundance of water, and a very large
lagoon in the middle, without any mountain, and all is covered
with verdu[r]e, most pleasing to the eye." "At dawn I ordered
the boat of the ship and the boats of the Caravels to be got
ready, and went along the island, in a north-northeasterly
direction, to see the other side, which was on the other side of
the east. — But I was afraid of a reef of rocks which entirely
surrounds that island, although there is within it depth enough
and ample harbor for all the vessels of Christendom, but the
entrance is very narrow. It is true that the interior of that
belt contains some rocks [Spanish bajas, or shallows], but the
sea is there as still as the water in a well. And in order to see
all this I moved this morning, that I might give an account "

The Development of the Atlmdic Coast. 3

"of everything to your Highnesses, and also to see where a
fort could be built, and found a piece of land like an island,
although it is not one, with six houses on it, which in two days
could easily be cutoff and converted into an island." . . .
" I observed all that harbor, and afterwards I returned to the
ship and set sail, and saw so many islands that I could not
decide to which one I should go first, and the men I had taken
told me by signs that they were innumerable, and named
more than one hundred of them."^ As the islands of the
Bahama group are so numerous, and the magnetical data of
the log of the voyage so uncertain, various interpretations of
the meagre facts known to us have accordingly been made ;
and thus no less than five different islands are respectively
asserted to be the original Guanahani. These are Grand
Turk, advocated especially by the Spanish historian Navarrete ;
2, Marignana, resulting from the researches of the Dutch in-
vestigator Varnhagen; 3, Watliug's Island, adopted by
Mufioz, Becher, Major; 4, Cat Island, which received the
recognition of von Humboldt and Washington Irving. The
last one, Samana, is advocated with great elaborateness by
Captain G. V. Fox of the United States navy, who, at the
request of the national government, made an exhaustive study
of the whole subject ; not only theoretically but also practi-
cally, going over the entire section of the West Indies in
question, and examining the topography of the several islands,
their relative positions, etc.

The last word comes from a German source, Mr. Rudolf
Cronau, who made a tour of investigation in the autumn of
1890, and leaving aside the log of Columbus, looked only to
his description of the island itself and his course after leaving
it until he reached Cuba. To these points he adds the remark
of Las Casas, that " the first land was one of those islands
which we call the Lucayos. The said island has the form of a
bean." His conclusion is, " that Guanahani is solely and alone

' Translation in Capt. Fox's Methods and Resuits.

4 America: Its Geogra2:>hicol History.

with Watling's Island identical, and that Columbus landed on
the west side of this island." And with this conclusion the
weight of modern authority is in harmony.

Watling's Island, Mr. Cronau informs us, is the only one of
the group, that has the form of a bean, excepting New Provi-
dence, which does not enter into the question ; further, that it
has a large salt-water lake in the interior, such as Columbus
described, and that there is nothing in the nature of a mountain
on the island, as the ridges that divide the lagoons are but 100
to 140 feet high ; also, that vegetation here corresponds so well
with the praise of its first discoverer, that the island is to this
day known as " the garden of the Bahamas." He is of the
opinion that Columbus must have discovered the island,
coming from the north, and landed at a point now called
Riding Rocks, where there is a settlement of the name of Cock-
burn Town. Elsewhere surrounding the island is a reef, with
a very narrow entrance, with here and there shallows, but
which nevertheless encloses an open space that would be large
enough to accommodate large fleets, just as it appears in
Columbus' description. Finally, the northeast point of the
island corresponds exactly with the idea of a place for a forti-
fication, described by the Admiral ; and in fact Cronau found
here a cannon, evidently of the last century, which shows that
others have seen how well this point was adapted to the de-
fense of the island.

As to the early cartographical representations of the island,
it stands on the chart of Juan de la Cosa, the earliest map of
America that we possess, very nearly in the same relation to
Cuba and Hayti as Watling's Island does on the modern maps.
However, the neighboring small islands on this map do not
agree in form and situation with modern charts, so that we
cannot consider the evidence of Cosa as of much weight. But
the celebrated Spanish official maps of 1527 and 1529 respec-
tively, which are in the grand-ducal library of Weimar, show
the island of Guanahani conspicuously drawn in the form of
a cross with a number of small dots around it. The position

The Development of the Atlantic Coast. 5

of this island on these maps in relation to Cuba, Hayti, Great
Bahama, and other neighboring islands, agrees so well with
that of Watling's Island on modern maps, that there is little
room for reasonable doubt, that the makers thereof believed
Guanahani to be in the position of the island now known as
Watling's. When it is considered that these maps were made
in Spain, by the official cartographers, within 35 and 37 years
of the original discovery, at a time when they would probably
be exposed to the criticism of men who knew the island per-
sonally, it seems extremely probable that Guanahani and
Watling's Island are one and the same.

Leaving Guanahani, Columbus next visited several other
small islands in the vicinity, and after ten days reached Cuba.
It was probably at Nipe Bay that he first sighted this great
island, whence he coasted some distance to the northwest, then
turned back and pursued a southeasterly course till he reached
the eastern extremity of the island, from which point he could
see the opposite heights of Hayti, toward which he directed
his little fleet. Here was to be made, later, the first attempt
in modern times to found a European colony in the W^estern
Hemisphere ; here was to be the commencement of American
political geography. Sailing to the east, he sighted the island
of Tortuga, but clung to the coast of Hayti as far as the
present bay of Samana, where he halted for trade with the
Indians ; thence he followed the coast far enough to the east
and south to convince himself that the body of land was an
island. Columbus returned thence home, to spread abroad
the news of his discovery. Arrived at the Spanish court,
he gave a detailed description of his voyage, and asked for
assistance to prosecute his discoveries further. American
geography, then, in the spring of 1493, consisted of Colum-
bus's chart and description of some newly found islands in the
far off west, which islands were believed to be near India.

The province of geography is not, however, to follow the
fate of individuals in their wanderings ; but rather, in our
case, to gather up the results of those western voyages which

6 America: Its Geographical History.

opened up some new territory to the consciousness of Europe,
or rendered more accurate the knowledge of that previously
discovered ; and also to see how this knowledge became spread
abroad throughout Christendom. Travellers are usually fond
of relating their adventures, and -it is easy for them to procure
an audience. Furthermore, for such an important subject as
the discovery of a New World, which title soon came into use,
there were those only too happy to write down the narratives
with which they were entertained. Then too the explorers
themselves had often to make report of results to those fur-
nishing the means of prosecuting the work. In the case of
Spain these reports were preserved in a special bureau estab-
lished for the purpose, by an ordinance of January 20th, 1503.
It bore the name of " Casa de la Contratacion de las Indian ; "
and its records now form one of the most valuable sources of
our knowledge of the early explorations. Moreover, there
were the cosmographers, whose work now began to assume
an importance, previously unknown ; while the then newly
invented art of printing added greatly in dispersing through-
out Europe a knowledge of the discoveries made by the
representatives of the various countries. News-letters and
pamphlets took the place of the present daily papers ; and a
book that became popular in one language was very likely to
be translated into others. The information thus conveyed
was often far from correct; and many fables were thereby
circulated in regard to the wonders of the New World.

On his return from the first voyage, Columbus landed first
in Portugal, where the news of his discoveries was soon noised
abroad. In Spain, he came in contact with Peter Martyr,
who wrote letters on the discoveries to various great jierson-
ages in Italy. In September of the same year, 1493, the
queen demands of Columbus a chart of his voyage, which is
delivered ; and this, or a later one, came into the hands of
Ojeda, an enemy of Columbus, who used it in. 1499 during
the latter's absence in the New World, to direct his course to
the west, in the attempt to outdo Columbus in his own field.

The Development of the Atlantic Coast. 7

To Genoa, news of the discovery was soon carried by the
ambassadors Marchesi and Grimaldi. In March, 1494, the
government of Florence received written notices of the dis-
covery in the great ocean, of islands where the Spaniards had
found naked inhabitants, who gave for a pin gold to the value
of several ducats. In the following month of June, the sub-
ject was mentioned in an important public address in Rome.
During his third voyage, Columbus forwarded to Spain a
map of the coast of South America just discovered ; and there
is a report of his having sent a map to the pope the same year ;
but whether it was a copy of the last-mentioned or an entirely
different map, we are not informed. The Venetian govern-
ment, about the same time, ordered its ambassadors to make
special efforts to procure information concerning the new
discoveries ; and they accordingly approached Columbus and
Peter Martyr for the purpose of acquiring maps and accurate
descriptions of the lands discovered.

From Spain and its discoveries in the south, we turn for
a moment to England and the exploration of the north.
Although a recent writer says : " The credit of being the first
to explore our Atlantic coast has not yet been positively
awarded by critical historians," yet we are disposed to accept
for our geographical purposes the generally accredited account
of Cabot's discovery of the coast of North America in the
year 1497. His landfall was probably Cape Breton or there-
abouts. During that and subsequent voyages, Sebastian Cabot,
who at first accompanied his father and was afterwards com-
mander, explored with more or less accuracy the eastern coast
of the western continent from 67|^ degrees north, southward,
perhaps as far as Chesapeake Bay. He was the first to pro-
pose a northwest passage to Cathay, the name of China then
usual in Europe, on the ground that by the adoption of what
is now known as great circle sailing, one would take the
shortest route thither. Cabot's exploring activity continued
many years, in the service of Spain and England, and he is
supposed to have died in the latter country about 1557. It

8 America: Its Geographical History.

was chiefly through him that Great Britain derived its claim,
by right of discovery, to the Atlantic seaboard of North
America. In the meantime, others had visited the eastern
coast, of whose voyages we possess no detailed accounts, but of
which early maps seem to have preserved to us evidence of
the actuality of their knowledge.

The investigations of M. Harrisse have brought to light
the fact that the Portuguese were, at a very early period,
certainly before 1 502, on the eastern coast of North America ;
for he not only finds evidence thereof in contemporary letters,
but also undeniable proof in the Cantino map, which he has
edited and published in facsimile. This is a very large map
which was carried in that year from Portugal to Ercole d'Este,
duke of Ferrara, by a man named Cantino, whose function in
Portugal is not known. On this map the southern portion of
Greenland is quite well depicted ; and to the southwest thereof
is drawn a coast-line which is probably that of Newfoundland,
though its position is very far to the east. Apparently unmis-
takable is the coast of Florida, and its extensions to the north
on the Atlantic sea-board and to the west on the Gulf of
Mexico. But opinion on the subject is much divided, some
authorities seeing therein only a repetition of Cuba, arising
from a misunderstanding of Spanish accounts of the dis-
coveries in the western hemisphere. All authorities agree,
however, that this is the type if not original of many of the
later maps known to us.

The southern part of the continent, however, was destined
to be brought earlier than the northern into more accurate
knowledge of the Europeans ; so we ask again attention to
that portion. There exists indeed a map of the fourteenth
century, made by an Italian, a certain Zeno, who passed some
time in Iceland and the far north, on which is portrayed what
is supposed to be a portion of North America, according to
the ideas or knowledge of the Icelanders. But as this map
was not made known to the public till the middle of the six-
teenth century, we may pass it by, and turn to the oldest map

The Development of the Atlantic Coast. 9

known to us on which is given a representation of America
as it was actually known. This is the map of Juan de la
Cosa, one of the companions of Columbus ; and bears the
date 1500. The original is a large map of the then known
world, drawn on an oxhide, with elaborate gilding and color-
ing, and is still preserved at Madrid. The western portion
gives the results of Spanish explorations up to that date. It
represents also the eastern coast of North America to a con-
siderable extent, but trending entirely too much to the east.
The northern line of South America is also given, and that
naturally with greater accuracy than the other, as it was the
part known directly by the Spaniards, while they probably
knew only by report, of Cabot's discovery in the north.
Between the northern and southern portions, the only con-
nection is by means of a vignette ; for that portion of the
continent was as yet unknown ; and a tradition later spread
abroad that a strait existed there, leading to oriental waters.
No general name is given to all the new lands discovered, for
it was still believed that they were a part of Asia. The prin-
cipal north and south line is marked " Lina Meridional," and
is intended to represent the line of demarcation which had
been agreed upon between Spain and Portugal, in their famous
division of the then unexplored world. It passes through the
northeastern part of North America, and cuts off" a small
corner of South America. The equator and tropics are also
given ; but so faulty was the knowledge of latitude that Cuba
and Hayti, are both placed entirely north of the Tropic of
Cancer, although, in fact both are entirely south of it. We
are not accustomed to think that by the year 1 500 the Span-
iards knew much, if anything, of the coast of North America ;
yet on this map there are no less than seventeen names there,
a fact which shows that Cosa already had some knowledge of
the English voyages to the New World. The interior, of
which nothing was known, is ornamented with lakes and
rivers thrown in ad libitum. The coast of South America is
supplied with many names, some of which are still in use.

10 America: Its Geographical History.

(Mr. Winsor, speaking of the original, says there are 45 names
here.) Among others we find " C. de la Vela," a name now
borne by a city in the same neighborhood ; " Venezueda,"
which is none other than the modern Venezuela or little
Venice ; and was so named in 1499 by Ojeda, because the
houses were built on piles in a manner that reminded him of
Venice. Here is also '* I. de Brasil," a name afterwards trans-
ferred to the whole Portuguese possessions on the mainland.
The island now known as Hayti and San Domingo bears the
name " La Espagnola," conferred upon it by Columbus because
its landscape reminded him much of Spain. Nine local names
are on it, one of which is Domingo, on the southeastern coast,
the name now used to designate the whole eastern half of the
island ; while the name Hayti, now applied to the western
portion of the island, occurs on the map under consideration in
the form " Haiti," which means " mountainous country," and
designates a small island lying to the north of " La Espagnola."
The name Guanahani is here given to a small outlying island,
with Samana south of it. The island of Cuba ^ receives its
present name on this map, although Columbus had called it
luana.

La Cosa's representation of Cuba has given rise to much
discussion, in as much as Columbus, on his second voyage,
required from his companions an oath to the eflfect that they
believed it to be a part of the main land. On this map, how-
ever, it is distinctly represented as an island. Mr. Stevens
contended that the western portion is in green, a color used by
La Cosa to designate unknown land. In the fac-simile of
Jomard,^ in the Astor Library of New York, the color of the
western portion is not at all different from that of the rest of

^ Mr. Winsor in Nar. and Orit. Hiat., II, 182-3, falls into the error of
ascribing the first use of this name as designating that island to the "Cos-
mographicus liber " of Apianus, published in 1524.

• Mr. Stevens himself acknowledges that he, " the writer, has never had
under his eye the original chart, but judges only from Mr. Jomard's excel-
lent colored fac-eimile." Notes, p. 34, note.

The Development of the Atlantic Coast. 11

the island, and is a yellowish-brown, with no resemblance to
the green of the unknown interior of the mainland. More-
over, not only is a western coast-line distinctly drawn, but still
further to the west are other islands intervening between this
coast and the mainland. Now La Cosa had subscribed to the
oath, and had even added that he had never heard " of any
island 335 leagues long, and hence he believed Cuba to be in
Asia" (Ibid., p. 12). But the Indians had told Columbus
on his first voyage that it was an island ; and there is
every possibility of Cosa's having changed his mind be-
tween 1494, when he subscribed to that oath, and 1500
when he drew the map, particularly as he had in the mean-
time made another voyage to the New World. Officially,
Cuba was not circumnavigated before the year 1508 ; yet Mr.
Winsor has, in his recent work on Columbus, expressed the
opinion that its insularity was perhaps previously known, not-
withstanding the vigorous protest against that view published
by Mr. Stevens and seconded by Mr. Coote. The latter,
of the British Museum, in his introduction to Stevens on
Schoener, makes merry at the credulity of Mr. Harrisse, Mr.
Winsor and others, who interpret the Cantino map and
similar ones as evidence of the existence of any knowledge of
the mainland of Florida before its discovery by Ponce de
Leon ; for he himself sees therein only a " bogus Cuba,"
invented by the Portuguese from a misunderstanding of the
facts as reported from Spain ; and, as Spain tried to keep her
knowledge to herself, and the Portuguese were free to spread
broadcast their maps of Spanish possessions in the New World,
the latter became known and largely copied throughout Europe,
thus disseminating false ideas which it took a long time to
eradicate. Mr. Coote finds strong confirmatory evidence of
his theory in the fact that these maps transfer more or less of
the names that Columbus applied to Cuba, to what appears
to represent the mainland. However, that does not alter the
fact that Cosa himself depicts Cuba distinctly as an island.
His mainland is indeed different from that drawn by Cantino

12 America: Its Geographical History.

and other representatives of the Portuguese idea; but he doubt-
less intended to represent that mainland as part of Asia.

We have seen how England soon followed in the wake of
the Spaniards to the New World. In the year 1500 the Portu-
guese navigator Cabral reached the coast of South America,
driven thither perhaps by adverse winds, or seeking a lost ship
of his fleet, or going so far to the west merely to avoid the
prevailing winds on the coast of Africa, — for all these differing
opinions are held by various writers. As early as 1 503 the
French also reached the coast of Brazil ; in 1 504 they com-
menced fishing near Newfoundland; and as early as 1506
their hardy sailors had gained a knowledge of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, which was embodied in a map by one Denys, of
Honfleur. Thus the sixteenth century opens with the mari-
time nations of Euro})e full of curiosity as to the New World,
and possessed of bold navigators ready and anxious t(j do all
in their power to explore its mysteries. The Atlantic became
a great highway ; and almost every year saw new expeditions
sent forth in search of wealth and fame. The Spaniards ex-
tended their explorations both to the north and south ; the
English found it expedient on the whole to confine themselves
to the north ; though they did not hesitate to make piratical
cruises against Spanish ships returning to the mother country
laden with the spoils of the west ; the French essayed explora-
tions along almost the entire Atlantic coast of the western
continent, meeting with opposition wherever they went, — on
the north from the English, on the south from the Spanish.
The curiosity of all Christendom had been aroused as to the
discoveries made in the New World ; but each exploring
nation endeavored to keep its knowledge to itself. Accord-
ingly we find that the best dispereers of this knowledge were
the non-exploring nations, — the Italians, the Germans, and
later the Dutch. The first book containing a collection of
voyages, of which a copy is known to exist, was made by a
Venetian diplomate in Spain, Angelo Trivigiano, who trans-
lated several reports of voyages, collected letters, and pub-

The Development of the Atlantic Coast. 13

lished them all together in the year 1507. Within a year
afterwards two translations of the same were published, a
Latin one in Milan and a German one in Nuremberg.

In the 1508 edition of Ptolemy there is a map of the world,
thought by Humboldt to be the work of Johann Ruysch. It
is in the form of an open fan, representing somewhat more
than a quarter circle. The north pole is at the apex, while
the outer rim represents about the 38th degree of south lati-
tude. The then known coast of North America is attached
to the north-east of Asia ; here the name " In. Baccalauras,"
a designation often given to Newfoundland, is applied to a
diminutive island, in a bay enclosed by "C. de Portugesi,"
which cape forms the extremity of a long peninsula bearing
the name '^ Terra nova." Thence the coast-line trends to the
west, and connects with " Gog," " Magog," and other places
bearing names at that time given to portions of Asia. East
of the mainland, there extends from a scroll a broad land on
which tliere are half a dozen names not now in use. Of South
America only the north and east coasts are given. The region
bears the legend : " Terra Sanctae Crucis Sive Mundus
Novus." Among other names on the north coast, we find
" Terr, de Pareas " and " Golfo de Pareas," names probably
conferred by Columbus himself. Mr. Winsor remarks that
" it is thought that Ruysch used Columbus' draughts." " Rio
Grande " is probably meant for the Orinoco. The "Jordan "
river finds place just south of the Tropic of Capricorn, a
name long borne by the present Rio de la Plata. An inscrip-
tion says " Nauti Lusitani " had penetrated to 50° S. without
finding the southern extremity of the land. Among the
islands we find the names : " Spagnola," " Le XI Mil Vir-
gines," " Martinina," " La Dominica," and " Antillia Insula."

In 1512 there was published in Cracow, the ancient capital
of Poland, an edition of the Geography of Ptolemy which
contains a map of the world, on which America finds place.
The map is drawn in a network of meridians and parallels at
intervals of ten degrees, and the tropics also are added. This

14 America: Its Geographical Hidory.

is one of those maps before alluded to, which are open to
discussion as to whether what appears to be Florida and the
mainland of America are not a duplicate Cuba. The name
" isabello," which really belonged to Cuba, and is here placed
on what seems to be Florida, certainly tends to confirm Mr.
Coote's idea. Another feature of these maps is that they
represent the supposed Florida as entirely west of the longitude
of Cuba, instead of north of its western part, as it in reality
is. Of South America, the northern and eastern portions are
fairly well represented, while the western portion is closed by
two straight lines, which form an obtuse angle projecting
inland. Some names are on the continent and are difficult to
decipher. Cuba and "Spagnola" are misplaced and some-
what out of proportion.

There are still preserved, in various parts of the world,
three globes and the gores of a fourth from the early part
of the sixteenth century, which Messrs. Stevens and Coote
believe to be all from the same hand, namely that of Johann
Schoener, " the most distinguished professor of mathematics
and geography then in Germany." The oldest of these is
probably that known as the Hunt-Lenox globe, in the Lenox
Library of New York, and possibly made as early as 1 505 or
1507. It is of copper, about 4J inches in diameter, and rep-
resents America as a number of islands. The next one in
point of age is known as the Frankfort globe, because pre-
served in that city, and dates probably from about the year
1515. The third and most important one is preserved in
Nuremberg, and dates from the year 1520. On this is repre-
seutetl far to the north " Terra Corterealis," near which is the
inscription "Anno Christi 1501." Here again we find the
name Cuba applied to what appears to be the mainland of
America, which extends from near the equator to 55 or 60
degrees north. It also bears the name "Farias," one of the
names connected with South America ever since the days of
Columbus, and which is in fact repeated in South America on
this globe. Notwithstanding this fact it is difficult to believe

The Development of the Atlantio Coast. 15

that the existence of Florida was not known in the year 1 520,
especially to a man of Schoener's knowledge. The fourth
globe, or rather set of gores, ascribed to the same hand, is re-
ferred to the year 1523, and a copy of it is published with the
others, in Coote's edition of Stevens on Schoener. It is very
simple, and contains but few names. However, that of Florida
is especially worthy of notice, as this is perhaps the oldest
drawing on which it appears.

Though, as we have seen, there were Frenchmen in the
New World in the very beginning of the century, the first
official expedition which that government sent to America
was in 1524. This was placed under the command of
Giovanni Verrazano, a Florentine by birth, who, at an early
age, entered the service of King Francis I. of France, and
became a most successful corsair against the Spanish. He
first touched the western continent at about 34 degrees north
latitude, perhaps at Cape Fear. Thence he sailed 50 leagues
toward the south, and then directing his vessel northward, he
explored the coasts for three months, reaching probably to
Newfoundland. The journal of the voyage which remains to
us " mentions only one date and names but one locality," —
which facts account for our vague knowledge of the results
of the expedition. " It is probable," says H. H. Bancroft,
" that a large part of the United States coast was for the first
time explored during this voyage, which also completed the
discovery of the whole eastern shore-line of America, except
probably a short but indefinite distance in South Carolina and
Georgia, between the limits reached by Ponce de Leon in 1513
and by Verrazano ; one intermediate point having also been
visited by Aillon in 1520."

In the two succeeding years, Spaniards were on the coast of
the present United States; 1525 witnessing the only expedi-
tion which they ever sent to the far north, that of Estevan
Gomez, who explored the eastern coasts of America from New-
foundland to an unknown distance south, at any rate below
New York, and possibly to Georgia or Florida. The next

16 America: Its Geographical History.

year came Aillon, who first touched at South Carolina, at the
mouth of a river which he called the Jordan, and sailed thence
some distance northward " at least to Cape Fear, and probably
much farther."

In the grand-ducal library of Weimar there is a large map
on parchment, made in the year 1527, by an anonymous cos-
mographer of the Spanish king, at Seville. It is seven feet,
two inches long, and two feet, ten inches wide, and represents
the then known world. It is framed and under glass, and is
justly considered one of the great treasures of the library.
Just how it came there, is not known ; but Kohl, who has
published a facsimile of the American part, supposes that it
was carried to Germany by the Emperor Charles V., as an
official map of reference, during one of his voyages from Spain.
As to the name of the cosmographer who made it, opinions
diflfer; Kohl inclining to the belief that it is the work of
Ferdinand Columbus, son of the admiral, while Harrisse
ascribes it to Nuila Grarcia de Toreno, and Coote, in editing
Stevens on Schoener, thinks it the work of Ribero, and a pre-
cursor of his map of 1529, which is also in the same room at
Weimar. A careful comparison of the two, it seems to us,
can scarcely fail to convince the unprejudiced mind that the
latter supposition is the most natural. The points of similarity
are so great in non-essentials, such as the astrolabe, the quad-
rant, the scrolls containing names, etc., the veiy matters wherein
the copier of another man's geographical work would be most
likely to desire to show originality ; while there is no slavish
copying of names, wherein the latter work is much more full
and explicit, indicating that the two yeai's intervening between
the making of the maps had been spent in gathering new
information, which was applied without any reference to a
show of slavish consistency with the former work ; while at
the same time, favorite fancies of ornament were apparently
retained unconsciously.

The maps are drawn in plane projection, with compass
lines, and also with the equator, tropics, and polar circles.

The Development of the Atlantic Coctst. 17

Perhaps the most noticeable feature, after the beauty of the
work, is the absence of imaginary lands, which are so
prominent on most of the maps of that age. The principal
meridian is drawn through the Cape Verde Islands, from
which was to be measured the distance to the line of
demarcation between the possessions of Spain and Portugal ;
and that line, marked by the flags of the two countries on
either side, is placed according to the Spanish interpretation
of the treaty of Tordesillas, by which the two governments
had sought to settle their differences in reference to the
matter.

This line passes through " Tierra de los Bretones," lying
between 45 and 50 degrees of north latitude ; it crosses the
northern coast-line of South America at the equator, somewhat
west of the mouth of a large river bearing the name " Mara-
hom," meant for Marafion, an old namefor the Amazon ; and
it continues through the continent to the mouth of the
" R. Jordan," now the La Plata, in 35 degrees south. This
Portuguese part of South America receives its present naine of
" El Brasil." The map gives an almost unbroken coast-line
from 62 degrees north to 54 degrees south, abandoning the
old idea of a strait somewhere between these two points ; and
instead, represents the Strait of Magellan, the existence of
which had now been known in Spain for five years. The
northern extremity of the map is occupied by a territory
designated as " Tiera del Labrador," a name which is probably
the only remnant of Portuguese exploration in North America.
The coast is drawn in an east and west line, lying between
55° and 60° of latitude, containing no other names, and sep-
arated by a narrow strait from the coast lying to the west.
The latter is called " Los Bacallaos," and is provided with
14 names, none of which, to my knowledge, are now in use.
To the south-west of this region is the " Tierra de los Bretones,"
already mentioned, on which there are two local names. Here
a large river, flowing from the north empties its waters
into a prominent bay ; this may be the Penobscot, but it is
2

18 America: Its Geographical History,

practically impossible to determine positively which river is
thereby meant. Between this and " La Florida," there are
11 local names, to which are added 4 on the west side of the
latter. Then follow 16 names which are of no special interest
to us; but the 17th is the designation of a river flowing
into a prominent bay, which is generally taken to mean the
Mississippi, and here receives the name " K.. del spiritu sancto."
Keeping on to the southwest, we find the 15th name, "R.
Panuco," one of the earliest names on the continent of North
America which is still in use. Then follow 21 more names
to the little islands represented between the mainland and
" Ivcatan," which is also shown as an island. The country
southwest of the Gulf of Mexico receives the name adopted
by Cortes, when he had conquered it a few years previous,
namely " Nova Spafia." It is also worthy of remark that the
name " Mexico " is found inland, and is doubtless intended
for the city of Mexico, which was however at that time
generally called Temixtitlan. The latter is said to be a
Spanish corruption of the more usual aboriginal Tenochtitlan,
and Mexico was one of its wards or districts. Another deri-
vation is from Mexitli the Aztec war-god (Isaac Taylor,
Words and Places). Central America has 20 names on the
north coast. South America's coast-line is thickly dotted with
local names, of which we have already mentioned several.
As to the West Indies we would expect to find quite an accu-
rate knowledge displayed, and in this we are not disappointed.
Leaving aside the more prominent islands, which are already
on earlier maps drawn with tolerable accuracy, we note here
"La bermuda;" also "barbudos," which is probably the
Barbuda of to-day. No imaginary antarctic continent is here
depicted, as was at that time, and even much later, so custom-
ary on maps ; but there is represented only the short coast-line
of the strait through which Magellan had passed, south of
which is the name he gave to those lands, "tierra del fuegos."
To the strait he gave the name " Victoria," after one of his

The Development of the Atlantic Coast. 19

ships ; but this map shows that officially his own name had
been already conferred on his greatest discovery.^

Diego Ribero's map of 1529 is of almost exactly the same
size as that of 1527, and the comparison of the two affords a
good object lesson in historical geography. Especially strik-
ing is this in the case of Peru, the coast of which had been
explored by Pizarro in 1525-27, but news of which must have
reached Spain too late to be incorporated in the map of 1527.
The later map is also richly provided with historical remarks,
manifesting a desire on the part of the cartographer to embody
in his work all the information possible. In outline the At-
lantic coast on both maps is almost identical ; but much more
knowledge of detail is embodied in the later one. This is
marked on the eastern coast of the present United States,
where the results of the voyages of Ayllon and Gomez find
place on the later map. While there are but fourteen names
between Florida and Bacallaos on the map of 1527, that of
1529 contains more than thirty in the same space, besides
several historical remarks. On the latter are also embodied
the results of the ill-fated voyage of Sebastian Cabot in 1526,
by which the waters of the river Plata and its chief tributaries
were first made known to Europeans. Mexico is well drawn,
and gives the results of Cortes' conquest, including the Villa
Rica de la Vera Cruz, which he founded, and which, after
two removes, may be considered the beginning of the modern
city of Vera Cruz. " Ivcatan " is better shaped than before,
but still continues to be represented as an island. Cuba is
represented as extending through twelve degrees of longitude
and "four of latitude, a nearer approach to its real extent than
was usual in those days. On this map, we see for the first
time, I believe, the name " Haiti " applied to Espagnola ;
and " S. Domingo " is its principal settlement. In fact there
are on this map quite a number of names with familiar aspect.

^Mr, Hale in Winsor's Nar. and Grit. Hist. (II, 604), says that the name
of Eleven Thousand Virgins was given to the strait by Magellan,

20 America: Its Geographical Hiatoi'y,

Here are Cape San Antonio and Cape Cruz in Cuba ; Peru
for the first time ; also " Guatimala," and the rivers Parana,
Uruay, evidently the present Uruguay, and Paraguay ; here
is also " Tiera de Papagones," the land of the Patagonians or
big-footed giants, about the existence of whom there has been
so much controversy. The name "Tierra de los Fuegos"
reminds us of the fires that Magellan saw there when entering
the strait, whose discovery and the consequent first circum-
navigation of the earth have made his name famous ; and the
little settlements of Darien, Panama, and Cartagena call
attention to the fact that the maps of the new world were
some day to wear a political aspect. The rivers Panuco and
San Francisco, the islands of Gozumel and Trinidad, the capes
Catoche and St. Augustine, are so familiar to us that, on this
map, we begin to feel at home.

Such maps as these two treasures of the Weimar library go
very far toward raising our respect for the cosmographers of
the sixteenth century. The American part of them has been
published in fac-simile, together with a long dissertation, by
Dr. Kohl, which can be found in a number of our libraries.
Rough sketches of these and other maps, such as have been
published in great numbers during recent years, give one no
adequate idea of the originals. These sketches are indeed
useful to the seeker after historical knowledge ; and we are
greatly indebted to the historians whose works are so richly
illustrated with them ; if, however, our national government
had a just idea of the dignity and usefulness of history, it
would make generous provision for the publication of fac-
similes of all the leading maps bearing on our history ; and
could thereby make a fitting tribute to the celebration of the
four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America.

Already at the end of the third decade of the sixteenth cen-
tury we find the Spanish government, at least, in possession
of knowledge in quite an accurate degree, of the north and
east coasts of South America, of the Gulf of Mexico, and the
West India Islands, together with a less accurate acquaintance

The Development of the Atlantic Coast. 21

with the Atlantic coast of the United States and further north.
But the Spanish government kept this knowledge so far as
possible within its own realms ; and other nations did much
to bring a knowledge of those regions into the consciousness
of Europe at large. In noticing later maps, we shall leave
aside then what they contain as to the parts already accurately
represented, and confine our attention to the furtherance of
knowledge of those coasts, which, up to the period where we
now leave off, were not at all or only inaccurately known in
Europe.

II.

Development of Pacific-Coast Geography.

A general idea of the discovery of the Pacific seems to be,
that Balboa and his companions took a promenade one day to
the top of a hill in the vicinity of their settlement, whence they
descried with wonder the broad expanse of that mighty ocean ;
then with boyish glee, ran down the slope, dashed into the
water, and with a flourish, took possession of it in the name of
their sovereign. How different from the reality ! Selecting
carefully 190 of the hardiest men in the little settlement of
Antigua, in the northwest corner of South America, Vasco
Nuflez de Balboa sailed four days toward the northwest, and
landed near the village of a friendly chief. He had with him
also, 1000 Indians as warriors and carriers, and a pack of
bloodhounds which were to aid in the work of subduing the
natives. The point at which he now found himself was not
the site of Aspinwall, whence one at present departs for the
short and easy ride through the magnificent tropical forest,
that delights the eye without impeding the progress of the
traveller. Balboa was at some distance to the southeast of
this, just opposite the bay of San Miguel. Before him lay an
unbroken forest, rendered almost impenetrable by tangled
undergrowth, and beset with tribes of warlike and hostile
natives. It cost him one battle, and many days of hard
marching, to reach the summit of the mountain range whence,
his Indian guides told him, could be seen the broad expanse
of another ocean. The most elevated point was a bare rock,
below which a halt was ordered, and " Vasco Nuflez advanced
22

Development of Padjic-Coaat Geography. 23

alone. His should be the first European eye to behold what
there was to behold, and that without peradventure. With
throbbing heart he mounted the topmost eminence which
crowned these sea-dividing hills. Then, as in the lifting of a
veil, a scene of primeval splendor burst on his enraptured gaze,
such as might fill with joy an archangel sent to explore a new
creation. There it lay, that boundless unknown sea, spread
out before him, far as the eye could reach, in calm majestic
beauty, glittering like liquid crystal in the morning sun. . . .
Dropping on his knees, he poured ' forth praises and thanks-
giving to the author of that glorious creation for the honor
of its discovery. The soldiers then pressed forward, gazed
enchanted likewise, and likewise assumed the attitude of prayer :
for however ungodly were their lives, these cavaliers were
always fond of praying." Years before this, Columbus had
been told of the existence of a large body of water on the other
side of the mountains seen from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico ;
he was, however, convinced that this whole region was but a
part of Asia, and that accordingly such a body of water could
be only the Bay of Bengal. Balboa brought back to Antigua
gold to the valuie of over 40,000 pesos, or dollars of the time,
together with an immense store of pearls, not to speak of cot-
ton cloth, native weapons, and 800 Indian slaves. Further-
more he had subdued all the nations through whose territories
he had passed, gained the most of them to friendship, and all
this without the loss of a man. The loadstone had been found
which could draw the Spaniards to all the perils of discovery
and conquest; so this region, and the still richer fields to which
it opened the way, were marked for future conquest.

From this time forth the excursions of the Spaniards to the
Pacific coast were numerous ; but with the characteristic
secrecy of the time, they did not publish the results thereof
to the world at large. Some idea of it, however, gradually
made its way throughout Europe, and we soon find it assuming
shape on the cartographical representations. The Frankfort
globe of 1515, the ^Nuremberg one of 1520, and the Apianus

24 America: Its Geographical History.

map of the same date, all bear testimony to the fact. The
real knowledge of the Pacific ocean and its American coast
was very scant, and the cartographers did not possess even all
that the navigators and the Spanish government did. Ac-
cordingly the maps of that early time give us but the crudest
idea of this part of the New World.

We shall find, nevertheless, that for some time to come
many Europeans believed that North America was a part of
the great eastern stretch of Asia ; but from the third decade
of the sixteenth century it was established that at least South
America was separate therefrom, or at least only connected
with it perhaps by a long strait. In the year 1520, Magellan
passed through the strait that now bears his name, and called
the great bod}^ of water into which he thence issued " Mare
Pacificum." However, this discovery was not positively known
in Spain till two years afterward, when his ship returned to
Spain via the Cape of Good Hope ; though it had been thought
probable, from the report of some who had accompanied
Magellan into the strait, and had then abandoned him in
order to hurry back with the news of an enterprise but half
accomplished. But the Pacific coast of America was to be
explored mainly from the centre to the north and south,
not from either end toward the centre. The extension of
geographical knowledge must precede the cartographical rep-
resentation of that knowledge ; unless indeed we busy ourselves
with the fancies of men who were more anxious to attract the
public than to aid in the spread of scientific learning. Mr.
H. H. Bancroft has an interesting chapter on this very theme,
but it lies outside our purpose to deal with it. There had
already been exploring parties sent out from the isthmus in
the years 1514, 1515 and 1519, before Cortes conquered
Mexico ; but from the time that he was in possession of that
country, there was manifest a determination to know the
Pacific coast of the land more accurately, and preparations on
a large scale were made to explore that coast, especially toward
the north. Before the year 1522, Cort€S had discovered three

Development of Pacific-Coast Geography. 25

points on the coast from Tehuantepec to Zacatula ; and this
same year there was an expedition sent out from the isthmus,
of which one portion under Gonzalez Davila, went by land to
Nicaragua, while the other, coasting northward, may have
gone as far as Tehuantepec, if the recorded distances are to be
believed. Ten years later, Hurtado de Mendoza reached the
coast of Sinaloa, opposite the southern extremity of Lower
California; and was followed the succeeding year (1533) by
Jiminez, who touched the southern point of the peninsula of
California, and supposed the whole to be an island. In 1539
UUoa reached the head waters of the Gulf of California,
examining more or less closely both the east and west sides,
thus proving the peninsular form of Lower California ; he
touched its southernmost point, and sailed up its western coast
to the vicinity of Cedros Island, in twenty-nine degrees north.
The earliest accurate representation of any part of the Pacific
coast that we have, is that on the anonymous Spanish map of
1527, on which there is given the result of the discoveries at
least as late as those of 1522 ; for at the most northerly point
is mentioned Sierra de gil Goncalez Dauila, evidently named
from the chief of the exploring party of that year, of which we
have already spoken. The southern discoveries appear to have
been unknown to the author of the map, as there is nothing
given south of the Gulf of San Miguel. The town of Panama,
which had been founded in 1519, also finds place. This name
was probably abbreviated from that of Tubanamd, who, says
H. H. Bancroft, "was reputed the richest as well as the
strongest chieftain of these mountains, and was the terror of
the neighboring nations." In all there are 35 names on the
part of the Pacific coast here drawn, and there are also two
names inland, of which it is difiicult to say whether they are
intended to designate places inland or on the coast. This same
year, Robert Thome, residing at Seville, Spain, sent to England
his map of the world, on which the southern coast of Central
America is drawn, but he seems to have possessed no accurate
knowledge of its details.

26 America: Its Geographical History.

On the following map, that of Ribero, of 1529, the Pacific
coast-line extends southward to about the tenth degree of south
latitude, where we find the name, " chinchax." The whole
region is called 'Pervj' thus showing the acquaintance of the
author with the expedition of Pascual de Andogoya, who in
1522 sailed from Panama to a point six or seven days' journey
south of the Gulf of San Miguel, to the province under the
command of a chief named Birti. It was principally on
account of the information gained on this expedition that
Pizarro was later led to undertake the conquest of the rich
countries on the west coast of South America ; although as
early as the first exploration of Balboa, news of the existence
of great wealth south of the isthmus had been obtained ;
and Pizarro, it is worthy of remark, was one of Balboa's com-
panions on that occasion. The marvellous accounts of the
riches of Perq, which were substantiated by the great quanti-
ties of gold and pearls sent thence to the mother country,
excited widespread curiosity ; and adventurers in vast num-
bers thronged there. Fortunately for history, there came
also some with a literary turn, who have left us valuable
descriptions of what they there saw and learned. Pizarro
had secured from the Spanish crown the right of conquest
over a stretch of two hundred leagues along the coast; and
the right of conquest of the country further south was ceded
to another adventurer, by name Almagro. These two, at first
friends and partners in the project, later became the most bit-
ter enemies; which fact, however, was probably to the advan-
tage of a rapid progress in the knowledge of the more southerly
parts ; for it compelled Almagro to seek his prize in the less
attractive and poorer south. So within a very few years after
the first discovery, the coast became known with a certain
degree of accuracy, as far south as the site of Valparaiso;
while the interior was fast being opened up to the conquerors.
In 1540 Alonzo de Camargo passed through the Straits of
Magellan, touched the coast of Chili at latitude 38 degrees 30
minutes south, and sailed on to Arequipa in Peru ; thus, so

Development of Pacific-Coast Geography. 27

far as known, completing for the first time the knowledge of
the outline of the South American coast. The knowledge thus
gained by Camargo was by no means perfect, if we are to judge
it by the maps of Ortelius and others, that represent the coast
of Chili projecting quite as far to the west as does Peru. This
however, should occasion no surprise on our part, when we
consider that these navigators were not employed in making
an accurate survey of the coast, but in the universal hunt for
gold. Moreover they had not the instruments to make
accurate observations, if they had cared to do so. When we
call to mind that this was in the days of Copernicus, to whom
was due " the overthrow of the Ptolemaic system and the total
renovation of the science of astronomy ; " and when we think
of the crudity of instruments and methods of even the foremost
astronomers of this time, should we wonder that simple,
practical pilots did not produce better results ? The wonder
is rather that many of them did so well under such adverse
circumstances. On the Nancy globe of about 1550, the
Pacific coast-line of South America is in general quite accu-
rately drawn ; and here we may leave the subject. Though
a number of the later maps still retain the old inaccuracies,
a fairly exact knowledge of the western coast of South
America had already been gained, not only by Spanish
explorers and their fellow countrymen, but also beyond that
country, to such an extent that we may be justified in asserting,
that from the middle of the sixteenth century, a fair knowledge
of the Pacific coast of South America had penetrated into the
mind of educated Europe.

We now come to a consideration of the geographical devel-
opment of the knowledge of the coast of California and the
north-western part of North America. Rumors of great
quantities of gold to be found in this direction also, caused
the Spaniards, for a series of years, to make voyages hither
from their newly conquered country of Mexico; but as
Nature here kept her secret most cunningly from them, they
gradually relinquished the search, did comparatively little to

28 Aineinca: lU Geographical History.

foster the settlements already begun there, yielded their claims
in part, firet to the English, then to the United States ; and
were finally compelled by war to relinquish all to their now
more powerful neighbor. Then, as if by magic, the door of
Nature's treasure-house was opened, and all the world gazed
in wonder at the uncounted wealth poured out therefrom.
Still further to the north, a country of fine harbors and mag-
nificent scenery was gmdually brought to a knowledge of the
Europeans ; but for a long period this region also was con-
sidered of but little value. Time, however, has shown that
sea and earth there are abundantly stored with riches, and it
requires only hardihood and energy to bring them to light.

Let us now follow somewhat in detail the growth of this
knowledge. The western coast of North America is in many
respects a striking contrast to the eastern. The mountains
are nearer the ocean and the coast-line is much less broken by
bays, inlets, and the mouths of large rivers. On this account
the early navigators were compelled to proceed warily, as the
good harbors were but few, and these far distant from each
other. Moreover, the experience of a majority of the early
mariners on this part of the Pacific Ocean was such, that
they would never have conferred upon it the name given by
Magellan to its southern portion ; and it was only by slow
degrees that the entire body of water between America and
Asia came to be known by the name Pacific. The history of
the exploration of the western coast of the United States and
British America is a story of peril by storm and fog, in worm-
eaten ships, without proper supplies of food and water, and
in general of untold misery and death caused by privation
and exposure.

How much is due to Spanish exploration of the coast of
California can be summarized in brief. The first three decades
of the sixteenth century had passed without their getting much
if any to the north of the present southern boundary of the
United States. The most important exi^edition which they
sent out in this direction during the century was that of 1542,

Development of Pacific-Coast Geography. ' 29

under Cabrillo, which in spite of fogs, storms and adverse
winds, slowly made its way along the coast toward the north,
giving names and making observations, till they thought they
had reached the latitude of the 44th parallel. Mr. H. H. Ban-
croft, who has made a careful analysis of the records of the
voyage, is of the opinion that Cabrillo himself reached no
higher than 42 degrees. But he died, and the explorations
were continued under his successor in command, Ferrelo ;
and he may possibly have proceeded as far north as the 43d
parallel. Neither of them landed however north of Point
Conception, in latitude 34° 26'. During the whole of the
remainder of the sixteenth century the Spaniards did not
improve on the knowledge of these parts gained by this
expedition.

Though the Spanish government was doubtless promptly in
receipt of information as to the results of this voyage, that
knowledge failed for a long time to penetrate to the makers of
maps. The Nancy globe, already mentioned, has not a hint
of the existence of an ocean west of the present United States,
but represents Mexico* as a southeasterly projection of Asia.
To the west of Mexico, here spelled Messico, is placed " Asia
Magna," and north of it, " Asia Orientalis ; " while the Gulf
of Mexico is hardly recognizable under the appellation " Mare
Cathayum," the name then generally given to the Chinese
Sea. This supposed connection between the mainland of Asia
and the New World must never be lost sight of in studying
the geography of the period ; for it is the key to much that
would otherwise be absolutely nonsensical on the part of cos-
mographers of the time.

There was also another element of fancy that played an
important part in the geography of this period. The desire
to find a northern passage to the riches of India and Japan
had been expressed as early as the period of the Cabots. After
the discovery of the southern strait by Magellan, there was a
fixed determination, especially on the part of England and
France, to find a corresponding passage in the north. What

30 * America: Its Geographical History.

men earnestly long for, they frequently come to believe true
and practicable ; which characteristic of human nature resulted
in this case in the appearance of actual descriptions, nay even
pictures, of a northerly strait connecting the Atlantic and
Pacific, which no one had ever seen or passed through. Spanish
discoveries produced the separation, on the maps, of the
southern part of North America from the mainland of Asia.
But it was the belief in the imaginary Straits of Anian that
first brought upon the maps a representation of North America
as a great continent absolutely separate from the Orient.
Many maps of the period serve to illustrate what has just
been said. The earliest representation of this known to me
is the Schoener globe of 1523, where a broad open strait in the
far north connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Perhaps
the best known of them all was that of Ortelius, published in
1570 in his great work entitled "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum."
On his map of the world, an unbroken coast-line extends from
the Straits of Magellan in 52 degrees south to " Anian,"
which is placed between 60 and 65 degrees north latitude.
As this was one of the maps in the first of modern atlases,
and its author enjoyed the reputation of being, after Mercator,
the greatest geographer of the age, we may well understand
how the work became popular, and went through five revised
editions during the author's life time, and became the common
foundation for many geographies compiled by later writers.

In 1579, Francis Drake, on his famous voyage round the
world, lauded on the western coast of North America, proba-
bly at about 43 degrees north latitude. Thence he coasted
toward the south until he found a convenient harbor where he
could beach his ship. Here he remained a month ; and while
the ship was being repaired, some little inland exploring was
also done. The point where he first landed and the harbor
where he passed a month are both subjects of sharp contro-
versy. The errors in astronomical reckoning, common at
that period, have been already touched upon. Nor is it easy
to fix, by the meagre description left us, the locality visited.

Development of Pacific-Coast Geography. ^St^

Accuracy of observation and statement is rarely found, except
where men are trained to it, and a description of only the
general characteristics of a harbor might answer for any one
of several ports. That Drake's halting place was the present
Bay of San Francisco seems to us highly improbable, for two
reasons: 1, that a month's sojourn in such a magnificent
harbor, on a coast where even passably good harbors are rare,
would have called forth such exclamations of unusual surprise
and pleasure on the part of the chronicler of the expedition
as we do not find ; and 2, that it is not more probable that
Drake found the Golden Gate than other navigators who had
passed and repassed along that coast, without ever suspecting
the existence thereof. Just outside the entrance to the Bay
of San Francisco are several islets that, to a navigator
feeling his way along an unknown coast, would rather lead
him to steer for the open sea than attract him to search behind
them for a magnificent harbor which lies not only behind
those islands, but in truth so encircled by the long arms of
the mainland that, from the sea, there appears to be not even
promise of a safe shelter. And the fact remains, that the bay
remained unknown, at least to the Spaniards, until discovered
in 1769 by accident, from the land side. Drake called the
region along whose coast he had sailed, New Albion ; and
this name long continued to appear on maps of this part of
America ; while England afterwards laid claim to the whole
of this part of the continent on the strength of Drake's dis-
coveries.

Ten years after Drake's voyage a well known map of the
world was published by Hakluyt, the greatest collector of his
day of information as to everything relating to voyages of
discovery. On this map we see America represented as
entirely distinct from Asia, although their separation was not
proven till the famous voyage of Behring, nearly 140 years
later. But the imaginary Strait of Anian is there, that much
dreamed-of passage in the north from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. On the mainland, at about 60 degrees north, there

32 Ameinaa: Its Geographical History.

appears the name " Anian regnum," Kingdom of Anian, which
is bounded by the aforesaid imaginary strait. This body of
water tends first toward the northeast till it reaches between
70 and 80 degrees of north latitude, and then runs due east
till it connects with the Atlantic Ocean. But the whole region
north of 40 degrees, as depicted, is manifestly imaginary, and
from its appearance, convinces the beholder that the compiler
knew nothing of that which he was attempting to represent.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Spanish
government sent out another, and practically a last expedi-
tion to make discoveries on the western coast of the present
United States. It was under the command of Vizcaino, and
so far as we know, went but little if any further north than
Cabrillo and Ferrelo had done more than half a century ante-
cedent. However, a map was made showing the results of the
voyage, which map displays a more exact acquaintance with
the coast than any previous one had done ; and this map was
not improved upon for a century and a half following. Already
we find a number of local names that have since remained per-
manent. There are Cape Mendocino, and Cape San Lucas ;
also the names Monterey and San Diego, here applied also to
capes, and to-day the names of cities in their respective vicini-
ties. The island of Santa Barbara also had been already given
the name that it still bears. But such expeditions were expen-
sive both in life and treasure ; and as they did not bring in
the desired return of gold, the Spanish government could not
be induced to continue them. The Indians had learned by
this time to play upon the imagination of the Spaniards ; and
wherever the latter came, asking for information as to where
gold was to be found, they heard a story of marvelous riches
still further to the north. But as the place of immense riches
ever receded like the will-o'-the-wisp, from the path of the
Spaniards, they became weary in the pursuit, and gradually
relinquished it. From now on, their chief thought as to the
north was, lest another nation should find a northwest passage
to the Pacific.

Development of Pacific- Coast Geography. 33

There was a long cessation of explorations in this vicinity
during the seventeenth century ; but nevertheless geographical
works continued to be published, as did also descriptions of
travels,' illustrated with maps; and for all of these works
maps were made, their authors but too often supplying from
their imagination what they lacked in actual knowledge.
During this period was spread abroad the fable that Cali-
fornia was an island. As early as 1539, the Spaniards had
already, as we have seen, explored the Gulf of California to
its head waters, and had satisfied themselves of the peninsular
character of the body of land lying to the west. The original
source of the error in representing it as an island, is not dis-
closed to us; but so far as known the first such representation
of it is that on the map which Purchas published in his cele-
brated book called the Pilgrims, in the year 1625. The island
extends from Cape S. Lucas in 23 degrees north to Cape Blanco
in 42 degrees north. The general trend of the Pacific coast
between these points is well drawn ; but inland there runs an
imaginary strait almost due north from the Gulf of California
to about the 42d parallel, and there it empties into a bay formed
like the Bay of Biscay, in a great right angle. The error thus
given to the world long continued to deceive the public as to
the true geography of the region.^ Although the results of
Drake's voyage must then have been well known in England,
there is nothing on this map which would lead us to suspect
that its maker had any knowledge of the great bay which is
to-day the pride of Californians.

^ An inscription in the S. W. corner of the map reads as follows : " Cali-
fornia sometyraes supposed to be a part of y« westerne continent, but scince
by a Spanish charte taken by y« Hollanders it is found to be a goodly Islande ;
the length of the west shoare beeing about 500 leagues from Cape Mendo-
cino to the South Cape thereof called Cape St. Lucas; as appeareth both
by that Spanish chart and by the relation of Francis Gaule whereas in the
ordinarie Charts it is sett downe to be 1700 leagues." Worthy of remark
is the fact that another map in the same volume gives quite a satisfactory
representation of the Gulf and Peninsula of California.

3

34 America: Its Geographical History.

Early Spanish and English navigators had failed to explore
the western coast of America further north than the 43d or
44th parallel of latitude. There remained yet a vast unknown
northwest, about which speculation was rife ; but which hardly
promised to pay for the trouble of its exploration. As far as
any knowledge to the contrary went, North America was
still a mere projection or elongation of Asia ; though it was
devoutly hoped and suspected that the contrary was true.
The absolute knowledge of the fact was to be revealed by a
man of a nationality which up to that time had not taken part
in exploring the New World, and who was in the service of a
nation that was looked upon by its neighbors as little better
than barbarous. Among the many new ventures undertaken
in the reign of Peter the Great of Russia, one of the prominent
ones was that of the exploration and settlement of Siberia.
During his life various parties had been organized and sent
out for this purpose ; and the same policy was continued after
his death. In order to carry out his great improvements in
Russian life, manufactures, etc., Peter the Great had found it
necessary to import into his realm many foreigners, in great
part Germans. Among these latter came one named Vitus
Bering, or Behring, a man of almost forbidding aspect, but ener-
getic and capable, at least in his earlier undertakings. Being
both foreign and repellent in manner, he succeeded in making
himself cordially hated by his Russian subordinates. Yet it is
to this man that we owe the first demonstration of the fact that
Russia and America are indeed separate continents. Having
crossed the great wastes of Siberia, he built a ship on the
eastern coast; and in the summer of 1728 he passed East
Cape, the most easterly point of Asia, whence the land turns
abruptly toward the west. Although from this point the
coast of America is but 36 miles distant, nothing of the west-
ern continent was seen on this voyage, by Behring and his men.
However, at this we should not be surprised, as the region is
one where fogs prevail for a considerable portion of the year.
Two years later, we are told, "Krupiscef and Gwozdef,

Development of Pacific- Coast Geography. 35

following Behring, actually came in sight of the American
continent, along which they coasted southward for two days "
(H. H. Bancroft). However, nothing definite seems to be
known as to the exact region thus visited. After their first
essay, Behringand his men spent several years in preparations
and quarrelling, and in 1741 they started out again on the
waters of the northern Pacific, determined this time to find
America. They had two ships, the second one being in com-
mand of a Russian named Chirikof. On the voyage Behring
seems to have displayed such a spirit of w-eak vacillation that
one is tempted to think him in his dotage. The two vessels
became separated, and that under Chirikof was the first to
sight land, probably near the present Sitka. Somewhat later
Behring came in sight of Mount St. Elias, from which point
he sailed first west and then southwest, and discovered the
Shuraagin Islands, south of the western extremity of the
Alaskan peninsula, to which islands he gave their present
name. Steering thence for Siberia, he was wrecked on a little
island that still bears his name. There he succumbed to the
hardships and privations that had filled so large a portion of
his life. Some of his companions, however, managed, to eke
out an existence through the winter. Among other booty,
they succeeded in killing some seals, whose furs they took
back with them to Siberia, when finally rescued. Thus the
seal may be said to hav^e been discovered; and to that dis-
covery is due the fact, that henceforth this region has attracted
an ever increasing number of daring sailors to its shores. As
a result of these discoveries, the Academy of Sciences of St.
Petersburg, published in 1758 a map of Alaska, with the
names in the French language. It shows various points from
Behring strait south, to what it designates as the " Port of
Francis Drake, falsely called the Port of St. Francis." The
portions of the coast-line still unknown are marked by dotted
lines, which connect in a conventional manner the heavy lines
of the known coast. The routes of Behring and Chirikof are
also laid down.

36 America: Its Geographical History.

During the same year that saw the completion of the dis-
covery of the northeast coast of Asia by Behring, there was
born, of humble parentage, in England, James Cook, who was
destined to become one of the greatest navigators of the age.
Into his early career we have no time to enter. His last work
was to seek from the Pacific side the long wished-for north-
ern passage to the Atlantic. Leaving the Sandwich Islands,
which he had discovered, he sailed toward America in the
summer of 1778, and first sighted the mainland near the
43d parallel. Thence he followed the coast toward the
north, approaching it at various points. He entered Nootka
Sound, and adopted for it the aboriginal name, which still
appears on our maps. Far to the north he entered, with high
hope of succeeding in his mission, a promising inlet. However,
his progress was soon blocked by land, and he returned to the
open ocean. The inlet retains to-day the name of its hardy
discoverer. Nothing daunted, he pushed on farther toward
the north, examining islands and mainland, ever hoping and
ever doomed to renewed disappointment, till at last his pro-
gress was arrested by impenetrable ice. The neighboring
cape he named Icy Point ; whence, forced to abandon his
project, he turned again toward the sunny south. He made a
map of the coast, embodying the results, not only of his own
observations, but also all that he could learn of the Russian
explorations. With this voyage, the discovery of the western
coast of America may be said to have been completed, at least
in outline, though a vast deal remained for navigators to
explore regarding the details thereof. And here we leave the
subject.

This sketch of the historical development of the coast lines
of America in the consciousness of Europe would not be com-
plete without some notice of the representations of an imag-
inary Antarctic continent south of the Straits of Magellan, and
the substitution therefor of the complex of islands now known
to exist there. On Magellan's first entrance into the strait,
fires were seen along the coast, whence he gave it the name it

Development of PaciJiG- Coast Geography. 37

has ever since borne, Terra del Fuego, or Land of Fire. From
the days of Ptolemy, it was a matter of tradition that the Indian
Ocean, like the Mediterranean, was an inland sea ; and that
consequently there must exist to the south of it another, as
yet unknown continent. Long before Magellan's discovery,
there appeared on Behaim's globe a strait represented very
nearly in the position of the one found by that explorer ; and
south of it there was drawn a great continent. The represen-
tations of this mythic body of land are larger or smaller,
according to the liveliness of imagination of their respective
authors. On some maps there is drawn a continent with its
centre at the south pole, and extending thence to an enormous
distance in all directions. On others it is much smaller, but
still of great extent; while the famous maps of 1527 and 1529
already referred to several times, give us but the small extent
of coast-line, which had been actually seen by the navigators,
and leaves the rest out, to be supplied from later explorations.
In 1578 Francis Drake passed through the straits on his voyage
round the world, and then sailed to the southwest until he
sighted the end of this group of islands, and convinced him-
self that there was no continent there. In 1616 two Dutch
navigators named Lemaire and Schouten passed south of the
group from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and christened the
southern extremity Cape Hoorn, after the latter's native place,
a small town on the shores of the Zuyder Zee. Thus the
extent of this group of islands became known. However, the
non-existence of an Antarctic continent was not proven until
Captain Cook made his famous explorations in the south seas,
discovering and naming numbers of groups of islands, but
finding no trace of the enormous continent that geographers
had represented as existing there. Thus actual knowledge
took the place of ignorance, and the Untrue was shamed away
when exposed to the searching light of day.

III.

Geography of the Interior and Polar Regions.

After Columbus had once shown the way across the Atlantic,
it was a comparatively easy matter to follow in his wake, and
extend the voyage somewhat further along the coast than he
had done; likewise, after Magellan had penetrated the mys-
teries of the straits that now bear his name, the discovery of
the Pacific coasts was made possible in ships sailing from
Europe. But the exploration of the interior of the country,
traversed by unbridged streams and lofty mountain ranges,
and largely filled with almost impeuetrable forests, was an
entirely different matter. We have seen in the preceding
lecture how many difficulties and dangers accompanied the
short route of Balboa across the Isthmus of Panama ; yet that
was but a bagatelle to what must be undergone before the
whole vast continent could be opened to and subjugated by
the European and his descendants.

The work here was not only more difficult in itself, but it
lacked also the strong motive, especially in North America,
which attracted the earliest navigators, namely, the presence
of the precious metals. Very possibly, it is owing to this fact,
that the entire North American continent is not, like the
South American, now in the hands of the Latin races ; for the
Spaniards made numerous attempts to explore and settle the
north, so long as there seemed to be a possibility of finding
gold there ; and only retired from the struggle when convinced
of its non-existence. Otherwise the struggle for the possession
of the northern part of our continent would have been a
38

Geography of the Interior and Polar Regions. 39

three-fold one; and who can tell what would have been
its issue?

Another fact must also be borne in mind, and that is the
then backward state of mathematical geography. Errors of five
degrees of latitude have already been noticed ; but in longitude
the uncertainty was even greater, navigators misreckoning
therein even to the extent of twenty degrees. Consequently,
even after the Pacific coast was to a certain extent known, no
one could tell the exact relation between it and the Atlantic,
or could calculate the immense stretch of country that lies
between the two. The great river basins of the Amazon
and La Plata offered unusual facilities for penetrating to the
interior of the southern continent, while the silver of the one
region, and the famous hard woods of the other, lent the
necessary stimulus to their exploration ; and on the Pacific
coast, the wealth of Peru was an attraction which would have
induced the Spaniards to go through fire and water, if necessary,
to obtain it. The same is true of Mexico, where the natives
had already reached a considerable degree of civilization, and
where accordingly provisions during the march of the invader
were more easily obtainable; the country was comparatively
narrow from coast to coast, and great wealth was there ready
collected for the first brave adventurer who, with the products
of European skill, should contend against the arms of native
manufacture. But, in the territory now occupied by the
United States, which in reality is marvelously rich in the
precious metals, the early seekers after gold were not successful
in finding it, and eventually abandoned the search. For this
reason, much of the 3,000,000 square miles which form our
territory was allowed to remain in its pristine state until a
comparatively late period, when the discovery of vast quan-
tities of gold and silver acted with its old-time attractiveness,
and thousands rushed thither to seek their fortunes. Even
Cauada and a great part of British North America were known
long before our western territory, because man had first dis-
covered there wealth-producing articles.

40 America: Its Geographical History.

The cartographical productions of the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries have a rather strange appearance to eyes
acquainted only with recent maps.

Take, for example, the map of Juan de la Cosa, who neces-
sarily knew nothing of the interior of America. He filled it
up with lakes and rivers ad libitum, connecting all rivers with
lakes, but not all with the sea. Furthermore he gives names
on the coast to rivers, as in the case of Rio Negro, but draws
nothing to indicate the presence of flowing water there. The
same holds good of the' early maps generally, until the con-
quest of Mexico gave cartographers something outside of their
imaginations as a foundation for what they depicted beyond
the coast-lines. The power of imagination varied with the
individual ; but practically all have more or less of the fan-
tastic, if we except such unusual productions as the official
Spanish maps of 1527 and 1529. Mountains were often visi-
ble from the ships of the explorers, and mouths of rivers were
frequently entered for fresh water, or in hopes of finding the
traditional passage to the Pacific; thus these two features were
the first to attract the attention of the explorers, and conse-
quently were the first features of the interior to apjiear on the
maps ; but little, however, was known of the courses of the
rivers or of the nature of the mountain ranges. Naturally the
interior of Espagnola, and of some of the other islands, was
familiar to the Spaniards at an early date; but our attention, in
the short time allotted us, must be confined to the mainland.
During the conquest of Mexico, Cortes began the founding of
cities on the eastern seaboard ; and as early as May, 1522,
he founded Zacatula on the western coast, a city that still
remains in existence. In the meantime, the necessities of
the situation had compelled him to send parties of his men
in all directions, so that the country was fairly well explored
in a short space of time. More or less elaborate accounts
of all his doings were sent from time to time to Spain, where
he had to defend his reputation from the accusations of his
enemies, mainly by showing how much he was doing toward

Geography of the Interior and Polar Regions. 41

opening up a valuable couutry for his sovereign. Hither and
thither marched his troops, conquering and pillaging; making
roads and discovering deposits of the precious metals ; ever
extending their borders toward both north and south. In
Central America, Cortes' men soon arrived at districts already
explored by his countrymen coming from the Isthmus of
Darien. But toward the north lay a territory of unknown
extent, in which Indian tales placed seven cities of untold
wealth ; and these stories, it was, that lead to the exploration
and settlement of New Mexico, at a time when the eastern
coast of the present United States possessed not a single Euro-
pean inhabitant. It may as well here be added that the settle-
ment did not thrive, and for a long period, even till toward
the close of the eighteenth century, was, in the words of Mr.
H. H. Bancroft, "struggling not very zealously, for a bare
existence." From 1530 to 1540 various exploring parties
traversed this region, reaching perhaps as far north as the
fortieth parallel of latitude, and westward into the present
territory of Arizona. Several Indian towns were discovered,
but they contained very little wealth. However, from this
time forth we find on the maps a variety of names, in the
interior, sometimes of provinces, sometimes of towns, but
generally of uncertain location, as scarcely any two maps agree
in this particular.

During the fourth decade of the sixteenth century, Cartier
ascended the river St, Lawrence for 500 miles, passing the
site of Montreal, and probably reaching the St. Louis Falls.
At the end of the same decade, De Soto commenced, in the
south, his ill-fated expedition into the interior. As the rem-
nant of De Soto's daring adventurers brought back practically
all the information of the interior of the present United States,
south of Tennessee and east of the Mississippi, which was
gained for a century, it will be worth our while to follow for
a moment their supposed route. After a careful study of the
records, Mr. H. H. Bancroft is of the opinion that their route
was about as follows : — landing at Tampa Bay, they proceeded

42 Ameinca: Its Geographical History.

to near Tallahassee; thence northeast to the Savannah River
below Augusta; thence northwest to the line of the present
state of Tennessee near Dalton, Georgia ; thence southwest to
near Mobile Bay, whence they turned toward the northwest
and advanced to the famous discovery of the Mississippi,
which they first saw not far from the mouth of the Arkansas.
Crossing the stream, they penetrated far to the west, without
finding that rich kingdom of which they were in search ; and
returned, deeply disappointed, to the Mississippi, where the
leader gave up the ghost, and was secretly buried beneath
those waters, the history of which will ever be associated with
his name. De Soto was succeeded in command by Luis de
Moscoso, under whom the band, greatly reduced in numbers,
again turned to the west, marched 150 leagues, till they came
in sight of the mountains ; then for the last time retraced
their course to the Mississippi above the Arkansas, where they,
with great difficulty, constructed some frail craft, in which
they succeeded in reaching Panuco; and there they found
rest among their fellow-countrymen. As the result of this
expedition, many names of Indian tribes came to the knowledge
of the Spaniards — names which are found, from time to time, on
our maps ; but with the same result as has been before noticed,
namely, that their locality is by no means fixed. During
this same fourth decade of the sixteenth century, the conquest
of Peru was being vigorously prosecuted ; accounts of which
brought considerable knowledge of the interior of South
America to European cartographers. A little earlier, Sebastian
Cabot was making his extended researches into the geography
of the basin of the river La Plata, spending five years in the
work, and penetrating a thousand miles into the interior ;
while at the beginning of the fifth decade, Orellana made his
descent of the Amazon from the Andes, thus bringing to light
the enormous length of that mighty stream. About the
middle of the century, Irala, the governor of Buenos Ayres,
organized an exploring party which forced a way overland
to the Spanish possessions of Peru, and thereby opened

Geography of the Interior and Polar Regions. 43

communication by land between the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts.

Meantime the cartographers came slowly into possession
of the knowledge acquired by the discoverers; but their
representations gave much less information than the written
descriptions. On the Spanish map of 1527, several territorial
divisions are named, of which the most important is Nova
Spafia ; and near this name, we find that of Mexico, but with-
out auything to indicate to what the latter refers. The north-
east corner of South America is designated by its present
name of El Brasi), while the northwest portion receives the
appellation of 'Castila del Oro.' The Amazon under the
name of ' Maranhom,' flows from many sources in the south-
west. Ribero's map of two years later contains but little that
is new, giving the imaginary courses of several rivers, notably
the San Francisco of South America. It names the province
of Peru, which is lacking on the preceding ; and adds several
names in North America, from those of explorers, or would-be
founders of colonies, but in whose territories there were as yet
no Caucasian inhabitants. We note also the name ' Tiera de
Patagones,' that given by Magellan to the inhabitants of the
southernmost portion of the western continent; and there
appears for the first time in Central America the name
" Guatimala."

On an Italian map of 1534, the great interior of South
America is styled * Castiglia nuova over Perv,' which recalls
the name of the province ceded to Pizarro by the Spanish
government, before the conquest of the region, and the adop-
tion by the Spaniards of the native name, or a corruption of
the same ; for as has been already said, it was also called at
an early day Birti. The Spanish name, however, occurs but
seldom on maps, the native term from the first taking the lead
in popular usance, and the official usage being gradually altered
in accordance therewith. On the Oxford map of about 1 536,
is the name ' rio de la platta,' which I have not noticed on any
earlier map, though from this time forth it occurs frequently,

44 America: Its Geographical History.

and finally becomes general. Thus we see how maps grow, if
the term be allowed ; for one cartographer not only copies what
his predecessors have drawn upon their works, but seeks to add
thereto from his own stock of information. Thus it is, that
the connection between descriptive and pictorial geography
must ever be borne in mind, as both belong to the science, and
are equally necessary to its advancement ; the one, however,
necessarily following the other, in order to show clearly at a
glance, the really important matters which might otherwise
cost hours of laborious reading to understand. On the map
of J. Rotz, of 1542, which gives the names in the English
language, the Gulf of St. Lawrence is quite correctly drawn,
though the islands in and about it are largely imaginary in
their form and number. The whole map indicates that some
knowledge of the results of Cartier's voyages had already pene-
trated to England. On the Medina map of 1549, the " R. de
los Amazones" rises in the northwestern part of South America
and flows in a southeasterly direction, emptying into the ocean
at 5 or 6 degrees south latitude, where it receives the name
* maraflon,' thus embodying upon a printed map the results
of a noted voyage made within the same decade. Of about
the same time are two French maps which Kohl reproduces
for us, and on which the St. Lawrence for a considerable
distance from its mouth, is fairly well drawn ; but on one it
is cut off, as being unknown further inland, while on the other
it is represented as rising in mountains.

On the map of 1554 by John Bellero, there are several
features worthy of notice, as for instance that the Amazon is
represented as rising in Patagonia, and flowing northeast into
the Atlantic, the whole with the name ' R. de esclavos.' In
Central America appear ' Quatimala ' and ' Nicaragua.' The
name Florida appears twice, being applied in one case to the
peninsula alone, and in the other, apparently to the entire ter-
ritory north of the Gulf of Mexico. This map was exceed-
ingly popular ; was published in connection with two works
this same year (1654), and repeated many times within the

Geography of ike Interior and Polar Regions. 45

following fifteen years. On the almost equally celebrated map
of Ramusio of 1556, the southern part of South America is
occupied by the province of " Chili," out of which flows the
" Rio Maragnon " northeastward, with its mouth at the
equator.^ The territory to the west of it is designated " El
Peru," and that to the East, '' Brazil." In the neighborhood
of the city of Mexico stands the name ' Tecoantepech,' evidently
the Tehuantepec of our day. The names of the principal places
of Peru already appear ; and we find on this map Trugillo
[Truxillo], Lima, Acequipa [Arequipa], Cusco, and a 'Chili'
in smaller letters than those which seem to apply to the whole
of the southern portion of the continent. One noteworthy
feature of the map is that, according to Mr. Bancroft, it " is
the first printed representation of North America as it was
actually known; that is, with indications of a broad continent,
but all left blank beyond the points of discovery." On the
Zaltieri map of 1566, the interior is elaborated to an unusual
extent. In Canada the " R. S. Lorenzo " flows southeast out
of " Lago ; " and near it are the localities " Ochelaza " and
" Ochelai." To the south is " Larcadia," and west of this
stands " Terra di Norumbega." The whole interior is filled
with Mountains ; and a range in the northwest receives the
name " Apalchen," out of which form has evidently been
developed the present name of the eastern mountain range of
the United States, Appalachian. " Granata " is the general
name on this map for the region later known as New Mexico ;
and several towns are indicated, but none of those now exist-
ing. Mexico is well supplied with names, among which are
noted " Temistitain " and " Mistecui," probably Italianized
forms of Temixtitlan and Mexico. On the Ortelius map of
1570, with all its richness of detail, and large measure of
accuracy, there is a confused representation of the Amazon
which is striking. Between the equator and the twentieth
parallel south there are draw.n two large rivers, rising in the

* The river is similarly represented on the Furlani map of 1560.

/

46 America: Its Geographical History.

Andes, and flowing in almost parallel courses toward the east,
and connecting in the middle. The northern one is called
" Amazonum uel Oregliana fl.," and the southern one, " Mar-
agnon." Near the mouth of the latter is the inscription : "Rio
Maragnone cuiv^ ostium distat ab ostio Amazonis fl. 10 Jf. leucis
teste, Theuio." How this confusion arose it would be interest-
ing to know ; but it is not here the place to go into possible
explanations, none of which would be better than conjecture.
On the Judaeis map of 1593 are to be found some interesting
statements, as in the far west : "/n his montibus habitant diversae
nationes qui continuis bellis inter se conftidantur : Avanares,
Albardi, Cdlicuas, Tagil, Apalchen pluresque aliae." The
eastern part of the territory now occupied by the United States
is divided into " Francia Nova," * Virginia,' and * Carolina.'
In Virginia a mountain range running east and west has
near it the name 'Apalchen,' while the mountains separating
this English territory from the French one of Carolina, bear
the inscription "Apalatei mantes in guibus aurum el argenlum"
Quite a-nuraber of local names occur both in the east and west,
and Canada is fairly well represented. The latter half of the
sixteenth century was on the whole rather barren of results in
the growth of geographical knowledge of America, and we
find very little that is new, either in books of description or on
he maps.

The opening of the seventeenth century saw the establish-
ment of a permanent French settlement in Canada, and a
lasting colony of English planted in Virginia ; and from these
two centres explorations into the interior were made, and
maps thereof drawn, so that from this time on we see the
continual growth of the inland geography of the main portion
of the northern continent. The French penetrated to the
north and west of the head waters of the St. Lawrence, brought
to light the Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains beyond,
and did also some exploring in the present New England,
where they came into collision with the English. The intrepid
John Smith, setting out from the struggling colony of James-

Geography of the Interior and Polar Regions. 47

town, explored the waters of the neighboring bay and rivers,
and the Atlantic coast-line up through New England. French [
exploration went on more rapidly than the English, because |
of the religious zeal of the former's monastic orders. On the /
other hand, the English colonists had come to stay and makej
homes for themselves ; and, with the exception of such rare
enthusiastic spirits as John Smith, they did but little exploring
merely for the sake of seeing the country, when they were
not seeking a place to found a new colony. Before the middle
of the century, the sea-board between the French on the north
and Virginia on the south was occupied by several colonies
from the Netherlands and Sweden, as well as from England ;
and the general maps soon began to show something of a
political aspect. Already on the map published by Hakluyt
in 1589 there was an attempt to draw boundary lines, the
first map on which we have observed anything of the kind.
In North America there are only four divisions: — 1, the
great northwest, containing the legend * America sive India
Nova ; ' 2, to the northeast was * Nova Francia ; ' 3, south of
this, ' Florida,' and the remainder to the isthmus * Hispania
noua.' South America is divided into five great provinces :
' Caribana ' in the north ; * Humos Brasi,' fi'om the mouth of
the Amazon east ; ' Chiba ' in the south ; ' Peru ' in the west;
while the centre, between the middle Amazon and the Plata,
received the name ' Amazones.' The second map of this
nature, known to us, is a French map of about 1640, the
original of which is in the Depdt de la Marine of Paris. This
is a rude map without lines of latitude and longitude, and the
' coast-lines by no means accurately drawn ; but it is interesting
as showing the conception of the division of the continent, at
that time probably accepted by the French. The basin of the
St. Lawrence, which forms by far the largest part of the map,
has no specific name. Far to the northwest is the " Lac des
hurons," out of which a river flows toward the southeast, which
empties into the St. Lawrence just east of the ' lac s louis.'
Southwest from the latter are * lac francois,' ' lac Ontario ' and

48 America: Its Geographical History.

' Lac erie.' ' Lac Champlain ' is also given, much distorted
in form. From the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Atlantic coast
stretches almost due west, is indented with bays and rivers,
and the whole territory divided into six districts, which,
beginning in the east, are designated as follows : — " lacadia,"
" la nouuelle angleterre," " la nouuelle holande," " la nouuelle
suede," " la uirginie," and " la floride." These are all marked
off, the one from the other, by definite lines, and a mountain
range separates them on the north from Canada. We may
as well here note a peculiar feature of this map, which recurs
on a number of other early maps, that is the fact that a con-
tinuous watercourse connects the Atlantic, on the New England
coast, with the river St. Lawrence. We see thus the rude
beginnings of political geography, that side of the science
which at present attracts the most popular attention. It seems
hard to realize that the vast territory, the political aspect of
which could, two hundred and fifty years ago, be sufficiently
represented in such crude form, is now filled with an immense
population ; and that a good map of it should represent
innumerable boundary lines of country, state, and county ;
and contain hundreds of dots showing the situation of as many
cities, towns, and 'villages. y

As early as 1609 we find a map of Lescarbot, giving some
of the political features of Canada ; for instance, " Kebec "
appears for the first time, and there are also " Saincte Croix,"
" Sagenay," " Hochelaga," etc. For the town last named
there is on the map a drawing of five houses within a stockade,
the whole surmounted by the French fleur-de-lis. The river
Kennebec is called " Kinibeki," probably the native name as
the French understood it, from which the present form has
been abridged. The French discovery of the Iroquois Indians
is here brought to light, and the name is used twice, as desig-
nating respectively a country and a river. The rivers of St.
John and St. Croix are drawn almost parallel, and empty
into the Bay of Fundy which is distorted ; their names are
spelled, "R. S. Jan" and "Saincte Croix." In the 1625

Geography of the Interior and Polar Unions. 49

edition of Purchas there is a very well drawn map of this
region, on which quite a number of names occur that are
not found on other maps, as Clyde and Twede for the St. John
and St. Croix respectively ; Cape Cod receives its present
name and is better drawn than on any previous map noted.
The then new settlement of Plymouth is placed considerably
further north than Cape Cod. " De la war bay" is evidently
the Chesapeake, for into it flow the rivers on which are the
settlements of "James Citti" and "Henrico," while at its
mouth are capes Charles and " Henric." However, no other
bay is given as lying between this and the Hudson river.
" New Scotlande " includes all of the territory now occupied
by Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. On de Laet's map of
" Florida et Regiones Vicinae," of the same year, the interior
is well filled with Indian names of native villages, to which
are added those of European origin, such as " S. Augustin "
of Florida, " Charlesfort " near " Port Royal " in the present
South Carolina, etc. " Apalatcy Montes," and a district under
the name " Apalache " attract also our attention, because of
their evident relation to modern well known names. No. 91,
of the Kohl Collection, reproduces for us a curious map
extracted from a work published in 1628 under the title of
" The World encompassed by Sir Fr. Drake." Here New
England is placed northwest of New France, and the whole
continent is called " North America or Mexicana," probably
the greatest extent ever given the name Mexico, which, as
elsewhere remarked, was originally the name of only a
quarter or district of the capital city of the Aztecs. The
extreme northwestern part of the continent is styled " New
Brittayne," and in the northern part of South America
appears for the first time " Guiana ; " " Bonos Ayres," also a
new name, is applied to a small affluent of La Plata.

Kohl gives us copies of three maps published in 1630 in

de Laet's work on the New World. These show extended

information on the part of their compiler, not only as to the

projects of settlement of his own country but also the work

4

50 America: Its Geographical History.

in that direction done by other and rival nations. One of these
maps is entitled "Americaesive Indiae Occidentalis Tabula Gen-
eralis," and the two continents are called respectively, " Sep-
tentrionalis Americae pars," and " Meridionalis Americae
pars." " Tierra del Fuego " is cut off on the south with a
dotted line, it being already known that there was open sea
beyond it, since de Laet's countrymen had passed that way in
1616; but as they did not explore the islands in detail, the
land's extent is here marked as unknown. Some idea of the
Great Lakes had already penetrated to Europe, as the St.
Lawrence River is here represented as rising in a lake to the
northwest, which lake has no western bounds. Just west of
" C. Cod," (which on one of the maps is called " C Blanc "),
the territory is called "Novum Belgium," while "Nova
Anglia" is further north, and to the west of Nova Scotia.
" R. Pentegouet " is evidently meant for Penobscot, though
the name seems to be more nearly related to Pemaquid, also
evidently an Indian name, which was applied to a settlement
made about that time in this vicinity ; and " R. Quinibequi "
is to us a new form of Kennebec. In such names as " Cadie,"
" Nieuw Engeland," " Vossen haven," [Boston Haven],
" Hellegat," " Manbatte," [Manhatten], " Nieuw Nederland,"
"Noordt River,' "Zuyd River," we easily recognize old
friends, dressed, however, in somewhat strange habiliments.
South America also contains many names which by this time
had come into more or less general use.

Champlain's map of 1632 is the work of a careful explorer
who understood also how to depict what he had seen. The
territory represented on this map is almost exclusively that
visited by the draughtsman himself and included under the
name Nouvelle France. The St. Lawrence rises in Lake St.
Louis, west of which are two small lakes without names. To
the northwest is shown an immense body of water under the
name " Mer douce," with its greatest extent from east to west.
This error continued for a long time to disfigure the maps of
this region ; for the early explorers did not realize that Geor-

Geography of the Interior and Polar Regions. 51

gian Bay, though connected with, is not a part of Lake Huron.
Still further west there is " Grand lac," evidently Lake Su-
perior. Of course Lake Champlain is given, the special
discovery of the maker of this map ; but it is too broad for
its length ; and for Lake George there is represented a wide
bay near the southwest end of the main lake ; while the general
trend of the whole is northeast and southwest, rather than
north and south, as it is in reality. On the Maine coast is
the settlement " Pemetegoit," probably Pemaquid, and further
to the east, St. Croix ; Quebec is spelled as now.

In the work of William Wood, entitled " New England's
Prospect, a true, lively and experimental description of that
part of America, commonly called New England," there is a
map of " The South part of New England, as it is planted
this yeare 1634." The degrees of latitude are marked on the
eastern margin, and the city of Boston is placed at 42|^ degrees,
which is very accurate for that period, as the position is now
put at 42° 22' [Scribner-Black Atlas, 1890]. On this map,
an American begins to feel at home, when he encounters a
considerable number of old familiar names, such as Salem,
Roxbury, Charlestowne [applied to both settlement and river],
Dorchester, Nantasket, Cohassett, ' Sitliate ' [Scituate], New
and Old Plymouth, ' Pascataque Riuer ' [Piscataqua River],
' Islands of Shoulds ' [Isles of Shoals], ' Merimock ' River,
Cape Ann, Marble Harbor, Nahant Point, ' Narrogansett's '
bay and river, etc.

In "A relation of Maryland," published in 1635, there is a
map of that region, with the west turned toward the top.
" Chesapeack bay " is elaborately drawn, and extends fully up
to the 40th degree of north latitude, while Delaware Bay is
crudely represented, as if known only by hearsay, and, accord-
ing to the scale given on the map itself, does not reach the
40th parallel by eight " Sea Leagues." Between the upper
waters of the two bays is the name of a tribe of Indians,
" Sasquehannocks," doubtless the origin of the name of Penn-
sylvania's long river, the Susquehanna. The chief river of

62 America: Its Geographical History.

the region as shown on the map is the " Patowmeck," at whose
mouth is placed the then new settlement of Lord Baltimore,
with the elaborate name of " St. Maries Augusta Catolina."
The settled part of Virginia is also added to the map and the
usual names given.

From the middle of the seventeenth century, the general
features of the Atlantic sea-board were fairly well known in
one part or another of Europe ; and for the future we shall
remark only such features of the maps that come under notice
as are new, or for some other reason are of special interest. Im-
migration to the New World was now an established thing, and
the stream, though not so mighty as it was in time to become,
was already quite constant ; and many there were, not only
anxious to come for a time, for the sake of adventure or spec-
ulation, but who found here life more agreeable or at least
more tolerable, than in the fatherland. It is not possible in
geographical works to follow the gradual penetration of the
wilderness by individual pioneers, how their families grew up
about them, and friends and acquaintances were attracted
thither, till in time a settlement was there, large enough to
call attention to its existence. But such is the true historical
development precedent to the growth of our geography,
especially on its political side.

The second half of the century was a busy one in America ;
and while the English colonists were engaged in laying the
foundations of a future great commonwealth, the French, in
their self-sacrificing missionary labors, were bringing to light
vast stretches of the continent, whose immensity till then had
not even been dreamed of. All of the Great Lakes were soon
on the maps, with a fair idea of their inter-connection ; and
the Mississippi, from its head-waters almost, even to its mouth
in the Gulf of Mexico, was traversed and mapped, while the
size of the streams flowing into it, furnished the first ground
for estimating the immensity of the country drained by its
waters. A French anonymous map of 1660 gives all the
Great Lakes : " Lacus Ontarius," very well drawn ; " Lac "

Geography of the Interior and Polar Regions. 53

" Erius s. Felis," less so ; " Lacus aquarum Marinarum/' the
name given to Lake St. Clair, which however is represented as
only a slight broadening of the river ; " Mare dulce seu Lacus
Huronum," is Lake Huron, as usual much exaggerated in its
breadth ; " Lacus Superior " is not known as far as its western
extremity ; only the northeastern portion of Lake Michigan
is depicted, and bears the legend "Magnus lacus Algon-
quinorum seu Lacus Faetentium." This map shows also an
acquaintance on the part of the French, with the Virginia
settlements, and also with the Swedish settlements on the
Delaware. Of about ten years later is another anonymous
French map with the title " Lac Superieur, et autres lieux, oil
sont les Missions des Peres de la Compagnie de Jesus," etc.
Here the entire lake is represented, and bears the name of
Tracy as well as its more usual and now universal one of
Superior. It is drawn too long, by about 100 miles, accord-
ing to the scale ; bot when we consider that this is the first
attempt, as far as we know, to represent this entire body of
water, and that the only survey thereof had been a crude
reconnaissance, we must rank the work as of high quality.
Lake Michigan has the name " Lac des Illinois ; " and near
the junction of the lakes we find the beginnings of the modern
towns of Ignace and Mackinaw, under the term missions.

Kohl gives in No. 227 of his collection a map which he
believes to be a copy of the one which Father Marquette him-
self made during his voyage on the Mississippi in 1673. The
latitude is marked on the margins, and includes the territory
from the 32d to the 48th degree north. Here are met some
strange-looking names, which, however, have evidently con-
nection with some well-known modern ones. The Missouri
river is not named, but near it is placed a tribe of Indians
with the name " Oumesourit ; " while not far off is another
tribe named "Kansa." At the junction of the Mississippi,
with an unnamed river which is probably the Arkansas, is
another tribe of Indians called "Arkansea." On the Ohio
Hiver is found " R. Ouabouskiaou," which, according to Kohl,

54 America: Its Geographical History.

is the original of our Wabash. "Kachkaska" is a small
stream flowing east into the southwestern corner of the " Lac
des Illinois ; " a name that is doubtless Kaskaskia, and since
that time transferred to a river in the southern part of Illinois,
which flows into the Mississippi. Another map of the same
year is extracted from Thevenot's work of Voyages and
Travels, and represents the same region. On the first map
the Mississippi bore the name Conception, while it here
receives a name recognizable as related with its modern one,
" Mitchisipi ou Grande Riviere." Tlie latitude of most places
is wrongly represented, and no attempt is made to give their
longitude. The map bears also a less number of recognizable
names. Worthy of remark is the fact that, during his voyage,
Marquette was told by the Indians that beyond the source of
the Missouri, there rose another river which flows westward, —
probably the first intimation on this side the Rocky Moun-
tains of the existence of the Columbia River. Of two years
later is the Joliet map of the Mississippi valley, which region
is called on the map " La Colbertie ou Amerique Occidentale ; "
and the Father of Waters itself is named after the French-
man Colbert. The Allegheny and Ohio Rivers are not named,
but bear the legend " Riviere par ou deseendit Le Sieur de la
Salle au sortir du Lac Erie pour aller dans le Mexique."
Niagara Falls receive the striking name '* Sault de demi
lieue." On another map made by Joliet, probably during the
following decade, the head waters of the Mississipi are placed
in about 54 degrees of north latitude, and the name has
become modified to " Messisipi." Of about the same period
is a map of Raffeix on which we meet for the first time
"Ohoio La belle Riviere." Father Hennepin's map of 1683
gives us " La Louisiane " for the first time, and applies to
some of the Great Lakes names not elsewhere met with.

But detail grows perhaps wearisome, and to continue the
geographical history of the United States at the same rate
would fill a volume, instead of being part of an hour's
lecture. The subject in itself, however, cannot fail to be in-

Geography of the Interior and Polar Regions. 55

teresting to any one who desires to know the development of
his country.

Before the close of the seventeenth century there was in
Europe a knowledge of the general features of the territory
of the United States, with the exception of the far north-
west ; and during the eighteenth century, this knowledge was
somewhat increased in detail. Veranderie succeeded in pene-
trating west from Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains ;
and Le Page du Pratz relates the story of an Indian named
Moncacht Ape, who in 1745 made his way over the moun-
tains, and descended the " Beautiful River," as he called the
stream on whose waters he voyaged to the Pacific. We are
not accustomed to think of Indians as explorers, who leave
their homes and wander several thousand miles merely
for the sake of gratifying their curiosity. However, there
seems little room for doubt in reference to this first recorded
exploration of the Pacific slope by any one coming from the
country east of the Mississippi. But the eighteenth century
did on the whole very little toward opening up the vast
interior of this great continent to the knowledge of civil-
ized man ; and we pass accordingly to the beginning of the
present century, when the then young and zealous federal
government, under the lead of Jefferson, purchased Louisiana,
and sent out ex;plorers to report on the territory which had
thus come into our possession. These opened the way, which
hardy pioneers seeking for homes were not slow to follow ;
and what was thus begun was accelerated by the discovery of
gold, as the middle of the century drew near. This fact has
had more efiect in a few decades than mere human curiosity to
penetrate the secrets of nature had had in as many centuries.
Look upon a map of the great West, of the last century or of
only half a century ago, and on one of the present day, and
behold the evidences of the work of man ; for nature during
that period has remained practically the same, and all the
immeasurable difference there observable is due to human
energy.

56 America: Its Geographiccd History.

Polar Chorography.

We turn now to a region which, though among the earliest
portions of the New World to attract attention, is the last to
be well known, because of the inherent diflBculties of explor-
ing it. Here is the one part of the earth where a love of
science has been to a large extent the moving factor in its ex-
ploration, and where wealth and life itself have been oifered
up in the most generous manner in order to bring to us a
knowledge of it. From the suggestion of Cabot in the fif-
teenth century to the present, interest therein has sometimes
been at a low ebb, but never for any length of time been
entirely wanting. Here is the region also where imagination
has played the greatest r61e; and much of the geographical
representation of which is purely the product of fertile brains
without any foundation in fact or experience. Something of
this feature has been told in treating of the Pacific coast; and
in the short time at our disposal now, it will be better to con-
fine the attention to the facts of the case as shown on various
relatively trustworthy maps.

The first explorers of the frigid regions of the Atlantic
were, however, not actuated by any higher motives than those
of commercial gain ; for they desired to reach the wealth of
the Orient by a passage which could not be blocked by the
Portuguese, who by right of first discovery and by the gift of
the Holy See, had the sole title to the route via the Cape of
Good Hope. Furthermore, if found, the route by the north-
west passage would be much shorter, especially for the nations
of northern Enrope, than that around Africa. Though much
of this region was doubtless known to the Northmen from the
eleventh to the fourteenth century, no maps of that period are
known to us, except that of the Italian, Zeno, of the four-
teenth century, which however, was not given to the world
till the year 1558. This map contains a variety of names,
some of which were reproduced on maps down to a compara-
tively late period ; and about the signification of which there

Geography of the Interior and Polar Hegiona. 57

has been a great deal of learned dispute. Probably as rational
interpretation of these names as we can find is that of Major,
who has made a careful study of the matter. He gives the
modern equivalents of the names as follows : ' Engroelant,'
Greenland ; ' Islanda/ Iceland ; ' Estland/ the Shetland
Islands ; 'Frisland/ Faroe Islands ; 'Markland,' Nova Scotia;
' Estotiland/ Newfoundland ; ' Drogeo/ coast of North
America ; ' Icaria/ coast of Kerry in Ireland.

As of Columbus's first voyage, so of Cabot's, there remains
no map to tell us just where he saw the American coast.
Years later Sebastian Cabot made a map of the New World,
which, however, attempts to portray all that was known up to
the time of drawing it ; so that there are no means of ascertain-
ing just what had been discovered by his father or himself. The
oldest map which represents the northeastern part of North
America, and belonging to what may be called the Columbian
period of discovery, in contradistinction to that of the North-
men, is the Cantino map of 1 502, which shows early Portu-
guese discoveries in the north. On another Portuguese map,
of 1 504, we find " Newfoundland and Labrador under the
name of 'Terra de Cortte Reall,' and Greenland with no name,
but so correctly represented as to form strong evidence that
it was reached by Cortereal" [H. H. Bancroft]. This is the
most accurate map of that region which appeared for a long
time. Those in the editions of Ptolemy of 1508 and 1511 are
not at all well drawn as regards this portion ; and even as late as
the Schoener globe of 1520, not as much is known in Germany
of this region as is depicted on this early Portuguese map. This
state of the case continued until the English explorations were
renewed in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. In the
meantime Zaltieri in 1566 and Ortelius rn 1570 had made an
approach toward a fair representation of the northern regions ;
but whether these were the result of surmises on their part or
whether they knew of explorations in those parts, of which
we have no records, I cannot say. In 1578 appeared George
Best's "A true discourse of the late voyages of discoveries, for"

58 America: Its Geographical History.

" the finding of a passage to Cathaya by the North West under
the conduct of Martin Frobisher, generall, ..." In this
work there is a map of the world in the form of a flattened
ellipse, the most northerly part of which is occupied by four
immense islands, bearing the title " Terra Septentrionalis."
South of the western half of these are " Frobishers Straights,"
the eastern portion of which contains a group of islands
that Frobisher himself called Terra Incognita. On Dee's map
of 1680 the polar regions receive careful treatment, and the
strait discovered by Frobisher is well represented ; but is con-
tinued inland, to an indefinite extent. Here are also some of
the names of the Zeno map. The Lok map of two years later
shows much more evidence of actual acquaintance with the
region, though the knowledge has by no means yet become
accurate. Frisland is here a peninsula in the far northeast,
extending below the 60th parallel, while ' Island ' is just north
of ' Hibernia,' on the Arctic Circle. ' Greenland ' is all above
the circle, extending almost to 80 degrees north. To the
northwest of this there is also *Iac. Scolvus Groetland.'
Frobisher Strait, Lok Island, and other names also appear.

In 1585, 1586, and 1587, John Davis made his celebrated
arctic voyages, and opened up much new territory to the
knowledge of the English ; but I have seen no map from his
hand, or that is the direct product of his discoveries. Cer-
tainly, the map of the world, by lohaunes Myrtius, contained
in a book bearing the date 1590, whose introduction is dated
1587, contains no glimmer of such information. Hakluyt's
map of 1589 takes but little notice of any English discoveries
in the far north, and continues the already known strait west-
ward into the Pacific. Of the other discoveries, there is no trace.
Wytfliet's map of 1597 has at 60 d^rees north a "Golfo de
Merosro," southwest of which is placed " Terra Corterealis,"
"which," says Kohl, "supports the old tradition, that Cor-
tereal entered a strait or gulf in that latitude, and that this
Gulf of Cortereal was our Hudson's Strait." On Hakluyt's
later map, of 1598, are located both " Fretum Davis" and

Geography of the Interior and Polar Regions. 59

" Frobisher's Straights ; " and south of the latter is " Estoti-
land." The map in Purchas, 1625, begins to bear some
resemblance in the north to our present conception of that
country. " Fretum Hudson " leads west to Hudson Bay ;
and the western part of the latter is called " Button Bale,"
with the connecting shore between them still omitted. To the
northeast is " Parte of Groenland, with " C. Farewell " at its
southern extremity, and "Fretum Davis" separating it from
the mainland. On the English map, extracted from the work
on the voyage of Francis Drake, there is added to what we
have noted on the other maps, " Baifin's Bay," which had
been discovered sixteen years before by the man whose name
it bears. Of the year 1631 there is a work devoted to the
description of the voyage of the discoverer of James Bay,
accompanied by a good map of the region visited.

From this time on, to the beginning of the present century,
there was but little done toward bringing to light the secrets of
this vast country, forever under the rule of winter. But the
valuable work of Sir John Franklin, in connection with his
tragic fate, reopened the subject in the first half of our cen-
tury ; and since then the various nations of the civilized world
have vied with each other in their efforts to penetrate the veil
that hitherto has concealed this country from view. A great
complex of islands and numerous water ways have been map-
ped for us, the limits of the mainland designated, and the
fact established that a water communication between the At-
lantic and Pacific does exist here; but all hope has been
abandoned that it will ever, at least in our era, prove practica-
ble for commerce. Fortunately the need for it has long since
disappeared, and the high seas have become free as the air to
all who trust themselves to their treacherous waves.

IV.

Historical Notes on Certain Geographical Names.

America.

The discovery of a New World has made Columbus the
hero of centuries, and his name has been mentioned with almost
universal praise. The maps however, give no prominence to
that name, but bear in large letters the name of another ; and
both he who bore this name in life, and he who proposed its
adoption in the world's geography, have been decried and exe-
crated almost as much as lauded. How have such anomalies
come about? To Clio we must look for the answer; but,
though the roll she bears in her hand contains all truth, she
never lets any one individual see the whole ; and accordingly
accounts differ as to what men have there found. We must
therefore not expect the absolute, unalterable truth in applying
to History for an explanation of the past ; but, examining such
fragments as she offers to our view, judge of their contents in a
manner consistent with the most probable solution of the prob-
lem to which we apply ourselves. In the present case the con-
test lies between Spain and Germany ; between a country that
strove to grasp all in secrecy, and one whose subjects remained
at home and sought to diffuse knowledge ; between the sword
and the pen : and, as history has so often demonstrated, the pen,
in this case also, was the stronger. Recently there has developed
another struggle, based on the fact that theorists have arisen
who are trying to destroy the authenticity of the records of
the centuries, and who find the name America a product of the
60

Historical Notes on Certain. Geographical Names. 61

land that bears it, and not a latinized form of the name of a
man who has been branded as a braggart and an impostor.

Columbus started out in 1492 to find, not a New World,
but the Asia which Marco Polo had described in such glow-
ing terms, and whose riches and spices were valuable beyond
measure. Though he came to the western hemisphere four
times and touched the continent of America twice, he lived
and died in the belief that he had visited the eastern part of
Asia. He was told of the existence of the Pacific Ocean, but
in his blindness, gave the information another interpretation.
He saw little or nothing such as Marco Polo had described,
yet he compelled his companions to swear that they believed
themselves on the coast of Asia. He tried to have his dis-
coveries kept secret even from his fellow countrymen, and his
government attempted to prevent the knowledge passing out-
side their realms ; so that when the rest of the world had any
information of the new discoveries, they were at liberty to
apply to the regions known such names as pleased their fancy.
Columbus claimed for himself wealth and political power as
the reward of his discovery, and died poor and neglected,
though his descendants received what he had desired. But
another visited these shores, with facile pen in hand, and gave
to the world through his friends and patrons a glowing
description of the beauties and wonders his eyes had beheld
in that strange country ; and added " Novum mundum appel-
lare licet ; " and for a long time it was so called : but as in the
case of Magellan, the name which he proposed for the strait
of his discovery gradually gave way to his own name, so in
this other case, the name proposed by Americus Vespucius
gradually made room for his own name. Though Vespucius
was not probably the original discoverer of the coast of South
America, he was the first to tell the world what an extensive and
magnificent country it is ; and a world, grateful for the infor-
mation, and liking the sound of the name, adopted it. As he
was a foreigner, the Spaniards were long unwilling to receive
that appellation ; but though they could conquer the greatest

62 America: Its Geographical History.

part of the New World, they did not in the end have the
privilege of naming it : and their selfish secrecy is, in our
humble opinion, the prime cause of the fact.

Inasmuch as Columbus believed that he was sailing in the
waters of Asia, he had no reason to seek a new name for the
whole extent of territory which he visited ; moreover, he did
not see nearly so much of the mainland as in all probability
Vespucius did ; and for local names he was content to apply
the names of saints, or a name suggested by his experience at
a given point, or even to adopt the native name, as he under-
stood it from the mouths of the Indians. Vespucius may
still have thought this to be a part of Asia ; but he evidently
recognized the difference between what he saw and what he
had expected to see in the land of Marco Polo j and in all
earnestness he proposed the name New World for this enor-
mous extent of country ; and even the Spaniards accepted his
proposition.

There are grave discrepancies in the accounts we have of
the life of Vespucius, and also in his own accounts of his
voyages to America. But that seems to us to have little to do
with the acceptance of his name for the western continents.
If it comes to a question as to the justness of so honoring
him above Columbus, then even if he had seen the continent a
year or so earlier than the great admiral, it would be unjust
to give him the preference; for there can be little doubt that
he would never have visited the western hemisphere if Colum-
bus had not shown the way. But the two men were of entirely
different moulds ; and the result is in accordance therewith.
The one sought immediate power and wealth ; and largely by
his own mismanagement failed ; but the justness of history
has given him his due theoretically, while helpless to alter the
habits of men ; the other sought notoriety by the aid of his
pen; the world read, was interested and entertained, and
formed the habit of speaking of the region and the man who
first revealed it, in the same breath ; and as man is a creature
of habit, the name will probably endure as long as the race

Hiatoncal Notes on Certain Geographical Names. 63

which now inhabits the continent. The history of geography-
shows that the names of the prominent features of a land are
most enduring, as witness the names of the Mississippi River,
the Ohio, Missouri, and others, names used by the Indians
who have long since been gathered to their fathers ; and whose
descendants, if there be any, are living far away from the
graves of their ancestors. If they had possessed a general
name for the entire continent, that, too, would perhaps, nay,
probably, have been preserved to this day ; but as that was
lacking, and another, convenient and euphonius, was proposed,
it was accepted and will probably endure for untold ages to come.
In the year following the death of Columbus, there was
published in a small town of Lorraine, a work of but fifty-
two small quarto pages, which contained a proposition,
modestly worded, but which was to result in naming the great
stretch of land that occupies the western hemisphere. This
pamphlet bore the title Cosmographiae Ivtrodvctio. . . . In-
super quatuor Amerid Vespueij Nauigationes. It is said to
have been the first complete edition of the writings of Vespu-
cius on the New World, although portions of them had appeared
earlier. These writings were destined to become popular ; and
before 1530 there were issued in French, German, Italian, and
Latin at least fourteen editions of them. The important
passage for us in this work reads in English as follows : —
"But now that those parts have been more extensively
examined, and another fourth part has been discovered by
Americus (as will be seen in the sequel), I do not see why we
should rightly refuse to name it America, namely, the land of
Americus or America, after its discoverer, Americus, a man of
sagacious mind, since both Europe and Asia took their names
from women." (H. H. Bancroft.) ^ If those had been days

^ The original as given by Peschel [Abhandlungen zur Erd- und V61-
kerkunde, 231-2], reads : — "Nunc vero et hae paries {_Europa, Africa, Asia']
sunt lalius lustratce et alia quarta pars per Americum VespiLcium {ut in aeqiienti-
bus audietur) inventa est, quam non video cur quisjure vetet ah Americo inventorCy
sagacis ingenii viro Amerigen quasi Ameriei terrain sive Americam dicendam :
cum et Europa et Asia a mulieribus sua aortiia sint nomina."

64 America: Its Geographical History.

when newspaper notoriety could be purchased for money, there
might be some foundation for the modern accusation that
Vespucius was in collusion with the editor, and so responsible
for depriving Columbus of the honor of having his name
attached to the world he had discovered ; but if that had been
the case, he would probably have chosen some other press for
the propagation of his scheme, than a comparatively obsc-ure
one far away from the centre of exploring activity. The
ruling duke of Lorraine happened to be a proraotor of learn-
ing, and had gathered at the little town of St. Di6 a small
company of learned men to conduct the local university, one
of whom was especially interested in geography, and another
of whom had studied in Paris and possibly met a personal
friend of Vespucius. These men planned the issue of a new
edition of the geographical work of Ptolemy, and made their
preparations accordingly. As a preliminary, this little Intro-
dvctio was published on the 25th of April, 1507; but the
main work was interrupted by the death of the patron duke,
and the Ptolemy was not issued till 1513, and was then
printed in Strasburg. Furthermore, the map of America in
that Atlas does not bear the name America. In the meantime,
Vespucius had died, having lived on cordial terms with the
family of Columbus, although there had continued for several
years a suit at law between that family and the Spanish Court
in reference to the first discovery of the northern coast of
South America ; in which, however, Vespucius made no claim
to be the first discoverer, notwithstanding the fact that the
work of Hylacomylus was known in Spain and Columbus'
son possessed a copy of the same, wherein the statement occurs
that Vespucius had made a voyage to the mainland in the
year 1497. This statement has been interpreted to mean
North and Central America, and there is a bare possibility of
his having made such a voyage ; but there is no evidence that
he himself, then or at any period of his life, laid claim to be the
original discoverer of the continent. All of his so-called four
voyages have been declared by his assailants to be apocryphal,

Historical Notes on Certain Geographical Names. 65

although three have been proven beyond reasonable doubt, to be
authentic. This relieves him of the chargeof being an impostor ;
and it may yet possibly be shown that the first voyage also
was really made. At least the contrary has not been proven.
However, Santarem " claims that one hundred thousand doc-
uments in the Royal Archives of Portugal, and the register
of maps which belonged to King Emmanuel, make no mention
of Vespucins, and that there is no register of the letters patent
which Vespucius claimed to have received. Nor is there any
mention in several hundred other contemporary manuscripts
preserved in the great library at Paris, and in other collections,
which Santarem says he has examined." (Winsor.) As he
is bitterly hostile to the fame of Vespucius, these sweeping
statements should probably be received with some allowance.
Mr. Gay, in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, gives
form to an idea that the name was originally meant to be
applied only to that country surrounding a settlement which
Vespucius established near Cape Frio, and that by the force
of circumstances, this name came to be applied to the whole
continent. He says : — "The precise spot of this settlement
is uncertain ; but as it was planted by Vespucci, and as it was
the first colony of Europeans in that part of the New World,
there was an evident and just propriety in bestowing the
derivative — America — of his name upon the country, which
at first was known as ' The Land of the True Cross,' and
afterward as ' Brazil.' The name of Brazil was retained when
the wider application — America — was given to the whole con-
tinent." (II. 152.) That this is a possible solution of the
difficulty can be shown from analogous cases in the history of
America. Thus Cartier gave the name St. Lawrence to a little
bay near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River ; and the gradual
change from that application to the whole Gulf and River
which now bear the name can be traced on the maps. Like-
wise we have the authority of Kohl for the statement that
Gautimala was originally the name of the city and residence
of a powerful cacique in southeastern Mexico, to which district
5

66 America: Its Geogi'aphical History.

Cortes had sent Alvarado in 1523 ; and the name occurs in the
letter's report of his "expedition to his general; furthermore,
that at one time, almost all of Central America was under the
^'Audiencia " or general government of that name. Still more
striking is the name of Mexico, which at first was applied to
only a district of the capital city of Montezuma, and was
gradually enlarged in its application, till it embraced the whole
country.

We can scarcely realize in these days of newspapers and the
publication of thousands of books annually, that before the
year 1507 only two descriptions of the western discoveries had
appeared, namely, one letter of Columbus, and one of Vespu-
cius. No wonder then that a curious public eagerly bought
Waldseemuller's little quarto, and called for four editions of
the same in a short time ; no wonder that, by perusing it, the
public was lead to believe that Vespucius was the great dis-
coverer. Can it then seem strange to us that the Germans at
least were willing to attach his name to the country of which
they had first heard through his writings alone ? It has gener-
ally been supposed that the earliest map to bear the name
America was that of Apianus or Bienewitz, of the year 1 520,
which appeared in an edition of the geographical work of
Solinus, published in Vienna in 1522. Of the same period
is the Nuremberg globe of Schoener (1520), whereon the
name America also occurs. Then there is a map, long ascribed
to Leonardo da Vinci, and now in the queen's collection at
Windsor, and thought to be of the year 1513 or 1514, where-
on the name is drawn ; but the date of the map is uncertain,
and Winsor says : " Its connection with Da Vinci is now
denied." On the other hand there is in the possession of Mr.
Kalbfleisch of New York, an anonymous " Cosmographiae
Introductio" thought by the critics to be of the year 1517, in
which there is a map with the name America, of which
Mr. Winsor remarks : " There is fair ground for supposing
that it antedates all other printed maps yet known which
bear this name." The same author believes the Frankfort

Histoiical Notes on Certain Geographical Names. 67

globe of 1515 to be the first drawing on which the name
occurs.

Upon the map by Apianus, the name is situated along
the eastern coast of Brazil, south of Cape Augustine, and
reads ^^ Ameriaa provinda ;'' and on Schoener's globe of
1520 it reads "America vel Brasilia sive Papagalli terra;"
thus showing, as Mr. Gay suggests, that it was originally in-
tended to apply the name only to that portion of the country
where Vespucius had been, and in whose neighborhood he may
have attempted to found a colony. That the name was not
rapidly adopted, we gather from the assertion of Peschel that,
of twenty -two editions of Ptolemy's tables that were issued dur-
ing the sixteenth century, the name America is nowhere found;
but Mr. Winsor assures us that the name occurs in the Ptolemy
of 1522. The Germans, however, stood by their countryman,
in upholding his proposition ; and on Mercator's map of 1541
the name America is applied, for the first time we believe, to
both continents of the western hemisphere ; and, in the words
of Mr. Winsor, "thus the injustice was made perpetual." As
early as 1519 or 1520 there was a book published in London
with the title New Interlude, in a verse of which the name
America occurs; and not long after, (1522) appeared the first
English book to treat of America, which however it called
" Armenica." It is entitled " Of the newe lades and of ye
people founde by the Messengers of the Kynge of portygale."
This same year Friess issued his "Orbis typus universalis,"
etc. ; and on the map showing his conception of the New
World, the name America is found designating the continent
of South America. Apianus published in 1524 a "Cosmo-
graphicus Liber" which contains a short chapter on America,
in which he makes the direct statement that the land was
named from Vespucci, its discoverer. (H. H. Bancroft.)

The Spanish maps of 1527 and 1529, so frequently mentioned
already, both designate South America by the name Novus
Mundus, the name, as we have seen, proposed by Vespucius
himself. Among the Spaniards this name alternated with New

68 America: Its Geographical History.

Indies and West Indies ; as they were for a long time unwil-
ling to accept the German usage. Las Casas in his Historia,
begun in 1527, shows that he knew of the German usage, for
he says: "Foreign writers call the country America." (Quoted,
Winsor, II, p. 174). The Spaniards then began to propose
other names, which, however, never had any currency ; such
as Colonia, Columbiana, and Columba ; while one enthusiast
went so far as to wish to unite the names of the sovereigns,
under whom Columbus made his voyage of discovery, in the
awkward compound Fer-Isabelica. Cabral had named the
stretch of the Brazilian coast seen by him. Laud of the True
Cross ; and that, or more commonly. Land of the Holy Cross,
continued for some time to adorn the Spanish maps, but was
finally superseded by the shorter and more euphonious name
America.

On an anonymous map of about 1530, and the Grynaeus
map of 1531, America is the name given to South America;
and in 1532 appeared the Novus Orbis of this same Grynaeus,
in which "the assertion is made that Vespucci discovered
America before Columbus, which aroused the wrath of Las
Casas, and seems to have originated the subsequent bitter
attacks on Vespucci." (H. H. Bancroft.) About the middle
of the century, we find on the Nancy globe and on a map in
the work of Friess, the name America ; but though in South
America, it is in neither case given any very great prominence.

In 1570 was published Ortelius' atlas, the first product of
modern times worthy the name. It contained a map of the
New World which became the model of many succeeding
ones ; and, as it bore the name America, it brought that name
into such general use that it could not thereafter be gotten rid
of. The influence thus exercised was greatly strengthened by
the issue of Mercator's atlas in 1598. These two men, the
greatest geographers of their age, were friends ; and their
united influence in spreading this name for the New World
surpassed the power of Spain or any other nation to root it
out. Of course we must recognize the fact that its euphonious

Historical Notes on Ceii.ain Geographical Names. 69

sound, and its analogy to the names of the other continents,
were also not without effect; but just therein lay a part of
their good judgment in giving their adhesion to an idea which
of itself was likely to attract the masses as well as thought-
ful men. A map of 1575 by Thomas Porcacchi da Castiglione
bears the title Mondo Nvovo ; but in his remarks he says that
some called it the " American Indies," a name we have not
elsewhere noticed. On Sir Humphrey Gilbert's map of the
following year, the name America is applied exclusively to
North America, and Peru is apparently given to the whole of
South America. Martin Frobisher, on his map of 1578,
gives America in letters of the same size as Europe, Asia, etc. ;
and evidently intends to use the name for the whole western
mainland. Hakluyt's map of 1589 has the title America
sive India Nova, which is doubtless intended for the entire
continent.

On the map by Hondius, of the same year, America is
placed in large capitals in North America ; and South America
is divided into provinces, each with its own local name ; but
it is probable that, less of the interior of North America being
known, he took occasion thus to fill it up with the name in-
tended for the whole. Still another map of this same year,
that of Judaeus, employs the name, and that in a somewhat
new manner, having ' Terra America ' in North America ; and
on a later map, the same author calls North America 'Americae
pars borealis.' The following year produced a map with titles
for the two continents, which so far as we know, are almost
unique ; for Petrus Plancius calls North America, 'America
Mexicana/ and the southern continent, 'America Peruana.'
The map of Johannes Oliva, published at Marseilles in 1613,
compromises between the Spanish and German methods of
naming the New World, and applies to North America
'America sive India Nova' and to South America, ' Mondo
nouo ; ' the latter however in small letters, placed near the
Plata River. The map in the 1625 edition of Purchas gives
us 'America Septentrionalis ; ' and in the text there is related

70 America: Its Geographical History.

a conversation in which Juan de Fuca speaks of " the Indies
now called North America." On the map which accompanies
" The World encompassed by Sir Francis Drake," there is a
similarity to the usage noted above in connection with the map
of Plancius, namely, the northern continent is called * North
America or Mexicana,' and the southern continent, ' Sovth
America or Peru.' On De Laet's map of 1630 there is
another slight variation of the name, the title reading 'Amer-
icas sive Indiae Ocddentalis Tabula GeneraMs/ while on the
part occupied by the northern continent we read ' Septemtrumalis
Americae pars.' Thus we have followed the development of
the usage of the name proposed in an obscure town of Lor-
raine, for the northeastern coast of South America, until it
was accepted by a large part if not the whole of the learned
world, for the entire hemisphere ; and which, by the addition
of adjectives, gradually distinguished between the north and
the south. The designation Central America is of late origin ;
and I have not seen it on any map antedating the present
century.

The above is we believe the true historical genesis of the
geographical term America ; but it would not do to dismiss
the subject without mentioning the fact that within recent
years there have been broached two other theories which, if
we had not direct, trustworthy, historical statements to the
contrary, might have at least a show of plausibility. The
first is that of Mr. Jules Marcou, and was published in the
Atlantic Monthly in March, 1875, pp. 291 et seq. His fund-
amental proposition is as follows : — " Americ, Amei-rique, or
Amerique is the name in Nicaragua for the high land or
mountain range that lies between Juigalpa and Libertad, in
in the province of Chrontales, and which reaches on the one
side into the country of the Carcas Indians, and on the other
into that of the Ramas Indians." He then proceeds to show
that words of similar ending are frequent in the native languages
of Central America, and remarks on the tenacity with which
local names survive, such as those of mountains, valleys, lakes,

Historical Notes on Certain Geographical Names. 71

and rivers. Turning then to the last voyage of Columbus, in
which he visited the coast of Central America, and the fact of
his having found stores of gold among the natives there, he be-
lieves that, to the question as to whence came such wealth, the
natives must have replied " Americ." '' We may suppose,"
adds Mr. Marcou, " that Columbo and his companions on
their return to Europe, when relating their adventures, would
boast of the rich gold mines they had discovered through the
Indians of Nicaragua, and say they lay in the direction of
Americ. This would make popular the word Americ, as the
common designation of that part of the Indies in which the
richest mines of gold in the New World were situated." He
supposes, further, that the name gradually penetrated to the
interior of the continent of Europe, till it reached the little
town of St. Di6. But he offers not one particle of contem-
poraneous evidence that such was the case. True, there are
often movements of historical importance of which it is im-
possible to follow the early steps ; but surely, if this supposi-
tion of our author were correct, some one of the many Spanish
documents of the time would contain at least a hint of the
fact; and even those pronounced enemies of the name America,
such as Navarrete and Mufioz, find not a trace of such. As
to the original proposition to use the name, he asserts : —
" Hylacomylus of Saint Die, ignorant of any printed account
of these voyages but those of Albericus Vespucius, — pub-
lished in Latin in 1505, and in German in 1506, — thought
he saw in the Christian name Albericus the origin of this,
for him, altered and corrupted word, Americ or Amerique,
and . . . called this country by the only name among those of
the navigators that had reached him, and which resembled
the word Americ or Amerique." To this he adds that
Hylacomylus knew only the forms Albericus and Alberico of
Vespucius' name, in as much as the other forms Amerigo and
Morigo existed only in Spanish documents that remained un-
published until many years after the death of Hylacomylus.
But that this is probably not the case, is strongly indicated by

72 America: Its Geographical History.

the text of Hylacomylus himself, who, in proposing the name,
evidently sought a form similar to that of the other quarters
of the globe, and himself employs the phrase "Ametngen quasi
Amerid terram sive Americam dioendam" The very fact of
his using first the form Amerigen appears as if he recognized
that that was more closely related to the original, but that he
made the change for purposes of euphony.

Mr. Marcou is evidently too strong in his assertion as to
the rarity of the name Amerigo, since we find that two centu-
ries before this, Dante was familiar with the names of the
Spanish }X)ets Amerijo de Pecutiano and Amerijo de Belinoi.
Since j and g were at that period used interchangeably, as we
find for example in the work of Garcilaso de la Vega, it follows
that the form Amerigo may very well have been known to
Hylacomylus. As to the accent not having been the same,
we find that America was made analogous by the Spaniards ;
for in the index of Barcia's great work the name is printed
America.

Mr. Marcou makes a good point of the unusual use of the
Christian name of the discoverer for a land, in which he asserts
this case to be practically unique, except in the name of mou-
archs ; but he loses sight of the desire of Hylacomylus to assimi-
late the name with those of the other continents; and he
suggests that Vespucia, or some similar word, would have been
far more natural, if the word Americ were not already known
to the author. But Vespucci is not so euphonious or so
easily pronounced as America; and these considerations
doubtless had weight with the scholar of St. Di6. Another
statement of this new theory is : " There can be little
doubt that the word America was not only known but
popularized to a certain extent, in the sea-ports of Spain,
Portugal, and the Indies, or it would not have been thus at
once accepted by universal consent, without discussion." That
it was not accepted at once and without discussion has been
sufficiently shown, we believe, in our treatment of the matter.
He further says : " And it was employed and accepted with-

Historicai Notes on Certain Geographical Names. 73

out a thought of the pilot Alberico Vespuzio ; it was a long
time after that discussions arose among learned geographers,
and that the gross mistake of Hylacomylus was imposed upon
the world as truth." That the first part of this second state-
ment is not true, is demonstrated by the fact that the name was
so intimately associated with that of Vespucius, that Columbus
was in danger of being thereby forgotten as the original dis-
coverer : and as above remarked, it was this fact that roused
the wrath of Las Casas against the admirers of Vespucius,
and opened the discussion, which has continued from that time
to the present. That commencement was not however so long
after the first publication of the St. Die tract as one would be
led to suppose by Mr. Marcou's assertion ; for it was the work
of Grynaeus, which appeared in 1 532 that is supposed to have
precipitated the discussion ; and Las Casas died in 1556, so
that the discussion must have started between these dates.
Furthermore, Las Casas was in a splendid position to know if
the name originated in America or in St. Di4; for his father
was a companion of Columbus on his first voyage, and he
himself took part in the third voyage, and spent many years
in the New World. The facts that he introduces into the dis-
cussion not a word or hint that the name was of native origin,
and ascribes its use only to foreign writers, are at least strong
negative evidence that the name was 7iot " popularized, to a
certain extent, in the sea-ports of Spain."

The most recent theory that has come to our notice is that
entitled " Discovery of the Origin of the Name of America,
by Thomas de St. Bris. New York, 1888. Abridged Popu-
lar Edition." This is an octavo pamphlet of 140 pages, with
a number of illustrations which seem to us but little germain
to the subject in hand. The style is obscure, and the author
has a method of punctuation all his own. He gives a biblio-
graphy of 63 numbers, and quotes foreign authors in English
in such a manner, that it is at times impossible to know posi-
tively whether he is translating literally, or interspersing his
own ideas in the translation. These peculiarities of style are

74 America: Its Geographical History.

unfortunate, as they naturally repel the reader from the
examination of a work that is evidently the result of much
research and thought. We have not had time to consult
many references of the author ; but as one was at hand, it was
examined, and found to convey a very different meaning from
that implied by Mr. de St. Bris. In note 3, p. 58, he says : —
" Many authors, unaware that America was the national
name of the Southern Continent, could not understand the
Spanish pioneers, who gave this name to several places on the
coastj and cartographers hotly disputed the question ; as to
which was correct, without finding that they all were *."
The * refers to the bottom of the page where a note reads,
" See Kohl, Maracapana." Referring to his bibliography, the
only work of Kohl mentioned is " Die belden dltesten General-
Karten von Amerika." No page is given in the note ; but on
page 121 of the above-named work, under the heading Mara-
capana we read as follows : "The name Marcapana appears on
both our maps not only improperly spelled but also in a false
position. The port ' Maracapana ' made known by Hojeda's
[Ojeda's (?) ] expedition lay west of Margarita and Cumana,
and is perhaps the modern port of Barcelona. All the good
later maps. . . . have also Maracapana in the west where
Herrera placed it. According to Navarrete it should be our
Puerto Cochima." ^ This passage gives us no ground for the
assertion that the question was " hotly disputed," for it says
that " all the good later maps " placed the name Maracapana
in the same place. Neither does it even hint that both posi-
tions were correct. Furthermore, we would call attention to
the fact that Mr. de St. Bris separates the word Maraca-pana

* " Der Name Maracapana scheint auf unsern beiden Karten sowohl
unrichtig geschrieben, als auch eine falsche Position erhalten zu haben.
Der von der Expedition des Hojeda bekannte Hafen " Maracapana " lag
westlich von Margarita und Cumana und ist vielleicht unser heutiger Hafen
von Barcelona. AUe gutenspiitern Karten . . . haben auch das Maracapana
dort im westen, wohin es Herrera versetzt. Nach Navarrete soil es unser
Puerto Cochima sein."

Historical Notes on Certain Geogi^aphiaal Names. 75

into two parts, in order to strengthen the impression of his
theory ; but Kohl does not do so ; and America is very far
from being a form of Maracapana.

However, whether correct or not, our author's theory is
interesting. His central idea is that the native name of
the immense territory occupied by the so-called Peruvians
and their allied and kindred nations, was a modified form
of the name America ; that this name was composed from the
words amaru, the name of their holy symbol the cross, formed
by a snake, their holy animal, and a stick ; to which was added
the word ca, meaning land. Thus Amaruca, or usually
America, was the land of the holy animal. " We have, there-
fore, at the period of the Spanish pioneers, the South American
continent, under two great Kingdoms, of one name, and prob-
ably only one government ; in an advanced state of civiliza-
tion, civilly if not morally." " The population of the Empire
of Amaraca — which extended along the Pacific coast for three
thousand miles — was estimated at twelve millions." In the
coui'se of the work, a considerable variety of names are quoted
from different authors, all of which are interpreted as signify-
ing America although the word in this, its permanent form,
seems to have been nowhere found until the suggestion of St.
Die. This suggestion he attributes to Walter Ludd ; and be-
sides, he loses sight of the fact, that from that time on the
form remained constant, as applied to the whole continent,
though the local names, from which he derives it, continued
to be variable. In addition to the use of the word Amaraca,
with a great variety of prefixes and suffixes, we are told that
Cax-Amalca, Taraaraka, Tamaragua, Aymarca, Aromaia, are
all really America. The divergence in the methods of spel-
ling is explained by the use of sign language among the
natives ; but that " every European spelled the name with
different letters, which he supposed to be more correct than his
neighbor, who was left to guess M'hat was meant." He at-
tempts to fortify his theory by quotations from Walter Raleigh,
Alexander von Humboldt, and others ; in fact from any source

76 America: Its Geographical History.

whatever, where a word in the least resembling America is
employed. One of the extracts from Raleigh's account of
Guiana reads as follows: — "For when the Spaniards con-
quored the saide Empire of Peru, and had put to death
Atabalipa, which had formerly caused his elder brother
Guascar to be slaine, one of his younger brothers fled out of
Peru, and tooke with him many thousands of those souldiers
of the Empire, called Oreiones (noblemen), and with these,
and many others which followed him, he vanquished al that
tract and valley of America, situated between the rivers
Orenoco and Amazon." In quoting this passage, de St. Bris
claims that Walter Raleigh " is the only author who has — as
far as we know — correctly given the native name of the coast
of America, first visited by Columbus." We think, however,
that our author here strains a point for the sake of his theory;
for we do not believe that any one, not having such a theory
to defend, would interpret the phrase " al that tract and valley
of America," in any other manner than as designating the
part of the whole continent of America, namely that between
the Orinoco and Amazon, which the writer intended. The
English language is often ambiguous in the use of the prep-
osition of; and so it is just possible, though not at all proba-
ble, that Raleigh meant the name America to be applied to
the valley, and no more. We must take into account the fact
that this book was written late in the sixteenth century, when
the name America, as applied to the New World was no
longer a novelty, at least in the north of Europe ; and would
fall naturally from the pen of such a man as Raleigh, as the
name of the whole and not of a comparatively small portion, or
that lying between the Amazon and Orinoco. Remarking
that Columbus expected to find Asia, and the names mentioned
by Marco Polo, our author asserts that Moraca-pana " was a
transformation of the name Amaraca-pana or America; in
order to give it some resemblance to Mangi." This is really
beyond credulity ; for if a man makes a change, for the sake
of establishing a similarity, he would surely in such a case

Historical Notes on Certain Geographical Names. 77

have altered the consonants and not the vowels ; for we en-
tirely fail to see that Morica is much more nearly related to
Mangi than Amaraca. Another quotation which he gives pur-
ports to come from Humboldt, but he does not say from which
work of that voluminous writer. However he asserts that
"Bishop Geraldini, writing from the new lands in 1515, said
clearly, in a letter addressed to Pope Leon X. ' That the
island was larger than Europe and Asia, which the ignorant
call Asia, and others America or Paria.'" Since Geraldini
was not made Bishop till 1520, there is evidently an error
here. For in as much as it is thought by the best scholars that
the name America was not in use among the Spaniards at so
early a date, it is of the utmost importance that the date be
accurately known, even if the letter is as quoted. According
to our author, it was not Hylacomylus that baptized America
but the great emperor Charles V., of whom he says (p. 126),
" It was only a just tribute, a golden debt of gratitude, to erect
an everlasting monument, a gigantic historical statue, always
on the lips of the universe, in honor of the late Vice-King
and Lord High Admiral Don Christopher Columbus, by in-
structing his cartographer Gerard Mercater \sic~\, to write over
the enth'e southern continent, His ' plus ultra,' a world on His
crest, the name of America, where it appeared — so far as we
know — for the first time in this atlas issued in 1541, to which
was added the remark ' many still call it India.' " He gives
no authority for this very remarkable statement ; but in a foot
note kindly informs us that " We have only been able to find
circumstantial evidence that Mercater wrote the name of
America over the Southern Continent by the King's com-
mand." ! As we have elsewhere seen, it was precisely on this
map of Mercator's of 1541 that the name America was for
the first time placed on both continents of the New World ;
so here again there is a decided historical flaw in our author's
argument, to say nothing of his assertion in reference to the
command of the emperor, based on " circumstantial evidence."
Furthermore, the Emperor Charles V. was still living when

78 America: Ms Geographical History.

Las Casas made his attack on the name America ; and if our
author were correct as to this supposition, the fact would then
have come out, and thus put an end to the controversy. One
more argument of Mr. de St. Bris, and we have finished.
" It is hardly possible," he says, *' that people of education,
would have attempted to propose a name for territory, in
which they had not the slightest interest; unless they had
assumed that the proposition had already been practically
carried out, which they were led to suppose from the similarity
of name." When we consider that printing was then a com-
paratively new art, and that book makers as individuals were
in a manner set above those around them ; when to this is
added the fact that in St. Di6 for the first time, an edition of
the entire writings of Americus Vespucius was published, we
may well conceive of the author believing he had hit upon a
happy thought, which would be pleasing to both him, whose
work he published and to his readers. De St. Bris asserts
that " the Spaniards had their principalities of New Granada,
New Castile, the West Indies, Golden Castles, in the western
hemisphere, but they wanted a general name to include all
these possessions." If this were true when Mercator came to
make his map in 1541, and it is in this connection that the
statement occurs, how much more was it true in 1507, when
Hylacomylus made his proposition.

Brazil.^

The history of the use of the name Brazil as a geographical
term is a strange one ; for it was not always applied to the
same territory, with greater or less extent, as in the case of
most geographical names ; nor was it a case of natural growth
from a local to a general name, as was frequently the case in
the New World. On the contrary, this name seems to have

' This chapter appeared in the April number of " Modern Language
Notes," 1890.

Historical Notes on Certain Geographical Names. 79

had something of the will-o'-the-wisp character ; for od various
maps it may be seen designating a great Antarctic continent, ex-
tending to the south pole, or a small island near the Arctic
Circle ; or it may be as far west as the southern part of South
America or as far east as the vicinity of the coast of Ireland.
The form of the name also is almost as various as the posi-
tions in which it is found ; for we have noted thirteen varia-
tions of the word, Bresilia, Brisilia, Brasil, Brassil, Brazil,
Brazill, Prisilia, Brasilia, Brasielie, Brazili, Brazile, Brasi,
Presilly, — and it is not at all impossible that still others exist.
We are informed that the word was in use before the dis-
covery of America, to designate an island, whose situation is
not revealed, where navigators were in the habit of gathering
wood for dyeing purposes,' and that after the discovery of South
America, this same species of tree was found on the banks of
the Amazon. But that does not account for the transferrence
of the name to such remote parts as the Arctic or Antarctic
regions, where there is no probability that the same kind of
trees flourished. *' Wieser finds the name Brazil, as applied
to CabraFs Sancta Cruz, in use ever after 1504," citing as
the earliest instance the " terra nova de Prisilli " of the
" Beschreibung der ^leerfahi't von Lissahon nach Calacut " of
that year, published in the Jahresberichte of the " Kreisverein
fiir Schwaben und Neuberg (Augsburg, 1861), p. 160."
Winsor, VIII, 375, note 5, where he cities also a work on
Presilly Landt.

The earliest map on which we have seen the name is that of
the Ptolemy edition of 1508, where " R. de Brasil " designates
a river flowing into the Atlantic Ocean not far south of " Cap.
Ste. Crucis." According to Kohl the earliest date at which it
can be definitely stated that the name was usual, is 1511, from
which time the name given this region by Cabral, Land of the
Holy or True Cross, gradually became obsolete. On the
Ptolemy map of 1513 the name occurs twice, but with difler-

^ J. G. Kohl, Die beiden altesten General-Karten von Amerika, p. 145.

80 America: Its Geographical Histoiy.

ent spelling. At 23 degrees of south latitude, the " rio de
brazil " flows into '* porto seguro ; " and not far east of the
Gulf of Darien, there is found an "y. do brassil." Reisch,
in 1515, extends the name to the whole continent of South
America, which he entitles " Paria seu Prisilia." The Frank-
fort glolDe, which is supposed to have been made sometime
within the five years following, transfers the name to a
large Antarctic continent, and calls it "Brasilia Regio ; "
while the Schoener globe varies this again by calling the
Antarctic continent " Brasilia inferior," and placing a " Rio
de Brasil " far in the south, emptying into the Atlantic at a
point south of a great stream which is evidently the Plata, but
which he calls " Rio de Mezo." As in other respects we have
found the annoymous official map of 1527 so good, so in this
case, it confines itself to the known, and entitles the north-
eastern portion of the South American continent " El Brasil."
So also on that of Ribero, two years later, the name is found
in the right place, although somewhat lengthened, in the form
"Tierra del Brasil." But the name had not yet become
constant, for on the very next map, that of the British
Museum, of about 1530, there is no name for the district
now known as Brazil, but a river of 30 degrees south
bears the name " brasilia." Grynaeus, on his map of
1631, draws a large Antarctic continent, and places on it the
legend " Terra Australis recenter inventer, sed non diem plene
cognita" and gives this southern land the name of " Brasielie
Regio." The Venitian map of 1534 has ' Brasil ' in the right
place, while the one next in chronological order, the Agnese
map of 1536 gives us " brazill " out in the ocean, south of
" pernambucho." Of even date is probably the Oxford map,
which designates apparently the whole of the southern part of
South America by the name " Brazili," extending on both
sides of the "rio de la platta;" and in the interior of the
northern portion of the continent is the name " brazile ;" but
as to what the latter applies, can only be matter of supposition.
Three times is the name repeated on the Lyons edition of

Historical Notes on Certain Geographical Names. 81

Ptolemy of 1541 ; once in connection with two small islands
not far west of "Anglia " (England), where the name is spelled
"brazil;" again, designating a small river of north-eastern
South America, with the same spelling ; and finally, not far
from the Isthmus of Darien, where is located "Insula do
brassil." Homem's map of the world, which dates from the
same decade, shows a country correctly situated, with the name
" Brazil," and on the coast, at about fifteen degrees south, is a
town of " brazill." The Nancy globe, of the middle of the
sixteenth century, calls the southern part of the continent
" Bresilia Regio," and the territory usually known by that
name, receives here the appellation " Papagalli tefa." On the
Bellero map of 1554, " Bresilia" is confined to a comparatively
small district in the northeast corner of the continent, by the
undue extension of " Andaluzia nova," and the province con-
tains a ' R. del brasil ; ' but a more considerable peculiarity is
presented by the famous Ramusio map of 1556 on which the
name " Brasil " is duplicated ; once for the whole eastern part
of South America, its western border being the " Rio Mara-
gnon," which flows from "Chili" due north, thus dividing the
continent into two nearly equal portions ; and Ramusio calls
the whole southern continent of the New World " la parte,
che si chiama la terra dd Brasil & Peru " (the part which is
called the land of Brazil and Peru). Not satisfied with this,
he gives us a second " Brasil " as a small island between
" Irlanda " and the Isle of " Man" ! Two maps of 1560 are
preserved to us, one by Dolfinatto, on which " brasil " is a
little island at about 60 degrees north, somewhat east of
"Tiera de Bacalos," and the other by Furlani, on which an
island bearing the same name finds place near the 65th parallel,
close to " Tierra de Laborador." Still another place was found
for this poor wandering child of fancy, by Zaltieri, (1566) who
designates a diminutive island southeast of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence by that name. Ortelius (1570) has the *R. de
Brasil," so often encountered on the eastern coast, near the
twentieth parallel, south, and says also, apparently in reference
6

82 America: Its Geographical History.

to the country : "Brasilia a Lusitanis A°. 1504 inventa."
Lok's map in the Hakluyt edition of 1582 has " Brasil " as a
small island on the first meridian, which is probably that of
the Cape Verde Islands. The island is about 50 degrees north,
and somewhat southwest of " Hibernia ; " in the edition of
1589 the island is about the same, while the continental terri-
tory, generally known under that name, is curiously called
" Huraos Brasi." The Judaeus map of the same year places
near together " Brasil " and " S. Branda," another mythical
island that remained on the maps till a comparatively late
period, and both somewhat east of " Nova Francia." Then
we have four maps which approach the normal much more
nearly, as they all bear " Brasilia " in the northeastern part
of South America, with greater or less extent. These are the
maps of Myrtius of 1587, of Hondius of 1589, of Plancius,
1594, and of Hakluyt's edition of 1598. To these may be
added also the work of Martines of Messina, of 1578, with
the abridged form of the name 'brasil.' However, in 1598
appeared the so-called map of Porro, whereon " Brasil " again
indicates mythical islands, situated not far from and to the
southwest of " Hibernia." Thus ends the sixteenth century ;
and with the opening of the seventeenth, the name is firmly
fixed as the designation of the northeastern part of South
America. The boundaries of the country so known were how-
ever still undefined, and in fact remained so when, in the early
part of the present century, universal revolutions shook the
whole continent, and resulted in all but a diminutive portion
of it being declared free from the further rule of Europe ; and
the i^eople themselves were called upon to settle their mutual
borders. One thing however is worthy of remark, namely
that the method of spelling the name which remained the
favorite one throughout the sixteenth century, that is with
an 8, has now generally given way to the modern form
with z.

Historical Notes on Certain Geographical Names. 83

Canada.

The history of this geographical name is another illustra-
tion of the growth of the local to the general ; for, going back
to the time of Cartier, in the first half of the sixteenth cen-
tury, we find it applied to a hamlet on or near the banks of
the St. Lawrence. Whether the term was generic in its appli-
cation to any small collection of houses is not clear to my
mind ; for though we have a statement to that effect, by one
author, it is denied by another, who applies it to a fixed dis-
trict ; and the maps may be interpreted in accordance with
either theory. As we shall see, a special town of that name
is put down on quite a number of maps in very much the
same place, and on other maps the name is evidently applied to
a district of greater or less area. Regarding the ultimate origin
of the name, there is some room for doubt ; for though the
early explorers evidently took it for an indigenous word,
modern philological investigation points to another conclusion.
Professor A. M. Elliott, after examining the word with refer-
ence to other Indian words of this section says : ' — " Accord-
ing to mere form then, irrespective of the positive and forcible
considerations that tend to fix a totally different etymon for
the geographical term Canada, we may eliminate the present
favorite Indian etymology from our discussion." Turning,
then, to the European languages, he finds the word in use as a
common noun in both Spanish and Portuguese; and either
alone or in combination, often employed in the designation of
topographical sites. Seeking analogies in the use of the words
Florida and Barbada as adjectives limiting tei'ra, he would
interpret Canada in the same manner. " The origin of the
root can is, of course, the Latin canna a reed, which gives
regularly in Spanish Cafl-ada, the common term for " glade."
In modern Portuguese, can-ada denotes 1, a measure for
liquids, of little more than a liter ; 2, a path." The Spanish

^ " Origin of the word ' Canada,' " Modem Language Notes, 1888, iii, No. 6.

84 America: Its Geographical History.

pronunciation, however, is Cafi^a, which must be changed
in order to adapt it to the laws of English pronunciation.
"In form, then, Canada follows the Portuguese rule; in
signification, the Spanish derivative from the Latin canna."
" But it is probable that we have here a simple non-palatalized
product for Latin nn such as belonged to the older period of
the Spanish language." The name is found more than fifty
times in Spain to-day, and survives in the Argentine Republic,
for the designation of low districts not unlike those on the St.
Lawrence. The name occurs too in France as a geographical
term ; and our author is of the opinion that if the history of
any one of the seven French places bearing it, can be traced
back to a time preceding the beginning of the sixteenth cen-
tury, that that would be proof conclusive of the European
origin of the word. Cartier's " Recit " has been carefully read
to arrive at the meaning he himself attached to the word, and
Professor Elliott comes to the conclusion that " There cannot
be the slightest doubt after these divers statements, intended
to represent so varied events, and widely separated, too, in
point of time, that the only use to which the name was then
applied, was simply to indicate a limited district of country
lying along the north bank of the St. Lawrence between the
Saguenay and Quebec." " The fact, then, I hold to be incon-
testable that Cartier found the name Canada already in ex-
istence as applied to a single province when he arrived at
Stadacona (Quebec) in the month of September 1535." Far
be it from us to dispute Professor Elliott's philology ; but he
stops short of satisfying our curiosity, by not explaining how
a Spanish word came to be in common use among a tribe of
savages who had seen practically nothing of the Spaniards.
The Spaniards were theoretically acquainted with the Canadian
coast from an early period, as we see by the official maps
of 1527 and 1529; but that they were at all familiar with
the interior of the country, along the banks of the St. Law-
rence, we have seen no proof; and would be disposed to doubt
it until shown good reason to the contrary. That they ever

Historical Notes on Certain Geographical Names. 85

remained here long enough to make an impression on the In-
dian mind, is still more questionable. Furthermore, when it
is considered how difficult it is to root out an old geographical
name and substitute a new one, especially among people of
low intelligence, and little accustomed to change, it seems to
us very improbable that a visit or two froni Spanish naviga-
tors, even if they ever penetrated so far up the St. Lawrence,
would be sufficient to revolutionize the native name of a dis-
trict. Mr. Marcou's theory as to the derivation of the name
America from the fact of Columbus and his followers having
heard the word Americ from the lips of the savages as the desig-
nation of the source of their gold supplies, is called " foolish "
by Mr. H. H. Bancroft ; yet we have frequent analogy of the
adoption of the Indian name by explorers ; can Mr, Elliott
show us any analogous adoptions by the American Indians of
European words as the names of their territories ? If so, we
might see more probability in his etymology. Moreover, if
the Spaniards had used this term to designate the country on
the St. Lawrence, would we not find it on at least one or the
other of their early maps ? So far as my investigations go,
I have failed to find it there.

The earliest map on which I have noticed the name Canada
is that of Vallard, No. 155 of the Kohl Collection. It is
there used to designate a small district on the north bank of
the St. Lawrence, between an unnamed island (Orleans ?) and
a lake to the west which is called simply " le lac." On an
anonymous map, which Kohl supposes to be from the year
1548 or thereabouts, the name Canada occurs three times;
namely, once in large letters, between the Gulf of St. Lawrence
and the " Mer de France ;" again it is seen in small letters east
of the " R. du Sagnay," and north of the St. Lawrence River ;
and a third time it finds a place southwest of the given portion
of the river St. Lawrence. Another anonymous French map
of probably a few years later, gives apparently the name of the
whole country as CANADA, in large capitals ; then the accus-
tomed district in small capitals; and lastly, an affluent of the

86 America: Its Geographical History.

St. Lawrence, coming from the north, bears the same name.
Diego Homem, on his map of 1558, uses the name for an
island situated between a great river, evidently the St. Law-
rence, on the south, and " Mare leparaniatifl " on the north.
On a map of 1556 by Sanson d' Abbeville, " Le Canada " is the
designation of a large territory, extending from a line south of
the St. Lawrence River and the mountains of" Virginie " to a
line in the north, separating it from " Estotilande ou Terre de
Labrador" and "Nouvelle Bretagne." This map introduces
us also to an appellation of the St. Lawrence River which
held ground for a time but apparently never became popular :
" La Gr. Riv. de Canada ou de St. Laurens." This magnifi-
cent stream remained for a long time without any fixed name :
here we see the transition stage, giving a choice of names ; but
in the end the saint's name crowded out the native one,
probably because the latter would ever have necessitated the
joining of some explicative adjective with it, as in this case
" Grande." A map of this region by Guitierrez, of the year
1562 contains "Canada Prov." north of "Tierre Francisca"
and of "Tierra di Norimberga." ' Ortelius (1570) calls the
whole district west of the "Saguenai fl." by the name
CANADA, and names a town in the southern part of the pro-
vince, and near the St. Lawrence River "Canado." On
Thevet's map, extracted from the work " La France Antarc-
tic," " Canade " is a town situated on a small river entering
the St. Lawrence from the north. Sir Humphrey Gilbert
had still another idea of the application of this name ; for on
the map in his " Discourse," " Canada " is a large island east
of" La nuova Franza." Martines' map in the British Museum
places the province of " Canada " west of " Baccilaos." On
Hakluyt's map contained in the edition of 1 589, "' Canada "
is a town of " Nova Francia." Frobisher makes of Canada
a peninsula, occupying the northeastern portion of North
America between " bacalaos " and " Hispania nova." In the
title of his map of 1593, Judaeus mentions Canada as one of
the principal divisions of North America, and twice in notes

Histoncal Notes on Certain Geographical Names. 87

speaks of the natives under the name " Canadenses." One of
these legends is at seventy degrees of north latitude, and
reads : " Hoc mare dulcium aquarum est, cujus terminus ignoi'ari
Canadenses aijunt." The other is in southwestern California,
and reads as follows : " Qui inter Florida et Baccalaos habi-
tant, hi omnes uno nomine Canadenses appellaniur Hochelaga,
Hongueda Corterealis." Furthermore the name Canada stands
on the map for the region bounded by the St. Lawrence and
the " Saguenai," Hochelaga and Hongueda. Whytfliet's map
of the country, issued in 1597 is entitled "Nova Francia et
Canada," and Canada in capital letters is placed in the north,
and again in small letters is used to designate a town on a
branch of the St. Lawrence, not far from the main stream.
Lescarbot's map of 1609 multiplies the name in a manner to
indicate his fondness for it. Thus we have the " Golfe de
Canada," " La grande R. de Canada," besides two districts
bearing the name ; one immediately south of the mouth of the
St. Lawrence River, and the other west of the "R. de
Saguenay." If this map were seventy-five or one hundred
years older than it is, we should feel inclined to accept Pro-
fessor Elliott's interpretation of the origin of the name : for
it looks very much like a generic term applied to various
localities which it describes, without taking the trouble to
specify more exactly by the use of individual proper names.
On No. 167 of Kohl's Collection, which he gives as a copy of
Purchas' map of 1625, ''New France" is the name of the
great stretch of country north of the St. Lawrence, while the
Gulf and River of St. Lawrence are named respectively
" Golfe of Canada " and " The great riuer of Canada." De
Laet's map of 1630 gives "La Grand Riviere de Canada"
but calls the gulf "S, Laurens." A district north of the
" Baye de Chaleur " bears the legend " Canadiens." We have
thus examined the maps of a century following the first intro-
duction of the geographical name Canada, as far as we have
been able to find them. The name was by no means univer-
sally adopted in the earlier days ; and it is safe to say that the

88 Aifnerica: Its Geographical History.

majority of maps of this period which have come under our
notice employ the French oflBcial name for the country, that
is New France. The shorter and more easily pronounced
word, crowded out of use the longer name ; and survived even
the British conquest, which the name New France could
scarcely have done. What will be the result if Canada is
ever incorporated in the United States, we leave for the future
to decide.

V.

Development of American National and State
Boundaries.

Before the era of Columbus the vast space between Europe
on the east and Asia on the west, was practically a blank in
the consciousness of the civilized world. From his voyage
in 1492 may be reckoned the birth of the western continent ;
which, in the subsequent period of exploration, gradually rose
as it were piece by piece out of the ocean, and assumed visible
form and shape to the eye of observing Europe. But long
before the whole was known, the secondary development
began, with the acquisition of more detailed knowledge of
the immediate surroundings of the several colonies. As in
organic bodies, the internal development continues after the
outer form is fixed, so with our geographical development,
the internal organs of states and countries have been slowly
developing toward fixity after the outer form had been defi-
nitely settled. At the same time, the claims of jurisdiction
have gone through numerous changes, the principal being the
gradual narrowing of pretensions to universal dominion over
newly discovered territory, to a claim of that district actually
in possession. The first charter of Columbus conferred on
him the admiralty of such " Islands and Continent " as he
might discover.^ On his return, Spain, wishing to obtain the
monopoly of all lands that might be discovered in that direc-
tion, applied to the pope for a confirmation of her title. This

^ Charters and Ccmstitutions, compiled by Ben. Perley Poore, I, 304.

89

90 America: Its Geographical History.

resulted in the famous bulls of Pope Alexander VI, by which
all non-Christian unknown lands of the earth were divided
between Spain and Portugal, by a line extending north and
south, from pole to pole, and passing one hundred leagues
west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands. Portugal pro-
tested so strongly against this arrangement that she forced
Spain to a treaty by which that line was moved two hundred
and seventy leagues toward the west. Resting on this grant
of the pope, Spain claimed universal jurisdiction in the New
World, with the exception of a portion of South America,
which, by the above mentioned treaty of Tordesillas, fell to
the Portuguese. The other marine powers were unwilling
that Spain should monopolize the vast unknown possibilities
of the New World, and followed in her footsteps in sending
out exploring expeditions. Later came the period of settle-
ment, which, with the English, and therefore the most im-
portant for the history of the United States, may be considered
to have commenced with Raleigh's charter of March 25, 1584,
by which he received from the English crown, for himself, his
heirs and assigns, " free libertie and licence from time to time,
and at all times for euer hereafter, to discouer, search, finde
out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous lands,
countreis, and territories not actually possessed of any Chris-
tian Prince, nor inhabited by Christian People, as to him, his
heirs and assigns, and to euery or any of them sjhall seeme
good." He was to have the fee-simple of all lands discovered,
and the rights of government over all "that shall abide
within 200. leagues of any of the saide place or places, where
the said Walter Ralegh . . . shall inhabite within 6. yeeres
next ensuing the date hereof."

In the grant of 1606 to the Virginia Company, the more
definite limits of from thirty-four to forty-five degrees of
north latitude in America were assigned. Later by the
charter of Carolina, issued in 1665, territory so far south as
the twenty-ninth degree of north latitude was granted, notwith-
standing the fact that the Spaniards had first explored this

American National and State Boundaries. 91

region, and that a Spanish colony of nearly or quite a century's
existence was within the territory now granted. Under such
circumstances conflicts were sure to arise. France had also
some show of claim to this territory on account of her early
settlement at Port Royal. But she preferred in the end, to
apply her energies further north, where her claims came in
conflict with those of England. The Dutch, who were enter-
prising mariners also, did not fail to set up a claim to a por-
tion of the New World, both on the ground of discovery and
of first settlement; and even the Swedes, in their period of
prosperity, essayed to establish by colonization a claim to terri-
tory on this side the Atlantic. How were all these conflict-
ing interests to be reconciled? It was a new experiment in
the world's history ; and only time could solve the difficult
problem here presented. Portugal's right to unexplored
lands, granted by a bull of Pope Eugene IV. had been
acquiesced in by other nations,^ probably because the prize did
not seem worth contending for. But the hope of finding gold
in America, combined with the change of ideas wrought by
the Reformation, presented too strong a temptation for the
nations of western Europe to resist. International law, itself
then a new science, was not of sufficient influence to enforce a
policy according to its principles. Abstract ideas of justice
seldom if ever prevail in such cases, where self-interest gets
the upper hand. Hence we find that the old rule of might
makes right was the guiding principle by which America
became divided among its present owners.

The ease with which these vast stretches of land were given
away on paper, led to a lavishuess and carelessness in their
disposal, even among the subjects of the same power, which
finally produced endless trouble. We have seen the extensive
and indefinite nature of Raleigh's grant. Under it no perma-
nent settlement was formed. Then came the grant of 1606,
dividing the whole territory from 34° to 45° north latitude

' W. Kobertson, Hist, of America. 3 vols. Basil, 1790, v. I, p. 58.

92 America: Its Geographical History.

between two branches of the same company, but leaving the
district between the 38th and 41 st degrees open to both ; for-
bidding, however, each to found a settlement within one hun-
dred miles of the other. In 1609 there was granted to the
London Company the territory extending 200 miles north and
200 miles south of Point Comfort, with the islands within
100 miles of the coast, while the grant of the mainland was
to extend " from the Sea Coast of the Precinct aforesaid, up
into the Land throughout from Sea to Sea, West and North-
west." A glance at the map shows that this grant includes
the coast-line of a part of New Jersey, all of Delaware, Mary-
land and North Carolina, to say nothing of the vast interior
stretching to the Pacific. The present State of Virginia is,
in extent of territory, the mere shadow of the magnificent
domain granted under that name in 1609. The first im-
portant reduction came through the grant of Maryland in
1632. The Virginians protested against this cutting off
" nere two-third parts of the better territory of Virginia,"
but without effect. The same rule of the right of might held
good here, as it did between the different nations ; the Vir-
ginia Company had been deprived of their governmental
powers, though their property rights were guaranteed them.
Lord Baltimore was the stronger at court and retained what
had been granted him. Carolina was later cut off from the
other side ; and so the mutilation continued.

The case was similar in the north. To the "second Col-
lony" was granted in 1620 the region between the fortieth
and forty-eighth parallels of latitude, and extending to the
Pacific. Out of this tract were afterward carved, by the gov-
ernment and by the company, so many grants that it was
almost impossible to bring order out of the resulting chaos.

What then were the causes that led to this confusion,
sowed the seeds of discord among the colonists themselves and
also among the respective European countries? First and
foremost were the extravagant pretensions of the different
courts in claiming immense regions of which they were not

American National and State Boundaries. 93

able to take possession. In this respect England took the
lead ; for though her charters almost invariably granted only
such lands as were not already owned or occupied by any
Christian prince or People, she herself and her colonists gave
practically no heed to this clause, and in several instances
drove out or subdued others, who by every principle of jus-
tice were better entitled to the soil than their conquerors. A
second reason was the carelessness with which grants were
made ; the king, though he never dies, seeming to have had a
very poor memory as to past actions, as soon as he wished, in
an easy and cheap manner, to reward a new favorite. But
the trouble was brought about as much by ignorance as by
carelessness ; — reliance on the descriptions of travelers, and on
crude and imperfect maps, being a very potent cause. The
art of map-making was not yet well developed. Further-
more the astronomers had not then succeeded in determining
accurately the latitude and longitude of even the main cities
of Europe ; while the instruments for observations at sea were
still more crude and inaccurate than those employed on land.
Measurements of portions of the earth had indeed been
essayed, to establish the length of a degree of latitude ; but
it was after the middle of the seventeenth century [1669] be-
fore an approach to accurateness was reached in France ; and
so slow was the spread of scientific knowledge in those times,
that it took ten years for the knowledge of the French meas-
urements to find its way to the Royal Society of London.
The early English settlements to the south of the 40th
parallel were so far from the Spaniards that the latter, though
theoretically claiming the entire continent, did not attempt to
disturb them. It was otherwise however with the northern
colonies. France and England were both deeply interested in
the fisheries, and both wished to obtain possession of the
neighboring lands. In the seventeenth century the principal
territory in dispute was the eastern coEist of Maine. As early
as December 18th, 1603, King Henry IV. of France had
granted to Sieur de Monts the country from the 40th to the

94 America: Its Geographical History.

46th degree of north latitude. In the following year this en-
terprising Frenchman had a settlement on what is now the
coast of Nova Scotia ; and with this as a central point, he
claimed the neighboring territory according to the terms of his
patent. The first English patent covering this territory in
definite terms was that of 1606, which however for this region
remained practically a dead letter till after the settlement of
Plymouth in 1620. In this year the "second Collony "
received the charter for " New England in America," limited
on the north by the 48th parallel of latitude. Settlements
increased rapidly ; and it was not long before the representa-
tives of the two nations found their interests clashing. The
French finally narrowed their claims and expressed a willing-
ness to consider Pemaquid Point, which was about half way
between the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers, as their western
limit. In as much as the French settlements were much the
earlier, this establishing a middle point as mutual boundary
was, in theory at least, a cession on their part ; and according
to modern ideas of international law, would have been emi-
nently just. But England, who ever denied Spain's right to
possession as against herself, on the score of mere discovery,
was strenuous in asserting her own rights, which had no better
basis, as against France. As the English colonists were the
more numerous, they finally succeeded in obtaining by force
of arms that which no modern court of justice or international
tribunal would have awarded them. At the treaty of Utrecht,
(1713) France was forced to cede to England "Acadia and
Nova Scotia, with its ancient boundaries." A half century
passes, of bickerings, mutual recriminations and wars ; and
again France is forced to acknowledge herself conquered, and
cedes to England " Canada with all its dependencies also the
Island of Cape Breton, and all other islands and coasts in the
gulf and river of St. Lawrence, and generally all that belongs
to the said country, lands, islands and coasts." At the same
time England surrenders her claims to the territory west to
the Pacific and accepts the Mississippi as her western border.

American National and State Boundaries. 95

To the south of the English colonies was Spanish Florida,
under which name the Spaniards claimed an indefinite extent
of territory northwards. However, the English did not hesi-
tate to claim this country also, and grant charters for the same.
Although the actual settlements of South Carolina did not
extend to an uncomfortable proximity to the Spaniards, con-
stant unrest and occasional war between the representatives of
the two nations, disturbed both colonies. In 1732 Georgia
was chartered, with southern limits bounded by the Altamaha
River. War again broke out, with varying fortunes for the
contestants. But as the English succeeded in maintaining
their post at the mouth of the St. Mary's, that river, instead
of the Altamaha, ultimately became the southern boundary of
Georgia. By the treaty of Paris [1763], Spain ceded Florida
to England in exchange for Cuba ; and France ceded to
Spain by a separate treaty, Louisiana west of the Mississippi,
together with the island of New Orleans.

Such was the condition of the boundaries when the struggle
broke out that ended in the establishment of American inde-
pendence. According to the definitive treaty of peace, signed
at Paris September 3, 1 783, between England and the United
States, the boundaries of the latter were fixed as follows : —
" From the North- West angle of Nova Scotia, viz. that angle
which is formed by a line drawn due north, from the source
of Saint-Croix river to the Highlands which divide those
rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from
those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the north western-
most head of Connecticut river ; thence down along the mid-
dle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north-latitude ;
from thence by a line due west on said latitude until it strikes
the river Iroquois or Catarquy ; thence along the middle of
the said river into lake Ontario, through the middle of said
lake, until it strikes the communication by water between that
lake and lake Erie ; thence along the middle of said commu-
nication into lake Erie through the middle of said lake until
it arrives at the water communication between that lake and

96 America: Its Geographical History.

lake Huron ; thence along the middle of said water communi-
cation into the lake Huron ; thence through the middle of
said lake to the water communication between that lake and
lake Superior; thence through lake Superior, northward of
the isles Royal and Philipeaux, to the Long-Lake and the
water communication between it and the lake of the Woods ;
thence through the said lake to the most north-western point
thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river
Mississippi ; thence by a line to be drawn along the middle
of the said river Mississippi until it shall intersect the north-
ernmost part of the thirty-first degree of north latitude; —
South, by a line to be drawn due east from the determination
of the line last mentioned, in the latitude of thirty -one degrees
north of the Equator, to the middle of the river Apalachicola
or Catahouche ; thence along the middle thereof to its junc-
tion with the Flint river ; thence straight to the head of St.
Mary's river, and thence down along the middle of St. Mary's
river to the Atlantic Ocean : — East, by a line to be drawn
along the middle of the river St. Croix, from its mouth in the
bay of Fundy to its source; and from its source directly
north to the aforesaid Highlands, which divide the rivers that
fall into the Atlantic Ocean from those which fall into the
river St. Lawrence ; comprehending all islands within twenty
leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and
lying between lines to be drawn due east from the points
where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova Scotia on the
one part, and East Florida on the other, shall respectively
touch the bay of Fundy, and the Atlantic Ocean ; excepting
such islands as now are, or heretofore have been, within the
limits of the said province of Nova Scotia." *

Spain returned the province of Louisiana to France by the
treaty of St. Ildefonso, October 1st, 1800, "with the same
extent as it now has in the hands of Spain, and as it had
when France possessed it, and as it should be according to the"

' Martens et Cussy, Reeueil de traitis, I, 312.

American National and State Boundaries. 97

treaties subsequently made between Spain and other states."
By the treaty signed at Paris, April 30th, 1803, Napoleon
ceded to the United States, in the name of the French Repub-
lic, Louisiana, " forever and in full sovereignty, . . . with all
its rights and appurtenances, thus and in the manner that it
was acquired by the French Republic, in virtue of the above-
mentioned treaty, concluded with His Catholic Majesty." ^
The borders between Louisiana and the Spanish provinces on
the west and south had never been defined. The United
States having purchased the former, were disposed to extend
their claim as far as possible. " The French had ever regarded
the mouth of the Del Norte as the western limit of Louisiana
on the Gulf of Mexico ; and the United States naturally
claimed to the same point." ^ But the Spaniards were not by
any means disposed to cede so much territory ; and the result,
instead of a war, as it would have been at an earlier period,
was a long series of negotiations, with a peaceable settlement
finally of the difficulties. Spain claimed, in right of her set-
tlement at Santa Fe, the territory to the Mississippi ; and
furthermore insisted that she had ceded to France in 1800 the
Spanish not the French territory of Louisiana. As there was
no pressing need of settlement and each party refused to recede
from its demands, the matter was allowed to rest, until the
circumstances had changed and each was more disposed to
make concessions for the sake of peace. This change was
brought about by a dispute between the same powers concern-
ing Florida. Both divisions of the latter province had been
retroceded by England to Spain in 1783 ; the same boundaries
as are fixed by the treaty of 1783 with England are ratified
by a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1795.
However in 1810, the United States seize the greater part of
West Florida, to keep it from falling into the hands of the
British, from whom trouble is expected, and who are conse-
quently not wanted as a neighbor on the south as well as on

> Ihid., II, 283. * T, Twiss, The Oregon Question, p. 230.

7

98 America: Its Geographical History.

the north. In the later discussions as to boundaries, Spain
waives "all demands on this head ;" and after many proposi-
tions and counter-propositions, an arrangement satisfactory to
both parties was finally reached, which was embodied in the
provisions of the treaty of Washington, February 22d, 1819.
In accordance therewith Spain yielded both the Floridas to
the United States, while the latter resigned their claim to
Texas and agreed to pay to their own citizens claims to the
amount of $5,000,000 which the latter had against Spain.
Between Louisiana and Mexico, the boundaries were agreed
upon as follows: — "The boundary-line between the two
countries, west of the Mississippi, shall begin on the Gulph
of Mexico, at the mouth of the river Sabine, in the sea, con-
tinuing north, along the western bank of that Riv^er, to the
32d degree of latitude ; thence, by a line due north, to the
degree of latitude where it strikes the Rio Roxo of Nachi-
toches, or Red River ; then following the course of the Rio
Roxo westward, to the degree of longitude 100 west from
London and 23 from Washington ; then, crossing the said
Red River, and running thence, by a line due north, to the
river Arkansas ; thence, following the course of t|ie southern
bank of the Arkansas, to its source, in latitude 42 north ; and
thence, by that parallel of latitude, to the South Sea ; " ^ the
United States to have all the islands in the rivers ; but the
navigation to be free to both nations. The purchase of
Louisiana from France gave to the United States their first
claim to territory west of the Mississippi River ; and in the
course of these negotiations with Spain, had appeared for the
first time, a claim on their part to the region west to the
Pacific.^ It was not long till this claim assumed definite pro-
portions in respect to lands farther north than the boundaries
now established with Spain ; and it was to require all the
learning and statesmanship of the young republic to establish
international recognition to those claims.

> Martens et Cussy, III, 410, et seq. * Twiss, p. 238,

American National and State Boundaries. 99

As far as Spain was concerned, the United States were now
at liberty to lay claim to the entire western part of North
America north of the forty-second parallel. But therein they
came at once in contact, if not in conflict, with the claims of
other powers. Although Spain had at one time claimed
exclusive jurisdiction to the entire western coast of North
America as far north as the sixtieth degree, England had not
only not respected Spain's assumed rights, but had finally
compelled her, when in difficulty, to sign the convention of
the Escurial, October 28, 1790, by which both parties "agreed
that their respective subjects shall not be disturbed or molested,
either in navigating or carrying on their fisheries in the Pacific
Ocean, or in the South Seas, or in landing on the coasts of
those seas, in places not already occupied, for the purpose of
carrying on their commerce with the natives of the country,
or of making settlements there ; the whole subject, neverthe-
less, to the restrictions and provisions specified in the three
following articles:"^ These articles provided (1) that Spain
should have exclusive jurisdiction over a territory of ten sea
leagues radius from any of her existing settlements ; (2) that
all settlements made since April, 1789, or to be made there-
after, should be free of access to the trade of both nations ;
(3) that neither party should thereafter make settlements in
South America at any place south of the existing Spanish
settlements. From the time of this treaty, England main-
tained that she had all the rights of settlement and commerce
in common with Spain, in the region north of the 38th paral-
lel, the position of the most northerly of Spain's then existing
settlements on the Pacific coast ; and she accordingly denied
that the United States, by the treaty of 1819, could have any
higher right than Spain had had. But there was still another
party who claimed an interest in this territory. In Russia,
which had at an early period established hunting and trading
stations far to the north-west, there was issued on the 16th of

^ Ibid., 113, ei seq.

100 America: Its Geographical History.

September, 1821, an imperial ukase asserting exclusive juris-
diction over " the north-west coast of America, as far south as
51° north lat," and prohibiting "all foreign vessels from ap-
proaching within one hundred miles of the shore, under
penalty of confiscation." ^ Both the United States and Eng-
land protested against this assumption of territorial jurisdic-
tion by Russia; and, by the conventions of 1824 and 1825
respectively, they succeeded in having Russia resign all claims
south of 54° 40' north latitude. Thus the contest was nar-
rowed down to the two representatives of the Anglo-Saxon
race ; and long and determinedly, though without war, they
wrestled for the jurisdiction. The apple of discord was the
basin of the Columbia River, to which England claimed at
least an equal right with the United States ; and proposed to
have that river as their mutual boundary, with the navigation
free to both ; but the United States would be satisfied with
nothing less than exclusive possession of the whole.

The treaty of 1783 had provided that the boundary between
the United States and the British posessions of the northwest
should be a due west course from the Lake of the Woods to
the Mississippi. By 1794 it had become doubtful if the
Mississippi extended so far north ; and the treaty of Ghent
(1814) settled the matter by fixing the forty-ninth parallel as
the mutual boundary. By the convention of 1818 this boun-
dary was extended to the " Stony " (Rocky) Mountains ; and
the territory beyond was to be open to both parties.

The disputed part of the Pacific coast had been visited from
time to time by Spanish, English, and Russian ships ; but not
one of them had entered the mouth of the Columbia River,
before Captain Gray, in 1789, in an American trading ship,
made his way over the bar that obstructs the entrance and
sailed for some distance up the stream. In 1803, " Mr. Jef-
ferson, then President of the United States, commissioned
Captains Lewis and Clarke to explore the River Missouri and "

' Jbid., 254.

American National and State Boundaries. 101

" its principal branches to their sources, and then to seek and
trace to its termination in the Pacific some stream, whether
the Columbia, the Oregon, the Colorado, or any other, which
might offer the most direct and practicable water communica-
tion across the continent for the purposes of commerce."'
They found and explored the Columbia, from one of its sources
to its mouth. Relying on these grounds of discovery and on
the fact that an American company made the first settlement
in the district, the United States laid claim to the whole basin
of the Columbia; and after the treaty of 1819 with Spain,
considered their title as unimpeachable, in as much as Spanish
mariners had been the first to make nearer observations of the
coast. England insisted on the right of occupation in common,
urging the convention of 1790 with Spain as a recognition of
that right. Our government first claimed to the 51st parallel,
as lying within the basin of the Columbia ; but later offered as
a compromise, to extend to the Pacific the already existing
boundary-line which divided the territories of the two nations,
as far as the Rocky Mountains, namely, the 49th parallel. For a
long time England would not listen to this, always insisting that
the navigation of the Columbia was necessary to the prosperity
of her northwest territory. The matter was finally compro-
mised and settled by the Oregon treaty of 1846, by which free
navigation of the river was guaranteed to the Hudson's Bay
Company and those trading with it. The boundary-line was
to be the 49th parallel to the end of the mainland, thence
through the Georgia and Juan de Fuca straits to the Pacific.
The discoveries, explorations, and first settlement of the
Americans in this region, should have given them some
advantage, on the principle now recognized by the Powers, in
reference to Africa ; but the best ground for the justice of this
method of settlement seems to be the fact that possession in
common, by two nations, of the whole country from the 42d
degree to 54° 40' was not practicable ; and as neither had

1 Ibid., 14-15.

102 America: Ma Geographical History.

exclusive rights, from discovery or settlement on the Pacific
coast, but practically, if not theoretically, claimed the district
as an extension of that already in possession, it was the most
natural course to extend to the Pacific the dividing line which
was already in existence east of the Rocky Mountains.

There was to be still another enlargement of territory before
the United States should receive the form which now appears
*80 symmetrical and natural on the map. By the treaty of
1819 they had surrendered all claim to the district between
the boundary then fixed — Sabine and Arkansas Rivers — and
the Rio Grande del Norte. However, this region became peo-
pled with a large proportion of English-speaking immigrants,
who were discontented with the government as a member of
the Mexican States, which had been independent of Spain since
1821. They accordingly declared their independence from
Mexico; and from 1837 to 1845 remained an independent
republic. In the latter year the country was admitted, at her
own request, to the American Union as one of the states. The
dissatisfaction of Mexico at this step led to a war, the result
of which was that the United States took not only Texas, but
the whole district west to the Pacific and south to the junction
of the Colorado and Gila rivers. But not yet was the desire
for more satisfied ; for it was found that there were lacking
good routes of communication between the eastern and western
parts of the newly-acquired territory ; and hence our govern-
ment had to go again to Mexico, this time with gold instead
of arms in her hand, and ask for a strip south of the Gila
River, which was bought for $10,000,000, and is known un-
der the name of the Gadsden purchase.*

Having thus followed in short the widening of the English
borders in North America, till that nation possessed almost all
to the east of the Mississippi ; then the establishment of an

' As Alaska is distant and separated from the rest of the United States, it
is not deemed necessary here to enter into the matter of the purchase in
1867, from Russia, of this tract of more than 500,000 square miles.

American National and State Boundaries. 103

independent state of the same people, in the New World, and
the enlargement of this state through purchase and conquest,
until it became about three times its original size, we turn our
attention to the development of the interior lines of demarca-
tion. This is a study of no less importance, and in some re-
spects of greater interest, than the other. We have already
seen how England from the first claimed ownership of the
entire central belt of the continent, and gave to one company,
divided into two sections, the right to take possession of, people,
and govern this immense territory. The task proved too great
for the company ; then, too, there were others ready and
anxious to undertake the work of colonization ; and they
asked for, and received permission to found colonies within
the bounds already prescribed, but generally with the condi-
tion attached that lands so granted were not already occupied
by Christian people. The first reduction of Virginia's terri-
tory was made in favor of Lord Baltimore, a court favorite
who had already attempted to plant a colony in the south-
eastern part of Newfoundland, and failed. Admiring the
country and climate of Virginia, he secured a grant of the
territory north and east of the Potomac River and extending
to the 40th parallel of north latitude. He dying before the
charter was sealed, a new instrument was drawn up in favor
of his son Cecil, second Lord Baltimore. Previous to this,
the government of Virginia had been taken out of the hands
of the company, though the judgment on the process of quo
warranto had never been formally entered till Baltimore ap-
plied for the patent. Furthermore, the possessory rights of
the company had been frequently assured to them. The early
days of the colony had not been prosperous ones for its found-
ers and financial backers. Now that the colony was firmly
established and there was a prospect of reaping rich returns
on the original outlay, the members of the company regarded
this grant to Baltimore as a serious infringement on their
rights, and complained loudly thereof. Those were days of
despotism ; and the Virginians spoke to deaf ears. The

104 America: Its Geographical History.

government received a legal decision in its favor, Lord Justice
Holt deciding that "the laws of England do not extend to
Virginia ; being a conquered country, their law is what the
King pleases." * So Lord Baltimore retained his grant and
planted his colony. The day was to come, however, when
the tables would be turned ; and his descendants would hear a
somewhat similar judgment, but this time against them ; and
after long delay, they also would have to submit.

In the meantime the Dutch had discovered, explored, and
settled the region along the Hudson river; and also made
some attempts to settle the Delaware valley, which, however,
were at first unsuccessful. The Swedes, carrying out a cher-
ished plan of Gustavus Adolphus, made their way to the same
district, bought lands of the Indians, and commenced what,
under favoring circumstances, might have grown to a large
and flourishing colony. However, they failed to live in peace
with their European neighbors, and fell before the greater
power of the Dutch. Thus the Swedish colony became in-
corporated in the New Netherlands ; and Dutch settlers began
to people the banks of the Delaware. To the east, the Dutch
were not so fortunate. Though the first English settlements
there were not so old as the Dutch trading post on the Hudson,
still they were more flourishing and grew very much more
rapidly. At first the Dutch were rather traders than colonists ;
and when they began to realize the importance of peopling the
country with an agricultural and industrial population, they
introduced a system akin to feudalism which was not calcu-
lated to foster colonial growth of a healthy nature. The
Dutch, having established a post on the Connecticut River,
claimed the entire valley. But the English coming in num-
bers thither, the Dutch were compelled to allow them at first
equal privileges there, and at last to yield, making a pro-
visional treaty by which they gave up all claims to the
mainland east of a point near the present city of Green-

» Hildreth, U. S. Hist., II, 126.

American National and State Boundaries. 105

wich, retaining on the Connecticut only their fort of Good
Hope.

Under the English charter of 1606 there was no colony
planted in the northern district set off by that document.
The Pilgrim Fathers had planned to settle further south than
they actually did ; and first obtained a patent for the lands
they occupied, after they were settled in their new homes.
Though they drew up a plan for self-government before they
landed, they never succeeded in gaining a royal charter con-
ferring the powers of government on them. In fact, how-
ever, they governed themselves for a long time, but could not
prevent their territory finally (1691) being incorporated with
Massachusetts.

On November 3, 1620, was issued the charter for " New
England in America," under which name was to be included
" all that Circuit, Continent, Precincts, and Limits in America,
lying and being in Breadth, from Fourty Degrees of North-
erly Latitude, from the Equinoctiall Line, to Fourty-eight
Degrees of the said Northerly Latitude, and in length by all
the Breadth aforesaid throughout the Maine Land, from Sea
to Sea." This immense tract, like that of Virginia, was to be
subjected to many future amputations. The Dutch claimed
the territory from the fortieth to the forty-fifth parallel ; and
were already, at the time of the issuing of this patent, in
possession of the Hudson river country, with a settlement
farther north than 42° 30'. To the north, the French were
already in possession, having for many years before this time
had a trading post as far south as about the 44th parallel.
Accordingly, if the English had abided by the letter of their
charters, they would not have claimed more than the territory
between the already existing Dutch and French settlements,
or less than one and a half degrees of latitude, instead of eight.

The development of the New England boundary-lines is
difficult to follow. There were two granting powers, the
crown and the Plymouth Company ; and their respective
grants were not always in harmony ; moreover, the successive

106 America: Its Geographical History.

grants of each were often inconsistent with its own earlier
grants. The result was confusion twice confounded. To
examine all the details of the various grants would take us
much beyond the limits of a lecture. We may take as a cen-
tral point the grant of Massachusetts Bay ; as it was not only
the largest tract conveyed to any one party, but the district so
ceded was soon to become the main colony of New England.
On the 19th of March, 1628, the Plymouth Company con-
veyed to John Humphrey and others the domain ; and on the
4th of the following March, a royal charter was issued con-
firming the same and granting governmental powers over the
tract described as follows : — " All that Parte of Newe Eng-
land in America, which lyes and extendes betweene a great
River there, comonlie called Monomack River, alias Merri-
mack River, and a certen other River there, called Charles
River, being in the Bottome of a certen Bay there, comonlie
called Massachusetts, alias Mattachusetts, alias Massatusetts
Bay ; and also all and singuler those Landes and Heredita-
ments whatsoever, lying within the Space of Three Englishe
Myles on the South Parte of the said River, called Charles
River, or of any or every Parte thereof; and also all and
singuler the Landes and Hereditaments whatsoever, lying and
being within the Space of Three Englishe Myles to the south
of the southernmost Parte of the said Baye, called Massachu-
setts, . . . Bay : And also all those Landes and Heredita-
ments whatsoever, which lye and be within the Space of Three
Englishe Myles to the Northward of the saide River, called
Monomack, alias Merry mack, or to the Northward of any
and every Parte thereof, and all Landes and Hereditaments
whatsoever, lying within the Lymitts aforesaide. North and
South, in Latitude and Bredth, and in Length and Longitude,
of and within all the Bredth aforesaide, throughout the raayne
Landes there, from the Atlantick and Western Sea and Ocean
on the East Parte, to the South Sea on the West Parte," in-
cluding the neighboring islands.^ A portion of this district,

1 Char, and Cons., I, 194.

American National and State Boundaries. 107

to the north, had already been conveyed in 1622 to Mason,
and had received the name of Mariana ; another portion, ten
by thirty miles in extent, had been bestowed in 1623 on
Robert Gorges. Massachusetts was, however, to extend her
jurisdiction very considerably north and south, and then to
undergo a number of amputations, before her borders should
become permanently established.

That the spirit of colonization was rife in England, was not
the only ground for increase in the number of distinct settle-
ments which, in the course of a few years, sprang up in New
England.^ Grants to enterprising individuals did their work ;
but no less did the dissatisfaction produced by the strictness, nay
harshness, of the Massachusetts authorities. To this cause in
whole or in part, is due the emigration which led to the found-
ing of the present states of Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Herein lay the seeds of another conflict. Although not within
her charter limits, Massachusetts laid claim to the jurisdiction
over her emigrants.^ For a time each of the oflf-shoots was
practically independent ; then gradually took place a drawing
together round the two main settlements. But there was a
middle district which, for more than half a century, continued
to be the cause of dispute.

The Plymouth Company made at an early date, several
small grants of land in the district immediately to the north
of the Massachusetts Bay territory ; but these were ignored
and superseded by an extensive cession to John Mason,
November 7th, 1629, embracing the coast from the Merrimack
to the Piscataqua and sixty miles inland. As the Massachu-
setts Bay charter conveyed all the land to the extent of three
miles north of any part of the Merrimack River, and as by

^Hildreth, I, 267, writing of the year 1640, says: "Already there existed
east of the Hudson twelve independent communities, comprising not less
than fifty towns or distinct settlements."

^ Ibid., I, 232. "The emigrants [of 1636] took with them a commission
of government, the joint act of the Massachusetts General Court and of the
commissioners representing the lords proprietors of Connecticut.

108 Ameruia: Its Geographical History.

survey it was found that that river extends inland toward the
northwest, Massachusetts claimed jurisdiction, and exercised it
at times, over this section. After a century's dispute the mat-
ter came finally before the highest authorities in England for
settlement, and Massachusetts suffered a greater diminution of
territory thereby than even New Hampshire had asked or had
reason to expect. " The Privy Council decided, however, that
this due west line (from a point three miles north of the Mer-
rimack River) should take its departure from a point three
miles north of the southwesternmost bend of that river, thus
giving to New Hampshire twenty-eigh^ entire townships, and
parts of six others settled under grants from Massachusetts."

The early history of the region now included in the state of
Maine is kaleidoscopic in character ; and is as little capable of
short description as the complicated movements of that instru-
ment.' The conflicting claims there of French and English,
of Mason and Gorges, of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and New
York, present an exceedingly confused picture. The English
finally conquered the French in war ; Massachusetts bought
out Gorges' claim. After the formation of the republic, Mas-
sachusetts was induced to give up her claims, and Maine
became [1820] an independent member of the Union. Its
eastern boundary had been a subject of dispute between Eng-
land and the United States from the time of their first treaty,
— they not being able to agree as to which river was meant
under the name of St. Croix. By the treaty of 1794 between
these powers, a commission was constituted for determining
the question. The members thereof were enabled to reach a
conclusion by discovering the remains of an old fort on the
banks of the stream now known as the St. Croix ; and decided
also that the eastern and not the western branch of the same
should form the boundary. The New Hampshire line had

^ Ibid., I, 201. "The coast from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec was
covered by six other patents [than that of Gorges], issued in the course of
three years by the Council for New England.''

Amej'ican National and State Boundaries. 109

been definitely settled by the English Privy Council at the
same time [1737] as the northern line of Massachusetts had
been fixed.

The royal commission of 1664 had attempted to settle
boundary, as well as other disputes in New England. How-
ever, their decisions had but little permanent effect. Among
other matters referred to this commission, was the settlement
of the quarrel over the territory between Rhode Island and
Connecticut. Orders had been given that, if it were found
true, as reported, that this district had been ceded by the
Indians to King Charles I, then Nicholls was to seize it
in the name of the king, and give it the name of King's
Province. " After hearing the parties, the commissioners
directed that the territory in dispute, including the whole
Narraganset country, should constitute, under the name of
King's Province, a separate district." . . . This decision,
however, did not end the matter. It was held invalid because
it wanted the signature of Nicholls, whose participation was
essential to all decisions of the commissioners. Disputes,
both as to jurisdiction and land titles, presently revived, and
were carried on for the next fifty years. In 1683 another
commission reported, " that the jurisdiction of the Narragan-
set country belonged to Connecticut, and the land to the
Atherton Company." Rhode Island, however, charging the
commissioners with partiality, succeeded in preventing the
confirmation of the report. Having finally come before the
king in council, the matter was settled in 1725 by giving
King's Province to Rhode Island, thus confirming her charter
of 1662.

The charters of Massachusetts and Connecticut had granted
to those colonies an extension of their respective north and
south boundaries to the Pacific Ocean. We have seen that
they, especially Connecticut, came thus in conflict with the
Dutch in the New Netherlands ; that the latter were driven
from the Connecticut river, with the exception of the land
occupied by their fort, and the former accepted bounds not

110 America: Its Geographical History.

nearer than ten miles east of the Hudson river [1650].
The Duke of York's charter of 1664 conveyed to him the
country between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers ; and
after the Dutch had been conquered, York's governor
attempted to establish a claim to the country as far as the
Connecticut. This, however, he was unable to do. The
commissioners of 1664 determined on a boundary-line run-
niusc north-northwest from tide-water in the * Mamarouck.'
But learning later that such a line would cross the Hudson in
the Highlands, instead of keeping twenty miles east of that
river, the same commissioners abrogated their former decision,
and the dispute between the inhabitants of New York and
Connecticut was renewed. In 1683 there was an agreement
entered into between the parties, by which New York agreed
to cede to Connecticut a tract of 61,440 acres, in return for a
similar tract between the portion so setoff and Massachusetts.
Royal sanction to the agreement was received, and New York
surveyed and set off to Connecticut the portion agreed upon ;
but the latter failed to do her part. In 1725 commissioners
were appointed, who entered into articles of agreement as to
the manner of conducting the survey, and there halted for six
years. Finally in 1731, the survey was made of the portion
north of that which had been set off by New York in 1684 ; and
the line of demarcation between New York and Connecticut
was fixed practically as now. Nevertheless, controversies arose
from time to time regarding the boundary ; and in 1860 New
York made an ex parte survey, which survey was adopted by
agreement between the two states in 1880, and confirmed by
the Congress of the United States, on February 26, 1881.

Massachusetts compromised her claim to land in New York
by allowing the present boundary-line to be established in
consideration of receiving one-half of the proceeds of the sale
of the public lands of that state.

The territory now forming the state of Vermont was the
subject of a long and bitter struggle. Though explored and
claimed by the French, they had to yield that with their other

American National and State Boundaries. Ill

possessions in the year 1763. In the meantime a lively eon-
test between New York and New Hampshire had developed
in reference to the same district. The former insisted on
having her charter limits; while under New Hampshire's
seal, Wentworth, the royal governor, was granting lands be-
tween the Connecticut and Lake Champlain. Massachusetts
tried also to extend her borders in this direction ; but resigned
her claims in 1781. In the following year New Hampshire
did likewise. The inhabitants would have submitted to New
York's jurisdiction if that state had recognized the validity
of the New Hampshire land grants. Failing to do this, the
sturdy inhabitants of the district held out for an independent
state government ; and succeeded finally in 1790 in wringing
from New York her consent thereto.

The New Netherlands had extended their sway to the west
of the Delaware in 1655. But that portion of her dominions
did not prosper, and the victors did not long have the pleasure
of ruling over their conquered neighbors. After nine years,
the whole region falls a prey to a new conqueror, England.
The agents of the Duke of York seized the settlements on
the west of the Delaware as well as those on the east, although
that river formed his charter bounds ; and till 1681 they
ruled the same as an appendage of New York. In that year
a new colony is marked out which is to extend five degrees
west of the Delaware River, with northern extension to " the
three and fortieth degree of Northerne Latitude ; and bounded
on the South by a Circle drawne at twelve miles distance
from New Castle Northward and Westward unto the begin-
ning of the fortieth degree of Northern Latitude, and then by
a streight Line Westward to the Limitt of Longitude above-
mentioned." Read as a whole, the charter is evidently in-
tended to grant three degrees of latitude ; but taking advan-
tage of the expression, " the said Lands to bee bounded on
the North by the beginning of the three and fortieth degree
of Northern Latitude," it was decided in the middle of the
following century that the king could grant lands to the north

112 America: Its Geographical History.

of the " beginning " of the forty-third degree of latitude, which
was interpreted as meaning all north of the forty-second
parallel. This practically excluded Pennsylvania from the
commerce of Lake Erie. But in 1781 New York released to
the general government all land to which she had claim, west
of the meridian of the western extremity of Lake Ontario ;
and the small triangle thus formed on Lake Erie was bought
by the state of Pennsylvania from the general government in
1792. In the Virginia charter of 1609 occurred, in the de-
scription of the territory granted, the following expression :
" and all that Space and Circuit of Land, lying from the Sea
Coast of the Precinct aforesaid, up into the Land through-
out from Sea to Sea, West and Northwest." Under this
patent, or rather dascription (for the patent was at an
early day abrogated), Virginia claimed for a long time the
territory now comprised within the western limits of Penn-
sylvania : but was finally led to acquiesce in the terms of the
latter's patent by which the line five degrees west of the Del-
aware became the western border.

Pennsylvania's southern boundary-line was the cause of a
bitter quarrel with Maryland, of ninety years' duration. The
charter of the latter defined her northern boundary as extend-
ing from the Delaware Bay in a direct line to the meridian
of the head waters of the Potomac ; but it also provided that
that line should be on the fortieth parallel of latitude. As
the bay does not extend so far north as forty degrees, it was
impossible to reconcile the two descriptions. Penn's territory
was to be bounded on the south by a curved line, drawn at a
radius of twelve miles from New Castle, and continued by
the fortieth parallel ; and these two descriptions were also
irreconcilable with each other. Baltimore claimed to the fortieth
parallel wherever the astronomers might find it, in as much
as that would give him the most territory; while Penn, for
the same reason, claimed to the twelve-mile line from New
Castle. According to the rules of law the concrete, such as
the mention of the Delaware Bay and the line at a fixed dis-

American NcdioncU and State Boundaries. 113

tance from New Castle, takes precedence of the general or
imaginary, as the fortieth parallel, whose deterrpination
depends on the accuracy of the astronomical instruments used,
and the skill of the observer ; so that technically Penn had
the better case ; and the courts and Privy Council of England
so decided a number of times ; but the Baltimores continued
to contest the matter so long as there was a possibility of
gaining thereby ; and the matter was not finally settled until
1767, by the survey of the famous Mason and Dixon line,
which line was the result of a compromise, agreed upon by
the parties to the dispute in 1732, and enforced by the Eng-
lish court in 1760.^

Nature herself had settled, on three sides, the bounds of
New Jersey. But with the fourth, that colony had difficul-
ties enough. Several months before he himself was in pos-
session, the Duke of York granted to Carteret and Berkeley
this peninsula, to be bounded " on the north by a line drawn
from the Hudson at the forty-first parallel of latitude, to
strike the Delaware in 41° 40'." The Peninsula was for a
time divided into east and west provinces, which however in
the end became united. There were numerous attempts to
incorporate the whole in New York, but they ultimately
failed ; as did also the persistent effi)rts of New York to
move the dividing line further toward the south ; so that in
consequence the first designated bounds became the permanent
ones for New Jersey.

The history of the boundary-lines of Delaware is intimately
connected with that of Pennsylvania, as both territories were
under the rule of the same English grantee. At the same
time as the southern limit of Pennsylvania was settled, Del-
aware's bounds were also fixed. The twelve-mile circle from
the centre of New Castle was her northern boundary ; her

^ For details see the author's article : " The boundary dispute between
Pennsylvania and Maryland." Pennsylvania Mag. of Hist, and Biog., Octo-
ber, 1885.
8

114 America: Its Geographical History.

territory was to extend so far south as the claimed position
of Cape Henlopen of the old maps, which accounts for
the discrepancy of the description with the modern maps.
From this point, a due east and west line was to be run
across the land to Chesapeake Bay, and from its centre,
a straight line was to be run tangent to the circle about
New Castle; and from the point of contact, a due north
and south line was to be carried to the southern border line
of Pennsylvania.

South of the fortieth parallel lies an immense district, the
whole of which was at first called by the English, Virginia.
Only a comparatively small portion surrounding the spot
on which was established the firet permanent settlement
there, retains the name to-day. To the north lies Mary-
land, the first tract that became independent; of whose
north and east boundaries we have already spoken. To the
west there could be no ground of dispute, except as to that
small portion of the line between the head waters of the
Potomac and the southern line of Pennsylvania. This was
surveyed by commissioners appointed by Maryland and Vir-
ginia in 1859, and ratified by the Maryland legislature in the
year 1860; and since the formation of West Virginia, is the
border between that state and Maryland. But as to which
branch of the Potomac should be considerefl its head waters
continues to this day, I believe, a subject of dispute between
Maryland and Virginia. The short southern boundary-line
on the eastern peninsula was also the cause of considerable
trouble between Maryland and Virginia. In order to fill the
disputed territory with persons attached to his interest, Lord
Baltimore offered the lands here to the inhabitants of the
neighboring counties of Virginia on specially favorable terms,
which offers " appear to have been gladly accepted." In the
end however Virginia seems to have been the winner ; for as
late as 1874 we find among an enumeration of Maryland's
losses, taking the bounds of the original charter as the stand-

Ameincan National and State Boundanes, 115

ard, — " and to Virginia a half million of acres." ' The final
settlement was made by the award of arbitrators in 1877,
which was ratified by the respective states, and at last by Con-
gress in 1879.

As early as 1630 a large tract south of the present Virginia
was granted to Sir Robert Heath ; but as no permanent settle-
ment came into existence under his authority, the grant was
afterwards declared void ; and in 1663 the Earl of Clarendon,
the Duke of Albemarle, and others received a patent from
the English monarch for all that tract extending from " Lucke
Island, which lieth in the southern Virginia seas, and within
six and thirty degrees of the northern latitude," as far south
" as the river St. Matthias, which bordereth upon the coast of
Florida," and west to the Pacific. In the later charter of
1665 these limits were somewhat changed, the northern
extremity being placed at the north end of " Currituck river
or inlet," while the southern line was extended to the twenty-
ninth parallel. The influx of immigrants was for a time
considerable ; and they mostly gathered round two centres, in
the northern and southern portions respectively. Inspired
with ideas of freedom and popular rights, they broke away
not only from the proprietors, but also from each other. The
border-line remained for a long time a matter of controversy ;
a decision of the English authorities was reached in 1772, but
failed of establishment. On attaining independence in 1776,
North Carolina recognized the border line as laid down by
the English authorities, and inserted it in her constitution
adopted that year. It was to be a north-west line starting at
the mouth of the Little River and running " through the
boundary house, which stands in thirty-three degrees fifty-six
seconds, to thirty-five degrees north latitude ; and from thence
a west course so far as is mentioned in the Charter of King "

^ Report and journal of proceedings of the joint commissioners to adjust
the boundary line of the States of Maryland and Virginia. Annapolis,
1874, p. 122.

116 Ameiica: Its Geographical History.

"Charles II. to the late proprietors of Carolina." South
Carolina was unwilling to accept this simple boundary-line ;
and the result of disputes and defective surveying is the present
irregular one, by which North Carolina has lost "probably
between 500 and 1,000 square miles." ^ In 1789 the state
ceded to the federal government all lands to which she had
claim west of the Smoky Mountains ; but the commissioners
who surveyed the southern part of the line in 1821 made it a
direct north and south line instead of following the mountains,
by which North Carolina lost a valuable mining district.

In 1732 there was carved out of South Carolina all the
country between the most northern branch of the Savannah
and the most southern branch of the Altamaha (most probably
the St. Matthias of the charter of 1663), and extending west
from their respective sources to the Pacific. To this tract was
given the name of Georgia. Trouble arising with the Spanish
colony of Florida, there was conquered and retained the post
at the mouth of the St. Mary's River. Florida itself being
ceded to England in 1763, the district between St. Mary's
and the Altamaha was formally annexed to Georgia by pro-
clamation and has ever since continued to be a part of the same.
There were however long disputes as to which stream consti-
tutes the head of St. Mary's ; and the matter was not finally
decided until the present century.

Thus we have attempted to sketch the manner in which
our national and early state boundaries became what they are.
Almost every line has a history of its own, which it would be
interesting to follow out in detail ; but that would take us
much beyond the limits of a lecture.

The charters of some of the original colonies extended their
jurisdiction west to the Pacific ; but this they were destined
never to enjoy. The valley of the Mississippi received French
and Spanish immigrants before English settlers made their
way thither. When France was compelled to i^ign Canada

' Quoted in Henry Gannett's Boundaries of the United States, p. 95.

American National and State Boundaries. Ill

in 1763, England, on the other hand, yielded all claim to ter-
ritory west of the Mississippi. The United States having won
their independence from the latter country, fell heir to her
claims as far west as that river. There being great practical
difficulties in the way of settling the conflicting claims of the
several states to the immense, almost uninhabited tract, between
the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi, Virginia led
the way [1781] in offering to resign her share of the same to
the national government, on condition that the territory so
surrendered should in time, when sufficiently populated, be
divided into states to be admitted into the Union on the same
footing as the original states. This generous example Was
followed by other states. At first with scattered population
and immense extent, there were formed territorial or tempo-
rary governments, with the main power resting in the federal
government. As population increased, bounds were con-
tracted ; — natural boundary-lines where practicable being
adopted ; and when no natural boundary offered itself, straight
north and south, and east and west lines were generally laid
down. From this point on, the subject has less interest.
There was now a central power to settle the lines of demarka-
tion ; and these were generally acquiesced in without hesita-
tion. The territory west of the Mississippi came by treaties,
directly into the hands of the national government ; and the
several states as such, have had little or no voice in the matter
of its division. Here was again the story of increasing pop-
ulation and narrowing bounds ; and where there was no inter-
national dispute, the boundary -lines of the far west present
comparatively little material for the historian.

VI.

Geographical Work op the National Government.

The intelligent mind has a natural curiosity to know some-
thing of the world in which we live ; how much more then
of the laud which we call ours, to which we owe allegiance,
in patriotism for which our breasts are supposed to swell mth
pride whenever her name is mentioned, and in defence of
which we may be called upon at any moment to lay down our
lives. Moreover, such a mobile population as the American,
wishes to know of all parts of its country, so that each one
may see if perchance he might not better his condition by
going elsewhere than where he is at the time being. Then
too, there is the economical consideration : — when men are
hunting the treasures of the earth, a geological map may help
them materially in the search. For the great nations of
Europe, the chief reason for making a perfect map of their land
is one of military aim, as the fate of battles is often
decided by the more or less accurate knowledge of the topog-
raphy of the ground whereon they are to be fought. To this
end the principal nations there have had constructed maps
whereon it is attempted to represent not only the main features
of elevation and drainage ; but it is scarcely too much to say
that every farm house and every clump of trees, together with
every by-path are represented. With these maps it is possible
even for a stranger to go through the land without a guide, and
follow his route with almost as much confidence as though he
were at home there. As America changes with great rapidity
in its cultural aspects, especially in the West, the United
118

Geographical Work of the National Government. 119

States authorities have not deemed it advisable to go into such
detail here ; but, though we do not expect a war, as do the
nations of Europe, and can therefore spare the expense of such
minute work, the surveying that had already been done before
the opening of the War of the Rebellion was found very
useful to the authorities during the war ; and the Survey has
been more popular and has secured the support of Congress
in a much more liberal spirit ever since. Another object,
which in Europe leads to the making of accurate national
maps, but is of little importance here, is for taxing purposes.
Where the population is crowded together, and the expenses
of government great in proportion to the national wealth, it
becomes important to be able to tax everything which will
bear it; and land has been in all countries an important
source of revenue to the government ; as population increases,
the value of land per square foot gains in importance, and an
accurate knowledge of the possibilities of the revenues is
necessary to the authorities. Though our national government
lays no tax on land in private hands, the same is generally
subject to local taxation; and, as the best surveys in the
country are those of the central authorities, several of the
state governments have called in the assistance of the central
power in surveying their domains. This country's immense
coast-line, in connection with its great natural wealth, destined
it for a land of large commercial interests ; and in furtherance
of these interests it is necessary to do what is possible for the
safety of the shipping engaged in the carrying trade. Accord-
ingly a knowledge of the coast of the country is of paramount
importance. This is not to be had for the mere asking ;
because the gaining of that knowledge must come through
work of the most delicate and complicated kind. Not only
must the line between land and water be laid down, and that
varies from hour to hour on account of the tides ; but the
points on the land by which the position of a ship nearing the
shore can be determined, must also be accurately mapped. To
this add the necessity of knowing the channels by which the

120 America: Its Geographical History.

shore may be safely approached, the direction of the currents
through which one must pass, and which have an influence on
the sailing of the ship ; and still more, the depth of water at
a given time, as that is equally important ; and it will be seen
how necessary it is for a commercial country to have a
coast survey.

How are maps made ? is a very natural question, after one
has been talking so much about the product. The method
pursued depends very largely on the object aimed at. The
maps of some of the early navigators serve as an illustration
of what may be done by personal observation of a country,
with little or no assistance from instruments. With training,
one may acquire the power of observing closely- and repro-
ducing fairly well what one has seen. An army officer told
me at Washington, that men are now trained in our army so
that after riding over the country they can on their return
make a very fair sketch of the topography of the land seen,
and sufficiently accurate to enable a commander to place his
troops for a battle, dispose his artillery to advantage, etc.
But on such reconnaisances, as they are called, no accurate
maps could be based. A step higher in the scale of accuracy
are the ordinary plane surveys, such as are used in platting
land for the market, or city building lots. Though this
method is sufficiently accurate for short distances, it is utterly
inadequate for long distances, owing to the spheroidal form
of the earth ; as, for example, a survey continued in this
manner from the Gulf of Mexico to the northern boundary of
the State of Mississippi, would there be in error four miles in
every hundred.

Up to a comparatively recent period, the best maps of the
United States were almost entirely based on such surveys, as
no other kind had been carried out to any extent. Separate
portions of the country had been thus surveyed, as was thought,
with sufficient accuracy ; but when it was attempted to unite
into one whole the several maps thus produced, they were
found not to fit, and some strange results were noted ; as for

Geographical Work of the National Government. 121

example the Ohio River disappeared, while the Mississippi
was almost annihilated in some places, and in others its width
increased to several miles. For really accurate surveying, it
is necessary to have a geodetic foundation, that is, all lines
must be considered in reference to the curvature of the earth's
surface. Work of this kind requires a knowledge of higher
mathematics, together with skill in using instruments of
the utmost delicacy for astronomical and terrestrial obser-
vation. The foundation of this work is in the astronomical de-
termination of the position of two or more points on the surface
of the earth ; for the earth being spherical, there is no other
method of determining absolute position on it than in reference
to the heavens ; and even this is not infallible, as the improve-
ment in methods and instruments of one age has shown the
errors of the preceding. But it is the best we have, and must
therefore be the basis of the best work. The amount of labor
involved in such determination of position may be judged from
the fact that Mechain and Delambre, two famous French
surveyors, each made 1800 astronomical observations to ascer-
tain the exact position of the Pantheon at Paris. Then there
must be a base-line measured on the earth, for which work
many instruments have been invented, with ever increasing
accuracy ; so that now it is maintained that the experts can
measure a mile on the ground with a probable error of only
one-quarter of an inch or less. This line must be connected by
triangles with the points astronomically determined ; and each
angle of every triangle is, on the average, measured thirty
times by those engaged on the U. S. Coast Survey. But even
this is not all, for the altitude of every point must be known
and then reduced to the level of the sea. In determining the
size and form of the earth, to which all this work naturally
leads, it is not the form as presented to the eye, but an
imaginary form, such as there would be if the entire globe
were covered with a calm ocean. Only with such a beginning
is it possible to prepare a correct map of the country. The
further work to be done depends on the object for which the

122 America: Its Geographical History.

survey is made. If that is for a general map of a country,
such as you find in the ordinary atlas, only a comparatively
few points need to be thus established, and the rest can be
drawn in after less careful observations of the intervening
country. If the utmost accuracy is sought, then it becomes
necessary to observe with great care an almost innumerable
number of triangles, and to pass over practically every foot of
the ground, and note its configuration. The work of our
national government furnishes us with illustrations of all the
varieties of surveying now in use ; for, with various objects
in view at diflFerent times, the government has instituted sur-
veys of all grades of accuracy. For ordinary geographical
purposes the survey should be of such a character as to give,
when complete, a knowledge of the distribution of land and
water, of the elevations of the land, of the position of political
borders, and the situation of cities and towns. Going beyond
this, it is possible to have maps of an infinite variety, showing
the distribution of the population, or of the mineral resources,
or of rainfall, — in short, of an endless variety of matters of
information.

In the prosecution of this work there are needed not only
men of trained minds capable of doing the work, but also
elaborate instruments for the necessary observations ; first for
the determination of the latitude, which is now done princi-
pally by observing stars near the zenith, instead of circum-
polar stars, as was originally the case; in which work, the
Americans have made some advances on that of their prede-
cessors. Then the longitude is to be determined, in which
our experts have shown the world how it can be done with
the greatest accuracy, namely, by means of the electric telegraph.
In perhaps no branch of science has the advance been greater
since the discovery of America, than just here ; for the early
navigators were liable to mistakes of from fifteen to twenty
degrees in its determination ; while, for example, the Coast Sur-
vey has determined the longitude of Lafayette Park, San Fran-
cisco, by several sets of experiments whose results differ from each

Geographical Work of the National Government. 123

other but 0.06 of a second of time or 0.90 of a second of arc ; or
less than ^^Vxr of the error of the early navigators. Of very
great importance is also the manner, as well as the means, of
measuring the base-lines ; because an inaccuracy here will
extend throughout the whole line dependent on it, in the same
proportion. For this work new instruments have been
invented and constructed at Washington, in the manipulation
of which there has been distinguished success. In the obser-
vation of the angles of the triangles by which the survey is
conducted, Americans have reached as high a degree of accuracy
as any other nation ; and have observed the greatest distance
ever used for such purpose, in one case, the two stations being
one hundred and ninety-one miles apart. After all the innumer-
able observations have been made, there follows the intricate
work of bringing the results thus obtained into shape for the
construction of the map, which is the ultimate object aimed
at. Now the artists are brought into requisition, who are to
place on paper, correctly and in a manner agreeable to the eye
and also easy of comprehension, all that has been learned by
the survey. This done, the picture must be transferred to
stone or copper and placed in the hands of the printer. From
him it passes to the public, who as a rule have not the slight-
est conception of the vast amount of labor that has been
expended on its production.

It will probably be easier to understand what the govern-
ment has done, after having an idea of the problems which it
was desired to solve ; hence this, perhaps too long, introduc-
tion. The attention of the federal government was called to
the need of a survey of the coast as early as 1806, by Pro-
fessor Patterson, of Philadelphia, who, it is believed, was the
originator of the idea. President JeflPerson recognized the
value of the suggestion and sent to Congress a recommenda-
tion in accordance therewith. This resulted in the law of
1807 by which the President was authorized to inaugurate a
survey of the coast. The plan of work submitted by Mr.
Hassler, a Swiss who had been engaged in similar work in his

124 America: Its Geographical History.

native land, was accepted ; and he was authorized to go to
Europe in order to procure the necessary instruments. There
were unavoidable delays in making the preliminary prepa-
rations, and it was 1811 before Mr. Hassler departed on his
mission. Then came the war with great Britain, and other
complications arose, so that he did not return with the neces-
sary equipment until 1816, and the work of surveying was
commenced the year following. But Congress felt dissatisfied
with the slow progress of its measure, and refused, after two
years, to renew its appropriation, so that the work was com-
pelled to cease in 1819. From this time until 1832, what
little was done toward increasing the knowledge of our coast-
line was done by the navy, but so poorly that Congress was
finally induced to revive the old law, and Mr. Hassler was
again placed in charge. The work was now reorganized in a
more efficient manner, and continued under the same direction
until Mr. Hassler's death in 1843. But it was not free from
fault-finding criticism during this time, and had to undergo
a searching investigation in 1842, from which it emerged in
triumph. When it is considered that Mr. Hassler had to
organize the work from the foundation, train his assistants,
and in some cases even invent his own instruments, it will be
found that the work he accomplished in the ten years preced-
ing the investigation was most creditable to him. The results
are thus summarized by one of his successors : " A base-line
had been measured in the vicinity of New York, the com-
mercial importance of which obviously indicated it as the
proper point of beginning. The triangulation had extended
eastward to Rhode Island and southward to the head of Ches-
apeake Bay, the primary triangulation crossing the neck of
New Jersey and Delaware, while a secondary triangulation
skirted the coast of New Jersey, meeting with another series
which extended down Delaware Bay. The topography had
kept pace with the triangulation, and the hydrography of New
York bay and harbor, of Long Island Sound, of Delaware
bay and river, and the off-shore soundings from Montauk "

Geographical Work of the National Government. 125

" Point to the capes of the Delaware were substantially com-
pleted. The triangulation covered an area ' of 9000 square
miles, furnishing determinations of nearly 1200 stations for
the delineation of 1600 miles of shore-line ; 4i68 topographical
maps had been surveyed and 142 hydrographical charts.'"
[Johnson's Cyclopaedia, Art. Coast Survey.]

The act of March 10th, 1843, provided that the Coast
Survey be organized on a plan to be submitted by a com-
mission appointed by the President of the United States, and
to consist of three civilians, two officers of the navy, and four
of the army. These had already completed their task by the
end of the same month ; and on the 30th, submitted to the
President, " The Plan for the reorganization of the Coast
Survey." Professor A. D. Bache was the new director ; and
throughout the period of almost a quarter of a century, during
which he occupied that important position, the Survey con-
tinued the work with great proficiency. During this period the
United States doubled its coast-line by the acquisition of
Mexican territory, and the settlement of the Oregon dispute ;
so that there was all the more necessity for increasing the
facilities of the bureau. In 1867 Mr. Bache died, and was
succeeded by Professor Benjamin Pierce ; and in the same
year, Alaska was purchased from Russia, by which 26,000
miles more were added to the national coast-line. It is the
duty of the Coast Survey to delineate accurately the entire
line of the national coast, with all its meanderings, including
all bays, and rivers up to the head of tide-water, as well as the
adjacent islands. Taking this view of it, our Atlantic coast
has a length of 14,723 miles ; that of the Gulf of Mexico,
10,406 miles ; and the Pacific coast, exclusive of Alaska, 4,252
miles; so that, including Alaska, the work of this bureau
must cover an extent of more than 55,000 miles. Nor is this
all ; for their work extends inland as far as may be useful for
coast defense ; and out to sea, twenty leagues, and sometimes
further ; as in investigating the Gulf Stream. Furthermore
they have extended a geodetic line along the Appalachian

126 America: lis Geographical History.

Mountains ; and lines of level even to the mouth of the Mis-
sissippi, by which it is shown that the Gulf of Mexico is 40
inches higher at the latter point, than the ocean at Cape Cod,
— a most important discovery which suggests at once a theory
as to the cause of the movement of the Gulf Stream. And
lastly, they are running a geodetic line from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, as a trustworthy basis for the accurate geography
of the interior. Of this enormous stretch of country there
now (March 1st, 1892) remain to be surveyed only eight
degrees of longitude, — some portions of Kansas and Colorado,
and one station in Utah, being still unfinished.

Notwithstanding the high quality of the work done by this
bureau, which has received the approval and praise of scientists
in Europe and ^^^^rica, there have not been wanting from
time to time detractors, who have made charges of inefficiency,
generally coupled with the demand that the oversight of the
bureau be transferred to another department of the govern-
ment, namely the Navy — it has generally been a sub-division
of the Treasury Department. But from each new investiga-
tion, it has come out with increased honor ; and instead of
doing it harm, the attention aroused by such carping has only
added to its good name.

By the kindness of Professor T. C. Mendenhall, the present
Director of the Survey, I have been placed in possession of a
manuscript copy of an article entitled : " The U. S. Coast
and Geodetic Survey. Summary of its History, Objects,
Methods of Work and Contributions to Geographical Knowl-
edge," from which I extract the following, as to some of the
results of this gigantic undertaking of our government : " In
the introduction of improved instruments, apparatus and
methods of observation, marked progress was made. The
primary base-lines were measured with an apparatus devised
by the Superintendent and constructed at the Office of the
Survey with sjiecial reference to accuracy and economy of
measurement and facility of use in the field. The method of
determining latitude by measuring with a micrometer small "

Geographical Work of the Naiional Government. 127

" zenith differences of stars north and south of the zenith, as
devised by Capt. Talcott, of the U. S. Engineers by an in-
genious adaptation of the Zenith Telescope, was brought into
general use in the Survey, and it was soon found by discussion
of the results that the places of stars thus obtained were in
many cases superior in precision to those of the British Associa-
tion Catalogue. This led to a demand for better star
places, and at the request of the Superintendent, the Directors
of the principal Observatories undertook to determine the
places of all stars observed by the Coast Survey for latitude.
Not only was the accuracy of the latitude determinations of
the Survey thus increased, but the Observatories themselves
felt the stimulus given to astronomical research, and to the
publication of Star Catalogues of a high order of precision."

" But the most important contribution made by the Coast
Survey to practical astronomy was undoubtedly the application
of the electric telegraph to the determination of differences of
longitude. It was part of the plan of re-organization of 1843
that the difference of longitude between some main points of
the Survey, and the meridians of any or all of the European
observatories should be ascertained immediately. The Observ-
atory at Cambridge, Massachusetts, having been adopted as
the point of reference for Coast Survey longitudes, arrange-
ments were at once carried into effect for the transportation of
chronometers between Liverpool and Boston ; occultations and
moon culminations were observed regularly at Cambridge,
Nantucket, and Philadelphia ; and care was taken to have
observations made whenever they occurred."

" As soon as the first lines of electric telegraph were estab-
lished, experiments were made at the suggestion of Professor
Bache, and with the co-operation of Professor Morse, between
Washington and Philadelphia and Philadelphia and New
York. The Coast Survey Report for 1846 contains an
account of the first successful attempt made to exchange
signals for longitude, by the electric telegraph. On the 10th
of October in that vear communication was effected between "

128 America: Its Geographical History.

" Philadelphia and Washington ; signals for time by the clock
were transmitted, and the instant of transit of a star over the
wires of the transit instrument was telegraphed. From this
date each year brought improvements in methods of observing
and recording ; the signals were soon recorded automatically
by astronomical clocks upon chronographs. The Atlautic
Cable of 1866 was at once utilized as a means of determining
the longitude of Cambridge from Greenwich; in 1870, a
second determination was made through the French Cables
from Brest to Duxbury, Mass., the cables being joined at St.
Pierre, Miquelon ; and in 1872, Brest having been connected
with Greenwich by cable, signals from Cambridge, from
Greenwich and from Paris were united at Brest and compared
on the Brest chronograph, and a satisfactory junction effected
between the American and European systems of longitude."

" From the final discussion of the results of these three
determinations, made in different years and by different
observers, it appears that the several values for the longitude
of Cambridge from Greenwich do not differ more than five-
hundredths of a second of time.

" The distinguished astronomer Sir George B. Airy, Director
of the Greenwich Observatory, was among the first to recognize
the great value of the American method, as it soon came to be
called, aud to adopt it in the work under his charge. It is
now in general use by astronomers throughout the world. In
North America, the stations connected by telegraphic deter-
minations of longitude extend^ from Newfoundland to Mexico
and Central America, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Upwards of one hundred and forty such stations have been
occupied in the United States."

The survey of the Atlantic and Gulf coast-lines is practi-
cally complete. As to what still remains to be done on the
Pacific, I cannot do better than quote Professor Mendenhall
himself. In a letter of March 1st, 1892, he says: "The
portions of the Pacific Coast remaining to be surveyed are as
follows : — The primary triangulatiou from about latitude 40° "

Geographical Wwk of the Naiional Government. 129

" to the vicinity of Olympia, Washington ; the coast triangula-
tion from the vicinity of Cape Sebastian to and including the
Straits of Fuca, excepting detached portions in the vicinity of
Coos Bay, Willapa Bay, Gray's Harbor, Umbqua and
Yaquina rivers, etc. ; the topography of the outer coasts of
Oregon and Washington is about one-third completed, but a
preliminary or reconnaissance survey has been made over the
whole. The various harbors and entrances are completed.
The Straits of Fuca and some portions of the Gulf of Georgia
are still unfinished. The hydrography from Cape Orford to
Cape Kiwanda, Oregon, and from Gray's Harbor to Cape
Johnson, Washington, remain to be surveyed. In south-east
Alaska all the waters between the main-land and the islands,
and including Portland Canal, from Dixon Entrance to the
head of Chilcat Inlet have been surveyed, but all other por-
tions of the Alaska coast remain unsurveyed."

I cannot say just what amount of money this great work has
cost; but in a pamphlet of 1884, entitled, "The late attacks
upon the Coast and Geodetic Survey," p. 16, there is the fol-
lowing statement : " The average appropriation . . . from
1870 to 1884, — including fourteen fiscal years, — has been
$622,200." " For the current fiscal year (1 891-92), the appro-
priation for field and office expenses, repairs of vessels, Alaska
Boundary Survey, (fee, is $515,130." Besides the paid officials
of the Coast Survey, army and navy officers have from time
to time been detailed by their respective superiors to assist in
the work ; but at present none of the army are so engaged,
though some navy officers are detailed by the Navy Depart-
ment for hydrographic work conducted by the Coast Survey.

When we are told that 63,000 copies of charts were issued
by this bureau last year (1891), it enables us to form some
slight conception of the large scale on which its work is carried
on. These charts are of different varieties, both as to methods
of presenting the facts with which they deal, and also as to
the amount of detail given thereon. In scale they range
between 1 : 5000 and 1 : 80,000. The average of the maps,
9

130 America: Its Geographical History.

however, are made on a scale of 1 : 10,000, or about 6 inches to
the mile ; so that a square foot on the map represents about
four square miles of the earth's surface. As the maps are made
for navigators, but little of the land is shown, but that little is
given with great minuteness ; and hill and valley, woods and
fields, roads, railroads, and water ways down to the smallest
creek, — all find place here. Then too every light house with
the color of its light, every buoy with its color, the route for the
safest approach to land, with its compass direction and the
variation of the compass, soundings at innumerable points,
together with the substance and character of the bottom, — all
can here be seen at a glance and be much better and more
easily understood than from a lengthy description in words.
A map of the entire United States on such a scale (tzttttv)
would require four hundred thousand sheets, which in atlas
form, would constitute a library of itself, of eight thousand
large folio volumes.

Though scientifically unimportant, the plane survey of the
public lands of the United States has been of great commercial
utility. In 1802 Colonel Mansfield, then surveyor of the
Northwest Territory, proposed a plan for the carrying out of
this work, which plan with small variations, has been in use
ever since. The public domain is divided into land districts,
over each of which there is placed a surveyor-general, whose
duty it is to superintend the survey thereof. In each district
a meridian and an east and west line are carefully run, and
their positions determined astronomically, though not with
the utmost accuracy. With this as a foundation, the whole
district is divided into townships, six miles square, a con-
ventional allowance being made for the true direction of the
meridians. Smaller divisions, called sections, quarter-sections,
etc., are surveyed as the land is put on the market. Large
portions of the country have been thus surveyed, with varying
degrees of accuracy. " Unfortunately, one vicious principle
was early incorporated in the plan, viz., that the work should
be given out under contract, not to the lowest bidder but to"

Geographical Work of the National Government. 131

"preferred bidders, a method which resulted in great extrava-
gance on the one hand, and such a deterioration of the work
upon the other that it finally subserved but the single purpose
of parceling the lands. Since the organization of these
surveys up to the present time (1884) $35,000,000 have been
expended therefor, and it will always be a matter of profound
regret to scholars and statesmen that the grand purposes for
which the surveys were primarily organized were not fully
realized." (J. W. Powell, On the Organization of Scientific
Work of the General Government, Pt. 2, p. 1072.)

Previous to the organization of the Geological Survey in
1879, the work of surveying the country was distributed
among various bodies of experts. Thus to the Lake Survey,
was entrusted the work of surveying the shores of the Great
Lakes and connecting Lake Michigan with the head of Lake
Erie. To the Engineers' Corps of the army was given the
work of surveying several small areas of land, the course of
the Mississippi, and other places for the improvement of
rivers. The early explorations of the west were made by
parties sent out by the War Department. These parties
made maps of the country seen, but they were necessarily
crude ; and they are now of but little use. Some of the older
States undertook to have their own domains surveyed, among
which were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Then too
the surveys necessary for the great railroads increased very
considerably the accurate knowledge of the topography of the
country, some of this work having been done with great care.

After the War of the Rebellion, the national government
entered on this class of work with more vigor than it had
hitherto displayed, and the work was prosecuted in several
localities at the same time. Under Mr. Clarence King, the
fortieth parallel between the one hundred and fourth and the
one hundred and twentieth meridian west from Greenwich
was surveyed, including a strip of land one hundred and five
miles wide, and covering in all an area of 87,000 square miles.

132 America: Its Geographical History.

Of this region a map was made, representing four miles to the
inch, with contour lines representing vertical differences of
three hundred feet.

About 100,000 square miles of country in Colorado, New
Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho were surveyed by the
Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, under
the direction of Dr. F. V. Hayden. Maps of this survey
were also issued, of the same scale as that of King, but with
the contour lines at every 200 feet.

" The Geographical Surveys west of the One Hundredth
Meridian " were placed under the charge of Lieut. George M.
Wheeler of the Engineer Corps ; and several hundred thousand
square miles in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada,
California, Oregon, and Idaho were surveyed ; but on so small
a scale and by such inaccurate methods that the work does not
at all meet the modern requirements, and much of it will have
to be done over again.

In Wyoming, Utah, and Arizona, about 60,000 square
miles were surveyed by a body of men under the able direction
of the present head of the Geological Survey, of which a map
was made on a scale of four miles to the inch, and 250 feet
contours. The aggregate cost of these four surveys was only
^1,985,028.57, — less than is now expended in two years for
the operations of the Coast and Geodetic Survey and the
Geological Survey.

Experience however showed that such division of labor was
not advantageous, either from an economical point of view,
or as regards the quality of the work. Accordingly in 1879,
after mature consideration, all these various surveys were
abolished, and the entire work of this nature, excepting that of
the Coast and Geodetic Survey, which serves a different pur-
pose, and proceeds largely on different methods, was united
under the management of the Geological Survey ; so that since
then all such work has been carried on in accordance with a
unified plan, and under the same central control.

Geographical Work of the National Government. 133

" For convenience of administration, but controlled by
geologic considerations, the area of the United States is
divided into seven districts, as follows : "

I. District of the North Atlantic, comprising Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connec-
ticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary-
land, and the District of Columbia.

II. District of the South Atlantic, comprising Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

III. District of the North Mississippi, comprising Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota,
Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri.

IV. District of the South Mississippi, comprising Indian
Territory, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

V. District of the Rocky Mountains, comprising Montana,
Wyoming, Colorado, part of Utah, New Mexico, and part of
Arizona.

VI. District of the Great Basin, comprising parts of Wash-
ington Territory, Oregon, California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada,
and Idaho.

VII. District of the Pacific, comprising part of Washing-
ton Territory, part of Oregon, and the greater portion of
California.^

The entire work of the survey is divided into four main
classes, topographic, geologic, paleontologic, and chemic, — to
use the expressions of the official reports. Though the whole
is subordinated to the geological work, from which the organi-
zation takes its name, the topographical work must precede
the rest as a foundation on which all that follows is built ; for
it is evident that you must have an idea of the lay of the land
before you can represent the geological formations of the
country in their true relations. With the great extent of the
country, it is manifest that it is not possible to be surveying

^ Fourth Annual Report of the U. S. Geolog. Survey, Introduction.

134 America: Its Geographical History.

in all parts of it at the same time, and the work was accord-
ingly commenced in those regions where valuable deposits of
minerals enforced the demand for a knowledge of the same.
Originally the survey was intended only for the public
domain of the general government; but since 1871 Congress
has authorized work to be done in the older states as well ;
and in the case of Massachusetts and other states which were
interested in having an exceptionally good survey of their
territory, the work has been done under the direction of the
Geological Survey, the interested state, however, paying the
extra cost thereby incurred. On the topographical maps
which are made from these surveys, are represented the
natural characteristics of the country, "its mountains, hills,
valleys, streams, bodies of water, etc., — together with certain
cultural features, such as highways, boundary lines of town-
ships, counties, states, etc." ^

When this work is done the maps are given into the hands
of the geologists, for their additions. Major Powell informs
us that " In later years topographic methods and plans of
mapping have been changed, and these changes are radical,
and are due to the influence of geologists, who have demanded
better maps than those of the old military engineers." ^ With
these improved maps the geologists wander hither and thither
over the ground, correcting the topography where necessary,
and noting the geological formations to a very minute degree,
establishing "millions of points" where the geodetic survey
establishes but hundreds.

There are also subdivisions of the work of geology, which
are of sufl&cient importance to be ranked practically as
separate sciences ; this is especially true of paleontology, the
" science which treats of the structure, affinities, classification,
and distribution in time of the forms of plant and animal life
embedded in the rocks of the earth's crust." ' And for this

'Testimony before the Joint Commission, p. 184.

» Ibid., 168. » Encyc. Brit., X, 319.

Geographical Work of the NaMonal Government. 135

work there is a division of the Geological Survey ; as there is
also for the study of the chemical properties of the rocks and
minerals which form our portion of the earth's surface.

In the work of triangulation which forms the basis of the
topographical survey of this as of the Coast and Geodetic
Survey, the margin of error here allowed is greater, and
accordingly, the extreme delicacy of work that is so character-
istic of the former is not here required. The difference in
the degree of accuracy reached by the two organizations is thus
summarized by Major Powell : " Just what degree of refine-
ment is actually attained by the two organizations can be set
forth better by a few illustrations. In the Coast Survey work
the probable error in the length of the Kent Island base, in
Chesapeake Bay, is uiy^VTTTyth part of its length ; of the Peach
Tree base, near Atlanta, ^FTff^Trth part of its length. In the
Geological Survey the probable error of the Wingate base is
TFTnr^Tjth part of its length ; of the Malvern base in Arkansas,
TTTnTTTirth part of its length. Errors in triangulation are
defined in terms of arc, and relate to the closure of triangles.
The errors in the triangulation of the Coast Survey from the
Peach Tree base are not more than half a second for each
angle. In the Geological Survey the average error in the
closure of triangles, in all of that work in the Appalachian
Mountains, executed in 1882, 1883, and 1884, is less than 8
seconds for each angle. The probable average error of lengths
of lines measured by the Coast Survey from the Kent Island
base is stated to be about one-half an inch in a mile. The
probable average error in the lines measured by the Geological
Survey in the triangulation in the Southern Appalachians is
about 6 inches to the mile, i. e., in a line 20 miles in length
the error would probably be 10 feet." ^

Exclusive of Alaska, the United States cover an area of
about 3,000,000 square miles, of which territory more than
900,000 square miles have already been surveyed. Of this

1 J. W. Powell, Testimony, etc., 205-6.

136 America: Its Geographical History.

area there were surveyed before the present organization
384,890 square miles, to which the U. S. Geological Survey
added by the end of June, 1891, 392,584 square miles ; and
a letter of Nov. 3d, 1889, from Mr. Henry Gannett says:
"The area surveyed by the Geological Survey up to the
present date is approximately 637,000 square miles." This
work produces vast results outside of the field of geography,
and hence outside the range of our discussion ; but we cannot
refrain from calling attention to the scientific value of the
products of this branch of our governmental activity. For
instance, mineral deposits of great extent and untold worth
have been thereby brought to light; in the chemical depart-
ment, the difference between iron and steel, which so long
eluded the keen eye of the investigator, was discovered ; and
even the occult processes, by which Nature forms her mineral
deposits, have been largely revealed.

One of the most important fields of activity of this bureau
is that of publishing the results of its extensive and multi-
farious labors. According to the statute approved March 3,
1879, "The publications of the Geological Survey shall
consist of the annual report of operations, geological and
economic maps illustrating the resources and classification of
the lauds, and reports upon general and economic geology and
and paleontology." ^ Of these publications, those which interest
us especially are the maps ; and in this direction, our govern-
ment stands second to none in the beauty and practicability
of its cartographical productions. Many experiments have
been tried as to the best methods of engraving and printing
these maps, which have resulted in the adoption of a
system at once artistic, practical and economical. The topog-
raphical maps are constructed on " varying scales, but
chiefly the three following, viz. : one two hundred and fifty
thousandth, or about four miles to the inch ; one one hundred
and twenty-five thousandth, or about two miles to the inch ; "

1 Powell, Testimony, etc., 674.

Geographical Work of the National Government. 137

*'one sixty-two thousand five hundredth, or about one mile to
the inch ; " ^ and some are constructed on larger scales, when
the nature of the territory requires it. Most of the territory
will be represented on the scale first mentioned, on sheets 20
by 16^ inches, so that each sheet will represent one degree of
latitude and longitude. In December, 1884, Major Powell
calculated that it would take about twenty-four years to finish
the work, and the map of the entire country, when complete,
would require about 2,600 sheets. A member of the survey-
ing corps told me that since that statement of the head of the
Survey, the plan of work had been somewhat changed, and
the methods refined, so that although the appropriations of
the last few years have been enormous, thus greatly facilitating
the work, and rendering greater speed possible, that the work
will doubtless require still twenty years to come for its
completion.

The uses of these topographical maps are various ; but one
chief use will scarcely occur to those living on the Atlantic
seaboard, namely, the solution of the great problem of irri-
gating our almost limitless western plains. We are told that
almost two-fifths of the soil of the United States requires
irrigation before it will produce crops ; and furthermore, that
these maps convey the information on which can be based the
necessary plans for the construction of the necessary works of
irrigation. It is somewhat surprising to hear that quite a
number of towns in the west have been moved twice or oftener
on account of error in selecting their sites ; and that this might
have been obviated by acquaintance with such information
as these maps with their contour lines contain. Of equal im-
portance is perhaps the fact that thereby the only feasible
method of obviating the destructive floods of the lower Mis-
sissippi has been discovered ; at least, such is the claim of
Major Powell. He believes that the survey has revealed a
method by which the waters sent down the Missouri and its

1 Ibid., 205.

138 America: Its Geographical History.

branches from the melting snows of the Rocky Mountains,
can be collected and stored up for the irrigation of a vast
territory now arid, by want of water ; and that the same pro-
cess would relieve the lower Mississippi of its over-abundance
of water and render this great flood-plain "one of the most
fertile districts in the United States, on which corn, cotton
and sugar could be produced in vast quantities."

The other publications of the Geological Survey are
doubtless in their several fields as important as those just
mentioned ; but they do not belong to our theme. Enough
has been said, it is hoped, to show that in its geographical
work, our government is fully abreast of the best perform-
ances of the times; Major Powell goes even further and
affirms that " the practice of European governments is steadily
following the precedents established in the United States."

SUPPLEMENT.

It has been generally assumed by modern historians that
the Mississippi river was the stream known among the Span-
iards by the name Rio del Espiritu Santo, or some modification
thereof. Some writers add that it was discovered and so
named in 1519 by Alonso Alvarez Pineda, who was sent out
that year on an exploring expedition by Francisco de Garay,
Governor of Jamaica. Accordingly, it was a matter of great
surprise to me, as the idea gradually assumed form, in ex-
amining the Kohl Collection of maps, in the State Depart-
ment at Washington, that the usual interpretation was at least
open to doubt. Hence the subject seemed worthy of a more
careful consideration than has heretofore been given it ; and
an examination of many maps and writings leads me to the
conviction that in all probability the Mississippi was not dis-
covered by Pineda, and that the early Spaniards did not
know that river under the name of Espiritu Santo ; but that,
on the contrary, they applied this name generally, if not ex-
clusively, to the stream which now bears, in its different parts,
the names Coosa, Alibama, and Mobile.

That the old idea still obtains currency is shown by the fact
that the very latest work on American history, which treats of
the matter, namely, that by Professor John Fiske, The Dis-
covery of America, gives it place in the following passage : —
" Pineda then turned back, and after a while entered the
mouth of the Mississippi, which he called the Rio de Santo
Espiritu. . . . How far he ascended it is not clear, but he"

139

140 America: Its Geographical History.

"spent six weeks upon its waters and its banks, trading with
the Indians, who seemed friendly and doubtless labored under
the usual first impression as to the supernatural character of
the white men." [II, 487.] Mr. Winsor, in his recent work
on Columbus, is not so positive in his statement as Professor
Fiske, but he does not express any doubt on the subject. He
speaks in reference to Pineda's and other early expeditions to
the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico as follows : — " In
1519 Pineda had made the circuit of the northern shores of
the Gulf of Mexico, and at the river Panuco he had been
challenged by Cortes as trenching on his government. Turn-
ing again eastward, Pineda found the mouth of the river
named by him Del Espiritu Santo, which passes with many
modern students as the first indication in history of the great
Mississippi, while others trace the first signs of that river to
Cabe§a de Vaca in 1528, or to the passage higher up its cur-
rent by De Soto in 1641. Believing it at first the long-
looked-for strait to pass to the Indies, Pineda entered it, only
to be satisfied that it must gather the watershed of a continent,
which in this part was now named Amichel." [p. 560.] In
his Narrative and Critical History, however, Mr. Winsor
admits that the subject is at least open to doubt ; for in a note
to page 292, volume II, he uses the expression, " even if we
do not accept the view that Alonzo de Pineda found its mouth
in 1519 and called it Rio del Espiritu Santo." But his doubt
is rather as to whom the first discovery of the Mississipi is to
be attributed than as to the identity of the Rio del Espiritu
Santo with the Mississippi. That Mr. Winsor is not opposed
to the idea of accepting them as identical is shown by the fact
that he accepted and printed statements to that effect in the
contribution of Mr. John Gilmary Shea to his Narrative and
Critical History. In volume second of that work we find the
statement of their identity made at least four times by that
author, namely, twice on page 237, and once each on pages
247 and 282. One quotation will be sufficient to show that
Mr. Shea did not share the editor's doubt as to the discovery

Supplement. 141

of Pineda ; for in reference to it he makes the assertion that
he "discovered a river of very great volume, evidently the
Mississippi." [p. 237.] In his earlier work on the Dis-
covery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, Mr. Shea
goes further, and actually substitutes the name Mississippi for
Espiritu Santo where the latter is used by the Spanish writers.
On page xi of the Introduction, referring to the expedition of
De Soto, he says : — " The Mississippi, under the name of
Espiritu Santo, was not unknown to him \i. e. De Soto] ;
for ... he sent Maldonado back to Havana, with orders to
meet him in six months at the mouth of the Missi&sippi."
As the name Mississippi seems never to have been used by
the Spaniards until after its adoption by the French, the order
of De Soto could not possibly have read thus.

In the last revision of the great work of George Bancroft,
I do not find that he says just in so many words that the
Mississippi and the Rio del Espiritu Santo are one and the
same river, but- he does so by implication. For, in describing
the territory known as the Quivira of Coronado, which lay
between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, he tells us,
" It was well watered by brooks and rivers, which flowed to
what the Spaniards then called the Espiritu Santo." [I. 36.]

To Mr. B. F. French, we owe the publication of many
valuable documents relating to the exploration and settlement
of Louisiana, who has even taken the trouble to print English
translations of some of the valuable old French and Spanish
papers. In one of his foot-notes there occurs this statement :
" Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda was ordered by Francisco de
Garay, Governor of Jamaica, in 1519, to explore the coast of
the Gulf of Mexico, and in sailing along the coast he discov-
ered the mouths of the Mississippi." \_CoU., 2d Ser., p. 242.]

A third of a century ago, the greatest authority on American
historical geography was unquestionably Dr. J. G. Kohl, to
whose industry and talent we owe the valuable collection of
historical maps in the Department of State at Washington,
and who in 1860 published fac-simil^ of the two famous

142 America: Its Geographical History.

Spanish maps of 1527 and 1529 now preserved at Weimar.
Accompanying the fac-similes is an elaborate dissertation on
the contents and history of the maps. On several occasions
he gives voice to his belief in the identity of the Mississippi
and the Espiritu Santo, but on none more unequivocally than
in the following passage, translated from page 79 : — "And it
is also without doubt, that all following Spanish geographers
and historians applied the name Rio del Espiritu Santo,
introduced by Pineda, to the Rio Grande de Florida, discov-
ered in the interior by De Soto in 1542 [sic], which is our
Mississippi."

Although the consensus of opinion among modern his-
torians is, as we have seen, in favor of considering the Rio del
Espiritu Santo identical with the Mississippi, it is true that
Mr. Winsor has in one place expressed a doubt, at least as to
the identity of the Bay of Espiritu Santo, where he says,
" Beaujeu steered, as he thought, for the Baye du St. Esprit
(Mobile Bay [?]) " [IV. 237.] Mr. Shea in his work on the
Discovery of the Mississippi Valley, referring to the same
expedition, that of La Salle trying to reach the Mississippi by
sea, makes another guess as to the bay then sought under the
name of Espiritu Santo, and thinks it the " Appalachee."
[p. 190.]

Both Professor Fiske and Mr. Winsor make the statement
that Pineda named the river he discovered the Rio del Espiritu
Santo ; and the latter even refers to his authority for the
description in which the statement occurs, namely, Navarrete,
III. 64. Professor Fiske, however, does not here indulge his
readers' curiosity as to his sources of information. What
shall we say, then, to the fact that Navarrete, in his descrip-
tion of the expedition of Pineda, entirely fails to name the
Rio del Espiritu Santo, or give any other name to the river at
who^e mouth Pineda made so long a stay. He merely de-
scribes it as "a river of very great volume," then proceeds
with the history of the expedition. As there are several
other points which are of value in determining whether or not

Supplement. 143

Pineda was on the Mississippi, a literal translation of the
passage that contains the pith of the matter in question is
here given.

The expedition, having gone east and west, and taken posses-
sion of the country in the name of the King, " they turned back
and entered a river of very great volume, at the mouth of
which there was a large town where they stayed more than
forty days, repairing the ships and trading with the natives,
in the most friendly and amicable manner. They travelled
six leagues up the river and saw forty towns on the shores.
This was called the province of Amichel : good land, quiet,
healthy, well stored with provisions and fruits : its inhabitants
wore many ornaments of gold in their noses and ears."
[Navarrete, III. 65.] It will be observed that a river is here
mentioned and described, but not named. The description
furnishes, moreover, an argument tending to show that this
river was not the Mississippi.

As to the river being " of very great volume," that is a
characteristic too general to fix the river where Pineda made
his long halt ; for we must remember that the Spaniards of
that day were not familiar with sudi great rivers as the
Amazon and the Mississippi ; and accordingly used such ex-
pressions as the above, in describing much. smaller streams.
For instance, Cortes called the Panuco, a " great river," the
very term that was applied to the Mississippi when its true
greatness was known, although we should consider the Panuco
but a small stream. However, the second statement, namely,
that at the mouth of this river there was a "large town"
[uu gran pueblo], should be of itself sufficient evidence
that the river was not the Mississippi ; for all the other
accounts from the early period go to show that the land about
the mouths of the Mississippi was practically uninhabited,
one may say, uninhabitable. Furthermore, Pineda is said to
have ascended the river for six leagues,^ and found forty

^ Professor Fiske, in spite of the fact that a number of authorities give
this limit, says : — " How far he ascended it is not clear."

144 America: Its Geographical History.

pueblos on its banks. Twenty-four years later the remnant of
De Soto's expedition apparently found no towns on the lower
Mississippi. At least Biedma speaks of none, and says the
Indians followed them from the place of the last victory
" almost until we arrived at the sea, so that we tarried nine-
teen days on the journey." [Biedma's Reladon^ in Doc. lued.,
III. p. 440.] When in 1699 the French under d'lberville
sought a place for a settlement on the Mississippi, they were
unable to enter the mouth in their ships, and had to provide
small boats for the ascent of the river. They had to travel
for several days before finding the first Indian settlement,
instead of seeing forty towns within six leagues ; and, more-
over, they could find no place fit for a settlement of their own
nearer the mouth of the river than the site chosen for the city
of New Orleans, which is about 100 miles from the mouth.
Then too the description of the fertility of the soil, the health-
fulness of the climate, and the riches of the inhabitants, points
with much greater probability to another region than to the
one about the mouths of the Mississippi, which was found by
later explorers to be swampy and unattractive. From these
considerations it will be seen how very small is the basis on
which modern historians have founded their conjecture as to
the first discovery of the Mississippi.

We are told by Mr. Winsor that " at the river Panuco,"
Pineda " had been challenged by Cortes as trenching on his
government." Now it so happens that Coi*tes himself wrote
a long letter to the king, during this very year, 1519, in
which he gives a detailed description of this visit, without,
however, naming the leader of the expedition. But as he calls
him the captain of Francisco de Garay, and as we find no
other meeting of Cortes with a more important subject of
Garay's during that year, there can be little doubt as to the
identity of the expedition described by Cortes and that of our
modern historians, to which the discovery of the Mississippi
under the name of Rio del Espiritu Santo is ascribed. Some
of Cortes' letters are printed in the original in Barcia, Histo-

Supplement, 145

riadores Primitivos ; and an English translation is given by
George Fulsom, published in New York in 1843; so that the
material is accessible to the public. Instead of meeting at
Panuco, as Mr. Winsor says, the interview between Cortes
and these explorers of Garay took place at Vera Cruz,
according to Cortes' own account, who may be supposed to
have known. At the " City of Cempoal," four leagues from
Vera Cruz, Cortes heard of the arrival of the ships of Garay
in the harbor of Vera Cruz, and returned hither for the pur-
pose of learning their mission. He did not see Pineda, or
whoever was the captain of the fleet ; but his first interview
was with a notary and two witnesses, who came in G^ray's
name to demand a division of the territory. By strategy,
Cortes later made prisoners of four others from the fleet, two
cross-bowmen and two musketeers ; which fact being observed
from the vessels of Garay they put to sea at once. These men
told Cortes, as he relates to the king, that this expedition had
been sent out by Francisco de Garay, Governor of the Island
of Jamaica, and had come for purposes of discovery ; that they
had arrived at a river, " thirty leagues along the coast, after
passing Almeria," where they had traded with the Indians,
and had bartered for 3000 " Castellanos " of gold ; that they
had not landed, but had seen certain villages on the shore;
that the lord of this river was — PANUCO !

It is a well known fact that the rivers and 'regions of
America often received from the Spaniards the names of the
chiefs whom they found in power there. That Cortes so
applied the name of the chief in this case is shown by the fact
that in paragraph lv of the same letter, when referring again
to this expedition, he speaks of the " Rio de Panuco." In
paragraph xlvii he says further that the expedition returned
to Panuco, after having been at Vera Cruz. Letter IV,
written October 15th, 1524, makes further mention of this
river as follows : — " I have already given your Majesty an
account of the river Panuco, fifty or sixty leagues distant
from Vera Cruz along the coast, to which the ships of Fran- "
10

146 America: Its Geographical Hist&ry.

" CISCO de Garay had made several visits, when they met with a
rude reception from the natives, on account of the bad manage-
ment of the captains in trading with them. Subsequently,
when I saw that there was a deficiency of harbors along the
whole coast of the North Sea, and no one equal to that
afforded by the river in question, — I determined to send there."
Garay himself actually came afterwards to Mexico, and offered
to arrange with Cortes, by a marriage connection, the division
of that part of the country. In a later paragraph of the same
letter, Cortes remarks : — " Nothing seems to remain but to
explore the coast lying between the river Panuco and Florida,
the latter being the country discovered by the Adelantado
Juan Ponce de Leon ; and then the northern coast of Florida
as far as the Baccallaos." Now as five years had passed since
Pineda's voyage, on which he is said to have discovered the
Rio del Espiritu Santo, which is believed by so many to have
been the Mississippi, and as Cortes was now in friendly
relations with Garay, in whose employ Pineda had been ; if
that discovery had been the Mississippi, with all the accom-
paniments of fertility, fine climate, and wealth, with which
modern writers adorn it ; then why did Garay so much desire
possession of the region of the Panuco ? why had he taken so
much pains to conciliate Cortes for it, when he might have
gone to the Mississippi in perfect freedom, even more so
than the French did nearly two centuries later, when the
Spaniards were in possession of all Mexico ? why did Cortes
say that the coast between the river Panuco and Florida had
not been explored, if Pineda had been all along it and had
ascended the Mississippi an indefinite distance, as Professor
Fiske would have us believe ? If the Mississippi were found
and ascended on that occasion, why is there no mention what-
ever of it, while the Panuco is so frequently the subject of
Cortes' theme, and the ground of dispute with Garay ?

There is preserved to us a proclamation of the Spanish king,
dated 1521, which recites the facts of the expedition of 1519,
the meeting with Cortes, etc., and is published in volume II.

Supplement. 147

o{ the Oollecoionde Documentos InSditos, . . . del Real Archivo
de Indias, Madrid, 1864. This informs us that more than
three hundred leagues of the coast had been explored, after
which they turned and entered a river, which was very large
and of great volume, at whose entrance there was a great
pueblo ; that they remained here more than forty days, repair-
ing their ships, and trading with the natives; furthermore,
that the ships went up the said river six leagues, and found
forty villages on either bank ; and, to clinch the matter, and
prove the identity of this river with that mentioned by our
modern historians', it is also recited that this province is called
Amichel. [p. 560.] We are further informed that it was a
good land, peaceful and healthy, with plenty of provisions and
fruits, and other things of commerce ; that there was fine gold,
and that the inhabitants wore many ornaments of gold in their
noses, ears, and on other parts of their bodie-s. Here we have
evidently the original authority used by Navarrete himself.
We possess also the evidence of still another contemporary
writer, who lived in Spain from 1487 almost all the time until
his death in Granada in 1526, and who was personally ac-
quainted with many of the leading explorers of that age. It
is scarcely necessary to add that we refer to Peter Martyr.
He goes somewhat into detail in relating this matter, and
makes Garay himself the principal actor, although we know
from Cortes, and from the king's proclamation that this was
not the case. From Lok's translation, we extract the follow-
ing passage, as containing the substance of the whole matter.
" Garaius sayling to those shores, light upon a riuer, flowing
into the Ocean with a broade mouth, and from his ships, dis-
cryed many villages couer^d with reedes. A king whose name
is Panuchus possesseth both sides of that ryuer, from which
the country also is called Panucha." [Decade V. Chap. I. p.
176.] In the VIII. decade, Chapter II. we find the following
account of the River Panuco. " Vppon the banks of this
great riuer Panucus, not far from ye mouth, which conueyeth
the waters thereof into the sea, stoode a great towne of the"

148 Ametn^ca: lis Geographical History.

"same name, consisting of 14000. houses of stone for the most
part. . . . Shippes of burden may come vppe the channell of
this ryuer for many myles together. The people of this Pro-
vince overthrewe Graraius twice." [p. 285.]

We have the evidence of still another to prove that the
great river discovered by Pineda was not the Mississippi, who,
though not a contemporary, had such unusual facilities for
arriving at the truth of what he wrote, that his evidence
on any such point is of value. In the General History of
America by Antonio de Herrera, translated by Captain John
Stevens, we find that word was brought Cortes that there
" was a Ship come from the Northward, having run along the
Coast of Panuco, and barter'd for Provisions, and about the
Value of three thousand Pieces of Eight in Gold ; that the
Men did not like that Country ; that they were sent by Francis
de Garay, from Jamaica, under the Command of Captain Alonso
Alvarez Pineda." ..." The seven Men belonging to Garay
informed him [Cortes] that they had sail'd far along the Shore
in Quest of Florida, and touch'd at a River, and Province
whose Lord was call'd Panuco, where they found some Gold,
but little, and barter'd, without going ashore, for the Value
of three thousand Pieces of Eight, and a considerable Quantity
of Provisions." [Book IV. chap. I. vol. 2, p. 238-39.]

This account of Herrera is really the cement which serves to
bind the varying contemporary accounts together ; for we have
the expedition described in such a manner as to show that it must
be the same as the one of which Cortes speaks ; and we have
the captain named whom Garay had placed at its head, Pineda,
the man who is said to have discovered the Mi&sissippi this
same year ; here too we find the terms " coast of Panuco " and
" Panuco the lord of the country " ; we have the interview of
Cortes with seven men, which agrees with Cortes' own recital,
of the notary with two witnesses, and the four afterwards
taken prisoners; then too the "3000 Castellanos" for which
they traded with the Indians in the one case are evidently the
same as the " 3000 Pieces of Eight" for which they bartered

Supplement. 149

in the other. The name " Araichel " seems to be known only
to the king, of all the contemporary authorities; but if
Amichel were other than the region about the Panuco, or in
other words, if it were the country of the Mississippi, why did
Garay never seek it, instead of returning so many times to
the Panuco ?

Now in all these early authorities on the voyage of Pineda,
I entirely fail to find mentioned his discovery and naming of
the Rio del Espiritu Santo. They all agree as to one fact,
namely, that he discovered a large river ; but when that river
is named, the name is Panuco, and not Espiritu Santo. It is
true that the royal proclamation calls the territory Amichel ;
but the description of the great town at the mouth, and other
villages on its banks, with the fine climate, the gold of the
country, etc., tallies so well with others' description of the
region about the Panuco, that it is scarcely to be supposed that
two different countries were meant.

As to the name Rio del Espiritu Santo, I have found it
mentioned but once by any of these contemporary authorities,
namely, by Peter Martyr, in the VIII. Decade, Chapter III.
as follows : — " This Alguazill [an intimate of Garay's] addeth
many things, not to be omitted. That Panucus and the riuer
of Palmes breake forth into the Ocean almost with the like
fall, and that the mariners get fresh & potable waters of both,
nine myles within the sea. The third riuer, which our men
call the riuer of the Holy Ghost [Espiritu Santo] neerer to
ye country of Florida, hath a more streight & narrowe chan-
nell, yet very rich & fruitfull countryes lying round about it,
& well replenished with people." One would scarcely inter-
pret this description as showing the first indication of the great
Mississippi. Its " more streight & narrowe channell " does
not agree well with the " vast serpentine channel " of Elysee
Reclus ; any more than the " rich & fruitfull countryes lying
round about it " do, with the " sterile land " reached by de
"Vaca, or the " unpeopled island " found by the remnant of
De Soto's followers at the mouth of the Mississippi. Peter

150 America: Its Geographical Hxdoi'y.

Martyr evidently did not confound the River Panuco with the
Rio del Espiritu Santo ; but he seems to have regarded the
former as of the greater importance. Even supposing, then,
for the sake of argument, that the river of " Amichel " of the
royal proclamation were the Rio del Espiritu Santo of Peter
Martyr, there is no good ground for thinking that it was our
Mississippi. Furthermore, both the Panuco and the River of
Palmes are mentioned as keeping the water fresh far out to
sea, a characteristic usually ascribed only to the Mississippi, of
the rivers flowing into the gulf; while of the Espiritu Santo,
no such remark is made.

Both on the maps and in the . later histories and relations,
there is to be found frequently the name of the bay of Espiritu
Santo. A natural supposition seems to be that the Rio del
Espiritu Santo would flow into that bay. Pineda's halting
place does not appear to have been on a bay, certainly not on
a prominent one. On the other hand, the bay where De Soto
landed was named Espiritu Santo ; but that was probably the
present Tampa Bay, and could therefore have no possible
connection with the Mississippi River. The same name was
given to the bay where La Salle landed in 1685, supposing
himself to have found one of the mouths of the Mississippi,
while he was actually on the coast of what is now Texas. In
the memoir of Daniel Coxe, an English explorer of the early
part of the eighteenth century, and published by French in
his Louisiana Collections, the Espiritu Santo Bay is mentioned
several times ; and from the context, it is quite certain that
the writer does not always mean the same body of water. In
one place he says : " There falls out of the Meschacebe [Mis-
sissippi] a branch which after a course of one hundred and
sixty miles empties itself into the N. E. end of the great Bay
of Spirito Santo." [Pt. II. p. 233.] This is probably the
Amate, which leaves the Mississippi and, flowing through
lakes Maurepas, Ponchartrain, and Borgne, empties into the
St. Louis Bay. He then goes on to say that there are only
two large rivers between the peninsula of Florida and the

Supplement. 151

Mississippi : — " the first, that of Palache, the true Indian name,
by the Spaniards called the river of Spirito Santo, or of
Apalache, adding an A, after the Arabian manner, from
which a great part of their language is derived ; . . . This
river enters the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles from the Cod
of the Bay of Palache, at the northwest end of the Peninsula
of Florida." Now as it is 350 miles or more in a straight
line from the Mississippi to the Apalache Bay, it is not to be
presumed that Coxe meant the same body of water in these
two descriptions. He informs us in another passage that the
Coussa [Coosa] River, a branch of the Mobile, " enters the
Gulf of Mexico, about fifteen leagues to the west of the great
Bay of Nassau or Spirito Santo. . . . The river runs into a kind
of lagoon or bay. . . . Near the mouth of this river the French
have lately made a new settlement, called Fort Louis. . . .
The distance between this river and that of Palache or Spirito
Santo to the east is about 190 miles." [J6id, 235-236.]
"The Bay of Nassau or Spirito Santo is made by four islands,
which run almost due south, a little inclining to the west."
[p. 237.] This last description points rather to Apalachicola
Bay, than to Apalache Bay ; and as the former receives the
waters of a much larger river than any flowing into Apalache
Bay, it is possible that the Apalachicola River was sometimes
known by the name Espiritu Santo. The nature of the
stream and of the country about its mouth agrees much better
with Peter Martyr's description of the Rio del Espiritu Santo
than that of either the Mobile or the Mississippi. Further-
more, Apalachicola Bay is one that would be very noticeable to
an explorer, feeling his way, without a chart, along the shores
of the Gulf of Mexico.

In describing the Coosa River Captain Coxe writes : —
" Many rivulets uniting, after a course of eighty miles, form
a river bigger than the Thames at Kingston, making several
delicious isles, some three or four miles long, and half a mile
broad ; . . . The first considerable town or province is Chiaha,
famous for its pearl fishing." [French, Coll., Pt. II. p. 234.]

152 Amei'ica: Its Geographical History.

Mr. Buckingham Smith's translation of the " Relation of the
conquest of Florida, presented by Luys Hernandez de Biedma
in the year 1544 to the King of Spain in Council," mentions a
town of "Chiha" which the De Soto exploring company
reached in four days' march from the ridges where were found
the head waters of the Espiritu Santo. " From there we
marched four days, and arrived at a town called Chiha, which
is very plentiful in food. It is secluded on an island of this
river of Espiritu Santo, which, all the way from the place of
its rise, forms very large islands." \_Ibid., p. 241.]^ Both
authors agree that the place mentioned (Chiha or Chiaha) was
near the province of Coosa. If we consider that Biedma
specially calls attention to the " Apalache, a river dividing
the one from the other Province," the probability seems to be
very strong that Captain Coxe was in error in applying the
name Santo Spirito to the Apalache [Apalachicola]. In the
great work of Garcilaso de la Vega on De Soto's conquest of
Florida, I have been unable to find that he ever mentions the
Rio del Espiritu Santo, though he often makes reference to
the bay where the company landed, and where the ships
remained for some time awaiting orders, under the name
Espiritu Santo. Biedma, on the other hand, makes frequent
mention of the river of that name, and among other passages
there is one to which especial attention may well be drawn, as
it is apparently the authority for the statement generally made
that De Soto expected his ships to meet him at the mouth of
the Mississippi. De Soto commissioned Francesco Maldonado
to return to Cuba for supplies, etc., " and if within six months'
time he should hear nothing of us, to come with the brigan-
tines, and run the shore as far as the River Espiritu Santo, to
which we should have to resort." [p. 236.] ^ Previous to this,
Maldonado had been sent on a two months' cruise along the
coast, and, according to Biedma, continued "until he arrived"

' See the original Spanish, Doc. Ined., III. 422-423.
'Original in Doc, Irud., III. p. 418.

Supplement. 153

"at a river which had a good entrance, a good harbor, and an
Indian village on the borders of the sea." [Ibid.^ Garcilaso
de la Vega goes into this whole subject much more in detail
than Biedraa, and as a careful historian and a contemporary
of De Soto, his testimony is probably as trustworthy as that
of Biedma. He gives the details of the coasting of Maldonado
in search of a fine harbor, the latter's report of his success, the
orders of De Soto as to his return [in about eight months
instead of six, February to October], the account of that
return, and the disappointment felt at not finding De Soto,
the reasons for De Soto not carrying out his original plan and
meeting Maldonado there, and the searches for the missing
explorers in the two years following, until at last the fate of
the expedition was heard of in Mexico. In all these instances
the name Espiritu Santo does not occur a single time as the
place of proposed meeting, but another name is mentioned,
and always the same name which is Achusi. This is always
spoken of as a " Puerto " or port, and is described in a
manner to remind one much more of a broad river mouth or
bay than of any of the mouths of the Mississippi.

That Achusi was not unknown to Biedma, who was one of
the explorers, is shown by the fact that he mentions, on the
way to Mavila, coming " to a river, a copious flood, which we
considered to be that which empties into the Bay of Chuse."
[p. 242.] On this river was Mavila [Mobile] forty leagues
from the sea, according to the Indian story, [p. 242.] As
Mavila was on the river emptying into the Chuse (Achusi),
according to one author, and as Maldonado was to return to
Rio del Espiritu Santo, according to the same author, or to
Achusi, according to the other writer, is it not reasonable to
suppose that they were using different names for the mouth of
the same river, especially as one name, Mavila, a city on that
river, remains fixed? Here, I believe, we have the river
generally known as the Rio del Espiritu Santo among the
Spaniards. That there was at times confusion, even among
them, there is little doubt ; but that in general the present

154 America: Its Geographical History.

Alabama and Mobile rivers were called by the name Rio del
Espiritu Santo, seems extremely probable, if not absolutely
certain.

If the reader is not yet convinced, there are many other evi-
dences pointing to the same solution of the difficulty. Having
shown what river was probably intended under the name
Espiritu Santo, it remains to point out why the Mississippi
was not the river thus designated ; for he who contends against
a generally accepted thesis must be prepared to show sufficient
cause for his non-belief. It has been already shown that the
river which Pineda entered and which is said to have been
named by him the Espiritu Santo, could be taken for the Missis-
sippi only by doing violence to the best evidence on the matter
which we can find. Chronologically, Cabeza de Vaca is the next
in order who is said to have discovered the mouth of the Mis-
sissippi ; but if he did, he fails to give us the name Espiritu
Santo, or any other for it ; ^ so does not need to detain us.
Following him, came De Soto, whose name is indellibly en-
rolled in the annals of the mighty stream, in whose waters his
earthly remains were sunk to their last rest. That he did not
know the Mississippi under the name Espiritu Santo, at any
rate during the early part of his wanderings, has been shown
to be very probable, by the fact that the latter name was often
applied by him and his followers to a much smaller stream, far
to the east of the Mississippi. According to the work of his
great historian, he never knew it at any time under that name ;
but there is a passage in the memoir of Biedma which gives some
ground for assuming that these two names were applied to one
and the same river by the men of that ill-fated expedition.
Relating their arrival at the town of Quizquiz, he says : " The
town was near the banks of the River Espiritu Santo." [p.
249.] However, from that time on, we do not find that he
makes any mention of the Espiritu Santo ; but he sp^ks often

* Shea's Miaa. Valley, p. x.

Supplement. 155

of the Rio Grande, though without any connection which
makes it probable that he intends the same river. On page
256, however, he mentions "the Rio Grande, from whence
we came," in a manner implying strongly that he thereby
intended the river near which was situated the town of
Quizquiz. From the contemporary relation of the same
expedition by a Gentleman of Elvas, we learn that Quiz-
quiz was near the Rio Grande. [Buckingham Smith's
Translation, p. 101.]

When we call to mind that Biedma in his memoir never
afterwards refers to the Rio del Espiritu Santo, and constantly
mentions the Rio Grande ; and when we consider that De Soto
knowingly went farther west than the place of meeting Mal-
donado, agreed upon, i. e. according to Biedma the Espiritu
Santo, is it not reasonable to suppose that in this one instance
there was a slip of the pen ? since his statement does not seem
to be supported by any other assertion either of himself or of
other contemporary chroniclers.

For nearly a century and a half after De Soto's unsuc-
cessful attempt to conquer the valley of the Mississippi,
this vast stretch of country received but little attention
from Europeans ; and when, toward the close of the seven-
teenth century, it again came into prominence, it was first
approached from the land side, and not from the Gulf of
Mexico. In following the narrative of the explorations and
early settlements of the French in this quarter, it will be found
that they identified the Mississippi with a number of names of
rivers which appear on old Spanish maps, but very rarely
with the Rio del Espiritu Santo. Through these men we
learn that a number of names were given to the Mississippi,
even by the Indians living upon its banks ; but the one which
has taken precedence of all others is that which De Soto
seems to have found in use on the part which he touched, and
which the Spaniards translated into the Rio Grande of their
native tongue, but which the French retained in what they

156 America: Its Geographical History.

understood to be its original form, Mississippi.' The first of
Frenchmen to learn of the existence of this mighty stream
and call the attention of his fellow-countrymen to it was
Claude Allouez, founder of a number of missions, and the
first of missionaries to meet the Sioux Indians. [Winsor, Nar,
and Crit. Hist, IV. 286.] This was toward the close of the
third quarter of the seventeenth century. The announcement
of this news inspired the expedition of Joliet and Marquette,
who, however, did not reach the mouth of the river. By Mr.
Neill we are told that Joliet called the riv^er Buade, [Winsor,
IV. 178], while Mr. Winsor himself says he called it Colbert
[IV. 206] ; but neither of them affirms or intimates that he
took it for the Rio del Espiritu Santo of the Spaniards. To
the intrej)id de La Salle we owe the first descent of the Mis-
sissippi to its mouth, together with trustworthy scientific
observations ; and he makes the statement in a letter which
has been preserved to us that "this [River] Escondido^ is
certainly [the] Mississippi." [Margry, Mimoires et Docu-
ments, II. 198.] (Get Escondido est assurement Mississippi.)
Thomassy, in his Giologie de la Louisiane, quotes the Relation
of Pere Zenobe as authority for the statement to the effect
that they found the mouth of the Mississippi "at the place
where the maps show the Rio Escondido." [p. 18.] The

^According to Shea's Mississippi Valley, p. xxiii-xxiv, the word first
appeared in Father Allouezs's Relation, 1666-67, in the form Mestipi ; from
which it was afterwards lengthened, though often spelled with only one p
by the French. Another form not unfrequent was Meschacebe. We are
told the word comes from the Algonquin language, and is composed of
Missi (great) and sepe (river). {Ibid., p. 6.) From a letter of a Recollect,
it appears that the name Mississipy was that in use among the Ontaonas
[Algonquin?] Indians. [Margry, II. p. 245.] Other Indian names attrib-
uted to parts of the Mississippi are Gustacha, Chucagua, Malabouchia,
Namese-Sipon, Tapata, and Ri. Among the French it received not only
Mississippi, but also Grande Rivifire, Colbert, St. Louis, and Buade.

* As the word Escondido means hidden or concealed, this name is appli-
cable to the Mississippi, which though so great was so difficult to find from
the ocean side.

Supplement. 157

same author cites also an anonymous relation of La Salle's
voyage, which gives us not only negative evidence that the
Mississippi was not identified with the Espiritu Santo, but also
positive evidence, by calling attention to the fact of their being
distant from each other ; or to be exact, to the fact that the
Mississippi reached the Gulf of Mexico at some distance from
the Bay of Espiritu Santo ; for this author affirms : " It [the
Mississippi] falls into the Gulf of Mexico on the other side of
the Bay of Espiritu Santo, between the 27th and 28th degrees
of latitude, and at the place where some maps show the Rio
de la Madalena, and others the Rio Escondido." [p. 14.]
Furthermore, in a letter describing his second voyage, La
Salle himself seems to mention expressly what bay he means
by the Espiritu Santo, namely the Mobile. [Thomassy, p. 20.] ^

La Salle's attempt to found a colony on the banks of the
Mississippi was a failure, as his pilots missed the mouths of
that stream and sailed on to a bay on the coast of the present
Texas, into which, La Salle persuaded himself, flowed one of
the branches of the mighty river to which he had given the
name of his patron, Colbert. But the project of establishing
a colony on the Mississippi was not lost sight of in France,
and in 1699 the attempt was renewed with better success by
Lemoyne d'Iberville. In the account of this expedition, Mr.
Davis, another of the contributors to the Narrative and
Critical History, identifies the Mississippi with the " Palisado
of the Spaniards" [V. p. 17], which was the idea of d'Iber-
ville himself, who was struck, on entering the river, by the
appropriateness of the name. [Margry, IV. p. 159.]

Captain Coxe, whose acquaintance we have already made,
informs us that the Spaniards called the Mississippi the " Rio
Grande del Norte." [French, Hist. Coll., Pt. II. p. 224.]
Bernard de la Harpe, who wrote a " Historical Journal of the
Establishment of the French in Louisiana," and who headed a

' It is possible that the parenthesis (celle de la Mobile) may be inserted
by Thomassy.

158 America: Its Geographical History.

French colony in 1718, refers to the building in 1562 of " the
fortress of Charlesfort, at the mouth of the river Cahouitas
[Chattahoochee ?], or St. Esprit, to the east of St. Joseph's
Bay." [French, Hist. CoU., Pt. III. p. 10.] As the Chat-
tahoochee River flows into the Apalachicola, which in turn
empties its waters into the bay of the same name ; and as the
latter is east of and near St. Joseph's Bay, we have here one
more line of evidence tending to prove the Rio del Espiritu
Santo distant from the Mississippi.

Reference has been made several times to the French inter-
pretation of the Spanish maps, or rather to the river on those
maps whose position most nearly corresponded with the place
where they found the mouths of the Mississippi. We turn
now to an examination of the representations of the Rio del
Espiritu Santo on some old maps, and of the Mississippi on
some of the earliest maps on which it occurs, to see what light
they will throw on the subject in hand.

Probably the oldest map on which the name Rio del
Espiritu Santo is found is that reproduced for us by Mr.
Winsor in volume II. of his Narrative and Critical History,
page 21 8, and which he entitles " Gulf of Mexico, 1 520." On
it is represented a river flowing into a broad bay very unlike
our conception of what the Mississippi mouth could ever have
been in historical times. From the head of the bay, extending
into the gulf, is the name " Rio del Espiritu Santo." The
editor informs us that this map " probably embodies the results
of Pinedo's [*ic] expedition to the northern shores of the
Gulf in 1519. This was the map sent to Spain by Garay, the
governor of Jamaica. What seems to be the mouth of the
Mississippi will be noted as the Rio del Espiritu Santo." On
page 404 of the same volume, there is represented what is
supposed to be Cortes' map of even date ; and on this map the
" Rio del spiritu sancto" appears between two rivers that flow
into a prominent bay which has a great oflset to the east,
similar to the form of the Mobile Bay of to-day. Mr. Shea,
in his Discovery of the Mississippi Valley, p. viii, speaks of a

Supplement. 159

map of 1521 on which the name occurs, but does not repro-
duce it for us or tell where it is to be found. On the great
Weimar map of 1 527 the " R : del spirito sancto " flows into
a great double bay which is by far the most prominent body
of water emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Ribero's map of
1529 represents this body of water in practically the same
manner and abbreviates the name. Furthermore, both of these
maps call this bay " marpequma " or little sea, which indicates
that the water was salt; whereas a distinguishing characteristic
of the region about the mouths of the Mississippi, mentioned
and emphasized by a number of modern writers on the subject,
is supposed to be that the water is for a long distance into the
sea, sweet. On Ribero's map the form of this mar pequena is
not only strikingly like that of Mobile Bay, but it is repre-
sented as receiving water flowing through several channels
into its northern extremity. An examination of a good map
of Mobile Bay reveals the fact that it receives the waters of
the Mobile River through quite a number of channels. As
the map of 1529 pictures only the mouths of these channels
and does not follow them into the interior, some later cartog-
raphers were probably led thereby into the error of representing
several large separate rivers flowing into this- bay, they not
knowing that all these channels were united in one, a short
distance inland. In Winsor, II. 219, there is a sketch of
Maiollo's map of 1527, according to which the Rio del
Espiritu Santo flows into a large bay with a narrow opening
into the sea, which is so characteristic of Mobile Bay. On a
map of about 1530, preserved in the British Museum, and
copied for the Kohl Collection, the Rio del Espiritu Santo
flows through about ten degrees of latitude and empties into
an immense bay. On the other hand, there is a map of the
following year by Grynaeus, on which the only indication of
the Rio del Espiritu Santo is a " Rio de Spu," to which no
prominence is given, and which may or may not be intended
for the same stream.

160 America: Its Geogixi'phical History.

Mercator, the greatest geographer of the sixteenth century,
who may be supposed to have been possessed of a fair knowl-
edge of what he tried to depict, gives us on his map of 1741
the Rio del Espiritu Santo flowing into a very prominent bay,
which is broader at the north than at the south where it
empties into the Gulf of Mexico. An early French map,
dating probably from the first half of the same century,
shows two rivers flowing into a bay of similar form, and
names the more westerly of them " R. de St. Esprit." [See
Wiusor, II. 224.] On the next page Mr. Winsor gives a map
copied from one in the British Museum, of the year 1536, which
represents the river of the same name flowing into a bay of like
form. Jomard gives the fac-simile of a very large and beauti-
ful map of the world, made for Henry II., King of France.
On this also the " R de St esprit " is represented as flowing
into the northwest corner of a very large bay which is much
broader at the north than at the south. As Henry II. reigned
from 1547 to 1559, this map must have been drawn about
the middle of the century ; and as we see, agrees in its repre-
sentation of the Rio del Espiritu Santo with the best Spanish
maps of that period. The celebrated Homem map of 1558
gives the same representation of this river and bay ; as does also
practically Sebastian Cabot, on his official map of the world.
Again, in his great map of 1569, Mercator depicts the Rio del
Espiritu Santo in the same manner. The following year saw
the publication of the celebrated work of Ortelius, which
became the model of so many modern atlases ; and on the
American map of this work the Rio del Espiritu Santo emp-
ties into the " Baia de culata," or Muddy Bay. John Dee's
map of 1580 is of the same character so far as it has regard to
the Rio del Espiritu Santo. In the Royal Library of Munich
there is a fine parchment map bound into the end of the third
volume of the original edition of the works of Robert Dudley,
on which the Rio del Espiritu Santo flows into a prominent
bay which receives the waters from several channels ; and
in this it strongly resembles the Mobile Bay of to-day. This

Supplement. 161

map was evidently in use by some navigator ; for it bears an
inscription to the effect that the whole territory should be
moved 20 minutes toward the north and 25 minutes in the
direction of Mexico. In a hand-writing different from that of
the body of the map, is an inscription which informs us that
"Thomas Hood made this platte, 1592." As this is one of
the oldest maps of English make that has been preserved to
us, and although a fine production, seems but little known, it
seemed to the author worthy of reproduction here for American
readers. Likewise the Judaeus map of 1593 represents the
Rio del Espiritu Santo as a large river flowing from the north
into a great bay, which in turn discharges its waters into the
Gulf of Mexico. The latest map of the sixteenth century
known to as is that of" Wytfliet," dated 1597 ; and on this
also there is drawn a " Mer qurno " which receives at its
north-west corner the waters of the Rio del Espiritu Santo,
and a little to the east, the waters from three channels of
minor importance. The same idea is followed on the map of
America in the Purchas of 1625, vol. III. page 853 ; also on
the de Laet map of the same date, wliere the rivers, however,
are not named, but the bay is called " Bahia del Spiritu Santo."
Into this bay flow four rivers ; and the same are shown on the
map of 1656 by Sanson d' Abbeville, where the westernmost
bears the name " Rio del Spiritu Santo."

We have thus seen that for more than a century and a
quarter the best maps have with a wonderful uniformity
shown the Rio del Espiritu Santo emptying into a great bay.
We would not maintain that there may not be in existence
maps of this period on which this river is otherwise depicted ;
but we have consulted those of that time which are universally
acknowledged to be the best, and have found them showing a
practical unanimity among the geographers of the age in repre-
senting the river del Espiritu Santo as discharging itself into
a prominent bay and not directly into the Gulf of Mexico.
And that bay we believe to be the Mobile ; although it is
possible that the Apalachicola may have been sometimes
11

162 America: Its Geographical History.

intended. As the latter is formed by islands, and really pro-
jects into the gulf, while the maps show the Bay of Espiritu
Santo stretching far inland, and with its mouth at the same
latitude with the general coast-line, it seems clear to us that
the Mobile was the bay thus represented.

We now approach the period when the French began their
memorable explorations of the Mississippi, coming first from
the inland, where they had heard of the "Great River" from
the Indians ; and, following that mighty stream to its mouth,
found that it divided itself before reaching the gulf; and instead
of entering through a great bay, its waters flowed into the gulf
directly, through a number of channels, all of which were of
such a nature as to obstruct entrance from the sea in ships,
rather than to invite it, as did the Rio del Espiritu Santo.
On approaching later from the sea, the French were compelled
to anchor at a distance from the mouth, under the shelter of
some islands, and carry on their exploration of the river in
small boats. As to the character of the region surrounding
the mouths of the river, we shall later let these explorers
speak for themselves. In the meantime we will follow some-
what further the story of the maps.

On the Franquelin map of 1684 (1688 according to Kohl),
we have definitely the Mississippi discharging itself directly
into the gulf ; while the Rio del Espiritu Santo is to the east,
and empties into a bay. However, we are informed by
Thomassy [p. 207] that in 1681 Franquelin had made another
map of this region on which he represented the Mississippi as
emptying into the Bay of St. Esprit ; but that the expedition
of La Salle in 1682 showed this view to be false, and that he
accordingly corrected the error in the later and better known
map. In Winsor, V. 22, there is reproduced a map of the
environs of the Mississippi, which is said to have been sent to
France in the year 1700, according to which that river empties
into the gulf through a number of channels, and there is no
sign of the presence of such a bay as that in which the Rio
del Espiritu Santo had been heretofore represented as flowing.

Sv{pplement. 163

On Delisle's map of about the year 1707, the Mississippi
River is representee! very much as we find it now on our
maps, while to the east of its mouths is drawn a bay very
similar to that which we have seen on earlier maps receiving
the waters of the Rio del Espiritu Santo ; but here the bay is
provided with its modern name, Mobile, This is as it is
given in Winsor, II. 294-95. Kohl reproduces also a map
of the same cartographer, to which he ascribes the date
1717-1720. On this we find for the first time, so far as I
know, the " R. des Alibamons," whose waters later mingle
with those of the " Baye de la Mobile." Here we are on
truly modern ground; the Rio del Espiritu Santo has dis-
appeared, and the Alibama, not the Mississippi, taken its
place. Of the same date is a map of this region by de
Serigny, with the same characteristics. [Thomassy, Plate II.]
One map of later date, and only one, has come under our
observation on which the name Espiritu Santo occurs in a
connection which brings it into notice here ; and that is the
map published with the memoir of Captain Coxe, to which
attention has already been called. Here we find " R. Palance
or Spirito Santo." From its position on the map, this river
is probably the Apalachicola, which seems to be also the river
he intended when he wrote of the Apalache.

What conclusion are we to draw from this accumulated evi-
dence of the maps of two centuries ? As long as the name
Espiritu Santo endures, that river is practically represented as
flowing into a large and very prominent bay ; as soon as the
Mississippi is known, it is found to flow through several com-
paratively unnoticeable channels directly into the Gulf of
Mexico. When the name Espiritu Santo disappears, its place
is taken by Mobile, which is known to be but a simple modi-
fication of that of Mavila, which was the name of the most
important Indian town of that region at the time of De Soto's
expedition, and situated not far inland from the bay [Achusi,
according to Garcilaso de la Vega, and Espiritu Santo, accor-
ding to Biedma and most modern writers], where Maldonado

164 America: Its Geographical History,

was to meet De Soto with arms and provisions brought from
Cuba.

But, it may be answered, is it not possible that, at the time
of Pineda, the Mississippi did empty into a bay ? for it is well
known that it alters its channels from time to time ; may it
not then have altered more or less suddenly the characteristic
of its mouth ? Let us now examine the evidence on this point.
Geologically considered, we are told that Lyell "makes the
probable age of the delta 33,500 years. To this he adds
half as much for the age of the river-swamp, making in all
50,000 years." [Leconte's Text Book of Geology, p. 28.]
According to the opinion of another well-known geologist, Mr.
Geikie, " The area of this vast expanse of alluvium is given at
12,300 square miles, advancing at the rate of 262 feet yearly
into the Gulf of Mexico at a point which is now 220 miles
from the head of the delta." \_Text Book of Geology, p. 389.]
At the rate of 262 feet of advancement per year, the delta, in
the 373 years since the expedition of Pineda, would have
advanced 97,726 feet, or a very little more than 18.5 miles.
A glance at any good map of Louisiana will show that cutting
off J?.5 miles of the Mississippi would not by any possibility
bring the mouth of that river at the head of a large bay, far
inland from the line of the Gulf of Mexico. The fact of the
matter is, it would bring us up to a point where the Mississippi
unites practically all its waters in one great channel ; and
instead of emptying into a bay whose head waters were far
north of the east and west coast-line of the Gulf of Mexico, as
the Bay of Espiritu Santo is always represented, it would have
reached the latter at the end of a long narrow peninsula, jut-
ting far out beyond that line. But already in the days of De
Soto, the Mississippi had two mouths, if we are to believe Gar-
cilaso de la Vega's history of that expedition. [Lib, VI. Cap.
X, p. 249.] And that was less than a quarter of a century
after Pineda's expedition. When the French came at the end
of the seventeenth century, they found the river divided into
three channels.

Supplement. 165

Panfilo de Narvaez is supposed to have lost his life near the
mouth of the Mississippi, from which fate Cabeza de Yaca was
saved, to wander about the continent for years, but finally to
make his way to the Spanish settlements of Mexico, and to
write a journal of his meanderings. His description is how-
ever vague, and he fails to give a name to the river where the
tragedy occurred. However, long before that event took place,
these wanderers " arrived at a bay which measured one league
across, and was deep everywhere ; and, by what it seemed to
us, and what we saw, it is the one they call Espiritu Santo."
[Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios, Chap, xvi.] As this was
within eight years of Pineda's expedition, the Mississippi could
not have changed the nature of its mouth very materially dur-
ing the interval. Accordingly we must reject either the inter-
pretation that the Espiritu Santo and the Mississippi were the
same, or that Panfilo de Narvaez was last seen near the mouth
of the Mississippi.

In two contemporary descriptions of the fate which met the
survivors of the De Soto expedition, there is mention of the
exit from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. In
one we read : — " After remaining two days, the Christians
went to where that branch of the river enters the sea ; and
having sounded there, they found forty fathoms of water."
[Buckingham Smith's translation of a True Relation, p. 184.]
" With a favorable wind they sailed all that day in fresh water,
the next night, and the day following until vespers, at which
they were greatly amazed ; for they were very distant from the
shore, and so great was the strength of the current of the river,
the coast so shallow and gentle, that the fresh water entered
far into the sea." [p. 186.] Biedma's account, translated by
the same writer, reads as follows, and is of especial interest as
containing the assertion that the river empties into a bay : —
" We came out by the mouth of the river, and entering into a
very large bay made by it, which was so extensive that we
passed along it three days and three nights, with fair weather,
in all the time not seeing land, so that it appeared to us we "

166 Ametica: Its Geographical History.

" were at sea, although we found the water still so fresh that it
could well be drunk,, like that of the river. Some small
islets were seen westward, to which we went." [p. 261.]
Reading this passage carefully, we find that the only reason
that Biedma had for saying that from the mouth of the river
they entered a bay, was because for so long a time they Were
in fresh water. Geologically, we know that it was an impos-
sibility for the Mississippi to have entered into such an enor-
mous bay as that one could have sailed straight ahead therein
for three days and nights, even in the most awkward boats,
without seeing land. If however we call to mind the fact
that Moscoso's party had started on their voyage down the
river, taking advantage of a great rise in the stream [Vega,
Lib. VI. Chap, xix, p. 263], and knowing also that it takes
a long time for those waters to subside when they have once
overflown their banks, it is not surprising that they found
comparatively fresh water for a long distance from the mouth
of the river. But we must not allow ourselves to be deceived
by this description into believing that the Mississippi then
entered into a fresh water bay.

When La Salle and his party came down the Mississippi,
they were in much better condition to take and record obser-
vations ; and from their accounts we derive quite a different
impression of the character of the mouths of the "Great
River." Before quoting any of the descriptions of that expe-
dition, let us remind the reader that La Salle named the Mis-
sissippi Colbert, which name was sometimes used by the
French, but never gained currency ; as the Indian name, or
rather one of the Indian names, Mississippi, seems to have
been regarded favorably by the French from the first of their
explorations on its waters. Although this name is now often
if not usually translated " Father of Waters," the early explo-
rers uniformly translated it "Great River," which the
Spaniards also did, as their Rio Grande, the name generally
used by them in descriptions of the expeditions of De Soto,
demonstrates. A good general description of La Salle's dis-

Supplement. 167

covery of the Mississippi mouths is furnished by an anony-
mous narrative of the expedition, extracted from the archives
of the French Marine, and translated in French's Collection,
2d Ser., I. 23-24. " We continued our voyage until the 6th
[of April, 1682], when we discovered three channels, by which
the River Colbert discharges itself into the sea. We landed
on the bank of the most western channel, about three leagues
from its mouth. On the 7th, M. de la Salle went to recon-
noiter the shores of the neighboring sea, and M. de Tonty
likewise examined the great middle channel. They found
these three outlets beautiful, large and deep." In the first
volume of Margry's M^moires el Documents [6 vols., Paris,
1879-1886], there is the " Narrative made by the young
Nicolas de la Salle of the enterprise of Robert, Chevalier,
during the year 1682." In this we find the following descrip-
tion of the discovery of the mouths of this most important
stream of our great territory. " On the following day, M. de
La Salle sent M. de Tonty by the left branch, and he himself,
with ten men, descended the right, where we had lodged. He
left at eight o'clock in the morning. M. de la Salle returned
at five o'clock in the afternoon, saying that he had found the
mouth of the river, and that the river advanced far into the
sea, making a bank on each side ; that he had carried his canoe
on the other side of the bank, and that the water which does
not communicate with the river was brackish." [p. 562,]
" M. de Tonty returned at nine o'clock the next morning, and
said that the left branch discharges itself into a large sea, at
seven leagues, where they saw an island. . . . They drank
of the water, which was sweet and muddy, and full of croco-
diles or alligators. M. de Tonty was also in the middle
branch ; we ascended the river, and went to pass the night
at four leagues [above], on the left as you ascend. Here
there were small trees, some of which were cut down, so
that the arms of the king might be erected there. — The
day following, M. de Tonty returned. He said that the
middle channel flows into a great sea of sweet water. ... So "

168 America: Its Geographical History.

" we erected a cross, and below it, buried a disk of lead, on which
were written these words : ' In the name of Louis XIV. King
of France and of Navarre, the ninth of April, 1682, the VexiUa
regis was sung to the setting up of the cross, then the Te Deum,
and three shots were fired from the guns. Provisions are fail-
ing, and each one has only one handful of maize per day.' "
[p. 562-563.] In 1684, M. de Tonty himself drew up an
account of the expedition of La Salle, from which we translate
the following : — " We did not arrive until the 6th of February
at the River Mississippi, which was named Colbert by M. de
La Salle." [Margry, I. p. 595.] "We continued our route,
and, the 6th of April, we arrived at the sea. The 7th, as this
river divides itself into three channels, M. de la Salle was to
explore that to the right, I, the middle one, and the Sieur
d'Autray, the one to the left. We found them very beautiful,
broad, and deep. On our return, the 9th of April, M. de
La Salle had the arms of the King and a cross set up and the
Te Deum sung." [p. 605.] The official report of the occa-
sion is preserved, and also given in Margry, 11. 190-191.
Translated, it reads as follows : — " We continued the journey
until the 6th, when we arrived at three channels by which the
River Colbert discharges itself into the sea. We camped on
the shore of the western channel, at three leagues or there-
abouts from the mouth. On the 7th, M. de La Salle went to
reconnoitre and examine the shores of the neighboring sea, and
M. de Tonty, the great channel of the middle. Having found
these two mouths fine, broad, and deep, the 8th, we reascended
a little above the confluence, in order to find a dry place, and
one which had not been overflowed. At about the 27th degree
of latitude, a column and a cross were prepared, and on the said
column the arms of France were painted with this inscrip-
tion : — * Louis the Great, King of France and of Navarre,
reigns the 9th of April, 1682.'" M. Margry has also found
and printed part of a letter in the hand-writing of La Salle,
from which we translate the following passages : — " The Mis-
sissippi, which is scarcely broader than the Loire, even where"

Supplement. 169

"it empties into the sea." [Margry, II. 198.] "Moreover,
all the maps are of no value, on which the mouths of the
River Colbert are near to Mexico; 2d, because it has its
mouths to the east-south-east and not to the south, where the
entire south shore of Florida faces, with the exception of that
part which runs between the river called on the maps Escondido
and the Panuco. This Escondido is assuredly the Mississippi ;
3d, on the entire coast of Florida there is but this one district
which has this altitude, the remainder of the coast being almost
everywhere on the 30th degree." [p. 198.] Still another ac-
count comes to us, from which I excerpt a sentence, because it
contains a comparison with another well-known river. It is
taken from one of the monkish Relations of the period, from
which so much of our knowledge of the French in America is
derived. " They arrived happily on the 7th of April at the
sea, where the mouth of the stream is very nearly like that of
the Saint Lawrence." [II. p. 205.] However, the writer
must have meant the similarity as to the breadth of the river
as it enters the bay of St. Lawrence, and not with the bay
itself; for we shall see presently that the mouths of the Mis-
sissippi were not prominent and easily entered from the sea,
like the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence.

La Salle returned to Canada and thence to France, where
he received permission to found a colony in the region he had
brought to light. In 1685 he returned to America, seeking
by sea the mouths of the great river which he had found from
the interior three years previous. We shall translate his own
words in reference to this peculiar experience. On the 4th of
March, 1685, he wrote a letter to the Marquis of Seignelay,
dating it from " The western mouth of the Colbert." He says :
" I resolved to remount this channel of the River Colbert rather
than return to the more considerable one, distant 25-30 leagues
from here, to the north-east, which we had remarked the sixteenth
of January, but which we had not been able to reconnoitre, be-
lieving on the report of the pilots of His Majesty's vessel and
of our own, that we had not yet passed the Bay of Espiritu "

170 America: Its Geographical History.

" Santo (that of Mobile) ; but finally, after having coasted con-
tinually very near the land, and with fine weather, the altitude
made us remark that they were deceiving themselves, and that
the river we had seen the sixteenth of January, was in effect
the principal entrance of the river which we were hunting."
[Quoted in Thomassy, p. 20.] As we have seen by the
descriptions of the mouths of the Mississippi, as they were
found by La Salle and his party in 1682, one arm was but
three leagues long and another seven. If then the two bi'auches
had run in diametrically opposite directions, their mouths could
have been but ten leagues apart. La Salle himself tells us that
where he landed in 1685 was 25-30 leagues distant from the
principal mouth ; and this had proved to be the middle one
according to the first exploration. We must admit then, that
either La Salle was a great fool or else that he realized that he
was not on any one of the tiiree mouths of the river which his
party had explored three years before. Furthermore he proved
that such was his opinion by starting out later on quite a long
journey to discover the stream on whose western branch he
thought (?) himself to be. Accordingly, we cannot agree with
Mr, Winsor when he writes, " The map in La Potherie|s His-
toire de PAm^rique Septentrionale . . . , called Carte generale
de la Nouvelle France, retains the misplacement of the
mouths as La Salle had conceived them to be on the western
shore of the gulf, giving the name Baye de Spiritu
Santo to an inlet more nearly in the true position of its
mouths." [V. 81.] For, as we have just seen. La Salle
himself wrote " All the maps are of no value, on which the
mouths of the River Colbert are near to Mexico." If, how-
ever, we take into consideration that, at a number of points,
there are streams which flow out of the Mississippi, some of
which it is reasonable to suppose had been remarked by
La Salle when descending the river, it does not appear so
monstrous that he should have hoped, even if he did not
believe, that he had landed on one of the branches of that
mighty and wonderful stream. Furthermore, we should call

Supplement. 171

to mind the fact that mariners then had no good means of
reckoning longitude, and that La Salle accordingly was greatly
deceived in the distance his ships had sailed after passing the
mouths of the Mississippi.

But La Salle perished at the hands of his rebellious fol-
lowers, and his settlement was abandoned. Other Frenchmen
there were, however, who were willing to undertake the
accomplishment of the project in which he had failed ; and in
1699 another band of colonists, under the leadership of Le-
moyne d'Iberville, sought the mouth of the Mississippi. On
the way there, they entered Mobile Bay, where they remained
five days. D'Iberville tells us, " This bay is very beautiful
for habitation ; and a large river, with muddy waters, empties
into it, at about the distance of thirteen leagues from Pensa-
cola. At a distance of thirteen or fourteen leagues westward
of Mobile, we found a place formed by islands and the main-
land, where there is good anchorage and protection to ships
against storms. I resolved to leave the ships there, and go
with the small vessels to the neighborhood of Lago de Lodo
(Muddy Lake), which is the name the Spaniards give to the
Bay of St. Esprit." [" Narrative of the Expedition of M.
D'Iberville to Louisiana." Dated July 3d, 1699. French,
Hid. Coll., New Series, v. I. p. 20-21.] According to this
interpretation, the Espiritu Santo Bay of the Spaniards was
probably the St. Louis Bay of to-day, which receives the
waters of Lakes Ponchartrain and Borgne. There is indeed
some ground for this interpretation ; and, from the nature of
the case, it is to be expected that mariners feeling their way
along the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to
the west would find their way into this body of water. St.
Louis Bay receives, it is true, a very small portion of the
waters of the Mississippi through Lakes Ponchartrain and
Borgne ; but it is the Pearl River, flowing into Lake Borgne,
which would be much more naturally discovered from this
side than the Mississippi ; and accordingly, if the modern Bay
of St. Louis is the Bay of Espiritu Santo of the Spaniards, the

172 America: Its Geographical Hiatm^.

Rio del Espiritu Santo was much more probably the Pearl
than the Mississippi River. But this same explorer informs
us that into Mobile Bay flows " a large river, with muddy
waters ; " so that we may also interpret the " Muddy Bay " of
the Spaniards to have been Mobile Bay. Furthermore, St.
Louis Bay is a shapeless body of water, with its longest diam-
eter running east and west, and is enclosed on one side, only
by a series of islands ; while the Bay of Espiritu Santo, on the
great majority of the maps, has its longest diameter running
north and south, the body of water is entirely enclosed by the
mainland, and moreover, has a form so strikingly like that of
Mobile Bay, that it seems impossible to reject the natural,
unprejudiced interpretation, — namely that Mobile Bay and the
Bay of Espiritu Santo of many Spanish cartographers are one
and the same.

But to continue with M. d'lberville's description : — " On
the 21st, we took our departure for Malabouchia, the name
given to the Mississippi by the Indians, and, with two row-
boats, some bark canoes, and fifty-three men, we entered this
river on the night of the second of March. I found it ob-
structed with rafts of petrified wood, of a sufficient hardness
to resist the action of the sea. I found there twelve feet of
water, and anchored two leagues from the mouth of the river,
where the depth is from ten to twelve fathoms, with a breadth
of from four to five hundred yards." [pp. 21-22.] " On the
7th, at a distance of about thirty-five leagues up the river, I
met with some Indians, who told me that it was yet three and
a half days' travel before I could reach the Bayagoulas, and
that theirs was the first village I should reach. ... By
exact observations, I found its position was sixty-four leagues
from the mouth of the river." [p. 23.] This experience has
not much similarity to that of Pineda, who found forty villages
on his river within six leagues of the coast. To this it might
be answered that the inhabitants may have died out or moved
elsewhere in the lapse of almost two centuries between the two
expeditions; but to that we respond that the banks of the

Supplement. 173

lower Mississippi were not and are not adapted in their natural
state to afford sustenance to a large population. Besides the
geological evidence, we have very early historical evidence
according to Barcia's account of the expedition of Narvaez
and Cabeza de Vaca, wherein he speaks of " the sterility of
the land " near which Narvaez was lost. [Emayo Oron., p. 10.]
Also in Vega we read of " the unpeopled island which stands
at the mouth of the Rio Grande " [Mississippi]. [Lib. IV.
Cap. XI, p. 250.] Margry, in volume IV, gives us the jour-
nal of M. d'Iberville, from December, 1698, to May 3d, 1699,
in which the entrance of the Mississippi is described as fol-
lows : — " On approaching these rocks for shelter, I perceived
that there was a river. I passed between these rocks, with
twelve feet of water, the sea running high, where on approach-
ing the rocks, I found sweet water with a very strong cur-
rent." ... " These rocks are of wood petrified with mud,
and become black rocks which resist the sea. They are
numberless, rising out of the water, some great, some small,
distant from each other twenty paces, a hundred, three hun-
dred, five hundred paces, more or less, running toward the
south-west, a circumstance that made me recognize that it was
the River of the Palisades, which appeared to me well named,
because, when one is at its mouth, which is a league and a
half from these rocks, it appears entirely barred by them."
[p. 159.] .... "At two and a half leagues from the
entrance, the river forks into three branches. The middle
one is as broad as the one by which I entered, from three
hundred and fifty to four hundred toises in breath. The
other flows along the land to the south-west, and did not
appear to me so large." [pp. 160-161.]

Without going into so much detail as to later explorations,
it may be well to refer to the facts as found by some other
explorers. In 1721, the bar was found to be about 900 toises
wide, with twelve feet of water, and the current " very slug-
gish." [La Harpe's Historical Journal of the establishment
of the French in Louisiana; in French, Hist. Coll., Pt. III.

174 America: lis Geographical SRstory.

p. 87.] Charlevoix, writing in the following year, says: "The
bar has scarce any water in the greatest part of those little
outlets, which the river has opened for itself ; " also, " The
greatest part are only little rivulets, and some are even only
separated by sand banks, which are almost level with the
water." He adds furthermore, that " it is entirely a fable,
which has been reported, that for twenty leagues the Missis-
sippi does not mix its waters with those of the sea." As to
the " only mouth of the river which is navigable," he found
its breadth " two hundred and fifty fathom, its depth is
eighteen feet in the middle, the bottom soft ooze." [French,
Pt. III. pp. 179-1 84.] Sau vole, another of the early explorers,
is of the opinion that " The Mississippi River has no cur-
rent or very little." [Ibid., III. 230.] And still another
found the water at the mouth of the river, at least in summer,
" brackish." [Dumont's Memoirs, in Ibid., V. p. 30.]

From this mass of evidence it seems to me to be clear that
the Mississippi has never, in historical times, flowed into a
bay. That the Rio del Espiritu Santo did flow into a bay is
established by the almost unanimous evidence of the maps,
which is strengthened by the testimony of st number of writers.
The origin of the name, before the days of De Soto, we have
been unable to discover in any of the ancient authorities which
have come to our notice.

What then is the result of our investigation?

1st. Modern historians fail to give us the sources whence
they have drawn their information as to the matter in hand,
except in one case, that of Mr. Winsor, who cites Navarrete.
This Spanish authority does indeed bear out Mr. Winsor in
most of his description, and especially in his closing statement
that the country was named Amichel ; but he does not give a
name to the " river of very great volume," discovered by
Pineda. The name of the country Amichel is found else-
where only in the king's proclamation, whence Navarrete
evidently took it ; but as we have no evidence as to its posi-
tion, the name does not assist us in fixing the river of Pineda.

Supplement. 175

2d. We have been unable to find any authority among the
ancient Spaniards for the statement that Pineda gave the name
Espiritu Santo to the " river of very great volume " of his
discovery.

3d. Where we do find a name for the river discovered by
Pineda, it is Panuco and not Espiritu Santo. This is the
name given by Cortes and by Peter Martyr, contemporaries of
Pineda, and by Herrera, one of the earliest Spanish historians
of American discoveries.

4th. The earliest mention that we have found of the Rio del
Espiritu Santo occurs in Peter Martyr ; it is not made in con-
nection with Pineda's voyage, and the description contains
nothing suggestive of the Mississippi.

5th. From a comparison of the accounts of De Soto's expe-
dition, it appears that the Mobile, and not the Mississippi, was
the Rio del Espiritu Santo of those days. One ambiguous
statement of Biedma may be interpreted as giving this name
to the Mississippi ; but it entirely lacks confirmation either in
the other parts of the same account, or in other contemporary
chronicles.

6th. The early French explorers in this region rarely if ever
identified the Mississippi with the Rio del Espiritu Santo,
while they did identify it with a number of other rivers, whose
names appear on the early Spanish maps.

7th. An examination of a large number of early maps leads
to the conviction that the Rio del Espiritu Santo as there
draAvn was the stream now known in its various parts as the
Coosa, Alabama, and Mobile ; while it is possible that the
Apalachicola may have been intended by some few of them.

8th. The geological evidence, and the testimony of the
early French explorers, make it impossible to believe that
the Mississippi could have been the Rio del Espiritu Santo
of the Spaniards.

Until forced by unsought evidence to doubt the identity of
the Rio del Espiritu Santo with our Mississippi, the writer
of these pages had accepted without question the usual inter-

176 America: Its Geographical History.

pretation. Drawn on by ever increasing interest to investi-
gate the subject more fully, further study gradually changed
doubt to conviction, but conviction that the old interpretation
was wrong, and that a new one must be adopted. Whether
the evidence and arguments here adduced are strong enough
to convince historical students generally as to the justness of
the author's conclusion, remains for the future to decide. He
has at least done what was in his power to arrive at the truth.

Walter B. Scaife.

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